[GB] BC’s Biggest Political Scandal (Gabriel Yiu)
Guest blogger: Gabriel Yiu, former BC NDP candidate for Vancouver Fraserview
To clearly stand out a guest blogger entry, all such headlines will begin with [GB].
After the election, the BC Liberal government has been facing issue after issue that question their integrity. Whether on the questions of BC’s deficit, the economic and unemployment situation, public safety or health care cuts, the facts are quite different from what Gordon Campbell said during the provincial election.
But a much bigger “political bomb” has just exploded in the BC Supreme Court. According to the affidavits of high-ranking officials, the emails of the premier, his senior staff, his former deputy premier, finance minister, transportation minister and solicitor general in the period from 2001 to 2005 were ordered to be destroyed during the provincial election in May this year.
This is a shocking revelation for it is no less than an allegation that the Liberal government is guilty of the obstruction of justice.
In western democratic countries, the court is the foundation of our system of justice and political leaders, be they premier or prime minister, cannot be above the law. Thus, if the Liberal government deliberately violates a court order and obstructs justice, that is indeed a very serious matter.
A local senior lawyer Russ Chamberlain said on the media, “If any individual in government, while there’s an ongoing prosecution, destroys documents that are relevant to the prosecution, that would be obstruction of justice,”
On Monday, Justice Elizabeth Bennett determined that the deleted emails of the premier are “likely relevant” to the BC Rail sale corruption case and ordered the Liberal government to hand over those emails on August 17.
Why were the premier’s emails ordered to be deleted during the election?
It is not clear whether the provincial government could provide these emails, but the following facts are known at this point in time:
Last month, the lawyer representing the provincial government stated that all the cabinet emails between 2001 and 2005 had been destroyed and these emails were kept only for 13 months.
This month, the media revealed that the affidavit filed by Rosemarie Hayes, the director who is responsible for government emails, stated that her department had received an instruction in May to direct the technology company serving the government to destroy the email backups.
It is not clear whether the technology company has destroyed all the emails after receiving the instruction, or whether the deleted emails could be restored. What is clear is that the Liberal government’s order to destroy the premier’s and his cabinet’s emails is a violation of the court order and the government’s own policies.
The Core Policy and Procedures Manual (Section 12.3.3) clearly states that “Government records destruction schedules must be suspended during court orders for Demand of Discovery” and that “Records disposition must be suspended during legally mandated reviews.”
The government’s Electronic Mail records management policy (Schedule 102903) states that emails “required for ongoing legal, fiscal, audit, administrative or operational purposes” must be transferred “to a storage medium suitable for retention for seven years.
The Executive Records Policy (Schedule 102906) requires the premier, cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, and assistant deputy ministers to retain documents that have “legal” or “evidentiary” value.
The Executive Records Policy (Schedule 102906) also requires executive records, including emails and voicemails, to be retained for a minimum of 10 years.
Therefore, it’s incomprehensible that the Liberal government only keeps emails of the premier and his cabinet for a mere 13 months. It also raises a disturbing question: whether someone high up in the Liberal government deliberately destroys these emails to hide the truth concerning corruption in the BC Rail sale.
Who are affected by this case?
On December 28, 2003, the RCMP raided and searched the BC Legislature. The three key figures of the case are Dave Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi. Dave and Bob are ministerial aides of former Finance Minister Gary Collins and former Transportation Minister Judith Reid. They’re charged with receiving benefits from lobbyists in exchange for confidential information about the sale of B.C. Rail. Government communications officer Aneal Basi is accused of money-laundering for his cousin Dave.
The two key figures were recognized by media legislature reporters as persons wielding enormous influences in the Liberal government. Virk was the senior aide of the transportation minister; he could attend the most important meetings and obtain strictly classified documents. Dave Basi was the aide of former Finance Minister Gary Collins. Since Collins was also the house leader, all the government Bills and motions had to pass through Basi’s hands. In addition, Dave Basi is also the Liberals’ prominent organizer in the Indo community, meaning that he could influence the result of nominations; thus, his influence extended to MLAs and the Liberal staffers. Since Dave Basi was also an organizer for the federal Liberals, he had close relations with former Prime Minister’s BC representative Mark Marissen. Because of that, former Deputy Premier Christy Clark’s home (her husband Mark Marissen works in his home office) was also visited by the RCMP.
The intriguing question is this: the RCMP is prosecuting the bribe taker but not the one who bribed. The “bosses” of the two key alleged figures, Finance Minister Gary Collins, Transportation Minister Judith Reid and Christy Clark all left politics afterwards.
Campbell and his Liberal government are also on trial
Why? It is because the defense’s arguments are that Basi and Virk were only following instructions from the top and there were others in the Liberal government who had passed classified information to the public relations firm. The defense has stated in court that the alleged had been instructed by the premier’s office and top Liberals to conduct some dirty tricks, like hiring people to call radio stations attacking NDP and harassing protestors.
The defense believes the emails of the premier and his top staff, his former deputy premier, finance minister, transportation minister and solicitor general between 2002 and 2005 can prove their case.
A consequent question is that if the defense can prove that Basi and Virk were merely following instruction from the top, isn’t that a much more serious offence? In that case, which Liberal official(s) would be prosecuted? Perhaps the emails would reveal other dirty laundries on the sale of the BC Rail to Campbell’s keen supporter.
Although we do not know who had twice ordered the destruction of the master and backup copies of emails at the very top echelon of the government, what is certain is that the order wouldn’t result from the careless negligence of a low-ranking official.
The sale of BC Rail could be traced back to 1993, when Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell replaced Gordon Wilson as the Leader of the BC Liberal Party. In 1991, the BC Liberal Party was led by Wilson to become the official opposition party; it was quite unusual for him to be replaced two years after a very successful election.
According to media reports, one of Campbell’s staunch helpers is the chair of CN Rail, David McLean. Other than convincing Campbell to enter provincial politics, McLean also raised funds for the Liberals’ 1996 election campaign. He and his companies have also donated tens of thousands of dollars to the BC Liberal Party.
Is the $1B sale of BC Rail a government-business collusion?
Even if we overlook the hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of tax write-off benefit for CN Rail’s purchasing of BC Rail, it is a real bargain when we compare its purchase price with the building costs of other public railway networks:
BC Rail – over 3,000 km of railway network covering the continent and Vancouver Island – $1 billion
Skytrain Millennium Line – 16 km. $1.2 billion
Skytrain Evergreen Line – 11 km. $1.4 billion
Skytrain UBC extension – 12 km. $2.8 billion
Canada Line – 19 km. $1.9 billion
In addition, after the sale, the Premier has been actively promoting his “Asia Pacific Gateway” project, elevating Prince Rupert and utilizing the railway network to promote the northern port as North America’s entrepot to Asia. The CN Rail has certainly benefited from the increase in cargo transportation.
A brief chronicle of the sale of BC rail
In the 1996 BC election, Campbell stated in his Liberal platform that they would sell BC Rail. The pledge caused strong opposition in the interior and northern communities. Campbell was defeated narrowly in the election.
In the 2001 election, Campbell reversed his position and vowed he would not sell BC Rail. The NDP was defeated. Shortly after Campbell became premier, he started the process of selling BC Rail.
In August 2002, Transportation Minister Judith Reid disclosed that the government would sell BC Rail.
On November 13, Liberal backbencher MLA Paul Nettleton publicly accused the Liberal Party of having a secret agenda to privatize BC Rail. One week later, Nettleton was expelled from the Liberal caucus and became an independent MLA.
In October 2003, former Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm publicly opposed the privatization of BC Rail.
In November, one week before the announcement of the bidding outcome, CP Rail withdrew from the bid and stated that a “clear breach” of fairness had occurred when other bidders obtained confidential government information about BC Rail.
On November 25, the government announced the outcome of the BC Rail bidding, CN Rail’s $1 billion bid won the contest. Premier Campbell argued that the government didn’t sell BC Rail.
December 12, Finance Minister Gary Collins met two executives of OmniTRAX in a Vancouver restaurant.
On December 18, a team of RCMP raided and searched the offices of two ministers; many boxes of materials and computers were seized. The police had also searched and visited other places, which included the lobbyist company, the home of Deputy Premier Christy Clark (Clark’s husband Mark Marissen was connected to Dave Basi in federal Liberals work).
On Jan 26, 2004 Premier Campbell reshuffled his cabinet. Transportation Minister Judith Reid was out. She declared that she wouldn’t run for re-election.
On March 10, Transportation Minister Kelvin Falcon announced the cancellation of the Roberts Bank spur line bidding, because the RCMP disclosed that classified government information had been leaked and that undermined the fairness of the bidding. Later, the minister disclosed that the cancellation cost the government $900,000.
On September 16, Deputy Premier Christy Clark announced that in order to take care of her son, she was stepping down from politics and wouldn’t seek re-election.
On December 14, Finance Minister Gary Collins announced his leaving politics. He joined Harmony Airways.
In April 2007, the trial of Dave Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi began in the BC Supreme Court.
In March 2009, NDP revealed that according to the financial statements of BC Rail, Liberal Party campaign manager Patrick Kinsella received $300,000 from the crown corporation between 2002-2005.
In July 2009, the legal counsel of the government and the director responsible for government email messaging stated in court that the emails of the premier and his cabinet prior to 2005 had been destroyed. Justice Bennett ruled that these emails are “likely relevant” to the case and ordered the government to provide it on August 17.
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Tags: BC, BC Rail, corruption, Gabriel Yiu, Gordon Campbell, Guest BloggersRelated posts
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Hi Gabriel, thanks for taking the time to put this all together. This really is one of the best articles I’ve seen on this issue, written in clear and concise terms.
I wish every British Columbian could see the perspective you’ve given on the value of the rail line itself in comparison to the other lines shown. It can be difficult for some folks to wrap their minds around a dollar value when those values are bandied about so easily – your illustration makes it easier for many to compare, and see that in the end we lost more than the government wants us to know, or understand.
We can only hope the issue before the courts can undo this “deal” eventually.