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Well, well, well, whaddy'a know.

A RailGate piece in the, wait for it......

Vancouver Province!

And the reporter, Keith Fraser gets right to the crux of the matter:

Former finance minister Gary Collins approved a "consolation" prize to be offered to the Denver-based railway company linked to the bribery case against three government aides, their trial heard yesterday.

Michael Bolton, who represents accused David Basi, told the court that it's a "big issue" as to whether OmniTRAX was induced to stay in the bidding process for the sale of B.C. Rail by a consolation that further business with the B.C. government was in the offing.

"You've already heard there are numerous telephone calls on Nov. 17, 2003, in which Mr. Basi conferred with Mr. [Bobby] Virk and others that minister Collins has approved the notion that there will be some form of a consolation in the way of future business with B.C. for OmniTRAX," Bolton told B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett.

"That, of course, is a very critical part of Mr. Basi's defence. Those calls were critical. But it will be even more critical to the defence to be able to demonstrate with reference to some of these documents, that it's not just Mr. Basi talking, that there was some awareness at a high level of some acknowledgement of this consolation."


Imagine that.



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For a more detailed discussion of the alleged 'consolation' prize, which we have dubbed the 'quid pro quo', please see here and here.
Tip of the golden railspike, once again, to Mary for posting up Mr. Fraser's story.
Now, here's hopin' we see something in the 'lectronic media sometime soon.

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