Is Somebody Trying To Turn Out The Lights On Railgate Party?

TheDimmingOfTheBulbs
SupremeHomeCourtOfBritishColumbiaVille

Or is everybody playing out the clock?

Bill Tieleman has the story:

BC Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett was told that pre-trial disclosure hearings previously scheduled for March will instead begin on May 5 with the agreement of the Crown and defence counsel for David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi.

And George Copley, a provincial government lawyer, told Bennett that cabinet privilege will be waived over a number of documents related to the $1 billion BC Rail privatization, giving the defence access to them without a court ruling.

But a dispute over other documents the government has refused to release, citing solicitor-client privilege, has not been resolved.

{snip}

Another delay in the trial may come from a Crown appeal of Bennett’s ruling that the defence can be present in court when a secret witness gives testimony. Special Prosecutor Bill Berardino said a B.C. Court of Appeal hearing will be held June 9 on the matter.


So.......

It appears that all this means that the real trial won't start till late Spring at the earliest which means that the government of Gordon Campbell will once again escape having its stinky feet, not to mention dirty laundry, held to the fire during a legislative sitting.

And then, it will be summer.

And once again the pundit class will start bleating about how this is all old news and nothing really matters anymore because we've got those five rings looming on the horizon.

On the plus side, at least head prosecutor Bill Beradino was actually in court today.

Which has us wondering if, perhaps, the Double-B got a little mixed-up, what with his double duty assignment protecting the good name of Smilin' Sammy Sullivan, and has concluded that the new TransLink board renumeration schedule applies to S.P.'s as well.

After all, as stormin' Norman Spector likes to point out - S.P.'s, like the nouveau TransLink Board, are appointed by the powers that be in this province.

OK?

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Citizen court watcher extraordinare, Mr. Robin Mathews, also filed an excellent first person account of yesterday's Railgate hearings over at Mary's place. It's very much worth the read - and not just because Mr. Mathews tells the real story about why the Double-B was not available to speak to the assembled throngs (ha!) after the exhaustive (45 minutes, double ha! ha!) proceedings concluded.

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