EveryWhichWayVille
If you read Neal Hall in the Vancouver Sun yesterday, everything is just fine and dandy in the run-up to the RailGate Trial Of The Century:
VANCOUVER - It looks like the BC Rail corruption trial will finally get rolling at the end of the month.
The case, involving three former government aides accused of corruption in relation to the sale of BC Rail in 2003, was in court briefly today before the trial judge, Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the B.C. Supreme Court.
The judge set June 30 as the date when lawyers for the Crown and the accused will finally get down to sorting out all the trial issues still outstanding......
Sounds good, eh, although it actually represents a(nother!) delay of ten days as things were supposed to get going on June 20th.
But wait!
What's this that's tossed under the rug, offhandedly, in Mr. Hall's report:
"It is pretty shocking that Mr. Basi and Virk have had four and a half years without even starting a day of trial," said New Democratic Party attorney-general critic Leonard Krog, who attended today's pre-trial hearing.
"On one of the applications, there are 2,200 documents that the Crown is asserting some form of privilege, which is an absolutely astounding number," he said......
What's that?
Twenty-two hundred new 'privileged' documents that defense attorneys either can't get their hands on or get unlimited use of?
What the heckfire is that all about after that all that has happened with both 'cabinet' and 'solicitor-client' privilege that has been claimed/not-claimed/pretend not-claimed by Premier Gordon Campbell's arms length, non-surrogate, non-content, non-consultantative consultants over and over and over again over the past year-and-a-half?
Well, if you're looking for it in Mr. Hall's piece you will find nothing further.
For that you must go to Mr. T., Bill Tieleman:
Virk's lawyer Kevin McCullough told Bennett that the Special Prosecutor is claiming privilege over about 2,200 documents - a claim that may take several weeks to sort through in court.
Outside court Basi's lawyer Mike Bolton explained that the privilege claim is not to be confused with the privilege claims of the BC government based on either cabinet privilege or solicitor-client privilege that have earlier been bones of contention.
"There's a variety of different claims," in the 2,200 documents Bolton said. "Pertaining to other investigations, solicitor-client privilege, relevancy claims and police work project privilege."
"It's completely separate from the cabinet solicitor-client privilege, different documents," he added.
Pretty soon we'll have as many 'types' of privilege as there are privileged documents.
I have never said this out loud before, but now, finally, I have come to fear that this trial may never occur.
At least not before May 2009.
Man, I sure hope this absolutely unprivileged feeling I have is wrong.
OK?
____
*Of course, this may not have been Mr. Hall's fault given his insightfulness in the past. Instead, I wonder if an overzealous editor cut his word count and/or rearranged his lead to make everything sound like it's going ahead on schedule (the defense thinks differently - see Mr. T's report for more details).
Meanwhile, back in the land of 'What really happened?' (ie. Mary's place), Anon-O-Maestro commenter extraordinaire, E.C.S., asks a most excellent question: "I also had to ask myself how OmniTrax found out about Pilothouse and did they contact the government first and then get directed down the tracks to the wheel greasers ?" More, much more, on that to come......
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