RailGate Ricochet......Turn Around Is Fair Play

AllTheLobbyingThatWasn't(Allegedly)
ProgressiveVille



Yesterday, Leonard Krog asked the following question in the British Columbia Legislature:

Can the Premier confirm that his friend Patrick Kinsella, the chair of the 2001 and 2005 B.C. Liberal campaigns, received an untendered contract from B.C. Rail in 2002 to smooth the way for the sell-off of B.C. Rail?


Which the Premier didn't have to answer because the Attorney General jumped in, saying:

The member well knows that the issue relating to B.C. Rail is before the Supreme Court of British Columbia, and we will not comment on the matter.


Later, outside the chambers, intrepid independent reporter Sean Holman asked Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon essentially the same question. Mr. Falcon refused to comment because, he said, he didn't have the Attorney General's permission to do so.

But here's the thing.

The alleged payments totaling some $297,000 by BC Rail to the Progressive Group, run by Patrick Kinsella, a very fine fellow whom Norman Spector not long ago suggested was seen to be the 'Rainmaker' in BC Liberal Party circles, have absolutely nothing to do with RailGate.

Specifically, the information did not come from any court testimony or court document(s), including the 8000 pages of such released to the NDP last week.

Instead, the information was obtained from BC Rail financial filings that have been deposited in the British Columbia Legislative Library, as was made crystal clear by Sean Holman yesterday.

So.

With those facts in hand, is it not reasonable to conclude that, based on their actions and statements, Mr. Oppal and Mr. Falcon are themselves suggesting that any and all such alleged payments to The Progressive Group and/or BC Liberal Party insider Patrick Kinsella are, indeed, being considered as matters of import by the Supreme Court of British Columbia?

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Apparently, LKro and The James Gang have come to the same conclusion (scroll down).
And here's a weird one, Paul Willcocks notes that back in the day (ie. 2003, when the process of BC Rail's privatization was very much in play and many had already fingered CN Rail as the front-runner) Joy McPhail apparently asked Mr. Campbell, in the Ledge, if Mr. Kinsella had met with him as a representative working for, get this!, not BCR but rather CNR. Mr. Campbell, ever the jovial jocularist responded by telling Ms. McPhail to go to He........errrrr....FOI-Ville.

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