Campaign Day 9.....Why Didn't Mr. Campbell Answer The Question Before....

....It Was Before The Courts?

What the heckfire am I talking about?

Well, in May of 2003, then NDP MLA Joy McPhail asked Premier Gordon Campbell the following question in the British Columbia Legislature:

J. MacPhail: A longtime Liberal Party fundraiser is Patrick Kinsella. He is the lobbyist for CN. Has the Premier or any of his ministers met with Mr. Kinsella and representatives of CN?


Now.

First, please note that the rail company identified here by Ms. McPhail was CN, not BC Rail.

Second, note, again, that this question was asked in the spring of 2003.

Third, please note that the raids on the legislature took place in Dec. 2003 and that the charges resulting from those raids were laid in 2004.

Thus, at the time that Ms. McPhail asked her question, absolutely NOTHING was before the courts.

So.

How did Mr. Campbell respond to Ms. McPhail's question then?

Thusly:

Hon. G. Campbell: I don't have an answer for that. As the member opposite knows, if she wants to know about specific meeting times with either myself or the minister, she can do that through freedom of information.


So, again.

Why did Mr. Campbell not answer the question then when NOTHING was before the courts?

And why did he tell Ms. Mc Phail to make a freedom of information request to get an answer?

*****

Why are all these questions so important, despite the fact that media commentators like Keith Baldrey and Bill Good think that BC Rail's privatization is now irrelevant because it all happened before the last provincial election?

Because we now know something that we did not know then.

Which is that at that very moment in time, May 2003, a time when bids were actively being solicited by the government of Gordon Campbell for the privatization of BC Rail, Mr. Patrick Kinsella was by his own admission, in the employ of BC Rail.

OK?


_____
The exchange between Ms. McPhail and Mr. Campbell can be found in Hansard here (type 'Kinsella' into your browser's search box when you get there and you will be directed to the appropriate passage). It was actually noted by Paul Willcocks on his blog a while back.


.