RailGate Confidential....All Our Secrets Are His

BangingCanWest'sGong(Again)
GlobeXtravaganzaVille


We've already mentioned the spade work of Sean Holman on the subject of the intricate Web of connections between numerous Corporations that have benefitted from BOTH BC Liberal government edicts AND the work of former BC Liberal party campaign manager/fixer, Patrick Kinsella, that was very prominent in the wall-to-wall coverage in the Globe and Mail on Saturday.

Part of that coverage, coverage of the kind that has not been seen in a Lotuslandian CanWest Daily since the days of Glen Clark's infamous back deck, was the latest missive from Gary Mason. Here is his lede, plus a little more:

"Information regarding renowned political consultant Patrick Kinsella's involvement in the sale of BC Rail becomes more troubling by the day. Cries of a political cover-up can't be far behind.

Mr. Kinsella and BC Rail both issued statements recently saying that the Liberal Party campaign director was paid nearly $300,000 between 2002 and 2005 for advice he offered the Crown corporation related to a ministry-wide core review of government operations.

However, The Globe and Mail has now learned that Mr. Kinsella signed a confidentiality agreement with BC Rail that bound him not to disclose the contents of any discussions he might have with parties related to the sale of the railway.

This document would now appear to provide irrefutable proof that Mr. Kinsella was paid by BC Rail to provide counsel and trouble shooting advice in connection with the sale. And one would reasonably assume this would have put Mr. Kinsella in the position of having access to knowledge about the inner workings of the Crown corporation as well as private and sensitive information relevant to the sale of its assets....."

Two things.

First, note the descriptor of Mr. Kinsella as a 'reknowned' political consultant which, if nothing else, is an interesting pre-smackdown 'highlight' strate(r)gy that I have not seen Mr. Mason use before (although it is possible he did pull it out of a hat a time or two back in his days as a sportswriter and I missed it).

Second, there is this 'confidentiality agreement' related to the 'sale of the railway' thing.

Which is really, really significant.

Because, if true, it indicates that Mr. Kinsella was involved in much more than what we were told a couple of weeks ago when his company, in an apparent limited hangout moment, said:

"Mr. Kinsella was engaged by BC Rail to assist in understanding and interpreting the Core Review Process as to its potential impact on the Corporation....."


OK?


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Next up, I reckon, is for the spade workers to uncover is what, specifically, if anything, Mr. Kinsella did for CN Rail and when he did it (issues that have been brought up twice now by Mr. Mason in the public prints). And, just in case anybody has forgotten, 'these people' have the Attorney General's full permission to try and find out such things from Mr. Kinsella himself, Sub-Judice Priests be darned.


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