Casino Royale Running Wild....Paragon Marathon, Mile 10

PurveyorsOfPublically-PromotedPleasurePalaces
MustBeScrutinizedVille

Inspired by the Document Dump Friday just past, the Marathon to resurrect all that has been buried by Lotusland's lazy proMedia is now moving along nicely, thank-you very much.....

(please see sidebar for a mile-by-mile breakdown of the race to the finish line)

*******

Just taking a wee break by the duck ponds in Q&E Park before we move into the mid-section of Marathon......

Which gives a chance to return to that 2nd letter involving the actions of Paragon Principal and Campbell Government insider T. Richard Turner that was sent by PavCo CEO Warren Buckley to the Opposition's Marshmallow critic Spencer Chandra Herbert.

*****

We have already established that Mr. Buckley misrepresented Mr. Turner, if however obliquely in his letter, and more explicitly in his previous verbal statements on this matter, as NOT actually being a Principal in Paragon.

And we have already established that Mr. Turner helped arrange at least two meetings between Paragon Principals (ie. Principals that were not him) and PavCo, the Crown Corporation Responsible for the Marshmallow, during the final negotiations that led to the Casino Industrial Complex deal that will be built in the parking lot next to the Marshmallow and will be run using the current Edgewater Casino license that was purchased by Mr. Turner and the Paragon Principals together with some, as yet, unknown folks behind a Numbered Company.

Regarding the latter point described above, it is also important to reiterate that in his previous verbal statements on this matter, PavCo CEO Buckley said that it was Campbell government insider, and current PavCo Chair, Mr. David Podmore who made at least one direct request of Mr. Turner who, in addition to being a Paragon Principal since 2006 and a co-investor with Paragon in a separate out-of province casino projects since 2003, is also the former BC Lotteries Corporation Chair (until Dec 2005) and the current Chair of ICBC, to arrange at least one of the meetings between the Paragon Principals that were not him (ie. Mr. Turner) and PavCo.

I just wrote 'at least one of the meetings', above, because when he made his verbal statements about Mr. Podmore contacting Mr. Turner as a member of Paragon's 'advisory board', Mr. Buckley made no mention that more than one set of meetings had been arranged, at the behest of PavCo, with those Principals of Paragon that were not Mr. Turner.

Got it all now?

Good. (I think)

And, just to make sure that Mr. Chandra Herbert would be convinced that everything else that Mr. Turner did with respect to the Casino Industrial Complex negotiations between PavCo and Paragon was way, way, way more above board than all of the very fine, and vitally important, and most definitely non-conflicty meeting arranging described above, Mr. Buckley also wrote the following sentence in his letter to the Opposition's critic who is responsible for The Marshmallow:

"At no time did Mr. Turner participate in, or attend any of the discussions between the parties."

Which is all fine and good.

Except that, as Mr. Buckley himself revealed in his letter, if not his previous statements on the matter, there was more than one set of meetings.

And that there was a considerable period of time between those meetings (ie. presumably between January and February of this year, 2010, just before the Olympics began....And by the way, just for the record, Mr. Turner and one of PavCo's Directors, Mr. Peter Brown, both served on VANOC's board together).

*****

Now, here's the real thing.....

Mr. Turner himself, in a previous interview with the NaPo's Bruce Hutchinson, made it very clear that he gets together with his fellow Paragon Principals so that they can collectively make decisions about how they should move forward with their Casino Industrial Complex project, a project that will utilize some of the most extensive real estate in North America, land that is owned, not by them, or PavCo, or even the government of Premier Gordon Campbell, but instead by the People of British Columbia.

In fact, as Mr. Turner made crystal clear in his interview with Mr. Hutchinson, that is exactly how he and his fellow Paragon Principals collectively decided that he, himself, as a Paragon Principal, and not as a Campbell government-appointed Chair of ICBC, should call up the Minister responsible for the Marshmallow, Mr. Krueger, and tell him, the Minister, that the retractable roof on BC Place Stadium, which is going to cost the People of British Columbia at least $563 million dollars (and climbing) is very, very important to the private owners and the Principals of Paragon (who are, just to be even clearer than crystal clear here, most definitely NOT representatives of, with a fiduciary responsibility to, the People of British Columbia).

Thus, in my opinion, Mr. Buckley's written statement about Mr. Turner's non-participation in the meetings he arranged between PavCo and the other Paragon Principals is, based on the evidence available so far, essentially, for all intents and purposes.....

.... Meaningless.

OK?


_____
And just in case you've forgotten what the 1st letter that was part of last Friday's Document Dump was all about, that was the letter from the Lobbyist Registrar to Mr. Chandra-Herbert that said he could not investigate Mr. Turner's phonecall to the Minister Responsible for the Marshmallow due to the fact that he, Mr. Turner had not actually registered as a lobbyist prior to April Fool's Day of this year....Hmmmmm.....Imagine if we did that with car thieves and ponzi scheme makers.

.