ThatFitVille.
Well, well, well......
The issue of an alleged get-together on Savary Island in the Fall of 2003 came up at the Railgate Trial today.
Here is the CP's unbylined report on the matter in the Globe:
...Mr. Brown also denied knowing the premier had a “private meeting” with several men interested in the sale on an island on B.C.’s southern coast in the fall 2003, just before CN was announced as the winning bidder.
Mr. Brown said that was the first time he'd heard that CN Rail executive David McLean, Rocky Mountaineer
But he noted he didn't consider it a conflict of interest for his boss to meet with those people in the midst of the bidding process....
Please note that Mr. Brown begins with a non-denial, not-quite flat-out denial.
Regardless, in my opinion the statement by Mr. Brown that he didn't think that such a meeting, mythical or otherwise, would be a conflict of interest, is downright bizarre.
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So, what's this really all about Alfie?
Well.....
First, please recall that Mr. David McLean (CEO of CN Rail) and Mr. Peter Armstrong (CEO of RockyMountain Railtours) have been, and continue to be two of the biggest financial backers and fundraisers for Gordon Campbell ever, right from the very beginning (ie. all the way back to at least the mid-1990's).
Second, please also recall that after Gordon Campbell rescinded a 90 year-old statute that mandated extensive passenger rail service on all of BC Rail's far flung tracks in the Fall of 2002, he then sold those tracks to Mr. McLean and CN Rail who then later made a deal with Mr. Armstrong and Rocky Mountaineer Railtours to run tourist trains on the most desirable, most non-far flung portions of those tracks (ie. North Van to Whistler, for example).
So.
If there was, indeed, a big get together on Savary Island before the deal went down and matters such as these were, indeed, discussed before they happened - with Premier Gordon Campbell present.......
Well, that would be a pretty big deal, not to mention a whopping huge conflict of interest, don't you think?
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For the record, an Anon-O-Mouse also gave an eyewitness report of this line of questioning and response at Mary's place earlier this afternoon. It can be found on this thread @ 1:11pm, and it goes like this:
"....Interesting lines of questioning around Premier Campbell meeting with the Chair of CN in October 2003. Martyn did not remember and did not feel that it was a potential conflict of interest for the Premier to be meeting with David McLean during the bidding process.
Did the Premier have a meeting with Patrick Kinsella, Ken Dobell, Peter Armstrong, David McLean at Savary Island? Martyn denied any knowledge of this meeting but I was left with the impression that the meeting could have taken place and that Bob Virk had information about it...."
Now, is it possible that the CP reporter was a little mixed up and Mr. Brown was actually being asked about MORE than one specific meeting with Mr. David McLean prior to the deal going down?
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Update, 7:00pm: Within 10 minutes of posting this one up the PAB-Bots started to arrive...Interesting that, don't you think?
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13 comments:
This is getting more and more interesting Ross. The Savary Island meeting - combined with a couple of the questions/non-answers in that briefing document from yesterday - create an almost unmistakable impression that the Premier is not going to be able to dispel.
That is the impression that the leader of the BC Liberals is a serial liar.
The question is though, why hasn't someone in the MSM taken a few minutes to glue these things together for the public?
Anon-Above (now deleted)
Unwarranted outing of other Anon-O-Mice is NOT something we do here.
OK?
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If we are lucky the next twenty nine or so witnesses will not have head trauma injuries rendering them clueless...
@Anonymouse 8:51
Oh yes they will.
You really think so Norman?
Even when they are presented with documentary evidence persuant to their prior actions?
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As I asked over at BC Mary's place.
At what level do loyalties lie? Are people actually willing to go to jail for Campbell? This 'I can't recall" thing is fast becoming the elephant in the room. And no one can ignore an elephant, they're to damn big.
islandcynic
Savary Island bc rail
These are the keywords when searching Google today, June 11
An excellent report from the Court is now up at Mary's place...from the 'non-accredited' journalist Robin Mathews.
He seems determined to show the working media (the folks who do it for money) how the process is meant to work.
With reporting like that, one hardly needs a camera in the courtroom.
Huge thank you to Mary for publishing and an even bigger thank you to Robin for his hard work, intelligence and writing skills.
Keep it up!
This mental affliction exhibited by Martyn Brown seems to scream out "I lied" to everyone - does it not.
As others have commented, it will be interesting to see how far this memory lapse goes with the iother witnesses. Also, will other witnesses have axes to grind to get even with Martyn Brown - who weilded such power ?
Would too much "I don't recall or I don't remember" from others incline the court to throw out the charges due to witness unreliabilty ? If so, could other charges stem from this like perjury ?
I know one thing, had Martyn Brown worked in the real world and had a few "I don't recall episodes" - he would be down the road likkity split - plain fired for incompetence.
Thx
Thanks all.
And yes, Robin's lates report at Mary's, here, is really excellent and gets to the crux of the matter regarding Mr. Brown's 'strategy'.
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It seems that its very difficult to find the young presidents, however, while searching through donations made to the bc liberals i came across someone who owns/owned intrawest and who is now a bigwhig in an indpendent power producer...joe houssian intrawest
could this fellow also been a participant at savary island/bc rail sale
Not at all hard to find the Young Presidents Organization, as is it's accurate name, although most refer to it as the Young Predidents Club.
Start with the top BC liberals, and then their offspring, colleagues and close personal associates.And of course, one not need be a Liberal to join, but there does seem to be a large contingent of them among the membership.
Here is a link to a large series of photos showing the Young Presidents Club Olympic opening celebrations... Among the guest is of course Gordon Campbell.... and who else is among those pictured?
Here is a link to an event in Vancouver, at some sort of team building drumming workshop that members of the YPO attended.
See anyone you recognize in the photos?
http://www.drumcafe.ca/bc/colligo.htm
And if anyone is interested to see what this island paradise where the " alleged" meeting took place, check out Global BC Tv's video section, as Savary was featured on their " Small Town BC" feature for Sunday June 13th.
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