Wednesday, October 20, 2010

RailGate's Repo Men....David Loukidelis and Graham Whitmarsh

AllTheLawyers'Fees
ThatFitVille


Well, well, well......

Apparently the 'Pay-Off All The Flunkies Immediately!' deed (with more of the Public's repossessed money) was actually done by two Deputy Ministers who serve at the pleasure of Mr. Gordon Campbell and his very capable, if slightly memory-challenged, Chief-of-Staff, Mr. Martyn Brown.

Rob Shaw has (the much more complete) story (than the VSun's J. Fowlie) in the Victoria Times-Colonist:

".....(W)hen special prosecutor Bill Berardino made the B.C. government aware on Oct. 5 that he had proposed to let the two men plead guilty, it fell to the deputy minister of finance, Graham Whitmarsh, and (Deputy Attorney General David) Loukidelis to figure out whether they would actually have to come up with the money, Loukidelis's statement read.

"A major consideration was the relatively small amounts that might be recovered from Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk compared to the millions of additional dollars it would cost the government to continue to fund defence, prosecution and court-related costs through to the completion of the trial, and to fund any appeals, with no guarantee of convictions," said Loukidelis.

"Based on the above, in our respective capacities the Deputy Minister of Finance and I decided to release Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk from their liability to repay. I communicated that decision to the Attorney General on October 8, 2010....."



Now.

Mr. Loukidelis we know all about.

But how about the good Mr. Whitmarsh?

Well, for a little background on his Mr. Whitmarsh's history of serving the Premier's pleasure in getting the Wurlitzer fully behind the famous/infamous carbon tax wedge-issue in the run-up to the last election, we turn to an item from the fantastic archives assembled by our good friend Mary:

".....In fact, not only was he (Mr. Whitmarsh) unqualified and inexperienced as an environmental guru, the stillborn failure of the Campbell tax to actually address the environment in a positive way could have been surmised by anyone who did a little more digging into Mr Whitmarsh's CV.

Had one done so, one would have realized that Mr Whitmarsh's background is PR and sales and (although his Navy background was submarines) airplanes...."


Just the man you want to have working on a complex (and sensitive) legal file dont'cha think?


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Mary, in her piece, links to some very good digging into Mr. Whitmarsh's EnviroGuru cred (or lack thereof) by Sean Holman, back in the day, here....
Then, of course, there is the small matter that like Mr. Gary Collins, the man who did not have to testify at the trial due to the 'deal' put together by the Premier's 'Repo Men', Mr. Whitmarsh also once had a close working relationship with Harmony Airlines.....Hmmmmm....Do Mr. Whitmarsh and Mr. Collins know each other?....Perhaps some enterprising accredited proMedia journalist with access to the good Deputy Minister could ask him that question....
Norman Farrell, writing over at his place, is also asking questions about the relationship between Mess'rs Whitmarsh and Collins and their various 'patrons' who have been big dollar donars to the the provincial political party that is (still?) led by Mr. Gordon Campbell....

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11 comments:

Norm Farrell said...

We had similar thoughts today, I see. Here is one scenario suggested to me by a source who has been reliable before:

BC Libs knew years ago that BCR had the potential to bring them down because it had been handled at the highest levels. As a way of limiting risk, three involved ministers departed (Collins, Clark & Reid), helped on their way by comfortable parachutes supplied by uber-rich party supporters Ho, Belkin and Shaw.

The urgency to end the trial this week was Collin's scheduled appearance. After Brown and Kenning were embarrassed in court, they couldn't risk a third person to step up and claim no memory of anything.

RossK said...

Especially when there might be actual verbatim transcripts of wiretaps that would counteract any rapid-onset memory loss that the judge had ruled were still admissible.

(thanks Norman)

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North Van's Grumps said...

Graham Whitmarsh brought 17 years of international business experience to the BC Public Service when he joined in 2007. He has had an extensive and successful international business career in Europe, the United States and Canada. Mr. Whitmarsh first joined the BC Public Service as Chief Advisor for Carbon Trading in April of 2007. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed the Head of the Climate Action Secretariat following an extensive and rigorous public competition. An innovative, forward thinking leader, Mr. Whitmarsh benefits from a wide range of international business experience, including experience as a Chief Executive Officer in the software industry and senior executive roles in Corporate development, Business, Sales and Marketing. Having lived and worked in Europe, the United States and Canada, Graham brings a sophisticated global perspective to his work. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Engineering, Mr. Whitmarsh pursued a career in the Royal Navy as a warfare Officer in Nuclear Submarines. During his time in the Royal Navy, he continued his education at Dartmouth Royal Naval College and Greenwich Naval College. His 17 year international business career included senior executive positions at British Aerospace, Sabre Airline Solutions, Harmony Airways, and Mercury Scheduling Systems, where he led experienced teams through large complex projects and new groundbreaking initiatives, including public and capital asset financing and low cost operational service delivery. His business acumen and talents are diverse; extending to all aspects of corporate development, finance, account management, business systems, organizational planning and restructuring. As Head of the Climate Action Secretariat, Mr. Whitmarsh's responsibilities are critical to achieving the Province's successful climate action agenda and setting the course to reduce greenhouse gas emission in BC by 33 percent by 2020 and ensure that the government of British Columbia is carbon neutral by 2010. Mr. Whitmarsh has led a world-class team of professionals from business, government and the environmental movement to help meet these ambitious goals. He has played a leading role in establishing the Pacific Carbon Trust a new crown corporation which will play a key role in developing the fast growing carbon offset market in BC. Graham Whitmarsh is the Deputy Minister of Finance and Secretary to Treasury Board and previously served as the Associate Deputy Minister, Revenue, to facilitate the successful integration of Revenue into the Ministry of Finance.

RossK said...

Thanks NVG--

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North Van's Grumps said...

Whitmarsh, there's only one person lower in the polls than Campbell.

Campbell was the messenger of the HST, Whitmarsh came up with the idea of the HST!

North Van's Grumps said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
North Van's Grumps said...

Oh, I left this odd bit of trivia on Whitmarsh out. He was the architect of another unwanted tax, the one called Carbon.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=36281f3b-9cb6-493a-a706-ce1e12485705&k=76079

But we all know where the buck stops, at Premier Gordon Campbell's desk.

Grant G said...

NVG..I think you are mistaken, the

"bucks,suitcases full of bucks"

Don`t stop at Campbell`s desk, they go east to Ontario,they go south to general electric, accenture, they go off shore and over seas...

The directorships and promotions stop at Campbell`s desk.

Sorry to nit-pik

Anonymous said...

Oops, sorry for the double post, I meant to post this here, but posted it below by mistake

SO first we are told:

"Mike de Jong is flatly denying a report that Dave Basi and Bobby Virk were made to sign a non-disclosure agreement.


He says "..absolutely not--there is no such provision"."


http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1298290

and then we are told:

"The Loukidelis statement also notes Basi and Virk have been released from a condition requiring them not to discuss the financial aspects of their settlement."

http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1298408

SO which one is lying? They can't even get their stories straight.

GAB

Grant G said...

The lie is confirmed here


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-holds-five-year-old-mortgage-on-basis-home/article1766399/

RossK said...

Thanks GAB and Grant.....

Was very PAB-Botian of Mr. de Jong, don't you think, to suddenly start popping up on media outlets this morning trying to change the channel by blathering on about how his ministry has to make the trial process 'better'.

Or maybe, in Cobertesque fashion we should call it 'betterer' given that 'truthier' is already taken?


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