For The Record: Mr. Palmer's Take On The Gerrand Decision Re: Ms. Clark and BC Rail

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As I mentioned yesterday, just before we saw Mr. Gerrand's report, there will be a whole lot of talk and blather for a couple of days on this matter.

And then it will be time to return to the 5 W's of the real story.

For the moment though, and for the record (especially if someone has to go hunting for it when the real inquiry finally arrives down the road), here is Mr. Vaughn Palmer's take on the matter, excerpted directly from his lede and a wee bit of his kicker:

VICTORIA - So it turns out that Premier Christy Clark never was in a conflict of interest in the BC Rail case, real, apparent or otherwise.

That determination was among the more surprising findings of a report from the office of the provincial conflict of interest commissioner into a complaint filed by independent MLA John van Dongen...

{snippety doo-dah}

...(Commissioner Gerald) Gerrand: “It will be seen as ironic by some that the very caution that led Ms. Clark to recuse herself, together with the practice of not disclosing her reasons for doing so, led to the very accusations that the recusal was meant to avoid. However this is precisely what happened — albeit that the accusations in this case have arisen nine years later.”

Yes. The van Dongen complaint was grounded in the supposition that she was disclosing an actual conflict when she (Ms. Clark) recused herself, therefore she must have had one earlier when she did attend cabinet meetings where the sale was discussed...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...Still if van Dongen had set out to generate a report that would dispel the allegations of conflict of interest regarding Clark’s conduct in the BC Rail case, he couldn’t have produced a more persuasive set of findings than these.


Interestingly, however...

There was no mention in Mr. Palmer's entire column that the extremely reliable testimony of a very fine fellow named Mr. Bornman(n) that very much helped the good Mr. Gerrand to conclude that it was an abundance of caution and not a conflict that resulted in Ms. Clark recusing herself from very late (but not early) in the game cabinet meetings on the BC Rail deal.

But more on that later when we return to the 5 W's of the thing...


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And another thing we plan to revisit is that old 'Quid Pro Quo' hypothesis once voiced by Mr. Palmer (and we cultists too) that some might argue the good Mr. Gerrand appeared to be unaware of when he wrote sections 100 and 101 of his report....
Thursday noon update: For the record, wrote this before I read Mr. Tsakumis' latest during lunch.

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