RaisedOnBriberyVille
I've noticed a bit of sturm and drang on the Twittmachine about how it is bizarre that, in the Duffy case, it is only the alleged bribe-type taker who has been charged.
Hmmmmmm....
Obviously that cloak of Lotuslandian proMedia silence worked.
Because it would appear that nobody in Central Canada actually knows the 'briber vs. bribee/not-charged vs. charged' precedent what went down out here on the leftcoast during Railgate:
...(Mr. Erik) Bornman went to tell police he gave (David) Basi "a small number of smaller cash payments" but he was uncertain of the amounts and the frequency.
At the time, Bornman told police, he was busy working on the "Paul Martin leadership campaign, which took up a lot of my time."
Bornman went on to say that after the first cash payments, he began making regular payments by cheque to Basi through his cousin, Aneal Basi.
"I was paying him a set amount," Bornman told police. "I'm ashamed to say in return for his assistance in referring clients and his assistance on matters of government and for his, for his continued loyalty to my political endeavors..."
He said the first payments to Aneal Basi, who worked in government communications at the time, was "$1,000 and after that $1,500."
Bornman recalled Aneal Basi was worried about losing his job, so Bornman provided him with a CD-Rom of files to make it look like he doing work for Pilothouse.
He added the CD-Rom "was merely, you know, I'm ashamed to say that, it was...I guess a front that would've been used to substantiate the payments."
Later on, Bornman referred to his regular payments to Dave Basi, via his cousin Aneal Basi, as "bribes.".....
Mr. Bornman(n) (a.k.a. 'Spiderman'), the admitted purveyor of the Railgate bribes was never charged.
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So...
If Mess'rs Virk and Basi, the admitted bribe takers, in the end, got a measly six million, one can only wonder what Mr. Duffy could get if he were to agree to cop a plea?
Not that there would be a 'prior inducement' or anything like that if such a deal were to be made somewhere down the line, at the eleventh hour, just as some government and/or political party bigwigs were all set to take the witness stand during Mr. Duffy's trial.
Of course not.
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Lotuslandian ProMedia cloak/cone of silence sound all conspiratorial and cultish to you?....Sure thing...Except, before you decide to pisshhaw that all away, you might want to read these exchanges, from back in the day, between our good friend BC Mary and then VSun managing editor (and current NPA Vancouver mayoral candidate) Mr. Kirk Lapointe...Ha! (and thanks to reader GWest for the reminder, in the comments to a more recent posting, here)...
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2 comments:
I wonder if anyone in Central Canada knows that one of the bribers was admitted to the bar by the Law Society of Upper Canada after the deed to practice law in their neck of the woods? Or that another of the bribers was welcomed back into the BC Legislative Press Gallery by his peers as soon as the trial ended?
They'd probably think you were making it up; because it's too bizarre to be true, right?
Too bizarre, indeed, Lew.
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