In this issue
1. MLA van Dongen's party jump said just the first of more
2. Robin Mathews shreds Clark govt's credibility on BC Rail
3. MLA Claire Trevena summarizes Legislature's busy week
4. Links to items of note for students of B.C. public affairs
Van Dongen's jump still reverberating
as White insists three more will follow
By John Twigg
I am working on another extensive polemic about why B.C. Premier Christy Clark should resign or be ousted sooner rather than later, but since it is going to take me perhaps a few days to write it I am instead today sending only a brief synopsis and then adding some excellent commentaries by other writers.
Meanwhile, my own analysis is that MLA John van Dongen's jump from the B.C. Liberal Party to the B.C. Conservative Party on Monday sent huge shock waves through B.C. politics that are still reverberating, especially his hiring of lawyer Roger McConchie to further probe the B.C. Rail scandal.
Indeed even as this little gist was being prepared there was more big news that Conservative backroomer Randy White is now predicting the BCCP will have four MLAs and thus official party status before the next election! That's according to a report today by Neil Corbett in the Abbotsford News.
“Not only do I think it may happen, I’m telling you it’s going to happen,” said White, a longtime former MP for Abbotsford for the Reform Party and then the federal Conservatives who has been busy helping his friend B.C. Conservative Party leader John Cummins rebuild the party brand in B.C., a brand which van Dongen by the way says needs to be broadened.
White claimed that the coalition of conservatives and Liberals that Premier Christy Clark says she is trying to hold together has already broken down, and poll numbers and van Dongen's jump suggest he is correct, as do the lukewarm comments from senior cabinet ministers Kevin Falcon, George Abbott and others undecided about running again in 2013.
Calls still mount for Clark's ouster
There are several reasons why van Dongen did that dramatic jump, including some personal ones such as grievances over how he was ousted from cabinet in 2009, but it's obvious his stated concerns about the B.C. Rail sale and her government's botch of the B.C. Place naming deal are adding weight to calls for Clark's immediate ouster, though really when you look at the full list of reasons to oust her one sees that van Dongen's list is only the tip of an iceberg.
There are in fact dozens of serious issues over which Clark bears lots of blame, such as the current government-manufactured dispute with teachers (which goes back to her years as education minister under former premier Gordon Campbell, and now a new dispute is also looming with the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union).
But even those serious problems are minor compared with such emerging allegations that despite her many denials Clark herself may have been involved in some wrongdoing in the tainted sale of B.C. Rail - which can be read about mainly on the Alex Tsakumis blog, namely that she may - may - have herself done some document leaking, or at least that she fraternized a lot with others who did such things as proffer bribes.
Furthermore, it gets worse, and more current, because it appears B.C. government lawyers (including a senior one who worked on Clark's leadership campaign and/or others now working under her indirect auspices) have been trying to maintain a coverup of certain aspects of the B.C. Rail scandal which has caused the Auditor General to have to go to court for access to some documents - a rare and perhaps unprecedented move for that office.
Attorney General Shirley Bond just told CKNW's Simi Sara that the documents in question are controlled by an unidentified third party and that she has instructed the government's lawyers to disclose everything else, but even there one wonders why she had to instruct them again to do so when the auditors have been trying for many months to get them.
So we'll have to wait to see how all that shakes out but it certainly destroys Clark's claim Tuesday that "there's nothing left to investigate" about her role in the B.C. Rail sale and meanwhile I'll try to explain how that fits into a compilation of other reasons why her leadership IS in question and should be moreso.
Clarification re who helped van Dongen's jump
And while I'm here, let me clarify for the record that Alex Tsakumis was not the go-between or marriage-broker between van Dongen and B.C. Conservative leader John Cummins, as I had speculated in a recent issue was a possibility based on some comments in Tsakumis's blog. While Tsakumis had been talking to both men from time to time, the person who suggested that van Dongen and Cummins actually meet to discuss van Dongen possibly crossing over was someone else so far unidentified (maybe Randy White as per above?).
Fresh meat for your Friday feeding:
Editor's Note: The following article by Robin Mathews, a veteran analyst of B.C. politics and public affairs, is published here as an opinion on matters of public interest and does not imply that I endorse and agree with each and every interpretation and analysis; readers are advised to draw their own conclusions and do their own fact-checking and lawyering if they wish to use it further.
Also, the article below it, by NDP MLA Claire Trevena, also is published as a matter of public interest and does not imply any endorsement of her by me or vice-versa; it is a document taken from the public domain which I as the editor believe provides some useful insights and perspectives on B.C. politics and public affairs.
Musical Chairs in Corrupt British Columbia. Interesting Times.
By Robin Mathews
The phrase “like rats leaving a sinking ship” can’t help coming to mind with the switch of MLA John van Dongen from his role as seventeen-year Liberal loyalist to a new, shiny incarnation in the B.C. Conservative Party.
The phrase “like rats leaving a sinking ship” can’t help coming to mind with the switch of MLA John van Dongen from his role as seventeen-year Liberal loyalist to a new, shiny incarnation in the B.C. Conservative Party.
Mr. Van Dongen crossed the B.C. House this week, (March 26, 2012) joining a Party he didn’t represent to get elected. He hasn’t signified that he’ll resign and run as a Conservative to validate his seat. And he was welcomed by John Cummins, B.C. Conservative leader, happy to have him – in fact unelected – sitting in the legislature as a Conservative (the only).
One journalist reminded Cummins that his position when in federal politics was that “House Crossers” should resign and re-run. Cummins, it seems, had forgotten….
British Columbia’s governing alliance – at least since the Second World War – has frequently been formed of all things Right of the CCF/NDP. (Keep the raging Socialists from getting their hands on political power!)
Except the B.C. NDP is, now, far from Socialist, let alone “raging”, as corporate lap-dog Adrian Dix makes clear on almost every public appearance. He will take power in 2013 … and British Columbians will hardly notice the change.
Embattled Boadicea, Liberal premier Christy Clark, said van Dongen’s move will only help the NDP. True. But not for any reasons she wants to offer. Mainstream Media voices say there will be no more defections. We’ll see. Even van Dongen’s leaving lets the NDP say that any rotten apple that falls from the Liberal tree is grabbed up and hugged to John Cummins' bosom. The more they fall and are hugged into the Conservative Party, the more the NDP can say “Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Try to tell them apart.”
If there is one thing British Columbians are growing certain of, it’s that the Liberal Caucus, one and all, have to go. Cummins and Co. know that. But if the leaving Conservatives-playing-Liberal try to tuck themselves into the John Cummins creation, that Party will lose, too. Tough choices for John Cummins. Where do the hard rock Conservatives who are in the Gordon Campbell/Christy Clark party go…? Today Kevin Falcon [present Liberal finance minister and a natural for the Conservative Party] says he is thinking of stepping aside in 2013, the dailies tell us.
The Party that wants to hold power for 25 years will begin with criminal investigations into BC Rail, BC Hydro, BC Ferries, Public Private Partnership Infrastructure deals, River Energy contracts … to start. That will reveal the heaving, corrupt, steamy stew that is B.C. A Party that sets about – really – to clean will stay and stay in power.
But sell-out, greed, fear, and love of power will probably prevent that from happening.
Which brings us back to John van Dongen. He has crossed the House in search of purity. A known Fraser Valley Christian, he knows his New Testament (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9).
“Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
The Liberal leader, Christy Clark, he has said – in and out of the legislature – has not faced the need for change, has not been a good administrator, has not been honest about the BC Rail Scandal, has not been transparent about the outrageous payment of “$6 million in legal fees [paid to Defence], completely contrary to government policy”. Those are legal costs paid for convicted Dave Basi and Bob Virk by government, with cabinet approval, to slam shut the BC Rail trial and – many believe – save the skins of (a) major cabinet operatives, (b) private corporate dealers in on the scam (c) the BC Liberal government and Party.
Van Dongen does not, of course, mention the $10.7 million paid to the Special (Crown) Prosecutor whose questionable appointment invalidates ALL the Crown’s work in the Basi, Virk, and Basi matter. No one, so far, will touch that burning brand.
So deeply is John van Dongen moved by the spirit of purity, so beset is his conscience by moral perturbation that he has hired North Vancouver lawyer Roger McConchie to review BC Rail matters involving Basi, Virk, and Basi and then to advise him.
That might be called “Gilbert and Sullivan in Hell”.
Regulars in the nearly four year Basi, Virk, and Basi pre-trial/trial grew familiar with Roger McConchie. He appeared whenever the Globe and Mail (and like others) wanted to contest publication bans and other kinds of restrictions on information. He spoke always for what we name “the Mainstream Press and Media”. I have no remembrance of him speaking meaningfully and directly on behalf of British Columbians, the public, you and me … insisting on our right to see all documents on public record. I may be wrong.
At the end of the trial, as has been pointed out, Mr. McConchie reviewed ‘thousands’ of Prosecution documents with the Globe and Mail in order to get release of the material “to the public”. Why the release was set up … and made … is hotly contested. It was not a release of all materials, by any means. And it was not a release to the public.
Some say, and I believe them, that the release “to the public” was a complete sham, a piece of theatre, “smoke and mirrors”. It was, in fact, a release of selected material to a chosen few, dependable, insider, tamed Mainstream journalists.
It was made, I believe, to smear the two convicted men (who seemed to be getting off very, very lightly), Dave Basi and Bob Virk. And it was made, I believe, to throw up a smokescreen in front of the major wrongdoers in cabinet and in corporate boardrooms.
Those are strong allegations. They have a history. Observe:
Out of the corrupt fog called "the administration of justice" in British Columbia, the B.C. Supreme Court has set up (and maintains) a completely (in my judgement) fraudulent process. It is called "the journalist accreditation process".
Under the eye of a Supreme Court judge a committee of Mainstream journalists ”serves” the Court, to vet anyone wanting journalist status in B.C. Supreme court trials. “Approved journalists” may take recorders into the court and may examine all materials placed “on public record”.
Out of the corrupt fog called "the administration of justice" in British Columbia, the B.C. Supreme Court has set up (and maintains) a completely (in my judgement) fraudulent process. It is called "the journalist accreditation process".
Under the eye of a Supreme Court judge a committee of Mainstream journalists ”serves” the Court, to vet anyone wanting journalist status in B.C. Supreme court trials. “Approved journalists” may take recorders into the court and may examine all materials placed “on public record”.
(1) All Canadians should be able to do both things in our “democratic”, “Open Court” system. They are denied their citizenship by corrupt courts, as I see it.
(2) The Mainstream Media committee members are servants of the Court and so contaminated. They both work for the Court and are – as representatives of “a free press and media” - supposed to criticize the Court and judges freely when they deem such action necessary. They live in conflict of interest.
In the nearly four years I attended the Basi, Virk, and Basi process, not one Mainstream Press and Media journalist EVER criticized a judge, though occasions inviting legitimate criticism were frequent.
(3) The fraudulent process permits the Mainstream Journalist committee to pick off their rivals. For nearly three years I reported things the Mainstream Press and Media journalists wouldn’t touch or were ordered by their bosses not to touch. When I applied (because I was forced to do so) for “accreditation” as a journalist after three years of steady reporting of the pre-trial, I was denied accreditation by journalists I had been showing up for three years as failing to do their job.
(4) My application to Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie (who was handling the case) was ignored. Instead, a court officer informed me I could – in fact – appeal a judgement made by court non-persons (journalists) acting on behalf of the court. I could apply, pay money, go through what is, in fact, an appeal process – without any certainty of being approved. I refused to have anything to do with such galloping Banana Republic fraud.
(5) The effect of the process is that the relation of court, judges, and Mainstream Press and Media is too close. One may feel – watching sensitive events in court – that each is “looking after” the other.
To my knowledge, Roger McConchie, the Law Society of B.C., the Canadian Bar Association, as well as the Canadian Judicial Council all are completely content with that “system”. It is plainly an affront to democratic freedom and the rule of law. Not one of them has spoken out publicly against it.
John van Dongen is employing Roger McConchie to advise him on matters involving the Basi, Virk, and Basi case, the payment by government of their Defence costs, and – who knows? – the possibility of involvement by premier Christy Clark in the shady and nefarious dealings that led to the accusations against the three accused. Defence counsel hinted at such a possibility in pre-trial hearings years ago.
Such is the passion for virtuous government felt by former cabinet minister and present MLA John van Dongen that he has hired Roger McConchie at his own expense!
Let us look back at John van Dongen’s seventeen years of loyalty to the B.C. Liberal Party.
He was there when co-chair and fund-raiser David McLean worked on Gordon Campbell’s 1996 campaign – and was major fund-raiser later, it is said. That is the David McLean who was president of CNR when BC Rail was “delivered” to CN in 2003-04. Mr. van Dongen didn’t seem, then, to have a moral qualm.
Mr. van Dongen was in cabinet while BC Hydro was being ripped apart. The Auditor General of B.C. hasn’t approved B.C. Hydro accounting practices for ten years! Mr. van Dongen – to my knowledge – never has asked a question on the matter.
He was there when a relation of Gordon Campbell was embroiled in a scandal in the ministry of Children and Families, was removed, was covered for, was whisked to trial in Prince George on a completely different charge – while something like $400,000.00 was “written off” by the ministry. Mr. van Dongen said nothing … asked (as far as I know) no questions of anyone.
He was there when BC Ferries was looted as a cash cow, transformed, and stripped of any responsibility to British Columbians. He was there when David Hahn, U.S.-sourced BC Ferries president, was revealed to have an annual salary of one million dollars a year! Not a word from Mr. van Dongen that I remember.
Mr. van Dongen was there in cabinet when – it is alleged – Gordon Campbell and his team went consciously to work to dessicate BC Rail, to destroy its profitability, and to make it look, falsely, a losing operation. He was in cabinet when those actions – which I believe constitute criminal breach of trust – were being carried out.
Mr. van Dongen didn’t – it seems – suffer even a slight moral twinge.
He was in cabinet in the first years of staggering revelations and allegations of high-level corruption made by Defence counsel in the Basi, Virk, and Basi BC Rail Scandal pre-trial hearings. He was an MLA for the full trial and its outrageous conclusion, a conclusion blessed by the questionably appointed Special Prosecutor and the sitting judge, Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie.
Through all those years and those highly dubious events … and more … John van Dongen remained silent. Silent.
Silent.
Now he is no longer silent. Now he wants to find answers. Now? Why? The $6 million paid to Defence counsel of Dave Basi and Bob Virk was approved of by the Gordon Campbell cabinet. Does Mr. van Dongen want to pull Gordon Campbell down, now, from his eminence as Canadian High Commissioner in London? After nearly two decades of van Dongen faithful, silent loyalty?
Does Mr. van Dongen want to find ways to implicate Christy Clark in the lower levels of alleged BC Rail Scandal bribery, BC Rail information leaking, and related actions? If he could do so, that would wipe the B.C. Liberals in 2013 … for certain.
We are in murky depths here. Much more is happening than meets the eye.
Conservative voices in British Columbia are making themselves heard, are revealing that beneath their Liberal hides Conservative hearts are beating, and that they despise Liberal premier Christy Clark … that they want to get her.
Like gays ‘in the closet’ for twenty years, these Conservatives want to go on a huge Conservative PRIDE parade. They are mad, too. Christy is in the embrace of Stephen Harper – their ideal Conservative. They want to be in his embrace. They want to be able to reveal their real selves, their real neo-liberal, (neo-fascist?), public servant-hating, robocalling selves, standing in Stephen Harper’s shadow. Christy has taken Stephen’s aides and agents into her circle. Christy, the dumb Liberal, (they think) is playing Conservative, is schmoozing (in photo ops) with Stephen Harper. Liberal Gordon Campbell shouldn’t be Canadian High Commissioner to the Court of St. James! A Conservative should be in that post!
How can B.C. Conservatives break the unholy alliance between the Christy Clark Liberals and the Stephen Harper Conservatives? How can they get a British Columbia which is more Conservative than the ruling party in the House of Commons? By making Christy Clark too hot for Stephen Harper to handle. Even, perhaps, by making Gordon Campbell too hot to keep in London.
These are dark and murky depths, but they are the place where real struggles for power go on. John van Dongen has just announced that the Liberal/Conservative struggle for power on the Right has begun in British Columbia. All the media and pundit talk about John van Dongen’s virtuous desire for a cleansed political landscape is wonderful, refreshing, heady, Springtime intoxication. He may really want a cleansed political landscape … after all power on it is possessed by Stephen Harper-style British Columbia Conservatives.
We – who are not B.C. Conservatives – can only watch (and cover our backs). The Chinese curse is upon us: we live in interesting times.
Other columns by Robin Mathews can be found here:http://www.vivelecanada.ca/editorials/columnists/9-robin-mathews
MLA Claire Trevena reviews
busy week in B.C. Legislature
By Claire Trevena
NDP MLA - North Island
Despite the political drama playing out in the corridors of the Legislature - the departure from the Liberal Party of a former cabinet minister and questions over who among the BC Liberals will stay on to fight the next election - the work of committees and questioning continued through the week.
One of the reasons that John van Dongen said he was leaving the Liberal caucus was because of the still unanswered questions about BC Rail and taxpayers paying the legal costs for Basi and Virk. We raised this scandal yet again in question period: but the government continued to stonewall. We also raised again questions about the multi-million dollar overspends at BC Place, and the cavalier rejection of the Telus sponsorship deal.
However, we urged the government to put politics aside and show support for the workers who recently lost their jobs at Aveos, the company that operated maintenance services for Air Canada. On Thursday the Legislature unanimously voted in support of such a move.
We were not so lucky when we asked the Minister of Jobs to act to protect the hundreds of retirees from Catalyst pulp mills whose pensions could be at risk because of the company’s insolvency. He refused to take any responsibility. Likewise we asked ministers again about the impact of raw log exports on mills and local economies, only to have the question sloughed off.
I was able to talk about the sometimes difficult balance between protecting the environment and encouraging employment in the mining sector. I spoke about the situation for both Myra Falls, in Strathcona Provincial Park, and Quinsam Coal with the close oversight it receives for impacts on the watershed.
The government’s initiative to download more work on municipalities, through the Local Government Auditor General office, has now become law. We spent several days examining the bill closely and presented a number of amendments to it to try to make it more palatable but they were not accepted.
We also examined the Advanced Education Statutes Amendment Act. This is the bill which takes away the right of elected executive members of faculty associations to be on the boards of governors of universities and colleges. This is an unnecessary bill, an arbitrary attack on both unions and on the good governance of post-secondary education.
We have been drawing attention to problems with the government’s testing of senior drivers through the DriveAble programme. We asked a number of questions about the test’s validity as well as problems in accessing it, both because of the distance to test centres and the cost. I will be holding two DriveAble meetings next month (on April 27th) to talk to seniors in the North Island about problems they have faced or are facing.
We also asked the Minister of Transportation how he can allow yet another increase in ferry fares. The rates are due to go up on April 1st by more than 4%, despite the Ferry Commissioner’s report acknowledging the fact that ferry dependent communities find it impossible to continue to bear such increases.
As the critic for Children and Families I asked the Attorney General about an horrific failure in the justice system which allowed a case of alleged child sexual abuse to be stayed. What I was hoping to hear was that the government would put priority on cases in the courts system - whether it be criminal or child protection - to protect children.
I also had the opportunity to ask the Minister of Agriculture if there was any specific government assistance to communities who want to expand their agricultural base. Campbell River is already looking at ways to do this and I hear from other communities in the constituency that they are also considering it.
And I had the opportunity to tell the Legislature about the walk that Phoenix student, Janine Annett, is making from Port Hardy to Victoria over the coming month. She’s raising awareness about child poverty - here and abroad - and to encourage youth empowerment.
I’ll be at the start of Janine’s walk in Port Hardy on Tuesday morning. Before that I will have been to Prince George as part of the Opposition Forest Working Group tour, and will be at the No Pipeline Rally in Comox on Saturday at the public hearings on Enbridge. Editor's Note: The B.C. Legislature recessed on Thursday for what will be a two-week break and will resume on April 16, only days before the Port Moody and Chilliwack byelections on April 19.
Links of interest for students of B.C. politics and public affairs
Link to Randy White interview in the Abbotsford News re more party-jumpers coming
http://www.abbynews.com/news/145191995.html
Link to Mark Hume piece on Auditor General fighting to get BC Rail documents
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/auditor-general-battles-bc-for-access-to-documents-in-corruption-case/article2384998/
Link to Alex Tsakumis's analysis and contexts of legal fights over BC Rail scandal documents
http://alexgtsakumis.com/2012/03/29/court-documents-reveal-that-the-bc-government-is-withholding-basi-virk-documents-putting-the-auditor-generals-review-in-jeopardy-will-shirely-bond-do-the-honourable-thing-and-resign/
Link to Geoff Plant defending government's handling of Basi-Virk settlement (it still looks like a coverup IMO)
http://theplantrant.blogspot.ca/2012/03/basi-virk-open-letter-to-john-van.html
Link to Premier Clark's video interview about her first year in office (have a barf bag handy?):
http://christyclarkmlabc.ca/news/constituency-report-march-18-2012/
Link to Briony Penn on Robocalls and the petrostate politics
http://focusonline.ca/?q=node/355
Link to a story about a huge new export sale of B.C. water to Japan which proves the huge potential value of this industry
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/03/24/bc-bottled-water-japan.html
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