Hints of Nixon In B.C. Liberal Rail Affair

David Basi right, walks with his lawyer Michael Bolton. Photo: Debra Brash, Times Colonist

The provincial Liberal government of B.C., coming off their recent victory over the NDP in the May election, managed to ignore the B.C. Rail allegations during the campaign. Amazingly enough, everybody else ignored it as well, including the opposition. In fact, it’s an issue that seems to have very little import to British Columbians at all. Only the Globe and Mail’s Mark Hume bothered to show up for yesterday’s hearing to learn that defence lawyers for David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi say recent revelations will make it impossible to prove their innocence of corruption charges related to the sale of BC Rail.

With echoes of Rose Mary Woods, the secretary under Nixon who erased an incriminating White House tape recording following the Watergate break and enter, a B.C. Supreme Court has heard that the province of B.C. has erased emails from 2001-2005. That is a truly massive gap of information in the record, and even defies the laws that electronic government documents must be held for at least seven years. Lawyers for the accused say that the emails pertaining to the political corruption case arising from the sale of B.C. rail are simply vanished.

As Robin Mathews wrote in December, this isn’t merely a criminal case involving the robbery of a gas station.

This is a case that directly involves the lives of the people of British Columbia. Their possession – BC Rail – has been shadily (and, perhaps, stupidly and criminally) handed away. Personnel of their provincial government employed by cabinet have been accused of fraud and breach of trust in that matter. And – as regrettable as it must be to say so – huge suspicion of wrong-doing clings to the premier, Gordon Campbell, and to other members of his cabinet. This is a case being pursued at a time when the investigating body and the one which has been involved with the laying of charges is an RCMP with a hugely damaged reputation.

The timing could not be worse for a legal process already fraught with endless delays. An application filed two weeks ago by defence lawyers was seeking the contents of email records from several members of cabinet, executives, and of Premier Gordon Campbell himself, from June 2001 to 2005. The fact that this exact time period has been flushed down the memory hole certainly has to rank as one of the most odious developments in this case since it was first revealed that the RCMP raided B.C. legislature offices with search warrants.

Lawyers representing the government, including the Premier’s office and cabinet, say that the emails are not recoverable. Not only could the material not be found during a search, it had been purged from the data system, leaving no traces behind. The court is not even obligated to assist in the mysterious disappearance of the electronic records, since the defence team needs to establish in court that such materials would be relevant. Court has adjourned until tomorrow morning, when defence will seek cross examination of the 33 individuals served affidavits for their electronic records, to ask questions about the deletions. But Justice Bennett has given a time limit of September 4.

The main delays in this case have been an inability to get disclosure of documents and information to the defence counsel. In the Basi-Virk case, this time delay could weigh heavily on the decision to simply throw the matter out of court, leaving taxpayers forever wondering what really happened. Thanks to the disappearance of vital emails during the time period of the alleged corruption charges, we may never find out.