Something stinky in BC?
Some prat going by the name AB/ba posted a comment utterly unrelated to the article I wrote this afternoon. I take time to craft and hone my work and I don't take to random acts of bloviation that some people seem to like. So I'm deleting the comment.
However, in fairness he did point out an interesting little scandal someone named Erik "Spiderman" Bornman who was once connected pretty closely to Paul Martin. A quick reading of this article seems to indicate that this particular incident might involve the BC provincial Liberal party, but a connection with the federal Libs was implied by the aforementioned prat. I have nothing to indicate that the federal party is involved so I will discard that accusation as unfounded at least for now.
For the record, please comment away on any post you see. Be happy, be mad, be rude, I don't care. However, please keep to the topic; I reserve the right to delete anything that is too far off-topic, or as in this case, completely out of the blue. You wanna post stuff - fill your boots - in your own blog.
[Update: Pedro has an update on this, with way more detail than I've provided here.]
However, in fairness he did point out an interesting little scandal someone named Erik "Spiderman" Bornman who was once connected pretty closely to Paul Martin. A quick reading of this article seems to indicate that this particular incident might involve the BC provincial Liberal party, but a connection with the federal Libs was implied by the aforementioned prat. I have nothing to indicate that the federal party is involved so I will discard that accusation as unfounded at least for now.
For the record, please comment away on any post you see. Be happy, be mad, be rude, I don't care. However, please keep to the topic; I reserve the right to delete anything that is too far off-topic, or as in this case, completely out of the blue. You wanna post stuff - fill your boots - in your own blog.
[Update: Pedro has an update on this, with way more detail than I've provided here.]
Hey, here's the story (from a former BC Lib staffer):
- Dave Basi worked for then-Minister, Gary Collins, as a Ministerial Assistant.
- Basi has been involved with the UVIC Federal Young Liberals and continued to be involved in the backrooms.
- Police were listening to his phone calls to look for evidence linked to a large cocaine and marijuana-traffiking operation between BC and Ontario.
- Police instead allegedly found information that Basi received money in exchange for "information and documents" he gave to Erik Bornman, the former partner of Pilothouse Public Affairs Group.
- Information leaked to Erik Bornman were suposedly obtained from Bobby Singh Virk, the Ministerial Assistant to then-Transportation Minister, Judith Reid.
- Pilothouse is a company consisting of federal Liberals. Jamie Elmhirst (LPCBC President) has recently been promoting to Senior Partner as the Senior Partner is premaring to "retire" (i.e. testify). For information, check out publiceyeonline.com (my computer is too slow to find you the link, but it was posted last week).
- In fall of 2003, one of Pilot-house's clients, OmniTRAX, was competing to buy BC Rail from the government.
- Police allege that cheques from Bornman were made out to Aneal Basi (?) and deposited in his bank account before being transferred to Dave Basi.
- The information leaked was then (supposedly) given out in exchange for money and prominent positions with the federal 2004 Liberal election.
- The info leaked was then given to OmniTRAX to help them in their bid for BC Rail.
- Mark Marissen, LPCBC ring leader, and his wife, Christy Clark (former Minister of Education and Deputy Premier), had their homes raided.
- Bruce Clark, Christy's brother, is also a big backroom guy for the Liberals and he was also under question by police.
*** Check out the Vancouver Sun for more details. LOTS of details - Front page with a whole explanation and the people involved.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Tue Apr 04, 07:34:00 PM
Mark Marissen did not have his home raided. The police came to his house looking for copies of their resumes, because Bornman was promoting them for jobs. It was reported that neither Mark Marissen or any provincial politicians were implicated in the investigation, and that police thought that Marissen was the "innocent recipient" of documents, ie. their resumes. They had no search warrant, and they did not raid his house.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Tue Apr 04, 10:34:00 PM
My bad - I didn't at all mean to write "raid", but it looks as though I did. My appologies!
Posted by
Anonymous |
Tue Apr 04, 11:43:00 PM
Thanks for the details, guys.
What is it about politics in BC? Out here in Nova Scotia all we get is the odd toss of ca$h to friends of premiers. You guys get police raids, drunk-driving premiers.
I'm jealous.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Wed Apr 05, 09:24:00 AM
Hey Kevvyd,
For more info on this, check out my posting today on pedrothepolitico.blogspot.com.
All the details are there and tomorrow I'll have a commentary. I'm so sick of all the corruption out here. I swear BC is 10x more corrupt than any other province (of course that is completely unfounded). Jeesh!
Posted by
Anonymous |
Wed Apr 05, 12:48:00 PM
Thanks Pedro, I'll update the article to link to yours.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Wed Apr 05, 02:15:00 PM