Premier Campbell and his top officials have been ordered by the court to turn over all communications by e mail that have been made in regard to the sale of BC Rail of 2003.
The request from Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the British Columbia Supreme Court is the latest twist in the controversial surroundings of the sale of BCR to Canadian National, her request is considered as unprecedented in the sense that it will go far beyond the usually closed doors of cabinet confidentiality.
In addition to emails from the Premier and his officials, Madam Justice also would like to see past correspondences from former Cabinet ministers Christy Clark and Gary Collins, who both left politics in 2004.
There is still some question as to what emails may still be available, it has been a confusing few days of late, as the government outlined details on how many of the emails previously requested had been erased, a position that seems to have been reversed of late with news that some of those files may actually still be intact and accessible.
To that end, the government will provide a list to the Madam Justice by August 17th outlining which emails may still be accessible and available for her reading list.
It will be a list that many will want a look at, especially the attorneys for Dave Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi, the trio have been charged with a number of offences in regards to the BC Rail sale case, including fraud, breach of trust and money laundering.
Their attorneys believe that e-mails will show the three were only following directives from higher ups when they were involved with the file.
If the government can't provide those e mails of interest to those discussions, then there's a good chance that the scene will be set for dismissal of charges for the three prominent players in the current legalities.
Once Madam Justice has her reading material all set up she, like many Canadians, will spend her last few weeks of summer curled up with a bit of reading to catch up on.
.
No light reading for her it seems, instead it's non fiction, drama all the way, a potentially voluminous amount of paper that she no doubt hopes will serve fill in some of the many blanks that so far have been left by the Liberal Government.
Globe and Mail-- Judge orders B.C. Premier to turn over e-mails
The request from Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the British Columbia Supreme Court is the latest twist in the controversial surroundings of the sale of BCR to Canadian National, her request is considered as unprecedented in the sense that it will go far beyond the usually closed doors of cabinet confidentiality.
In addition to emails from the Premier and his officials, Madam Justice also would like to see past correspondences from former Cabinet ministers Christy Clark and Gary Collins, who both left politics in 2004.
There is still some question as to what emails may still be available, it has been a confusing few days of late, as the government outlined details on how many of the emails previously requested had been erased, a position that seems to have been reversed of late with news that some of those files may actually still be intact and accessible.
To that end, the government will provide a list to the Madam Justice by August 17th outlining which emails may still be accessible and available for her reading list.
It will be a list that many will want a look at, especially the attorneys for Dave Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi, the trio have been charged with a number of offences in regards to the BC Rail sale case, including fraud, breach of trust and money laundering.
Their attorneys believe that e-mails will show the three were only following directives from higher ups when they were involved with the file.
If the government can't provide those e mails of interest to those discussions, then there's a good chance that the scene will be set for dismissal of charges for the three prominent players in the current legalities.
Once Madam Justice has her reading material all set up she, like many Canadians, will spend her last few weeks of summer curled up with a bit of reading to catch up on.
.
No light reading for her it seems, instead it's non fiction, drama all the way, a potentially voluminous amount of paper that she no doubt hopes will serve fill in some of the many blanks that so far have been left by the Liberal Government.
Globe and Mail-- Judge orders B.C. Premier to turn over e-mails
National Post-- Corruption trial judge orders release of B.C. premier's emails
Vancouver Province-- Premier Campbell and top aides ordered to release e-mails in Basi-Virk case
CBC British Columbia-- Premier ordered to hand over BC Rail emails
The Tyee-- Railgate Looks Even More Like Watergate
The Tyee-- Railgate Looks Even More Like Watergate
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