What parties in B.C. have made a committment to fix this situation? I have heard Carol James say outright that an NDP government will ban contributions from Unions and from Business. Anyone else?

"Anyone else?"

It's like all the "income restraint" programmes I have ever experienced, whenever it suits the ruling class interest to trot these shill games out. They make it sound like the "non-partisan" State and its loyal ruling class Dusiness Men's Council on National Affairs kind of leading and echoing voices are talkin about something "impartial" that will come down with equal weight on all[B] citizens. In fact, it only ever really applies to the working class.

The same with this kind of "a plague on both your houses" kind of small "l" and small "c" liberal and conservative shit. In the end, the wealthy find a way regardless, of making their big bucks donations to their loyal party machines and hacks, themselves or through other intermediaries and fronts, and only working class organizations ever really are closely monitored and impacted. It's like how, in the end, they always find a way around the income restraint programmes. It's their system, and the laws and rules are crafted so that they always come up smelling like roses, no matter what fall to the rest of us.

This hyperbole preoccupation with a "balanced" bullshit democracy and its so-called "objectivity" and "fairness" is just so much smoke and mirrors, for what is in fact, just another really predictable outcome.

Time to cut off the testicles of this forked tongue ideological construct, and go for the jugular; popular control of the economy itself. The politics will be quickly sorted out enroute, and certainly shortly thereafter.

Too much pablum being served up here.

[B]This is something myself and others have been yelling about for years. It is so obvious that Votes in this province are bought.
Jean Chrétien before he stepped down wanted to do this nationaly but it seems to be a non-issue now. The voter only matters on Voting day
as for the real agenda of a political party is a suprise. thats when you see where the loyalties lie in any political party is 6-12 months after election day. The pressure from political backers matters more than the needs of the people. I am somewhat pessimistic as to who under our current corrupt system will do anything that doesn't hurt people that are in the most need. The whole idea of the Left and Right political sides are simply 2 sides of the same coin as it sits now, and probably won't change very much unless big donations are stopped all together. I am most certen that there is a some corporation out there that gives donations to both the NDP and the BC Liberals which aren't real liberals anyway. This happens alot in the US big money supporting both Republican and Demorcrat, BC I can't see being any different, esp now.

It gets even worse when parties start using their big bucks in dubious ways. If the BC Liberals are really sinking millions of dollars into push polling, for example, then elections can be bought. That is definitely a move in the wrong direction.

"I am most certen that there is a some corporation out there that gives donations to both the NDP and the BC Liberals which aren't real liberals anyway. This happens alot in the US big money supporting both Republican and Demorcrat, BC I can't see being any different, esp now." says Nationalist.

Who, I think, gets it in better perspective than Matt Price even.

They are not so much worried about the New
Democrats even I think. They, like significant elements of the trade union movement, in very many ways, have evolved over the postwar into being, let's say, more or less tame "integrated elements" in the system anyway. They pose no serious threats to the status quo, and while those around the NDP and official labour certainly face tighter constraints, no doubt, they can and will find the loopholes around the laws to some satisfaction, I think. (Though, it has to be said, while the corporatist elements certainly can and do "tolerate" the relatively "mild" left/centre NDP variant, they would rather, nonetheless, that it all returned to the historical Liberal, Conservative two party past. So it is a grudging tolerance. On the labour side a grudging/hopeful tolerance and participation too.)

I think though, it is more concerns about the future that lie behind these attempts to tighten up electoral financing. The system is aware that as economic circumstances deteriorate and effect larger numbers of people... How can they not? ...and a backlash begins to assert itself to our integration into the New Fortress North America, new and truly more status quo challenging ideological and political manifestions are destined to arise on the social stage; indeed are, here and in the US itself, if one follows the blogs there as well.

It is this future possibility that they fear more than the present, and want to move to limit the possibilities of, and restrict financing for its asserting itself through the mainstream system. It is an attempt to keep these possibilties at bay, even now, that the new electoral and financing innovations are being put into place, like plugging holes in a dike beginning to spring leaks.

Which is why I advocate, as I keep saying, not so much in putting the emphasis on "official" State power, which is more illusion than reality anyway. The system really lives and breathes within the economy and whoever the power resides with there. (Though certainly the two are related, and for any serious "social strata element" challengers emerging out of the already evolving future, the economic and political will tend to converge, no doubt.)

This issue of election financing though is mostly just more dancing around the Maypole. In the end, if and when the need does arise, and there is the will, these kinds of laws will be like wads of toilet paper anyway.

How can electoral fairness be measured when huge chunks of cash are left out of the picture?

Remember the $6 billion a year wafting in and out of British Columbia's economy with no accountability whatsoever.

Elections cost money. Big money.

I do thank Matt Price for this article. But I ask: is he saying that -- because we can't track it -- Organized Crime plays no part in our electoral process?

Here's a little something that i came across one day. Sorry, i'll have to comment later - busy work day.

http://www.bcfacts.org/campaign-contributions

michael (who's new posting name i guess is going to be mbraun - what a give away eh?)

It easy to comment on the direct donations, but what do the figures look like after in-direct donations are added to the totals? As an example the BCTF is spending 5 million to get the Liberals booted yet that number is not included in the official party donations. Would so called third party advertising be banned as well? If you just look at the direct donations you are missing a large portion of the funding.

Or how about the The Business Council of B.C. who has spent millions in their own in-direct donations/ads for the Liberals. I say ban them all.

On reflection, an all out ban would be difficult to police . For example, the Business Council of BC ads never directly mention the Liberals -- it's only implied -- so I would imagine advertisers would try all sorts of things to get around such a law. Still, banning direct donations to political parties would be a good start.

That is the problem verso, just look at the American elections. It's tough saying ban all direct contributions, but let third party advertising stay. Are they not one and the same? Although it seemed to work in the federal election, at least I didn't notice any third party advertising, it would be tough to do in politically charged and polarized places like BC. It's possible to stop all donations, but it's improbable.

"It's possible to stop all donations, but it's improbable." observes Jim.

It's a bullshit, severely flawed, minimal democracy out there in status quo society. We just all need to 'fess up to it.

It's a stacked deck of cards from the get go. We just all spend too much time curtsying around it, telling each other fairy tales, otherwise we'd all have to admit, we've been living an illusion, in another kind of closet, for... ohhh, at least as long as I've been around, which is since 1938. (And I know from the experience of my parents and grandparents, it's been around a lot longer than that.)

Which is okay, 'cause sooner or later, we all come out of the closet as we really are.

The restrictions may inflict a wound for awhile but in a world now built on subterfuge, subterfuge will not be so simply halted. The money/influence will find it's way through all the same, and like doves hidden in a magician's sleeve, will travel down through the invisible routes already built into the structure. So it is not just the political contributions that must be addressed , it is the deceit and economic inequities of the power base, itself. Regarding BC Mary's apt comment, I would also include: information costs money. Big money. The buying, selling and hiding of information becomes the real game. Those with the most money are able to buy the privilege of knowing, the rest of us are left in the dark, powerless. That privilege of knowing belongs to just a few now and is embedded in the present system which is why anything, including campaign finance, can now become hidden for the right price or the right benefit in the present structure, despite reforms to campaign funding. An often complicit, rarely investigative media sure doesn't help much. Ask yourself, when was the last time as citizens that we got an honest answer to anything? So each time our right to information is denied add another link to our chains. If our vote is going to mean anything, we have to do more than tinker.

"The money/influence will find it's way through all the same, and like doves hidden in a magician's sleeve, will travel down through the invisible routes already built into the structure."

Ooooo, Lynn, too damn fine a piece of writing. Good to read you again. :-)

What is really sick is that limits on spending do not even start till the writ is dropped. The fixed election date allows the Liberals to spend a lot of undisclosed money on push polling and the like leading up to the 28 day period before we go the polls. And everyone thought they were crazy in giving the opposition the advantage of actually knowing the election date. They knew what they were doing. How much more money will be spent on this election than last one? I wouldn't even want to hazard a guess!

There's a solution: it's called mandatory periodic referendums. That is, asking the people. That way, we could ban political donations in good conscience, as well as taking the logical next step of removing public funding from advocacy institutions and interest groups.

Thanks Coyote. I have to tell you that my realization that the whole structure itself must change is attributable in large part to my reading of so many of your own "damn fine" pieces in regards to creating a more equitable economy and democracy... Cheers.

The $6 billion cash which Sgt Ward said is wafting in and out of the B.C. economy each year ...

To become a candidate in an election campaign requires money. To win a seat in the Legislature or House of Commons requires big money.

The more money, the better the chances of winning an election. Sadly, we all recognize this as an accepted fact.

What we don't like to think about is that large chunks of cash might be available for candidates willing to accept tainted funds. In cash. Laundered.

So what about that influence? that accountability? Are we to assume that organized crime is acting altruistically, expecting nothing in return? I think not.

I'm convinced by Terry Gould's book (Paper Fan, the hunt for Triad gangster Steven Wong) about bigtime crime in Vancouver ... that organized crime now mimics global corporations in sophistication and management.
It probably has the same expectations of future benefits as any other global corporations. And the same (or more) influence.

The RCMP raids on the B.C. Legislature 15 months ago, gave us (collectively) the opportunity to resolve what could be the most dangerous problem in our history.

If it proves to be true, for example, that organized crime has played any part in government affairs, such as the sale of B.C. Rail, it means that crime is embedded in our entire structure of society (as Sgt Ward said). It removes the word "democracy" from the meaning of our lives.

Anyone in government, in media, in election campaigning who pretends that those RCMP raids on the B.C. Legislature weren't important, or that organized crime doesn't happen here, must hide the reality no longer ... or, can you imagine what's at stake?

" Triad gangster Steven Wong) about bigtime crime in Vancouver ... that organized crime now mimics global corporations in sophistication and management.
It probably has the same expectations of future benefits as any other global corporations. And the same (or more) influence." write BC Mary

I agree with you, Mary. It can "effectively" be said, that organized crime and the corporate sector are, to all intents and purposes, integral aspects of the same prevailing capitalist system. In many cases their interests will be the same, they will attend many of the same clubs, churches, philanthropic and societal functions, each more or less comfortable with the other. They are merely aspects of the same socio-economic order.

Each much enhances the flowering of the other-, as early merchant capital drew much of its start up capital out of the early piracy and slave trade system, eventually in the course of its expansion supplanting the old feudal Landed Aristocracy, so the sophistication of crime has grown up and flourished still alongside them.

Capitalism itself, it has been said, is merely a higher and more sophisticated form of theft.

A major example of where you are seeing that mutual flourishing of crime and capitalism, one feeding upon and growing upon and out of the other, is in current post-socialism Russia/Eastern Europe and in China. This process going on in these countries right now, much mimics the events of the age of piracy and the slave trade that laid much of the wealth and power foundations for the emergence of that mercantile system out of which the system of capitalism eventually arose and established itself.

And as capitalism roots and establishes itself, growing out of the "primitive capital accumulation" that is crime, along with "the new order's" sophistication and reach grows the sophistication and reach of organized crime. Again, each much dependant for its existance upon the other, in a manifold and intricate relationship of mutual usefulness, such that each can be said to be an aspect of the other.(If I remember correctly, for further example, the early Kennedy wealth was garnered from involvement in rum running, not? Now days its drugs, of course.)

Again, there is an echoe of our own and Western Europe's history, immediately preceding the rise of Capitalist power over Feudalism, in the events going on around the activity of these criminal gangs right now, in Russia, Eastern Europe and China. It's the same process as has historically attended the birth of capitalism.

For a start to this subject of the Kennedy's and how they accumulated their wealth, go to:

http://www.ytedk.com/jpk.htm

Coyote; you're right, of course about the process, but that process is universal. It's how it's done.

If you want to stop it you'll have to teach it. Categorize the techniques whereby people are convinced of things that aren't true, and teach them to everyone. Give them tools to help them see what's been done, and to recognize it when it's being done to them.

As I recently observed elsewhere; everybody should know where the Queen is in a game of Three Card Monte.

Yo Coyote. Thanks for all that background data, it's good to remember history. For example: I often worry that B.C. could wake up one morning, say on May 18, to find that organized crime has taken over what's left of the economy ... after all the good bits have been sold off cheaply to cronies ... as happened in post-Gorbachev Russia.

But going much farther back in history, I fear, gives a sort of legitimacy to the pirates, slave-traders, rum-runners ... and modern, global, corporate gangsters. Not the Enron guys. Not the World.com. guys. I mean the heroin peddlers, cocaine importers, international arms traders, human traffickers, murder-for-hire guys who support the ones you describe as rubbing shoulders with today's well-tailored business/government elite.

I suggest we look at the Opium Wars in which the British Empire's gunboats guaranteed that China would receive India's poppy products and that Chinese clients (addicts) would proliferate, with profits very similar to our $6 Billion annual sales of marijuana.

That's the worrisome picture more closely reflecting today's British Columbia scene ... where organized crime is flourishing, casinos are multiplying, police budgets are reduced, and the uninformed public quietly waits (15 months and counting), still hoping for the first witnesses to testify.

Talk about a distorted reality -- I actually find myself hoping that the Campbell group is re-elected because B.C. must go through such a turbulent period of correction and renewal which will make B.C. virtually ungovernable.

My home province these days just feels so darn not OK to me. What say you -- about today? and about May 17?

Y'know, Coyote, the only thing that makes me feel better about what's happened to British Columbia is when people talk about it -- squarely and honestly beginning to come to grips with the problem. Bless you (and Bailey and Lynn) for that.

One needs only look at the liberals 2001 campaign contributor list to make the link between money's paid and sinister policies enacted. With a canwest assisted coup d'etat to crush the NDP the door was wide open for their bought house majority to ram through reams of one-sided corporate favoring legislation.
I give you the cynically named "Forest Revitalization Plan" sponsored by Interf8r, Weyerhae7ser etc. For just a few ICBC executive bonuses let's fire most of the ministry staff entrusted to protect our forests and ecosystems and turn regulatory compliance over to the very corporate psychopaths whose unambiguous mandate is to profit from their destruction.
Also we will sever the social contract, which for generations has tied resources to nearby communities, allowing massive increases in raw log exports to american and other foreign processing facilities, while at the same time devastating workers and their families all across B.C.
I give you changes to the labor laws of our province allowing more child labor, shamefully inadequate so-called "training wages" and Dickensian working conditions that harken back 100 years to the dark days of the industrial revolution.
I give you the privatization of BC Rail, an outright campaign promise LIE, to benfit an americam corporation whose preventive maintenance program seems to involve waiting for what few employee's are left to die, so they can find out what bridge needs to be fixed.
Hospitals and schools across the province closed facilitating taxpayer money to be diverted to corporate pocket lining ventures like the RAV line and Sea-to-sky highway expansion. This while seniors in what few longterm care facilities remain are condemned to eating private-for-profit rethermalized mush for the remainder their golden years. I wonder what they think of the liberals latest Orwellian incantation of "The Golden Decade"
I could literally spend all day going on but my lunch break is over and I'm still fortunate enough to have a job. Atleast until gordo et al find out who I am and I am branded a terrorist for daring to speak out against their sham of a goverment and the puppet master's they truly represent in our faltering democracy.
THIS TIME GREENS VOTE NDP-PLEASE!

asks BC Mary.

First of all, I say that I enjoy your aggressive, go to the very core of the matter style of yours. :-) There are too many pussycats about. We need more citizens like yourself.

Outside of that, I agree fundamentally with you: I think we are in a social/historical period, emerging out of the post ww2 prosperity period, and the "liberalization" of social life the system allowed during that time, now passing, and "the system" is basically reverting to its "class" type. And one of the "universal" features, as I've described above, of that system, as Bailey has correctly pointed out, is evidence of increasing "ruling class criminality"-, evidenced in part, if it doesn't immediately come to folks, by the facilitation of the "theft" of the BC Rail "People's Assets", and perhaps other factors unknown, around the police raid on the BC Legislature, about which information is seeming to be suppressed to the public. Further evidence of this encroachment of criminal behaviour and attitude into the conduct of "The Peoples Business" again manifested by another ruling "Liberal Party" level and group, going on now around the investigation into the "sponsorship scandal" in Ottawa. ( Which it looks set up, to me, to get Paul Martin off the hook, and have the people around Chretien be the fallguys; for he was afterall, the Finance Minister, whose department and watch administered the pork barrel largesse-, near as I can make out.Though he "denies all knowledge".)

So while, like I say, crime and capitalism have always walked across the land, like lovers and a love that dare not speak its name, it is again particularly emboldened here in BC and Canada right now. All occurring whilst inequality, the rape of the land, the sell off of the publics assets, the betrayal of the nation to the US Empire, the deterioration of the quality of ordinary working people's lives and poverty proceeds apace as well.

Yes, the reversion process of going back to a purer form of capitalism, which is their fantasy, brings along with it all these other elements of that past as well-, which we had thought during The Prosperity Time, naively it turns out, to have evolved beyond.

It is criminal, frankly. That's what I think.

And oh, BC Mary, I think you are right about another thing. While I certainly do not "advocate it", another BC Liberal government would not be the end of the world. It would not be pleasant, but it may, at the end of the day, play a role in the Grand Scheme of things, which even they do not anticipate. That said, I will do my wee part to try and prevent that happening-, not that I'm a raging enthusiastic about the alternatives mind. :-)

Good evening, fine woman.

Coyote,

To borrow a phrase (from Wally), I'm "tickled pinko."

Keep on raging and writing ...

In the runup to the election, one of the biggest items on the shopping lists of the governing party might well be "Independent" Polling companys.
Perceived as having a chance in a tight riding, a green candidate might steal enough ndp votes to win the libs the riding. (Like when Bush supported the nader campaign in tight states and Gore "lost"). In a winner takes all system, perception is everything. It is probably time to take a really close look at polling companys and their funding.
I read that BC exported half of all canadian lumber last year.
Is it keep them employed and they will vote for us? After all, it hardly makes sense to send logs south especially with the crazy dutys. In an economically realistic situation, tarrifs slow down exports rather than increasing them!

I think the consensus is out, the system is broken and badly flawed. But its only broken for the vast majority and it works perfectly by design for the ruling elite. When we had the soviet empire they had to throw crumbs at us (worker rights, health care , affordable education , retirement benefits etc) to keep us moving forward and not reject the system, but remember all these rights were not given to us at of good will, they were only gained threw peoples resistance. I remember Margaret Thatcher said , now we have TINA = There is no other alternative system. SO guess what folks the next few decades are about stripping workers off all benefits gained, in short they want to take back all gains or reverse all progress in the quest for profits. In a business model there are 3 ways to increase profit 1) Cheapen you labor and raw materials, 2) Be innovative 3) Raise your prices.
So instead of just complaining and hoping someone else, other than us is going to do something wonderful to change the system, or just sitting and hoping things get so bad that we all revolt, lets hope Gordo sells of every public asset and then people will really get mad.
Lets face it , if folks are not in the streets in mass now than the system is doing a awesome job of making allot of people feel powerless, very sad that citizens with the most democratic rights in the world(not saying much) feel powerless. I say Rome was not built in a day, not finance reform is not going to fix everything but it’s a good start, why not. In fact this article ties allot into the Soft Mussel article on censorship, if the media called the gov on every new law that benefited a party supporter this kind of pimping could not go on.
SOOOOOO WHAT TO DO... Call to action.

There are three pillars of US empire (Canadian empire) and imperialist power we ought to choose from to fight against—the media, the military, and the corporations, choose your target and aim, my posts in the soft mussel article addresses the media target, as far as corporations go , start to boycott companies that benefit from war or support certain parties that are extreme right wing, a nice letter to them stating why you will no longer shop at their store plus the admission that you will circulate that list online and to many 1000's of potential customers. Etc. And lobby gov to stop supporting the US whenever possible , like our success with Iraq and missile defense, a minority gov is a beautiful thing.
Countries around the world are rejecting the current system, look at South America , a social revolution is happening under your nose. The US has a crippling dept that is growing Dailey, it has isolated itself in the world, it has over 62% of its troop already committed, over 6000 deserters in Iraq, the ruling elite is scared that one day that top 5% will be visible and the other 95% of us take back what belongs to us. We live in the belly of the beast and the whole world is hoping we have the courage to scratch.

As in post 2nd world war, bringing with it understanding of humanity and its needs, another term of Gordo and Co. will bring the same. I guess we (subconsciencously) need to inflict the pain as a constant reminder as to what really matters. Too bad, history can teach us lessons if we would only listen.

Personally, I would like to see us skip the 2nd term of Gordo and Co.

I find it strange and oddly amusing that posters make comments that are like they are
Spectators in a world they cannot control, I'm not trying to be a smart ass I am just pointing out that its like we are watching TV and hoping for a happy ending. In the end all we get are confusing messages and a subculture that consumes us, how many folks feel that Michael Jackson compared to other events deserves all this attention and coverage. Closer to home, how many knew that on the day the Bertuzzi verdict came down(the most important media event in BC last year ) that the Bassi and Verk trial was put of until after the election. We are not an innocent 3rd party in an out of control world. If you decide to do nothing we have participated in the current system as it stands, Michael Moore says, they don't care what movies I put out because they make money and they don't expect anyone to do anything. This small group of concentrated wealth is so small that they put huge resources into controlling the public mind into thinking they are powerless and alone, in Seattle who do you think had the power the 50'000 plus outside or the few inside guarded by 4000 police. Now the trade summits have to be hidden in mountains and remote islands guarded like military bases. They are so afraid of off us and we feel weak, every little thing you do has an impact and together we can expose this flawed system. Start to create and not consume.

Stuart:

Basi, Virk, and Basi get another Dohms-Day in B.C. Supreme Court tomorrow, April 1, in Vancouver ... at which time they may actually set the trial date.

Any chance you can be there tomorrow? And report back?

I wish I could, I was not aware of this , thanks for the info, what time would it be.

I hope someone reports this,

Some damned fine analysis and writing above, Stuart.

The changeover does seem to have shed someof the Brownshirt baggage we were packing-, though not for long, I suspect. Though I still recognize a few. ;^]

Though one face I miss still is Allan. If you are out there having tech problems commenting here, Allan, especially if you are using Nortion Internet Security like moi, it has some issues with this new Tyee format-, but fixable, contact the site manager here, and maybe she can pass the problem along.

I had the same problems with my Norton Internet security and after my son updated my updates and performed some other wizardry all was well (except I can't seem to make paragraph breaks anymore). So Allan, if you're off on some biking adventure, hope you take time to post... hope to hear from a number of others of you missed as well...and "effle", you've been gone way too long...no doubt on some very romantic adventure, right? ;-)

I live in North Delta and was the recipient of a push poll type of phone call on behalf of the local Liberal candidate.The questions asked were more like statements(are you aware of...),just as Bill Tielman reported recently.As soon as the caller found out my lack of support for the Fiberals,she promptly hung up on me.Push polls are happening daily.

The nice thing about an outright ban on contributions would be that a bribe would be a bribe. Obvious for what it really is, and a felony to boot.

Then for our next trick, we can make it perjury for a candidate or an officeholder to lie to a constituant, and fraud if the lie results in damage to the constituancy or a benefit to the liar or his clients.

These guys are like loose dogs in the park, they're wrecking things for the wildlife and terrifying the passersby.

Plus they're crapping all over everything, and nobody seems to have a bag big enough to deal with that.

We have to get a leash on them. They're just not safe or trustworthy to be loose in the picnic area without muzzles.

From National Post, April 1, 2005:

Judge refuses to unseal documents in B.C. government corruption case

VANCOUVER (CP) - A B.C. Supreme Court judge refused to unseal information used to obtain search warrants Friday in the corruption case of two former B.C. government ministerial aides.

Lawyers for several media outlets wanted the Crown to unseal another series of documents used to obtain warrants in the politically charged case, just as the Liberal government heads into a re-election campaign.

Roger McConchie, a lawyer for CTV, argued for the release of search-warrant information, saying David Basi and his co-accused, Bobby Virk, were highly placed individuals with close contact to government ministers.

But Basi's lawyer, Michael Bolton, argued against releasing the information because it could create a spectacle and cause the case to be tried in the media.

Basi and Virk are charged with fraud, breach of trust and influence-peddling related to the Liberal government's privatization of B.C. Rail.

Basi was a ministerial aide to former finance minister Gary Collins, now head of a small airline, and Virk held the same job in former transportation minister Judith Reid's office.

David Basi's cousin, Aneal Basi, who also held a post in the Transportation Ministry, is charged with two counts of money laundering.

The men were charged last December, a year after police raided Virk and David Basi's legislature offices, carting away boxes of documents and computers.

Basi was fired from his job soon after the raids and Virk remains suspended.

Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm said it's important for the administration of justice that the trial get underway as soon as possible. The case is back in court on May 30.

©Â*The Canadian Press 2005

Not until April 2 did this abbreviated item appear in identical format in Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Victoria Times Colonist, each with two omissions: B.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Patrick Dohm is not named as the presiding judge, and no mention of the May 30 date set for the next hearing.

Broadcast news
Saturday, April 02, 2005

Judge refuses to unseal documents

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has refused to unseal information used to obtain search warrants in the corruption case of two former B.C. government ministerial aides.

Lawyers for several media outlets were in court in Vancouver yesterday.

They wanted the Crown to unseal another series of documents used to obtain warrants in the politically charged case.

A lawyer for CTV argued for the release of search warrant information, saying David Basi and his co-accused, Bobby Virk, were highly placed individuals with close contact to government ministers.

But Basi's lawyer, Michael Bolton, argued releasing the information could create a spectacle and cause the case to be tried in the media.

Please note the significant difference between the headline CanWest gave its eastern report and the headline given to its abbreviated B.C. reports:

Judge refuses to unseal documents in B.C. government corruption case for the National Post. Compared this to:

Judge refuses to unseal documents for the B.C. newspapers. Are those words "B.C. government corruption" too radioactive for British Columbia?

How could "releasing the information [of possible government corruption] create a spectacle" in the B.C. newspaper where CanWest has such an iron grip on what's printed?

It takes a back porch to do something like that.

Yes, a back porch is a real threat to life as we have come to know it!! Too many voters watch TV and think "crooks" and "gangsters" are like Tony Soprano and not quite bright. The real crooks might hire Tony but they'd never invite him to come aboard their yacht and take a little voyage while dining on the finest and sipping only the best wine. The guys in smelly leathers might transport drugs but they don't control the trade, it's the guys who have access to the deep sea freighters who do that, the guys who can get entire containers past customs. So much fuss and TV coverage of the "grow op" raids, as if any of that made even a small dent in what is being produced, as if the ones growing a mere 500 plants were some kind of huge threat...I'm thinking of a TV script where the stuff is moved in boxcars on a privately owned railroad, where it is taken off-Island in 18-wheelers on a privately owned ferry system... where the lap-dog media moguls smirk and are under the faulty impression they are something other than barely tolerated by the real power brokers and the spit-licking lackeys in government actually suffer the hubris of believing they are making policy. Less than 4% of the population controls more than 96% of the wealth...and until the system is changed fundamentally, what we have is what we are going to have. Gordon Campbell might think he is Somebody in the grand scheme of things but he's no more than Tony Soprano; he's a tool. And, like Coyote, I don't have any hope the NDP or the Greens will turn out to be any different; they're politicians but others make the policy. We can stuff our jails and prisons with the ankle biters but the real crooks are probably never inconvenienced by so crass a thing as a search warrant and they certainly don't feel the handcuffs around their wrists. Some of the finest writing and thinking I've seen in a long time I have enjoyed in the responses to this story. And I'm sure you're all waiting with bated breath to find out what the weather is like in Tahsis today... "damp" might begin to describe it. "Sodden" might be more correctly descriptive.

Anne: this is such a fine piece of analysis, it merits a much wider longer life in print. Go, girl!