The Special Prosecutor in the Basi-Virk/BC Rail case this morning told two court hearing that he expects the defence to drop all their applications to stay corruption charges against three former BC government aides. Will the trial proceed quickly as a result - or not at all?

After a very short hearing with BC Supreme Court Justice Anne MacKenzie - which was scheduled to hear the defence's Charter of Rights application on unreasonable delay for the trial - Special Prosecutor Bill Berardino said outside court that the defence moves will allow a trial date to be set soon.

But defence lawyer Michael Bolton, acting for David Basi, would say little when asked what was going on and if his client and co-accused Bob Virk and Aneal Basi would in fact face trial shortly as a result.

"There's really nothing we can comment on now. Discussions are occurring that will streamline the trial," Bolton said. Bolton refused to comment on speculation of a plea bargain by the accused.

Read the full story on Bill Tieleman's blog here.

Bill Tieleman reports for The Tyee.