(The following story by Neal Hall appeared on the Vancouver Sun website on June 2.)
VANCOUVER, B.C. — It looks like the BC Rail corruption trial will finally get rolling at the end of the month.
The case, involving three former government aides accused of corruption in relation to the sale of BC Rail in 2003, was in court briefly today before the trial judge, Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the B.C. Supreme Court.
The judge set June 30 as the date when lawyers for the Crown and the accused will finally get down to sorting out all the trial issues still outstanding.
The trial is expected to sit continuously after June 30 and is expected to begin hearing witnesses this summer.
“It is pretty shocking that Mr. Basi and Virk have had four and a half years without even starting a day of trial,” said New Democratic Party attorney-general critic Leonard Krog, who attended today’s pre-trial hearing.
“On one of the applications, there are 2,200 documents that the Crown is asserting some form of privilege, which is an absolutely astounding number,” he said.
The documents were among boxes of documents seized during a police raid of the legislature on Dec. 28, 2003.
At the time, Dave Basi was an assistant to then-finance minister Gary Collins and Bob Virk was an assistant to then transportation minister Judith Reid.
Basi and Virk are accused of fraud, accepting a benefit and breach of trust for allegedly leaking confidential information about the BC Rail bidding process to a lobbying form representing a U.S. bidder.
A third government aide, Aneal Basi, who worked in government communications, is accused of money laundering for allegedly transferring money to his cousin, Dave Basi.
A key issue at the pending trial will be the government’s $1-billion privatization sale of BC Rail freight operations to Canadian National Railway.
The trial, originally scheduled to start in 2005, has appeared it might derail at times. It has been been repeatedly delayed by problems of disclosure to the defence.
The defence is also awaiting the outcome of an appeal of the trial judge’s decision involving a secret witness. The appeal is set for three days next week, starting June 9.