(Reuters circulated the following article by Allan Dowd on March 2.)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Police raided British Columbia’s legislature in a corruption probe involving the sale of BC Rail to Canadian National Railway Co., according to a court document released on Tuesday.
Police were investigating if two officials, who are not named in the document, passed along “unauthorized information to persons interested in government business for the purposed of obtaining a benefit.”
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge released a brief summary of the investigation in response to media attempts to gain access to the full search warrants used in the Dec. 28 raid, which remain sealed by the court.
Rumors of a link between the BC Rail sale and the raid of the legislative offices in Victoria had been reported in the media, but the documents released on Tuesday marked the first official confirmation.
Police seized documents from offices of senior aides to the finance and transport ministers, and from one of the aide’s homes, and from the office and home of a lobbyist who represented an unsuccessful bidder for BC Rail.
Investigators said the corruption investigation stemmed from a separate investigation into illegal drug smuggling. Details of the drug investigation remain under court seal, but may be released at a hearing on April 1.
No criminal charges have been filed in either of the investigations, which the Royal Canadian Mounted Police say are still in their early stages.
British Columbia agreed in November to sell the freight operations of provincially owned BC Rail, Canada’s third largest railway, to Canadian National for C$1 billion ($750 million).
CN beat out bids from Canadian Pacific Railway and a U.S.-based coalition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. and shortline operator OmniTrax. The raided lobbying firm did work for OmniTrax.
The winning CN bid is awaiting approval from the federal Competition Bureau.
The document released on Tuesday contained few details about the probe, but said that, among the documents used by the police, was an independent report prepared for the province on the fairness of the bidding process.
The Dec. 17 report declared the process fair, but said there were two violations of the confidentially process — in one case a report was given the media and in the other data was released prematurely to one of the bidders.
($1=$1.34 Canadian)