B.C. Supreme Court hears notes exchanged by Premier's office and accused in corruption trial
by Mark Hume
Campbell controlled BC Rail deal: defense
Vancouver — From Friday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Saturday, Jun. 27, 2009 05:15AM EDT
Premier Gordon Campbell was allegedly in direct control of the BC Rail deal that is central to a corruption case involving charges against three former government employees, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has been told.
Defence lawyer Kevin McCullough, who is arguing high-level cabinet e-mails are relevant to the case, made the allegation after reading in court yesterday a series of electronic notes exchanged between top officials in the Premier's office and one of the accused, Bob Virk.
The e-mails were from or to, or were copied to, some of Mr. Campbell's closest advisers, including Martyn Brown, his chief of staff; Lara Dauphinee, his deputy chief of staff; and Brenda Eaton, deputy minister to the Premier.
In the e-mails (which the defence has because they were seized by the RCMP from the government's central database after a raid on the legislature in 2003), the Premier's staff issue directives on the BC Rail deal and receive up-to-the-minute briefings on negotiations that led to the $1-billion sale of the publicly owned railway to CN Rail.
Mr. McCullough told Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett the communications leave no doubt of “the iron hold the Premier's office has” on the BC Rail deal.
Referring to e-mails from 2002, Mr. McCullough read instructions from the Premier's office on how a rail conference should be organized, prior to the announcement of the decision to sell BC Rail.
“Let us know how to proceed,” Mr. Virk says in one note to Ms. Eaton.
“I will show the Premier for final approval,” Ms. Eaton says in a later note, concerning the rail conference agenda.
“If there's any doubt the Premier is controlling the process, this is proof of it. …The Premier's office was exercising substantial control over the BC Rail agenda,” Mr. McCullough said.
Two weeks ago, the defence filed an application for the disclosure of the e-mail records of Mr. Campbell, several cabinet ministers and numerous staff, arguing the communications could shed light on whether the accused were acting on their own, or under directions from superiors.
But earlier this week George Copley, a lawyer representing the Executive Council of the B.C. government, told court a search had failed to produce the e-mails sought because the data system keeps backup tapes for only 13 months.
Yesterday, he elaborated on that point, saying the e-mails may have been deleted because they were defined as “transitory” under document-management regulations.
He said “routine records of no value” are labelled transitory and are deleted.
“It is possible the e-mails you were asking about were considered transitory in nature or there may be other explanations,” Mr. Copley said.
One explanation he offered was that about half the officials the defence wants e-mail records for had left government by the time the application was made and their e-mail accounts were erased.
However, Michael Bolton, who is defending Dave Basi, told court the government should have safeguarded the e-mails because it was evident as early as the fall of 2003 that police were investigating suspicions of fraud surrounding the BC Rail deal.
He said the Solicitor-General was advised of the investigation, and if that didn't make it clear there could be legal action, the dramatic police raid on the legislature certainly should have.
“Clear imprimaturs were given to the government that those documents should be retained and not treated as trash,” he said.
The defence has been arguing this week the e-mails should be produced or officials should be called to explain how the files came to be destroyed.
Crown prosecutor Janet Winteringham, however, asked Judge Bennett to dismiss the defence arguments, saying it has not been shown that the e-mails in question are relevant.
A decision is pending.
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