Friday, September 10, 2004

Search warrant opening good news for Liberals

VICTORIA - The latest information on the raids on the legislature doesn't make the Campbell government look great, but it's far from political bad news.
Supreme Court Justice Patrick Dohm ruled the public could see a small portion of the search warrant applications in the raid on legislature offices last Dec. 28.
The information was still heavily censored, with nothing about the other searches linked to the drug investigation that was the start of the entire exercise.
And - this is important - all the information represents are the police suspicions that led to the searches. Nothing is proven. No one has even been charged in connection with the legislature raids.
The documents show police suspected Dave Basi, the former top aide to Finance Minister Gary Collins, was secretly helping Omnitrax, one of the bidders for BC Rail's Roberts bank line, and Omnitrax lobbyist Erik Bornman.
Police alleged that Robert Virk, the senior aide to former transportation minister Judith Reid, was helping Basi, and passed on documents about the BC Rail deal.
The police theory was that Virk and Basi were helping Bornman because he was a mover and shaker within the Paul Martin wing of the federal Liberal party. The duo believed he could help them get good jobs after Martin won the coming election, police told the court in justifying the search warrants.
Police said they suspected that both Basi and Virk illegally accepted a benefit and committed breach of trust.
Remember, nothing is proven and only Basi and Virk remain under investigation.
It's still a messy cloud to have hanging over the government, for a couple of reasons.
Ministerial assistants are senior staff members, who in most cases work very closely with the minister. They attend most meetings, often decide who gets to see the minister and are involved in policy discussions. Hiring them should be a pretty careful process. The police are suggesting that the Liberals may have got it very wrong. (Basi was fired after the raids; Virk has been on paid leave for more than eight months. The government has never successfully explained the different treatments.)
And the information in the warrants is a reminder of just how tight the ties are between the federal Liberals and a core group within the provincial Liberals. (The investigation included searches and interviews with several senior B.C. federal Liberal insiders.)
It's not a welcome reminder. The Campbell Liberals are a coalition, and one issue that could split them apart is the question of ties to a federal party.
Many provincial Liberals are federal Conservatives. If they believe that the provincial party is dominated by federal Liberals who are working closely with the federal party in a partisan way, those federal Conservatives will be angry. They will be even angrier if they believe the association has brought trouble down on the provincial party. And they will have an option if the new Conservative provincial party gets off the ground.
But those concerns aside, the provincial Liberals can mostly see the release of the information as good news.
There are no suspicions or allegations of broader involvement, nothing that links any politicians in any way with the raids or investigation, and nothing that suggests negligence or inattention.
Nobody apparently benefited or lost from the scheme, except for the taxpayers who were out about $1 million when the sale of BC Rail's Roberts' Bank spur had to be cancelled because of the charges.
Even the timing of the release of the information is helpful for the Liberals. Voters have the chance to consider the search warrant material, and form whatever opinion they will, long before next May's election.
In terms of voter support, it's not likely that this information changes a great deal.
People predisposed to dislike or suspect Gordon Campbell will have another reason for their position. Supporters will be buoyed. and most voters will be considering other issues.
Footnote: The Liberals made the odd decision to announce $20 million in health care funding in the day the search warrant information was released. The timing was likely aimed at setting the stage for the Martin health summit, but it meant less media attention to a good news story.

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