Sorry to interrupt the normal RE news-flow.
Today, you, the tax-payer have had your nose rubbed in the dirt. Two Government appointed civil servants, Dave Basi and Bobby Virk were charged and pleaded guilty to fraud and breech of trust in relation to the BC rail sale in 2003.
The big deal was the legal fee, which the Government picked up the tab for....$6 MILLION!!!!
The Auditor General wanted to look into the lawyers billings in detail and find out how such a humungous bill arose and today Chief Justice Bauman said .. no you don't! that would infringe upon client lawyer confidentiality. WHAT???!!
Lets looks at this logically, shall we:
We have two Government employees , who have admitted to committing fraud, we have their legal fees picked up by the tax-payer (while fighting crown Counsel which we also pay for!) Now the Government watchdog wants to find out why the bill was so high, and the reason he can't find out is because of the secret code between the criminals and his lawyers who billed the huge fees??
Does that make sense?
Lets work out the Math:
Even if every scrap of work was done by a senior lawyer at $300/hour. At $6 Million. We are looking at 20,000 hours of work. At 40 hours a week...that's TEN YEARS OF BILLABLE WORK!! With no holidays or days off.
Yes I know many senior lawyers bill $400-500/hour or more. BUT please don't tell me a lot of this work wasn't done by juniors billing less.
Also who is watching the till and bargaining? This Government has been nickle and diming the teachers and other groups, it SHOULD be demanding a great deal from private contractors. A fixed fee. Lots of other organizations bargain fixed legal fees or a ceiling, why not the Government.
And we will never know if the $6 Million was padded or fair? We don't know if a minister okayed the payment or some junior clerk just paid the invoices every month until it added up to $6 Million. I read that there were over 30 similar cases paid for by the Government. By not allowing the Auditor General access to the information, the Chief Justice has closed the door on any accountability.
Crazy eh? Pay $6 Million to defend two guilty Government bozos and don't allow any oversight from the auditor.
We need a strong legal system or we end up like all the countries where people are being jailed for no reason, but the implication of this decision seems that if the Government is paying the bill go for broke!!
BTW- who were they selling the information too. Shouldn't there be some arrests on the receiving end too??
..........
Talking of convicted criminals....
This convicted felon has a new job, though it seems he has moved from pontificating about how we should run our country to sex toys and yoga. Sounds positively awful.
Asset return expectations under an alien invasion
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*Publication note*: There will be no mid-week update next week. The
regular publication schedule will resume next weekend.
Is ET here?
The holidays are ...
22 hours ago
Just imagine how much the Robert Picton defence is costing us. Even with expropriating his farm I hear we are in the hole for many millions to his 'defence team' some of whom will retire on the proceeds from the many years of preparation, then the trial and now the appeals etc.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly the AG still is keeping his job, for one more year may be? To keep the gullibles believing the stupidest of things!
ReplyDeleteIf he can't see the bills for $6M, why would they let him poke his nose into >$500M bills ???
Ah well, the nest AG elected by the Force will keep his job for 7? or 8? years with no fear of being fired even if his masters lose this coming election. And remember, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth".
betamax has no clue of the level of despicability and corruption today vs then.
ReplyDeleteThis whole affair will cost us $18 Million. Damn, that would pay for a lot of teachers or care aids!
ReplyDelete"And so the mysteries continue nearly nine years after the Basi-Virk/B.C. Legislature raid case first exploded into public view.
Since that time the overall costs to the public have topped $18 million, including prosecution and RCMP expenditures as well as Basi and Virk's legal bills."
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/09/18/Money-for-Basi-and-Virk/
We can't let this one go by without holding the Government establishment to task. The Liberals are now mentioning the whole fast ferries boondoggle on their ads, another unexplained mess which seems to have benefitted some wealthy folks very much and brought debt to the rest of us (Olympics anyone?)
Compared to that $400 Million loss, this is small peanuts. But it is just so in your face. Yes it's $6 Million but just take it and shut up - is what the legal establishment is telling us.
Shirley Bond is the Minister responsible in case you want to express your own disgust at lack of accountability
http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/39thParl/bonds.htm
Last week, NDP has requested the AG to look into the >$500M leaky roof that was originally budgeted for >$100M. With the current AG's term ending middle of next year, we will never see the light at the end of the tunnel.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Canada (20th, -10) only just avoided dropping out of the top 20 of 2013 World Press Freedom Index,
behind Nimbia
Costa Rica
Czeck Republic
Jamaica
Estonia .... .
http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html
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Shameful Aussie news on BC politics repeated on ctvBC tonight.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-auditor-general-may-be-in-line-for-job-in-australia-while-he-weighs-offer-here-1.60145
Potentional Auditor-General at the centre of a political storm in Canada
Deletehttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-20/potentional-auditor-general-at-the-centre-of-a/4473054
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Fresh pretty-face Tamara is now the spokeswoman. LOL
ReplyDeleteThe real estate industry and CMHC can't pump up the ponzie-economies alone. "Ponzi-Demography" is gaining attention globally as a costly and widespread scheme.
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continue reading ..
http://www.theglobalist.com/storyid.aspx?StoryId=8321
And fish, I'm so sick of people stealing discussion materials here without giving credit to this blog.
DeleteDoesn't bother me. I am surprised anyone drops by!
DeleteWhat do you expect? Government is not going to come clean on this case. Normally these two should have to pay their own legal bills from their income and assets but government decided to pick up everything, allowing these two to keep most of their assets like their homes probably worth $2M+. They don't want certain info leaking out in a court proceeding and decided to "pay them of".
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the fast ferries, that was done on purpose to humuliate the NDP and shove as much blame as possible on their alleged bad fiscal practices during election times. Really it's the Liberals that are fiscally irresponsible because the last I heard, the new owners spend like $5M or so on fixes and retro-fit and are now using those fast ferries very happy and satisified.
Agreed. Those scums are fiscally irresponsible and trigger happy taking down their political rivals with taxpayers money.
DeleteNo-money-down mortgages are back
ReplyDeletehttp://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-money-down-home-loans-are-back-2013-02-01
Heck! The roller coaster can't stop spinning!
ReplyDeleteThe Competition Bureau accuses concrete contractors of colluding since 1997.
ReplyDeleteSo far the story has centered around the widespread price-fixing in Toronto to inflate the house prices.
That brought to mind at around that time an international developer was in Vancouver and was horrified with corrupt practices and ethics. These global investors are still alive and mostly likely congratulating themselves for having the foresight to ditch business on this side of the Pacific.
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Average Prices up, even as sales volume is down and listings up:
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What is a Masters in Real Estate?
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Vancouver is dirt cheap when compared to Paris
... et alors, qu'est-ce qui s'est passé?
A BC connection to US$202M fraud
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/aa8hpx5
N.B.
According to Elections B.C., Sun Wave Forest Products donated $3,397 to the B.C. Liberal Party or election candidates in 2006 and 2007. CGR Investments donated $11,299 to the B.C. Liberal Party or election candidates between 2005 and 2006, including $10,000 to Mr. Belsey’s failed re-election campaign for the North Coast region in 2005.``
According to Baidu, NI Ritao who bought Skeena Cellulose is from Wenzhou - the birth place of real estate flippers in the LML in the past years.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/aclgtro
You lost me there, dudes. Ni (Ritao = sun wave) bought Skeena Cellulose pulp mill circa 2005 "for $3.3-million".
ReplyDelete"Subject to some key conditions, Sun Wave is expected to spend about $100-million to restart the 350,000 tonnes-a-year mill, aiming to use 80 per of the output to feed its paper operations in China."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/china-paper-gets-nod-to-buy-skeena-mill/article982016/
However, the pulp mill has been PARKING on the same spot for the past 7+ years. The city of Prince Rupert picks up the tab for maintenance costs etc all this while.
Sun Wave is located at #1008 - 4710 Kingsway. If they simply mothball their pulp mill, then why do they need an office in Metro Vancouver?
Deletehttp://oi47.tinypic.com/2njvjer.jpg
don't confuse them with #1088
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City of Vancouver has launched a new online searchable database of rental buildings to assist renters to make more informed decisions about their housing.
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