Basi - Virk trial finally opens
Monday, May 17th, 2010 - 10:57 am
BC Rail scandal dates from police raid on Legislature in December 2003
The B.C. Supreme Court trial of former ministerial aides Bob Virk and David Basi, and former government employee Aneal Basi, opens today in Vancouver. They face charges of fraud, money laundering and breach of trust connected with the sale of the then crown corporation BC Rail to CN (Canadian National Railway). The unprecedented RCMP raid on the provincial legislature led to speculation of favoritism, if not outright corruption, at the highest levels of British Columbia’s Liberal government, which remains in power, and the cancelled sale of the last remaining small piece of what was once the third-largest railway in Canada. (The remaining short piece of BC Rail track serves as an interchange between national and/or regional rail lines and Westshore’s Roberts Bank coal port and the Deltaport Container Terminal. Various news media have questioned the generous remuneration paid to executives at BC Rail, which is now a small operation with few employees.)
The three defendents in the corruption trial have sat through six-and-a-half years of legal wrangling over access to and publication of government and ministerial communications and records. Their defence rests largely on the claim that they were simply following orders from their political masters. In February of this year, all three defendents successfully requested a change from being heard before a judge only in favour of a trial before judge and jury.
Trial Details
- REGINA V. VIRK, BASI & BASI
- Reference - VA 23299
- Vancouver Supreme Court (Robson/Smythe) COURTROOM 54
- 9:15 am, Monday, May 17, 2010
- ASSOCIATE CHIEF JUSTICE MACKENZIE presiding
For more background, check this site using the search terms “Basi” and “Virk”, or try Google. (Source: Globe and Mail, page A3, “Trial to start for trading insider information in 2003 sale of BC Rail”)
