May 18, 2010, Source: National Post

British Columbians have already waited more than six years for the most important political trial in memory to begin. They will have to wait just a little bit more.

The prosecution of three Victoria men -- two of them former senior staff members to provincial Cabinet ministers -- on charges of fraud, accepting bribes and money laundering was to have finally commenced yesterday before a jury of six women and six men.

The accused were all in the dock yesterday morning, and in good time. There was David Basi, assistant to former finance minister Gary Collins, one of the politicians tasked with selling Crown corporation B.C. Rail in 2003. The sale process continued into 2004; B.C. Rail was eventually sold to Canadian National Railway Company for about $1-billion but there were other, spurned suitors. The sale was allegedly compromised by transgressions on the part of Mr. Basi and his colleague Bobby Virk, assistant to former transportation minister Judith Reid.

The two men are alleged to have provided confidential documents to prospective participants during the sale process. The third accused, Aneal Basi, is David Basi's cousin; he faces the money laundering charges.

Assistants to the Crown wheeled into Courtroom 54 cartloads of trial material; some 66 boxes were stacked neatly in rows. A handful of Crown prosecutors followed. Six defence lawyers walked into the downtown Vancouver courtroom. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Anne MacKenzie was seated. In filed the jury; two alternate jurors were thanked and then dismissed.

The three accused looked on patiently as Madame Justice MacKenzie explained to the panel that certain issues had come up again to delay matters. She did not go into details. The jurors filed out.

The process was repeated in the afternoon as jurors were told to go home. They are to return to the courthouse today. That's the way it goes, at the so-called B.C. Rail corruption trial. Officially, proceedings began years ago. But pretrial motions and applications have forced myriad delays and postponements, for reasons that can no longer be reported.

A sweeping publication ban prevents media from reporting anything not heard before the jury; that is standard procedure, but the ban also precludes journalists from describing previous, related proceedings. Before jury selection last month, defence lawyers occasionally met with reporters outside the downtown Vancouver courthouse and let fly with various theories and allegations of their own. Bound by discretion, Crown prosecutors assigned to the case could not respond in kind. The result was confusion and obfuscation, which may be what the defence intended.

British Columbians deserved far better, and much more. Controversy over the B.C. Rail sale has hung over the province ever since Premier Gordon Campbell announced it, shortly after taking office in 2001. He had promised in the preceeding election campaign not to sell the Crown asset.

Worries mounted considerably when RCMP officers raided the provincial legislature in December 2003 and removed armfuls of documents from the offices of high ranking civil servants and politicians.

At the time, the public wasn't told what prompted the unprecedented raid; the worst was assumed. It was in this province, remember, that the Mounties showed up on the doorstep of then-premier Glen Clark in 1999 and searched his house. That had to do with an investigation into alleged influence peddling and the awarding of a casino licence to dubious sources. Mr. Clark was eventually exonerated but the raid forever tarnished his political image and led him to resign.

The 2003 legislature raid was even more dramatic. The stakes are potentially greater.

Premier Campbell's Liberal government has endured many scandals, including the Premier's own conviction in Hawaii for driving while drunk. More recently, it has been accused of budget fudging, and it broke a campaign promise to not introduce a harmonized sales tax to the province. The HST is to make its debut in July. A vigorous, provincewide protest aims to scuttle that. If the protest fails, organizers say, efforts will be made to remove Premier Campbell from office, using recall legislation.

That might be the least of his worries, for the moment. When the B.C. Rail trial begins in earnest -- a visibly restless Madame Justice MacKenzie appears determined that today it will -- court will hear testimonies from a host of political insiders with knowledge of the maligned B.C. Rail sale process, and with knowledge of Liberal party dealings. The jury has been told it can expect to hear from 44 Crown witnesses, including Mr. Collins, Ms. Reid, and Premier Campbell's chief of staff, Martyn Brown. Also on the list is federal Liberal party fixer Mark Marissen, a key strategist for former prime minister Paul Martin and Stephane Dion, and several of his colleagues. The reasons for their inclusion, for now, are matters of speculation. But barring more unforeseen circumstances and delays, all will soon become clear, at last. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.