Wednesday, June 09, 2010

RailGate Round-Up.....Day 4 Re-Visited

AllTheCross-Examinations
ThatFitVille


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Update, 5:30pm....Mr. T, Bill Tieleman, has his summary of the day up now with much, much more, including an accusation by the defense that Robert Virk was ordered to leak documents by thePremier and Mr. Brown...That was responded to vigorously with non-denial denials from Mr. Brown deriding the accusations, saying he didn't recall ever having done that and that he didn't think the Premier would have ever done that. However, based on the reporting , from Mr. T. and others so far*, it does not appear that Mr. Brown ever stated, unequivocally, that it did NOT happen (seems to me the defense may be building a case to justify calling Mr. Campbell to the stand when their turn comes later)....Also, the name of David 'Don't Call Me Kingsway' Emerson came up today as well as what sounds to be a most fascinating 'cabinet issues briefing document' from May of 2004 (ie. before the final deal was announced) which makes recommendations on how to deal with pesky questions like 'How is a 990 year lease not a sale?' and issues such why the BC Rail was not being suspended when it was 'clearly under investigation...Go read Mr. T's entire report here....It's good....

*Whoops....Hang on a second, Keith Fraser of The Province is now reporting (at 6:14pm) that Mr. Brown said something quite different....Specifically, Mr. Fraser says that Mr. Brown, in responding to the allegation by the defense that he ordered Mr. Virk to leak a confidental report, said: " I did not do that...".....Now that is a flat-out denial which is quite different than what Mr. Tieleman reported Mr. Brown said which was the much more conditional: "No, I would never do that...."....Seems we might have a bit of a disagreement between scribes**....In this case, perhaps Mr. Mathews will be able to tell us what he heard (from memory and his notes of course because he has been denied the use of a recording device by the fully-accredited press gang in the courtroom)?....

**Well, whadd'ya know, in a story stamped 8:02pm, Neal Hall of the VSun sides with Mr. Tieleman....Here is the way
Mr. Hall heard it..." “I would have never counselled him to do that.....”......Imagine that!

And finally for today.... From Mark Hume's report in the Globe....There is a CIBC World Markets box at GM Place?.....Really?....Who knew?.....One thing I do know for sure is that, unlike Mr. Brown, if I had ever sat in said box I sure as heckfire would remember it.....
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Well, well, well....

He may not be taking the fifth, but it would appear that Mr. Martyn Brown, Gordon Campbell's longtime chief-of-staff, is having a lot of trouble with his memory.

Here's the latest on today's cross-examination (at 4pm), from an unbylined CP piece in the Globe:

"....The lawyer for Bobby Virk, a former ministerial aide now on trial for fraud and breach of trust, suggested Mr. Virk informed Premier Gordon Campbell's chief of staff, Martyn Brown, several times of his concerns around how the 2003 sale was proceeding.

In his cross-examination of Mr. Brown, lawyer Kevin McCullough suggested Virk was worried about fallout from hiring CIBC World Markets to act as financial adviser during the sell-off of the provincial asset when the government had made an election promise to put all large contracts up for tender.

“[Mr.] Virk came to you and told you that CIBC World Markets was going to get this untendered contract for millions of dollars and that they were a friend, a close donating friend, of the government. He told you that,” Mr. McCullough put to Mr. Brown.

“I don't remember that at all,” Mr. Brown replied, saying he didn't even know CIBC donated cash to the B.C. Liberals.

“You don't recall him saying, ‘Martyn, we're breaking one election promise selling BC Rail, we shouldn't stick another one on top of it?”’ Mr. McCullough asked.

“The conversation you're alleging that happened, I don't remember it at all,” said Mr. Brown, who is still Campbell's chief of staff........."


Interesting double-edged non-denial denial that don't you think, getting both the 'alleged' and the 'I don't remember' in the same sentence without actually saying, flat-out that it did not happen.

I'm sure more fulsome reports will soon follow both from Robin Mathews at Mary's and Mr. Tieleman if he was in the courtroom today.

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6 comments:

BC Mary said...

RossK,

Isn't that odd -- to say that Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) was "going to get this untendered contract" ... and that CIBC World Markets had donated to the Campbell Liberals and were "a friend of government" etc.?

Don't they mean CN ... or what the heck do they mean?

They talk about the "election of 2003" as well, when the critical election was 2001 in which Gordo promised NOT to sell BC Rail.

Dang these Accredited Newsfolk and their strange ways ,,,
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Grant G said...

Here is that 28 page document...


http://www.theprovince.com/pdf/BasiVirkdocument.pdf


Cheers

cfvua said...

You probably know or were being Martynesque(don't recall) but CIBC World Markets were the financial advisors and were paid who knows how much to look after the people's best interests.......you know.....the PEOPLE

RossK said...

Mary and cfvua--

You know, I seem to recall that in the end CIBC World Markets were protected by solicitor-client (ie. Bankers'!) privilege....

(me, I'm now combing the E-BC Financial Contributions Database)

And Mary, it would seem that sometimes those early CP reports are a little, how should I put it?...Detail challenged?

(ie. their stringer sure as heck ain't no Camille Bains anymore)

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Ya Grant got it, thanks!

Did you by chance catch how the 24 year-old geniuses working the copy-ed desk at The Province actually linked to the document incorrectly (ie. they embedded the link as if it was the 'Shipper's Report Document' rather than the 'Cabinet Issues Briefing Document' that only Mr. Tieleman, to the best of my knowledge, has so far commented on)?

Regardless, in my opinion, this thing is going to be the document that just keeps on giving and giving until the end of the trial.

Why?

Well, I dunno about you, but to me it's, essentially every single thing I always wanted a reporter to ask but rarely heard them do so...And it's stuffed with faux answers that we can now deride and belittle till the cows come home as reality is rolled out day-by-day throughout the trial....Wow!

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Ian said...

One thing I know about is the whole Chief of Staff gig. And the fact that lack of memory isn't a quality you're looking for when you're doing the hiring for that job.

In fact you may go the other way and hire some steeltrap type who never forgets a thing, like say the way you cross your legs in a meeting, the hour of the night your $75,000 donation arrived or the order to leak the details of your mother's tryst with the minister of Home Renovations.

Of course, what you do hire a Chief of Staff for is to look really stupid on the stand so you don't have to.

RossK said...

Ian--

And say things like:

"I can't imagine my boss would have said that.....So, you should get him up here so you can ask him yourself."

Ha!

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