The province is at a crossroads. More information continues to come out almost every day about the scandal and corruption regarding the sale of BC Rail back in 2003. And every day there is more news about how the tentacles of organized crime are extending throughout the province in an illegal drug trade worth billions of dollars.

 

Indeed, it is sometimes forgotten that the initial RCMP investigation that blew open the BC Rail corruption case, actually started with wiretaps related to an ongoing criminal drug investigation.

 

If somehow the BC Rail issue is swept under the rug by government or even if it is investigated in a limited, feeble manner, as some in the NDP opposition seem to be suggesting, British Columbia could end up as a state similar to Sicily in Italy, where gangsterism and corruption appear to be endemic.

 

It is a fact that a large number of people in the province want an inquiry into the sale of BC Rail, and this includes many who have voted BC Liberal in the past. For almost a decade, they have been demanding answers from government leaders about the scandal. 

 

But in the years since the original raid on the provincial Legislature in 2003 and the charging of Basi and Virk, the Campbell Liberal government has kept a finger to its lips and refused to comment on the case on the grounds that the case was "before the courts". 

 

Now, in an amazing aboutface, Liberal leaders, a number of whom were linked to the scandal, are claiming that they have nothing to say because the "court case is now over", and that, furthermore no inquiry into the sale of the railway is necessary. 

 

Given this state of affairs, any observer would expect that the opposition NDP would be demanding, boldly and fearlessly, a public inquiry that has teeth and that could unravel this complicated and sordid scandal, which has stained the political life of the province.

 

But the observers would be wrong. Instead, from certain elements in the NDP leadership, we get vague, toothless statements. For example, look at the feeble question that Paul Ramsey, former NDP cabinet minister, put forward to current NDP MLA Mike Farnworth on the cable TV Show "Voice of BC": 

 

"Mr. Farnworth", Ramsey said, "I saw the other day that the NDP was calling for a public inquiry into the Basi-Virk trial. Now, I agree that the Basi-Virk outcome was a disaster. The public did not get the answers that it wanted about the sale of B.C. Rail. However, I am not sure that the public is really prepared to support the spending of, say, another $30 million to get those answers. Is a public inquiry really the best way to get at those answers?"

 

Then there was Farnworth's reply: “I don't necessarily think you have to spend as much as Paul is saying,” he commented. It would be determined by the manner in which "you structure a public inquiry." Farnworth further added that "we need to look at ways in which it does not have to go to $30 million.”

 

In his article on this matter, Vaughan Palmer explains that "those structuring options would presumably include narrowing the scope of the inquiry - limiting the issues it would tackle, the time frame covered, the nature of the findings, or the ability to find fault" (Dec. 16, Vancouver Sun online).

"For instance", he says, "the government could ask the inquiry to examine the decision to sell B.C. Rail, but withhold the power to find fault with individual public servants. More like a fact-finding exercise, than a judicial proceeding."

In other words, both Ramsey and Farnworth appear to be proposing that the inquiry be as "toothless" as possible. If that is the case, this would be just one more example of the NDP leadership "gutting out" on still another issue of great importance to British Columbians.

 

And it wouldn't be the first time the leadership has acted that way in regards to the BC Rail "file". Back in 2003-2004, many people in the province, especially Prince George and other cities in the Interior, wanted the sale to be stopped in its tracks, especially after the raids on the Provincial Legislature.

 

Activists for the Committee to Save BC Rail, which included a number of NDP members in its ranks, were calling for a "cancellation" of the sale of the railway. But, in its "wisdom", the NDP leadership in Victoria decided to drop that demand. Even some local NDP members were not happy with what they saw as another case of the party leadership "backing down".

 

The irony in all of this is that, as documents from the BC Rail corruption trial have revealed, the sale of the railway was in danger of "going off the rails" right around that time in 2004 when the NDP leadership chose to withdraw its demand for the cancellation of the sale. In other words, the sale might have been stopped if pressure had been kept up.

 

So just who does the party leadership keep "backing down" from? It is no secret that some dominant sections of the big business elite in this province did not want a cancellation of the sale in 2004, nor do they want an inquiry today. 

 

Why? Because this elite does not want the veil pulled back on how it operates in the province. And also because some business interests are undoubtedly involved in one way or another in this huge scandal. For its part, the NDP leadership does not want to "take them on" in any kind of serious manner. Instead, it wants to "curry favour" with this elite and prove that it is "fit" and "responsible" to take over the reins of government and poses no threat.

 

Politics in this province are not for the fainthearted. If political leaders can't pledge to commit to a full and comprehensive inquiry with real "teeth", if they can't boldly stand up to the naysayers and the big business elite who prattle on about the few million dollars for an inquiry, yet support paying $458 million for, of all things, a retractable stadium roof in Vancouver, then they should get out of politics and take up stamp collecting or some other harmless hobby.

 

Yes, NDP leadership, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

 

 

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