The lies are flying thick and fast.

On "The Legislature Raids", I've posted a news story by National Post in which the total cost of the Basi-Virk (BC Rail) trial is given as $17.3 million.

Then it goes on to include 3 other trials not connected to the BC Rail trial.

And $2million for miscellaneous other bothersome details. So it certainly begins to look ... um, err ... "expensive". But ...


The information comes from the corrupt Public Affairs Bureau established by Gordon Campbell for that purpose.

It seems to me that they will try to convince the public that it costs too much, so there's no point for us to keep demanding to know how we lost BC Rail. Ha.

But when you stop and think about it: the last thing a BC Liberal wants is to open up the details of the BCRail negotiations. Or even to show us the deal between BCR-CN in its entirety. Hell, no.

BC Liberals didn't want a trial. And they don't want a Public Inquiry. As for a Third Party Review, it would only delay the inevitable ... because Abbott is wrong ... we CAN go back and change what happened to BC Rail ... there are already grounds for re-possessing the railway. Does it make sense to keep delaying that?

If interested, read more at http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/
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It isn't just about the Basi/Virk payoff and the cost of the trial itself.
The figure that Abbott is using is probably far from the truth, and I am sure he knows that.
Suddenly he is trying to distance himself from those involved?
Basi and Virk were fallguys...nothing more.
It is about the entire B.C.Rail deal and the way it all played out, from start to finish.
People were bribed and perhaps more than we know about,but those doing the bribing were never charged or punished.
We don't even know for sure who was doing the bribing.
We don't know what happened to the missing emails in the Premiers office.
But we do know it happened.
There is no question that the trial was shut down when it got to close to key ministers and players(Clark)having to testify, and that stinks.
A full,indepth, forensic inquiry is warranted.
The Liberal government obviously didn't give a damn what the trial cost taxpayers,so why would they care what an inquiry costs?
But,unfortunately it isn't going to happen.
The fallout would be huge,and many heads would roll,of that I am sure.
Too many powerful people involved who will make sure it never happens.

They pleaded guilty, so they should pay for their own defense lawyers.

If they were NOT guilty they should have pleaded NOT guilty!!!

How does one prevent a person from making a false guilty plea? A lawyer can be disbarred for advising an innocent client to plead guilty.

They now have a criminal record. Nothing to be proud of.

I have a hard time buying some of the conspiracy theories being posted ad infinitum about the BCRail thing.

Shouldn't there be some hard evidence before claims of bribery and corruption are made instead of just hearsay and political animosity?

A review of the legal settlement is needed, but not as badly as an inquiry into the 900 year lease. White man has not even been in North America 900 years yet! What a stretch of the imagination to call a 900 year lease is anything different from a sale.

No way in hell do you sell a railway in the 21st century for a mere billion. Wake up, those of you who believe there is no conspiracy. A billion only buys a firearms registry that doesn't work and that was almost ten years ago. This BC Rail thing stinks very deep. Virk and Basi are wearing silk suits when they should be black and white stripes.

Abbott's just another Liberal liar. Nothing he says will come to pass if he is the leader.

"The fallout would be huge, and many heads would roll". All the more reason to have an
inquiry. I am pretty sure the heads that roll wouldn't deserve anything less. One more thing; neither campbell nor the liberal party be entrusted with choosing
who heads up the inquiry.

The 900 year lease is meaningless. Who knows if just 90 years from now railroads as we know them today will still be a viable method to transport goods or people.

Additionally, what would stop any government or private company from building (at some time in the future) a transportation system which uses MagLev technology or some other invention which does not even require conventional tracks as we use them today?

900 years simply means a long time. CN may not even be around 90 years from now, let alone 900.

We can't even control our affairs with some degree of certainty over the next 900 days, or weeks.

What a joke!

If you want to ensure that the people who sold BC Rail are dealt with in a meaningful way, then you should vote them out in the next election. All the Cabinet Ministers etc; know, or should have know what took place.

When you consider the BC Rail Sale, the Carbon Tax, The HST, the minimum wage, the increase in medical,appurtenancy, etc; etc; Why would any right minded person even consider giving a chit who leads this party? The sooner they are all gone the better.

Amen to that Palopu!

I wonder if Abbott would do an investigation of BC Hydro and the forced rate increases forced onto it by the fiberals. This is to pay for the high contracts given to Independent power producers with ex fiberal and hydro managers on their boards.

well.. i wonder if we here in ole bc keep the pressure on and on and on ,that someone with some guts will take it on !~ i wonder????? who will have the guts

Seems to me like all other Liberal MLA's Abbott backed Campbell 100% on the sale of BC Rail, does Abbott take us all for for fools.

The BC liberals are probably the most corrupt government in Canadian history. Amen to what Palopu said above.

They represent theft by the monopoly capitalist corpocracy at the expense of the working middle class, and yet people will still defend their election time perjury out of a false belief that BC liberals are good for business and represent conservative free markets... it seems the BC liberal political fraud and corruption isn't complete until they have legions of dimwits that will defend them for who they are not. Thankfully more and more people are seeing them for who they really are.

What MLA Abbott is now saying is only the minimum that can be said in light of what is clearly political interference in the justice system making a mockery of that now too. Of course these guys had their guilty plea bought and paid for to cover up the whole issue... anyone else would have had their assets go into liquidation for incurring the costs to the legal system for their 9-years of denial.

As long as I live I will never vote for a BC liberal when they can't respect the need for a full inquiry into this matter. I wish MLA Abbott luck, but he is in the wrong party if he thinks he will ever be able to implement an inquiry of any sort related to BC Rail.

Good one on B.C.Hydro, seamutt.
For some strange reason, that keeps getting missed by those paying their hydro bills.
Well,guess what?
It's going to get much worse.
We are a complacent lot,aren't we?

George Abbott wants to RAISE our carbon tax. Isn't that special!