BC Rail trial - $6M buys a whole lot of silence

After BC Attorney-General Mike de Jong made the unprecedented offer to have taxpayers bail out their $6-million in legal bills, Dave Basi and Bob Virk quickly copped a sanitized guilty plea that sent them home on Monday to 150 hours of community service each with a fine of $75,625 to Basi, the same amount he took in bribes. Yeah, and a house arrest that doesn't preclude their trips to the gym.

Gosh, we all thought, isn't that just handy?
The AG offers to ice their legal bills, Basi and Virk change their pleas to guilty, the Crown prosecutor moves to end the trial, the prosecutor and defence agree on sentencing, the judge immediately accedes to it, and everybody goes home happy the very same day.
Just as if they were all on the same side.
And just before Gordo's Liberal cronies were due to take the stand too.


Well, it gets worse. Gary Mason :

"Attorney-General Mike de Jong confirmed Monday that he gave final approval to the controversial arrangement with Dave Basi and Bob Virk.
What wasn’t revealed in his conversation with reporters was the fact the two men, who pleaded guilty to leaking secret government information in exchange for cash and other financial benefits, had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get the $6-million reprieve."

According to sources, when asked anything about the deal, Mr. Virk and Mr. Basi have been ordered to follow a tight script: “I must refer all matters to the Attorney-General,” they have been told to say."

And indeed that is all they have been saying.

Michael Bolton, lawyer for Mr. Basi? : "I’m not prepared to comment on that."

Special Crown prosecutor Bill Berardino? : "All of that stuff does not touch or involve my responsibility as special prosecutor whatsoever. And that’s all I’m going to say."

After seven years of legal bs around the worst corruption case in BC's history, BC taxpayers now have the privilege of paying off Basi and Virk not to tell us anything it. Un-fucking-believable.
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