Pubdate: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2008 The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Mark Hume FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING; IT'LL BE WORTH THE WAIT VANCOUVER -- Not long after RCMP investigators began bugging the phones of suspected drug dealers in Victoria in 2003, they opened a file named Project Everywhichway, to reflect the bewildering number of leads they were uncovering. Had they known the work they performed on that file would still be before the courts five years later, they might have named it Project Neverending. The prosecution of two key suspects that emerged from that investigation has been dragging on for so long that people have started to wonder whether it will ever go to trial. It will - although unfortunately the trial, which involves charges of political corruption, likely won't begin until after the provincial election in May. The latest delay in the case was made last week when the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear an appeal by special prosecutor William Berardino. Mr. Berardino had sought leave to appeal a decision made by the trial judge, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, that might have exposed the identity of a secret police informant. Instead of starting in March, the case will now be delayed until the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled on the secret-informant issue. That could take a few months, or a year, depending on how quickly the top court moves on the matter. Despite the delay, and the seemingly endless legal wrangling that has gone on throughout the pretrial period, the prosecution of Dave Basi and Bobby Virk still looks as though it will proceed. Eventually the public will learn, through testimony in open court, just what the police discovered when the suspected drug dealers they were tracking led them to Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk. And then to the doors of the provincial legislature, which was raided in December of 2003. The two former Liberal ministerial aides are accused of corruption, fraud, breach of trust and money laundering, related to the alleged selling of government information tied to the $1-billion sale of B.C. Rail. Aneal Basi, a former government communications officer and Dave Basi's cousin, faces charges of money laundering. The defence strategy, which is to portray the accused as mere pawns of the government, not maverick, ministerial aides who acted on their own, will give the public an unprecedented look into the inner workings of the Liberal Party. Already the defence has obtained about 4,000 documents, totalling more than 300,000 pages, which include cabinet records, internal e-mails and wiretap transcripts. Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk, it should be remembered, were two of the hottest political operatives in the provincial capital at the time. They talked to everybody who was anybody in government, in the media and within the Liberal Party. They chatted daily to lobbyists, political strategists and top people in Premier Gordon Campbell's office. And sooner or later, all of that stuff is going to be revealed in court as lawyers dissect the B.C. Rail privatization deal. It's going to be a long wait, but it will be worth it. Of course the accused could plead guilty at any moment, or could succeed in a motion claiming their rights have been violated by inadequate disclosure. Or the Crown could abandon the prosecution in order to protect the secret police informant. But those scenarios just don't seem likely. What is most probable is that Judge Bennett, an unflappable magistrate who seems to have a complete grasp of this case, will keep things plodding steadily onward, until it reaches a just conclusion. The case is moving slowly. But it is moving - and one day Project Everywhichway will get the full exposure it deserves. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin