What has raged as an undeclared war between conservationists and the Campbell government starting in 2001 became a declared war when Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell trotted out a new cabinet. For those of us dedicated to preserving our birthright, this war was formally declared when Campbell created an entirely new ministry called Natural Resource Operations as a one-stop-shop for permits in B.C., covering everything from large independent power projects to one-day hunting licences.

Campbell said the aim is to “streamline access to B.C.’s natural resources …The drive has always been to try and increase more investment in the province, to increase our export opportunities.”

The new minister Steve Thomson (Steve WHO?) is given responsibility for a wide range of natural resource approvals, including approvals related to:

• Crown land allocation and authorizations
• Forests and range authorizations
• Roads/bridges/engineering
• Independent Power Production
• Mines and minerals permitting and inspections
• Mineral and coal titles
• Aquaculture licensing and regulation
• Water use planning and authorizations
• Aboriginal consultation and coordination – natural resource operations
• Resorts and alpine ski developments
• Licensing and permitting for angling, hunting and trapping
• GeoBC and information management
• FrontCounter BC
• Provincial hatchery and stocking program
• Watershed restoration
• Fish, wildlife and habitat management
• Drought management
• Dam and dyke safety and regulation
• Flood plain management
• Pests, disease, invasive plants and species
• Public backcountry and commercial recreation
• Recreation sites and trails
• Archaeology and Heritage Conservation Act permitting
• Resource management compliance
• Crown land restoration
• Forest investment operations
• Wildlife management

(The bolded powers are those of special concern to environmentalists).

What power is left to the Environment Minister? The premier’s statement clearly indicates that an already weak-kneed ministry requiring a weak-kneed minister to suit his policy will be weakened even more.

What other conclusion can one come to when giving plain meaning to Campbell’s words?

As far as The Common Sense Canadian is concerned this is war and we will join one and all British Columbians who care about their environment in taking the fight to Campbell and his bunch on every front and at every opportunity.

Is this over the top?

Not at all, in fact it shows we haven’t fought hard enough.

Damien and I had the great privilege of joining Corky Evans at two public meetings we held in the Kootenays last week and he, in two marvelous speeches, made the obvious but often forgotten point that the lands, water, and air we live in and use belong the Province of British Columbia in the right of the crown. It does not belong to the government of the province. And, here’s the critical point: the Crown is us, the citizens of this province.

The reality is, of course, that governments can, by passing a statute and having it approved by Her Majesty’s representative, the Lieutenant-Governor, alienate these possessions of ours but we should sit back and remember just what that process is.

It starts by The Legislative Council (the Cabinet) – the Queen’s advisors – tabling a bill in the legislature asking for approval. When approved, the Council (Cabinet) then asks the Lieutenant-Governor on behalf of the Crown to proclaim this as law.

We know that in practice the government does what it pleases but we should understand the technicalities so as to better interpret – and hopefully one day stop – the practice of alienating the resources that we the people own in the name of the Crown.

When the power of the Crown is corrupted, we the people must fight back. And it’s sure as hell been corrupted in British Columbia.

Consider how our resources were being dealt with by the Campbell government before Campbell made these changes. Take, for example, the Ashlu River. A large construction company sought to destroy the essence of this river so it sought government help to get this Crown-owned water given to them. (Actually, the request amounted to giving them the river and funding besides, but more on that in a moment).

At that time, the people had a process by which they could declare whether or not they wanted this to happen – it was called zoning.

After several public hearings the Regional District the Ashlu was in (The Squamish and Lillooet Regional District) refused to zone in favour of the corporation and left our water and its ecology in our hands, unalienated. The Campbell government immediately passed retroactive legislation taking away the right of local governments to zone these properties, known as Bill 30.

This meant that the people had no opportunity to pass judgment on these matters!

The only hope the public was left with was the environmental assessment process where the public would be entitled to go to public meetings concerning these projects.

These meetings were fixed. There’s no other word for it. The hearings were held at a time and place suitable to the company and – here’s the rub – whether or not the project should be approved was out of order! All a member of the public could do is suggest terms of reference for the environmental review process! Damien and I have been to several of these sham meetings and the anger of the public was white hot.

We the citizens can make our feelings known whether or not a Walmart Store should be built, whether a pub can go into a neighbourhood, or where an apartment will be permitted, and what form it will take – but when a company wants to steal a river, destroy it and the ecology it sustains, we have no right to be heard at all!

Even worse, the company pays almost nothing for the river and then – and mark this well – our Crown Corporation, BC Hydro, is forced by the Campbell government to give the company a sweetheart contract which pays the company twice or more what the power is worth on a “take or pay” contract, which power is not needed by Hydro, and thus must be exported for ½ or less what they paid for it! The moment the approval is given, the company uses that approval to finance the project! We have our property stolen then must finance its destruction!

What I’ve just said applies to what has happened hitherto – now, says Campbell, the government is going to “streamline” this ghastly process.

One must give plain meaning to those words. The Campbell government is going to make it even easier than it is now for our resources to be given away along with what amounts to a very generous cash-filled handshake!

I’ve been referring to Independent (Private) Power Production but please go back to the list and note that this streamlining of public theft from the people will also apply to Crown land allocation and authorizations, forests and range authorizations, roads/bridges/engineering, aquaculture licensing and regulation, water use planning and authorizations, natural resource operations, resorts and alpine ski developments, licensing and permitting for angling, hunting and trapping, dam and dyke safety and regulation and Flood Plain management.

CONCLUSION: We have moved from a fatally flawed environmental regime with no public consultation, under the direction of an insipidly weak minister, to a fatally flawed environmental regime, with no public consultation, under the direction of a minister ordered by the premier to make it all happen even easier and faster.

It’s now over to us – if we don’t defend what it ours, what is our legacy, we will go down in history as the generation that gave in to a tyrant.

For our part at The Common Sense Canadian we will fight every outrage with every weapon at our disposal and will encourage and assist as best we can, all who do the same.

The Basi-Virk case just gets curiouser and curiouser. As we now learn, Basi’s Cousin, Aneal, as part of the deal, has been let off on his bribery charges.

How the hell did that happen?

Because, says a spokesperson for the AG’s office, Basi and Virk wouldn’t have made the deal otherwise!

Huh?! Are we to believe that the accused’s lawyers went to Crown Prosecutor and said “Look here, we’re prepared to plead guilty but you must do this: pay all our legal costs, promise not to try to collect this back from the assets you have under lien, remove those liens, and no jail time – and, oh yes, you must drop all charges against cousin Aneal who has admitted he took a bribe.” This isn’t a plea for mercy but a diktat as if they were winners doing the Crown a favour!

I think we can all guess what Mr. Berardino said which was something like this: “I’m honour-bound to put that to my client, and I will, and get back to you when I have an answer.”

Mr Berardino would have also, of course, told the AG’s ministry what the prospects of winning are and he would have told them something like this: “We are, as certain as you can get in court cases, going to win and they will certainly get jail time.” In effect, I’m sure he would have said, “It should be us who is stating the terms, not the accused.” Moreover, the Aneal Basi case is completely another matter all together. He would not have given Basi and Virk cause for celebration leaving it to cabinet.

As I traced it in a recent column, this offer would have gone, as quickly as lightening, to Gordon Campbell who would have heard what I just recited and, in order to save his skin, agreed to these outrageous terms dictated by the accused.

He would have had two concerns that we haven’t spoken much about – as stated by the Globe and Mail and by Mike Smyth in an excellent article in the Vancouver Province this past Friday – the deal whereby Basi and Virk would have all their legal costs taken care of included a deal that there would be no effort by the Crown to get the money back, even though there was about $600,000 assets under lien by the government for just that purpose..

The second matter is Aneal Basi’s case, which had nothing to do with Basi-Virk.

Now, Basi and cousin and Virk have admitted they took bribes in a case where, thick as thieves (an apt metaphor, I think) Campbell and his colleagues, sold off an iconic part of BC’s culture, BC Rail, for a song to CN. Surely this question arises: who paid these bribes? Were they in fact paid by one of the losing bidders through a lobbying company? Why weren’t they charged?

There can be no rational reason for the Crown to drop charges against Aneal Basi.

What we have here is like a country losing as war then dictating to the winner the terms of the peace treaty. We have the Premier of British Columbia accepting an outrageous settlement offer with unseemly haste and we have to once more ask, “Why?”

But there’s more. Where have the Liberal lickspittles who sit as MLA’s having sworn to do the people’s business been, and where are they now? By sitting on their hands, they actively support this disgraceful corruption. Are they devoid of principles? Does their love of office and the salaries and perks mean that they are prepared to ignore this disgusting settlement?

I direct this question especially to Ralph Sultan, MLA for West Vancouver -Capilano, one of the, if not the safest seat in BC. Sultan is a very successful businessman and has three Harvard degrees and a professorship in his resume. Sultan has been overlooked for cabinet even though, and I risk damning with faint praise, he is better qualified than any member of the cabinet, very much including the premier. Why wouldn’t this man holler foul from his safe perch? Show some backbone and stand up for decency and principles?

As Bob Simpson and Norm Macdonald of the NDP have demonstrated, it takes courage to speak out against your leader BUT isn’t it the duty of an MLA to refuse to go along with corrupt deals?

Toadies, lickspittles all.

On another matter, NDP president Moe Sihota hit the Labour Movement for money as a stipend for his duties saying that is standard practice though that appears not to be true.

Question for Moe: What if, while you were in government, the Liberals had paid their party president by funds from realtors or car dealers? Would you and your colleagues not scream from the heavens at this disgraceful practices? Nothing illegal here – just a health dose of hypocrisy.

I don’t have a crystal ball, but today I’m going to pretend that I do. And I’m going to peer into that imaginary crystal ball and make a few predictions relating to the future – or lack thereof – of my all-time favourite BC premier, Gordon Campbell.

I choose to engage in this exercise now because this Wednesday evening, while Rafe and I are taking to the stage of the Capitol Theatre in Nelson, along with our guest speaker Corky Evans, kicking off our “Take Back Our BC” Tour, Campbell will be taking to the airwaves for a mysterious “state of the province” speech – which he booked three weeks ago for 7 PM on Global TV. As much as I’m looking forward to our own show, part of me rues not being able to take in this piece of television history live, a big bowl of Orville Redenbacher’s nestled in my lap. But fret not for me – I will be TiVo-ing it for posterity (for you luddites, that’s the digital equivalent of a VCR).

Incidentally, to get an idea of how historic this really is for Campbell, note that the last time he engaged in such a stunt it involved a certain Hawaiian misadventure and teary performance worthy of Meryl Streep.

(If I sound like I’m savouring this moment, that is, the crumbling of Campbell’s career – after years of making it my solemn duty to help bring down the man who has savaged everything I hold dear in my beloved British Columbia – well, that’s because I am).

So, making no pretense to any insider information, I thought it would be fun to hypothesize as to the content of that speech, and as to Campbell’s political future beyond it. Besides my imaginary crystal ball, the primary tool I’m relying on here is the use of trajectories. That is to say, if you showed me a car speeding at 100 mph towards a very tall cliff, up until the moment it reached the very edge of the precipice, I wouldn’t have to actually witness the vehicle plummeting to its demise in order to make an educated guess as to its fate. Kind of like Gordon Campbell’s career right now.

So – drumroll please – here’s what I see (and don’t see) in that fateful television address and beyond:

1. Campbell won’t dare discuss the Olympics, nor will his attire include red mittens

2. He will be surprisingly self-depricating and contrite, with a level of insincerity few could muster…and none of us will buy it

3. He will announce moving up the HST referendum

4. He will largely steer clear of the recent ignominious conclusion to the Basi-Virk trial; though he may be forced to touch on it ever so briefly, he will avoid going into detail like the plague

5. He wont be able to resist waxing eloquent in his defence about his “strong economic management” of the province in challenging times

6. Finally, he will – unbelievably to many including myself – offer some hint of an exit strategy from his role as leader of the BC Liberal Party… It won’t be immediate or well-defined, but it will be enough to signal that he won’t be seeking to retain his position into the next provincial election

7. Beyond this television address, I predict that, in spite of his reluctance to nail down an imminent and specific retreat, he will soon – perhaps as soon as his party’s forthcoming convention in November – be forced to quit his post by his own party, much sooner than he would like.

8. A little further into the future I see Campbell accepting some position in Ottawa – non-elected of course – perhaps a Senate seat, or some high-ranking federal commission engineered by Stephen Harper. That is unless…

9….He proves too toxic for Ottawa, in which case, after a brief disappearance from public view, he will wind up on the board of some sympathetic corporation, one to which he has been helpful in office – such as Rio Tinto-Alcan, Accenture, General Electric, Kinder-Morgan, Enbridge…suffice it to say the list of possibilities is long here – he’s be oh so helpful to so many of them.

To be clear, I make no warranties as to the accuracy of these predictions, not having the benefit of an actual crystal ball, telepathy, or any good connections inside the Liberal caucus. In fact, I expect I’ll be shown to be mostly wrong – but it’s always entertaining to use one’s imagination. Nor am I taking bets, but should you feel compelled to create a little office pool of your own, I’m sure that could be good fun for you too.

So while I’m showing my new film in Nelson about the Enbridge pipeline and coastal Tar Sands supertankers that Gordon Campbell campaigned on in 2009 – and Rafe is railing on about our rivers and public energy system which Campbell has ravaged and given away for cheap – I suggest you avail yourself of this unique moment in BC history and tune into Global TV at 7 PM this Wednesday evening (but not, of course, if you live in Nelson – come to our show instead and TiVo Campbell like me).

And don’t forget the popcorn.

So, the plot thickens and bit by bit we extract the truth out of the back-pedalling,
inkfish tactics being used by the Campbell government to explain the Basi-Virk bribe
– for bribe it was.

We started with Crown Counsel telling us, as the disclosure of the bribe was made,
that he did it all himself. He must have grossly underestimated the intelligence of
the BC people. As some teeth were extracted we learned that no, it wasn’t all by
himself, but from the Deputy Attorney-General, Criminal Justice Branch (ADAG).

Pause for a moment. The ADAG is a special role and not really part of the civil
service, this from a release by the Attorney-General’s Ministry:

“The responsibilities of Crown counsel are defined in the Crown Counsel Act. The act
ensures the independence of the prosecution service. Prosecutors are guided by the
policies of the Criminal Justice Branch and they are ultimately accountable to the
assistant deputy attorney general (ADAG). Under the act, the ADAG is head of the
Criminal Justice Branch and is responsible for the administration of the branch and
the day-to-day operations of the prosecution service. While the Attorney General is
responsible for overseeing the administration of justice in the province, the
Attorney General does not normally become involved in prosecution decisions relating
to individual cases.”

Now, as I’m sure you’re asking, how can the ADAG get instructions for settlement
without going to his boss, the AG?

The answer is that he can’t, nor, as we will see, can the AG make that decision.
Stay tuned.

Today we learn the key to the bribe when we’re told that the Deputy Finance Minister
was part of the negotiations which went back, incidentally, nearly three weeks
before the announcement. The Deputy Finance Minister is a public servant, under
Order-in-Council and reports to the Finance Minister. He chairs what is known as
Treasury Board Staff, better known as “Little Treasury Board”, which – and again
this from the AG’s office – “is responsible for developing and reviewing
government’s economic, fiscal and taxation policies. It provides analysis and advice
toTreasury Board (the Cabinet committee responsible for budget and management
matters) and to the Minister of Finance” through Treasury Board”, which is chaired
by the Finance Minister, Colin Hansen, and is comprised of Hansen and 7 senior
Cabinet ministers.

Pause. Now the path becomes a little clearer. Crown Counsel needs two things:
authority to make the deal in the first place, and $5 million in hush money. There
is no way the ADAG can make that decision and provide the money which is how the
deputy Finance Minister gets in the act. He has no authority to make this decision
either so he must go to Treasury Board, C.Hansen prop., and both ask for the money
and convince the Board that it’s needed. There is no way in the world that Hansen
with or without Treasury Board could make this decision, so the matter goes to
Cabinet, chaired by one Gordon “Pinocchio” Campbell.

There is another cute little fact finally disclosed: despite earlier denials, Basi
and Virk had to sign a confidentiality agreement – they couldn’t talk or the deal
was off! And who was that to protect?

It sure as hell wasn’t the public who had every right to know all the details.

Remember that Crown Counsel Berardino was winning the case and if he wasn’t sure of
that, he had to be when the accused offered to cop a plea. But follow me carefully
from here: If his remaining witnesses, Collins, Campbell, et al. would help Basi and
Vick’s case, Berardino was obliged to reveal that to the accused’s lawyers. We
therefore know that these witnesses to come would make Crown Counsel’s case all the
stronger.

Why then would Mr. Berardino want to bail out?

There are but two possibilities: either Berardino is as dumb as a sack full of
hammers and doesn’t understand these things, or he was told to settle on orders from
Gordon Campbell. In helping you make your choice, let me tell you that Mr. Berardino
is a very clever lawyer, one of the best courtroom lawyers in the province.

Clearly, this confidentiality agreement was intended to protect the political asses
of Messrs Campbell and Collins and other Liberal insiders.

Conclusion:- The $5 million bribe to Basi and Virk was authorized by Premier Gordon
Campbell who was in the negotiations from the beginning and knew that he and former
Finance Minister Collins and other key people in his clique, were going to be called
as witnesses which is why the bribe was paid.