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Investigators link organized crime activity to search warrants served on BC's legislature

© David Russell

A blissful winter sun arose over a glistening city, unusually alive with color not often seen during the holiday weeks. From the sidewalk, only lightly traveled by tourists in this week between Christmas and New Years, one could look up and smile at the azure hue of the sky, then slowly, like a camera panning, gaze lower to the beautiful, nineteenth century architecture, finally coming to a stop at the sight of flashing red lights atop white domestic automobiles.

Ahh. Politics in British Columbia.

On Sunday, December 28, the offices of two BC cabinet ministerial aides were raided by members of the RCMP and Victoria Police Departments, coinciding with identical searches being undertaken at some half dozen other residences through in Victoria and the Lower Mainland, principally of politically connected individuals and businesses.

The issue: just organized crime, drug trafficking and money laundering. Who says political news has to be sleepy between legislative sessions?

Easterners who throw nary a glance to this most westward province in the confederation are smugly thinking: so what? Isn't there usually a politician or two in trouble with the law on the left coast? Don't most BC premiers get arrested more often than re-elected?

Sad but true.

But this time it is big. This is one of the few times in memory a Canadian legislature has been served with a search warrant on premises. Something about the sanctity of the separation between the legislative and judicial branches makes these events seem particularly troubling.

And like most political scandals, what isn't known is much more troubling than what is. Police have been careful to state that no elected officials are the targets of police investigation - "at this time." Small comfort, to be sure, but the legislature offices that were raided include the office of David Basi, one of the most influential political, backroom operatives the province has seen in some time, not only provincially but also on the federal scene.

Neither Mr. Basi, ministerial assistant to Finance Minister/House Leader Gary Collins, nor his counterpart Bob Virk in the transportation ministry have been charged with any offence and both have made statements through their lawyers that they expect to be totally exonerated.

However, the provincial government considered their connection to what has turned out to be a 20-month investigation into organized crime activity significant enough to warrant their removal from their positions, permanently in the case of Mr. Basi.

How close the two are to the investigation remains unclear, along with myriad other unanswered questions likely to remain so for some time given the police and Crown Counsel's motion to have the search warrants sealed from public or media scrutiny. Thus the public is largely left to speculate on the gravity of the criminal activity that may or may not be reaching into the province's top government offices.