Wednesday, July 22, 2009

REALLY BIG SMELL


On Sunday, April 5, 2009, I posted an item in this space called, "TRIANGULATION."

It was about the frighteningly cosy relationship between Premier Gordon Campbell, Patrick Kinsella and one David McLean. McLean is the CN Chairman and major fundraiser for...you know...Gordon Campbell.

One of McLean's sons, whose greatest accomplishment is having a father named David, holds various important and well-paying jobs and is slated to be the next head of the Vancouver Board of Trade.

I encourage you to read my April musings and reflect on how inadequately Vancouver media is covering the most important political corruption story in this province in a very long time.

Except...except for our friend Bill Tieleman, who continues to blanket this hideous tale from stem to stern.

"If you cannot figure anything else out about the complicated Basi-Virk corruption case, understand just this -- during the May provincial election someone in the B.C. government ordered potentially critical email evidence destroyed."

Nobody does it better...

Tieleman has been sitting in on the Basi-Virk hearings and trial from the beginning.

You can also find the link to Bill's blog to the right of this posting under "Links."

Forget the fires in Kelowna and RV's parking at Jericho during That Sporting Event Next Year. Those are not the stories that should headline our dailies.

This is the one true story and if newspaper editors don't know that then their publishers should stop wondering about declining sales.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this scandal happened in Newfoundland, it would not have had less coverage in the Vancouver media than it has as a local story.

Ron H.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree that this is THE story and that it should be front and centre. However, I'm sure that newspaper editors know all too well the importance of this story and that there is another reason(s) they aren't giving it their full attention. The fact that Campbell and his minions have a stranglehold on what passes for journalism in this province is an equally important story. I feel as though I'm living in a benign dictatorship with a touch of the police state thrown in. And thank goodness for Bill Tieleman is all I can say and for people such as yourself that won't let this go.

Mo.

Anonymous said...

I guess there is a reason I haven't bought a newspaper in years. I prefer the free 24hr paper..now that is sad!

Lisa. A said...

Hi david,
I new you would be back, you can't keep a good scorpion down.

I love the way you look at our world.

Welcome back.

RossK said...

Re: The Sons of the CEOs.

Five words:

The Great Canadian Railtour Company.

As originally published in the Tyee way back in 2005 (which has since disappeared own the interwebz rabbit hole sans GooglyCachin'):

"The Great Canadian Railtour Company, which also operates Rocky Mountaineer Vacations, was awarded a contract by Canadian National last year (ie. in 2004) to provide passenger rail services along a line from North Vancouver to Whistler.

Canadian Railtour founder Peter Armstrong has donated more than $60,000 to the Liberals, both personally and through his companies, since 2002 (to 2005) according to reports filed with Elections BC.

Armstrong’s former employees include the premier’s son, Nicholas Campbell, as well as CN chairman David McLean’s son, Sacha McLean, according to a recent book by Paul Grescoe, entitled, “Trip of a Lifetime: The Making of the Rocky Mountaineer.�? The book details Armstrong’s longstanding battle with VIA Rail.

Armstrong’s competitor for the passenger service bid raised questions about the selection process in an interview with Terminal City. “We put in a bid, we were told a lot of things that never happened, and we were told by certain people we had the best bid,�? said Whistler Railtours CEO John Haibeck. “In my opinion we got screwed."


_____

Of course, we all know who USED to own that track, BEFORE 2004, right?

.

Chris M said...

I appreciated the statement living in a benign dictatorship by one of your posters.
I don't find this very benign, however.
This type of behaviour would have sunk all previous governments.
The fuming and rage that would have been huffed and puffed by opposition would have led to the downfall of the party in power.
Why isn't it happening now?
There are too many people in bed together (from all parties)and walks of life.
Journalism is gone in this province.