(This
column was published in the North
Shore News on
May 13, 1998)
Charges
haven't cleared NCHS air
By Leo Knight
LAST
week's news of the criminal charges laid against former NDP
cabinet minister, MLA and MP, Dave Stupich, his wife (partner)
Elizabeth Marlow, and his daughter, Marjorie Boggis, stunned
much of the provincial political world.
Former
NDP party secretary Joe Denofreo and the party's news organ, The
Democrat, were also charged with various criminal offences.
More
stunning, perhaps, were the charges that weren't laid and the
reasons why this matter took so long to come to a head.
Lost
within all the media flap and political rhetoric emanating from
both sides of the house was the scandalous breach of
confidentiality by someone.
That
breach resulted in the members of the NDP caucus receiving
advance information of the coming criminal charges and so-called
"briefing notes" -- spin-doctored pat responses to be
delivered to troublesome media types asking questions.
While
it may seem there are several unrelated issues, they are, in my
opinion, inextricably tied to the morally challenged government
of British Columbia.
Let's
break it down.
In
1994, the RCMP concluded its first investigation which, publicly
at least, resulted in four charges being laid against the
Nanaimo Commonwealth Holdings Society (NCHS) and its related
societies.
No
individuals were charged.
It's
like charging the car involved in an accident after the driver
blew a red light.
But
the reality was the RCMP recommended over 14 criminal charges
against responsible individuals, including the NDP's eminence
grise, Dave Stupich.
RCMP
commercial crime investigator Rick Boyarski was on his way to
Nanaimo by ferry to lay those charges when he was suddenly
called back with orders not to lay the charges.
It
was never determined exactly what happened, but it can
reasonably be concluded that a deal was done between special
prosecutor Ace Henderson and Stupich's lawyer Lenny Daoust. The
result left the RCMP's investigators fuming mad, privately.
The
subsequent Parks report left the door open for the RCMP to
reopen its investigation with renewed vigor.
The
resulting inquiry comprised a six-man team working full-time for
over two years.
It
cost the taxpayers over $2 million, including the forensic
auditor.
Last
week the other shoe dropped for Stupich, much to the
satisfaction of the Mounties, denied a result by the Henderson/Daoust
deal.
But
the police also recommended charges against two other party
hacks as well as former Premier Dave Barrett and Bob Williams,
another former cabinet minister and long-time party strongman.
Yet,
despite the evidence gathered by the RCMP, special prosecutors
John Taggart and Don Sorochan announced it was not "in the
public interest" to file those charges.
But
in the announcement it was never explained exactly why it is
against the public interest.
In
a document obtained by the North Shore News, entitled Charge
Approval Guidelines, it states in the section Public
Interest Test: "It is generally in the public interest to
proceed with a prosecution where the following factors exist or
are alleged:
"(G)
the alleged offender was in a position of authority or
trust."
The
recommended charges emanated from Barrett's defeat at the polls
in the 1975 election.
Bob
Williams gave up his seat in return for a consultancy paid for
by the NCHS, a supposed non-profit fund-raising society.
Considering
we are talking about elected office, I fail to see how guideline
(G) does not apply specifically.
Barrett
has already been the subject of stinging public criticism for
his appointment to the so-called "leaky condo"
commission.
Assisting
Barrett as legal counsel is Peter Leask, a very capable lawyer
by all accounts, who has performed as a special prosecutor
himself in a number of high-profile cases, not the least of
which was the matter of Dr. John Gossage, the New Westminster
pediatrician who was investigated for several years following a
host of allegations of sexual impropriety.
Gossage
was found guilty of unprofessional conduct by the College of
Physicians and Surgeons in 1994 but was never charged criminally
despite the seemingly overwhelming evidence.
Leask
stated there wasn't enough.
His
opinion was supported by a co-special prosecutor, Don Sorochan.
Notice how the same names keep cropping up?
Now
I don't know if there's any connection to charges not laid
against Barrett and Williams, and I don't say there was.
But
even if there wasn't, there is an appearance of conflict and
that in itself raises the question of impropriety.
Then
there are Williams' ties to Premier Glen Clark. Williams has
been long described as Clark's mentor. In fact, he is also
connected through a night club run by Williams' family, The
Railway Club in downtown Vancouver.
One
of the directors of the club and the society which runs it, the
Railwaymen's Club, is Ron Wickstrom, a chief political advisor
to the premier.
After
the announcement, Barrett gave a statement saying, "I am
completely exonerated."
Horsefeathers!
The
statement made by the special prosecutors is hardly an
exoneration by any stretch of the imagination.
At
best it says there wasn't quite enough evidence despite the
police assertion there was more than enough.
Back
to the leak of information from someone in the know which
resulted in the briefing memo to NDP caucus members an hour
before the charges were laid and two hours before the police
press conference announcing the charges.
Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh was briefed at approximately 11 a.m., as was the Assistant Deputy Attorney General Ernie Quantz.
Dosanjh briefed Deputy Premier, Dan Miller at approximately 3 p.m. Miller is bound by the confidentiality of his office and the briefing was only given as a long-standing courtesy in cases of political significance.
When
the story broke, Dosanjh angrily denied any possibility of a
leak from his office.
NDP
party president Brian Gardiner immediately claimed it was he who
leaked the information to caucus, saying he had been phoned by
the police and briefed. Obviously, he was trying to deflect any
heat from the AG or, more likely, Dan Miller.
But,
unfortunately for him, the Mounties never gave him that
information.
When
they called him, it was after the memo had been circulated to
caucus and it was only to tell him of the charges against The
Democrat, not of the whole series of charges laid. So,
clearly he was not the source of the leaked information.
Who
then was?
The
stink over NCHS has not abated with the charges against Stupich.
Clearly there's a lot more that needs to be looked at.
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