(This
column was published in the North
Shore News on
May 16, 2001)
Dosanjh was a disastrous AG
By Leo Knight
I
could scarcely believe my ears last week, listening to CKNW and
hearing senior reporter Yvonne Emore do a piece saying many
Vancouver Police officers were sorry that Premier Ujjal Dosanjh
wasn't a BC Liberal because he was a good attorney general.
Compared
to what? To Colin Gableman, his predecessor? (I suspect a
reasonably well-trained chimpanzee could have done a better job
than him.) But, surely not when compared to what a real attorney
general should be like. As the chief law enforcement officer,
his office is supposed to transcend politics; its first duty is
to the fair application and administration of the law.
I
don't know whom Emore was speaking to in the VPD, but I can
assure you she sure wasn't talking to any of the dozens of
veteran officers I communicate with on a regular basis.
Dosanjh
has been an unmitigated disaster by any measuring stick. And,
not just as premier, but right from the day he was appointed to
executive council as attorney general. The first file to cross
his desk was the standoff at Gustavsen Lake. So gung-ho was our
erstwhile AG, that within two weeks of taking office he firmly
inserted his foot into his mouth publicly discussing operational
initiatives. Mounties handling the delicate situation had to
call a press conference to say the attorney general was wrong.
Dosanjh
lurched from disaster to disaster. The brother of his good buddy
Paul Gill went on trial for a pair of gang-related murders, then
got into the much-publicized affair with a juror empanelled to
try the case. Then he left a wedding reception shortly before
gunfire erupted in another gangland shooting.
On
the one hand, Dosanjh would hold a press conference to say how
tough on crime he was. He'd follow that up with the lunacy
called conditional sentencing, ensuring that long-term habitual
criminals would never see the inside of a jail cell, as long as
theirs wasn't a violent offence.
He
failed to stand up for British Columbians, allowing organized
crime to get a stranglehold on the waterfront as the feds
dismantled the Canada Ports Police and then allowed the Chinese
shipping company, COSCO, to establish a West Coast base in
Vancouver. This happened after the Americans refused to let them
into Long Beach, California. The U.S. National Security Agency
put up a stiff fight because of COSCO's links to the People's
Liberation Army and Asian triads. Well, they now have their West
Coast base.
Speaking
about his failures when it comes to organized crime, in 1997, a
document was presented to him by a member of the Vancouver
Police Department outlining what was needed to appropriately
investigate and prosecute members of the Hells Angels. It was,
in effect, a blueprint.
The
document, I'm told, was binned. It would take until January of
2001 before police managed their first significant conviction
against the bikers. And that investigation had to be conducted
without anyone in the attorney general's office being aware for
fear of compromising the inquiry.
Then
there is the whole Glen Clark debacle. As attorney general, he
was briefed by his officials on the nature of the investigation
involving the then premier, the day after the search warrant was
conducted on Clark's residence. His clear and legal duty was to
speak to Clark and, without outlining details of the
investigation, advise Clark that he was the subject of a police
probe and, as such, that he must step aside pending completion
of the investigation.
But
he didn't. No, he waited for six months until he had his
leadership ducks in a row to tell the premier about the
investigation, effectively placing the knife firmly between the
shoulder blades of the Clark administration. Such political
opportunism, while manifestly neglecting the duty of his office,
should have been enough to force his own resignation.
But
it didn't stop there.
In
securing the leadership of the NDP, Dosanjh's cronies forged
numerous names on membership cards and who knows how many of
those "new members" voted for him, whether or not they
were actually at the convention.
In
failing to call for an immediate audit on the new memberships
and set aside the more flagrant irregularities and ordering an
investigation into the actions of the perpetrators, Dosanjh, in
effect, condoned the cheating and in fact was the beneficiary.
And, he did this while he was the chief law enforcement officer
for the province.
It's
hard to imagine any British Columbian even suggesting that he
was a good attorney general. Gableman aside, he was the farthest
thing from it. Having said that, I suppose he was better at that
than being premier.
As
you read this, the polls are just closing. Please God, let this
battered and bruised province have seen the back of that man.
•
• •
As a final thought, I would suggest that incipient Premier Gordon Campbell, have a serious re-think about enacting the NDP's promise of an $8 minimum wage. The business community, big and small, has been beaten to a pulp by nearly 10 years of NDP so-called government. Whatever the political reasoning, a stupid idea is still a stupid idea.
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