Paul Nettleton also says the finance ministry e-mail files allegedly showing a campaign against the BC Rail are fakes.
"Your recent blog on BCR was brought to my attention with specific reference to my "letter to former Transportation Minister Reid" on the BCR sale. At no time did I correspond with Minister Reid at the direction of Lois Boone (former NDP Transportation Minister) and/or anyone else in the NDP. Furthermore at no time did anyone in the NDP request that I do so!
Paul Nettleton"
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Nettleson was too honset to be on Gordos team
Wow...this bunch is more corrupt than they accused the NDP of ever being.
Paul,
Justice Bennett raised the issue of Kinsella today in court. She was concerned that the government may have more documents that go to the $300,000 Kinsella was paid by BC Rail.
The defence lawyer raised the fact that they have an email discussing that Kinsella was a "backroom Liberal".
There is smoke around the activities of Mr. Kinsella.
Kinsella lobbying matter raised by judge in Basi-Virk case
By Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun March 12, 2009 2:02
VANCOUVER – The trial judge in Basi-Virk case raised the matter of BC Rail/Patrick Kinsella lobbyist matter Thursday in court, saying she had read about it in the newspaper.
"I don't know if you want to address any issue related to the Kinsella documents or not," B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett said. "I gather there are more documents."
Defence lawyer Kevin McCullough responded by saying all he knows about the matter is what was raised in Thursday's Vaughn Palmer column in The Vancouver Sun.
The lawyer told the judge that he understood that the New Democratic Party had obtained documents from the legislative library listing lobbyist payments of almost $300,000 from BC Rail to Patrick Kinsella, a well-known Liberal strategist.
"What we don't know is why would BC Rail have a lobbyist and pay him $297,000," McCullough told the judge, adding that the defence is seeking third-party records to partly answer that question.
He reminded the judge there is an email from 2004 to Mr. Kevin Mahoney, then vice-president of BC Rail, from another executive, asking: "Why are we paying this guy?" and the response is that Kinsella is a "backroom Liberal."
The lawyer said at the time of the email exchange between the BC Rail executives there was an audit being done at BC Rail and questions were being asked about the payments made to Kinsella and his company.
The Kinsella matter arose during two days of question period at the legislature in Victoria this week, when the NDP repeatedly asked why BC Rail paid Kinsella $297,000 over three years from 2002 through 2004.
The Liberals sold off the government-owned railway's freight operations to Canadian National Railway for $1 billion in 2003.
During the period in question, Kinsella chaired two successful B.C. Liberal election campaigns.
Attorney-General Wally Oppal declined to answer questions about the matter, saying it was before the courts in the Basi-Virk case, which is in pre-trial proceedings.
Earlier Thursday, Bennett ruled that the defence must refine its application for third-party records because it was too broad.
The defence lawyers seek emails and cell phone records of MLAs to see if they had contact with Pilothouse, a lobbying firm that represented OmniTrax, a U.S. bidder for BC Rail.
The judge found the defence application "needs to be more precise and manageable." Individual MLAs have to be named in the application with supporting affidavit material, she added.
The defence had sought to have the office of the speaker of the legislature collect the information sought from MLAs.
The defence also is seeking documents from the office of the government's conflict commissioner, where MLAs have to file conflict of interest disclosure forms.
Frank Falzon, the lawyer representing the conflict commissioner, told the judge Thursday that his position is that the material sought by the defence is confidential.
"It's fundamental to my position that parliamentary privilege is absolute," he told the court.
The case involves two former government aides, Dave Basi and Bob Virk, who are accused of accepting a benefit, fraud and breach of trust related to the controversial sale of BC Rail in 2003.
A third former government aide, Basi's cousin, Aneal Basi, is accused of money-laundering.
At the time, Dave Basi was a senior assistant to finance minister Gary Collins and Virk was an assistant to transportation minister Judith Reid. Aneal Basi worked in government communications.
The trio was charged after police raided offices inn the legislature on Dec. 28, 2003.
nhall@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Anon-Above--
Is that the sound of Mr. Oppal's long, slow exhale I can hear from hear, all the way across the water?
Aaaaargh!
____
And now we know the double-edged sword (foil) power of the writings of Vaughn Palmer....because as long as the profile was low with just us bloggers and a few independents like Holman making noise, it would appear that nobody cared......sheesh.
.
double sheesh--
I'm so flummoxed by this that I forgot how to spell.....
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