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Letters to the Editor
Subject: Organized crime grows well in B.C. Jan. 7, 2004
Letter To Leo April 18, 2004
Greetings, Leo:
I just came across your Jan 7 column on-line. Thanks for the effort. It can't be easy to be a journalist in B.C. these days.
I wonder what your more recent reaction is to the continuing official silence about the significance or the RCMP raid on the B.C. Legislature. Why, indeed, aren't journalists and other citizens "howling in the streets?"
I wouldn't have believed that such a shattering event as searching a provincial legislature for evidence of drugs trafficking could be suppressed or ignored. Yes, I see how CanWest could clamp the lid down on even a story this big. But how could every little on-line newspaper be blind and deaf to what Sgt. Ward said -- over the heads of his superiors and our elected officials as if he well understood it would be our only chance to hear the truth. He said "It's about Organized Crime ... at all levels of society ..."
I felt disbelief as the BC Throne Speech unfolded as if the RCMP raid hadn't happened. And when the B.C. Budget cut back on the police budget while increasing the government's dependency on gambling revenues. From what I now understand: casinos = gambling. Gambling = money-laundering. Money-laundering = Organized Crime. Some municipalities think of reducing property taxes by increasing slots revenues. Embedded.
But not until April 1 did I fully accept it. Then, at the very moment when Justice Patrick Dohm ought to have had centre stage, to provide the public with the information we have waited 3 months to hear, he was obliterated by Paul Martin hitting town with his shock-and-awe press conference. The sheer audacity of it!
How could the P.M. have risked it? Well, of course. Silly me. Paul Martin knew in advance that Dohm would say nothing of importance. Paul Martin proved to us all that HE has so little to fear, he almost appointed one of his minions -- that "person of interest" Bill Cunningham -- for one of the federal ridings.
Outrageous insult. Obviously, he not only accepts the criminal possibilities, he flaunts them. And he doesn't give a damn what any of us think. Paul is "open and transparent" about THAT, at least.
And so the only conclusion possible is that Organized Crime and Legitimate Governments got married at some point in the past. We just didn't notice.
This sure doesn't make me feel better.
I hope you'll keep writing about it. Was the media ever so important as they are now in British Columbia!
Mary Mackie
Hi Leo,
I've just spent an instructive hour reading your columns. What a relief! But I'm as puzzled as you are about the Eastern media. Chantal Hebert, for example, told me she wouldn't accept negative reports on Liberals made "by the Opposition". Tom Walkom actually asked me why Paul Martin would engage in the drugs trade when he already has heaps of money. I was seeing "Western Alienation" for the first time. When I lived in B.C., I never believed it existed.
Believe it or not, Norman Spector agrees that "Basigate" revealed will be a far bigger issue than the sponsorship scandal. Linda McQuaig thought my view of it "very interesting". But nothing budges them to get into print with it. I can only conclude that there's been a lock-down already. It shatters every belief I ever held.
What about that strange burglary of Bruce Torrie's home? Was it a fake? Or is it a cover-up? He provided a police file number but I've seen no mention of it whatever, since the original report in Indy Media Victoria. I'll copy it here, for convenience:
Victoria Independent Media Center
Did Basi's Boy's Burgle Bruce Torrie's Victoria Home?
by Alan Rycroft and Bruce Torrie , Friday February 06, 2004
Bruce Torrie is a well-known environmentalist with a keen interest in climate change. He is also a long-time member of the Liberal Party who has been investigating the infiltration of the Liberal Party by organized crime. Recently his home in Victoria was burgled by unknown persons. The RCMP is investigating....
LIBERAL LAWYER'S HOUSE BURGLARY FOLLOWS BRIEFINGS ON ORGANIZED CRIME
For Immediate Release: February 4, 2004
VANCOUVER -- The Victoria home of Bruce Torrie was burgled last weekend, three weeks after he began briefing high-placed Liberals about the possible infiltration of the Liberal Party of Canada by organized crime. Bruce Torrie is the former Legal Counsel to the LIberal Party of Canada (BC) and the Liberal Party of BC, as well as the former President of the Vancouver Centre Provincial Liberal Riding Association, and the former Policy Chair of the LIberal Party of BC.
"Police tell me that this was the work of professionals, who cut phone lines to disable the alarm system," said Torrie. "They left almost everything of real value, taking only three large jars of pocket change and a few other items. They found two secret hiding places in my home that I didn't even know existed, and turned my house upside down apparently looking for information."
Torrie has been briefing high-placed LIberal Party officials and activists from his Vancouver home since January 9, and believes the burglary is related to his briefings.
"After the RCMP raid on the B. C. Legislature, it's no secret that police are investigating organized crime at the highest levels of Canadian society," said Torrie. "I think organized crime was trying to find out what I know about their activities within the Liberal Party of Canada."
Torrie believes that there are two crime rings fighting for control within the LIberal Party of Canada, and that several prominent politicians and party functionaries are "patsies or proxies for organized crime."
Information:
Bruce Torrie, 604. 685 0222
RCMP, 250 474. 2264 (file no. 20041551)
The burglary is being investigated by the RCMP. Media outlets wishing to gain access to the crime scene in Victoria are asked to schedule an appointment through Bruce Torrie.
Mary Mackie