CKNW Editorial
for February 8, 2001

The Carrier Lumber case simply takes the breath away with the enormity of the government's culpability and the actions of individual ministers.

First there is the basis of the lawsuit itself. According to the evidence of the Deputy Minister himself, then Premier Harcourt and then Forests Minister Zirnhelt simply took away the rights of Carrier to cut by promising a veto over cutting to two Indian bands. Think about that for a moment – the government expropriated the rights of a citizen, without hearing, without
compensation and without any colour of legal right. It would have been no different if Premier Harcourt had promised someone else your home.

Then this disgrace was compounded by the government trying to make it appear that Carrier was not living up to its silvaculture requirements. This the judge found to be a sham. A ministry in your government and mine tried to cover up their own egregious misdeeds by making it appear that the aggrieved logging company was the sinner. Bad enough that Harcourt and Zirnhelt usurped Carrier's rights but instead of compensation for their unauthorized highhandedness they offer blame.

Then there is the matter of the lawsuit itself. In a civilized country there must be the rule of law. Without it there can be no justice and without justice there can be no free society. For the rule of law to be supreme the courts must be respected and a very large part of that respect comes by the requirement that all who appear before them do so openly and with clean hands. In civil cases parties are required by discovery practices to disclose information and if they do not do so, they are in contempt of the courts, the judicial system and the rule of law. This government misled the court and hid documentary evidence as if they were common thieves trying to fix up an alibi.

To all of this is added another dimension which will take away what little breath you may have left after digesting all this. The decision, a scathing indictment of the government, its ministers, bureaucrats and its policies, comes to the Attorney-general for a decision as to whether or not it should be appealed. And the Attorney-general, now our premier, Ujjal Dosanjh, advises the government to appeal and says now that he did so without reading the decision! Think on that for a moment. Here is a case that calls into question the actions of four of his colleagues, three of whom have either been or are now premier and Her Majesty's chief legal adviser advises an appeal without having read the judgment!

Now, no one expects the A/G to read all the tuppeny, ha'penny cases that the Crown might or not appeal but this was the biggest, by far, case involving the government in the history of British Columbia cfor as far back as I can remember. This was huge. Not only was it huge, but some of the findings of the judge cried out for further investigation by the police and perhaps action by Crown Counsel. Yet Ujjal Dosanjh advised the premier of the day and his cabinet to appeal without even looking at what the appeal was all about.

Now, Mr Dosanjh admits he knew the gist of what the judge said ... Gadfrey Daniel, the gist of what the judge said, as reported in the media, was that the NDP government had stolen rights, tried to make it look like the victim was to blame, refused to settle and impeded the judicial process. Knowing that, Dosanjh didn't read the judgment and discuss the case frankly with Her Majesty's Council, the Cabinet and give advice as to possible settlement! Now let's examine why Mr Dosanjh, a trained lawyer himself, didn't read the decision and advised an appeal. It ain't rocket science, folks, it's called politics. Maybe the plaintiffs would run out of money or courage, or both and the matter could be settled all nice and quiet like. Maybe the appeal would not be heard until after the election when it would be politically harmless.

There is no point in asking for resignations. The NDP, which hollered for them whenever Socreds sinned ... like forgetting to have one's name taken off the shareholders' list of a company doing business with the government ... or seeing that some lottery money went to a political ally ... or saying something bad about a lawyer in what was assumed to be a private conversation ... or having a deputy minister who fiddled some expenses ... in all those cases the NDP screamed for resignations and got them. Here we have two Forests Minister, one who became Premier, one former Premier who made the back of the envelop decision to take away Carrier's rights, another former premier who didn't demand a full inquiry into the matter when the judgment was handed down and one former attorney-general now premier who didn't bother to read the judgment.

It's hard to deal with this because, like most of you I'm sure, I'm scandled out with this bunch. The only good news is. I suppose, that the government can't possibly skate this one by an electing public. The bad news, of course, is not only that this will cost taxpayers upwards of $200 million before it's all over but that as British Columbia stands disgraced in the eyes of all who learn about this disgusting behaviour.

It does indeed take the breath away.