“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” – Joni Mitchell

A number of citizens have been gathered at Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island, demonstrating against the provincial government’s decision to create a 2 hectare parking lot. On February 24, 2004, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of British Columbia and the Attorney General of the Province of British Columbia commenced an action in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against “John Doe 1 through John Doe 50” and “Jane Doe 1 through Jane Doe 50”.

In this curious proceeding, the government’s lawyers have alleged that the Does have trespassed on Crown lands and have intentionally interfered with the Crown’s use and enjoyment of these public lands. The government seeks damages, interest and court costs from the Does.

We have responded on behalf of Maureen Sager by filing a Statement of Defence alleging that the proceeding is a SLAPP suit and an abuse of the court’s process. We have also served notice to conduct examinations of Attorney General Plant and Minister Barisoff on Friday, March 5, 2004 in Nanaimo. The government’s lawyers have responded by saying that these Ministers of the Crown will not attend.

The issues arising in this case may be addressed in Nanaimo on March 8, 2004, when the government seeks to have an application for an injunction heard. If granted, the injunction would restrain all the Does, and everyone else having notice from being in something called a “working area”. According to the usual practice in British Columbia in these cases, anyone who refused to obey such an order would be arrested an become subjected to contempt of court proceedings. The courts tend to deal with such matters harshly. For example, Betty Krawczyk recently completed a jail sentence of the equivalent of 14 months imposed for contempt of court after she refused to step off a public logging road.

The saga continues at 10:00 a.m. in Nanaimo Supreme Court on Monday, March 8, 2004. For more information, go to: www.cathedralgrove.com

According to reports on Vancouver radio station CKNW, Vancouver Police Union President Tom Stamatakis “tore a strip off organizations like the Pivot Legal Society and Vancouver lawyers Cameron Ward and Phil Rankin for persecuting the police…Stamatakis said there seems to be a political agenda that goes beyond police conduct. He also blamed the media for ‘sensationalizing the stories.”

I confess. Mr. Stamatakis is right. I have an agenda. I want better policing in my city and I want a police force that the residents of Vancouver can trust and respect.

Mr. Stamatakis’ ire is misplaced. He should try to get his own house in order. I didn’t beat Michael Jacobsen in a jail cell and lie about it for years, I didn’t trash a house on Commercial Drive and try to cover it up, I didn’t beat people with batons outside the Hyatt Hotel, I didn’t beat Jeff Berg to death in an alley, I didn’t drag Frank Paul out of the jail and leave him to die, I didn’t assault people at the Guns ‘n Roses concert and I didn’t take three people to the woods of Stanley Park and beat them up. I speak out about these incidents because I consider that I have a duty to do so.

One can legitimately question whether the Vancouver Police Union serves the best interests of the residents of Vancouver. While Vancouver is not New York, the report of the 1994 Mollen Commission into police misconduct in that city may be instructive.

At page 66, the Commission wrote: “Unfortunately, based on our own observations and on information received from prosecutors, corruption investigators, and high-ranking police officials, police unions sometimes fuel the insularity that charachterizes police culture.”

And, at page 67: “In the course of corruption investigations and Departmental administrative proceedings, police unions suffer from a conflict of interest between protecting the interests of the individual officer and promoting the larger interests of their members. Consequently, according to Department managers and prosecutors, police unions help perpetuate the characteristics of police culture that protect corrupt officers.”

Methinks this union leader doth protest too much.

The Auditor-General has released her long-awaited report into the federal Liberals’ sponsorship program. She found that millions of dollars of taxpayers’ monies were siphoned off by Liberal friends and insiders from the sponsorship program administered by Public Works. Paul Martin, our new unelected Prime Minister, has professed surprise and shock and has vowed to get to the bottom of the scandal. He has said that he was “out of the loop” and knew nothing. Can we believe him?

I submit that anyone who has spent a month in the city of Ottawa in the last twenty years would become aware that the Liberal party has operated a gravy train, doling out vast sums of our money to its friends and supporters. I spent three years there while getting my law degree and I could see evidence of the Liberals’ largesse everywhere.

Paul Martin has been connected to the Liberal party his entire life, some 65 years. He has been an elected MP since 1988, some 15 years. Before ascending to his present job as Prime Minister, he was the Minister of Finance and the highest ranking cabinet minister from the province of Quebec. So, was he blissfully unaware that tens of millions of dollars were ending up in the hands of Liberal cronies?

Maybe the electorate should decide.

Vancouver Radio station CKNW has reported that a Coroner’s Inquest will soon be held into the death of Jeff Berg, who died October 24, 2000 after being arrested by Vancouver police Constable David Bruce-Thomas. This news comes after Berg family counsel Cameron Ward wrote to Attorney General Geoff Plant on February 6, 2004, demanding that he order that an Inquest be held.

The CKNW story:

VANCOUVER (CKNW/AM980) — More than three years ago Jeff Berg died during his arrest by Vancouver Police in an eastside alley. Today, Vancouver coroner Stephen Fonseca announced an inquest will be held. Fonseca says no date for the inquest has yet been set because he is still trying to bring all the witnesses and lawyers together. But he’s hoping to have it done before the Police Complaints public hearing in June.

Chief Coroner Terry P. Smith, in a letter mistakenly dated Novemvber 19, 2004 and received by us on February 23, 2004, has responded to our letter to Mr. Plant. Mr. Smith indicated that the Coroner “intends to proceed with an inquest at the earliest opportunity”.

As of February 26, 2004, we still have not received formal confirmation of the inquest date, although Coroner Stephen Fonseca has indicated that it may be held starting October 4, 2004.

The Berg family is distressed by the extraordinary delay in getting this matter before a Coroner’s jury and we have written the Coroner to request an earlier date.

The Benchers of the Law Society of British Columbia have resolved, by a vote of 17-9, to instruct staff to prepare a form of referendum question dealing with the appropriateness of compelling BC lawyers to pay CBA fees as a condition to obtaining a practice certificate from the Law Society.

It is expected that the binding referendum will occur prior to the 2005 practice year. Past and present CBA executive members spoke against the referendum concept, but their views were rejected by a majority of the Benchers.