7/15/2008

In the Matter of the Special Prosecutor for The BC Rail Case



Following are sections of the British Columbia Crown Council Act pertaining to the Special Prosecutor. With the recent events in the BC Court of Appeal and the Special Prosecutor in the Legislature Raids/BC Rail Fiasco it may help some in seeing what can be done if this trial is dropped.


Given the fact that nothing can be witheld after the trial ends I don't see how the government would have any choice but to further delay this trial in any way possible until after the next election. If they have to open the books so to speak they just may lose the election. Hell, they could wind up being sued. That would be a Civil Court matter and I'm fairly sure that they can't hide behind priviledge there.


Directions from Attorney General on specific prosecutions

5 If the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General gives the ADAG a direction with respect to the approval or conduct of any specific prosecution or appeal, that direction must be:

(a) given in writing to the ADAG, and

(b) published in the Gazette.

Policy directive from Attorney General

6 (1) If the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General wishes to issue a directive respecting the Criminal Justice Branch policy on the approval or conduct of prosecutions, that directive must be given in writing to the ADAG and, in the discretion of the ADAG, may be published in the Gazette.


(2) If the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General wishes to issue a directive respecting the administration of the Branch, that directive must, if requested by the ADAG, be given in writing and may, in the discretion of the ADAG, be published in the Gazette.
Special prosecutors

7 (1) If the ADAG considers it is in the public interest, he or she may appoint a lawyer, who is not employed in the Ministry of Attorney General, as a special prosecutor.

(2) A special prosecutor must carry out his or her mandate, as set out in writing by the ADAG, and in particular must:

(a) examine all relevant information and documents and report to the ADAG with respect to the approval and conduct of any specific prosecution, and

(b) carry out any other responsibilities respecting the initiation and conduct of a specific prosecution.

(3) If the ADAG appoints a special prosecutor, the ADAG must advise the Deputy Attorney General :

(a) that a special prosecutor has been appointed, and

(b) the name of the special prosecutor.

(4) If, after a special prosecutor receives the mandate under subsection (2), the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General or ADAG gives a direction to a special prosecutor in respect of any matter within the mandate of the special prosecutor, that direction must be given in writing and be published in the Gazette.

(5) Subject to the mandate given to the special prosecutor by the ADAG or to a directive referred to in subsection (4), the decision of a special prosecutor with respect to any matter within his or her mandate is final, but a decision not to approve a prosecution may be appealed by a law enforcement officer under the process established by section 4 (4).
Delay in publication

8 (1) The Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General or ADAG may direct publication in the Gazette of those matters referred to in section 5 or 7 be delayed if to do so would be in the interests of the administration of justice.

(2) A delay under subsection (1) must not extend beyond the completion of the prosecution or matter or any related prosecution or matter.

[All italics mine]

So the way I see this is that if these directions are delayed in getting to the Gazette then we can find out what is going on as soon as the trial ends. Hopefully it won't be dropped but if it is , that could be a good thing. Because at that time we will get whatever information that was given to the SP from the BC Gazette.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just love when one has to search somewhere else on the internet to find what something like "ADAG" means and then surprisingly finds something unrelated, but related.

"The Criminal Justice Branch contributes to the protection of society by preparing for and conducting prosecutions diligently and fairly, and by striving to develop the most effective methods to administer justice in the Province. The Branch prosecutes offences under the Criminal Code of Canada, the Youth Justice Act, and provincial statutes in the Provincial, Supreme and Appeal Courts of British Columbia and in the Supreme Court of Canada. The Branch provides legal advice to government and police on criminal law matters, and develops policies and procedures on issues relating tothe prosecution of criminal justice. The Assistant Deputy Attorney General is responsible for the administration of the Branch, which is divided into headquarters, Criminal Appeals and Special Prosecutions (CASP) and five regions which are headed by a Regional Crown Counsel.

PURPOSE OF POSITION

Under the direction of Headquarters (HQ) Crown Counsel provides administrative and legal support duties in a Headquarters corporate environment covering a wide variety of specialized legal matters before the British Columbia Provincial, Supreme and Appellate Courts and fostering good working relationship with all ministry employees and the general public . The position also receives functional direction from the Assistant to the Director and Executive Coordinator."



"......checking incoming mail, locating and attaching relevant background material as appropriate, bringing urgent requests to the attention of the lawyer, organizing other correspondence and materials for the lawyer in orderof priority and following up on responses as required by HQ lawyers, the Attorney General (AG), the Deputy Attorney General (DAG), the Assistant Deputy Attorney General (ADAG), or Directors"

ORGANIZATION CHART

1) Assistant Deputy Attorney General

2) Executive Coordinator

3) Director of Crown Counsel

4) Assistant to Director

5) Legal Secretary, various positions


************************************

Premier's Office should look something like this:

1) Deputy Minister (Ken Dobell)

2) Assistant Deputy Minister Corporate Services

3) Executive Director Finance and Administration, ML8, 00001234

4) Administrative Secretary, Clerk Steno R11, 00002345

5) Manager, Budget & Financial Services, ML4, 00003456
6) Budget Analyst, Finance Officer R21, 00004567
7) Senior Financial Analyst, Finance Officer (U/R), 00005678
8) Financial Analyst, Finance Officer R14, 00006789

9) Manager Finance & Admin Information Systems, ML3, 00007890
10) Records Officer, Admin Officer R18, 00002234

11)Administration Clerk, Clerk R9, 00003345
12) Receptionist, Office Assistant R7, 00004456


*******************

Finally

Job Description Help: Financial Responsibility

Describe the position's formal financial accountabilities. Include dollar amounts, as assigned under the ministry's Financial Authorities Matrix.

Also use this section to describe the position's informal financial responsibilities, such as cost-benefit analysis, contract management, collecting fees or monies owed, kickbacks from un-registered lobbyists, federal politicians, money laundering, and football games (family airfares and tickets for perks).

Gary E said...

You are so right anon 9:28PM. when you say "unrelated, but related". I had seen this some months ago and was thinking about it as I published this piece on the SP. It fits so well here.

Your comment on looking for something like ADAG reminds me that I should at least bracket the long form. I know it took me a while to figure out all these initials. I still have trouble with some.

Thank you so much for commenting and supplying this information. I have some others in a backlog that will be posted over the summer. (I hope)

Anonymous said...

So here you have it folks ACRONYMS that are currently in use by our MLAs. Its the fisheries department that gets me.



I recently (May 31) sent off an email to a neighouring MLA because what I observed parked on highway property, was on his turf. The law is that on highways, no advertising is permitted, not even election signs. The response came yesterday by snail mail with a comment that the MLA had referred my question to the Hon. Kevin Falcon and the acronym used was MoT.......... yep Minister of Transport, not Highways.

So, being naturally inquisitive, I decided to search the internet to find what lurks out there in the various Minister departments.

After four, I started to give up:

Forestry has 45 pages of abbreviations with "PPP" meaning "Public-Private Partnership" and "PPP(3P)" meaning "Probability Proportionate to Prediction (Obsolete)" and "ADM" "Assistant Deputy Minister" and something that looks strangely like its Roman "ADMCILM" which = "Assistant Deputy Minister's Committee on Integrated Land Management".

Tourism, Arts and Sports:

"PAA" = "Premier's Athletic Awards" and "LTADM"....wait.....wait.. if you think that this acronym has something to do with a assistant deputy minister...NO.....it stands for "Long-Term Athlete Development Model".

Ministry of Environment:

"RSC" = "Roster Steering Committee"
"RLUST" = "Residential leaking underground storage tank" with "PQRA" meaning "Guidance on Human Health Preliminary Quantitative Risk Assessment".

Not quite sure which Ministry this is but it looks like something that is recognized by only those that are in the know, sounds kind of fishy:

"RB = Rainbow Trout"
"RB = Right bank when looking downstream (note that the code for rainbow trout is also RB)"

Honest! That's what is written in their own handbook.

And yes there is a "LB" = "Left bank when lookign downstream".


Last but not least somewhere I've seen it written, oh yes, Forest, where ALC = Agcriculural Land Commission BUT here they have one called PALC = Provincial Agricultural Land Commission.