Today's massive, hair-raising scandal

More dispatches from the land that ethics forgot, this one from Mark Hume in the Globe and Mail:

VANCOUVER -- The biggest political scandal in Canada may not lie in Quebec, where the Gomery inquiry is laying bare a tawdry tale of misdirected funds, but in British Columbia, where a conservative judiciary is suppressing information about alleged drug dealing, money laundering and influence peddling. Because of restrictive court orders that are keeping search warrants and other material secret, little has been made public about the B.C. case that led police to raid the provincial legislature in December of 2003. Although Prime Minister Paul Martin promised last week to call an election within 30 days of Mr. Justice John Gomery's final report, in B.C. voters are being sent to the polls before hearing any details and without any promise of a public inquiry. "As far as we know, there would appear to be no federal involvement at all," Mr. Martin said last year in dismissing the need to examine the involvement of his party in the B.C. case...

Oh no? Read on:

The most detailed information is found in statements filed with the court by Corporal Andrew Cowan of the RCMP's commercial crime section. Cpl. Cowan is one of the lead investigators on the case, which became public in 2003 when police raided the legislative offices of Udhe Singh (David) Basi and Bobby Singh (Bob) Virk. In some of the few documents released by the courts, Cpl. Cowan alleges that Mr. Basi, then an aide to the B.C. finance minister, and Mr. Virk, then an aide to the B.C. transportation minister, traded secret government information about the pending $1-billion sale of BC Rail, in an attempt to get jobs with the Liberals in Ottawa. Cpl. Cowan states that during the investigation "Erik Bornman . . . an associate of Basi's became a person of interest . . . Bornman promotes Basi and Virk with recommendations pertaining to jobs with the federal government, with the knowledge that their credentials are fabricated or exaggerated." Mr. Bornman was the operations manager for Mr. Martin's campaign in British Columbia and was the director of communications for the federal Liberals on the West Coast. Prior to that, he was a political assistant to Mr. Martin when the Prime Minister was finance minister. There are more links to the Liberals. Cpl. Cowan states that Mark Marissen and Bruce Clark were among those interviewed by police and he describes them this way: "Marissen is responsible for the B.C. hiring pool of Paul Martin's transition government . . . Clark is a fundraiser for the Paul Martin campaign and the federal Liberal Party." Cpl. Cowan states that Mr. Marissen told police: "He ran Paul Martin's leadership campaign in British Columbia. "Given that role he was aware of probably the largest number of people (in B.C.) that might be available for employment by the new government of Prime Minister Paul Martin. "He forwarded résumés to Ottawa for consideration. The decisions as to who would be hired would be made in Ottawa.

Oh, but there's more:

Mr. Basi was a busy political operative in British Columbia. He helped the federal and provincial Liberals organize and had a reputation of being able to sign up lots of new members fast. At one point, he helped Mandeep Singh Sandhu become a director of the Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca federal Liberal constituency. Three weeks before the legislature raids, police searched Mr. Sandhu's house and seized an undisclosed amount of money. Mr. Sandhu is the cousin of Victoria Police Constable Ravinder Singh (Rob) Dosanjh who is charged with willfully attempting to obstruct justice for allegedly telling Mr. Sandhu to "make false statements to law enforcement officials" about the origin of the money. Mr. Sandhu was charged last September with conspiracy to traffic in marijuana. Charged at the same time, with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, was Mr. Basi and six others. So there you have it. Drugs. Money. Political connections. Police raids in the legislative precinct. Lists of names being sent to Ottawa for jobs in Mr. Martin's government. How do all these things connect? And where do they lead? Last year, Conservative MP John Reynolds asked the government to provide assurances that drug money wasn't used in Mr. Martin's leadership campaign, which in British Columbia involved a remarkable recruiting drive that signed up 36,000 new Liberal members. "Where did all the fundraising money come from?" asked Mr. Reynolds, who, like many British Columbians is still waiting for an answer to that and other questions.