The timeline of the British Columbia Legislature raids is the series of key dates associated with the investigation, trial and political outcomes related to the British Columbia Legislature raids.
The public first became aware of the issue on December 28, 2003, when television cameras recorded "a shocking raid" by police officers into the legislative buildings of the provincial government of British Columbia (BC), Canada. Images of officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Victoria Police Department hauling boxes of evidence were widely broadcast. The offices searched belonged to Dave Basi and Bob Virk, ministerial assistants to two cabinet ministers. [1] The main criminal trial ended in October 2010 with Virk and Basi pleading guilty to breach of trust. Public questions and controversies continue about payment of $6 million by government to cover their legal fees and whether more people were involved in the corruption activities.
Gordon Muir Campbell, is a retired Canadian diplomat and politician who was the 35th mayor of Vancouver from 1986 to 1993 and the 34th premier of British Columbia from 2001 to 2011.
The New Democratic Party of British Columbia is a social democratic political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum and is one of the two major parties in British Columbia; since the 1990s, its rival was the centre-right BC United until the Conservative Party of British Columbia reconstituted itself for the 2024 British Columbia general election, with BC United withdrawing its candidates and endorsing the Conservatives. The party is formally affiliated with the federal New Democratic Party and serves as its provincial branch.
Ujjal Dev Dosanjh, is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the 33rd premier of British Columbia from 2000 to 2001 and as a Liberal Party of Canada member of Parliament from 2004 to 2011. He was minister of health from 2004 until 2006, when the party lost government. He then served in the Official Opposition from January 2006 until 2011. Dosanjh was one of four visible minorities to serve in Paul Martin's Ministry.
Glen David Clark is a Canadian retail executive and former politician who served as the 31st premier of British Columbia from 1996 to 1999.
The British Columbia Railway Company, commonly known as BC Rail, is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Byron Ingemar "Boss" Johnson, served as the 24th premier of British Columbia, from 1947 to 1952. To his contemporaries he was often referred to by his nickname, Boss Johnson, which had nothing to do with his personality, but was an anglicization of the Icelandic "Bjossi", which is a diminutive form of his birth-name of Bjorn, which was adapted into English as Byron.
Christina Joan Clark is a Canadian politician who was the 35th premier of British Columbia (BC), from 2011 to 2017. Clark was the second woman to be premier of BC, after Rita Johnston in 1991, and the first female premier in Canada to lead her party to a plurality of seats in two consecutive general elections.
Reena Virk was a 14-year-old Canadian girl who was beaten and killed by a group of teenagers in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Her status as a victim of bullying prior to her murder attracted substantial media scrutiny in Canada. Six teenagers were tried and convicted for their participation in her death. The Globe and Mail commented at the time that her case was "elevated into a national tragedy". A pair of Canadian sociologists have described the case as a watershed moment for a "moral panic" over girl violence by the Canadian public in the late 1990s.
The 2005 British Columbia general election was held on May 17, 2005, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of the Province of British Columbia (BC), Canada. The British Columbia Liberal Party formed the government of the province prior to this general election under the leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell. The main opposition was the British Columbia New Democratic Party, whose electoral representation was reduced to two MLAs in the previous provincial election in 2001.
Erik Bornmann, LL.B, B.Comm. was a key Crown witness in the corruption trial related to the BC Rail scandal. Bornmann is a former consultant and founding partner of Pilothouse Public Affairs. He has worked as a communications consultant in provincial and federal elections and as a strategist for the BC Liberal Party and the Liberal Party of Canada.
The British Columbia Legislature raids resulted from search warrants executed in 2003 on the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, the seat of the British Columbia Legislature, the government of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It became a collective term for the associated criminal proceedings and ensuing controversies. Court hearings stemming from the raids began in Supreme Court of British Columbia in April 2007. The proceedings brought to light questions concerning the propriety of the sale of railway company BC Rail. In October 2010, ministerial aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk pleaded guilty to breach of trust and receiving a benefit for leaking information about the BC Rail bidding process.
Mike de Jong is a politician in the Canadian province of British Columbia. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of British Columbia, representing the electoral district of Matsqui from 1994 to 2001, Abbotsford-Mount Lehman from 2001 to 2009, and Abbotsford West from 2009 until 2024. A caucus member of BC United, he served in several cabinet posts under premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark, and ran for party leadership in 2011 and 2018.
Justice Elizabeth BennettKC is judge of the British Columbia Court of Appeal. During her term on the Supreme Court of British Columbia, she presided over two notable corruption trials.
George Abbott is a former politician and cabinet minister for the Canadian province of British Columbia. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, representing the riding of Shuswap from 1996 to 2013. As part of the British Columbia Liberal Party caucus, he served in several cabinet posts under premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark, and ran for party leadership in 2011.
R v Basi is a landmark decision by Supreme Court of Canada where the Court weighed the rights of the defendant versus the privileges of an informant in an important trial into alleged government corruption.
William ("Bill") S. Berardino, is a British Columbia lawyer who was appointed by the provincial government to serve as a special prosecutor in the trials associated with the BC Legislature Raids.
Amrik S. Virk is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 provincial election. He represented the electoral district of Surrey-Tynehead as a member of the British Columbia Liberal Party and was appointed Minister of Advanced Education on June 10, 2013, by Premier Christy Clark. Following a compensation scandal, he was appointed Minister of Technology, Innovation, and Citizens' Services on December 18, 2014, dropping his responsibilities for Advanced Education.
Indo-Canadian organized crime is made up predominantly of young adults and teenagers of Indian ethnic, cultural and linguistic background. Collectively, these groups are among the top 5 major homegrown organized crime hierarchy across the nation in Canada coming in 3rd place, after the Asian Triads and White biker gangs. The 2004 RCMP British Columbia Annual Police Report ranked them third in terms of organization and sophistication in British Columbia, ranked behind outlaw motorcycle clubs and aforementioned Chinese criminal organizations such as the Triads drug clans.
The Quick Wins ethnic outreach scandal also known as ‘Ethnicgate’ was a political controversy beginning in 2013 in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) that resulted in the resignations of public servants and a cabinet minister in 2013 and Elections Act charges in 2014 against two staff members of the British Columbia Liberal Party.
From January to March 2020, a series of civil disobedience protests were held in Canada over the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline (CGL) through 190 kilometres (120 mi) of Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory in British Columbia (BC), land that is unceded. Other concerns of the protesters were Indigenous land rights, the actions of police, land conservation, and the environmental impact of energy projects.