XPost: bc.politics, van.general, vic.general   
   From: 40%®Çonned@dumb.ca   
      
   CBC News - Posted: Nov 10, 2011   
   BC Rail legal payout highly unusual, says report   
   A new report says the B.C. government should try to recover legal fees from   
   public servants   
   convicted of criminal charges, following widespread public outrage over the $6   
   million dollar   
   payout in the BC Rail case.   
      
   The report by UBC president Stephen Toope, which was released on Thursday   
   morning, stops short   
   of condemning the government's handling of the case.   
      
   But Toope did say it was highly unusual for the government to pay the huge   
   legal bills of   
   former political aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk after they pleaded guilty to   
   breach of trust in   
   the BC Rail corruption scandal.   
      
   "As I looked at the material I realized that Basi and Virk and a handful of   
   other cases really   
   are outliers in the practice. So in the roughly 95 cases since 1999 the   
   average cost of the   
   indemnity for a public servant was..roughly $27,000. So the large amounts   
   associated with the   
   Basi and Virk case are highly unusual," Toope said Thursday in Victoria.   
      
   Many taxpayers were furious when they learned the public was on the hook for   
   the pair's   
   $6-million legal bill. Basi and Virk were accused of leaking information   
   related to the 2002   
   privatization sale of Crown-owned BC Rail.   
      
   No automatic entitlements   
   Toope's report focused on employees, members of cabinet and political   
   appointees not covered by   
   collective agreements.   
      
   He concludes the practice of covering the legal expenses of public servants to   
   protect them   
   from lawsuits for actions committed during the course of their employment is   
   in the public   
   interest, but should not be an automatic entitlement.   
      
   "I don't think there's any reason for the government to still cover their   
   expenses once they're   
   found guilty or once they've pleaded guilty," Toope said.   
      
   His report makes several recommendations to help ensure massive payouts like   
   the one in the BC   
   Rail case do not happen again in the future, including changes in transparency   
   of the policies,   
   the scope under which they are applied and how high cost criminal cases are   
   managed.   
      
   Government adopts recommendations   
   B.C.'s Attorney General Shirley Bond said the government would take immediate   
   action to adopt   
   all of the recommendations in the report.   
      
   "We'll take immediate action to change the current policy to reflect all of   
   these   
   recommendations, since it's essential we have a consistent and fair approach   
   that protects   
   public servants and the interests of taxpayers," said Bond in a statement   
   released by her   
   office.   
      
   But NDP MLA Leonard Krog says the report still doesn't clearly answer why the   
   government   
   decided to pay that the $6 million dollar legal bill, and called on the   
   premier to get to the   
   bottom of the controversy.   
      
   "I would like to think the premier still has that natural curiosity to   
   determine for the public   
   what this government did when they kissed off six million in legal fees for   
   two convicted   
   Liberal insiders," said Krog.   
      
      
   *******************************************************   
   "We CAN look after each other better than we do today.   
   We CAN have a fiscally responsible government.   
   We CAN have a strong economy; greater equality; a clean environment.   
   We CAN be a force for peace in the world."                      - Jack Layton   
      
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