Given that the New Democratic government of British Columbia is almost dead, I intended to write a column about the BC Liberals and where they have retreated on key policy areas as of late. Unfortunately, that analysis must wait. Statements from Premier Ujjal Dosanjh about his role in the Carrier Lumber case last week cry out for analysis.

While Ujjal Dosanjh was Attorney General, the government lost a litany of lawsuits, yet he consistently used the ministry-lawyers-made-me-do-it excuse and pursued legal cases that, to an untrained observer at least, looked like long shots. That continual losses in the courts were a signal it was time to hire new legal help seems not to have been considered.

At any rate, there appears to be a pattern here. The Attorney General-turned-Premier had several other chances to demonstrate that he will put the good of the province above that of his party and their re-election chances, but this he has continually failed to do.
When he ran for the leadership of the NDP last year, Ujjal Dosanjh told the Victoria Times Colonist that "it would have been my preference for the public accounts committee to continue with the hearings." This was in reference to the fast ferry investigation by the public accounts committee - an inquiry shut down by government members. He left some wriggle room and stated that if elected he would then want all the information at his disposal "and then I will make a decision." After his ascension to the Premier's chair, no ferry inquiry was ever re-started.

Likewise on Carrier Lumber: While still Attorney General, Ujjal Dosanjh appealed the case, a visibly convenient decision for the governing party given that then-interim Premier Dan Miller was damned by judge. Last week on the Bill Good show, the Premier argued that "I have not heard anything new or different that might lead me to believe that launching the appeal in 1999 was the wrong decision."

Well Mr. Premier, how about these words "I am equally satisfied that there are still documents which have not been disclosed which bear directly on the way in which key decisions were made." That line was from Justice W.G. Parrett in his judgment on the Carrier case. The judge also wrote critical comments about ministry of forest bureaucrats that included words such as "petulant," "arrogant," and "a careful suppression of evidence," among others. That should, one thinks, have resulted in a top-to-bottom public inquiry from the government in the summer of 1999.

And since, also last week, the Premier also argued that he first became aware of the case "in 1999, in a detailed way, when I heard the grounds of the appeal," what then explains his subsequent decision to appeal Did he and his legal help just skip over the critical comments from the judge And why, in the summer of 1999, accept the ministry of forests' claim that there were no more documents to be found - after the judge shredded that ministry's credibility on that very subject

On the same talkshow, the Premier asserted that "I have spoken to some people that we might want to undertake an inquiry on." Ujjal Dosanjh's pattern both as Attorney General and Premier seems to be one of blaming government lawyers, hinting at public inquiries but never ordering them, arguing that he himself is a nice man (and I don't disagree but it's not relevant to his political decisions). If Mr. Dosanjh wants to demonstrate his independence from the past - his own included - then he should call a public inquiry into the Carrier Lumber fiasco. That won't make any practical difference before an election, but at least he could credibly argue that, for once, he showed some genuine independence from his party and his lawyers.