Clark outruns conflict of interest train, but BC Rail still runs

Before I get into how Premier Christy Clark scored a rare victory in the final week before the official election campaign and how independent MLA John van Dongen has serious reservations about how the game was refereed, you must see this.

It is a letter to me from the private contractor who handles Freedom of Information requests for BC Rail. 

Yes, BC Rail still exists as a legal entity, even though CN took over the railway after the controversial 2003 privatization. (Read the A-to-Z primer on the BC Rail scandal from The Tyee here. Listen to The Investigators documentary from CKNW AM 980 here.)

BC Rail doesn't want you or me to know what happened at board meetings from 2003 and 2004, until sometime after the May 14 provincial election. It wants to consult with an unspecified public body before deciding what, if anything, it will release by May 29. Some of these records are now a decade-old. Why should they be kept secret? 

The reason was not given, but I am very curious. The BC Rail board of directors in 2003 included Jim Shepard, the former forestry, pharmaceuticals, military and construction equipment bigwig and Clark loyalist behind the Concerned Citizens For B.C. anti-Adrian Dix ad campaign. 

Don't forget how the BC Liberals fought tooth-and-nail to block Auditor-General John Doyle from seeing a copy of the $6 million indemnity agreement that forgave aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk of their legal bills after their surprise guilty plea in October 2010. That's the same John Doyle that a Liberal-dominated committee chose to replace as Auditor-General. Doyle has a habit of asking tough questions and offering critical opinions that don't correspond with the government's desired spin on topics ranging from BC Hydro's funny math to the folly of carbon offsets. 

BCRC 13002 Extension Letter

Regina lawyer Gerald Gerrand submitted his opinion on April 9 to B.C. Conflict of Interest Commissioner Paul Fraser in van Dongen’s Sept. 21 complaint about whether Clark was in a conflict of interest during the 2003 privatization of BC Rail. 

Gerrand was put on the case after van Dongen discovered that Fraser was in conflict of interest because his son, John Paul Fraser, is an assistant deputy minister appointed by Clark. 

“It is a major thrust of the complainant’s written submissions that a reasonable interpretation of the available information in 2003 is that Ms. Clark knew she had a conflict or apparent conflict of interest in the BC Rail matter, that she should have recused herself form all aspects of the issue from start to finish, and that in failing to do so she failed to observe her statutory obligations under the Act."

“Ms. Clark was not in a position of conflict of interest or apparent conflict of interest in relation to the BC Rail matter as alleged by the complainant Mr. van Dongen," Gerrand concluded.

“I'm not satisfied we have facts,” van Dongen told me. “That was ultimately the mission I felt the public was entitled to a full accounting of the facts, what she did, why she did it. What was her involvement? There were serious inconsistencies. Some of the inconsistencies that gave rise to the complaint were not dealt with, they were deemed outside the scope of the Conflict of Interest Act.” 

“There is no appeal under the Act, this is an interesting area of law where we have a law on the books which normally should have similar status to any other law. But this one doesn't get tested in court where quite frankly it would be better if it was. Because everything would be out in the open and a wittiness would have to testify under oath out in the open and it would be subject to cross examination. The process we have here is entirely secret, while we have the benefit of what the commissioner chose to put in his report, we don't have the benefit of the complete interviews and transcripts and documents.”

Van Dongen had a bad gut feeling when he met Gerrand to give his testimony on Jan. 21. 

“From the line of questioning, which appeared to be from the point of view of defence lawyer questioning a plaintiff, which shouldn't be the context here under the law, I became more concerned about the process,” van Dongen said. “It seemed to be questions led by someone representing her, as opposed to a neutral fact-finder, which I believe the public is entitled to under this legislation.”

“There's a very consistent theme to condemn anyone or anything that is viewed as adverse to Christy Clark's view of the world and that applies to potential witnesses like Basi and Virk, and any testimony they would be checked and tested and viewed with sufficient caution, but it's still evidence. 

“And similarly the comments (in Gerrand's opinion) about Alex Tsakumis or any other blogger. The suggestion that absolutely everything that's posted on a blog has no credibility, it wears a little thin and it's disappointing to see Gerald Gerrand pick up that theme.”

(Tsakumis, who revealed new, untested evidence of the BC Rail scandal on his blog, was neither contacted nor named by Gerrand. Gerrand only identified Tsakumis as a "political blogger." Was that because Tsakumis revealed how Gerrand financially supports the Liberal Party of Canada, the same federal political party as Clark?)

“The bias of the commissioner shows, he's not a neutral fact finder. Admittedly some of it's subtle, but some of it's not so subtle,” van Dongen said.

Van Dongen had much to say to me about three specific points in Gerrand's report. 

GERRAND: “Ms. Clark confirms that she attended cabinet meetings on the following days when matters related to the sale and/or lease of assets of BC Rail were a subject of some discussion: March 27, 2002, Dec. 4, 2002, June 18, 2003, Oct. 29, 2003, Nov. 19, 2003 (recusal on the BC Rail issue).”

Van Dongen: “He confirms the meetings she was in and the relevant ones for my submission... The meeting of July 23, I find it very hard to believe she wasn't in that meeting, but I would like to see more detail. 

“The emails of July 27, 2003 between Kieran to Bornmann and Bornmann back to Kieran give very detailed information that come out of cabinet that I don't believe were fabricated, there was no basis for someone fabricating that. 

“When the email is as explicit as Kieran saying to Bornmann, talk to Christy find out what's happening, words to that effect, there needs to be serious cross-examination of that, the issues around that memo, the issues around the July 23 meeting. We don't have anything conclusive around that.” 

(Read more about Bornmann in Canadian Lawyer Magazine's story "Admitted briber gets green light to practise law in Ontario.")

GERRAND: “Ms. Clark was present at the Oct. 29, 2003 meeting at which BC Rail was discussed. Following that cabinet meeting, Ms. Clark met with Commissioner Oliver in the afternoon at his office for approximately 90 minutes.... Ms. Clark has testified that she does not recall whether it was she or Commissioner Oliver who made the connection between (then-husband Mark Marissen’s Burrard Communications) contract with CIBC WM (the company handling the sale) and the BC Rail file, but she states it was discussed. While she did not consider there was a conflict of interest. Commissioner Oliver indicated that he would consider the question further and in the interim, she should be cautious.“It is Ms. Clark’s recollection that following her meeting with Commissioner Oliver on Oct. 29, 2003 she had no further involvement respecting the BC Rail issue.”

Van Dongen: “She goes to a cabinet meeting and after that on the same day has a meeting for 90 minutes, was the meeting set up ahead of time or did she ask for it on the spur of the moment after the cabinet meeting? We don't know that. 

“A one and a half hour meeting is a very long meeting on a so called conflict that they both claim now was not a conflict at all. She doesn't recall who raised, who made the connection. You mean it came up by accident? There's a huge unanswered question here about why she went to the meeting.

“It is relevant to ask why would she do these disclosures on a very superficial basis, leave the impression with everyone she was declaring a conflict of interest, we find out now there was absolutely no conflict, it was black and white. It's relevant to ask: why'd you go through all that drama?”

GERRAND: “While Mr. Bornmann was unable to confirm the authenticity of that specific document ( Pilothouse June 24, 2003 briefing note about the June 18, 2003 cabinet meeting attended by Clark)... I will assume for purposes of this discussion that  it is authentic...”

Van Dongen: “A fascinating statement. Unable or unwilling? He remembers enough detail to say it was different than the one the RCMP showed him. It's interesting when you read the transcript of Bornmann's interview with the RCMP, the detail that he claims he can remember and then everything that he doesn't recall. Some of what he doesn't recall and some of what he does remember is pretty self-serving in terms of the narrative that ultimately unfolded here. This guy has no credibility, he wasn't put under oath, he responded to written questions. But he goes out of his way to claim that she was not a source for anything. How does he explain the July 27 memo, that wasn't put to him?”

“You had a person two-and-a-half years ago presenting herself as candidate for leader of the party and, in turn, the position of premier, which is the most powerful and responsible position in B.C. It behooves us to know everything we can about the candidate, it certainly behooves us to look at past performance, and where there are gaps of information, it behooves us to ask the questions. I’m simply motivated by getting the facts. 

"To suggest I'm an accuser, is not legitimate. To suggest I don't like Christy Clark is irrelevant."

Van Dongen's got the goods

A bombshell in the British Columbia Legislature on March 11!

Abbotsford South independent MLA John van Dongen said in Question Period that he has obtained a copy of the $6 million indemnity agreement from October 2010 for Dave Basi and Bob Virk. The ex-Liberal aides maintained their innocence in connection with the BC Rail privatization scandal... until a plea bargain that included the taxpayer-funded absolution of their legal bills, contrary to government policy. 

Van Dongen was an intervenor in Auditor General John Doyle's failed legal bid to get a copy of the agreement. Here is van Dongen's exchange with Attorney General Shirley Bond, in its entirety. 

van Dongen

PAYMENT OF LEGAL FEES IN B.C. RAIL COURT CASE 

J. van Dongen: For the last 2½ years the government has disclosed as little as possible in order to hide the facts about the controversial decision to forgive and forget $6 million legally owing to the province by Dave Basi and Bob Virk. 

The $6 million write-off actually happened during this term of government. I now have a copy of the Basi and Virk indemnity agreement signedlegally owing to the province by Dave Basi and Bob Virk. The $6 million write-off actually happened during this term of government.Mr. Speaker, I now have a copy of the Basi and Virk indemnity agreement signed by the Tamara Vrooman, Deputy Minister of Finance. Paragraph 9 says that every advance of public funds to the defence lawyers "constitutes a loan to the indemnified person." A loan. The funds advanced were in the form of a loan. Now, when someone gets a loan from a credit union or bank, that sets up a debt. That sets up a liability. That establishes a legal obligation from the borrower to the financial institution. So starting in 2005 this government advanced public funds by way of two loans to two political staff, and by October 2010 Basi and Virk had accumulated a debt to the province of $6 million — a $6 million loan. Section 18(3) of the Financial Administration Act states: "A debt or obligation to the government may not be forgiven without the approval of the Lieutenant Governor in Council if the amount forgiven is $100 000 or more." 

Mr. Speaker, I am asking the Minister of Finance to explain to this House how Deputy Minister Graham Whitmarsh magically wiped out two loans, two debts totalling millions of dollars, without actually executing the transaction under section 18 as intended by this Legislature. 

Hon. S. Bond: The member opposite continues to bring this issue to the Legislature, and I continue to provide exactly the same answers to him every single time he asks the question.As the member opposite well knows, in fact, recently there was a court case in which the member was an intervener in that process. In fact, what was the outcome of that? That in fact the judge made it very clear that the government of British Columbia had met all of the commitments that it said that it would in terms of release of information. He was very clear about the fact we said we were going to provide documents, and we did exactly that. 

When it comes to the issue of the decision made, we have said over and over in this House that the Deputy Attorney General provided a statement at that time in which he said: "No one outside the legal services branch, myself and the Deputy Minister of Finance had any knowledge…or involvement. For clarity, neither the special prosecutor nor the Attorney General had any knowledge of the matter or involvement in this."Since the time that the indemnity was altered, we have gone to Stephen Toope at the University of British Columbia. He has provided us with a number of recommendations to ensure that this process does not occur again. We have accepted those recommendations and made those changes. 

Mr. Speaker: The member has a supplemental. 

J. van Dongen: I'm disappointed in the minister's answer, and I'm also disappointed the Minister of Finance didn't answer because he was the Attorney General at the time the deal was done.The government has two storylines on this issue, both of which they are attempting to keep well hidden. There is the real story. And for the real story, I ask the Attorney General to read the actual indemnity agreements signed in 2005. I ask her to read the October 14, 2010, Basi and Virk agreement signed by then Assistant Deputy Minister Richard Fyfe and, third, the October 2010 public statement that the minister referenced, emphasizing three times Basi and Virk's legal liability to repay. 

The second storyline, which I call the fictional storyline of this government, can be viewed by the Attorney General by reading the following documents: the April 19, 2011, letter to Mr. Edwardson, also signed by Assistant Deputy Minister Richard Fyfe; the e-mail of May 4, 2012, to certain members of the press gallery that no one in the Justice Ministry wanted their name attached to; and the Attorney General might even be able to find the so-called modified indemnity agreement signed by Graham Whitmarsh… 

Mr. Speaker: Could the member pose the question, please? Could you pose the question? 

J. van Dongen: …as claimed by the government.I'm asking the Attorney General to examine the glaring inconsistencies between these two sets of documents. My question to the Attorney General is: how is it that the Deputy Minister of Finance, Graham Whitmarsh to examine the glaring inconsistencies between these two sets of documents. My question to the Attorney General is: how is it that the Deputy Minister of Finance, Graham Whitmarsh, acting alone, was able to magically and illegally vaporize $6 million of loans to Basi and Virk in direct contravention of section 18 of the Financial Administration Act? 

Hon. S. Bond: While I fully respect the member's opportunities to stand in this Legislature and ask questions, today I ask the member opposite to step out into the hallway if he is going to make the kinds of allegations he is making about senior public servants who are widely respected. To suggest that the Deputy Attorney General or the Deputy Minister of Finance made any illegal behaviour in terms of this, the member opposite needs to shed the immunity of this place, step out into the hallway, provide evidence and stand up to the courage of his convictions to make those accusations in the hallway.

Van Dongen charged Premier Christy Clark with being in conflict of interest in connection with the 2003 tendering. Northwest Territories conflict of interest commissioner Gerald Gerrand is investigating. Gerrand, coincidentally, is connected to donations to the Liberal Party of Canada. Though separate from the BC Liberals, Clark is a loyal federal Liberal. 

Wondering why the big fuss about BC Rail and why you should care? Listen to the CKNW AM 980 documentary from The Investigators for the lowdown on B.C.'s scandal of the century.  

Regime change: T-minus 104 days?

A desperate governing party is looking at the calendar and the opinion polls and just might be realizing its stranglehold on power is running out. Better do something, anything. Quick! 

The Christy Clark BC Liberals are where the Bill Vander Zalm (and Rita Johnston) Social Credit was in 1991 and the Ujjal Dosanjh NDP was in 2001. Running out of ideas, detached from voters, hungry for just one more election win. 

Despite what the deluded pom-pom wearers and hired spinners will tell you, the Liberals could wake up on May 15 as a spent political force. 

Oh, they’re spending millions of dollars to tell you Canada Starts Here, when Cape Spear, Nfld. actually gets the first sun rays every day and Charlottetown in 1864 was where historians say the Dominion of Canada was conceived. And the B.C. Jobs Plan means B.C. is standing tall, like a big, old, white iPod that cannot be toppled by many smaller, old black iPods. Even if the jobs statistics don't stand up to scrutiny.

Then there’s the Concerned Citizens for B.C., the political action committee otherwise known as Jim Shepard’s Christy Clark Fan Club. Shepard and his flock want to remind you NDP leader Adrian Dix backdated a memo in 1999 when he was Premier Glen Clark’s stepandfetchit and that the NDP ordered the three-vessel fast ferry fleet that cost more than $200 million higher than the original budget and didn’t have a proper business plan. 

Shepard is blind to the fact the Liberals have bigger, newer skeletons in their closet. Such as the memos to file by Dave Basi which seem to implicate Clark in the leaking of confidential cabinet documents to a bidder for BC Rail. Clark is under investigation after a conflict of interest complaint by ex-Liberal MLA John van Dongen. The saga of B.C. Place Stadium is like a bookend. The Liberals were pondering a $100 million pre-Olympic spruce-up and roof replacement in January 2008. The final cost was $514 million and included a German-engineered retractable roof that is rarely opened. Taxpayers weren't consulted and they weren't even shown a business plan. Roof contractors are inching their way to a 100-day B.C. Supreme Court trial scheduled to begin Oct. 21. On Jan. 30, a lawyer for Canam disclosed before a judge that the company's claim against Freyssinet would be increased by $13 million to $39 million. 

Remember the infamous NDP fudge-it budget of 1996, when an $87 million surplus became a $350 million deficit after Glen Clark won election? The Liberals don’t want you to remember their 2009 faux pas when they promised a $495 million deficit during the election but delivered a $2 billion deficit budget just months after Gordon Campbell won his hat-trick. Lest you think dirty thoughts that the Liberals are going to fudge the numbers in their Feb. 19 pre-election budget, Finance Minister Mike de Jong has found another "independent" Maritimer for hire. 

Remember Stanley Cup riot investigator Doug Keefe, the former Nova Scotia mandarin who collaborated with ex-Olympics boss John Furlong and got paid $174,000? Meet Dr. Tim O’Neill, a Prince Edward Island economic consultant who is being paid at least $25,000 to look over de Jong's shoulder until budget time and give a passing grade. 

Message to Premier Clark: save money, call the Office of the Auditor General. 

But all is not lost. There are actually tiny rays of light showing through the fog that suggest someone in the Liberal party has realized the writing is on the wall. 

But is it too little too late? Just for show? 

On Jan. 30, BC Hydro announced it won't force smart meters on those customers who are holdouts, the thousands of people who are refusing to allow Corix crews on their property to install the iTron devices. 

On Jan. 31 at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Community, Sport and Cultural Development Minister Bill Bennett will announce the creation of a new agency for B.C.'s film, arts and creative industries -- a merger of the B.C. Film Commission, B.C. Film + Media and the B.C. Arts Council. They'll combine to form a new body similar to the Ontario Media Development Corporation. A one-stop shop for the creative industries. 

Bennett was at North Shore Studios for the #SaveBCFilm rally that drew 4,000 people on Jan. 22 and heard one of the many suggestions to revitalize an industry purposely left out of Clark's B.C. Jobs Plan.

William F. White's Vancouver general manager Garin Josey was spotted at the Canada Place Starbucks preparing for a Jan. 30 meeting in the Premier's Vancouver Office. Josey boosted the We Create B.C. social media campaign during the Jan. 22 North Shore Studios rally. He didn't tell me who he was meeting, but I confirmed independently that it was Bennett and Citizens’ Services Minister Ben Stewart.  

The Liberals are trying to looking kinder and gentler, but it’ll take more action to convince me of their sincerity. Here is my five-point, modest proposal for the Liberals to prove they're worthy of staying in office beyond May 14.

1. Notwithstanding Chief Justice Robert Bauman's Jan. 29 verdict, how about waiving the solicitor-client privilege and delivering the Basi-Virk indemnity agreement to John Doyle so he can finish his audit? 
2. Why not hire a retired judge and give him or her a one-year mandate and reasonable budget for a BC Rail public inquiry? 
3. Perhaps publish the B.C. Place renovation business plan and ask the Auditor General to launch a full-blown value-for-money audit? 
4. Possibly reveal the real reasons for the cancellation of the Liquor Distribution Branch logistics privatization? 
5. Maybe rescind all those the Freedom of Information delay letters that everyone’s getting these days? 

The Butler did it.

The Butler did it. Again. 

Richard Butler, a high-ranking lawyer from the Legal Services Branch, swore his fifth affidavit on Nov. 16. The 12-page statement was the first surprise of the day Dec. 3 at B.C. Supreme Court when the Office of the Auditor General's bid to see the $6 million deal with Dave Basi and Bob Virk resumed. 

A quick refresher: The two BC Liberal government aides copped a plea bargain on Oct. 18, 2010 after steadfastly maintaining their innocence over the 2003 BC Rail scandal. They both got house arrest for two years for taking bribes from lobbyists for Omnitrax. Their legal bills were paid by taxpayers, which is contrary to government policy. Auditor-General Doyle is suing the government to examine the legal indemnity. The government claims it is covered by solicitor/client privilege. Listen to The Investigators from CKNW AM 980 for all the history of this scandal.

van Dongen

Abbotsford-South independent MLA John van Dongen successfully applied for intervenor status and has spent $100,000 of his own money so far in his quest to get the truth on the billion-dollar sale of the people's railway. The case was held over four days in September and scheduled for another two in December. It wrapped up in less than a full-day on Dec. 3. That was the second surprise.

In this 11th hour affidavit, Butler made the startling revelation that he did not look at billing certificates when they were submitted and blamed "failure of memory" for making misstatements a year earlier. Read the affidavit at the bottom of this post.

Chief Justice Robert Bauman granted a sealing order for certain documents mentioned in the Butler affidavit. Still, one only needs to read the affidavit to realize how odd it is for such a highly educated and qualified legal mind to bungle the file.

"Here we are right near the end of a case, we've had five days of hearings, virtually finished argument, just getting into reply, the final stage of the case," van Dongen told me outside the Law Courts. "The senior lawyer in government involved in all the indemnity files tables an affidavit saying 'I made a mistake in the previous affidavit,' and points out he was relying on his memory, didn't check the documents before they went out and realized there was obviously a significant misstatement in the earlier affidavit.

"Every step of the way there's a surprise," van Dongen said. "The advice I've been given is it's very unusual for parties to be filing things this close to the end of the case. Yet it happens in this case."

Meanwhile, van Dongen's conflict of interest complaint against Premier Christy Clark is in the hands of Northwest Territories conflict of interest commissioner Gerald Gerrand after B.C.'s Paul Fraser was compelled to hand it over on Nov. 13. Van Dongen found out that Fraser's son, John Paul, is a Government Communications and Public Engagement assistant deputy minister appointed by Clark. Clark and John Paul Fraser are longtime friends.

New information shows that Clark met with the elder Fraser on Oct. 4. The Premier's agenda (obtained by me via Freedom of Information), does not indicate the reason for the meeting. It was, coincidentally, almost two weeks after van Dongen hand-delivered his "grounds for belief and nature of alleged contraventions" about Clark to the commissioner on Sept. 21.

In the absence of a public inquiry about the corrupt sale of BC Rail, British Columbians who care deeply about democracy and integrity of their government are waiting patiently for Bauman's verdict and Gerrand's report. 

Butler Affidavit

Auditor General getting ex-Solicitor General's help

British Columbia Auditor General John Doyle's efforts to compile a report on government indemnity for government personnel involved in legal proceedings have been frustrated by resistance from the B.C. Liberal government.

John van Dongen, a former Liberal Solicitor General, applied May 7 for intervenor status in Doyle's lawsuit against the government.

Doyle is trying to get to the bottom of the $6 million payoff for Dave Basi and Bob Virk's legal bills in October 2010, which was connected to the abrupt end of a corruption trial. When the trial ended with surprise guilty pleas, various current and former B.C. Liberal politicians and party insiders breathed a sigh of relief. They wouldn't have to testify.

Van Dongen cited the legacy of the B.C. Rail privatization scandal as a central reason for his stunning March 26 resignation from the B.C. Liberal caucus.

The citizens of B.C. have still not been supplied with the promised explanation for how the B.C. Rail privatization was mishandled. Premier Christy Clark -- who was deputy premier when the Crown corporation was effectively sold -- has refused to call a public inquiry.

Through the efforts of Doyle, and now van Dongen, the truth may eventually be told.


2012 05 07 Notice of Application

March madness seals Clark’s fate

Mamas, don’t let your children grow up to be British Columbia premiers.

Why? Because they would have to endure the monstrous month of March. The west coast version of the Ides of March hath 31 days and its legacy is one of resignation and rejection.

In 1991, it was the last full month in power for Social Credit Party Premier Bill Vander Zalm. The Socreds, B.C.’s free enterprise coalition, lost six by-elections, 11 cabinet ministers either quit or were fired and party members defected.



Vander Zalm came to power as Bill Bennett’s successor in 1986 as the dark-horse, outsider candidate in the famed Whistler leadership convention. By March 1991, he was under investigation by conflict of interest commissioner Ted Hughes for his role in the sale of his Fantasy Garden World in Richmond to Taiwanese billionaire Tan Yu.

Finance minister Mel Couvelier resigned in protest, proclaiming that Vander Zalm should have stepped aside while under a cloud. Vander Zalm finally quit on April 2. Deputy Premier and Transportation Minister Rita Johnston, who ran a Surrey trailer park, took over as the first female premier in Canadian history but lost the Oct. 17 election. The Socreds fell from 47 seats to seven, Mike Harcourt and the NDP took power with 51 seats and the upstart B.C. Liberals went from zero to 17, making Gordon Wilson the leader of the opposition.



Fast forward eight years to 1999. New Democratic Party Premier Glen Clark’s evening was ruined March 2 when RCMP officers (who were trailed by BCTV cameras) raided his East Vancouver house to search for clues in the North Burnaby Inn casino licence caper. Two weeks later, police searched Clark’s office in Victoria. He quit the premiership on Aug. 21 and the NDP was reduced to just two seats in the Legislature after Gordon Campbell and the Liberals won the May 16, 2001 election by a landslide.

Now Premier Christy Clark (no relation to Glen Clark) is suffering the worst month of her political career. If history is your guide, she is at a point of no return -- stick a fork in her, she's done. She will be looking for a new job immediately after the May 14, 2013 election. Maybe sooner. All because of the March from hell.

Consider the timeline for Clark's chaotic, career-defining March of 2012:

March 2: The infamous Telus news conference with the Darren Entwistle/Adrian Dix photo opportunity. Clark was inexplicably absent from a jobs and investment announcement by the biggest private corporation in B.C. (A Liberal donor, to boot.) Two days later, the government broke its silence and claimed she wasn’t invited because of a certain unresolved issue: the B.C. Place Stadium naming rights negotiations with Telus.

March 5: School’s out. B.C. Teachers Federation stages a three-day, province-wide strike over the deadlock in contract negotiations and the government's plan to legislate a new deal.



March 6: B.C. Supreme Court trial management conference between lawyers for Quebec’s Canam Group and France’s Freyssinet reveals grease leaks from support cables have damaged B.C. Place Stadium’s new fabric roof. It could cost up to $10 million to fix. An 85-day trial is in the works to begin October 2013.

March 7: Minister responsible Pat Bell confirms the $40 million Telus naming rights deal is dead. Bell claims the B.C. Place name is “iconic.” The government claims the deal was $35 million and wasn’t “good” for taxpayers. When that explanation doesn’t fly, it desperately claims the Telus Place signs were too big.

March 9: The resignation of Liberal bagman and Howe Street tycoon Peter Brown from the B.C. Pavilion Corporation board is confirmed.

March 11: The Province begins a series of stories on the private college company Eminata Group, calling into question the credibility of government oversight of for-profit, post-secondary education. Eminata owner Peter Chung's previous private colleges in California were fined $12 million for defrauding students. Chung donated $4,100 to the Liberals in 2009.

March 13: Clark’s news conference at the Washington Marine Group shipyard in North Vancouver to hype the half-anniversary of her B.C. Jobs Plan is overshadowed by reporters’ questions about the failed B.C. Place naming rights deal, despite new communications director Sara MacIntyre’s attempt to make a list of reporters and limit them to one question apiece.

March 14: Gum-chewing MacIntyre prevents reporters from asking questions of Clark at a photo opportunity in the Globe 2012 trade show, despite a media advisory that invited reporters to come and ask Clark questions.

March 15: The Ides of March! Bill 22 to end the teachers’ strike and outlaw another walkout passes, but the day is all about multiculturalism minister of state Harry Bloy’s resignation for breaching his oath of confidentiality by giving a Province newspaper reporter’s email to an Eminata executive. Bloy was the only MLA to support Clark's leadership campaign in 2011.

March 22: Liberal MLAs Randy Hawes and Marc Dalton quoted in the Abbotsford Times after claiming $185,000 in repairs for a Mission hockey rink’s dehumidifiers came from a non-existent $30 million surplus from the B.C. Place renovation.

Clark calls April 19 by-elections in Port Moody and Chilliwack, labels popular ex-Port Moody Mayor, former supporter and new NDP candidate Joe Trasolini a “party-switcher,” and announces an audit of TransLink to find $30 million. Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom found out about the audit like the rest of us -- from reporters.

March 24: Clark works a rare Saturday as she joins John Yap (multiculturalism), Rob Howard (transportation secretary) and Moira Stilwell (health secretary) for a hastily called, staged swearing-in ceremony with Lt.-Gov. Steven Point for their new junior cabinet posts.

March 26: Abbotsford South MLA John van Dongen, the former Solicitor General and a five-time election winner, stood up in Question Period and dropped the biggest bombshell of the month. He quit the Liberal caucus and party to sit as an independent MLA and join the B.C. Conservatives. He cited Clark’s ties to the B.C. Rail privatization scandal and the B.C. Place naming rights deal. He also announced the hiring of a lawyer to investigate Clark over the B.C. Rail matter.

"Mr. Speaker, I had hoped that there would have been renewal in my party and in government. But, in the past 12 months, that has not happened. Indeed, every week constituents question government actions and issues that I am not able to defend. What I believe people expect from political leadership are core values that include integrity and a genuine commitment to public service.

"Integrity includes honesty, ethics and personal character. Integrity is non-negotiable. It is foundational for a strong organization. Most importantly, integrity includes accountability.

"To this day, Mr. Speaker, there are still serious unanswered questions regarding the writing-off of 6 million dollars in legal fees in the BC Rail case contrary to government policy. Questions I have been asking for a year-and-a-half, and questions the Auditor General is seeking answers to through the courts.

"Most recently, the unexplainable cancellation of a 35 million dollar naming rights agreement with Telus is another example of failed leadership.

"There have been other lapses in proper accountability and I expect more to come. When more and more decisions are being made for the wrong reasons, then you have an organization that is heading for failure."

Clark's whereabouts are publicly unknown.

March 27: Appearing weary and with deep bags under her eyes, Clark resurfaced for a news conference to criticize van Dongen. "The only thing John van Dongen accomplished yesterday was making it a little easier for the NDP to get elected in British Columbia." Clark once again uses the "nothing to see here, move along" tactic, claiming a B.C. Rail public inquiry is unnecessary. (Two of the scandal's expert observers beg to differ on the need to know all the facts about the biggest government corruption case in the province's history.)

Meanwhile, an Angus Reid Public Opinion said her approval rating fell nine points since August 2011 to 33 percent -- the second worst in the country.

Liberal defector Rick Peterson, a prominent supporter of Finance Minister Kevin Falcon’s failed 2011 leadership bid, launches his campaign for the Conservative nomination in Vancouver-Quilchena, the riding held by ex-finance minister Colin Hansen. Peterson scoffs at Clark's claims that supporting the Conservatives will pave the way for the NDP. He says free enterprise is about competition and there should be competition for the free enterprise vote in 2013.

March 28: Liberal-friendly, Prince George academic Charles Jago appointed as mediator for the BCTF dispute at a rate of $2,000-a-day. Jago, the former president of the University of Northern B.C., called his task “mission impossible.” How’s that for optimism?

Jago has no apparent mediation experience and donated $1,000 to Liberal fundraising golf tournaments in 2007 and 2010. Jago was appointed to the boards of Partnerships B.C. and 2010 Legacies Now. The September 2007 opening of the $31 million UNBC sports centre named for him drew a who’s who of B.C. cabinet, including Premier Gordon Campbell.

Falcon and Education minister George Abbott tell reporters they might not run in the next election. The two leadership losers were gearing up for a fall 2011 campaign and, had they won seats, would be six months into a four-year term. Now they are waffling as it appears their party's grip on power is fading. Life is a little less interesting on the opposition side of the house, not to mention the paycheque smaller.

Was Falcon’s claim that he might quit politics in 2013 to devote more time to his young family an intentional or unintentional subliminal jab at Clark, a single-mother who is struggling as premier after only a year on the job?

March 30: The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union announces that it has reached an impasse in talks with the government for a new master agreement for its 25,000 members. The contract expires March 31. A strike vote is planned for April.

Clark's government, which previously said public sector workers would get no raises, is offering a 3 percent increase over two years, but BCGEU wants a 4 percent annual increase.

(The previous week, the BCGEU reached a deal with government that it claims will protect the 500 Liquor Distribution Branch workers when and if a private company takes over the government's warehousing and distribution of liquor in B.C. Odd how it took a quick month from Finance minister Kevin Falcon's announcement until the BCGEU announcement.)

March 31: The one-year countdown to the end of the Harmonized Sales Tax. The Aug. 26, 2011 referendum result effectively scuttled a fall election and forced Clark to phase-out the tax that ruined Gordon Campbell's premiership. The mail-in referendum attracted 1.61 million ballots (compared to 1.64 million total votes cast in the previous election.) Votes to scrap the HST (881,198) exceeded the number of votes the Liberals had in the 2009 election (751,661). Consumers and businesspeople alike have criticized Clark for her reluctance to phase-out the cash cow HST sooner.

In early March, Clark publicly repudiated the Telus naming rights deal for B.C. Place that would have eased the burden on taxpayers for the budgeted $563 million renovation. She ended the month in West Kelowna for the Hockey Night in Canada announcement of the $100,000 2012 Kraft Hockeyville winner.

Yes, the same Premier who declined the $35 million to $40 million deal because it wasn't "good for taxpayers" got involved in the cheese, crackers and snacks company's nationwide marketing promotion in the hopes that it would help renovate a public hockey rink.

Alas, the result was errantly leaked by Kraft to media outlets early Saturday morning. Stirling-Rowdon, Ontario beat West Kelowna by 1.2 million votes and will also get to host a National Hockey League exhibition game as a prize. West Kelowna got a $25,000 consolation prize to spruce up its rink.

Unlike the rest of her problems in March, there is no evidence that Clark is to blame. Just another case of bad luck and bad optics.