More trouble for Bill Belsey and his Chinese bosses

General Forums Prince Rupert Forum
1

I tried to find this story on The Northern View website, but found no mention of it. Are you guys not covering local news anymore?

More trouble for Bill Belsey and his Chinese boss, who is now in custody.

integritybc.ca/?page_id=1115

[quote]IntegrityBC is calling on the B.C. Liberal party to return $14,696 in donations it received from two companies connected with an alleged bank fraud scheme in China that involves Prince Rupert’s Skeena Cellulose pulp mill.

Sun Wave Forest Products donated $3,397 to the B.C. Liberal party in 2006 and 2007. CGR Investments donated $11,299 to the party between 2005 and 2006, including $10,000 to former B.C. Liberal party MLA Bill Belsey’s failed 2005 re-election campaign.

Belsey, now a Liberal party vice-president, is also under investigation by the B.C. Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists for failing to register as a lobbyist.

Last December, Belsey lobbied on behalf of businessman Ritao Ni, who owns Sun Wave Investments Inc. Belsey was in contact with Jobs Minister Pat Bell, Environment Minister Terry Lake and Forests Minister Steve Thomson. Mr. Ni is now in Chinese custody.[/quote]

2

I can’t believe we have to read this in a Toronto newspaper. Northern View, where are you?

Globe and Mail: Bizarre trans-Pacific scandal plagues Prince Rupert’s best hope

[quote]… A bizarre scandal stretches from the Northern B.C. coast to the provincial legislature in Victoria and across the Pacific to the very top of China’s energy ministry in Beijing.

In addition to Mr. Ni, the curse of the Skeena mill has, so far, ensnared a former provincial MLA, a current B.C. cabinet minister, and the head of China’s National Energy Administration.

“It’s been far from what anybody ever imagined,” Prince Rupert mayor Jack Mussallem said in an interview. “To this day, it continues on, with the municipality spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal expenses. To this day, we still have security people there. In the winter, you need to keep the heat on.”[/quote]

Good to see that the Toronto newspaper is capable of calling locals and chasing down a story in Prince Rupert.

Globe & Mail: B.C. Liberal VP probed for alleged violation of lobbying rules

China’s corruption crackdown homes in on B.C. pulp mill

[quote]British Columbia’s Jobs Minister, Pat Bell, forwarded an internal government e-mail discussing fraud allegations published in China against Ni Ritao, the Chinese businessman who purchased the mill. Mr. Bell forwarded the e-mail to Bill Belsey, the vice-president of the B.C. Liberal Party, who also works for Mr. Ni and appears to have lobbied on behalf of the Chinese businessman and his company. Mr. Belsey, a former MLA, is being investigated by a provincial watchdog for failing to register as a lobbyist.

But the scandal has reached mainland China and the very top of one of the country’s most important ministries. Mr. Ni is in custody and being investigated by the Chinese government for an alleged bank fraud scheme relating to the Skeena mill, according to sources and documents obtained by The Globe. Liu Tienan, the head of China’s National Energy Administration, is also under investigation for his role in the alleged fraud.[/quote]

3

So the communist Chinese government donated $10,000 to Bill Belsey’s re-election campaign? Wow.

A question: did Bill Belsey or the Chinese company donate to Herb Pond’s campaigns? Anyone know?

Meanwhile, Bill Belsey’s company is still suing the taxpayers of Prince Rupert, correct?

4

[quote=“MiG”]I can’t believe we have to read this in a Toronto newspaper. Northern View, where are you?
…

Good to see that the Toronto newspaper is capable of calling locals and chasing down a story in Prince Rupert.
[/quote]

I don’t know where the Northern View is on this story, but as a local blogger who has been persistently following these events comments, the Globe & Mail article is reminiscent of a John Grisham thriller < northcoastreview.blogspot.ca/201 … p-for.html >.

While the life and times of Sun Wave and its local consultant definitely has some startling aspects to it, I think that IntegrityBC’s spin, calling on the BC Liberals to return campaign funds to Sun Wave and another company, is a bit hard to take seriously.

They say that the two companies are “connected with an alleged bank fraud scheme in China”. Let me see now, “alleged”, as in not proven? “Connected”. What exactly does that mean? I guess everything in the world is connected one way or another on some ultimate or transcendent level. Maybe we’re all nascent or closet supporters of communism because we buy so much stuff from China. I don’t know, I give up sometimes.

I don’t think that Elections BC is going to venture into those rarified atmospheres looking for ‘connections’. Any individual or oranization, incorporated or unincorporated, good, bad or ugly, can make donations in this province. Such is the nature of our sometimes flawed democracy. Elections BC is more concerned about how politicians spend and account for donations.

For an outfit that urges greater transparency, accountability and other good things, IntegrityBC is a rather mysterious, even shadowy outfit itself.

Its’ founder, businessman and former Green Party official Wayne Crookes has been quite active in the courts in recent years trying to silence or claim damages from people who say things about him. An article posted online a few years entitled “Gang of Crookes” attracted his particular ire and was the subject of a number of unsuccessful court actions, including I might add against the Yahoo company no less. It’s all on the public record.

You may recall a Supreme Court of Canada decision last year to the effect that one does not commit defamation by posting hyperlinks. We can thank Mr Crookes, who was on the losing side, for that clarification by our highest court. IntegrityBC probably offers some material for a John Grisham-like thriller.

As for our hapless former MLA Bill Belsey, what can I say? I didn’t vote for him. I’m neither a communist nor a BC Liberal, although I admit to having voted for both in days gone by. He no doubt will have some explaining to do over his lobbying activities, but Elections BC is not going to be ordering him or his party to repay campaign donations, I predict.

5

It’s that kind of story, coupled with this kind of story

alexgtsakumis.com/2013/02/01/par … len-clark/

tripled with Rich Coleman’s extra involvement in the Surrey casino bid

quadrupled with the the Basi-Virk payout,

and it becomes increasingly more difficult for me to understand why people would continue to support the Liberals.

It is not just policies that can be debated, that actually have a pro and con side to it - eg the HST (ignoring how it was introduced), the contract stripping (ignoring that it was promised not to happen), and the sale of BCRail (again ignoring that they broke a promise)

nor is it some of the mismanagement that has gone on, that go on with many governments - eg. cost overuns on convention centres and stadium roofs, and under reported deficits prior to elections.

Nope. In this election, we are not just voting on policies. We are voting on trustworthiness and integrity. No matter what anybody thinks of the NDP, the Liberals have failed in that regard. On that alone, they do not deserve another term.

6

[quote=“BTravenn”]
As for our hapless former MLA Bill Belsey, what can I say? I didn’t vote for him. I’m neither a communist nor a BC Liberal, although I admit to having voted for both in days gone by. He no doubt will have some explaining to do over his lobbying activities, but Elections BC is not going to be ordering him or his party to repay campaign donations, I predict.[/quote]

Interesting prediction. I will be curious to see how this plays out. I voted Liberal federally once(Prime Minister Chrétien). I did not vote for Belsey either.