Kevin Taft and Ray Martin provided Albertans with another example of their incompetence today. In an Edmonton Sun story about a private criminal prosecution against the Alberta Securities Commission, both Taft and Martin offer up premature conclusions of wrongdoing on the part of the ASC. Ray Martin also argued that these unproven allegations somehow justify replacing the Alberta-based securities commission with "a national securities regulator":
Finance Minister Shirley McClellan, said she can't comment on a case before the court, but noted the ASC hasn't yet been served with the charge.
But NDP MLA Ray Martin says it's yet another allegation against a regulatory body that has been accused of lax enforcement and favouritism.
"I have said before I thought the whole group of them should be fired and we should bring in a national securities regulator," he said.
Liberal leader Kevin Taft said the case fuels concerns about securities commission enforcement.
"The ASC can't be seen to be playing favourites or mollycoddling anybody or they will lose credibility."
Competent politicians avoid commenting on cases before the courts (as Shirley McClellan did here), given that negative publicity about a criminal prosecution can adversely affect the fairness of any future trial. Obviously, Kevin Taft and Ray Martin have little respect for this tradition, or for the rights of the persons accused.
It bears pointing out that this case involves a private prosecution. That means the Crown attorney and police have not been involved in preparing the charges. According to the story, the allegations of criminal wrongdoing are being made by two investors named Barb Trosin and Jason Cowan. They apparently lost money in a transaction, and are now seeking to proceed in criminal, rather than civil court.
Good luck with that.
As University of Alberta law professor Sanjeev Anand says, there is only a slim chance that these allegations will ever be proven:
University of Alberta law professor Sanjeev Anand says that laying the private charge may focus the Crown's attention on the case, but there's only a slim chance it will go to trial.
"Ninety-nine times out of 100, they will withdraw the charge and that will be the end of the matter."
So, here we have the leader of the opposition and another prominent opposition politician essentially accepting the merits of unproven criminal allegations against persons at the ASC when those allegations only have the slimmest of chances of ever going to trial, never mind being proven in court.
Albertans are fair-minded people who expect criminal allegations to be proven in a court of law, not used as a political football by desperate politicians in an attempt to bolster their own standing in the eyes of the public. Given this, is it any wonder Albertans won't trust buffoons like Kevin Taft and Ray Martin with the levers of power?
