Mary Mackie, better known in many circles as BC Mary, died a few days ago. She was 83 years old.
The Legislative Raids blog written by “BC Mary” was a driving, if not the driving force behind the look see into just exactly what the hell went down with BC Rail.
BC Mary led the way and as a result of her dogged determination pressured the so called mainstream media into some effort covering the Basi Virk trial and look into other aspects of one of the biggest scams ever perpetuated on the good citizens of BC.
The Basi-Virk Trial as it became known was thoroughly covered by BC Mary. Thank God she was there because in the early days the mainstream media were not very enthralled with the notion of having to pay reporters to cover the trial. They had to in the end due in a large part to the fact that BC Mary was firing out the reports. Her reports, attendance and undercover mystique was one of the high points in BC Blogging Journalism at any level in my opinion.
RIP Mary Mackie.
BC NDP AG Critic Len Krog paid her tribute in the BC Legislature on Monday.
“I rise today to ask the House to pay its respects to the passing of one of British Columbia’s most courageous citizen journalists, a woman who was a harsh critic of the B.C. government, particularly around the sale of B.C. Rail, and also critical of yours truly, in the role that I played in criticizing the government. She was a well-known blogger. A defender of democracy, she feared no power. I’d ask the House to pay its respect to the passing of BC Mary — Mary Mackie.”
Bill Tieleman, who also covered the BC Rail Court Case, wrote
BC Mary was one of Canada’s most tireless, prolific, dedicated and dogged bloggers – with an absolute commitment to finding out the truth about the BC Legislature Raids – the Basi-Virk case – the BC Railgate story.In fact, she named her blog The Legislature Raids.
And now my friend is gone. Sadly BC Mary – Mary Mackie to those that knew her more – passed away unexpectedly but peacefully on Saturday March 3 in Toronto General Hospital.
The rest of Bill Tieleman’s post can be read here.
Finally an excellent article by journalist Peter Ewart that speaks of BC Mary and reflects on her contibutions.
For many, she was known as “BC Mary” which was the name tag she used on the website that she founded and operated for six years. Her real name was Mary Mackie, and she was 83 years old when she passed away a few days ago. During her life, Mary lived in various parts of British Columbia, including the Central Interior region for a period. Most recently, because of deteriorating health, she was residing with relatives in Ontario.
His full article published by Opinion 250 can be read here.
Our Mainstream Columnists 
Bill Tieleman’s Blog tells a story of Moe Sihota collecting $72,000 a year as President of the NDP.This is unbelievable, and certainly will set the cat out amongst the pigeons if it is true. The position was always a non paid post up until now.
