Bob Mackin
A business continuity consultant to ICBC cautioned the Crown auto insurer and driving regulator that the FIFA World Cup could be a risk to its finances, operations and reputation.
In a March 5 email, obtained under the freedom of information law, Mary Conibear delivered a summary of an American company’s World Cup threat landscape webinar to Jaci Edgeworth, the vice-president of contact centres, people and facilities.
Police officers outside the FIFA Congress on April 30, 2026 in Vancouver. (Mackin)
“It came down to the pinch points for employees being transportation congestion/disruption, impacts if they live in or around restricted areas, and increased phishing/scams around the event itself (fake sites, deep fake messages to staff around FIFA content etc.),” said Conibear, CEO of Quandary Compass.
“Also talked about possibility of increased civil unrest (although Canada luckily has lower risk countries coming in the normal rounds, the round of 32 and round of 16 matches could increase that risk). For business, there could also be supply chain disruption if you have a lot of deliveries/movement in that area.”
Conibear and Edgeworth are former co-workers at VANOC, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee: Conibear the Games operations manager and Edgeworth the director of workforce planning.
Austin, Texas-based AlertMedia, which sells incident management and communication software, called the World a Cup a material risk event in the webinar co-hosted by its senior vice-president of global intelligence, Sara Pratley.
The presentation by the former CNN national news vice-president said physical safety risks will challenge even the most-prepared host cities and civil unrest will be widespread and hard to predict. It included images of the crowd surge at the 2024 Copa America final in Miami, where ticketless fans gained entry to the stadium, and the 2021 Astroworld music festival in Houston, where 10 people were trampled to death.
Protests near stadiums and transit hubs, focusing on immigration policies and global conflicts, are bound to attract media attention. The tournament happens with friction over the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement as a backdrop and overlaps with Canada Day and the 250th U.S. Independence Day.
Obtained via freedom of information from ICBC.
AlertMedia also predicted cyber threats will target fans, brands and infrastructure with ticketing and accommodation scams, phishing, deepfakes and false statements.
Terrorism and lone-actor threats remain difficult to detect and low-tech tactics are difficult to disrupt.
“Violent headlines influence self-radicalized individuals,” said the presentation.
Additional risk factors to watch: unauthorized drones, opportunistic crime, supporter violence and extreme weather hazards.
What ICBC said
“It’s important that we understand the potential impact of a large global event, like the World Cup, taking place in Vancouver and its potential impact on our business,” ICBC spokesperson Greg Harper told theBreaker.news.
B.C. Place is scheduled to host seven matches between June 13 and July 7. The FIFA Fan Festival official watch party at Hastings Park will operate most match days until the July 19 final. A bevy of other events, big and small, are planned, including at the Shipyards near ICBC’s North Vancouver head office.
More police will be deployed in downtown Vancouver than during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
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