Bob Mackin
Vancouver City Hall, dressed in FIFA World Cup colours and logo, and the Capt. George Vancouver statue. (Mackin)
“As such, the City of Vancouver did not receive any of the referenced legacy funding.”
FIFA forecast US$15 billion revenue during the 2023-2026 cycle and budgeted US$2.7 billion to operate the 2026 tournament, which was subsidized by taxpayers in the 16 jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, West Vancouver-residing FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani is being touted as a potential successor to Gianni Infantino after the backlash to the quashed proposal to sell shares in the World Cup to investors.
Montagliani and 11 others were named to 2026’s class of the Order of British Columbia. Lt. Gov. Wendy Cocchia will present the awards on Sept. 24 in Victoria.
The Order of B.C. citation lauds Montagliani for his role in bringing the 2015 women’s World Cup and 2026 men’s World Cup to Vancouver.
In 2022, however, whistleblower Ciara McCormack told a House of Commons committee that Montagliani should not be involved in the 2026 tournament over his role in the Canadian Soccer Association’s coverup of the 2008 firing of a coach later jailed for sexual assault.
Chrystia Freeland was in Taipei for an Indo-Pacific security forum this week and urged democratic nations to oppose the Chinese Communist Party’s new ethnic unity law, which targets individuals and organizations beyond China’s borders, according to Focus Taiwan.
The former Liberal deputy prime minister called it “particularly sinister” because it echoes themes that Vladimir Putin emphasized before invading Ukraine.
Lt. Gov. Wendy Cocchia (centre) in 2025 with FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani at Vancouver city hall. (CONCACAF/LinkedIn)
China’s new law bore a “dark kinship with Russia’s malign use of linguistic, cultural, and ethnic ties to justify illegal encroachment on the sovereignty of its neighbours,” Freeland said.
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Yonhap reports that South Korea’s unification ministry wants to stop calling North Korea its “main enemy.”
The government is seeking peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang. It currently calls the dictatorship next door “North Korea,” rather than the official name (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). “Seoul does not recognize the two Koreas as separate states under the 1991 inter-Korean Basic Agreement.”
Aussies want relief from the high price of beer, some of the world’s most-expensive.
ABC News Australia wonders, “If we scrap the ‘beer tax’ for five years, will pub culture and live music thrive again?”
The analysis says the inflation-indexed excise tax on booze Down Under is the culprit. It rises every six months to keep pace with rising prices.
“And those mechanical price increases have occurred every six months for more than 40 years.”
Politics in Portland. Never boring.
Under a public records request, Willamette Week uncovered a fire report that showed crews were called to put out a fire in city councillor Mitch Green’s backyard on June 15. Yard waste burning is banned by both the city and Multnomah County.
“The dispatcher noted the call had come from a neighbour to the south who reported hearing a ‘loud noise and then seeing flames, backyard on fire’.”
The 37-year-old man arrested Aug. 3 for allegedly lighting the Old Trails wildfire in Spokane, Wash., was contacted by police last summer about two fires, but not arrested, the Spokesman Review reported.
Court files say Aaron F. Farinacci, 37, wore the same “Who needs luck, I have charm” shirt when he allegedly lit a fire that destroyed Northwest Spokane neighbourhoods on Aug. 1.
“Farinacci has a history of mental health problems, court records show. He was charged in 2010 with first-degree murder in the death of his stepfather, but later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.”
Cascadia Daily News reports that a federal court has ordered a Whatcom County man released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail.
Alexander (last name withheld to protect privacy) was arrested in March and owns a business in Lynden, Wash.
“Judge Regina Rodriguez, of the U.S. District of Colorado, determined Alexander is eligible for protection from deportation because of his pending application for what’s known as a T visa, a status reserved for victims of human trafficking.”
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Bob Mackin
Who got a worse deal from
