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Bob Mackin

Unlike the FIFA World Cup teams on the B.C. Place Stadium pitch in June and July, there will be no single manager of the local security operation.

A copy of the confidential agency organization chart, obtained by theBreaker.news from BC Hydro under freedom of information, shows three police agencies will work with FIFA’s event operations, Vancouver’s host city policy group and health authorities.

The chart is based on the seven match days and visually describes what is called the C4/I2 structure, standing for Command, Control, Communications and Computing and Information and Intelligence.

Police, event operations, government and health divisions of the FIFA World Cup 26 security and safety operation in Vancouver, obtained by theBreaker.news. (BC Hydro/FOI)

Policing podium

B.C. RCMP, Metro Vancouver Transit Police and Vancouver Police Department are organized in gold (strategic), silver (tactical) and bronze (operational) divisions. The designations are a legacy of the RCMP-led security operation for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Each will have their own operations or command centre. In the case of the RCMP, it will be in Richmond to oversee Vancouver International Airport and the University of B.C., where teams will train at the Vancouver Whitecaps’ facility. Various RCMP detachments and federal policing offices will be involved, as will public order, critical incident, tactical and special units.

The stadium, its surroundings, Killarney training pitch and the PNE fan festival are the prime focus of the VPD, which will have two public safety and urban domain units to handle hotels, protests and traffic. It includes critical incident, tactical and specialty units.

Big D

The B.C. Place Stadium operations centre will work under the FIFA main operations centre, to be located in Dallas, and alongside the silver tactical commanders and Vancouver emergency operations centre at E-Comm 911.

The federal and provincial governments will have their own emergency support stream and a health emergency control centre connected to B.C. Emergency Health Services.

Tabletop

Last September, authorities got together for a tabletop exercise to simulate threats such as mass-casualty and mass-victimization incidents, explosives and suspicious packages.

Heavily redacted documents include a photograph of a stuffed bear toy at the public memorial to the victims of last April’s Lapu Lapu Day vehicle ramming attach in South Vancouver.

On its chest, someone wrote: “politicians please stop the mental health crisis.”

Censored presentation for a Sept. 8, 2025 table top exercise included a photograph of the Lapu Lapu Day memorial. (BC Hydro/FOI)

It is on a page below the FIFA-trademarked “We Are Vancouver” slogan.

The Filipino festival’s food truck row was staged on a street without rigid barriers: 11 people were killed and dozens more injured. Adam Kai-Ji Lo is facing second degree murder charges.

In 2024, the city hall’s top FIFA security contractor, former New Westminster and Transit Police chief Dave Jones, warned in an affidavit about vehicle ramming attacks.

Cost?

Nobody has announced the all-in budget for security and safety for FIFA 26 in Vancouver.

“Integrated public safety and security within hosting area” is one of the functions under the $315 million to $345 million budget for City of Vancouver and public sector service providers, including TransLink and health services.

Last November’s federal budget included $100 million for federal services, from Department of Canadian Heritage, RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

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Bob Mackin Unlike the FIFA World Cup teams

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Bob Mackin

In 2019, then-NDP Premier John Horgan set B.C. up to keep Daylight Saving Time (DST) year-round. The populist move would only be triggered if the three U.S. West Coast states made the change simultaneously. Washington, Oregon and California rely on federal approval and they are still waiting.

Fast forward to March 2, when Premier David Eby gathered the press gallery for a “special announcement.”

It featured kids from the nearby South Park elementary, dancing to Daft Punk’s “One More Time,” to signify the last time that clocks in B.C. will spring forward on March 8.

The irony is this: the Daft Punk classic is not about stopping. According to the Pitchfork 500 guide to the greatest songs, the message of ‘One More Time’ is “let’s defy our exhaustion, let’s keep dancing that little bit longer.”

Premier David Eby’s March 2 permanent Daylight Saving Time announcement. (BC Gov/Flickr)

(Coincidentally, the French electronica duo released the single in November 2000. In May 2001, B.C. voters threw the NDP out of office. Will it happen one more time?)

B.C. is going it alone, meaning it will be out-of-sync with neighbour Washington during the winter. The announcement came less than a month since Eby threw support behind a bid to bring NATO’s Defence, Security and Resilience Bank headquarters to B.C. B.C.’s existing time zone was one of the selling points.

Dave-Light Saving Time

It used to be that politicians took time (pardon the pun) and asked voters about changing the time.

During B.C.’s 1972 election, voting took place in five remote ridings on whether to go with Pacific Standard Time, including DST, or stay in the Mountain time zone. The no side won, by just under 65%.

In a 1967 plebiscite, just over 51% of Alberta voters said no to DST. By 1971, almost 61.5% voted in favour. When year-round DST was put to Alberta voters again in 2021, year-round DST was defeated by 50.24%.

Eby has little time for democracy at the moment. His government’s February budget landed with a thud, bringing bad news about a bigger deficit, tax hikes and the end of the anti-patronage watchdog. So he needed something quick to change the channel for the new month.

In doing so, Eby, the 37th Premier of B.C., is following in the footsteps of the 37th President of the U.S., Richard Nixon, who declared year-round DST during the energy crisis in 1974.

The Smithsonian Magazine recalled: “The main drawback to pushing the clock forward permanently was the prolonged early-morning darkness in the winter, which left children heading to school when it was ‘jet black’ outside.”

Nixon resigned (for other reasons) in August that year. By October, White House successor Gerald Ford made DST seasonal again.

In reaction to Eby, the Victoria Times Colonist interviewed Dr. Michael Pollock of Camosun College, one of many scientists who support year-round Standard Time instead in order to avoid what is called Mornings Artificially Darkened, or MAD.

Eby is going MAD? Say it Ain’t so!

Cue the “What, me worry?” kid.

Kenny and Lenny-gate, Week 2

After trying again to apologize to COPE Coun. Sean Orr last week, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim tried to put it all behind him on March 3. It did not go so well.

He took questions at city hall from four reporters in five minutes and then skedaddled, leaving more questions than answers.

Such as the mysterious picture that he said prompted him to make the false allegation to Chinese-language media outlets that Orr distributed drugs last Christmas. Bah-humbug!

Why did Sim hold such a news conference exclusively for Chinese-language outlets on Feb. 6? He speaks neither Cantonese nor Mandarin and frequently boasts about inclusivity.

And where were the six members of his ABC party caucus? They usually stand behind him and nod approvingly. Not even Deputy Mayor Sarah Kirby-Yung or Coun. Lenny Zhou, whose now-deleted WeChat video triggered the controversy. Instead, it was solo Sim.

Zhou has not responded for comment. Nor has he made an apology on his WeChat account.

Key question: Did Zhou use a city-issued smartphone to make the video and post it onto the Chinese surveillance and propaganda app?

If so, that would contravene the city’s policies since late 2023. I double-checked and this is what the communications department told me: “According to the City of Vancouver’s Technology Acceptable Use Policy, WeChat is not allowed on mobile devices issued to staff. It is aligned with the Government of Canada’s policy.”

Screen shot of Coun. Lenny Zhou’s deleted WeChat video and translated text. (LennyZhou821023 on WeChat)

It is 227 days until the civic election on Oct. 17.

The key day on Sim’s calendar, however, is June 13: in 101 days, the first of seven FIFA World Cup matches at B.C. Place Stadium. Australia versus either Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia or Turkey. By virtue of being mayor, Sim will enjoy VIP access to as many matches as he wants. Even those out-of-town, including the July 19 final in New Jersey.

What is Carney concealing?

Prime Minister Mark Carney went to Beijing in January to visit Xi Jinping and made a number of deals with the country he declared Canada’s new “strategic partner.”

The Canada-China Business Council was ecstatic with the reset. Nevermind how the Chinese Communist Party continues to support Russia in its illegal, four-year-old war on Canadian ally Ukraine. Or any of the other stuff packed inside last year’s Hogue Commission report about foreign interference and transnational repression.

Frank Caputo, the Conservative critic for the Minister of Public Safety, wrote to Gary Anandasangaree on Feb. 9, seeking a copy of one of those deals, the Co-operation in Combating Crimes Between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security.

What are the implications of Canada sharing intelligence with a dictatorship?

“I still haven’t heard anything back,” Caputo told me on March 1. “I have spoken to the minister personally about this. I put it out publicly, and I believe that that memorandum of understanding should be released publicly forthwith.”

Surrey helps Toronto

On Feb. 26, Toronto Police Service announced the arrest of two men and the name of another, who is wanted for last June’s second degree murder of Jahkai Jack, 15.

One of the Toronto men, Rajveer Gill, 21, was caught in British Columbia, but the TPS refused to disclose the jurisdiction.

theBreaker.news confirmed that Gill, facing a charge of accessory after the fact to murder, was nabbed in Surrey.

Surrey Police Service public information officer Sgt. Tige Pollock confirmed the SPS Gang Crime Unit arrested Gill at the request of TPS.

“SPS does not have any charges in relation to this incident,” Pollock said.

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Bob Mackin In 2019, then-NDP Premier John Horgan

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For the week of March 1, 2026: 

When Mexican forces killed the most-wanted drug cartel boss known as “El Mencho,” it sparked a national emergency that stranded Canadians vacationing in Puerto Vallarta. 

This week’s guest is freelance reporter David Agren, who has covered Mexico and Latin America for more than 20 years for the Globe and Mail, CBC Radio, Maclean’s, The Guardian, USA Today, UnHerd and others. 

Agren, originally from Chilliwack, B.C., goes beyond the headlines and explains to host Bob Mackin what Feb. 22 means for average Mexicans, Canadian tourists and the upcoming FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico. 

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

CLICK BELOW to listen. Or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of March 1, 2026:  When

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Bob Mackin 

Playland and Empire Fields will remain open, but not the skateboard park, Italian Gardens and Momiji Japanese garden at Hastings Park during the FIFA Fan Festival for security reasons.

However, the free admission World Cup watch party will not operate every day of the June 11-July 19 tournament.

FIFA Fan Festival Hastings Park site map. (City of Vancouver)

During a Feb. 25 community meeting on Zoom, the chief operating officer of the local World Cup host committee said the site “will operate for a significant portion of that 39-day tournament.”

“Exact days and times are to be announced, but it will span that 39-day period, and exactly which matches will be broadcast, again, will all be announced in the coming weeks,” said Taunya Geelhoed.

Geelhoed also said: “Everything to do with which games will be shown, the hours of operation, the days of operating, exactly which concerts will be on, and when that information is coming in the following weeks.”

According to the city’s FIFA World Cup website, “the Festival runs on key days” between June 11-19, when 104 matches will be played in 11 U.S. cities, three in Mexico and Vancouver and Toronto.

Neither Geelhoed nor the head of the host city office, Jessie Adcock, responded to confirm which days the festival will be closed, which matches would not be shown or comment on the current budget (the 2023 estimate was $20 million). A person from the office, who did not provide their name, said by email that more information on the festival will be released next week.

A similar Fan Festival in New Jersey, which was charging $10 for admission, was cancelled. Seattle decided to scale down plans for the main site at Seattle Center and also hold watch parties at three other sites: Pacific Place, Waterfront Park and Victory Hall in SoDo.

Security closures

Geelhoed said it became “abundantly clear” that some spaces in Hastings Park could not remain open.

Dave Jones, co-lead of the FIFA World Cup integrated safety and security unit, said there will be fencing and an outer security perimeter around the site.

“In short, the skateboard park was in such close proximity it was actually contained within the footprint of it,” Jones said. “While looking at other possible options to keeping it open, the security levels and those involved in the design of the security for the site found no other alternative but to have to close off the site.”

Metal detectors

There will be a level of security at Hastings Park not seen since the Pacific Coliseum hosted figure skating and short-track speed skating during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Site capacity will be 25,000 and the centrepiece will be the new, $183 million Freedom Mobile Arch amphitheatre.

“While there’s no tickets, there will be limitations,” Jones said. “We call it prohibited item list. Certain items won’t be allowed in. That list will be published. There will be screening where people will walk through, call it metal detectors, in terms of it when they enter the site. And then, once in the site, they’re free to move around throughout the site.”

Jones said police, fire and medical personnel will be joined by private security, hosts and hostesses.

B.C. Place Stadium is hosting seven World Cup matches, beginning June 13.

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Bob Mackin  Playland and Empire Fields will remain

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Bob Mackin

So many unanswered questions about the role of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in Jesse Van Rootselaar’s Feb. 10 shooting rampage in Tumbler Ridge that killed eight innocents.

The company closed the troubled teenager’s account in June 2025, but didn’t feel the content was bad enough to tell police — until after the shooting, which also injured 27. Later, it admitted the killer opened a second account.

We still don’t know what Van Rootselaar asked ChatGPT and how it answered.

To gauge how the company is handling the scrutiny, that is one of the questions I asked ChatGPT.

(ChatGPT)

First off, I asked: “What happened in Tumbler Ridge?”

“Here’s what’s been reported about what happened in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Latest on the Tumbler Ridge tragedy in British Columbia.”

Links to an EnergeticCity story on UFC honouring Maya Gebala, who is fighting for her life in B.C. Children’s Hospital, a Global story on OpenAI committing to improvements and an AM1150 story about Peace River South Conservative MLA Larry Neufeld’s call for a public inquiry or Coroner’s inquest.

Then, as fast as it appeared, it disappeared. Replaced by a disclaimer: ‘This content couldn’t be shown for safety reasons.”

Then I asked: “What happened on February 10th in Tumbler Ridge?”

“Here’s a clear summary of what happened on February 10, 2026 in Tumbler Ridge.”

It showed a timeline of the incident, citing Wikipedia.

Then it disappeared. “This content couldn’t be shown for safety reasons.”

Over the course of several minutes, ChatGPT told me it was not “hiding secrets” about Van Rootselaar’s questions. First it claimed Van Rootselaar had one account, but then admitted there was a second.

“We do not know — nor has anything trustworthy reporting published — the specific name or handle she used. That information remains private for privacy and legal reasons.”

Eby on the spot

During Question Period on Feb. 26, Neufeld asked Premier David Eby to commit to a public inquiry or Coroner’s inquest, and for a timeline of when either would begin.

Eby said one would happen, but it relies on completion of the RCMP investigation.

“I understand the police are investigating, for example, the origin of the guns that were used in this tragedy,” Eby said. “We support the police to take the steps necessary to do the work necessary to answer those questions and potentially through the criminal process. Immediately following that is when any public inquiries or inquests would take place.”

Neufeld said an inquiry must not only examine the role of online platforms (like ChatGPT), but Van Rootselaar’s “prior points of contact and information sharing between agencies and institutions.”

For instance, what did the Peace River South School District, Northern Health Authority and Ministry of Children and Family Development know and when did they know?

Any action or inaction by the Eby government could come under the microscope.

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Bob Mackin So many unanswered questions about the

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Canada should deepen support for and engagement with Taiwan, said the former diplomat China held hostage for almost three years in retaliation for Meng Wanzhou’s 2018 arrest.

Michael Kovrig told the House of Commons’ international trade committee on Feb. 26 that Canada should move forward with Taiwan while maintaining “a polite diplomatic stance with China.”

“Canada should also be encouraging like-minded democracies and allies to be strengthening ties with Taiwan,” Kovrig said. “We should not accept a false dichotomy that Beijing would want to force on Canada, that we must choose between relations between China and Taiwan when we are talking about commercial agreements on trade and investment.”

Cannot be trusted

Michael Kovrig testifying to the House of Commons international trade committee on Feb. 26, 2026. (Parlay)

In January, Prime Minister Mark Carney declared China a “strategic partner” during a trade mission to Beijing. Kovrig called the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) an unreliable partner because it has no checks and balances or any transparency or democratic accountability. In the eyes of the CCP, the law “is simply another political tool, an instrument of power.”

It does not respect contracts and international agreements. By detaining him, China violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the Canada-China consular agreement.

“As we’ve seen, particularly with its role in the World Trade Organization, it often creates the useful semblance of being a guardian and supporter of globalization and a rules-based order, while actively undermining and exploiting it from within, and that creates critical problems for it as a potential trading or otherwise partner for Canada,” Kovrig said.

Cell phones on wheels

Kovrig also said he is concerned about Canada’s recent lifting of tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. If Huawei is not allowed to build Canada’s next generation telecommunications backbone, then why should BYD be allowed to sell cars to Canadians?

“They can gather up enormous amounts of information, both on their drivers and on everyone around them, and there’s ample documentation of this.”

When it comes to Canadian trade with China, he said the cost of security and mitigation measures may outweigh the value of any investments.

Poilievre reboots

On the same day, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre slammed Donald Trump during a pivotal speech at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto.

Poilievre called Trump’s 51st state talk, whether a joke or not, “unacceptable” and said the president is wrong to ignore Canada’s sacrifices made for the United States.

“Canadians fought and died alongside Americans in Afghanistan, and let’s be clear, we did that exclusively in response to an attack on our American neighbours,” Poilievre said. “We also fought and bled alongside America, not just in the trenches of Western Europe, but in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, defending American territory in the Second World War.

“And of course, we joined rapidly to fight communism in Korea. In countless other ways, our cooperation – whether it’s NORAD or our efforts to secure the Arctic – have been beneficial to both countries.”

During the 2025 federal election, Trump said it is easier to deal with a Liberal. He did not refer to Poilievre by name, but said “the Conservative that’s running is stupidly no friend of mine.”

Mark Carney (left) and Xi Jinping in Beijing on Jan. 16, 2026. (Government of Canada/Facebook)

Biggest threat to Canada

Poilievre also said Canada “should not declare a permanent rupture with our biggest customer and closest neighbour in favour of a strategic partnership for a new world order with Beijing – a regime the Prime Minister himself said was the biggest threat to Canada just a year ago.”

China’s government and its proxies have kidnapped Canadians, stolen Canadian technology, meddled in Canadian elections and pushed fentanyl onto Canadian streets, he said.

“Canada should talk and trade where prudent, but never make the mistake of confusing engagement with dependency. China is not a substitute for the United States of America.”

Team Canada

Poilievre also struck a collaborative, rather than combative, tone.

He quoted Pierre Trudeau’s line comparing life next to the United States to sleeping with an elephant: “No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

Poilievre proposed an all-party committee to fight for Canada’s interests “with the beast next door” during the review of Canada’s free trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico.

“The best leverage we have, though, is to be united here at home,” Poilievre said. “All political parties love Canada. New Democrats, Conservatives, and Liberals love it a little differently than the Bloc Québécois, but even they want the best for their constituents. The best way for us to become unbreakable in our negotiations and our discussions with other countries is to work to be united here at home.”

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The Liberal Public Safety Minister told a committee studying a controversial federal loan to BC Ferries on Feb. 25 that his department did not conduct a national security review of the deal to buy four ferries from a Chinese state-owned shipyard.

“While Public Safety Canada does have authority to conduct security reviews of foreign direct investments under the Investment Canada Act, it does not review procurement decisions at the provincial level, such as this one,” Gary Anandasangaree told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. 

“Therefore, we would not have had the authority to conduct a national security review. In this case, only after outreach from Transport Canada did Public Safety officials engage with BC Ferries. BC Ferries already made their procurement decision.”

Gary Anandasangaree. (ParlVu)

BC Ferries secrecy

The taxpayer-owned company announced the contract with China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards (CMI) on June 10. Unions and opposition Conservatives demanded the deal — backed by a $1 billion loan from the federal Liberal government — be scrapped due to national security concerns. Under freedom of information, BC Ferries refused to disclose to theBreaker.news the project budget, names of the shortlisted companies, the justification for CMI and the contract with CMI.

Security risks

Committee vice-chair Dan Albas (Conservative-Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna) called the lack of security review “unfathomable.”

Albas quoted from an unclassified Transport Canada document that warned that the vessels built in China will have access to Canadian waterways and could use scanning and mapping technology to gather information about critical underwater infrastructure, including data cables.

Anandasangaree reiterated that it was B.C.’s “prerogative to undertake procurement according to their laws, according to their rules.” But vessels still need to be in line with Canadian standards.

Gunn shots

MP Dan Albas (ParlVu)

Another Conservative MP from B.C., Aaron Gunn (North Island-Powell River), forced Anandasangaree to admit he would have preferred made in Canada ferries, but he did not directly answer when asked if he regretted federal subsidies for a Chinese shipyard.

“The funding did go from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. However, the decision itself is on the Government of British Columbia,” Anandasangaree said.

Gunn also challenged him to agree or disagree that Xi Jinping is a dictator.

“What I would suggest is that we can go around the world and put tags on individual leaders,” Anandasangaree. “That is not that what I’m here to do.”

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Bob Mackin The Liberal Public Safety Minister told

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A last-ditch effort for oversight of Vancouver city hall’s FIFA World Cup 26 planning failed at a Vancouver city council committee meeting on Feb. 25, when Mayor Ken Sim used his ABC majority to say it was too late.

Coun. Rebecca Bligh, a former ABC member who wants to defeat Sim in the October civic election, and COPE Coun. Sean Orr unsuccessfully proposed the FIFA Public Safety and Local Readiness Working Group to the Standing Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities.

Coun. Rebecca Bligh at the Feb. 25, 2026 council meeting. (City of Vancouver/YouTube)

Bligh said it was not about creating another layer of bureaucracy. She wanted to get all security and safety management partners together with business improvement associations, hospitality organizations and community stakeholders to ensure the event succeeds.

“It is about alignment, and alignment that I’m hearing does not exist,” Bligh said.

Leaders of two downtown business improvement associations — Landon Hoyt of Hastings Crossing and Elise Yurkowski of Gastown — spoke in favour of the proposal.

“While there have been periodic meetings between BIAs and the host committee, there has not yet been adequate coordination across departments, and many questions that we have in those meetings are going unanswered,” Hoyt said. “Key questions about safety resources, community communication strategies and direct support for local businesses remain unanswered.”

Chantelle Spicer of the B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition said it took nearly two years for her group to finally meet on Feb. 21 with host city committee staff.

“It is clear that there are ways that earlier consultation and engagement with those most likely to be impacted by FIFA could have led to reduced harm,” Spicer said.

How they voted

ABC Coun. Brian Montague, a retired Vancouver Police officer, said he would have happily supported the motion had it been tabled a year or two ago. But, with 108 days until the first of seven matches at B.C. Place Stadium and the tournament-long Fan Festival at Hastings Park, staff have “absolutely no capacity to take on incremental new work.”

The motion was rejected 6-3 by Montague, Sim, Mike Klassen, Peter Meiszner, Sarah Kirby-Yung and Lenny Zhou.

Bligh, Orr and Lucy Maloney (OneCity) voted in the minority. Pete Fry (Green) and Lisa Dominato (ABC) were absent.

Anti-ICE motion melts

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim at the June 11 one-year countdown to FIFA 26. (Mackin)

At the same meeting, a rare show of dissent among the usually whipped ABC caucus.

Meeting chair Klassen deemed “out of order” the motion by mayoral candidate Fry and Orr seeking a letter to federal officials to ban U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from Vancouver during the World Cup.

“U.S. agencies have zero jurisdiction, zero authority to conduct law enforcement in Canada,” Montague said to Klassen. “The premise of the motion that U.S. enforcement will show up and be deployed is fundamentally incorrect and inaccurate.”

On Feb. 23, Sim issued a public statement that said ICE is neither legally able to operate in the city nor is it welcome. On the same day, VPD Chief Steve Rai wrote to council to call the motion fear-mongering.

“Let me be unequivocally clear: ICE is not being deployed, nor have they been invited or approved, to participate in security oversight for FIFA 2026 Vancouver,” Rai said.

Fry challenged Klassen’s decision. A two-thirds supermajority was required to debate the motion, but it fell one vote shy.

ABC’s Kirby-Yung, Dominato, Bligh, and Meiszner joined Fry, Orr and Maloney. Klassen, Montague, Sim and Zhou voted in the minority.

ICE is here

The U.S. is not among the teams drawn to play in Vancouver. It could make an appearance in one of the two knockout round matches.

U.S. Consul Gen. Shawn Crowley was at the council meeting, but did not speak.

A statement provided to theBreaker.news by the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, on behalf of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit, said HSI agents are deployed at U.S. diplomatic missions in Canada, including Vancouver.

They do not carry firearms nor do they conduct operations in Canada. Instead, they “collaborate closely with our Canadian partners on joint criminal investigations involving narcotics, weapons smuggling, human trafficking and human smuggling. HSI also investigates child exploitation and continues to successfully identify and help rescue minor victims in both the U.S. and Canada.”

Missed opportunity

Fry and Orr could have instead called World Cup security officials to testify before council.

Less than a year before the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the head of the RCMP-led security operation appeared at a public meeting of city council.

Bud Mercer of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit provided an unclassified briefing on July 7, 2009, focusing on the threat of protesters to disrupt the Games.

His fear did come true when an opening night, anti-Olympics protest blocked streets and delayed the arrival of VIPs at the B.C. Place Stadium ceremony. The next morning, riot police were needed to quell the rampage by a mob of dozens of masked and hooded vandals clad in black.

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Bob Mackin A last-ditch effort for oversight of

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The controversial decision against a former school board politician by the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT) — hailed by NDPers and condemned by Conservatives and a cross-dressing comedy legend — will be appealed.

In its main Feb. 18 ruling, BCHRT found ex-Chilliwack trustee Barry Neufeld violated the human rights code by discriminatory publication and discrimination in employment. It ordered Neufeld pay $750,000 compensation to Chilliwack Teachers’ Association (CTA) members that identified as LGBTQ between 2017 and 2022.

Neufeld’s lawyer James Kitchen said Feb. 23 on X that his client is seeking a judicial review.

“It will be filed in the coming weeks. I will be publicly releasing the court document,” Kitchen wrote.

Barry Neufeld (YouTube)

More than $750,000

Neufeld spent 27 years in office. He gained international attention as an outspoken opponent of sexual orientation and gender identity teachings in schools and what he calls gender ideology and transgenderism.

Neufeld’s lawyer Kitchen, in his closing argument of the main hearing, did not address the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (and its guarantee of freedom of expression) “at all.”

“At the hearing, Mr. Neufeld took the position that he was not asking the tribunal to balance his Charter rights with the statutory objectives set out in the code because, in his view, doing so was an acceptance of the underlying discriminatory behaviour,” the decision said.

Neufeld also faces a $10,000 fine for improper conduct after the tribunal agreed with a CTA application to further penalize Neufeld’s “clear contempt for the tribunal, its mandate and its process.”

The CTA wanted a $20,000 fine. Neufeld argued for no more than $2,500, because he was self-represented during part of the misconduct hearings and any of his conduct “had only a marginal impact on the tribunal’s process.”

The tribunal also said Neufeld knowingly undermined its ability to control the process and public confidence in the tribunal. It “wasted needless resources policing and attempting to correct his behaviour.”

“It made no difference whether he was represented by counsel or not; for example, even when his lawyer told him to stop publicizing settlement offers, he continued to do so.

Six violations

BCHRT said the $10,000 award was appropriate, because of six types of Neufeld misconduct:

  1. Surreptitiously recording and publishing the April 18 [pre-hearing conference call];
  2. Surreptitiously recording the May 16 PHC, in violation of the Tribunal’s April 26 Order;
  3. Publishing privileged information about settlement discussions, in violation of settlement privilege, s. 40(2) of the Code, and Rule 14(5);
  4. Failing to delete the April 18 PHC recording, sharing it with a third party, and allowing it to be uploaded to the internet, in violation of the April 26 Order;
  5. Sharing confidential information obtained through the Tribunal’s disclosure process, in violation of the implied undertaking rule and Rule 23.1; and
  6. Sharing dial in information for the Tribunal’s hearing, in violation of the Tribunal’s process for facilitating public access to its online hearings.

Small consolation

BCHRT vice-chair Devyn Cousineau. (Lancaster House)

BCHRT said Neufeld “appears to be a man of limited financial means” and he did not cross the line like an Albertan did during hearings into a 2017 flyer campaign against a transgender NDP candidate running in the Vancouver-False Creek provincial riding.

In 2019, the tribunal fined Bill Whatcott $35,000, plus $20,000 in costs, for smearing Morganne Oger with “Transgenderism vs. Truth in Vancouver‐False Creek” flyers.

“Whatcott used the tribunal’s process to perpetuate further discrimination and harm against Ms. Oger on the basis of her gender identity,” the ruling said.

Coincidentally, tribunal vice-chair Devyn Cousineau was involved in both the Whatcott and Neufeld cases, as well as the 2019 decision against Jessica (aka Jonathan) Yaniv, who unsuccessfully sued waxing salons that refused to remove scrotum hair.

And now for something completely different

One of those shocked at the BCHRT’s $750,000 fine was comedy legend John Cleese of Monty Python’s Flying Circus fame, fearing he could be fined for performing in the BCHRT’s jurisdiction.

“What a pity!” Cleese wrote on X. “I’m arranging a theatrical tour of Canada this fall, and now I won’t be able to risk doing any shows in British Columbia. I was really looking forward to coming.”

British Columbia was the setting of Monty Python’s famous “Lumberjack Song,”which featured Michael Palin singing about logging and cross-dressing, with lines repeated by a bemused choir dressed in RCMP red serge ceremonial uniform

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News, Opinion

For the week of Feb. 22, 2026: 

British Columbia’s lawmakers returned to Victoria on Feb. 12, as the province mourned the mass-shooting in snowy Tumbler Ridge.

On Feb. 17, NDP Minister of Finance Brenda Bailey delivered an icy budget for the new fiscal year, starting March 31, that hikes taxes, the deficit and debt.

NorthernBeat.ca editor Fran Yanor is Bob Mackin’s guest to analyze the David Eby government’s record spending plan and look ahead to the rest of the spring session and potential for a snap election. The opposition Conservatives are seeking a new leader while the Greens no longer support the NDP. (Starts at 01:03.)

The Winter Olympics returned to Northern Italy and so did Brant Feldman, an agent who represents Canadian and American athletes. Feldman spoke from Milan where he has attended ice events and ceremonies. What next for world sport? (Starts at 17:58.)

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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For the week of Feb. 22, 2026:  British

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