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For the week of Jan. 23, 2022:

Drew Neilson is ashamed of the Games.

Two-time Olympic snowboarder Drew Neilson hopes athletes in Beijing 2022 will make a subtle, C-shaped gesture for “change” (Mackin)

The 2007 world cup snowboard cross champion competed for Canada at the Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The North Vancouverite is one of a few athletes to call for a full boycott of Beijing 2022 over China’s human rights abuses against Uyghurs, Tibetans and Hong Kongers. 

“Being an Olympian, the IOC holds you to very high standards of social responsibility and equality and things to live your life in Olympism, and I feel I’ve been cheated by the IOC taking the Games to places like this,” said Neilson, the featured guest on this week’s theBreaker.news Podcast. “I don’t want to be called an Olympian anymore because I don’t want to be associated to that committee anymore, the International Olympic Committee, because they’re doing dirty business with the devil.”

Neilson said China is also not a safe place for athletes to compete, due to the ongoing pandemic that originated in China and because of China’s surveillance state where athletes are threatened with arrest should they speak out.

“It’s very evident how deeply entrenched the IOC is with the [Chinese Communist Party] to make this happen and make as much money as possible,” he said.

Listen to Neilson’s interview with host Bob Mackin.   

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and commentary.

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For the week of Jan. 23, 2022:

Business, News

Bob Mackin

Dr. Bonnie Henry is officially employed by the Provincial Health Services Authority and seconded to the B.C. Ministry of Health, according to her contract obtained by theBreaker.news.

Dr. Bonnie Henry (BC Gov)

Released under the freedom of information law, Henry’s provincial health officer agreement commenced Feb. 1, 2018 and was subject to cabinet approval.

PHSA, which includes the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, pays Henry’s salary and benefits and the Ministry reimburses for expenses. The contract called for a gross annual salary of $301,078 plus a $12,000 payment for the Ministry’s public health on-call rate, up to $5,000 to pay for professional membership and licensing fees, and medical, dental, insurance and pension benefits. 

The contract is capped at $384,316. For the year ended March 31, 2021, the PHSA sunshine list shows Henry received $342,292 plus $9,758 expenses.

Henry remains, at all times, an employee of PHSA “and not be a servant or employee of the province.” She is required to provide advice in an independent manner and liaise with the Deputy Minister while bound by the terms and conditions of the public service standards of conduct and oath of employment. 

Henry swore to put the interests of the public and public service above personal interest, including avoiding all conflicts of interest, whether real or perceived, and to serve the government impartially, honestly and ethically, “in a manner that maintains and enhances the public’s trust and confidence in the public service and does not bring it into disrepute.”

Dr. Bonnie Henry (Russell Books/Instagram)

The contract raises questions about how Henry was allowed to co-author an autobiographical book about working as B.C.’s PHO during the first wave of the pandemic. After a late 2020 FOI request, Henry unilaterally blocked release of records about the March 2021-published “Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe” when she claimed she wrote the book as a “private citizen.”

The contract states all working papers, reports, documents, computer materials and equipment provided by the province to the secondee are exclusive property of the province, and that she “waives in favour of the province” all moral rights, as provided for in copyright law.

The contract also contains an indemnity clause to pay Henry’s legal bills, a confidentiality clause and a 90-day termination clause with a severance provision, unless the firing is for just cause. 

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DBH Secondment PHSA by Bob Mackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin Dr. Bonnie Henry is officially employed

Business, News

Bob Mackin

Why did the City of New Westminster’s fire chief retire with only six days notice and receive no official public recognition for serving 12 years? 

When theBreaker.news began asking about the sudden retirement of Tim Armstrong, Mayor Jonathan Cote and Chief Administrative Officer Lisa Spitale referred queries to Richard Fong, the Royal City’s human resources director.

Fong provided copies of two memos. One sent by Spitale on Oct. 22, informing staff that Armstrong decided to retire after 12 years as chief, effective Oct. 28.

“During that time period [Armstrong] has brought forward many improvements to the Fire and Rescue Services in New Westminster,” Spitale wrote. “Kindly join me in wishing Tim Armstrong good wishes in his retirement.”

Fong also provided a letter to staff from Armstrong dated Oct. 28, that said he decided to retire, “after some much needed holiday time and reflecting on what the next chapter in life might look like.”

“Having served 40 years this month in the fire service and public safety, it has been a difficult decision, but it is time for a change,” Armstrong’s letter said.

He thanked “all the staff for their dedication and support over the years,” but made no mention of senior managers or city council. Nor did the letter explain why there was only a six-day gap between the memos. 

There was no official public announcement of Armstrong’s departure, including on the city’s social media channels. There also did not appear to be any mention at the Nov. 1 city council meeting. Interim fire chief Curtis Bremner was introduced without fanfare during a council budget workshop, but there was no mention of Armstrong.

When theBreaker.news asked why there was no official public announcement of Armstrong’s retirement and whether he received any departure payments, in addition to holiday pay and a pension, Fong clammed-up. 

“Issuing public announcements to accompany retirements is not a normal city practice,” Fong said. “Any details about retirements are personal information and the city does not discuss personnel issues publicly.”

That is not true. The New Westminster Police Department website still shows a Jan. 5, 2011 announcement of chief Lorne Zapotichny’s retirement, which was effective at the end of February 2011.

Cote, coincidentally, announced on Jan. 1 that he would retire from the mayoralty at the end of his term next fall. He did not respond to a second query about whether there are additional costs to taxpayers and why Armstrong left the job with fewer than two weeks notice. 

Spitale did respond, but she said “any details about retirements are personal information and the city does not discuss personnel issues publicly.  I have nothing further to add.”

New Westminster chief administrative officer Lisa Spitale (New Westminster)

Coincidentally, the chief of a fire department in a suburb of Denver, Colo., with a career trajectory akin to Armstrong, announced his retirement on Jan. 10. 

Chief Doug Hall said his 43 years in firefighting, including 10 years as chief of the Westminster Fire Department, will end July 3. 

For 2020, the most-recent year available, New Westminster taxpayers paid Armstrong $194,802. He billed $3,827 in expenses. 

In early 2020, the Justice Institute of B.C. awarded Armstrong an honorary doctor of laws degree. Armstrong joined Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services at age 21 and rose the ranks over 28 years to become Deputy Chief. He became New Westminster’s fire chief in 2009 and also served as the Royal City’s director of emergency management. His career also included training firefighters in Canada, U.S. and Taiwan. 

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Bob Mackin Why did the City of

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Bob Mackin 

Four out of 10 new BC Liberal memberships sold in Abbotsford South may be illegitimate, according to a document leaked to theBreaker.news.

Kevin Falcon (left), Michael Lee, Renee Merrifield, Stan Sipos, Gavin Dew, Val Litwin and Ellis Ross (BC Liberals)

The Jan. 6 spreadsheet for the leadership election organizing committee (LEOC) shows that before the leadership race, there were 264 memberships in the riding, represented since 2020 by rookie BC Liberal MLA Bruce Banman.

Another 637 were sold in time for the Dec. 17, 2021 cut-off. In total, LEOC is auditing 41.4% of the new memberships, the highest percentage of all 87 electoral districts. The province-wide average is 17.62%.

The colour-coded spreadsheet shows more than 32,000 new memberships were sold province-wide. The party had 6,606 members before the race began.

The Abbotsford South growth pales in comparison to Surrey-Panorama (1,960 new memberships), Surrey-Green Timbers (1,351), Abbotsford West (1,093) and Surrey-Newton (1,287). The party is auditing between 21.4% and 29.23% of new memberships in those ridings.

More than a third of new memberships are also subject to additional vetting in Surrey-Whalley (36.2%), New Westminster (35.39%), Chilliwack (33.56%), and Burnaby North (33.3%). By comparison, West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky has a high rate for audit of 29.12%, after it added 467 new memberships to its existing 136. West Vancouver-Capilano, the home riding of perceived frontrunner Kevin Falcon, had 90 before the leadership race, and added 467 new memberships; 19.43% of them are under audit. 

Neither LEOC co-chairs Colin Hansen and Roxanne Helme nor party president Cameron Stolz responded to theBreaker.news.

On Jan. 11, Hansen and Helme released a statement to party members that said 3,025 of the current 43,000 active party members remain flagged, but no memberships had been cancelled or members expunged. They denied the Falcon campaign’s allegations that a racist algorithm was targeting new members of South Asian or Chinese heritage for audit.

“The criteria used to identify memberships for further review is based on a number of objective measures,” the statement said. “It does not use any form of demographic characteristics to identify individuals for audit.”

Red flags sparking followup included anonymized IP addresses, missing email addresses and phone numbers, credit cards that don’t match the member’s name or address, non-Canadian IP addresses, and overuse of a single IP address. LEOC said the party has been contacting members directly to verify their membership data. 

“Members will be given every opportunity and supported through the end of the party’s registration period to address any issues concerning their membership data.”

The auditing is vindication for the managers of candidates Gavin Dew, Michael Lee, Renee Merrifield, Ellis Ross and Stan Sipos. theBreaker.news was first to report about their joint Jan. 5 letter to LEOC, expressing concern about potential voter fraud and “the risk of catastrophic reputational damage” to the party and its staff, executive and volunteers. 

The party already planned to randomly audit 10% of memberships, but the five managers said their independent reviews of the membership list suggested between a third and half of all memberships should be flagged for audit for a variety of irregularities.

Eligible BC Liberals will vote for a new leader in an online, preferential ballot election Feb. 3-5. The new leader will replace Shirley Bond, who took over on an interim basis after Andrew Wilkinson quit following the 2020 election.

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Bob Mackin  Four out of 10 new BC

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Bob Mackin 

The B.C. NDP government is hiding even more data about the COVID-19 pandemic.

B.C. COVID-19 ventilator inventory from November 2021 (BC Gov/FOI)

In May 2021, the Vancouver Sun reported on the leaked BCCDC Weekly Data Summary that included detailed infection and vaccination maps kept secret for months by officials in the Ministry of Health and B.C. Centre for Disease Control. After the scandal erupted, BCCDC began to routinely release the report.

theBreaker.news has now obtained copies of the Daily COVID-19 Report, which is produced by the Ministry of Health’s COVID Response and Health Emergency Management Division. The records from the first week of November were disclosed under the freedom of information law on a two-month delay, in early January. 

Occupancy rates at B.C. COVID hospitals in November (BC Gov/FOI)

The report is marked “confidential and not for distribution” in bold, red letters. While some of the data is announced regularly, much of it is not, including the number of patients battling to stay alive on mechanical ventilators. 

Highlights: 
  • The Nov. 10 spreadsheet showed 88 of the 117 patients in critical care were mechanically ventilated. As of Nov. 5 at 12:30 p.m., there were 704 ventilators deployed and in service out of the 1,154 level 1 inventory. There were 364 of the 428 level 2 monitors in use;
  • As of Nov. 9 at 4 p.m., there were 19 patients under active home health monitoring, for a total to date of 18,542;

    B.C. COVID-19 case counts from November 2021 (BC Gov/FOI)

  • Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and East Kootenay Regional General Hospital were both at 100% occupancy as of Nov. 9 at 11:59 p.m. Royal Inland (95.2%) and Vancouver General Hospital (91.8%) were the others among the 20 COVID-designated critical care hospitals with little space to spare.
  • Internal data under the heading “facility and community outbreaks” shows long-term care, assisted living and independent living outbreaks for residents and staff, including cases and deaths. There is also a column for “students,” suggesting the same method is used to tabulate school outbreaks when those happen.
  • The stats through Nov. 9 at 10 a.m. said 10 staff and eight residents at Amica Lions Gate comprised the worst outbreak in the province; two residents died; 

  • B.C. COVID lab testing from November (BC Gov/FOI)

    Lab testing as of Nov. 9 at 11:59 p.m. showed 15,230 completed tests (of a capacity 21,186) with 552 positive. The rest were deemed “non-positive,” which means negative, indeterminate and invalid results. There were 5,286 lab samples pending, with a median 18.5-hour turnaround time. 

  • As of Nov. 9 at 11:59 p.m., 6,022 tests had been collected at testing sites, of a 7,483 capacity. 

An outspoken advocate for transparency said the public needs as much information as quickly as possible during the pandemic, in order to make the right decisions to stay safe and healthy. 

“Giving people the power to see for themselves, the raw data, could be very helpful during a time of crisis, and during this particular crisis,” said University of Victoria journalism professor Sean Holman in a February 2021 interview. 

The costs of not providing information are severe in the post-truth era, said Holman, who is the Wayne Crookes Professor in Environmental and Climate Journalism. Information gaps are often filled with misinformation and disinformation, which inevitably fuel protests against vaccines and masks, Holman said.

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DOWNLOAD the Ministry of Health COVID Daily Report for November 10 ,2021

 

 

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Bob Mackin  The B.C. NDP government is hiding

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Bob Mackin

The Jan. 7 incident that claimed the life of a longtime City of Vancouver worker involved a front-end loader that collided with a tandem truck, according to a WorkSafeBC inspector’s notes.

Case front-end loader, similar to the one from a Jan. 7 fatal incident in Vancouver (Case)

 “The equipment was being operated beside the salt storage sheds at the National Works Yard. The employer immediately began an investigation into the incident,” said Mark Phifer’s preliminary report about the incident at the National Work Yard, obtained by theBreaker.news. 

Truck driver Gord Dolyniuk, 64, died in the incident. He had worked 32 years for the city.

WorkSafeBC has “reasonable grounds to believe” that the tandem truck was either not in safe operating condition or was not in compliance with Occupational Health and Safety regulations. 

“The Case 721G front-end loader Unit #D2134 and the tandem truck with spreader Unit #E1209 were in use in the works yard on Jan. 7, 2022 (at 2:10 p.m.). The front-end loader collided with the tandem truck resulting in damage to both vehicles. The employer has not determined that the tandem truck is capable of safely performing the functions for which it use used.”

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Bob Mackin The Jan. 7 incident that claimed

Business, News, Opinion, Sports

For the week of Jan. 16, 2022:

On Jan. 8, the world lost a pioneer of investigative sports journalism.

Andrew Jennings, 78, died early in a year that includes a Winter Olympics in Beijing and a World Cup in Qatar. He was called “incomparable” in a widely read obituary by Jens Sejer Andersen, the director of Play the Game and the Danish Institute for Sports Studies.

Jens Sejer Andersen (Play the Game)

Andersen is a guest on this week’s edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, celebrating the life and legacy of the reporter, author and documentarian who exposed corruption, bribery, ticket scams and match-fixing at the highest levels of the multibillion-dollar business of world sport. 

“Andrew was absolutely unique in being the first who took on the International Olympic Committee, the untouchables, in the 1990s, and then, after the turn of the century, he turned his love at FIFA,” Andersen said.

Laura Robinson and Andrew Jennings in 2002 (Play the Game)

On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, hear from Andersen and Canadian journalist Laura Robinson, plus a clip from the late Jennings himself when he was a guest on theBreaker.news Podcast in March 2018.

Robinson received the first Play the Game award in 2002 from Jennings, for her book Crossing the Line, which exposed the culture of violence and sexual abuse in hockey. Robinson is best known for her 2012 exposé that revealed how Vancouver 2010 Olympics CEO John Furlong came to Canada as a gym teacher and allegedly abused indigenous children. 

Through his courageous, anti-establishment work, Jennings created an environment that empowered journalists like her to pursue stories that were once considered taboo, including stories about powerful sports figures who abused athletes or covered up abuse. 

“The rest of us looked like little shrinking violets compared to him,” she said.

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and commentary.

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Now on Google Podcasts!

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

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For the week of Jan. 16, 2022:

Business, News

Bob Mackin

The NDP-appointed head of British Columbia’s mass-vaccination program was paid almost $405,000 through the end of October. 

Penny Ballem (left), Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix in July 2021 (BC Gov)

Penny Ballem was originally hired Jan. 13, 2021 on a 10-month, no-bid contract worth a maximum $220,000.

Documents obtained under the freedom of information law show that Ballem invoiced $77,175 (including $3,675 GST) for the period of Aug. 1-Sept. 30. The Oct. 28 payment pushed her year-to-date total to $404,913.75 and a likely spot in 2021’s top 10 highest-paid public officials in B.C.

Ballem is contracted for $250-an-hour through her company, Pendru Consulting 354948 BC Ltd., for “analysis and planning” of the COVID vaccine project. During August and September, Ballem billed taxpayers every day, except Aug. 28, Sept. 4-5, 11 and 18.

She also chairs Vancouver Coastal Health, the regional health board where people waited up to five hours in line before Christmas to be tested for coronavirus, while more than a million rapid test kits gathered dust on warehouse shelves. Additionally, the Ballem-chaired VCH closed vaccine clinics for eight days over the holiday period, while shopping malls and bars remained open. 

Penny Ballem (left) and Premier John Horgan (BC Gov)

In November, Minister of Health Adrian Dix rewarded Ballem by extending her term as VCH chair through the end of 2024.

The Ministry of Health communications department did not respond to questions from theBreaker.news about Ballem’s contract or the overall cost of the mass-vaccination program to-date. 

Ballem’s contract is more lucrative than what a retired general got from the Ontario government in late November 2020. Rick Hillier was paid $20,000-a-month, plus expenses, through the end of 2021’s first quarter, to begin the rollout in Canada’s most-populous province.

The contract is also her most-lucrative government gig in B.C. since 2014 when she was paid $334,617 in her last full year as Vancouver city manager.

The former deputy minister of health from 2001 to 2006 was B.C.’s most-powerful municipal official from 2009 to 2015 during the Vision Vancouver administration at 12th and Cambie. One of the Vision Vancouver councillors, Geoff Meggs, is now Premier John Horgan’s chief of staff.

After her 2015 firing, then-Mayor Gregor Robertson described Ballem as “a force of nature.”

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Bob Mackin The NDP-appointed head of British Columbia’s

Business, News, Opinion

For the week of Jan. 9, 2022:

Former Surrey Mayor Bob Bose doesn’t mince words to describe Mayor Doug McCallum. 

“Unfit for public office.”

Former Surrey Mayor Bob Bose (SCC/YouTube)

McCallum and his Safe Surrey Coalition hold a slim, one-seat majority on city council in a polarized environment.

His supporters say he kept his word to switch from light rail transit to SkyTrain and replace the RCMP with a new municipal force. But he wasn’t honest about the costs to taxpayers and waited until just before Christmas to ram-through the 2022 budget. 

Some of his most-vocal opponents were refused entry to city council meetings until they hired a lawyer to sue the city. McCallum was charged in late 2021 with public mischief for allegedly lying to police about being injured by a citizen with the Keep the RCMP in Surrey campaign. 

McCallum plans to run for re-election in October. Coun. Brenda Locke is vying to unseat him. Will there be another challenger?

On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, Bose sets the scene for a lively year in political battleground Surrey.

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and commentary.

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

Now on Google Podcasts!

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

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For the week of Jan. 9, 2022:

Business, News

Bob Mackin

One of the special prosecutors in the breach of trust and fraud case against the former B.C. Legislature clerk suggested the coronavirus pandemic could delay the trial.

Brock Martland (vancrimlaw.com)

Craig James is scheduled to be tried beginning Jan. 24 in Vancouver before B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes. The trial is expected to last six weeks.  

During a Jan. 6 pretrial hearing, special prosecutor Brock Martland said all lawyers intend to be ready to proceed on schedule. While he did not ask for an adjournment, he expressed concerns about the rapidly spreading omicron variant. 

“Dr. [Bonnie] Henry suggested the variant would be peaking in the range of four-to-six weeks from now, which would put us in the middle of this trial,” Martland said during the phone hearing. 

Martland said the Crown intends to call 26 witnesses, mainly from Vancouver Island. But, during pretrial interviews with witnesses, he heard their “repeated concerns” about COVID-19, traveling to Vancouver and being in a courtroom. He said fellow special prosecutor David Butcher was involved in a preliminary inquiry this week in which two of eight witnesses and a prosecutor had the virus.

On Dec. 31, B.C. Supreme Court adjourned in-person criminal proceedings scheduled for Jan. 4-7, except phone hearings to arrange a new appearance date.

“The court will try to give counsel as much notice as possible, but I think we will all know more in a week or two’s time,” said Holmes, who approved applications for two Crown witnesses to testify remotely due to the pandemic.

James’s lawyer Gavin Cameron chimed-in.  

“I just want to put on the record that Mr. James absolutely does not want this trial adjourned, and he has been living under this cloud since 2018,” Cameron said.

Holmes scheduled another pre-trial conference for Jan. 18.  “Perhaps, who knows, we’ll have a better idea then of how the pandemic is developing and what, if any, action might need to be taken,” she said.  

Clerk Craig James swore Christy Clark in as Westside-Kelowna MLA in 2013, near Clark’s Vancouver office. (Facebook)

Meanwhile, the court also heard that 11 boxes relating to James’s expense claims were found in the basement of the Parliament Buildings on Dec. 17 after a witness interview earlier that day. Butcher said police collected the items. Photographs and a spreadsheet of the items are being provided to James’s lawyers. 

James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz were immediately suspended and escorted out of the Legislature on Nov. 20, 2018. On that day, British Columbians learned that Speaker Darryl Plecas had called the RCMP after he and his Chief of Staff Alan Mullen found corruption in the offices of the two most-senior permanent officers at the seat of government. James was charged on Dec. 17, 2020.

James and Lenz both retired in disgrace in 2019 after separate reports found they committed wrongdoing. They kept their pension entitlements, but they were not forced to repay taxpayers. No charges were announced for Lenz. 

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Bob Mackin One of the special prosecutors in

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