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Business, News

Bob Mackin

A lawyer hired by an opposition Surrey politician says Mayor Doug McCallum was wrong for quashing an opposition councillor’s motion for a referendum on the new Surrey Police Service.

Coun. Brenda Locke of the Surrey Connect party retained Mark Underhill of the Arvay Finlay law firm to provide a legal opinion after McCallum deemed her motion out of order at the April 26 city council meeting.

Coun. Brenda Locke (Surrey Connect)

“Mayor Doug McCallum was clearly wrong to rule my motion to hold a referendum on Surrey policing out of order and the majority on Council were wrong to uphold that ruling,” Locke said in a news release accompanying Underhill’s opinion.

As such, Locke will ask council at the May 31 meeting to release the city’s legal opinion on which McCallum said he relied.

”The police transition has been a very divisive issue in Surrey: it’s time that the public had their say — once and for all,” she said.

In Underhill’s legal opinion, he wrote that the NDP cabinet has jurisdiction to order a referendum, because the issue of policing is a matter of public interest.

“The fact that steps have already been taken to establish the Surrey Police Board and Surrey Police Service would not, without more, establish bad faith or improper purpose. Thus, these circumstances would not make a decision to hold a referendum unlawful, or vulnerable to being overturned by the courts,” according to Underhill.

Underhill also wrote there is no reason why city council cannot ask the province for a referendum.

“We are not aware of any provision in the Community Charter, Local Government Act, or the Surrey city by-laws that would prevent such a request,” he wrote.

“Given that the province has jurisdiction to hold a referendum, and the city may properly request that the Province do so, our opinion is that the motion was within council’s jurisdiction to decide, and did not otherwise violate rules of procedure. Thus, in our view, the motion was not out of order.”

The release of Underhill’s legal opinion comes the week after the widow of a man murdered in 2018 in a case of mistaken identity became the face for a referendum campaign backed by the RCMP officers’ union.

May 2019 photo of Patton (left), Coun. Linda Annis, McCallum, Guerra, Nagra and Elford. (Annis is a member of Surrey First)

Darlene Bennett is the spokeswoman for the Surrey Police Vote petition under the B.C. Referendum Act and B.C. Recall and Initiative Act. Her husband Paul was an innocent victim of the ongoing gang war in Cloverdale in 2018.

Behind the scenes in the Surrey Vote Campaign is Bill Tieleman, the NDP insider who is registered to lobby for the National Police Federation. Tieleman was behind winning campaigns to stop the HST in 2011 and prevent electoral reform in 2018. 

Meanwhile, the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner wrote McCallum on May 18, after Keep the RCMP in Surrey campaigner Paul Daynes complained about the lack of lie detectors in SPS recruitment and that SPS is falsely claiming to be a functioning police force.

Deputy Commissioner Andrea Spindler’s letter ordered McCallum, who chairs the Surrey Police Board, to order an investigation or study of the complaint, dismiss the complaint with reasons or take any other adequate course of action to respond to the complaint.

Daynes wrote in his April 22 complaint that the SPS is “causing great confusion and some distress” because it has not issued a disclaimer that it is not yet a full-service police force. SPS is not advising the public to contact the RCMP with requests for assistance.

SPS has added a small-print disclaimer to the top of its website saying it is not yet in operation. It directs anyone needing police services to call 9-1-1 in case of emergency or the non-emergency line at 604-599-0502. It does not mention the RCMP nor does it link to the Surrey RCMP website.

Daynes also complained May 6 that SPS is failing to meet the B.C. Police Act requirement for screening job applicants. SPS is only using lie detectors on new recruits, not senior officers hoping to transfer from the RCMP or a municipal force. Lie detectors are standard practice for vetting job candidates at other municipal forces in B.C., such as Vancouver. 

McCallum ran on a platform to replace the RCMP with a municipal force and promised the new department would be up and running by April 2021. Instead, it could take until the end of 2023 or start of 2024 for SPS to replace the RCMP. The transition is costing Surrey taxpayers $63.7 million.

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Bob Mackin A lawyer hired by an opposition

Business, News, Sports

Bob Mackin

The box won’t rock for another summer.

Western Lacrosse Association in B.C. and Major Series Lacrosse in Ontario announced May 18 that their 2021 seasons are cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mann Cup (Mackin)

That means there will be no Mann Cup national senior men’s championship for the second year.

The WLA normally begins in late May, but was planning on an early July start, leading to the Mann Cup series at the home of the MSL champion in September.

“The only logical decision, as regrettable and unfortunate as it was, was to cancel the season,” WLA president Paul Dal Monte told theBreaker.news.

B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is expected to maintain a ban on large indoor gatherings through the summer. Adult indoor sports are currently limited to two participants. B.C. is also under a non-essential travel mandate and BC Ferries has reduced sailings between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, home of two of the WLA’s seven teams.

Dal Monte said provincial health officials were “transparent and forthcoming, very honest in their answers,” but the league was unable to conduct an isolated “bubble” format similar to the Western Hockey League or “pods” like the B.C. Hockey League.

“[Lacrosse is] a community, grassroots level sport that has the support of a very large, passionate fan base,” Dal Monte said. “We do also rely on those ticket sales to drive our revenues and to support our teams. When you factor in on top of that a lot of our sponsorship is local and regionally based, those business themselves have been hurting and suffering as a result of the pandemic.”

It will be the second time in the post-1926 modern era of Canadian lacrosse that no national champion will be crowned. Peterborough Lakers went home with the trophy in 2019 after defeating the Victoria Shamrocks in five games.

Western Lacrosse Association president Paul Dal Monte (WLA)

“Our Premier is a season ticket holder for the Shamrocks, he’s a huge lacrosse fan. I’m sure there’s no one else who would love to see lacrosse back as much as him,” Dal Monte said. “At the end of the day there are important things we have to deal with as a society.

The cancellation is another blow to British Columbians suffering through Canada’s slow vaccine rollout.

While American sporting venues gradually fill with fully vaccinated, maskless fans, the Vancouver Whitecaps are forced to play home games in Sandy, Utah home and the Vancouver Canadians in Hillsboro, Ore. The Canadian Football League’s kickoff was delayed to August, but the BC Lions do not know when or if they will welcome fans back to B.C. Place.

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Bob Mackin The box won’t rock for

Business, Miscellany, News, Opinion, Sports

For the week of May 16, 2021:

British Columbians know more about the coronavirus pandemic this month, but not because of Health Minister Adrian Dix or Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Leaks have revealed the high transmission rate and low vaccination rate in Surrey and the extent of how the virus has spread through schools in the Fraser Health region. 

On this edition of theBreaker.news, hear the fallout from the NDP’s data secrecy scandal and look back to spring 2020, when theBreaker.news was the first to sound the alarm about the lack of transparency in B.C.

Also, hear from Point Roberts, Wash. fire chief Christopher Carleton about his idea to help Canadians get their second doses in his isolated community and Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher after the ethics commissioner cleared Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of conflict of interest over the WE Charity scandal.

Plus commentaries and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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For the week of May 16, 2021:

Business, News

Bob Mackin

The veteran NDP operative who put words in Dr. Bonnie Henry’s mouth has left his job and is now registered to lobby the British Columbia government for a company that makes AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines.

Jean-Marc Prevost registered to lobby for a U.S.-headquartered vaccine maker (Counsel/Emergent)

Jean-Marc Prevost was the strategic communications director for the Ministry of Health, working full-time on Henry’s day-to-day messaging. He wrote the script for Henry’s controversial back-to-school TV ad last summer and received a photo credit in her March-published book. Prevost worked in tandem with Henry’s communications contractor Nicola Lambrechts.

Prevost left the job, which paid $77,330 in 2019-2020, to join former NDP campaign manager Brad Lavigne’s Counsel Public Affairs as a vice-president for Western Canada. The company’s website mentions Henry praised Prevost in her book, for his “powerful ways with words.”

Prevost registered for seven clients between May 11 and 13, including the Canadian division of Emergent BioSolutions.

Emergent shipped 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada from its Baltimore factory, which was investigated by the Food and Drug Administration after a case of contamination.

Prevost’s May 12 registration says the topic of his lobbying is to increase access in B.C. to Emergent’s Narcan nasal spray product, which is an emergency remedy for opioid overdoses. The Ministry of Health and Fraser Health are among the public bodies Prevost is targeting.

Dr. Bonnie Henry’s Back to School campaign (BC Gov)

Under the NDP’s 2018 lobbying reforms, deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers are banned from lobbying for two years after leaving the government. But not so for a communications director, like Prevost.

A lobbying watchdog called Prevost’s career move a conflict of interest nonetheless.

“It’s always unethical for someone to be leaving government in a significant position and starting to lobby right away, especially if they’re lobbying in the same area that they worked in government,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of DemocracyWatch. “There should be a cooling-off period for everyone, on a sliding scale, based on your connections in government, your relations in government, the access to information you had.”

Neither Health Minister Adrian Dix nor Prevost responded to interview requests from theBreaker.news.

Before working in the B.C. NDP government, Prevost worked for NDP governments in Alberta and Manitoba. His other lobbying clients with Counsel are the B.C. Real Estate Association, Insurance Council of B.C., Toyota Canada, Encorp Pacific, Hello Fresh Canada, and North York Rehabilitation Centre Corp.

Democracy Watch’s Duff Conacher

Conacher said there should be a cooling-off period for Prevost that should last until this government, and the officials he worked with, are out of office.

“When would the conflict of interest ever disappear otherwise?” Conacher said. “He has the relationships with them, he has the inside access and knowledge.”

Prevost is not the first NDP operative to leave a senior communications job in the B.C. government and walk through the loophole into an NDP-friendly lobbying firm. In May 2020, theBreaker.news revealed that Premier John Horgan’s speechwriter, Danielle Dalzell, had quit to join the Earnscliffe lobbying company.

After last fall’s snap election, Horgan rewarded Raj Sihota, the executive director of the B.C. NDP, with a $15,000 no-bid contract to work on his transition team. In January, Sihota joined NDP-aligned lobbying firm Strategies360 and has since registered to lobby the NDP government on behalf of five clients.

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Bob Mackin The veteran NDP operative who put

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Bob Mackin

One of two survivors of a shooting outside a Burnaby Cactus Club restaurant on May 13 worked in the RCMP’s provincial headquarters at the highly sensitive fusion centre.

Jaskeert Kalkat, 23, allegedly affiliated with the Brothers Keepers’ gang, was murdered around 8:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Market Crossing strip mall.

RCMP B.C. headquarters (BC Hydro)

A 23-year-old woman acquainted with Kalkat was injured, but her condition is not known. theBreaker.news is choosing not to publish her name and photograph for the time being.

Her Instagram feed displayed photographs of her at a Granville Mall nightclub and Coal Harbour marina, in the driver’s seat of a BMW SUV, and in Toronto, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. She works as a model and has aspirations of posing in swimsuit photo shoots for Sports Illustrated and Playboy.

The woman is not the first current or former law enforcement employee caught in the crossfire during this spring’s gang war. On May 1, B.C. Corrections officer Bikramdeep Randhawa, 29, was gunned down at North Delta at Scottsdale Mall in an Audi SUV. 

theBreaker.news asked the B.C. RCMP headquarters media office to comment on her employment history with the Real-Time Intelligence Centre-B.C. and whether her father is a current or former senior RCMP officer.

Rather than answering question about the personnel matter, the office forwarded the query to Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokesman Sgt. Frank Jang, who said: “We have confirmed the identity of the female and her safety and the homicide investigation remains a priority. The female you referred to is not an employee of the RCMP.”

Cactus Club at Market Crossing (Google Maps)

However, two sources told theBreaker.news that she worked in a civilian job in the fusion centre. RTIC-B.C. is a multi-agency, instant crime monitoring, analysis and communications centre located at the B.C. RCMP headquarters in Surrey’s Green Timbers. 

“The centre has a multi-jurisdictional partnership between the RCMP and the province’s municipal police forces, as well as Canada Border Services Agency, Correctional Service Canada, B.C. Corrections and B.C. Sherriff Services,” said a 2019 entry on the RCMP website. “The unit’s 43 staff members, which include permanent RCMP positions and municipal police officers who rotate every four years, have access to the databases of all the partner agencies.”

The May 13 shooting was the latest in a tit-for-tat series of murders in public places since mid-April.

The most-sensational was the Mother’s Day killing of United Nations gangster Karman Grewal, 28, outside Vancouver International Airport. The incident gained international media attention and prompted Solicitor General Mike Farnworth to call a meeting of top police officials in B.C. 

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Bob Mackin One of two survivors of a

Business, News, Opinion

For the week of May 9, 2021:

Listen to highlights of doctors Anthony Fauci, Mike Ryan and Penny Ballem, who were all guests on the Genome BC COVID-19 web forum last week.

Epidemiology all-star and White House advisor Fauci pondered what went wrong with the U.S. preparation and response to the pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci (left) and Dr. Mike Ryan (GenomeBC)

The World Health Organization’s Ryan gave a stark reminder that the pandemic is far from over and sounded the alarm about vaccine inequity.

ImmunizeBC lead Ballem revealed some of the secrets of B.C.’s delayed vaccine rollout and took stock of key learnings so far.

Plus commentaries and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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 May 9, 2021:

Business, News

Bob Mackin

Almost five months after officials in Toronto and Washington state mandated masks to reduce the spread of COVID-19, British Columbia finally required mouths and noses be covered at indoor public spaces in late November.

But Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry resisted through much of the fall, just as she had in the spring when she discouraged mask-wearing before reluctantly suggesting homemade versions.

Dr. Bonnie Henry Nov. 16, 2020 (BC Gov)

Henry made one last bid to keep the status quo, in a Nov. 16-released opinion-editorial that the NDP government hoped would be published by media outlets. Vancouver Sun and CTV printed the 565-word piece.

The column, attributed to Henry, claimed masks were already mandated in B.C. under business COVID-19 safety plans, healthcare facility operational policies and public institution restart policies. The column suggested British Columbians take personal responsibility to wear masks, instead of wait for a legal order that Henry had declined to issue.

“Ordering universal mask use in all situations creates unnecessary challenges with enforcement and stigmatization,” said the op-ed. “We need only look at the COVID-19 transmission rates in other jurisdictions that have tried using such orders to see what little benefit these orders by themselves have served.”

Email released to theBreaker.news under the freedom of information law shows that a government communications staffer, a public relations contractor and possibly Henry’s sister Lynn were involved in creating the op-ed, which did not stand the test of time.

The drafts were withheld under a controversial section of the B.C. FOI law that allows bureaucrats to keep secret their advice and recommendations to other bureaucrats and politicians.

Ministry of Health communications director Jean-Marc Prevost sent Henry a draft with a file called “OpEd_Masks_Nov_15_430pm.docx” attached at 4:33 p.m. on Nov. 15.

“For your consideration following our discussion this afternoon DrH. Please let us know of any concerns or suggestions,” Prevost wrote. 

Dr. Bonnie Henry email (BCGov)

At 5:50 p.m., a message from public relations contractor Nicola Lambrechts to “J.M. and Bonnie.”

“I have also been working on the mask op-ed over the weekend. Used the Friday version as a basis, but made quite a few edits. Here’s what I put together. Thanks, Nicola.”

(Correspondence from Nov. 13 was not provided to theBreaker.news, suggesting it was either deleted or conducted on another platform not searched by bureaucrats in the government’s FOI department.)

Henry replied at 11:04 a.m. Nov. 16.

“Hi all, Here is a revised oped. Let me know what you think. My best, Bonnie.”

The filename of the attachment: “masks OP ED LH edit.docx”.

Henry and her FOI coordinator in the Provincial Health Officer’s department, Michelle Sullivan, did not respond to questions from theBreaker.news about the meaning of the “LH” in the filename.

At the time, Henry was finishing her memoir about the first wave of the pandemic with sister, Lynn Henry, the publishing director of Knopf Canada. The book, Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe, was eventually published March 9, during the third wave.

Before 5 p.m. on Nov. 16, the op-ed was posted on the government communications website and sent to media outlets. It did little to quell the increasing calls for a mask mandate as B.C.’s second wave accelerated.

TransLink mask mandate sign (TransLink)

It finally happened, just three days after the op-ed.

On Nov. 19, Henry announced an about-face on masks. The mandate, however, would be imposed five days later. Not by Henry, but by Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, under the Emergency Program Act (EPA).

Masks were required to be worn by anyone 12 and up at a long list of places, including stores, restaurants, churches, buses and offices. But not elementary or high schools. Fines for refusal to wear a mask were set at $230.

The news release about the long overdue mask mandate did not quote Henry. It mentioned her by title, but not by name.

“We’ve entered a second wave of COVID-19 in British Columbia and additional steps need to be taken to protect our health,” Farnworth said. “This new order under the EPA will ensure we have the tools necessary to enforce the mask mandate as recommended by the PHO.”

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Bob Mackin Almost five months after officials in

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Bob Mackin

Despite widespread criticism of its pandemic communications, the B.C. NDP cabinet promoted the bureaucrat in charge on April 28.

Jeffrey Ferrier (left) and Don Zadravec (LinkedIn)

Don Zadravec dropped the assistant from his title, to become Deputy Minister of Government Communications and Public Engagement. He had been in charge of the department since last fall, when Donna Evans departed after a year-and-a-half in the job. The last entry in Evans’s calendar was the day before Premier John Horgan’s Nov. 26, post-election swearing-in.

GCPE was budgeted $28.3 million for the 2021 fiscal year.

Zadravec was part of the NDP cabinet’s day one communications appointees on July 18, 2017 as an executive director under GCPE Deputy Minister Evan Lloyd. He handled ministry support and media relations for Crown corporations and special projects before becoming the ADM of communications and media relations in September 2019. 

The promotion will mean a significant pay raise. For the year ended March 31, 2020, Evans was paid $207,084 and Zadravec $146,404.

The third wave of the pandemic has heralded the end of the Horgan government’s honeymoon, as reporters across B.C. have called for more transparency and less confusion. Latest examples include the bungled announcement of the regional leisure travel ban, Horgan’s quip suggesting people in their 20s and 30s weren’t doing enough to battle the pandemic and various government websites errantly downplaying the airborne spread of the virus.

Zadravec is in his second tour of duty as an NDP-loyal bureaucrat. His previous stint was 1993 to 2000. He worked August 1999 to May 2000 in the Premier’s office, where interim NDP leader Dan Miller’s aide was future premier Horgan.

Zadravec later spent 10 years at National Public Relations. While there, he was registered to lobby for pipeline company Veresen.

Premier John Horgan, April 19 (BC Gov)

National PR was also the previous career stop for the April 9-hired Jeffrey Ferrier. Ferrier is now executive director of communications for the Ministry of Health.

Ferrier, a former Ontario NDP operative, had been with National for two years as vice-president after five years at FleishmanHillard.

Ferrier’s lobbying client list boomed when the pandemic began. L’Oreal Canada, Uber, Sport Maska Inc., Sobeys Inc., Whirlpool Canada and Dollarama hired him to be their go-between with the NDP government on COVID-19-related issues.

Ferrier’s appointment by cabinet came several weeks after the government’s embarrassing “Self-Care Bingo” Tweet in late February. The lighthearted attempt to lift the spirits of pandemic weary British Columbians fell flat and led to an apology after gaining nationwide media attention.

Among the suggestions for peace of mind on the satirical bingo card was to build a blanket fort.

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Bob Mackin Despite widespread criticism of its pandemic

Business, News, Opinion

For the week of May 2, 2021:

The BC Liberal politician who transformed gambling from charity fundraisers to big business was on the virtual stand April 28 at the Cullen Commission. 

Rich Coleman, who was in Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark’s cabinets, was asked what he knew and when he knew it about money laundering and loan sharking in B.C. casinos.

On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, hear highlights of Coleman’s testimony under oath at B.C.’s money laundering public inquiry.

The inquiry is heading toward its scheduled May 14 completion. Commissioner Austin Cullen has until December to deliver his findings and recommendations to the NDP cabinet. 

Plus commentaries and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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 May 2, 2021:

Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

The NDP government is paying the head of British Columbia’s troubled coronavirus vaccine rollout $22,000 a month.

theBreaker.news has learned that Vancouver Coastal Health chair Penny Ballem received the $220,000, no-bid contract on Jan. 13 to be executive lead of the Immunize BC program through October.

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

The existence of Ballem’s contract was confirmed the same week the program was thrust into chaos again, when Fraser Health Authority hosted pop-up vaccination clinics in Surrey and Coquitlam. Prompted by social media, people from outside the hotspot areas flocked to the lineups — some even camped out overnight. But many went home disappointed.

Ballem’s contract is more lucrative than what a retired general got from the Ontario government in late November. Rick Hillier was paid $20,000-a-month, plus expenses, through March 31 to begin the rollout in Canada’s most-populous province.

Ballem was contracted the same day that she appeared with Health Minister Adrian Dix on a hastily organized teleconference to announce she had taken over the job from Ross Brown, the VCH director of pandemic response. Premier John Horgan introduced Brown as the province’s vaccine czar on Dec. 9.

Clockwise from upper left: Terry Wright, Marnie McGregor, Dena Coward and Mary Conibear

On Jan. 17, four days after the shakeup, former Vancouver city manager Ballem hired her former city hall assistant communications director, Marnie McGregor, and three ex-Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics executives: executive vice-president of transportation Terry Wright, managing director of Games operations Mary Conibear and Paralympics director Dena Coward. Ballem joined the VANOC board when she was hired as city manager in 2008.

The four contracts are each worth $56,000 and run through April 30.

Wright’s responsibilities with VANOC included procuring a fleet of motor coaches for Vancouver 2010. After the Games, VANOC reported a $40 million cost overrun for chartering buses and drivers from as far away as Florida.

Dix appointed Ballem chair of VCH at the end of 2018. Ballem, who received $43,000 plus $4,605 expenses in 2020, replaced Brown just two weeks after a key meeting was called to organize the Immunize B.C. operations centre command team.

“The purpose of this committee is to establish oversight and governance for the planning, implementation, and administration of mass COVID-19 vaccination to ensure the province is fully prepared to immunize key populations in B.C. by Jan. 1, 2021,” said the Zoom meeting notice, obtained under the freedom of information law.

Dr. Ross Brown (right) and Dr. Bonnie Henry (BC Gov)

Pfizer/BioNTech announced their vaccine candidate Nov. 9. Health Canada approved its use in Canada on Dec. 9. Six days later, on Dec. 15, Vancouver General Hospital care aide Nisha Yunus became the first British Columbian jabbed.

On March 9, the first day seniors were eligible to book appointments, the Telus phone system crashed. The company apologized.

As of April 29, almost 1.66 million British Columbians had received their first vaccine dose, but only 90,296 are fully immunized. Washington state, by comparison, has delivered 5.2 million jabs.

Meanwhile, a former labour leader scored a $50,000 no bid contract just before Christmas.

Jim Sinclair, the Dix-appointed chair of Fraser Health in September 2017, was given the contact Dec. 20 to chair a COVID-19 workplace safety working group. Sinclair spent 15 years as chair of the B.C. Federation of Labour, which donated $1.4 million to the NDP between 2005 and 2017.

Sinclair was paid $33,239 by Fraser Health for the year ended March 31, 2020.

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Bob Mackin The NDP government is paying the

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