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Bob Mackin (Updated Feb. 3, 2021)

The victim of a violent daytime assault in a Surrey cul-de-sac said he needs facial and dental surgery.

Louis Huang, co-founder of the Vancouver Chinese Human Rights Watch Group, was punched and kicked while he was down Nov. 25 by two men who have been involved in ongoing protests on the street since September. 

The protests are linked to an anti-Chinese government campaign launched by a former aide to Donald Trump and a Chinese real estate tycoon living in exile in New York. The attack on Huang was captured on surveillance video. Huang was taken to hospital for his injuries, a broken bone under his right eye and a broken tooth.

Two men arrested after a violent assault Nov. 25 in Surrey.

Surrey RCMP officers were dispatched around 10:45 a.m. Nov. 25 to the 9700-block of 149 St. Officers arrested the two men. A report on the incident is pending for potential charges by Crown counsel, Cpl. Elenore Sturko told theBreaker.news.

“To see them run over and actually attack my neighbour’s friend, punch him and kick him down on the ground, that’s just scary,” resident Bob Petersen told CTV News Vancouver’s Jon Woodward.

Petersen said the protests have crossed the line into harassment and suggested it is time for Surrey city hall to seek a court order.

The two men were released with orders to stay away from the cul-de-sac, but several of their comrades appeared Nov. 26 on the street wearing box-like plastic coveralls. Mu Bai, 44, and Shiliang Yin, 31, were charged Jan. 29, 2021 with assault causing bodily harm. Bai’s next court date is Feb. 22, while Yin’s is Feb. 26, both in Surrey Provincial Court.

A group that purports to oppose the Chinese Communist Party has protested outside the house of journalist Bingchen “Benson” Gao since September. Gao has denied their claims that he is a spy for the Chinese government.

Huang said he was in the area because Gao asked him to go with him to Surrey city hall and Surrey RCMP headquarters on Nov. 25 “to ask them to pay more attention to the ongoing harassment.”

October group photo of protesters who targeted Bingchen Gao’s Surrey neighbourhood (GNews)

“These two guys came toward me, stood very close. I suddenly realized they had intention to attack me, it was too late,” Huang said.

Huang said he was smoking a cigarette at the time and the two men accused him of blowing smoke at them.

“They pretend to be anti-CCP, but they attack the real anti-CCP, actual pro-democratic activists around the world, so we have to oppose them,” Huang said.

The protesters are part of the New Federal State of China campaign created by Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui, who are also involved in the media startups GNews and GTV. Associates have staged protests against critics in other cities around North America. Gao has been critical of Guo, who is wanted for corruption in China. Guo was the developer of the dragon-shaped Pangu Plaza complex that opened for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. 

B.C. Securities Commission media relations and public affairs advisor Elise Palmer said GTV Media Group Inc., a subsidiary of Saraca Media Group Inc., was added to the provincial investment regulator’s caution list in May 2020, “warning British Columbians that neither GTV nor Saraca Media Group Inc. are registered to sell securities in B.C. and they have not filed a prospectus with the BCSC. B.C. residents are urged to exercise caution when dealing with companies that are not registered to issue shares.”

Guo Wengui (left) and Steve Bannon (GTV/YouTube)

Palmer declined to say whether GTV is under investigation. 

“To protect the integrity of the investigative process, the BCSC does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations, and does not provide details of investigations,” Palmer said.

The GNews website shows a group waving the blue and yellow New Federal State of China flags during an Oct. 6 protest outside the BCSC in downtown Vancouver. They also waved professionally printed signs reading “GTV Rocks”, “SC Show Me The Proof,” and “Take Down CCP.” 

The next day, GNews published a story boasting of the protests against Gao, with a group photo of more than 30 people, including one of Huang’s assailants. 

“For the past 20 days the brothers-in-arms have undertaken a punitive action against Huang Hebian in Vancouver,” the Oct. 7 report states. 

Louis Huang

Guo, who is also known as Miles Guo and Miles Kwork, is seen in a video circulating on social media on Nov. 24 saying that if Gao removes all videos from his channel and apologizes, “our comrades will stop their actions against him.”

“Although we haven’t shut the protest down, there are rights to protest, there are rights to conduct peaceful protests,” said Surrey RCMP Cpl. Elenore Sturko. “However, when see like [Wednesday], when things cross over into the realm of criminality, there will be action taken.”

theBreaker.news sought comment from Bannon and Guo, but did not receive a reply. 

Bannon was arrested on Guo’s yacht, the Lady May, on Aug. 20. He is denying charges that he defrauded donors to a campaign aimed at building part of Trump’s controversial wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Bob Mackin (Updated Feb. 3, 2021) The victim

Bob Mackin

A protest in a Surrey cul-de-sac that has happened almost daily since mid-September boiled over into a violent assault Nov. 25. 

Exclusive surveillance video from a resident of the neighbourhood near Bonaccord elementary school shows two men appearing to tackle a man on the road and then repeatedly kick him in the head.

Two men who were seen on video attacking Louis Huang on Nov. 25 in Surrey (Huang Hebian/Twitter)

The victim is Louis Huang of Vancouver Chinese Human Rights Watch, a harsh critic of the Chinese Communist Party and its United Front foreign influence campaign. Huang needed hospital treatment for his injuries.

Cpl. Elenore Sturko of the Surrey RCMP told theBreaker.news that police were called around 10:45 a.m. Nov. 25 to the 9700-block of 149 St. Two men were arrested, but released with orders to stay away from the neighbourhood.

A report is pending for Crown counsel to consider charges. Sturko said police had previously made contact with those on both sides and are working with Surrey city hall to “see what avenues” there are to resolve the issue.

Although we haven’t shut the protest down, there are rights to protest, there are rights to conduct peaceful protests,” Sturko said. “However, when see like today, when things cross over into the realm of criminality, there will be action taken.”

Bing Chen Gao

The protesters purport to oppose the Chinese Communist Party and are affiliated with the New Federal State of China campaign backed by former Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon and Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui. The target of the protests is journalist Bing Chen “Benson” Gao. The protesters have carried signs accusing Gao of spying on them for the Chinese government.

Gao has emphatically denied their accusation, calling it slanderous. Gao made headlines in 2016 when he was fired from the Global Chinese Press newspaper for a column critical of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi.  

Update (Feb. 3, 2021): Mu Bai, 44, and Shiliang Yin, 31, were charged Jan. 29, 2021 with assault causing bodily harm. Bai’s next court date is Feb. 22, while Yin’s is Feb. 26, both in Surrey Provincial Court.

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Bob Mackin A protest in a Surrey cul-de-sac

For the week of Nov. 22, 2020:

Canadian Football League fans will have to wait another year for the 108th Grey Cup, because Canada’s beloved three-down tradition was sacked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Jim Mullin of Football Canada and TSN

But that did not stop CFL fans from gathering virtually on the Grey Cup Unite series of webcasts. On this week’s edition, listen to highlights of commissioner Randy Ambrosie on 2021 restart plans, BC Lions president Rick Lalecheur on keeping the business going after the passing of longtime owner David Braley. and reunions by the 2000 and 2011 Grey Cup-winning Lions, featuring Lui Passaglia and Geroy Simon.

Also hear Football Canada president Jim Mullin chime-in with his view from Bowen Island, B.C.

Plus Premier John Horgan and Dr. Bonnie Henry and Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim headlines and commentary.

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

Now on Spotify!

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

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theBreaker.news Podcast: Grey Cup week went virtual, with optimism for a 2021 kickoff
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For the week of Nov. 22, 2020:

Bob Mackin

British Columbia’s Legislature has finally admitted what theBreaker.news reported last week: it was hacked.

Parliament Buildings, Victoria, on Aug. 13, 2020 (Mackin)

In a statement posted to the Legislative Assembly’s Twitter account before 9 a.m. Nov. 19, it confirmed there had been “unauthorized access to a small number of servers.”

It claimed the information technology staff contained the situation after noticing suspicious activity and took down the network on Nov. 10. But it does not explain why the website and email system remain down almost a week-and-a-half later.

“At this time there is no evidence of unauthorized access to or loss of Legislative Assembly or personal data as a result of this incident,” the statement said.

Clerk Assistant Artour Sogomonian told theBreaker.news on Nov. 19 that contact had been made with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner on Nov. 11 and RCMP on Nov. 13. He said Microsoft found no indication that information had been accessed or personal data breached.

“As part of our secure resumption, our information technology team is planning a migration to a new web and email presence,” Sogomonian said. “The priority is to do this gradually in a secure manner. At this time, I cannot provide a definitive date for the full resumption of all services. The Legislative Assembly does have backup systems, but in situations such as this, time is required to fully recover securely.”

Solicitor General Mike Farnworth was Government House Leader until Sept. 21 when Premier John Horgan called the snap Oct. 24 election. Farnworth said the incident did not affect government operations.

Will the website and email system be back in service by Nov. 24, when MLAs are sworn-in? 

“That I am not able to answer at this point,” Farnworth said. “The IT experts are busy working to ensure that everything can be brought on when it is appropriate and safe.” 

It took almost three days for the Legislature to make its first public statement on Nov. 13, after theBreaker.news sought comment from officials. The Legislature initially used the words “unscheduled maintenance” on a placeholder page. Several MLAs took to their own social media accounts to tell citizens that there was no email service for the time being. Some even complained they could not access their phone systems.

(Twitter)

The official silence continued. Sergeant-at-Arms Greg Nelson referred queries to Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd, who did not respond. Sogomonian was designated the media lead but did not provide additional information until Nov. 19.

theBreaker.news also contacted the Legislature’s IT director David Derby, the government’s chief security officer Paul Stanley, spokespeople for the Office of the Premier, the Information and Privacy Commissioner and Attorney General David Eby.

They either did not reply or did not comment. The B.C. RCMP media relations office on Nov. 13 claimed it was unaware. 

On Nov. 18, Premier John Horgan set Nov. 24 as the date for a virtual swearing-in of MLAs and Nov. 26 for his new cabinet.

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Bob Mackin British Columbia’s Legislature has finally admitted

For the week of Nov. 15, 2020:

On this edition, host Bob Mackin is joined by Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, author of Monsters of River and Rock: My Life As Iron Maiden’s Compulsive Angler.

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith on a Fraser River catch-and-release sturgeon trip in 2008.

Smith’s book contains two chapters about rod and reel adventures in British Columbia: catch-and-release sturgeon fishing on the Fraser River in Chilliwack (the morning after falling off stage) and trout fishing at Skitchine Lodge near Kamloops.

Smith tells the story about his first floatplane ride, encounters with a bear and a moose, and rolling down the highway, with Kim Mitchell on the stereo.

“I just had the best couple weeks of my life, just fishing every day,” Smith said.

Also, hear highlights of a Nov. 9 media freedom web forum exploring disinformation and attacks on reporters’ credibility.

University of B.C. journalism professor Peter Klein cautioned that the end of Donald Trump’s presidency may not be the end of tough times for reporters in the U.S.

President-elect Joe Biden served under Barack Obama, whose administration routinely targeted whistleblowers and blocked freedom of information disclosures.

Plus Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim headlines and commentary.

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

Now on Spotify!

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

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

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theBreaker.news Podcast: When the River Runs Deep
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For the week of Nov. 15, 2020:

Bob Mackin (updated Nov. 15)

The British Columbia Legislative Assembly website and email system have been out of service since Nov. 10 due to a security incident, theBreaker.news has learned. 

There is also no publicly announced target date for resumption of service. Officials are refusing to explain what happened and they are not commenting on whether the personal information of British Columbians has been compromised.

For the firs two days, the website showed only a photograph of the Parliament Buildings and this one liner: “We are currently performing unscheduled maintenance. We will be back soon.” 

What the B.C. Legislature website looked like on Nov. 13 (Leg.BC.ca)

For almost three days, the Legislative Assembly had not mentioned anything about the outage on its Twitter or Facebook accounts.

That changed just before 1 p.m. Nov. 13.

The B.C. Legislature account Tweeted that information technology staff took the website and network services down “late in the evening” Nov. 10. No reason was given.

“Our information technology team is working to securely restore services as soon as possible,” said the statement. “At this time, it is anticipated that the outage will continue through the weekend.”

On Nov. 16, the Legislature Tweeted another statement, at the same time Health Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Office Dr. Bonnie Henry were disclosing new record case numbers of coronavirus. 

“We are in the process of confirming information regarding the circumstances that led to the outage,” said a statement issued at 3:26 p.m. Nov. 16. “Further details will be provided once that work is complete.”

theBreaker.news sought comment from the Premier’s office. Spokesman George Smith declined.

Legislature staff is currently looking into this and the premier’s office will refrain from commenting as their work is ongoing,” Smith said.

Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd did not respond to a phone message on Nov. 13, after an email to her bounced back on a 24-hour delay.

Clerk Assistant Artour Sogomonian said, via the Legislature’s alternate, March 13-registered labc.ca email account, that he “could not provide any further information beyond that contained in the statement.”

(Twitter)

theBreaker.news asked Sogomonian whether the RCMP or Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) were involved and whether the Legislature’s website and email system had been hacked. Sogomonian refused to answer and repeated his statement. Sogomonian also would not say whether the personal information of British Columbians was safe.

David Derby, the Legislative Assembly’s IT director, did not respond. 

OIPC Commissioner Michael McEvoy did not respond. His spokeswoman, Michelle Mitchell, said legislation prohibits McEvoy from discussing any information obtained while performing official duties. “Therefore, we cannot confirm or deny whether we have received a file,” Mitchell said.

Paul Stanley, the government’s chief security officer, said he was informed of the “unscheduled maintenance,” but his office is not investigating. “It apparently does not affect the main public service network at this time,” Stanley said by email.

Neither Attorney General David Eby nor Solicitor General Mike Farnworth replied to messages from theBreaker.news. Farnworth was the NDP government house leader when the Legislature was dissolved on Sept. 21 for the snap election.

The Legislature’s website contains debate transcripts and videos, committee reports, MLA profiles, financial reports and links to MLA offices. The outage also affects MLA office email systems, which contain communication with citizens. 

The B.C. election period formally ends Nov. 16, but no date has been announced for swearing-in of MLAs or a new cabinet. 

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Bob Mackin (updated Nov. 15) The British Columbia

Bob Mackin

A Surrey city councillor says elected officials carelessly put public health in jeopardy during a party at a Surrey restaurant late last month.

Surrey Coun. Mandeep Nagra and Surrey Centre Liberal MP Randeep Sarai attended the Chetna Association’s welcome to new Indian Consul-General Manish Manish at the Mahek Restaurant and Lounge on Oct. 26.

“They chose to put themselves at risk and, more importantly, the public at risk,” Surrey Coun. Jack Hundial told theBreaker.news.

Mandeep Nagra (left) and Randeep Sarai with India consul general Manish Manish (middle) in Surrey Oct. 26 (DesiBuzz Canada)

Photographs by Aaj Media Group and DesiBuzz Canada, also published by theBreaker.news and CTV News Vancouver, show attendees without masks, standing shoulder to shoulder and crowding around a table. All contravening public health orders and rules aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus.

Surrey is B.C.’s COVID-19 epicentre and the infection rate sparked a new region-wide order temporarily banning house guests until Nov. 23.

Nagra said he was at the event for 15 minutes and made sure he followed all guidelines, which he said he does “every day and all the time.”

Photographs show otherwise.

In one, a maskless Nagra stood next to Sarai in a group photo with eight other men. In another, he was seated with seven others around two small tables.

Masks are recommended indoors when two metres physical distancing is difficult. Each table must be separated by two metres, with a limit of six per table. Patrons are not allowed to mix and mingle.

“Just before the picture, I think one or two more people jumped in and they’re seen sitting at the same table, but they just came in for the picture,” Nagra said in an interview. “There were only six people at the table, I only took my mask off just to get the picture taken, I had my mask on throughout the meeting there.”

Nagra said he was unaware of the photograph of him standing beside Sarai. He suggested it was somebody else. theBreaker.news emailed him a copy, but he did not reply.

It is not the first time Nagra’s behaviour has been under scrutiny during the pandemic. Nagra returned from a trip to India and attended a news conference with Mayor Doug McCallum on March 16 at Surrey city hall, four days after the public health order recommending travellers quarantine for 14 days after returning to Canada.

“I came back on March 6, 14-day quarantine instructions came on March 12. How am I supposed to know what’s coming next week?” Nagra said.

Sarai, meanwhile, was apologetic. He said he attended the party of fewer than 25 people for 25 minutes.

Coun. Mandeep Nagra, second from right, Oct. 26 (Suki Pangalia/Facebook)

“It was uncomfortable and it wasn’t something that should be encouraged. In fact, I think it should be discouraged,” Sarai told CTV News Vancouver reporter David Molko.

“[Organizers] should have done better and it would have been better had they not done the event at all.”

Aaj Media Group CEO Suki Pangalia said people sat at their own tables for most of the evening. “I think what happened was at the end, when the photo opportunity came up, people really lost themselves,” he said.

The Consulate-General of India did not respond for comment. The only country suffering more coronavirus infections and deaths than India is the United States.

On Nov. 9, Surrey Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman issued a public call to modify or cancel Diwali celebrations. The South Asian festival of lights runs Nov. 12-16. She told Molko the behaviour in the photographs was “absolutely unacceptable.”

She suggested the leaders in the photographs hold a news conference, publicly apologize and remind everyone to follow public health instructions.

“If our leaders are not going to adhere to public safety protocols, why would others?” Huberman said.

Huberman has a simple message to those ignoring public health orders, especially in the South Asian community: “Our economy is going to be compromised. You will lose your business. Someone close to you will die. Is that what you want?”

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Bob Mackin A Surrey city councillor says elected

For the week of Nov. 8, 2020.

Bombshells and finger-pointing galore at the Cullen Commission, British Columbia’s public inquiry into money laundering.

(Cullen Commission)

Commissioner Austin Cullen has heard testimony from current and former police officers, casino investigators and B.C. Lottery Corporation managers. British Columbians are learning how casinos became a cesspool of organized crime while politicians and bureaucrats were asleep at the wheel.

On this edition, hear highlights of the first two weeks of testimony, including former Richmond RCMP chief Ward Clapham, former Great Canadian Gaming supervisor Muriel Labine and Fred Pinnock, the former head of the RCMP’s Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement Team.

In 2009, Pinnock was a whistleblower who went public with Sean Holman’s Public Eye Online about how BC Liberal gambling minister Rich Coleman shut down Pinnock’s squad, after Pinnock raised the alarm about gangsters infiltrating B.C. casinos.

Pinnock revealed more to Cullen about Coleman’s pivotal decision, which he said was all about filling government coffers with casino profits.

Plus Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim headlines and commentary.

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

Now on Spotify!

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

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

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theBreaker.news Podcast: B.C.'s money laundering public inquiry heats up
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For the week of Nov. 8, 2020. Bombshells

Bob Mackin

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc with civic finances and Vancouver city council could raise taxes up to 12% in 2021. Finance staff at 12th and Cambie warn council members to limit new initiatives until later in 2021 or in 2022.

Meanwhile, bureaucrats behind a 371-page report want city council to open the door to charging a tax on downtown vehicle drivers and a tax on residential parking permits.

Coun. Christine Boyle (holding megaphone) with a climate emergency lobby group in 2019 (Twitter)

The $500 million Climate Emergency Action Plan, the successor to the Vision Vancouver city council’s Greenest City 2020 plan, goes to city council Nov. 5. Its main author is the city’s climate policy manager, Matt Horne. He spent 13 years with the Pembina Institute think tank before joining city hall in 2017.

The plan has the fingerprints of outgoing City Manager Sadhu Johnston all over it. The American import, who announced his resignation by year-end, was the driver of the Greenest City plan, which fell short of 2020 targets and needed to be rebranded as such. Johnston wants the not-so-cheap CEAP to be his legacy, after falling short with the Greenest City 2020 plan.

Johnston told Coun. Melissa de Genova in a July 13, 2018 email that Vancouver would not reach its 33% greenhouse gas reduction target by 2020 and there was no “greenest city in the world” target or international award.

Day after climate emergency declared: (clockwise from top) Mayor Kennedy Stewart, Coun. Christine Boyle and Coun. Adriane Carr calendars. (City of Vancouver)

The CEAP scheme has significant gaps. It does not account for the carbon impacts of cargo and cruise ships at the Port of Vancouver or the impacts of planes taking-off and landing at Vancouver International Airport. Heavy transport, the region’s biggest polluter, is under federal jurisdiction.

Vancouver is struggling with the opioid overdose and coronavirus pandemic emergencies, both officially declared by the provincial health officer. The climate emergency motion of Jan. 16, 2019 was the product of lobbying by the Force of Nature environmental group and others.

The October 2018-elected city council under Mayor Kennedy Stewart declared climate change an emergency, but no meeting with top emergency management officials followed. Neither did any live, televised news conference. It was pretty much business as usual. Meanwhile, the Downtown Eastside remained full of despair. 

Stewart went about his business for a couple of days and then took the weekend off. It was an emergency in name only. The city’s State of Emergency bylaw was not invoked. 

Same went for Green Coun. Adriane Carr and OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle, the two biggest boosters of the symbolic emergency and the new tax-and-spend plan.

Cover of the 350.org-supported Power Shift 2019 conference that organized anti-pipeline protests. (Power Shift)

The new motion for the half-billion-dollar CEAP tax-and-spend plan is supported by another lobby group, called Vancouver Just Recovery Coalition.

The April 2020-launched Just Recovery issued a news release on the morning of Nov. 5, showing support from 350.org, the U.S. charity behind the Shut Down Canada anti-pipeline protests that blocked transportation routes across the country in early 2020.

Just Recovery’s co-chair is Matthew Norris. His bio on the Just Recovery website doesn’t show it, but Norris is a part-time, city hall-employed policy and communications specialist assigned to Boyle. That fact was also omitted from the Nov. 5 news release.

Norris claims his volunteering with the coalition is non-partisan and independent of his work in Boyle’s office.

Boyle denied, by email, that Norris is mixing Just Recovery with his duties at city hall.

“As a contract employee, Matthew doesn’t have access to any confidential information, and he didn’t have access to the CEAP any earlier than the public did,” Boyle said. “We are very careful and conscious on all of these fronts.”

So there you have it, a city councillor’s taxpayer-funded aide is also lobbying city council to create policy and pass legislation.

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Bob Mackin The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc

Bob Mackin

A Richmond security company related to alleged money launderer Paul King Jin has quietly shut down.

Blackcore director Jamie Flynn in the company’s YouTube ad (Blackcore.ca)

Blackcore Security and Investigations was incorporated last spring by Jin’s son Jesse Xin Jia and two others at Jin’s World Champion Club. The NDP government licensed Blackcore in early July. The company released a Mandarin-voiced YouTube ad with English captions that self-proclaimed Blackcore the “#1 Security Company in Canada.”

On Nov. 4, the Blackcore website and Facebook and Instagram pages were inactive. The Google directory said the business in the gym at the south foot of No. 5 Road had “permanently closed.”

There was no answer at the Blackcore phone number. Blackcore partners Trevor Carroll and Jamie Flynn did not respond to requests for comment.

The company has been under a provincial licence review since the government’s August-filed civil forfeiture lawsuit, which aims to seize the gym from Jin for allegedly using proceeds of crime to buy the property. Jin has yet to file a statement of defence in the case.

As of Nov. 5, the Security Programs Division database showed Blackcore retains a valid licence. The Solicitor General Ministry told theBreaker.news on Nov. 4 that the licence review continues.

However, a source familiar with Jin and his business said Blackcore closed because negative attention meant it never really got off the ground.

Meanwhile, Jin’s name has been mentioned frequently during the Cullen Commission public inquiry on money laundering in B.C., which resumed Oct. 26. 

Paul King Jin (BCLC/Cullen Commission)

B.C. Lottery Corp. anti-money laundering program manager Daryl Tottenham testified Nov. 4 about Jin’s large cash deliveries to River Rock and other casinos, despite his 2012 ban.

Tottenham said Jin supplied cash to whale gambler Jia Gui Gao, whom he described as B.C.’s “top dog” gambler in 2014.

In 2017, theBreaker.news reported that Jin and Gao were defendants in a mortgage company’s lawsuit over an $8.2 million British Properties mansion. The filing referenced a 2015 Jin lawsuit against Gao for $2.3 million. Jin alleged Gao spent the sum on gambling and women instead of real estate development.

In his testimony, Tottenham described another high roller, Kwok Chung Tam, as Jin’s boss. Tam is a kingpin of the Big Circle Boys gang.

Tottenham also said gambler Guo Tai Shi received a $150,000 delivery from Jin at Starlight Casino in Queensborough.

Guo’s Lower Mainland real estate portfolio includes a farmland mansion on No. 5 Road in Richmond and Abode Island in West Vancouver’s Eagle Harbour.

On Nov. 5, Commissioner Austin Cullen ruled on an application from Jin’s lawyer, granting him status to participate in the public hearing, question witnesses and make submissions, “but only insofar as it relates to evidence that affects his interests or engages him specifically.” 

Commission Counsel Brock Martland told theBreaker.news that no decision has been made whether to call Jin as a witness. 

Jin suffered facial cuts from bullet-shattered glass on Sept. 18 at the Manzo Japanese restaurant in Richmond where Jian Jun Zhu was murdered. Jin and Zhu were implicated in the Silver International underground bank case, which collapsed on a technicality in late 2018. One of the vehicles at the crime scene was a black van that matched one in Blackcore’s YouTube ad. 

In August 2019, theBreaker.news exclusively reported that NDP Tourism Minister Lisa Beare hosted a news conference at Jin’s gym and posed in a group photo with him. World Champion Club has hosted training sessions for China’s Olympic boxing team.

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Bob Mackin A Richmond security company related to