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Bob Mackin

(Editor’s note: This is part two of a joint investigation with CTV News Vancouver. Click here for part one. )

On April 19, a month and a day after he declared British Columbia’s pandemic state of emergency, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth stood at the podium in the Vancouver cabinet office at Canada Place.

The province was struggling with overlapping health and economic crises. On the first Sunday morning after Easter, Farnworth was finally getting tough on profiteering and hoarding.

“Effective immediately, the province is enabling police to issue $2,000 violation tickets for these shameful practices, for price gouging and the reselling of medical supplies and other essential goods during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Farnworth said.

Mike Farnworth announces $2,000 fines on April 19 for price gouging and reselling essential goods. (BC Gov)

All law enforcement officers, even park rangers, were empowered to write tickets. Consumer Protection B.C., an agency spun-off from government in 2004, was tasked to investigate and refer evidence of wrongdoing to the Solicitor General’s ministry.

Social media scenes of panic-buying for toilet paper and cleaning supplies at big box stores in February had given way to images of empty shelves in March.

Now it was the latter half of April and unemployment was setting records. What took Farnworth so long?

On April 19, he said he was concerned “over the worst segments of society taking advantage of the most vulnerable.”

“I can assure you, we will not allow these practices to continue,” Farnworth vowed. 

Through a freedom of information request, theBreaker.news obtained details of 2,065 complaints received by CPBC from March 1 to May 14. 

In a joint investigation, theBreaker.news and David Molko of CTV News Vancouver have learned that more than two months since Farnworth’s order, CPBC had referred only 52 complaints to a bureaucrat in Victoria, who is refusing to talk to reporters.

A Richmond WeChat user advertised N95 masks, goggles, gloves and clothing while supplies were low at B.C. hospitals in April. (Consumer Protection BC)

A ministry spokesman said on June 22 that no violation tickets had been issued so far and information regarding the number of violation tickets issued by other agencies was unavailable. Jason Watson said some of the cases are still active, but the government’s COVID-19 Provincial Orders Support Team “has achieved compliance through education and verbal warnings” on some files.

Looking back, Farnworth said the objective was to educate the public and industry that there is an avenue to make complaints and that there are consequences for profiteering in a pandemic.

He deflected a question about the lack of violation tickets.

“It’s not something that I, as minister, [say] you shall do this, or you shall not do that,” Farnworth said June 22. “In terms of whether someone is prosecuted — that is done independently.” 

Farnworth’s ministerial order was titled a “Prohibition on Unconscionable Prices for Essential Goods and Supplies.”

What is an unconscionable price? The official NDP government definition is a price that grossly exceeds the price at which similar essential goods and supplies are available in similar transactions to similar consumers.

Farnworth opted for that vague definition, rather than use a clause of the Emergency Program Act to fix prices and set rations.

By contrast, California’s law is clear.

Its statewide, anti-price gouging statute bans hiking prices of many consumer goods and services by more than 10% during a declared emergency. It applies to food, lodging and emergency supplies, including water, toiletries and medical supplies.

Clorox wipes for $18.99 at Dank Mart on Main Street in Vancouver (Consumer Protection BC)

David Hardisty, a marketing and behavioural science professor at the University of B.C., told CTV News Vancouver reporter David Molko that price gouging is not always black and white.

“It’ll feel like price gouging whenever you think you’re paying too much for something that may not actually always be price gouging though,” Hardisty said. “Maybe masks are in short supply for everyone, so they had to pay a lot more to get those masks. Price gouging only technically applies to necessities.”

If only a small number of stores face enforcement, Hardisty said, “it tells you, one, people are upset about the increase in prices, but, two, they’re not clear on what the rules or expectations are — what the laws are about price gouging. If people are complaining and it’s not being upheld, it’d say maybe the government hasn’t done a good job about being clear about what is what isn’t price gouging.”

In Alberta, officials had forwarded 351 of 458 complaints to investigators by May 8, the same day the government announced that its consumer investigations unit charged a Calgary business, CCA Logistics Ltd. (doing business as Newsway) for price gouging.

After a tip to the “report a ripoff” line, investigators initially ordered CCA on April 15 to drop its prices for 3M masks, hand sanitizer and Lysol spray. Some of the goods were allegedly marked up 200% to 400%.

CCA now faces a court hearing on Aug. 19. Alberta’s maximum fine is $300,000. CCA owner Yan Gong, who is also president of the Chinese Real Estate Professionals Association of Alberta, has vowed to fight the charges.

Jug of milk for $12.48 at the Real Canadian Superstore in Kamloops (Consumer Protection B.C.)

In Washington, Attorney General spokeswoman Brionna Aho said 1,214 complaints were received. Officials made 80 calls and 396 visits to businesses, sent eight warning letters and 14 cease and desist letters. Courts can impose penalties up to $2,000 per violation of the Consumer Protection Act.

“We have a longstanding policy against commenting on pending investigations, including confirming whether or not they exist,” Aho said.

By June 17, Ontario’s government had forwarded 900 of the most-egregious cases of price gouging to police around the province. Government and Consumer Services spokeswoman Barbara Hanson said the government received more than 26,000 complaints and inquiries.

B.C. is an outlier, where the government trusts consumer protection to an arm’s length agency where compliance, not enforcement, is job one.

Says the Consumer Protection B.C. website: “Our goal is not to punish a business, but rather to correct marketplace behaviour.”

Price gouging became a sudden priority for CPBC with the pandemic.

CPBC was spun out of government in 2004. It is responsible for administering the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act and regulating the funeral industry, movie exhibitors and event ticket sellers. CPBC also licenses companies involved in payday loans, telemarketing, travel agencies and home inspectors. 

At the end of 2019, CPBC had 45 full-time staff and ran on a $6.8 million budget, funded mainly by licensing fees. The five-member board is chaired by ex-BC Ferries chair Rod Dewar.

Spokeswoman Tatiana Chabeaux-Smith conceded CPBC is a small organization with relatively low public awareness, but the pandemic is an opportunity to change that. She said CPBC received 1,500 complaints before Farnworth’s order and more than 800 since.

Logo for the B.C. government’s 2004-created not-for-profit retail regulator.

“With the announcement of the ministerial order on April 19, that also elevated our profile as the place to come,” Chabeaux-Smith said.

Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers’ Association of Canada, told theBreaker.news that it has “been really horrific” since the BC Liberals got rid of the consumer protection office in the government and created CPBC 16 years ago.

“Why do they call themselves the Consumer Protection branch? The way they operate, it’s a business structure that keeps businesses from getting too many complaints,” Cran said. “They must have a giant rug somewhere where they sweep all these things underneath.”

Consumers Association of Canada president Bruce Cran (CAC)

He said unhappy consumers have even contacted him upon referral from CPBC.

“We are not the enforcement arm,” said Chabeaux-Smith. “But that our job is to intake and assess and try to get that voluntary compliance, and then when we can’t we provide a referral to government and they take that and review it and assess it and one of their enforcement officers takes it from there.”

The deregulation-minded BC Liberals came to power in 2001 by winning all but two seats in the Legislature. Their platform promised to cut B.C.’s red tape and regulatory burden by one-third within three years.

In early 2003, the Gordon Campbell-led government consulted public and industry about overhauling consumer laws.

The Consumer Protection Authority’s enabling legislation was tabled in March 2004, before the third anniversary of  Campbell’s mandate.

Then-Solicitor General Rich Coleman promised the new agency would have improved inspection and enforcement powers and would seize assets from lawbreaking businesses. The new authority would be governed by a board of directors as a non-profit corporation under an administrative agreement with government.

In March 2004, then-solicitor general Rich Coleman (left) faced questions from NDP leader Joy MacPhail about spinning-off consumer protection from the government. (Hansard B.C.)

“The creation of a new authority will ensure better consumer protection in the province by increasing industry and consumer involvement in consumer protection activities,” Coleman said in the Legislature.

Then-NDP opposition leader Joy MacPhail said the new authority would “allow this government to avoid its consumer protection responsibilities and off-load the costs associated with those activities on to the private sector.

“Where will the private sector get the money to pay for all of this? You guessed it — the consumer,” MacPhail said.

The maximum fine under CPBC’s legislation is $50,000 against a corporation and $5,000 for a person. Figures for 2018, the most-recent year available, show CPBC concluded 245 enforcement files and counted more than $414,000 in fines and restitution, up from $185,872 in 2017 and $100,078 in 2016.

A footnote in the report said the 154% increase in restitution for 2018 was due to refunds obtained from payday loan companies.

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Bob Mackin (Editor's note: This is part

Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin 

(Editor’s note: This is part one of a joint investigation with CTV News Vancouver. See part two on June 24.) 

During the early days of British Columbia’s coronavirus pandemic, when toilet paper was such a hot commodity, a gas station in South Surrey and a grocery store in Chilliwack were accused multiple times of price gouging.

One store was allegedly gouging more than the other, according to complaints to Consumer Protection B.C. (CPBC), the agency that regulates retail sales in the province on behalf of the province.

Chevron Town Pump in South Surrey (Google Streetview)

Documents obtained by theBreaker.news, and jointly investigated with David Molko of CTV News Vancouver, show the Chevron Town Pump in South Surrey, formerly the Campbell River Store, was the subject of 10 complaints for selling toilet paper at $10 per roll. None of the complainants reported buying a roll, the kind of jumbo roll normally found in a gas station washroom. 

“You ask them for toilet paper and they pull it out from behind the counter and tell you it’s $10 per roll. Ridiculous,” said one complaint.

Wrote another: “Entered the gas station to pay for gas and check on their stock of household items. They are selling rolls of toilet paper for $10 each. I left. Did not buy anything as I am utterly disgusted. There was one gentleman at the counter working. I told him why I was leaving, he had no reaction at all.”

Leroy McKinnon, the spokesman for Chevron owner Parkland, said the company was not notified of the complaints by CPBC, but its customer service team.

“The retailer acted out of bad judgment and against our company values. Any individuals who purchased the single rolls are welcomed to return to the site for a full refund,” McKinnon said by email.

Mike Farnworth (Ina Mitchell)

The Young Street Supermarket in Chilliwack was cited in eight complaints for selling toilet paper rolls at $2.49 each and up. One angry Facebook user called it “selfish, greedy, ignorant.”

“Unwrapped (originally from a large package) toilet paper with no wrap at all — some rolls starting to unwind, sitting on the shelf and selling for $2.99 per roll,” said one complaint.

“They are charging $2.49 for a single roll of toilet paper. It is being sold in a baggie,” said another.

The market’s owner, Mohit Sukhija, told CTV that he got a couple of calls from government departments.

After it went on Facebook, he stopped selling for $2.49 per roll. It is now $7.99 plus tax for a six-roll pack.

“I gotta live in this same community, can’t make ‘em mad,”  Sukhjija said.

“I don’t think it was price gouging anyway.”

The complaints were made to CPBC, before Solicitor General Mike Farnworth took a get-tough stance a month after the NDP government declared a state of emergency.

Farnworth promised consequences for “the worst segments of society taking advantage of the most vulnerable.”

On April 19, he announced fines for price gouging and reselling essential supplies would be doubled to $2,000. All law enforcement officers would be empowered to write tickets and CPBC was tasked with being the “first and main point of contact” for price gouging and supplies resale complaints during B.C.’s state of emergency.

Fraser Shipping and Variety Store (Consumer Protection B.C.)

“They will ensure those complaints are resolved appropriately in coordination with the police and other enforcement officers,” Farnworth said.

But, just over two months later, it appears no fines have been issued under the April 19-announced order.

Asked on June 22, Farnworth said that is not his call.

“It’s not something that I, as minister, [say] you shall do this, or you shall not do that,” Farnworth said. “In terms of whether someone is prosecuted — that is done independently.”

Farnworth’s order prohibited “unconscionable prices for essential goods and supplies,” such as food, water, gasoline, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and personal hygiene, sanitation and cleaning goods.

Just what is an unconscionable price?

That was left up to interpretation. Farnworth’s definition is “any price that grossly exceeds the price at which similar essential goods and supplies are available in similar transactions to similar consumers.”

“It’s similar to legislation that’s in place in Ontario and Saskatchewan,” Farnworth said in April. “Is the price of a good similar to the prices of goods in a community or province that regular people would expect to pay in comparison to other people? Yes, there is a recognition that prices increase on goods, that’s not what this is about.

“This is when you look at a product and, we’ve all seen examples of it, protective or safety gear is charged 10 times the normal price… or is being sold online at exorbitant prices.”

CPBC said it received 1,500 complaints before Farnworth’s order. Between April 19 and June 21, CPBC opened 448 investigations from 882 complaints received. Prices of medical products (381), hygiene (230) and food and beverage and gasoline (92 each) attracted most of the complaints.

Investigations were launched into 221 medical equipment price complaints, 110 hygiene and 62 food and beverage. CPBC found 332 lacked evidence or did not meet the definition of price gouging and 32 were resolved with the subject businesses.

H Mart Robson’s $39.99 toilet paper, which was eventually marked down (Consumer Protection B.C.)

Only 52 files were referred to the Solicitor General’s ministry for further investigation, and possible enforcement.

Most complaints after April 19 came from Vancouver (100), Surrey (33), Burnaby (30), and Victoria (28) and Richmond (18). Vancouver city hall’s bylaw department and Surrey RCMP told theBreaker.news that they issued no violation tickets.

Was the NDP government slow to react? 

The Solicitor General has a dozen primary powers under the Emergency Program Act, which he activated on March 18. The last on the list is to: “procure, fix prices for or ration food, clothing, fuel, equipment, medical supplies or other essential supplies and the use of any property, services, resources or equipment within any part of British Columbia for the duration of the state of emergency.”

Farnworth chose not to fix prices or ration supplies. Unlike B.C., where price gouging is up to interpretation, California law sets a 10% ceiling on prices of essential goods during a declared emergency.

Experts also warn that there is often a fine line between a price hike and price gouge.

“Not all large price increases are tantamount to price gouging,” said Assoc. Professor Werner Antweiler of the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business. “It does not apply to non-essential goods and outside an emergency. In some cases production costs can change radically and thus have nothing to do with inflated mark-ups. If demand suddenly increases while supply is fixed, increased prices can help direct goods to those who most need them and are thus willing to pay a higher price. However, during an emergency this raises concerns about fairness and equity, as essential goods need to be provided to everybody in society.”

Miniso surgical masks (Consumer Protection B.C.)

CPBC spokeswoman Tatiana Chabeaux-Smith said in an interview that the agency’s investigators use their discretion and seek to educate retailers and resolve complaints rather than punish.

“The role that we have to play around price gouging is very much around that term voluntary compliance, and educating and trying to get businesses to comply voluntarily which mirrors how we normally approach things,” Chabeaux-Smith said.

When it is unable to achieve voluntary compliance, she said, CPBC then refers complaints to government “and their enforcement officers take it from there.”

CPBC initially referred theBreaker.news to Les Sylven, the deputy director of police services in the Solicitor General’s ministry. But Sylven refused to return phone and email messages. Instead, ministry spokesman Jason Watson told theBreaker.news to file a freedom of information request to learn more about the CPBC files referred to government.

The turnaround time for FOI requests is generally supposed to be 30 business days, but often takes longer and there is no guarantee information will be provided.

Unsworth Store in Chilliwack (Consumer Protection B.C.)

From the case files

When CPBC provided price gouging reports to theBreaker.news, it said between March 1 and May 14 that it received 2,065 complaints.

Of those, 265 were deemed complaint unfounded, 25 categorized as “consumer alert” — meaning the business voluntary corrected the price — and 22 files remained open.

Complaints included:

  • Unsworth Market in Chilliwack selling surgical masks for $2.69 each or five for $11.99.

CPBC notes indicate the owner “was informed of the ministerial order, consumer protection laws, and the penalties associated with non-compliance.”

The price was reduced to $1.79 each or $8.49 for a five-pack and file closed.

  • H Mart on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver selling 30 rolls of toilet paper for $39.99.

After CPBC spoke to an account manager, the price was lowered to $20.99. Since the amdended price was “within marketplace norms (70 cents/roll)” the file was recommended for closure.

The Coquitlam location was selling surgical masks at $2.99 each.

“Based on what I’ve observed thus far mask are sold anywhere as low as 65 cents to as high as $1.50 per mask. $2 is on the high side,” said the inspector’s notes.

H Mart said the wholesale cost was $1.50 per mask, but dropped the retail price tag to $2.29 each.

The price “isn’t horrendously above the range,” so the file was closed.

  • The Pharmasave in West Vancouver’s Caulfeild Village was reportedly selling 250 mL bottles of hand sanitizer for $25.99.

Pharmasave Caulfeild (Consumer Protection B.C.)

A CPBC inspector called the manager twice before finally reaching him.

“He confirmed they are selling a 500 mL hand sanitizer for $19.99 and a 240 mL hand sanitizer for $24.99. He purchased from Victory and paid $17.95 for the 240 mL. (I saw a quote from another file for that same price from Victory.)”

The manager said the markup was 41%, but “I explained his markup is irrelevant, it all comes down to retail price in the marketplace. He argued it’s not available anywhere else. Explained the law, he understands that if his price is much higher than other stores selling hand sani, that he could receive a fine.”

The inspector noted that regular hand sanitizer was selling for 6 cents per mL, but the store was selling an all-natural brand for 10 cents/mL.

“Can’t find a similar comparison in the marketplace. File to be closed.”

  • A Shopper’s Drug Mart in Fort St. John arbitrarily chose to split prescriptions into small lots, forcing customers to pay dispensing fees that often exceeded the cost of the medications.

The pharmacy allegedly claimed it was due to a government directive.

Senior Inspector Jason McColl’s warning letter to proprietor Irvin Tang said that while pharmacies can control allotments based on professional judgment, the customer was misled.

McColl’s letter said Tang violated the law against using unclear and ambiguous language during a consumer transaction. The maximum fine under CPBC’s legislation (not Farnworth’s order) is $50,000 against a corporation and $5,000 for a person.

McColl elected not to escalate the matter to a formal hearing, because Tang set the record straight with the complainant. 

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Bob Mackin  (Editor's note: This is part one

Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

The first police force in British Columbia that could be disbanded in the pandemic era is the one at the Parliament Buildings.

The $13,000 review of security at the British Columbia Legislative Assembly that bothered the opposition BC Liberals last summer recommends saving $1 million by transforming the Legislative Assembly Protective Services (LAPS) into a security department.

Alan Mullen, special advisor to Speaker Darryl Plecas, with the damning report on the suspended officials (Mackin)

Alan Mullen, chief of staff to Speaker Darryl Plecas, took a fact-finding road trip to nine other legislatures in North America and came back to write a 55-page report to the Legislative Assembly Management Committee (LAMC) called “Review of the Sergeant-at-Arms Department and Proposals for Reform.”

Mullen submitted the report in January — 51 weeks after Plecas’s bombshell report about corruption in the offices of the clerk and sergeant-at-arms. It was presented to LAMC at a closed-door meeting, but has yet to be made public. The all-party committee most-recently met on June 16.

Mullen’s report was ahead of its time. Protests against police brutality that erupted last month after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis have led to a campaign to defund police forces. In B.C., solicitor general and NDP house leader Mike Farnworth has pledged to review and reform the 45-year-old Police Act.

theBreaker.news has seen a copy of Mullen’s review and it recommends the position of sergeant-at-arms be downgraded to a ceremonial role, with security and facilities maintenance overseen by others. Mullen also recommends the LAPS become a security department.

“Legislative Assembly Protective Services officers are generally overqualified for the vast majority of the work they do,” Mullen wrote. “That department has grown according to a ‘police force’ model, which is not necessary when compared to operational requirements.”

LAPS has 38 uniformed special constables, who are armed with pistols, 26 sessional officers and seven unarmed civilian screeners. The force with jurisdiction over just 5.9 hectares near Victoria’s Inner Harbour cost $5 million of the $5.7 million sergeant-at-arms budget in 2018-2019. Last year, the Sergeant-at-Arms office cost $6.13 million.

Legislative Assembly Protective Services badges (Leg.BC.ca)

By comparison, Oak Bay taxpayers spent $4.7 million for 23 officers to police the community of 19,228 in 2018. Central Saanich had a slightly smaller population, but its 23-member force cost just over $5 million that year.

LAPS officers work rotating 12-hour shifts, on a four days on, four days off regime, but collectively pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime wages annually. Since 2014, total LAPS overtime costs have exceeded $1.8 million. In 2018-19, total salaries and benefits cost $4.66 million.

“In addition to the financial consequences of high staff overtime, there is of course a human consequence: regular overtime by definition represents a greater burden on employees than their role is designed to entail,” Mullen wrote. “Where that becomes the norm, it may lead to higher risk of burnout or other adverse consequences for the individual. Particularly in security roles, it is important to ensure staff are having adequate time off.”

The report said not all staff need to be armed, or even need to be special provincial constables. Policing could be handled by external partner agencies, while security handled in-house. Overtime pay could be reduced by staffing according to need, “as appropriate for when the House is or is not in session, as well as for day and night shifts.”

The result, the report said, would save British Columbia taxpayers $1 million a year without compromising security.

Mullen also recommended that an external consultant should be hired to help the transition to an optimal, as opposed to constant, staffing model.

Police enter the Parliament Buildings on March 5 (Mackin)

The vast majority of incidents requiring LAPS to respond did not require specialized training. In 2018, the report said, there were 72 Criminal Code incidents, but 2,140 general occurrence incidents, including protests and demonstrations (135), consumption of drugs or liquor (129) and urinating in public (9).

A majority of LAPS members are 55 or older and 31 of 38 members are male. The civilian staff work closely with LAPS, but are not part of the special provincial constables group.

LAPS already has a memorandum of understanding with the Victoria Police department, that makes the local municipal force responsible for criminal investigations and it pays $50,000-a-year to the VicPD. LAPS has agreements with the RCMP, Policing and Security Branch of the Solicitor General and Independent Investigations Office.

LAPS called-in VicPD officers during Shut Down Canada anti-pipeline protests in February and March. On March 5, VicPD arrested five protesters when they reneged on a promise to leave after meeting inside the Parliament Buildings with NDP indigenous relations minister Scott Fraser and Green interim leader Adam Olsen. The Indigenous Youth for Wet’suwet’en protest camp, in defiance of a court injunction, packed up the next day.

“The Legislative Assembly already accesses intelligence, specialized assistance and advice that allow it to save the high costs of developing and maintaining those functions internally. For a precinct that is located within a major city, that makes a great deal of sense financially and functionally, and it would be a relatively small step to further strengthen those relationships and functionalities to allow for a realignment of LAPS back to a Government Security Service as opposed to being modelled along the lines of a police force.”

Washington State Capitol in Olympia (State of Washington)

Mullen visited capitols in seven U.S. states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin), Parliament Hill in Ottawa and the Saskatchewan legislature in Regina.

The sergeant-at-arms roles in the U.S. were found to be largely ceremonial. For instance, Washington has a director of security who, while the state house is in session, takes on the role of sergeant-at-arms including ceremonial duties. The role in Washington does not include facilities maintenance. The position is hired, as opposed to elected or appointed.

Greg Nelson is the second acting sergeant-at-arms since Gary Lenz was suspended in November 2018 along with Clerk Craig James. James and Lenz both retired in disgrace last year and are under investigation by the RCMP.

B.C.’s sergeant-at-arms was paid $226,467 in 2018-19, the highest-known in Canada (excluding Quebec, P.E.I. and Yukon, which do not publish public sector salaries). By comparison, the chief of police in Victoria, with 245 officers, was paid $218,000 in 2017 and the chief in Oak Bay $170,596 in 2018.

Retired-in-disgrace Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz (BC Leg)

“There is no reason for the ceremonial, security, and facilities responsibilities at the Legislative Assembly to be assigned to the same person,” Mullen wrote. “British Columbia should follow the lead of Quebec and some of the American jurisdictions surveyed, and divide the roles to allow better specialization and expertise within each.”

Mullen’s report was reviewed by the government’s chief security officer Paul Stanley and Doug LePard, the former deputy chief of the Vancouver Police who wrote the damning Police Act investigation that sparked Lenz’s resignation last fall.

Except for recent protests, the Legislature grounds have seen few major crime incidents. The Canada Day 2013 pressure cooker bomb plot was actually an RCMP sting operation in which the two suspects, John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, were entrapped and their addictions and mental health exploited by police. Their convictions were overturned and B.C. Court of Appeal called it a “travesty of justice.”

Victoria Police officers famously hauled away bankers boxes of documents from the Parliament Buildings in late December 2003 as part of a police raid in the early days of the investigation of the BC Rail bribery scandal.

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Bob Mackin The first police force in

Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

Training for municipal police officers in British Columbia is inadequate, according to a pair of reports obtained by theBreaker.news that were submitted to the provincial government.

Cover of the 2018 German/Rolls report.

The Needs Assessment report to the Municipal Chiefs of Police Association (MCPA) in 2017 deemed the province’s police academy at the New Westminster-headquartered Justice Institute of B.C. “not adequately financed for today’s policing environment, considering the challenges of mental health, other social issues, and the current drug crisis.”

At the time, JIBC was chaired by a B.C. Lottery Corporation executive who was fired in 2019 after the NDP government green-lit the Cullen Commission into money laundering.

“In no way are we preparing our recruits adequately,” said the Needs Assessment report co-written by Peter German, the former head of the RCMP in Western Canada, and Bob Rolls, the former Vancouver Police deputy chief and founding member of the Surrey Police board.

The report recommended a followup to examine governance, funding and best practices. In 2018, Rolls and German co-wrote We Must Do Better after reviewing eight police academies including Washington State, Toronto and the RCMP Academy, Canada’s largest.

Justice Institute of B.C.’s New Westminster headquarters campus (JIBC)

They found “each of the academies visited is better able to provide the training required for police recruits than is currently available at the BCPA” and they found governance for municipal police training in B.C. to be “convoluted and ineffective.”

“Policing is an increasingly complex profession, with officers on the front line dealing with the current overdose epidemic, mental illness, homelessness and other difficult societal issues,” they wrote. “Police officers are expected to respond with sensitivity and restraint. There is an expectation that they will have the knowledge, skills and tools available to provide the very best possible outcome, while minimizing the risk to the public. There is no tolerance for excessive force.”

The report cited the 2014 shooting deaths of three RCMP officers in Moncton, N.B. and the finding that the RCMP violated the labour code for failing to adequately outfit and train officers.

“British Columbia must never allow its police or its citizens to be unsafe due to inadequate police training,” said the We Must Do Better report.

Anti-money laundering expert Peter German.

The reports did achieve some action, as the NDP government granted the police academy a one-time infusion of $500,000 from the Solicitor General’s ministry and $300,000 from the Ministry of Advanced Education for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. A working group was struck to explore a new long-term funding model.

The police academy is a core program at the JIBC, which ran a $52.68 million budget in 2018-2019, including $21.58 million from B.C. taxpayers and $13.85 million from tuition fees. The provincial government, municipalities and recruits contribute to training costs at the academy.

JIBC also took in $1.77 million in international tuition and contracts, such as the hosting of 280 students from nine People’s Republic of China police colleges over two terms at the Chilliwack campus. 

Ex-Justice Institute of B.C. chair Robert Kroeker, 2nd from left, flanked by BC Liberal MLAs. (JIBC)

The province’s contribution included $2.27 million from the police services budget. 

There were 146 full time equivalent police academy students of the 3,507 enrolled during the year. 

In October 2018, Kroeker resigned as chair. Kroeker was vice-president of security at B.C. Lottery Corporation after holding a similar position at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, the epicentre of the province’s money laundering scandal.

Langley lawyer Sukhminder Singh Virk took over as chair. Kroeker was fired by BCLC in July 2019 and was granted participant status in the Cullen Commission on money laundering to allow his lawyer to cross-examine witnesses.

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Bob Mackin Training for municipal police officers in

Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

While U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a lengthy dinner in Buenos Aires at the G-20 summit in 2018, Canadian authorities in Vancouver arrested Meng Wanzhou, writes former national security adviser John Bolton.

In his book, “The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir” [Simon and Schuster], Bolton recounts that he had heard the day before that Meng might be arrested when she landed in Vancouver.

“Because this arrest was based on our case of financial fraud against Huawei for, among other things, concealing massive violations of our Iran sanctions, it struck me as straightforward. Things were busy in Buenos Aires, to say the least, and I had learned enough watching Trump with [Turkey’s] Erdogan to understand I needed to have all the facts in hand before I briefed Trump.”

According to Bolton, Trump raised Meng’s arrest at the Dec. 7 White House Christmas dinner and mentioned the pressure now on China.

Trump, always fond of nicknames, even had one for Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder and former People’s Liberation Army engineer Ren Zhengfei.

“He said to me across the table that we had just arrested ‘the Ivanka Trump of China.’ I came within an inch of saying, ‘I never knew Ivanka was a spy and a fraudster,’ but my automatic tongue-biting mechanism kicked in just in time. What Wall Street financier had given Trump that line? Or was it Kushner, who had been engaged in a mutual courtship on China matters with Henry Kissinger since the transition?” Bolton wrote.

Bolton also mentioned the hostage-taking of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor by China in retaliation for the Meng arrest and Canada’s weak response.

Meng Wanzhou leaves her Vancouver mansion on May 27. (@InaMitchellFilm)

“We had to admit we were all late to realize the full extent of Huawei’s strategy, but that was not an excuse to compound our earlier mistakes. Even as we discussed these issues, China was showing its teeth, unlawfully detaining Canadian citizens in China, just to show they could. Canada was under great domestic pressure, which [Justin] Trudeau was having difficulty resisting. Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, never a friend of the U.S., was arguing that Canada should simply not abide by our extradition treaty. Pence, Pompeo, and I all urged Canada to stand firm, stressing we would support them every way we could, including directly raising with China the mistreatment of Canadian citizens. As we pointed out, this was the way China behaved even as some people continued to praise its ‘peaceful rise’ as a ‘responsible stakeholder.’ How would China act as it became dominant, if we let it? This is a national-security debate that will go on well into the future. Tying it to trade degrades our position both in trade and in national security.”

Bolton further wrote that he disagreed with Trump about Huawei. While Trump called it China’s biggest telecom, Bolton considered it arm of Chinese intelligence services. He complained that Trump was appeasing China and wondered what it would take to get him back on a more aggressive approach.

John Bolton, beside Donald Trump. (The Room Where It Happened/Simon & Schuster)

“Trump made matters worse on several occasions by implying that Huawei also could be simply another U.S. bargaining chip in the trade negotiations, ignoring both the significance of the criminal case and also the far larger threat Huawei posed to the security of fifth-generation (or 5G) telecom systems worldwide. This is what the black-hole-of-trade phenomenon did in twisting all other issues around Trump’s fascination with a big trade deal. Huawei posed enormous national-security issues, many of which we could only allude to in public statements.”

Bolton alluded to friction inside the administration, with economic policy advisers considering Huawei a competitor, not a security threat. He said he also warned Trump of the debt trap of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aimed to hook Third World Nations with attractive credit for major infrastructure projects.

Other world leaders, such as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, took a hawkish view of China, Bolton wrote.

“Abe encouraged Trump to maintain U.S. -Japan unity against China, and much more. This was how to conduct a strategic dialogue with a close ally. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison was also clear-eyed, seeing Huawei pretty much the way I did, and New Zealand also took a surprisingly but gratifyingly hard line.”

When Xi and Trump spoke by phone on June 18, 2019, Bolton wrote that “Xi pressed hard on Huawei.”

“Trump repeated his point that Huawei could be part of the trade deal, along with all of the other factors being discussed. Xi warned that, if not handled properly, Huawei would harm the overall bilateral relationship. In an amazing display of chutzpah, Xi described Huawei as an outstanding private Chinese company, having important relations with Qualcomm and Intel. Xi wanted the ban on Huawei lifted, and said he wanted to work jointly with Trump personally on the issue, and Trump seemed amenable. He tweeted his delight at the call shortly after the two leaders hung up.”

Bolton wrote that he briefed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin later and that Mnuchin said the president needed to be protected “on the Huawei stuff.”

Trump’s post-call Tweet.

“People thought he was trading national security for trade on ZTE, and if we allow him to do it again on Huawei, we’ll get the same kind of backlash, or worse.’ That was true then and remains true today.”

Bolton was Trump’s national security advisor for almost a year-and-a-half until last September. On June 20, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected the White House bid to stop publication of Bolton’s book on national security grounds. The Trump administration argued it contains classified information.

Meng lost her first bid to thwart U.S. extradition proceedings on May 27, when a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled that the U.S. fraud charges are compatible with Canadian law, also known as double-criminality. A case management conference on June 23 in Vancouver is expected to set the schedule for the next phase of the extradition process.

Bolton’s book could become part of the proceedings, because Meng’s lawyers claim she is the victim of political interference by the White House.

Meng lives under a court-ordered curfew with round-the-clock security guards at a $13 million mansion on the same block as the U.S. Consul mansion.

 

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Bob Mackin While U.S. President Donald Trump

Miscellany, News, Opinion

For the week of June 21, 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed even bigger problems with Canada’s broken access to information system.

Canada’s Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard (OGGO)

Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard told the House of Commons committee on government operations that most offices responsible for processing freedom of information requests are closed. Public servants are working from home without access to secure networks, scanners and photocopiers.

“Let’s not forget, that access delayed is access denied,” Maynard told the all-party committee on a June 19 web conference.

Journalism professor Sean Holman (OGGO)

Listen to her presentation on this week’s edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, along with Sean Holman, a former B.C. investigative reporter who is now a professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Holman is part of the ad hoc Canadian COVID-19 Accountability Group. It wants reforms to whistleblower protection and FOI laws within the context of the pandemic.

“During an emergency, the need for information accelerates,” Holman said.

The group wants the government to release government contracts and health and scientific reports unredacted within 15 days of creation. It also wants protection for those who report wrongdoing.

“We need to stop treating this as a partisan issue,” Holman said. “We need to treat this as an issue of democracy that should unify us all so that we can better serve the public and make better decisions as a country about some of the most pressing problems of our time.”

Plus commentary and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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The coronavirus pandemic has forced the folks at the Pacific National Exhibition to get innovative. 

The ban on mass-gatherings means the annual Fair won’t happen in August. But that hasn’t stopped the PNE from hosting physically distanced events under the Taste of the PNE banner. 

In May, a drive-thru mini donuts promotion. 

Now, on Father’s Day weekend, drive into Hastings Park for a full rack of ribs, poutine and/or macaroni and cheese to go.

Worth the price of admission, however, is a spin around the floor of the Pacific Coliseum for a show and shine like you’ve never seen before.

Drive where two Stanley Cups were contested, Winter Olympics medals were won in 2010 and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers have wowed audiences.

For more information and tickets, click here.

WATCH and SHARE the video below. 

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Bob Mackin

A judge in Vancouver says a family law case can proceed in British Columbia Supreme Court between a rich landowner from China and his estranged wife, who is a former senior official in the Chinese Communist Party.

Justice Margot Fleming ruled on May 26 that she was not concerned that Bin Bin Tang was “forum shopping” in her dispute with Wei Chang. Tang had made an urgent application for a court hearing during the coronavirus pandemic, claiming urgent need for spousal support. Cheng wanted the case stayed.

Law Courts Vancouver (Joe Mabel)

“I do not regard proceeding in this forum as contrary to the fair and efficient working of the Canadian legal system as a whole,” Fleming ruled

“Having failed to demonstrate China provides an alternative forum, it is simply not possible for Mr. Cheng to establish that China is in a better position to dispose of the litigation fairly and more efficiently.”

Fleming’s decision said the parties were married in December 1991 in China and separated in October 2015. They have one son born in June 1994.

Tang claimed they accumulated assets worth $100 million while married, but Cheng estimated it to be in the range of $40 million to $48 million. Almost all of the assets are in China, except accounts in Hong Kong and Canada and a house worth nearly $4 million on the Andover Place cul-de-sac in West Vancouver’s posh British Properties.

In her affidavit, Tang said she worked in a senior position in China’s Ministry of Supervision, in the Communist Party’s powerful Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which is intended to stop graft inside the party.

In his sworn statement, Cheng described Tang’s position as Deputy Chief of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2007, Tang and their son immigrated to Canada where he completed high school. Tang became a Canadian citizen.

CCP organization chart. (China.org)

The estranged couple could not agree where Tang lived from 2012 to 2014. Cheng claimed Tang returned to China in 2012 after her son went to study in New York. But Tang maintained that since 2014, she had been living at the house on Andover Place after overseeing its construction.

Cheng claimed that he shared a residence with Tang in Nantong City, China when they separated. Since then, she had been living in the same complex with her family.

According to Cheng, based on information from their son, Tang had only visited Vancouver for one or two months a year since their separation.

Tang’s most recent affidavit claimed she has lived regularly in West Vancouver since 2012, but is stranded in China for the time being and does not have the resources to live in West Vancouver unless she can obtain financial relief from Cheng.

The parties battled in court in China since 2016. Tang’s first of two divorce filings was dismissed because of the prospect of reconciliation. She claimed she discovered Cheng having an affair with another woman, with whom he fathered two children, and used family assets to provide them a luxurious lifestyle.

The parties went to trial in China over four days in 2017 and 2019. In November last year, Tang filed the family claim lawsuit in B.C. and was granted a restraining order. The Chinese court rendered its judgment on Dec. 25, 2019, but Tang claimed it would cost too much to translate all 33 pages.

Ambleside in West Vancouver (Mackin)

The divorce was granted and Tang awarded 70% of the disclosed real estate properties and bank accounts, “based on a finding Mr. Cheng had fraudulently transferred away or dissipated at least $15.5 million and committed adultery,” Fleming wrote.

“Mr. Cheng also deposes that the Chinese court reapportioned the Chinese family property largely in favour of Ms. Tang. He states she received approximately $42 million whereas he received less than $1 million, estimating her share at approximately 97% of the remaining net assets,” said Fleming’s judgment.

Tang was hospitalized and underwent back surgery in April and claims to suffer several conditions that cause daily pain. The 52-year-old also claimed to be too old to work in China, which mandates retirement for women from some jobs beginning at age 50.

Tang also claimed to have been out of the workforce for three decades, despite giving evidence that she had worked until 2007.

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For the week of June 14, 2020.

The expert testimony phase of the Cullen Commission inquiry into money laundering in British Columbia continued last week. Hear from two top criminology professors who weighed-in on a key anti-money laundering measure.

Transparency International has campaigned for a beneficial ownership registry in a bid to stop criminals from hiding who owns what. The B.C. NDP government is going to roll-out a beneficial ownership registry of real estate, through the Land Title and Survey Authority. But it wants to charge a $5 fee per search.

Professors Michael Levi (left) and Peter Reuter at the Cullen Commission.

“If we’re charging people for it, it’s sort of counterproductive,” said Prof. Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland.

Said Prof. Michael Levi of Cardiff University: “A public registry that is online and available to the public shouldn’t have any automatically any extra costs attached to it, in which case the argument for charging is weak. There is not much point in having a public register if it’s so expensive that people can’t use it.”

Hear the head of the RCMP’s criminal intelligence service, who told the inquiry that there are 1,850 known organized crime groups in Canada, 680 of which operate in B.C.

Chief Supt. Robert Gilchrist told the inquiry that B.C. and Ontario have high level networks of professional money launderers using underground banks, trade based money laundering, casinos and real estate to launder hundreds of millions of dollars gained through proceeds of crime.

RCMP’s Robert Gilchrist (Cullen Commission)

Meanwhile, a special committee pondering improvements to B.C.’s private sector access and privacy law, the Public Information Protection Act, heard from the head of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association that the law is more than a decade out of date and “a tweak isn’t going to fix this.”

Hear from Jason Woywada, who said citizens expect increased privacy protection and businesses are at risk without adequate laws.

Plus commentary and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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For the week of June 14, 2020.

Business, News, Sports

Bob Mackin

A professional motorcycle racer was sent to perform a stunt for a Hollywood North blockbuster without a helmet and means to disable the bike she rode, according to a report from the British Columbia coroners service.

Sequana Joi Cooke Harris, a professional motorcycle racer better known as Joi Harris, died Aug. 14, 2017 when she was ejected from a Ducati Hyperstrada 939 motorcycle and collided with a window at Shaw Tower during a scene for the Ryan Reynolds sequel.

The Deadpool 2 fatal crash scene on Aug. 14 , 2017 (reader photo)

The B.C. Coroners Service finally released the investigation report about the 40-year-old New Yorker’s death on June 10, declaring she died by accident from a blunt force traumatic head injury.

Coroner Kimberly Isbister found no alcohol, illicit drugs or prescribed medication in Harris’s system and WorkSafeBC found the motorcycle free of defects and no type of mechanical malfunction was found. But Harris was not wearing a kill switch lanyard and supervising staff failed to ensure she had it.

“She did not have experience working with a motorcycle on a closed set with obstacles and/or stairs, working as a stunt person or stunt double,” Isbister’s report said.

WorkSafeBC fined TCF Vancouver Productions Ltd. $289,562.63 in early May for lack of appropriate risk management, lack of new worker orientation, inadequate workplace setup and planning, lack of helmet and failure to ensure health and safety of workers. TCF is a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, now Disney-owned. 

The coroner’s report said Harris rehearsed approximately seven times, beginning at 8 a.m., progressing from quarter-speed to half-speed to full-speed of 20 km-h to 25 km-h.

At 8:14 a.m., Harris exited the Vancouver Convention Centre doors and turned left to approach a set of stairs covered with sheets of wood. Video footage and witness accounts indicate Harris lost control as she transitioned onto the first ramp and accelerated, rather than coming to a controlled, planned stop.

“The motorcycle continued over a second transition ramp, at which time the motorcycle became airborne. Ms. Cooke Harris continued to hold onto the handle bars; however, her feet were completely off the foot pegs,” the report said. “The motorcycle continued in a forward direction, entered onto the roadway of Canada Place and struck the raised cement median. Ms. Cooke Harris was ejected from the motorcycle, and she struck a window at the base of Shaw Tower. When the incident happened, Ms. Cooke Harris was not wearing safety headgear.”

Vancouver Police officers on routine set duty called Emergency Health Services, but paramedics were unable to revive Harris and she was declared dead at 8:25 a.m.

Joi Harris

WorkSafeBC found that Harris met two days earlier, on Aug. 12, 2017, with a stunt coordinator at Mammoth Studios to assess her motorcycle riding abilities. Harris was experienced at racing certain motorcycles on open race tracks at a high rate of speed and performing high-speed braking. But she was a movie stunt rookie and told a picture car technician that she had never ridden a Ducati.

She trained on-site at the convention centre Aug. 13, 2017 with a stunt coordinator and two different stunt persons. The session focused on practicing on the escalator and by riding a dirt bike down the stairs to the exterior transition ramp. The stunt coordinator determined after observing Harris on the dirt bike that she was able to perform.

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Bob Mackin A professional motorcycle racer was sent

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