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Will Premier John Horgan call an early election in 2020?

Who will become the new leader of the B.C. Greens in June?

Is Andrew Wilkinson a viable leader for the slow-to-rejuvenate BC Liberals?

Dermod Travis (Voice of B.C./Shaw)

Many questions to be answered as the young year progresses.

IntegrityBC’s Dermod Travis is the guest on this week’s edition of theBreaker.news Podcast. He thinks there is only a 30%-35% chance Horgan might go to the polls before the fixed October 2021 election date. But the fate of the B.C. Greens’ leadership contest could trigger the next election.

“[Horgan is] obviously going to be in a delicate situation if the new leader of the party is not one of the sitting MLAs,” Travis said.

With Andrew Weaver handing the reins to interim leader Adam Olsen, that leaves Sonia Furstenau. Will she run? Will she win?

Travis tells host Bob Mackin about findings of research into expense claims filed by Wilkinson, Ben Stewart and ex-speaker Linda Reid. The BC Liberals have a knack of traveling to swing ridings.

Wilkinson, Reid and Stewart (BC Leg)

“There seems to be more often than not a direct correlation between an MLA’s travel expenses coming out of their non partisan constituency office budget and the electoral needs of the B.C. Liberal party and this is one of the things the Legislative Assembly Management Committee has to address,” Travis said.

Last year, the BC Liberals had accused the NDP of using riding offices for partisan means. 

“You can’t have it both ways.”

Plus, commentaries and headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest.

Click below to listen or go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.

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theBreaker.news Podcast: Questions of leadership abound in B.C. politics
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Will Premier John Horgan call an early

It’s only 2020 and Vancouver’s mayor is already campaigning for his 2022 re-election. Surrey’s mayor is hoping to keep his majority on city council, to achieve his new municipal police force. B.C.’s premier and Canada’s prime minister govern in minority scenarios. Will they last? Meanwhile, Donald Trump is up for re-election.

Research Co. pollster Mario Canseco (Mackin)

Research Co. pollster Mario Canseco joins host Bob Mackin on the first podcast of the new year to ponder the next 12 months in politics.

Plus, headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest and commentaries.

Click below to listen or go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.

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

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theBreaker.news Podcast: 2020 vision
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It's only 2020 and Vancouver's mayor is

Bob Mackin

The mining union leader who returned to Mexico after 12 years in exile in Canada is back in Vancouver, theBreaker.news has exclusively learned.

Sen. Napoleon Gomez Urrutia and wife Oralia Casso on Jan. 2.

Sen. Napoleon Gomez Urrutia traveled with wife Oralia Casso de Gomez on Jan. 2 from Mexico City on Aeromexico flight 696, according to a source who observed them board and disembark. The couple flew in first class seats 3A and 3B and presented dark blue-covered Canadian passports. The couple was photographed standing with a luggage cart.

The couple’s son, Ernesto Gomez Casso, is a restaurateur in Vancouver. The senator has not replied to an email to his senate office seeking information about whether he was traveling on official or personal business. 

Gomez was head of the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers of the Mexican Republic, better known as Los Mineros, when he fled with his family to Vancouver in 2006. He blamed mining company Grupo Mexico and the Mexican government for “industrial homicide” after an explosion at a coal mine earlier that year in Coahuila killed 65 workers. He was charged for allegedly embezzling $55 million from a union trust fund that had been dissolved in 2005. Gomez denied the allegations. In 2014, a Mexican appeal court deemed the charges unconstitutional and cancelled an arrest warrant.

Napoleon Gomez Urrutia at a Whitecaps FC match in B.C. Place Stadium (Facebook)

Gomez continued to run Los Mineros from afar, enjoyed the support of Unifor and the United Steelworkers and even became a Canadian citizen in 2014. Elections BC’s database shows seven donations to the B.C. NDP, from 2009 to 2017, totalling $2,680. Oxford-educated Gomez succeeded his father as the union’s leader in 2000, but never worked in a mine.

In 2018, Gomez triumphantly returned to Mexico when he was appointed a senator under that country’s mixed member proportional representation system after the election of new president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. At the time, Gomez claimed he had renounced his Canadian citizenship in order to lawfully assume his seat in the senate.

Early last year, Gomez formed the International Labour Confederation, an umbrella for 150 Mexican unions.

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Bob Mackin The mining union leader who returned

Bob Mackin

Rain and wind cancelled the new year’s eve fireworks at Grouse Mountain, ending 2019 with a whimper.

But, two days later, Northland Properties Corp. made Canada’s first big business bang of 2020. The privately held Vancouver hospitality company announced the purchase of the four-season North Vancouver resort from the Canadian arm of debt-laden China Minsheng Investment Group (CMIG).

Tom Gaglardi (NHL)

“With our strong family and company roots in Vancouver, we are excited with the opportunity to make this acquisition,” said Northland CEO Tom Gaglardi in a prepared statement. “We look forward to working closely with the existing team and leadership group, as well the community to ensure we maintain and evolve the iconic Grouse Mountain experience for all of our visitors.”

CMIG bought the resort in July 2017 from the McLaughlin family for an undisclosed amount. The McLaughlins had reportedly been asking $200 million.

CMIG holdings included real estate, insurance, leasing and renewable energy. By September 2018, CMIG was reportedly carrying more than $43 billion in debt. In early 2019, CMIG began to aggressively cut costs and unload assets.

Terms of the Northland purchase were not released.

Grouse Mountain Skyride (Mackin)

Northland owns the Revelstoke Mountain Resort in B.C., 50-property Sandman Hotel Group in Canada, U.S. and U.K., high-end Sutton Place hotels in Vancouver, Edmonton, Halifax and Revelstoke and 60 Denny’s restaurants across Canada.

Its highest-profile asset is the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars, who hosted and won the 2020 Winter Classic outdoor game on New Year’s Day at the Cotton Bowl football stadium.

The Northland purchase of Grouse could open the door to the involvement of former Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc. CEO David Brownlie in overseeing operations. Brownlie joined Revelstoke in 2018 as its president, to lead mountain operations, heliskiing and real estate development at the resort. 

Not only does the Northland purchase repatriate ownership of Vancouver’s most popular, privately run natural attraction (it averages 1.3 million visitors annually), but it simplifies the ownership.

When China Minsheng’s purchase was announced July 18, 2017, it said CM (Canada) Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought GM Resorts LP, and claimed to be 60% Canadian-owned.

Public records obtained by theBreaker showed that CM (Canada) Asset Management Co. Ltd. was incorporated Nov. 21, 2016 as 1097351 B.C. Ltd. with Kang Yu Canning Zou as the sole director. 

Zou’s address was a $7.6 million-assessed, Shaughnessy mansion near the People’s Republic of China consular compound in South Granville. The property deed was registered in 2009 by businessman Wei Zou and homemaker Xia Yu. 

1097351 B.C. Ltd. became CM (Canada) Asset Management Co. Ltd. on March 8, 2017, when a second director was added: Liao “Laurence” Feng. According to the CMIG website, Liao is the assistant president of CMIG and CEO of CMIG International. Six days later, on March 14, 2017, GM Resorts LP registered. Both GM Resorts LP and CM (Canada) are registered at the Bentall Centre office of law firm Fasken Martineau.

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Bob Mackin Rain and wind cancelled the new

Bob Mackin

It was 20 years ago today, on Dec. 31, 1999, that KISS came to B.C. Place Stadium to rock the world (well, at least the Pacific time zone) out of 1999 and into the year 2000. 

I graciously declined tickets. After racing to finish and print the manuscript for my first book, Record-Breaking Baseball Trivia (Greystone), I drove to a party just across the border in Point Roberts, Wash. instead. There was plenty of beer, candles and a Coleman stove, in case the power went out. 

Why?

Like any 29 year-old, I really did want to rock and roll all day and party all night. But I also didn’t want to be under that inflatable roof if the power went out because of a global computer glitch.

Some experts were fearing data panic in the year zero and I bought what they were selling. What a mistake that was! 

“Depending who you ask, the potential impact of this gargantuan glitch ranges from the trivial to the apocalyptic – from the minor annoyance of malfunctioning VCRs to the complete collapse of information systems governing banks, stock markets, utilities, and government,” reported Quill and Quire.

During a July 1998 speech broadcast on C-SPAN2, U.S. Vice-President Al Gore explained the problem in layman’s language.

“Back in the 1960s and 1970s, managers and programmers tried to save money by saving on memory,” Gore said. “At that stage of the computer revolution, memory was at a premium and they were trying to avoid using any unnecessary space in the memory storage areas. So they came up with a notion of representing the date with only two digits instead of four, so 1965 became just 65 and it saved millions of dollars. But it also created one whale of a problem.”

Jerome and Marilyn Murray were among the first to warn the world in their 1984 book, Computers in Crisis: How to Avert the Coming Worldwide Computer Systems Collapse. Other books followed, including Y2K It’s Not Too Late, by Scott Marks, Karl Kaufman and Patrice Kaufman and Y2K It’s Already Too Late, by Jason Kelly. 

Governments and businesses spent millions upon millions of dollars to reprogram their computer systems or replace them altogether. BC Gas, the province’s natural gas utility, Bank of Montreal and the Canadian Springs water company issued notices to customers. Here they are below. 

As well as a clip of KISS counting down to midnight and the year 2000.  

The roof stayed aloft. KISS came and went.

The beer stayed cold in Point Roberts and life went on. Crisis averted.

Despite what Paul Stanley said, it wasn’t really the start of the new millennium at B.C. Place. Or anywhere, for that matter.

As the late, great Rafe Mair wrote in a 1996 Richmond News column: “If zero were a number, we would start the year with January 0 and Labour Day this year would have been September 1, with the day before being September 0… On December 31, 2000 (God willing) I shall celebrate my birthday and at 12:00 midnight will toast in the incoming new millennium. I will be all alone, of course, because the rest of you turkeys can’t count or are too stubborn to admit that you’ve been taken in by the international media who, rather than be right and miss the party, will insist that somehow the passage of 1999 years means that we should get excited.”

P.S. The B.C. Place roof did eventually fall down, but that was in January 2007 after managers refused to heat the roof and melt falling snow. It led to the $514 million renovation that included installation of a retractable roof in 2011. 

(BC Gas)

(BC Gas)

(Canadian Springs)

 

(BMO)

(BMO)

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Bob Mackin It was 20 years ago today,

Bob Mackin

How fitting.

In the waning weeks of the second decade of the third millennium, luxury real estate developer Ian Gillespie of Westbank unveiled a $4.8 million chandelier beneath the Granville Bridge. Heralded by Mayor Kennedy Stewart as the city’s most important piece of public art. Ever.

The City of Glass suddenly had a new plastic wonder that was supposed to drop and spin on schedule. Twice a day. Lotusland’s newest prop for selfies and a metaphor for excess in the decade after the Great Recession.

What else happened? Glad you asked.

1. First Olympics

Fifty years after the first Winter Games bid was hatched, Vancouver and Whistler (along with West Vancouver and Richmond) finally hosted their first Olympics in 2010.

Vancouver 2010 mascots Miga, Quatchi and Mukmuk (VANOC)

The five-ring circus didn’t start well, with the death of a luge athlete on opening day. Seventeen days later, the first mega-event of the social media age ended with a giant, sociable street party after Canada’s NHLers were better than the American NHLers.

Canuck Roberto Luongo backstopped the home and native land in the most-watched hockey game in history. Sidney Crosby’s golden goal secured the record 14th home team gold medal of the Winter Games.

The Olympics cost $7 billion, give or take a billion. The cost of police and soldiers (some of whom stayed on cruise ships) was $900 million. Auditor General offices in Victoria and Ottawa never did a final report. The organizing committee arranged for the ledgers and board minutes to be hidden from the public eye at the Vancouver Archives until at least 2025.

It was marketed as the ultimate souvenir of the Games, but the $1.1 billion Olympic Village was put in receivership in late 2010 after a slew of bad publicity and poor sales. It took until spring 2014 for city hall to sell the rest of the condos and exit the deal.

2. Second Stanley Cup riot

The year after hockey gold, Vancouver had its second Stanley Cup riot. Unliked 1994, the Canucks were the Game 7 home team and had a chance to win it all.

Luongo was also the home team goalie, but the Boston Bruins, with B.C. boys Milan Lucic and Mark Recchi, skated away with Lord Stanley’s mug.

Police chief Jim Chu’s February 2010 high-fiving didn’t carry over to June 2011 and his prediction of no riot flopped. He blamed “anarchists” for the upheaval.

Oddly, the VPD investigation and an analysis by ex-Vancouver 2010 boss John Furlong didn’t take a magnifying glass to the biggest, loudest indoor drinking establishment in the city on June 15, 2011, Rogers Arena. Four years later, Chu retired from the force and went to work as a vice-president of special projects and partnerships for the Aquilini family.

In 2014, the Aquilinis forged an alliance with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, three of the Olympics’ four host first nations, to acquire land the BC Liberal government deemed surplus in Vancouver and Burnaby.

3. Gordo’s Games

Soon after winning the 2001 election, Gordon Campbell positioned himself as the Olympic premier. He finally announced his resignation before the end of the Olympic year.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell in 2010 (Mackin)

A caucus revolt brewed when the father of B.C.’s carbon tax broke a campaign promise and imposed the Harmonized Sales Tax after the 2009 election. Campbell’s former deputy premier Christy Clark quit her talkshow on CKNW and returned to succeed Campbell in a divisive 2011 leadership campaign marred by cheating for the phone-in and online votes.

Campbell left the premier’s office without fulfilling a promise to explain the 2003 BC Rail privatization scandal. He preferred to blame former BC Liberal aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk, whose plea bargain in October 2010 ended the B.C. Supreme Court bribery trial with ex-finance minister Gary Collins waiting to testify.

Voters defeated the HST in a 2011 referendum. Clark served out Campbell’s term and many forecast her defeat in May 2013. Nobody predicted the Adrian Dix-led NDP would go from Question Period pitbulls to campaign trail poodles. So the BC Liberals kept their hold on power for another four years. It wasn’t as if the NDP had a lack of material, after the BC Liberals were caught in the Quick Wins ethnic vote-buying scandal less than three months before voting day.

Over the next four years, it was one scandal after another for Clark and her clique, from the unjust firing of health researchers (which drove one to suicide) to the mass-deleting of emails to the kiboshed yoga class on the Burrard Bridge.

The Clark years were dubious, but nobody can say they were dull.

4. Football follies

Campbell wanted to pay for the $514 million renovation of B.C. Place by selling the name and building a casino next door.

A sponsorship deal with Telus collapsed in 2012 under Clark and the casino’s opening was delayed after city council refused in 2011 to let the Las Vegas company have more slot machines and tables than it had at Edgewater Casino. Parq Casino, and two Marriott hotels, finally opened in fall 2017, just in time for the province’s casino money laundering scandal to erupt.

B.C. Place Stadium was supposed to become Telus Park, but Clark nixed the naming rights deal.

The Whitecaps debuted in 2011 in Major League Soccer at a temporary stadium on the site of Empire Stadium. They joined the B.C. Lions as co-tenants of the renovated B.C. Place Stadium in the fall. The Lions hosted and won the 2011 Grey Cup under the new retractable roof, but the lacklustre Whitecaps have given nobody a reason to revel or riot. David Braley, the Lions owner, often talked to reporters about selling his team to locals willing to pay his price. What about Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot? He still hasn’t talked to reporters.

B.C. Place became a wildly successful annual stop on the Rugby Sevens World Cup tour in 2016, the year after its plastic grass hosted the U.S.-won FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015. They built an office for corrupt FIFA boss Sepp Blatter at B.C. Place, but he skipped the show, afraid he’d be arrested.

U2 began the 30th anniversary Joshua Tree tour at B.C. Place in 2017, two years after beginning an arena tour across the street at Rogers Arena.

Vancouver’s biggest sports success of the decade? Yoga pants. The fashion phenomenon that displaced Levi’s made Lululemon founder Chip Wilson a billionaire.

He built a $35.2 million mansion on Point Grey Road and hired the Red Hot Chili Peppers to play a private concert there in 2013. The mansion eventually ballooned in value to $78 million.

5. LNG and Site C

Christy Clark made natural gas exports and the Site C dam her grand goals. She tried to interest governments in China, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia in building natural gas liquefying plants and terminals on the B.C. coast. Then the market tanked in 2014 and nobody wanted to lay out the billions to build an LNG tank.

She did green light Site C before the end of 2014, the long-pondered BC Hydro dam on the Peace River, with an $8.8 billion price tag. More expensive than the Olympics. 

6. Green Gregor 

Gregor Robertson rose to power as Vancouver’s mayor in 2008 on a promise to solve street homelessness by 2015 and make Vancouver the world’s greenest city by 2020.

Robertson and the Mayor of Shanghai, Ying Yong (PRC)

Instead, his city council-dominating Vision Vancouver party (a coalition of NDP and Liberals) rubber-stamped luxury towers developed and/or marketed by party donors and flogged in Asia.

Robertson also positioned himself as the leader of a crusade against oil pipelines and tankers. Robertson presided over the building of a network of bike lanes and let marijuana stores proliferate across the city, before the feds legalized B.C. bud in 2018. Robertson’s pet causes helped distract from the reality that Vancouver was transitioning into a resort city.

7. Sino of the times

Robertson took Mandarin lessons, became active on Chinese social media platforms, led trade missions to China and even had a well-publicized fling with a Chinese singer, Wanting Qu, that began in the 2014 election year.

As he was racking-up the frequent flyer points to follow Qu to New York, California and Mexico, homelessness increased, gang shootings intensified and the opioid overdose crisis was felt in hospital emergency rooms and the morgue. Even Robertson’s foster son wound-up in jail after the 2011 election.

8. The Happy Warrior

John Horgan was acclaimed in 2014 as the replacement for Dix as NDP leader. In 2017, after voters took their frustration out on Clark and the BC Liberals, Horgan convinced Andrew Weaver and the Greens to help him end 16-years of BC Liberal rule. Clark’s gamble to adopt NDP and Green policies in the post-election throne speech, nicknamed the “clone speech,” was a disaster.

Horgan and Weaver agree to defeat Clark (Twitter)

A week later, the 44-42 result in the June 29, 2017 confidence vote sent Clark and Horgan to Government House where Lt. Gov. Judith Guichon gave Horgan the nod to form a new government. 

The three Greens that had the balance of power failed to stop Site C or start proportional representation. But climate scientist Weaver’s party did succeed in forcing the NDP to adopt a government-wide, climate change adaptation plan in 2018.

Their timing was impeccable. As if 2015’s forest fires that blocked summer sun in Vancouver weren’t enough, the government declared a province-wide state of emergency in 2017.

9. Car-spangled spanners

Congestion became the buzzword as Vancouver became known as the luxury car capital of the continent. Green new driver decals became a common sight on the bumpers of six-figure supercars that plied the roads between Richmond and UBC, which gained the nickname “University of Beautiful Cars.” Burrard Street in Kitsilano became a de facto luxury car auto mall, with Rolls Royce, Porsche, Bentley and Ferrari dealerships.

Former senior RCMP officer Peter German’s 2018 report on money laundering exposed a booming grey market for luxury car exports to China through Vancouver’s port, which hasn’t had a dedicated police force for more than two decades.

10. On time, on budget, yeah right

SkyTrain finally expanded to the Tri-Cities with the $1.4 billion Evergreen Line in 2016 and the Port Mann bridge opened in 2012 for $3 billion and $1.26 billion South Fraser Perimeter Road in 2012-2013. As per usual, the projects weren’t on time or on budget.

Clark at 2012 Port Mann opening (BC Gov)

The NDP took away the Port Mann tolls after the 2017 election. Crews were preparing to build a new bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel when the NDP came to power and scrubbed the project.

TransLink lost a 2015 plebiscite for its $7.7 billion expansion plan on a regional sales tax to fund SkyTrain expansion. But it got the dough through other means when Justin Trudeau led the Liberals back to power later that year.

11. Electric avenue

But 2019 brought two innovations to B.C. A self-driving electric Tesla was caught on smartphone video at Richmond Centre. Weeks later, Harbour Air made worldwide headlines with the first flight of an electric powered commercial airplane.

12. Clark out

Back to provincial politics. Clark didn’t last long as the opposition leader. Re-elected Abbotsford South MLA and criminology professor Darryl Plecas threatened to leave the party if she didn’t step down during a Penticton caucus retreat in late July 2017.

Plecas became speaker of the Legislature in September 2017 and an ex-BC Liberal. Craig James, the clerk that Clark and the BC Liberals appointed in 2011, was escorted out of the Legislature in November 2018. He and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz were suddenly suspended and under RCMP investigation. Plecas revealed some of the reasons why when he tabled a bombshell report in January 2019 to the all-party committee that manages Legislature operations.

James and Lenz had hired lawyers from the BC Liberal-aligned Fasken firm and demanded their jobs back. As 2019 wore on, James was found in misconduct and Lenz in breach of duty, so they both retired in disgrace.

13. Carpetbagger rolls in

After Clark’s fall from power, Robertson and his circle realized the populace was angry. Too angry to re-elect Vision. In early January 2018, Robertson announced he would not stand for a fourth term. His city hall career ended just shy of a decade in office, the longest in Vancouver mayoral history.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart signs the oath of office on Nov. 5 (MackIn)

He handed the reins to independent Kennedy Stewart, who became famous for being arrested at an anti-pipeline protest. The NDP MP for Burnaby South edged the NPA’s Ken Sim by just 957 votes in the October 2018 civic vote. The NPA fell one seat shy of a majority on council, but it did make history with five female councillors.

14. #Whalleypoli

Surrey is B.C.’s second city, forecast to someday eclipse Vancouver. Doug McCallum was twice-elected in 1999 and 2002 and made a mayoral comeback in 2018 on a populist platform. He scrapped the planned light rail transit system in favour of more SkyTrain and pledged to replace the RCMP with a municipal force.

Ironically, the last city council meeting of the decade required help from the RCMP to separate protesters for and against McCallum’s cop swap, which is forecast to deliver fewer officers at a higher price to taxpayers in the sprawling border city burdened by gang crime.

15. Dam it

In December 2017, Horgan vowed to keep building Site C, but the new price tag was $10.7 billion. The referendum to reform the electoral system failed. But he did increase social service spending and end B.C.’s wild west campaign finance scene with limits on the size of donation and bans on corporations and unions funding candidates and parties.

16. Vancouver model

One of Horgan’s signature decisions in May 2019 was to green light a public inquiry into money laundering after the evidence piled up and tipped over. Chinese money had flowed between real estate, casinos and the drug trade, making B.C. notorious for all three.

A bag of cash from a surveillance video at Starlight Casino (BC Gov)

17. Ride hailing saga

Horgan had a soft spot for unions, unlike company-cuddling Clark. But Horgan carried on Clark’s courting of the LNG industry and even announced the $40 billion LNG Canada for Kitimat in 2018. Like Clark, he was a fan of Amazon and Airbnb. He also was in no hurry to open the province to Uber and Lyft, despite promises otherwise.

Why? The NDP won a majority of seats in Surrey, the taxi cartel’s hotbed, during the 2017 election.

Regulators finally gave a licence to a ride-hailing company in Whistler and Tofino before Christmas, pushing the rest of the industry into the next decade.

18. The Huawei Princess

It became Vancouver’s biggest global news event since the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Meng Wanzhou at Prospect Point in Stanley Park, Vancouver (B.C. Courts exhibits)

Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei telecom founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, 2018. Wanted in the U.S. for fraud, her extradition case could take a decade to wind its way through courts. She lives comfortably in a Shaughnessy mansion on the same block as the U.S. consulate general’s residence.

Few in Vancouver heard of Meng before the first reports of her arrest hit the media on Dec. 5, 2018. But she was no stranger to the city. Meng, who also went by Cathy or Sabrina, had been slipping in and out of Vancouver since 2001. Her husband’s name only was on the deed of their Dunbar house and Shaughnessy mansion.

The Meng case brought new attention to the Chinese money that landed in Vancouver’s real estate and auto industry and to the political influence that Beijing-loyal groups were flexing throughout the province.

Nowhere was it more obvious than Richmond, where Chinese characters on store signs and birth tourism became flashpoints for controversy. The 2016 census showed that it had become the most Chinese city outside of China, with more than half the residents identifying as ethnic Chinese and almost half reporting a Chinese language as their mother tongue.

19. Full circle

Vancouver’s Olympic legacy was slow to materialize, but was clear as the nose on your face by 2015. The tourism and real estate sectors boomed, driven by a flood of money from China.

China’s social, economic and political influence in B.C. is not new; links go back to the 19th century. But the unprecedented migration of wealth from Mainland China was undeniably sparked by the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first after Beijing’s 2008 Games. With the U.S. economy suffering through the Great Recession, China sent its biggest winter team to Vancouver and TV and online viewers in the Middle Kingdom saw more hours of coverage than before. Millions tuned in during Lunar New Year to see what Vancouver had to offer: unseasonably clear, blue skies.

Mayor Malcolm Brodie (left) and China’s Consulate-Gen. Tong Xiaoling in 2018 (PRC)

Urban planner Andy Yan’s research found incomes had decoupled from real estate values; the latter rose and the former fell. His analysis found an uncanny prevalence of “non-Anglicized Chinese names,” and “housewife” and “student” listed as the occupation on the deeds of multimillion-dollar residences on Vancouver’s westside.

Meanwhile, the head of CSIS warned that China was meddling in Canadian affairs. Stories emerged of Chinese government officials being the owners of mysterious empty mansions or construction sites on billionaires’ row. Xi Jinping’s regime even accused some Chinese expats in B.C. of corruption.

A murky Chinese insurance company, Anbang, bought control of the Bentall towers in the heart of Vancouver’s central business district in 2016 while China Minsheng Investment Group bought iconic Grouse Mountain in 2017.

20. Bigly, yuge

Vancouver also became the most-American city outside the U.S. and it prompted New York wheeler dealer Donald Trump to make a splash. Malaysian-owned developer Holborn cut a franchise deal with The Donald and built the Arthur Erickson-designed West Georgia tower that became a destination for mass protests after Trump’s improbable 2016 presidential win.

Donald Trump Jr. (left) and brother Eric at the Vancouver Trump Hotel opening (Mackin)

Trump was at the construction site in 2013, but was a tad preoccupied when the tower opened in February 2017. So he sent his two sons and one of his daughters to cut the ribbon with Holborn’s Joo Kim-Tiah.

Oddly, the protesters outside in 2017 weren’t there to criticize Holborn’s failure to replace the 200 social housing units that it demolished at Little Mountain in 2009.

In December 2019, however, activists returned to the site to remind all about one of Vancouver’s defining debacles of the decade.

A decade that ends with a record number of citizens living in sidewalk sleeping bags, camper vans and tents in parks.

So here we are at the end of the 2010s. The decade that was. Sandwiched between the naughty aughties and what might be another version of the roaring ‘20s

May I suggest we call the decade that was the Selfie Decade?

Onward to 2020.

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Bob Mackin How fitting. In the waning weeks

What was 2019?

Clockwise, from upper left: Jody Wilson-Raybould, Alan Mullen, Darryl Plecas, Brad West, Alex McKechnie, Justin Trudeau, John Horgan, Zhou Fengsuo.(Mackin photos)

A federal election year in Canada. Held amid a scandal involving the unapologetic Prime Minister who aimed to save SNC-Lavalin, Canada’s poster child for corruption, at the expense of the country’s first indigenous attorney general. She blew the whistle and got re-elected as an independent.

Civil rights protests in Hong Kong that spilled across the Pacific, where a suburban Vancouver mayor emerged as a voice of reason and sounded the alarm over blatant Chinese Communist Party meddling in Canadian affairs.

A bright light shone into the offices and misdeeds of the clerk and sergeant-at-arms of the British Columbia Legislature. The speaker and his chief of staff withstood a barrage of personal attacks amid their crusade to stamp-out corruption at the seat of government.

Alan Mullen (left) and Darryl Plecas, 2019 recipients of theBreaker.news Podcast Nanaimo bar for newsmakers of the year. (Mackin)

A public inquiry struck to examine how B.C. became one of the world’s magnets for dirty money. 

And a national celebration of the Toronto Raptors historic championship.

Throughout the year, theBreaker.news was there, chronicling history.

On this edition, hear the highlights of theBreaker.news Podcasts from 2019, featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Tiananmen Square massacre survivor Zhou Fengsuo, Raptors’ sport science guru Alex McKechnie, B.C. Premier John Horgan, Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, Speaker Darryl Plecas and his chief of staff Alan Mullen.

Plus, host Bob Mackin reveals the difference-makers of 2019, the most-read stories of 2019 on theBreaker.news and offers a commentary on the end of the decade.

Click below to listen or go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.

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theBreaker.news Podcast: Looking back at 2019, on a special year-end edition
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What was 2019? [caption id="attachment_9388" align="alignright" width="301"] Clockwise,

Grab a mug of egg nog, put a log on the fire and join host Bob Mackin for the Christmas edition of theBreaker.news Podcast. Including: traditional Festivus “airing of grievances,” Christmas headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest, the weekly virtual Nanaimo Bar award, and some of Bob’s recommendations for the all-time best Christmas tunes. 

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Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Festivus from theBreaker.news!

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theBreaker.news Podcast: Special Christmas edition
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Grab a mug of egg nog, put

Bob Mackin

At the Enchanted Forest tourist attraction near Revelstoke, Dave Mix looks into the camera as he strolls among the evergreens.

“This EV road trip is like a fairy tale,” says Mix, the BC Hydro employee who doubles as the spokesman for the taxpayer-owned utility. “All the way across the province, powered by clean energy. How magical is that?”

Dave Mix in Revelstoke’s Enchanted Forest (BC Hydro/YouTube)

It is a scene from the four-part, $220,000 BC Hydro ad campaign in which Mix is depicted driving from Tofino to the Alberta border, to tout the virtues of electric vehicles. The campaign is part of the NDP minority government’s CleanBC climate strategy mandated by the confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party.

But, based on BC Hydro documents that theBreaker.news obtained under the freedom of information law, Dave’s Clean Getaway road trip was more fairy tale than documentary.

For starters, Mix did not drive the electric car all the way from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the Rockies in a single trip. He took a Pacific Coastal Airlines flight from Vancouver International Airport to Tofino on April 28 and returned home on Air Canada from Nanaimo on April 30. He could have driven the electric vehicle onto a BC Ferry instead.

After the Vancouver to Kamloops leg, Mix returned May 8 to YVR via Air Canada. Five days later, on May 13, the journey resumed when Mix flew from Vancouver to Kamloops.

“Guys, I made it from Tofino to Yoho National Park, in an electric vehicle, no emissions and it cost me, um, about 30 bucks. I call that success,” Mix says victoriously near the end of the final video, which concludes at the Welcome to Alberta sign at the provincial border.

The climax of the Dave’s Clean Getaway campaign at the B.C./Alberta border. (BC Hydro)

Mix did not do a U-turn in the BC Hydro-branded Chevy Bolt. Instead, he carried on to Calgary and flew back to Vancouver on Air Canada.

In reality, the trip cost much more than 30 bucks.

Mix’s expense report for the period totalled $3,250. His 1,452.2 kilometres in flights added up to 2.17 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to calculations using CarbonZero.ca. The driving distance from Tofino to the Alberta border (including the BC Ferry voyage Mix avoided) is 1,063 km.

“The optics become a bit two-faced, because on the one hand we’re preaching electric car energy consumption, and on the other hand we’re using one of the biggest squanderers of fossil fuels in the world: it’s called an airplane,” Lindsay Meredith, Simon Fraser University professor emeritus of marketing, told St. John Alexander and CTV News Vancouver. 

It was not a solo trip. Mix was joined by an undisclosed number of video production contractors from Basetwo Media and Smak, and as many as four BC Hydro employees: communications advisor Chelsea Watt, marketing communication advisor Amy Huynh, marketing communications specialist Nicki Harris and advertising coordinator Kathryn MacDonald. The four submitted combined expense claims for more than $17,600, and were on some of the same flights as Mix.

A BC Hydro ad campaign claimed it cost only $30 to travel by electric car from Tofino to the Alberta border. In fact, the ad campaign cost more than $200,000 and included air travel. (BC Hydro)

Part of their spending included almost $1,200 to rent vehicles on Vancouver Island and in Kamloops from Budget Rent-A-Car, plus $209 in fuel.

BC Hydro spokeswoman Susie Rieder insisted that Mix drove each leg of the trip in the electric vehicle.

“Production of the campaign was done in legs, and therefore the BC Hydro employees involved (including Dave) did take flights back to Vancouver in between each leg,” Rieder said by email. “By doing this, we were able to significantly reduce overtime costs, as well as the time they were away from the office and their day-to-day work.

“If we had the team drive the entire route, they would have incurred significant overtime costs, additional costs for meals and hotels, productivity costs due to being out of the office for days at a time.”

BC Hydro spokesman Dave Mix camping at Tofino (BC Hydro)

Even the sleeping bag from part one appears to have been a mere prop.

MacDonald’s expense report shows it cost $44.82 at Wal-Mart in Burnaby on April 26. She returned it almost a month later on May 21 for $44.77.

“Purchased sleeping bag for EV road trip filming, but was able to return it,” the expense report stated. No explanation for the nickel deficit.

While Mix was shown in a tent on a campground with the electric car parked nearby, his expense report shows a $155.56 lodging charge from the Tofino Resort and Marina on April 28.

At least Mix’s surfing and canoeing were the real deal.

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Bob Mackin At the Enchanted Forest tourist attraction

Bob Mackin

The year 2019 was supposed to be all about celebrating the past and welcoming the future for the Vancouver Whitecaps.

It was the 40th anniversary of the North American Soccer League team’s Soccer Bowl ’79 championship. Today’s Whitecaps, originally launched as the 86ers in 1987, hoped to use nostalgia to launch the era of new coach Marc dos Santos.

Instead, it was the worst season on and off field for the 2011 Major League Soccer entrant.

It hit a low when the local boy made good in the NASL, Bob Lenarduzzi, was demoted from president to club liaison, a sort of consultant and goodwill ambassador, in August. That was six months after we learned from a whistleblower that, under Lenarduzzi’s presidency in 2007 and 2008, the women’s team was suffering a toxic culture.

Bob Lenarduzzi (Whitecaps)

The Whitecaps were slow to address Ciara McCormack’s concerns. The Southsiders and other supporters groups protested by walking out to the concourse before halftime. Many fans just didn’t walk into B.C. Place Stadium at all. After several public relations blunders, the club finally hired a Toronto consultancy in late May to review what happened in 2008 and years since.

Oddly, the clock did not begin in 2007, the year that McCormack originally brought her concerns to Lenarduzzi.

More than three months late, on the last Wednesday before Christmas, the report was published.

What’s it called?

Review of Safe Sport and HR Practices: Findings and Recommendations Report. It was commissioned by the Whitecaps, who have not disclosed how much it cost. 

Who wrote the report?

Three people from Toronto-based Sport Law and Strategy Group (SLSG), who received “guidance and peer review” from the company’s partners, Dina Bell-Laroche and Steven Indig.

Sport Law and Strategy Group

Lawyer Bell-Laroche is a former Canadian Olympic Committee press chief and Indig the legal counsel for Ontario Soccer Association.

SLSG is a 1992-founded consultancy that specializes in organizational governance, business planning and management, dispute resolution, marketing and legal issues.

The trio

Ex-criminal defence lawyer LeeAnn Cupidio, social media, research and communication specialist Kevin Lawrie and administrator Kathy Hare.

Lawrie also co-authored a 2011 evaluation of Own the Podium, the Canadian Olympic Committee-aligned high-performance sports agency that was chaired by Whitecaps’ executive chair John Furlong. 

How long is the report?

The report is a 32-page summary, hence the “Findings and Recommendations Report” subtitle. Based on the amount of interviews, there would be reams of unreleased transcripts or interview notes and supporting documents in the possession of SLSG and the Whitecaps.

Extra time

When it was announced May 27, the Whitecaps said “the work is expected to take approximately three months.”

It took another three months, and then some.

The Whitecaps say they received the final report Dec. 13. The club explained the priority was to give SLSG “the necessary time to conduct their work thoroughly and independently.”

What else was up?

The report was released two days after the signing of Canadian international striker Lucas Cavallini. The designated player is integral to the club’s pre-Christmas ticket sales and merchandise campaign.

’Twas the week before…

The timing, on the last Wednesday before Christmas, also suggests the club received advice from a person with government and political damage control.

John Furlong (VANOC)

In May, theBreaker.news was told by two reliable sources that longtime public relations executive Renee Smith-Valade, Furlong’s spouse, was offering advice to the club. Smith-Valade was head of communications at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee. She is now vice-president of inflight service with Air Canada.

In 2012, six months after he joined the Whitecaps, Furlong was the subject of an exposé by Laura Robinson in the Georgia Straight. Robinson found inconsistencies in Furlong’s post-Olympic memoir and several former students in his physical education classes in Northern British Columbia alleged he abused them. Furlong denied the allegations. RCMP did not pursue charges and a civil lawsuit by never made it to trial.

Who blew the whistle?

Former Whitecaps’ women’s team player McCormack kicked-off the whole process with her explosive blog post last Feb. 25, under the headline: A Horrific Canadian Soccer Story – The Story No One Wants to Listen To, But Everyone Needs to Hear. The villain was “Coach Billy” and included documents dating back to 2007 to back-up her claims. “Coach Billy” had returned to coaching young women, despite an agreement that he would not do so.

What did she have to say?

McCormack was not impressed with the Dec. 18-published report, but she had low expectations.

“The primary purpose was from a PR standpoint to have the whole thing framed in a way that didn’t make them look like they didn’t cover anything up,” McCormack said in an interview. “The fact they used that specific verbiage.

Ciara McCormack (Twitter)

“Part of me was hopeful, but actions speak louder than words. Over and over again the Whitecaps have shown they’re about themselves and their image, it’s just corporate-speak and there’s nothing of real character and integrity.”

McCormack said the Canadian Soccer Association cannot escape accountability. She wished that the report had been conducted by a truly independent third-party, rather than one bought and paid for by the Whitecaps. She also wished it was not released at a time of year when media attention and public discourse will be limited.

“Even the fact this story is dropping a few days before Christmas, people are a lot smarter now, everybody sees through the little tricks.”

In three parts

SLSG said it sought to do three things: understand the steps the Whitecaps took to address past incidents, understand current stakeholder experiences via three separate surveys, and compared current Whitecaps’ documents and processes to leading safe sport and human resources practices.

Survey says… what?

SLSG conducted three surveys of Whitecaps coaches and staff, parents and guardians, and participants to compare current Whitecaps documents and procedures. A total 1,411 survey forms were sent, but only 326 completed. The report said the response rate was 37.3% overall, but our math says it was 23.1%.

Of the seven Whitecaps administrators, three did not complete the survey. Their names and titles were not mentioned.

The survey questions were not included in the report.

No names mentioned

Citing privacy legislation, SLSG was not provided with contact information to distribute the survey or solicit interviews.

“Contact information was provided for staff and administrators who participated in the interviews about the Whitecap’s HR practices.”

At the outset, the Whitecaps, on behalf of SLSG, invited anyone with relevant information to come forward confidentially to SLSG.

How many key interviewees?

Interviewees included 14 players from the 2006-2008 Whitecaps women’s roster; seven past and present Whitecaps administrators and staff; six past and present Whitecaps coaches; six other interested parties, including parents/guardians and past and present supporters.

Bob Birarda in 2005 (CSA)

Who was the coach, eh?

The report refers to “Coach A.” But it does not name the coach at the centre of the controversy. That was Bob Birarda. theBreaker.news chose to name Birarda back in February because it related directly to the public announcement and media coverage in October 2008 of his departure as coach.

It must be emphasized that there are no criminal charges or civil actions at this time and none of the allegations has been tested in a court of law. Birarda has not responded to requests for comment. Birarda was suspended by Coastal FC in South Surrey early this year as a result of the publicity.

No help from the 2008 investigator

Earlier this year, theBreaker.news spoke with lawyer Anne Chopra, who was the investigator hired by the Whitecaps in 2008. SLSG, however, reported that it was unable to reach her.

“Since the beginning of the process, the SLSG intended to interview the lawyer and workplace consultant (hereinafter referred to as the Investigator) who was retained by the Whitecaps’ in 2008 to conduct investigations, provide advice and recommendations, and act as ombudsperson for the organization,” the report said. “Multiple attempts were made to contact the Investigator at two email addresses and a current active phone number provided by the Whitecaps and at multiple phone numbers found online. Ultimately the SLSG was unable to connect with the Investigator.”

No help from the original 2008 whistleblower

“The SLSG also intended to interview the player who brought forward the initial concerns to the Whitecap’s women’s team manager, Diana Voice, in May 2008, however this player declined to participate.”

Who was interviewed?

Fourteen of 82 former players contacted were interviewed by SLSG. The players were not identified.

Whitecaps’ owner Greg Kerfoot (Santa Ono, Twitter)

SLSG also interviewed nine individuals in the organization, including owner Greg Kerfoot, Bob Lenarduzzi, soccer development director Dan Lenarduzzi, COO Rachel Lewis and soccer operations vice-president Greg Anderson. Plus Voice and three coaches who requested anonymity.

Documents

SLSG reviewed almost 20 documents, including seven Whitecaps internal handbooks, guides and policies, and similar documents from Canada, B.C. and Ontario soccer associations, Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and U.S. Center for Safe Sport. Some of the non-Whitecaps documents are linked in the report.

Small-caps

SLSG called the 2008 version of the Whitecaps “much smaller and less sophisticated organization” than in 2019. The women’s team had a four-month W-League season and the head coach doubled as the under-20 national team coach. Several players were on both squads.

What happened?

SLSG: “In May 2008, the Whitecaps were alerted that a player had received inappropriate text messages from her coach. The matter was investigated and corrective actions were taken. In September 2008, while the same coach was working with the U20 national team, the Canadian Soccer Association received a similar complaint regarding the coach’s behaviour in that program. Another investigation was conducted which resulted in the termination of the coach from both programs.”

No “cover up”

According to SLSG, Whitecaps were not attempting to “sweep [the incidents] under the rug.”

“The leadership team seemed to genuinely believe they were receiving proper legal and administrative advice — which they followed.”

Media misled

The report is silent on the Oct. 9, 2008 news release that announced Birarda’s mutually agreed departure from the club. There was nothing in that news release to suggest misconduct on Birarda’s part. Neither the club nor Birarda indicated any reason for the departure when contacted by a reporter at the time.

Sexts

The club ordered Birarda to undergo sensitivity training when the first complaint of inappropriate text messages with a player emerged. It was a summer when he was also an assistant coach on the Beijing 2008 Olympics team and Whitecaps’ owner Greg Kerfoot was a financial booster of the national team program.

Turned a blind eye

SLSG: “The Whitecaps shared their findings and the actions that were taken with the CSA, however it does not appear that any monitoring was put into place to ensure the corrective measures were being adhered to,” SLSG reported.

“After a second, similar complaint about the same coach was raised with the CSA in September 2008, the Whitecaps worked in collaboration with the CSA to determine next steps. Both organizations followed the direction and guidance of the same investigator which resulted in the organizations terminating the coach from both programs.”

Dropped the ball

SLSG said there was a lack of effective communication with players before, during and after the investigations and the leadership team chose a path of confidentiality. 

“However, it is clear from the information provided by the players that it was this lack of communication that resulted in frustration, mistrust and speculation which has contributed to the lingering animosity still held by some former players today.”

Passed the ball

SLSG: “The Whitecaps were criticized by some players for not taking steps to ensure that the coach was prohibited from coaching in the future. It was determined that the Whitecaps did not have the authority and jurisdiction to prohibit anyone from coaching in other soccer programs.”

Bullying on the boys team

The first of two other incidents included in the report.  Global News reported in 2017 about criminal charges for players on the under-15 boys residency program after a teammate had been sexually assaulted in a dressing room.

“These players were minors at the time of the incident, so the specific details of the  assault are not included in this report,” says the SLSG footnote. 

The mother of the victim claimed the Whitecaps tried to “downplay the situation and convince the family not to go to the police. She claimed that they did not take the matter seriously and tried to convince the family to deal with the matter internally. At the time, the Whitecaps did not respond to any media requests for comment because the matter was under police investigation.”

Two-day delay

There was a 48-hour delay in contacting police in 2017. SLSG reported that staff tried to ensure the family knew “conflicting facts, potential risks, and options available to them.” It said the staff did not mean to dissuade the family from notifying police.

Importantly, SLSG conceded that it only collected information about the incident from the Whitecaps; the mother was not interviewed because the incident fell outside the initial scope of the review.

“Nevertheless, Whitecaps staff should not have attempted to act as counsel to the family and, if it was suspected that there may have been a criminal incident, should have contacted police immediately themselves.”

Mis-hire

Whitecaps announced in October 2013 that they lured Brett Adams, a coach from England to run the Kootenay Academy Centre. Adams had been interviewed in January 2013 when no position had been open, so his information was kept on file. “His references and background check were verified,” the report said.

Brett Adams (Nelson Soccer)

“The Whitecaps were unaware of the racism allegations (which occurred in April 2013, after the initial screening) and did not perform any additional screening before the coach was hired. It was later, in 2015, that the coach was sanctioned by the FA (a governing organization in English soccer). “

“Based on the information provided and interviews with staff, the Whitecaps acknowledged that there was an error in the hiring process for this coach. Had the Whitecaps redone the interview and vetting process once the coaching position became available, these allegations may have impacted the hiring decision.”

Tourism Minister Lisa Beare (BC Gov)

Recommendations

The report contains 40 recommendations on safe sport and 10 on human resources.

What does the government say?

Statement to theBreaker.news from Tourism Minister Lisa Beare, whose portfolio includes sport and B.C. Pavilion Corporation, manager of B.C. Place Stadium:

“Any physical, sexual or psychological harassment and abuse of athletes is completely unacceptable. Athletes have the right to play free of abuse, discrimination and harassment. The Whitecaps are an independent professional sport organization, accountable to their leadership and their fans as stakeholders. It is incumbent on all sports organizations to ensure players are protected and any incident of player abuse should be reported to the appropriate authorities for investigation.”

What next?

SLSG says the Whitecaps policies and procedures evolved since 2008. The Whitecaps say: “We will be working as expeditiously as possible to implement the recommendations effectively.”

Police file

This may not be over.

The Whitecaps said in April that they contacted the Vancouver Police Department, after more players came forward with allegations. In August, the VPD referred theBreaker.news to the North Vancouver RCMP.

theBreaker.news also independently verified that a file is open and an investigation underway.

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Bob Mackin The year 2019 was supposed to