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The calm before the storm.

The awkward wait is on, before the Prime Minister asks the Governor General to dissolve Parliament for the 43rd general election. Justin Trudeau must go to Julie Payette no later than Sept. 15. Election day is fixed for Oct. 21.

The campaign unofficially began the day that Parliament closed for the summer. Some say it really began the day after the Liberals won a majority in 2015.

Research Co. pollster Mario Canseco (Mackin)

On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, host Bob Mackin welcomes pollster Mario Canseco back to talk about the post-Labour Day headlines.

The NDP and Green Party — not the Liberals and Conservatives — were in a heated battle in New Brunswick after some NDP members unhappy with the leadership of Jagmeet Singh defected to the Greens. Some suggested racism was the root problem.

The People’s Party’s Maxime Bernier took aim not at Trudeau, but Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and her climate change crusade. Meanwhile, the Conservatives released a back to school-themed ad showing a version of what it is like in Andrew Scheer’s kitchen on the first day of school.

Trudeau was skewered by a comedian on the Netflix Patriot Act show. People were laughing at Trudeau, not laughing with Trudeau, who may appear at only two of the five federal leaders’ debates.

“It’s a tactic that we’ve seen with other incumbents, is to stay as far away as possible from those debates unless you absolutely have to,” Canseco said. “It’s quite ironic that it happened in the same week, the reaction to Justin Trudeau’s showing wasn’t that great on the Netflix show and now they’re deciding that they want to keep him under a much tighter leash than they probably thought about this two weeks ago.”

Plus commentaries and headlines from the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim and host Mackin awards a virtual Nanaimo bar to a B.C. charity that is making a difference.

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

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The calm before the storm. The awkward wait

Bob Mackin

United States authorities say they arrested 13 people on Sept. 5 accused in a transnational cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine operation run out of Vancouver.

(City of Vancouver)

Two key defendants among the 30 named in the unsealed grand jury documents are connected to Vancouver: Tenny Guon Lim (aka “The Goat,” “Max Power,” “Wild,” “Bruce” and “Phil”) and Vincent Yen Tek Chiu (whose nicknames include “El Chino,” “Tiger,” and “Auctioned”).

In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles said the operation also included Australia, Mexico and Southern California and involved members of Canadian, Mexican, Serbian, Chinese, and Sudanese gangs, some of whom used coded language and military-grade, end-to-end encrypted devices to communicate. Police seized nearly 1,000 pounds of cocaine, nine kilograms of heroin, 46 kg of methamphetamine and 46 kg of ecstasy, as well as more than $800,000 in Canadian cash.

Authorities allege in one of the grand jury indictments that the 1980-born Lim was one of three who arranged to buy and transport bulk cocaine and methamphetamine from the U.S. for importation to Canada and other locations for re-sale, in exchange for ecstasy or cash.

The indictment said that on June 2, 2017, Lim used coded language in a series of text messages that defendant Saysana Luangkhamdeng would leave Vancouver to deliver ecstasy and pick up cocaine in Long Beach, Calif. Luangkhamdeng tried crossing the U.S.-Canada border at Blaine, Wash. with 24.2 kilograms of ecstasy in his vehicle. Documents from a separate case indicate he was arrested in a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe allegedly en route to see the Toronto Blue Jays play the Mariners in Seattle.

Lim had been arrested in the Canada Border Services Agency’s largest Pacific region drug bust in May 2014 — a 35 kg haul of heroin from Laos that had been shipped to Vancouver. Lim pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking and was sentenced to eight years in jail earlier this year. His co-conspirator, Randy Norman Per, was a corrupt Air Canada employee.

The 1978-born Chiu allegedly arranged bulk purchases of cocaine in the U.S. for importation into Canada for resale in exchange for cash or bulk ecstasy.

In January 2018, he allegedly arranged to meet someone that he thought was a money courier, but was actually an undercover agent, in Langley about a 50 kg cocaine delivery deal. The next day, the indictment says, Chiu agreed to provide $963,000 for the drugs. There were also meetings in Burnaby on Feb. 1 of that year, when a co-conspirator, acting on Chiu’s behalf, gave an undercover agent almost $100,000 down payment for the cocaine. The indictment says he later offered to pay almost $1.4 million for 55 kg.

The Chiu indictment also says that a defendant named Orange Tang told an undercover agent that defendant Dario Baruca was his “partner” who operated the drug trafficking business in Vancouver.

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Bob Mackin United States authorities say they arrested

Bob Mackin

A former Vancouver International Airport Authority vice-president says he was fired without cause after a flawed investigation of a whistleblower’s complaint.

Vancouver International Airport control tower (YVR)

Stephen Hankinson’s Sept. 3-filed wrongful dismissal lawsuit seeks a B.C. Supreme Court judgment against YVR for breach of contract. Hankinson, 57, alleges he was fired after YVR hired a lawyer to investigate a complaint against him. He denied any misconduct and called the investigation improper and “wholly flawed.”

According to his lawsuit, YVR acted in bad faith and refused to provide him a copy of the investigation results. His July 5 termination letter included a list of alleged breaches.

Hankinson claimed he “provided effective and faithful service” to YVR since 2007.

“The manner of the plaintiff’s dismissal was unduly insensitive, callous, and exhibited bad faith by the defendant,” said Hankinson’s statement of claim. “The manner of dismissal has caused the plaintiff medical and other damage that will be proven at trial.”

Hankinson’s statement of claim said he advised the airport-hired lawyer that he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following an emergency on an aircraft. The court document said that he told YVR and the lawyer that if he had made any mistakes at work, then any such mistakes could have been the result of the PTSD. Hankinson’s lawsuit said YVR and the investigator “failed to consider the PTSD as a mitigating circumstance.”

Stephen Hankinson (YVR)

The lawsuit does not disclose what kind of mistakes were made. Hankinson has been unable to find comparable employment elsewhere. None of the allegations has been proven in court and YVR has yet to file a statement of defence.

From 2011 to 2018, Hankinson was the vice-president of operations and maintenance until Robyn McVicker was promoted from director of marketing. He spent the last year as vice-president of planning and innovation.

The lawsuit offers a rare glimpse into the high executive compensation paid at the secretive airport authority, which is a not-for-profit company without shareholders that manages YVR on a lease from Transport Canada.

Hankinson’s annual base salary was $267,300, plus annual short-term incentive up to $120,285 and annual long-term incentive up to $147,000. He also received $9,900-a-year for a car allowance plus insurance and fuel payments, employer RRSP/pension contributions and employer payment of MSP premiums.

Hankinson reported a total $494,745.02 compensation from YVR on his 2018 tax return.

Hankinson’s firing came a week-and-a-half before the airport authority launched a social media campaign to draft Vancouver actor Ryan “Deadpool” Reynolds as the airport spokesman.

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Bob Mackin A former Vancouver International Airport Authority

Bob Mackin

Rugby Canada wants a B.C. Supreme Court judge to quash the provincial ruling to unionize players from the national men’s sevens team.

Canada in action at the 2019 Canada Sevens in B.C. Place Stadium (Mackin)

The national governing body for rugby filed a petition Sept. 3, the day after Labour Day and just four days before Canada’s 15-aside plays a Rugby World Cup send-off match at B.C. Place Stadium.

In January, the B.C. Labour Relations Board made history when it certified the United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 as the bargaining agent for players on the senior men’s national sevens team, whose training base is in the Victoria suburb of Langford. Rugby Canada lost a bid for the LRB to reconsider the decision.

In its petition, Rugby Canada claims the ruling jeopardizes the structure of amateur athletics in Canada and could mean a Canadian team may someday miss an international tournament over a labour dispute.

“This is fundamentally contrary to the notion of amateur athletics, and inconsistent with the concept of employee as it is understood in labour relations statutes,” said the petition, filed by lawyer Peter Gall.

Gall wants a four-day hearing before a judge to argue that the labour board set a precedent whereby any amateur sports organization can become unionized and be governed by one the country’s 10 provincial labour boards.

Rugby Canada says it is established under federal law as a single national amateur sports organization, of which the sevens team is one part, and that the players are drawn from provincial member organizations. The team trains for part of the year in B.C., with players spending the rest of the year training or playing at national or international tournaments or in their home provinces. The one exception is the Canada Sevens tournament in March at B.C. Place, part of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Rugby Canada president Allen Vansen (Mackin)

“The regulation of the relationship between amateur athletes and national sports organizations like Rugby Canada is federal, by virtue of them being involved in trade and commerce that extends beyond the limits of a single province under [the Constitution Act of 1867],” the petition says.

Players receive $5,000 for appearing at the Canada Sevens, but only $400 for each international World Series stop and the Sevens World Cup and $250 for the Rugby Americas North and Rugby 7s World Cup qualifiers. For 2017-2018, Rugby Canada was allocated $288,000 from Sport Canada to the Men’s team, players received $900 or $1,500 monthly.

The financial support players receive from Sport Canada is not taxable, because they are not employees and are not subject to employment insurance, workers’ compensation or employment standards laws, the petition says. Rugby Canada receives funding from World Rugby, Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, provincial and municipal grants, sponsorships, donations and player registrations, as well as tickets and merchandise and rugby courses.

Rugby Canada has 30,000 registered participants and 45 people on the payroll in administrative, management or coaching positions.

Canada hosts the U.S. on Sept. 7 at B.C. Place Stadium in the final match before the World Cup in Japan, which begins Sept. 20.

The 2020 Canada Sevens is March 7 and 8 at B.C. Place.

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Bob Mackin Rugby Canada wants a B.C. Supreme

Bob Mackin

The month before Vancouver social media management company Hootsuite laid-off more than 100 workers, the CEO agreed to buy a British Properties mansion for more than $7 million.

Ryan Holmes (Hootsuite)

However, the transaction fell through and Ryan Holmes is suing the real estate agency and seller for full payment of the deposit.

The seller repudiated the contract, the purchaser accepted that repudiation,” according to the Sept. 3-filed B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit against Team 3000 Realty and seller Guo Zhu He. “Pursuant to the contract and the addendum, the full amount of the deposit is due and owing to the purchaser.”

The court filing alleges the March 9 contract said Guo agreed to sell 915 Groveland in West Vancouver for $7.08 million and Holmes paid a $354,000 deposit to Team 3000. The completion date was set for May 4 and the contract called for Guo to deliver to Holmes a statutory declaration of residency status as defined in the Income Tax Act.

“Thereafter whether the seller was or was not a non-resident pursuant to the Act became an issue,” said the court filing.  

915 Groveland (REW)

Completion was changed to July 30 and a clause required the seller to provide the buyer’s lawyer a clearance certificate or notarized declaration from the Canada Revenue Agency that the seller is a resident of Canada.

By July 23, seven days before closing, Guo did not provide the agreed documentation. A day later, Holmes considered the contract repudiated.

Team 3000 returned $226,335.50 of the deposit. Now Holmes wants a judge to order Team 3000 to release the remaining $87,664.50 and for Guo to pay the sum, plus interest and costs.

None of the allegations has been proven in court. The defendants have yet to file replies.

The property was assessed last year at $6.495 million, after reaching $8.083 million in 2017. The six-bedroom, seven-bathroom, custom-built mansion with an outdoor pool is now listed for $6.99 million.

Hootsuite laid-off 10% of its workforce at the end of April. In a statement at the time, Hootsuite said the changes were “in order to drive greater alignment with our growing company’s strategic priorities that best serve our customers.”

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Bob Mackin The month before Vancouver social media

Florence Mo Han Aw

Port Coquitlam city council voted unanimously to support Mayor Brad West’s efforts to stop the Union of B.C. Municipalities’ continual acceptance of the $6,000 sponsorship of the meeting by Vancouver’s Chinese consulate, and to host a “meeting and greeting” cocktail party during the convention on Sept. 25.

Scene from the 2017 UBCM party sponsored by China (Mackin)

West indicates that with Canada’s current tension over diplomacy and trade, as well as China’s atrocious human rights record, it would not be appropriate for Canadian politicians to take part in such exchanges, and that UBCM should maintain a discreet distance with the Chinese government. However, UBCM chair Arjun Singh states that the Chinese consulate-sponsored reception is to take place as scheduled.

As a citizen of Canada, I support Mayor West’s decision, for the following reasons.

Canada is a nation that operates on democratic principles, and lives by the principles of democracy, freedom, equality and the rule of law. China is one-party dictatorship that operates on principles contrary to universally accepted values. Activities hosted by the Canadian government should not accept sponsorship by governments that have opposing values.

Because of worsening relationship between Canada and China over the Meng Wanzhou (Huawei) incident, China has now illegally detained three Canadian citizens, British Columbia politicians should maintain a stance that maintains the dignity of our country, and decline to participate in such activities sponsored by the Chinese government.

The Chinese government’s $6,000 sponsorship of the aforementioned event, is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front (“Tong Zhan”) tactic. This tactic operates upon cultivating friendly voices, exchanges and contacts, sponsoring events, offering special interest, as well as providing funding to host foreign government officials, all in order to “soften” the will of such politicians, so that they would abandon their own principles and aid in any exchange with China. Canadian officials and politicians must understand that this is a political trap, and refuse to be a party to China’s United Front activities.

I am heartened by Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s decision not to participate in the aforementioned reception. I sincerely hope that many of UBCM, the mayors and council members of our municipalities would understand the real situation and motives of China, and turn down the $6,000 sponsorship.

  • Florence Mo Han Aw is the author of the 2012 memoir, My Time in Hong Kong’s Underground Communist Party.

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Florence Mo Han Aw Port Coquitlam city council

Bob Mackin

You have probably heard of the Georgie Awards, the annual Canadian Home Builders’ Association gala for the residential construction and renovation industry, named for Capt. George Vancouver.

Notorious Marine Crescent empty mansion (Judy Rudin)

theBreaker.news is planning an alternative called the Gregor Awards, to recognize outstanding achievement in dilapidated and empty housing.

The Gregors will be to the Georgies what the Razzies are to the Oscars. The namesake is the man who spent more consecutive years in the mayor’s office than anyone else, Gregor Robertson.

Remember him? Vision Vancouver’s cycling juice huckster who sold out the city to China. 

The first nominee in the category of best sign on the gate on the gate of a $7.05 million, 1937-built tudor-style mansion is the Judy Rudin-discovered “Disgraceful maintenance. This owner has no respect for his neighbours and even less for the neighbourhood.”

City hall most recently issued an “untidy premises order” in July of this year for the boarded-up 6570 Marine Crescent house and garden-gone-wild that is registered to absentee landlord Su Qun Mao.

Less than a kilometre away, two more Gregor Awards nominees.

In the category of most-expensive pile of year-old charred debris behind a fence, the nominee is 2250 Southwest Marine Drive.

The incident report from the July 29, 2018 fire, released by the Office of the Fire Commissioner after a freedom of information request by theBreaker.news, said the vacant, two-storey wood-framed house collapsed onto itself after heavy fire and smoke poured from all openings.

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

“Due to the intensity and progression of this fire it is determined to be an incendiary fire and suspicious in nature,” the report said.

As firefighters put-out hot spots, a city demolition company and building inspector were called. It was listed for $4.66 million by Sutton Group West Coast Realty’s Naomi Wang at the time of the fire. The property value dropped to $4.193 million, but Wang is now listing it for $4.388 million. Bargain!

Richmond is the home of the property’s registered owner Sihan Guo, whose No. 4 Road house is in the name of Yu Kuan Wang.

2250 SW Marine (Mackin)

More than a year later, according to a statement from Neal Wells of the city’s communications department, the city issued an order for the property owners to apply for a demolition permit to remove the debris and the building foundation.

“The city is in the process of reviewing the application and issuing the permit,” Wells said.

The house two doors down at 2230 Southwest Marine Dr. is a Gregor Awards dual nominee for most-expensive graffiti decoration and most-expensive wild urban blackberry farm.

The $5.47 million property is registered to Cheng Yu Li and Jian Ying Zhang, who are connected to an $8.2 million property on White Rock’s Marine Drive.

2230 SW Marine (Mackin)

“In August 2018 the city issued a 10-day notice to clean-up the property and remove debris from the yard,” Wells said. “With no response received from the owner, the city hired a contractor to board-up and clean the vacant property, which was completed on Sept. 12, 2018. In July 2019, the city issued an untidy premises order due to an overgrowth of vegetation and accumulation of debris in the yard. With no response received from the owner, the city has hired a contractor to clean the vacant property, which was completed on Aug. 27, 2019.”

Last month, the city also sent a letter to the property owner, requiring repair of a broken construction fence within a month.

“Should the property owner not comply, the city will hire a contractor to complete the work.” Contractor costs, Wells said, are billed back to the property owner.

Due to privacy concerns, the city doesn’t comment on individual Empty Homes Tax files, he said.

Do you have a nominee for the Gregor Awards? Click here and send photographs, descriptions and street addresses to theBreaker.news.
(Date and venue for the Gregor Awards ceremony is to be announced.)

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Bob Mackin You have probably heard of the

Surrey is forecast to someday overtake Vancouver as British Columbia’s most-populous city. It is the size of Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond combined. It is a place of contrasts, where the industrial and agricultural thrive and citizens live, work and play by the oceanfront and riverfront. 

Nestled among the lush, green farmland of Surrey, Peter Young is growing a revolution in portable and mobile broadcasting. Hubcast Media Productions is one of the modern companies that the Surrey Board of Trade showcased on a tour earlier this year.

Krown Gridiron Nation on TSN, produced at Hubcast Media in Surrey (Mackin)

Hubcast began from the demise of Shaw Media’s community access studio in Vancouver (which closed two years ago because of cutbacks) and is based on using the latest technology to cut costs and complexity. For example, Hubcast produces Vancouver Canadians game broadcasts for Sportsnet without a bulky production truck at Nat Bailey Stadium. It is also home of TSN’s Krown Gridiron Nation weekly college football show.

“We feel that we’re really using technology to give content access to more people, more producers, more independent creators,” Young said.

Take an audio tour through Hubcast on this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast. Plus commentaries and headlines from the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim. Compare what B.C. Attorney General David Eby said Aug. 27 with what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Aug. 29 about money laundering in B.C. And host Bob Mackin awards a virtual Nanaimo bar to a Downtown Eastside charity and its East Coast donor who are making a difference.

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Surrey is forecast to someday overtake Vancouver

Bob Mackin

Attorney General David Eby said Aug. 27 that he is concerned a corrupt B.C. government employee exploited Mexicans at Hastings Racecourse who are facing deportation after working illegally in the barns.

Hastings Racecourse backstretch, June 2018 (Mackin)

“For a lot of us when we think about people coming from countries where there are not a lot of opportunities, people are living in poverty, they’re coming to Canada and looking for a way to support families at home, they are extremely vulnerable,” Eby told reporters.

More than two dozen were arrested in a Canada Border Services Agency-led dawn raid at the Hastings Racecourse stables on Aug. 19. Seven were eventually sent to the Immigration and Refugee Board for hearings. Documents released by the IRB show that one came to Canada for boxing and wound-up at the East Vancouver track, despite no prior horse-minding experience. Another was a machinery design manager looking to make better money. Most of them lived in dorms at the stables.

All seven were paid low by Canadian standards to clean and feed horses. Several reported that they paid a crooked official from the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch in a scheme to hide the fact they were not legally allowed to work in Canada. That worker, Eby said, is suspended with pay, pending the investigation. Eby said he was concerned with corruption at Hastings while in opposition; BC Liberal minister Mike de Jong didn’t act on his concerns. The current investigation stems from a whistleblower who contacted Eby last fall.

According to CBSA documents examined by theBreaker.news, only one of the seven had a serious prior run-in with the law.

The Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch licence for Adan Cruz Villegas (GPEB/IRB)

Adan Cruz Villegas, 27, arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Feb. 13 and applied for a GPEB licence as an owner on March 10 — even though he would work in the stables on horses owned by others. Villegas sought to extend his stay in Canada on July 23. He was paid $500 to $700 cash every two weeks, but claimed to not know his employer.

In his interview with a CBSA officer, Villegas admitted to spending approximately three months in a Mexican jail after a robbery arrest. He claimed to have been released with no charge. The CBSA officer asked him about visible tattoos — three small dots on his left hand and a crown behind his right ear. He denied gang significance and stated he had never been affiliated with a gang. The customs officer’s report said the three small dots mean “mi vida loca” [my crazy life] and the five-point crown is often associated with the Almighty Latin Kings Nation gang. 

Oscar David Tapia Fernandez, 33, did have a valid work permit under trainer Craig McPherson through the end of the year. But to be a jockey, not a groom. He admitted he had come to Canada since 2013 under the guise of being a jockey in order to obtain a work permit and had been a jockey in Mexico, but “now I am too big,” Tapia said.

Jose De Jesus Gonzalez Vazquez, 25, and Oscar Miguel Navarro Caravantes, 34, both worked for trainer Phil Hall. Caravantes said he was paid by cheque every 15 days at a rate of $80 per day. He worked six-to-seven hours a day, six-to-seven days a week and shared an apartment in the West End with friends, including another undocumented worker. Caravantes had entered Canada in March, declaring he would stay 20 days as a visitor. Vasquez was also paid by cheque every two weeks, at a rate of $75 a day, for working five hours a day, seven days a week at Hastings.

Back home in Mexico, Vazquez was a machinery designer in charge of production workers.

“I was thinking about going back to Mexico to my job, but when I saw the opportunity here to make more money than in Mexico,” said Vazquez, who came north in April, in a CBSA interview transcript. “I make good money in my job but not like here.”

Hastings Racecourse backstretch, June 2018 (Mackin)

Juan Daniel Bedolla Orozco, 26, also known as “El Tornado,” entered in April in Montreal and had plans to box in Montreal and Edmonton. He got a job as a groomer at Hastings for $80 a day, six days a week.

“When asked why he wanted to stay in Canada, subject stated that he really likes it here and decided to stay, despite having a good job and wife in Mexico,” said the CBSA report.

Brandon Daniel Carrion Gomez, 25, came in June and had been working as a groom for trainer Pat Jarvis, for $70-a-day, five days a week. He had paid $1,000 for his GPEB licence to the person who took his photograph, the testimony said. Gomez said a friend in Mexico, named Moises, offered him the job.

Another Jarvis employee, Javier Olalde Angel, was celebrating his 58th birthday on the day of the raid. He had been coming to Canada since 2007 as a groom. His latest stint began after he arrived in April with an invitation letter from his son’s Port Coquitlam fiancé. Angel was paid $1,100 every two weeks in cash after paying $600 for this GPEB identification card that bore the name of his son, a permanent resident of Canada.

The scheme was described by one of the agents, inland enforcement officer Danielle Jensen. In her notes, she wrote that GPEB identified nine registrations in which the GPEB inspector had subbed photographs on registration cards so that the person whose face appears on the registration card is not registered with GPEB at all.

She found that a trainer at the race track paid $1,500 for two Mexicans to be registered by GPEB and that they suspect the GPEB inspector was receiving remuneration for the fraud.

“Through their investigation, GPEB identified an inspector at Hastings Racecourse who they believe is engaging in fraud,” Jensen wrote. “Specifically, foreign workers are presenting themselves to this GPEB inspector as horse owners [which exempts them from work permit requirements] on their applications for registration.”

“The GPEB inspector submits their application for registration via GOS [gaming online system] and they are being approved as owners. Upon receipt of approval, the GPEB inspector prints them a registration card that lists the foreign worker’s job title as an owner. On a subsequent day, that same GPEB inspector is going back into GOS and changing the foreign worker’s job title from owner to the job title that actually reflects the work they are going to be doing at the racetrack, such as groom, which is a job that requires a work permit.”

David Milburn, president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of B.C., said not all trainers employ foreign workers and some would have been employing foreign workers for the first time.

theBreaker.news asked Milburn whether the trainers should have done due diligence to determine whether the Mexicans were permitted to work in Canada, rather than deferring to GPEB. He said the application for a gaming worker licence is a private matter between any potential employee and GPEB.

Hastings Racecourse, June 2018 (Mackin)

“We rely on the regulator and the regulator has a job to do and the regulator determines solely who should and shouldn’t be licensed,” Milburn said. “Going forward we’ll respond as we learn more about this. We don’t have all the facts right now.”

In a chapter from his second report about money laundering in B.C., Peter German acknowledged the sport of kings has attracted an eclectic audience and unsavoury criminal element at Hastings — from petty criminals who find menial work to corrupt race course employees and officials to criminals engaged in sophisticated money making schemes. Hastings is city-owned and also includes a casino, but it is leased to Great Canadian Gaming Corp. The trainers are not Great Canadian employees. 

In 2017, the GPEB Racing Unit registered 679 horse racing workers and made 104 rulings, including infractions committed during a race (50), inappropriate behaviour in the back stretch (20) and drug or alcohol violations involving a horse or worker (14). German’s report described the 2002 murder of a Hastings horse trainer and his girlfriend, whose bodies were found in the trunk of a car. Five years later, a former jockey’s agent was convicted of two counts of first degree murder related to a drug operation.

Over the last decade, German’s report said, Vancouver Police Department investigated 61 incidents, including three fraud complaints, “in which suspects presented fake identification, or identification in another person’s name.”

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Bob Mackin Attorney General David Eby said Aug.

Bob Mackin (Updated Sept. 1)

Representatives of British Columbia’s head of state and head of government tell theBreaker.news that they will be no-shows when the Chinese consulate hosts events to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China in September.

China consul general Tong Xiaoling, left, and Premier John Horgan on Feb. 4, 2019 in Richmond (BC Gov)

Staff of Consul General Tong Xiaoling have organized a Sept. 20 dinner at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver and reception on Sept. 24 at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria. Lt. Gov. Janet Austin and Premier John Horgan were invited in July to be the Chinese government’s “guests of honour,” according to email obtained under freedom of information. Various municipal officials have also been invited.

The events are scheduled for the lead-up to China’s Oct. 1 National Day, amid the diplomatic rift between China and Canada sparked by last December’s arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver International Airport and the retaliatory jailing of diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor in China. Meng was released on $10 million bail and lives under curfew at her posh Shaughnessy mansion. The two Canadian Michaels are in a Chinese jail, isolated from lawyers and relatives.

In email obtained by theBreaker.news, Manjit Khaira in the B.C. government protocol office told Chinese consular official Xintao Zheng that Horgan would be unavailable Sept. 24 because of the UBCM convention in Vancouver. Khaira suggested it would be more feasible for the consulate to invite Horgan for Sept. 20 and Austin for Sept. 24.

NDP trade minister Bruce Ralston (right) and Chinese diplomat Kong Weiwei at the 2017 UBCM cocktail party sponsored by China (Mackin)

Rachel Rilkoff, the communications and events officer at Government House, said by email to theBreaker.news that Austin would not attend either of the events. “Her Honour is not able to attend due to prior commitments in her ceremonial and constitutional calendar,” Rilkoff said.

George Smith, spokesman for the Office of the Premier, said Horgan is not attending for scheduling reasons. Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology Bruce Ralston and Minister of State for Trade George Chow are slated to attend the Vancouver event on the government’s behalf.

Forests minister Doug Donaldson cancelled the China leg of his trade mission last December after news broke about Meng’s arrest; Chow was already in China on what was officially called a personal visit, although he met with Communist Party officials in Guangzhou and discussed plans for a Chinese-Canadian museum in the Vancouver area.

Horgan did not visit China on his March 2019 Asian trade mission, but he did celebrate Lunar New Year at a Richmond banquet with Tong on Feb. 4. Prior to her November 2017 appointment as Xi Jinping’s Vancouver-based envoy, Tong was the deputy commissioner in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Hong Kong.

The consulate’s events are planned for the same week that Meng’s extradition case is in B.C. Supreme Court and the Union of B.C. Municipalities meets at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

PoCo Mayor Brad West (Twitter)

The consulate has paid $6,000 to sponsor a Sept. 25 cocktail party for local government officials at the UBCM meeting, immediately after the B.C. government reception. Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West has led a campaign against the UBCM selling sponsorship to the government of China.

“I have an issue with the UBCM accepting cash for access from any foreign government, period,” West said in a June interview. “The fact that it’s happening with the government of China is in many respects even worse because of that government’s atrocious human rights record. We’re talking about a government that has up to a million of its people interned [in Xinjiang] for being Muslims, you have the Canadians [Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor] being detained, and to me that makes it even worse.”

Among those who have said they are not attending China’s UBCM reception are Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, Delta Mayor George Harvie and Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie plan to attend. 

Since West spoke out in June, the Hong Kong pro-democracy mass protests became a dominant international news story. Supporters in Vancouver were taunted by mobs of flag and sign-waving and luxury car-driving pro-China counter-protesters in mid-August, including outside a church near city hall

Austin and Horgan are hosting their own reception during a Sept. 29-Oct. 2 tour of Southern Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland for the heads of B.C. consular posts. Ralston is to be involved in various components of the mission, which will promote B.C.’s technology, energy, seafood, aerospace and forestry industries.

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Bob Mackin (Updated Sept. 1) Representatives of British