Recent Posts
Connect with:
Friday / April 4.
  • No products in the cart.
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 189)

Bob Mackin

For Gregor Robertson, his last official appointment as Mayor of Vancouver was spent in the city hall departments that benefitted most. 

Robertson’s calendar, released to theBreaker under freedom of information, shows a “Comms and Sustainability visit” at 2 p.m. on Nov. 2. 

During Vision Vancouver rule at 12th and Cambie, which began in December 2008, the communications and sustainability departments went from single digits to double digits in staff and they spent millions on crafting the thrice-elected mayor’s image as a champion of environmental causes. 

Gregor Robertson (right) and several ex-Vision politicians at the party’s Nov. 2 farewell. (Mackin)

That Nov. 2 calendar did not mention his nighttime engagement, Vision Vancouver’s invitation-only farewell gala at the Seaforth Armoury. 

Earlier that day, Robertson attended his last photo ops/news conferences: announcing an agreement for 650 non-market units to be built on Concord Pacific’s long vacant six False Creek sites and the FuturePLAY IT education partnership at the Lord Strathcona Elementary School library. The latter featured BroadBandTV CEO Shahrzad Rafati. Rafati was seen with Robertson at a voting station on Oct. 20, more than two months after Robertson proclaimed her birthday as Shahrzad Rafati day in Vancouver. 

Robertson’s last official interview was with Frances Bula of the Globe and Mail on Nov. 1, the day after a “thank-you tour” of 288 East Hastings. B.C. Housing paid $7.07 million for the land from Wall Financial in 2016 and loaned the Vision Vancouver and BC Liberal donor almost $36 million to develop 104 subsidized and 68 market rentals on the edge of Chinatown.

Robertson held a “VMO (Vancouver Mayor’s Office)” Vet Party on Oct. 30 and team photo after his last city council meeting. 

On Oct. 19, election eve, he met with cycling marketer Chris Bruntlett and hosted the “city manager’s performance review results” in the mayor’s office. 

I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that Bruntlett said “thank you for building so many bike lanes” (or words to that effect) and that Johnston passed his performance review. With flying colours.

Robertson met Telus CEO Darren Entwistle on Oct. 18 before attending a “Southeast False Creek and Olympic Village celebration,” hosted by Bob Rennie at the Tap and Barrel. Rennie, a former fundraiser for Vision and the BC Liberals, was the marketer for the Millennium Development project that went into receivership in November 2010. Two years earlier, leaked city council documents outlined the $100 million bailout for Millennium after Wall Street financier Fortress was shocked by the global credit crunch. The 2008 scandal paved the way for the  first Vision Vancouver majority. 

City hall’s real estate general manager Bill Aujla quit last summer to join the Aquilini Investment Group. Aujla’s Sept. 21 farewell party was hosted by Terra Breads in the Olympic Village, across the street from the remaining condo units scooped-up by the Aquilinis in 2014. 

Robertson also met Jim Pattison and his right-hand man, former B.C. Premier Glen Clark, on Oct. 15. The pro-Beijing mayor attended the Sept. 28 People’s Republic of China consulate’s national day reception at the Westin Bayshore. 

In with the new

After Stewart’s Nov. 5 swearing-in and inaugural council meeting, he joined council cohorts for more orientation sessions the next day and sat down for a formal meeting on Nov. 7 with Robertson-hired city manager Sadhu Johnston before dropping-in at the Chinatown Foundation’s Autumn Gala. 

Stewart flew to Victoria Nov. 8 to meet with B.C. NDP cabinet ministers Judy Darcy (mental health and addictions), Katrina Chen (childcare), Selina Robinson (municipal affairs and housing), Carole James (finance) and Claire Trevena (transportation). 

Back in Vancouver Nov. 9, an interview with RedFM, caucus meetings with NPA, Green and OneCity councillors and congratulatory calls to North Vancouver City Mayor Linda Buchanan and Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie. 

Mayor Kennedy Stewart (Mackin)

Nov. 10 included social engagements: Telus Night of a Thousand Stars Gala at Parq casino and a Floata Restaurant gala celebrating Jenny Kwan’s 25 years in politics. Nov. 11 was Remembrance Day, with observations at the Victory Square cenotaph and Chinatown monument, as well as a tour of Royal Canadian Legions. 

Stewart had a Nov. 16 phone call with Desmond Cole, the Toronto activist who alleged racism when he was stopped and asked for identification by a Vancouver Police officer while smoking near Stanley Park.

Nov. 18 was the grand reopening of the fire damaged Ross Street Sikh temple, speaking engagement at the Housing Central Conference in the Wall Centre, phone call with Johnston and the ceremonial tipoff at the Vancouver Showcase NCAA basketball tournament. 

He lunched Nov. 19 with city councillors from 1986, which included ex-mayor Mike Harcourt and Libby Davies, met with Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow and attended a meeting about the Berkeley Towers renoviction. 

Stewart spoke to Unifor on Nov. 21 and the WE Day charity concert at Rogers Arena. Two days later, on Nov. 23, he met with Barrett-era NDP cabinet minister Bob Williams, Coromandel Properties’ Jerry Zhong and Ed May and Jameson Developments’ Anthony and Tom Pappajohn. 

Another day, another congratulations for a mayor of a neighbouring municipality. Nov. 28 was for North Vancouver District’s Mike Little. Stewart also met with Vancouver Board of Trade CEO Iain Black and stakeholder relations director David van Hemmen and, surprise, former Coun. Raymond Louie. 

Sources have told theBreaker that Louie was spotted several times at city hall and is acting as a transition advisor to the new mayor. 

Nov. 28 also included an interview and photo shoot for Monocle Magazine and a meeting with Bhalwinder S. Waraich, Carol Both and Don Munton of Sunset Community Association. 

Former Simon Fraser University professor Stewart met with his former boss, SFU president Andrew Petter and Joanne Curry, before a meeting with a familiar face from his days in Parliament, Liberal Transport minister Marc Garneau.

Stewart’s chief of staff, Neil Monckton, did not respond for comment. 

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

2018-581 – res by on Scribd

2018-594 – res by on Scribd

Bob Mackin For Gregor Robertson, his last official

Bob Mackin

Gary Lenz, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the British Columbia Legislature, charged taxpayers almost as much for travel expenses for six months of 2018 as he did for the entire 2017 fiscal year. 

But the interim replacement for Clerk Craig James is refusing to provide details.

Lenz and James were suspended with pay on Nov. 20 by the Legislature, pending an investigation by the RCMP and two special prosecutors. Both men deny any wrongdoing and have hired lawyers and a public relations agency to demand their jobs back. 

Lenz filed claims for $20,248 during the first six months of the 2018 fiscal year, compared to $23,606 for all of last year, when he was paid $218,167 in salary.

James was on track to meeting or beating his 2017 expense tally before Nov. 20. For the period of April 1-Sept. 30, he claimed $33,892 for domestic and international travel, accommodation, meals and per diems. In 2017, he racked-up $51,649 in expenses on top of his $347,090 salary. 

Craig James (left) and Gary Lenz (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association)

A lion’s share of James’s expenses for the first and second quarters of 2018 were in the category of out-of-province/out-of-country travel ($23,719). Lenz billed $14,396 for travel outside B.C.

They also claimed a combined $6,587 in per diems. The standard daily expense allowance is $61, but per diems for travel outside Canada and the continental U.S. are reimbursed based on the National Joint Council federal public sector formula, which can be double or triple the daily domestic allowance, depending on the destination. 

The Legislature is not covered by the freedom of information law, unlike government ministries and agencies. It publishes a basic summary of expenses for the top four officials. The report for the second quarter was published Dec. 14.

At the Dec. 6 Legislative Assembly Management Committee meeting, Speaker Darryl Plecas said that, shortly after his September 2017 appointment, serious concerns about the integrity of the Legislature were brought to him. He called for a forensic audit of the offices of James and Lenz.

“You will get every detail of how much I spent. You want full disclosure. The public deserves full disclosure. Boy, are they going to get it,” Plecas told the committee. “I would say this — one more point I want to make to emphasize how important this is. I am completely confident — completely confident — that those audits will show that we have a lot of work to do here. If the outcome of those audits did not outrage the public, did not outrage taxpayers, did not make them throw up, I will resign as Speaker, and [aide Alan] Mullen will resign as well.”

Dermod Travis of IntegrityBC said a forensic audit is not going to be fast. “We’re into something that’s going to be a long road.” The committee’s next meeting is Dec. 19.

Spending questions unanswered

theBreaker sent a series of questions about James and Lenz’s travel expenses to Acting Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd on Dec. 17. Several times in her reply, Ryan-Lloyd repeated the phrase “I am not in a position to provide the details that you are seeking.” She pointed theBreaker to generic expense policies on the Legislature’s website. 

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (left) and Darryl Plecas (Twitter)

Ryan-Lloyd also said she was “not able to confirm” if a spouse or child accompanied James or Lenz during their trips in 2018. She said it is not the Legislature’s policy to reimburse travel costs for any accompanying persons. 

Ryan-Lloyd also refused to answer questions about the $1,168 in Lenz’s miscellaneous expenses column for the second quarter. The miscellaneous expense category is supposed to cover conference fees, medical insurance, immunizations and business meeting expenses. 

“I can confirm that those expenses may not necessarily be for goods and services,” she wrote. 

Ryan-Lloyd, however, admitted that the Clerk’s office does not have a policy about collecting frequent flyer points. By contrast, MLAs cannot collect Air Miles or other airline bonus points on government-issued credit cards. The rule for MLAs states that when they accumulate bonus points on their personal cards from business travel, the points must not be used for any purpose other than legislative business, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association travel or as a donation to a recognized charity. 

In response to follow-up questions, including one about what policy allowed her to avoid answering questions, Ryan-Lloyd said she is committed to transparency and accountability of public spending. “Due to recent circumstances, I am in the process of seeking legal advice regarding matters related to some of your questions,” she wrote. “I will certainly have a second look at your request once I am in a position to do so.”

Travis said the scandal at the Legislature only serves as a reminder why the freedom of information law must be expanded. 

“It’s a problem that a number of legislatures have had in Canada, not to this degree, but the common lesson learned was you cannot have a legislature operation that has no accountability in it,” he said. 

“The moment you leave that idea of having accountability behind, you end up ultimately, over time, with people feeling they’re entitled to their entitlements.”

London calling, Guangdong goodwill

Calls and email to James and Lenz’s lawyers, Mark Andrews and Gavin Cameron of the Vancouver firm Fasken, were not answered.

Ryan-Lloyd refused to break-down the costs for James and Lenz’s trips, but said their costs were similar to those for independent Abbotsford South MLA Plecas and deputy speaker Raj Chouhan, the NDP MLA in Burnaby-Edmonds. Unlike Legislature executives, MLAs’ receipts are published quarterly. For the first half of 2018, Plecas claimed $26,425 in expenses and Chouhan $11,852 under the column titled speaker-authorized travel. Their travel was commonly booked from James’s office.

James, Plecas and Chouhan travelled business class June 9-18 from Vancouver to Hong Kong to visit Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan, China. The purpose of the trip was to sign a letter of intent to conduct goodwill exchanges between the B.C. Legislature and the Standing Committee of Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress. 

Guangdong government official Yan Jingping visited Plecas at the Legislature on May 29 after the 9th Conference of the World Guangdong Community Federation at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

B.C. Legislature clerk Craig James from Instagram family photographs at Windsor Castle (left, 2016) and Buckingham Palace (2015).

Plecas also traveled with James and Lenz Aug. 1-13 to London, England for a business continuity, cybersecurity and disaster preparedness conference involving the United Kingdom’s MI5 Security Service. [A photograph of James’s wife Christine and her son from a previous relationship, shot on London’s Oxford Street, was published Aug. 12 on an Instagram account that shows James on 2015 and 2016 trips to London.]

Plecas’s other trip, Aug. 26-Sept. 2, took him to the National Legislative Services and Security Association training conference at the Virginia state capitol in Richmond, Va. Plecas was a speaker on Aug. 30, the fifth and final day of the conference, about government leadership. 

theBreaker began asking questions about spending by Legislature officers before the scandal erupted. On Nov. 19, Plecas referred questions about costs of the China trip to James, who theBreaker had already asked for comment. James did not respond. 

James was escorted out of the Legislature during the middle of the next day.

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

Bob Mackin Gary Lenz, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the

Bob Mackin

What was George Chow, British Columbia’s Minister of State for Trade, doing in China while a diplomatic row erupted? 

Staff of the NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview aren’t talking, but Chow posed for a photo at the Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Affairs Office on Dec. 7. It was published on the organization’s website Dec. 10, which was, coincidentally, United Nations Human Rights Day. 

One of the photographs shows Chow sitting at a table where both the People’s Republic of China and Communist Party flags are displayed. Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Affairs Office is part of the wider United Front Work Department, a controversial Chinese government program aimed at promoting Xi Jinping and his policies and influencing foreign governments. 

B.C. NDP minster of state George Chow (second from right) meeting Guangzhou Communist officials (People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality)

Chow’s meeting in Guangzhou happened after news broke Dec. 5 that Canadian police arrested Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver International Airport on request of American authorities who want to try her on fraud charges. Meng was released on bail Dec. 11 and awaits extradition proceedings in the new year.  

Chow was with former Chinatown Business Improvement Area director Ko Man Chow at the Guangzhou meeting. They met Feng Guangjun, the office’s director. A translation indicated Feng made a presentation about “studying and implementing” Xi Jinping thought and “grasping” opportunities related to Xi’s massive One Belt and One Road highways and ports construction program. Chow spoke about preparations for a Canadian Chinese Museum, which was eventually publicized in a Dec. 14 B.C. government news release. 

Brad Spencer, a spokesman for the international trade ministry, told theBreaker on Dec. 13: “The minister is on a personal trip to China and not available for an interview.” 

Spencer did not respond to a follow-up email asking for more details about the costs and outcomes of Chow’s trip, and whether Chow is still in China.  China arrested businessman Michael Spavor and diplomat Michael Kovrig in retaliation for Meng’s detention.

Chow was on Premier John Horgan’s trade mission to China earlier this year and was front and centre with Horgan at May’s Vancouver-hosted 9th Conference of the World Guangdong Community Federation. The senior Chinese government official at the latter event was Su Bo, vice-minister of United Front. In June, Chow was among cabinet members who hosted a 24-person Chinese government entourage led by Wang Chen, a member of Xi’s powerful Politburo and vice-chair of the National People’s Congress standing committee. 

Horgan and Chinese Politburo member Wang Chen inJune 2018 (Rich Lam/BC Gov)

On Dec. 9, Jobs, Trade and Technology Minister Bruce Ralston announced forests minister Doug Donaldson had cancelled the China leg of an Asia trade mission. Industry representatives carried-on without Donaldson. The news release made no mention that another member of cabinet, Chow, was in China. Chow’s itinerary has not been released, but he is scheduled to host the first of two holiday open houses in his South Vancouver riding on Dec. 18 at the River District Neighbourhood Centre. 

Chow was in his second term as a city councillor in pro-Beijing Mayor Gregor Robertson’s Vision Vancouver caucus in 2010 when Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Richard Fadden warned in a CBC interview that a foreign government was influencing unidentified municipal politicians in British Columbia and cabinet ministers in at least two provinces.

Chow was elected an MLA in 2017, knocking-off BC Liberal attorney general Suzanne Anton. 

It is not the first time that a B.C. trade minister’s China visit has sparked concern. 

BC Liberal Richmond Centre MLA Teresa Wat was hospitalized in late August 2016 with a hip injury during a visit to Zhuhai, China. She did not respond to queries from reporters seeking to learn the cause of the injury. 

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

Bob Mackin What was George Chow, British Columbia’s

Bob Mackin

Woe Christmas tree, woe Christmas tree. How muddy were thy circumstances.

Almost exactly five years before he was suspended, British Columbia Legislature clerk Craig James found himself at the centre of a seasonal scandal.

Christmas tree farmer Mike Fleming in 2016, three years after an American multinational company took the rotunda space that his trees occupied for four decades (Twitter)

Proud B.C. tree farmer Mike Fleming rolled-up to the Rockpile (as the 121-year-old Parliament Buildings are nicknamed) on Nov. 29, 2013 to deliver his annual gift to the people of the province: a majestic, 27-foot Douglas fir from his Saanichton Christmas Tree Farm. 

A CBC report at the time quoted Fleming as “speechless” after he entered the building to find a tree had already been erected in the rotunda. Fleming told the Times-Colonist he was “completely taken aback.” 

 “After 40 years of putting a tree in the Legislature, donating it and a tremendous amount of work, I’m very disappointed,” Fleming said. “Nobody had informed me from the Speaker’s office.”

The company that supplied the 2013 tree was Bartlett Tree Experts, a multinational headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with 100 locations across the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Ontario and B.C. 

Fleming’s tree was eventually erected behind the Legislature library. James said it was Speaker Linda Reid’s idea to put a tree on the exterior of the complex, to supplement the one in the rotunda. James admitted that nobody thought of telling Fleming before he arrived for his annual special delivery.

“I guess there was some miscommunication or non-communication and to that effect I certainly have apologized,” James told CBC. 

The Legislature’s list of suppler payments shows $36,886 was paid to Bartlett for the year ended March 31, 2014. Bartlett billed another $33,101 the following fiscal year. The list of suppliers does not provide spending details and the Legislature is not covered by the freedom of information law. 

Fleming died of a heart attack on Oct. 27, just shy of his 66th birthday. He was busy harvesting Christmas trees in the Kootenays. He kept delivering trees every Christmas. His staff kept the tradition going. The Legislature tweeted a picture of the 2018 tree’s rotunda installation on Dec. 3.

Linda Reid (left) and Craig James (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association)

James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz were suspended indefinitely with pay on Nov. 20 by the Legislature because of an RCMP investigation with two special prosecutors. 

Sources tell theBreaker that Mounties are probing a corruption allegation. James and Lenz hired the Fasken law firm and Peak Communicators crisis communications company to deny wrongdoing and ask for reinstatement. That is unlikely to come, as NDP and Green Legislative Assembly Management Committee members vowed not to interfere with the police investigation. 

Speaker Darryl Plecas emphatically told the Dec. 6 LAMC meeting that he detected serious problems shortly after he was appointed in September 2017. He vowed to quit if the results of a forensic audit do not outrage taxpayers.

“I felt a great duty to safeguard the integrity of this institution and be very mindful about why we’re all here,” Plecas told the meeting. “That’s to make sure that public dollars are spent appropriately.”

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

Bob Mackin Woe Christmas tree, woe Christmas tree.

From his home near London, England, former Reuters foreign correspondent and fraud investigator Peter Humphrey has watched the Meng Wanzhou saga develop with great interest. 

“The arrest sounds like it is based on very black and white information that has been gathered after a very long, professional investigation,” Humphrey told theBreaker.news Podcast host Bob Mackin. “The fact that Canada has released her on bail is really a very, very good sign that Canada is a country under the rule of law, in great contrast to all the scare stories that we hear in China.”

Peter Humphrey survived two years of torture in a Shanghai jail.

Huawei CFO Meng is accused of fraud by the United States for allegedly tricking banks to do business with an arm of the Chinese telecom giant in Iran. Meng will face extradition hearings in the new year. China retaliated by jailing Canadian businessman Michael Spavor and diplomat Michael Kovrig in Beijing.

Meng was freed on $10 million bail Dec. 11 by a B.C. Supreme Court judge. She surrendered her passports, is subject to a curfew, must wear a GPS anklet and can only travel within parts of Vancouver, Richmond and the North Shore with the security team that she must fund. 

“It’s also a marked contrast to the barbaric manner in which I and my wife [Yu Yingzeng] were treated,” Humphrey said. “We were never bailed. I had prostate cancer, they knew, they didn’t want to admit it and tell me, and I was unable to get any medical treatment until I was released after two years in captivity. My wife had a kidney disease, same thing.”

Humphrey and Yu were charged in 2013 of illegally acquiring personal information of Chinese and convicted in 2014, after forced, false confessions on state TV. They were freed in 2015 due to international pressure.

“[The Communist Party of China] can do what they like. It’s not rule of law in China, it’s rule by law. That means the law is used as a toy or a big stick, held by those in power to bash the people that they don’t like.”

Listen to the full interview with Humphrey on this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast. Humphrey has complained to the U.K.’s broadcast regulator to ban China’s state broadcasters CCTV and CGTN because they participate in human rights abuses. Specifically by broadcasting forced, false confessions, like the one that he endured. 

Also on this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, highlights of the Transparency International Canada Vancouver Day of Action. 

On Dec. 13, Transparency International Canada published the groundbreaking Western Canada Corruption Barometer. Host Bob Mackin moderated a panel discussion about the findings with the study authors, University of B.C. Okanagan professor Mike Zajko and lawyer Daniela Chimisso dos Santos. 

Dec. 13-released Western Canada Corruption Barometer (TI Canada)

In B.C., 26% of respondents saw the oil and gas sector as “extremely corrupt.” In Greater Vancouver, 37% called the real estate sector “extremely corrupt.”

Dos Santos, who focused on the extractive sector, found few of the 100 oil, gas and mining executives interviewed believe corruption is a problem. Few had heard about the 2015 Extractive Sector Transparency Measurement Act.

Hear Zajko and Dos Santos present more of their findings, plus commentaries. 

Click below or go to iTunes and subscribe

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

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

theBreaker.news Podcast
theBreaker.news Podcast
theBreaker.news Podcast: After Huawei exec's Vancouver bail, Shanghai jail survivor speaks out
Loading
/

From his home near London, England, former

Bob Mackin

Western Canadians sense the most corruption among federal and provincial politicians and their parties, according to a survey released Dec. 13.

Transparency International Canada’s first Western Canada Corruption Barometer also found the public has more faith in the media than governments to root-out corruption. 

Transparency International Canada report authors Mike Zajko (left) and Daniela Chimisso dos Santos

“In short, citizens feel the social contract is broken,” said Transparency International Canada’s chair Paul Lalonde and executive director James Cohen. “Respondents to the survey had low levels of expectations in the government’s ability to fight corruption. The anger that can stem from mistrust of public institutions needs to be acknowledged and addressed through responsive public policy and improvements to transparency and accountability in public institutions.”

The report, by University of British Columbia Okanagan professor Mike Zajko, analyzed the results of an August Leger poll of 1,207 people in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The top three definitions of corruption among respondents were self-interest over public service (31%); abuse of power (21%); and bribes and kickbacks (19%). Near the bottom of the list were money laundering (2%); tax schemes (1%) and insider information (1%). 

A slim majority (51%) perceive corruption to be a major problem, with 84% willing to report corruption and 54% willing to spread information on social media. 

The media and non-governmental organizations were each trusted by 22% to fight corruption. Government (14%) and the private sector (6%) were least trustworthy.

Media coverage was a key source of information about corruption, though corruption ranked behind high prices, poverty, environmental damage, employment and security among major concerns.

“Western Canadians are exposed to media coverage of corruption occurring at the federal and provincial levels, and recall fewer stories concerning municipal government, which accounts for some of the difference in perceptions of corruption among these sectors.”

Perceptions also varied around the region. In B.C., 26% of respondents saw the oil and gas sector as “extremely corrupt,” compared to 19% in Alberta. In Greater Vancouver, 37% called the real estate sector “extremely corrupt,” versus 15% elsewhere in Western Canada.

Despite public outrage related to the intersection of high real estate prices, the opioid epidemic and casino money laundering, B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan has been noncommittal about ordering a made-in-B.C. judicial inquiry into corruption. During the NDP’s 2017 policy convention, members of his own party voted for an anti-corruption probe similar to Quebec’s Charbonneau commission.

A parallel survey of 100 oil, gas and mining executives found 63% do not consider corruption to be a big problem. They pointed to employees breaking rules as the most-common type of corruption. Like the general public, extractive industry executives considered government corruption-fighting efforts unsuccessful. 

(TI Canada)

“Even though respondents do not believe corruption is a problem, executives acknowledge that the industry is marred with quid pro quo favours, and ‘friends of friends’ seem to have an advantage,” found author Daniela Chimisso dos Santos of Invenient Solutions Consulting.

Dos Santos was surprised that none of the executives interviewed knew about the Extractive Sector Transparency Measurement Act. The 2015 law requires reporting payments of $100,000 or more by Canadian oil, gas and mining companies to government-related individuals or entities with fines up to $250,000 per day of non-compliance. The law was expanded in 2017 to include payments to indigenous governments, though companies are not required to disclose all terms of agreements made with indigenous governments. 

“As both the oil and gas and mining industries are struggling to recover from a long-bust period, corruption risk has taken a back seat to problems such as market volatility and the increase in environmental regulations,” dos Santos concluded.

The Western Canadian Corruption Barometer was released to coincide with TI Canada’s Dec. 13 Vancouver Day of Dialogue, featuring a keynote speech by Attorney General David Eby. 

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

Bob Mackin Western Canadians sense the most corruption

Bob Mackin

The mother in Vancouver’s ultimate astronaut family is now grounded until further notice. 

Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is the daughter of the telecom giant’s multibillionaire founder, was freed from jail Dec. 11 after a British Columbia Supreme Court judge set bail at $10 million and ruled she must live in her $5.6 million Dunbar vacation home with an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. 

Meng, a resident of Shenzhen, China, handed-over her China and Hong Kong passports, and is restricted to travel within Vancouver, Richmond and North and West Vancouver.

Meng’s lawyer, David J. Martin, said she wants to be with her husband and daughter, read a novel, and apply to study for a doctorate at University of British Columbia’s business school. Meng will return to court on Feb. 6 to set a date to contest a bid by the United States to extradite her for a trial on fraud charges. Through Martin, Meng claimed she is innocent and vowed that she would not violate the judge’s bail order, because that would embarrass her father, Ren Zhengfei, Huawei and China.

The $5.6 million 28th Avenue house where Meng Wanzhou must live while she awaits the United States extradition application. (Mackin)

The oral decision by Justice William Ehrcke was greeted with clapping from Meng’s supporters, mainly Chinese immigrants and visitors who sat across the aisle of the complex’s biggest courtroom from reporters and associates of Meng. (Update: the written version of Ehrcke’s order was published Dec. 10. Read it, along with key exhibits from the United States and Meng’s lawyer, below.)

Outside the courthouse, some of the supporters displayed Chinese flags and signs reading “We Love Huawei” and “Free Ms. Meng” in front of cameras. 

Four Chinese-Canadians who are Vancouver residents came forward overnight, together pledging $3 million in cash and equity from their homes as financial guarantees to the court. One of those who is vouching that Meng will not flee Canada is the real estate agent who sold the two houses that bear the name of Meng’s husband, Liu Xiaozong, on the titles. Another of the proposed additional sureties is a yoga instructor neighbour in Dunbar. 

Federal Crown lawyer John Gibb-Carsley unsuccessfully opposed Meng’s bail, because of the risk that she would flee to China. He had called Liu, who also goes by “Carlos,” an unsuitable supervisor for Meng. If she fled, Gibb-Carsley said, he would naturally follow. Meng is wealthy enough to compensate Liu for the loss of any real estate pledged to the court.

Meng was also ordered to pay for her own round-the-clock security detail, whose job it is to ensure she wears a GPS anklet to monitor her movements and respects bail conditions. 

All of this was decided in an oral judgment after two-and-a-half days of hearings for the 46-year-old. She was arrested in Vancouver International Airport Dec. 1 after arriving from Hong Kong, but was prevented from continuing to Mexico City because U.S. authorities asked Canada to act upon an August arrest from New York. The U.S. alleges Meng committed fraud by convincing banks to approve transactions with an unofficial subsidiary of Huawei in order to subvert trade sanctions with Iran between 2009 to 2014. 

Meng did not talk to reporters when she was finally whisked away by her security detail from court-approved contractor Lions Gate Risk Management.

Meng Wanzhou in Stanley Park (B.C. Supreme Court exhibits)

Three blocks north, in the Chinese-state-owned Poly Culture art gallery, the region’s top Chinese government official told reporters she was pleased. 

“The order by the judge was only a preliminary good news for her and her family, because she is in a very fragile health condition,” said Tong Xiaoling, China’s consul general for British Columbia and Yukon. “So, by bail she could have a better condition for her health treatment. That is a preliminary good thing for her and her family, but our position is very clear, she’s innocent and we request her immediate release.”

Tong made brief remarks after speaking to a Canada China Business Council reception that was scheduled several weeks before Meng’s arrest sparked a diplomatic row. Tong did not mention the incident in her upbeat speech, which was billed as an update on bilateral trade discussions.  

In an affidavit, Meng stated she had a history of high blood pressure, carcinoma and sleep apnea. After her arrest, she was taken to Richmond Hospital for treatment of hypertension. 

China’s Vancouver envoy Tong Xiaoling (right) with former international trade minister Stockwell Day on Dec. 11 (Mackin)

“In the very first instances, the first minute when we got the information the news that she was stopped and she was in custody, we provided her consular assistance and consular protection,” Tong said. 

Chinese government propaganda arms used inflammatory language to demand Meng’s release, threatening Canada with “grave consequences.” Meng’s last morning in the Alouette women’s jail in Maple Ridge coincided with wire service stories about the apparent retaliatory arrest in Beijing of Michael Kovrig from the International Crisis Group. Kovrig is a Canadian diplomat on leave-of-absence. 

Meng’s arrest was in accordance with Canada’s extradition treaty with the U.S. Unlike China, Canadian and American politicians are strictly forbidden from meddling in the court. A fact that Ehrcke alluded to at the conclusion of the bail hearing.

“This has been, I’m sure everyone would agree, an unusual case,” Ehrcke told the court. “But I commend all counsel for both sides for your diligence and for your conducting these proceedings in the best traditions of our independent judiciary.” 

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

 

2018 BCSC 2255 United States v. Meng by BobMackin on Scribd

Key Exhibits in U.S. v. Men… by on Scribd

Bob Mackin The mother in Vancouver’s ultimate astronaut

Bob Mackin 

The second day of the bail hearing for China’s most-prominent businesswoman, Meng Wanzhou, had just begun in courtroom 20 of the Law Courts in Vancouver when a man’s mobile phone ringtone sounded. 

It was China’s national anthem, “March of the Volunteers.” 

Pro-China protesters outside the Law Courts on Dec. 10 (Mackin)

No indication whether the phone was a model from Huawei Technologies, the telecom giant where Meng is chief financial officer.

Another man sat nearby, gazing through a pair of camouflage binoculars at the proceedings. No indication whether he has a visual impairment or just wanted a closer look at the proceedings in the facility’s biggest, most-secure courtroom. 

Come to think of it, despite the closed-circuit TV, Justice William Ehrcke does seem rather distant.

The lunch break on the Nelson Street plaza took on a circus-like tone. Several people appeared holding “I Love Huawei” signs, in defence of Meng, sparking media scrums. A spray painted sign read “Free Ms. Meng.” The streetcorner activism wasn’t there before the Chinese government’s propaganda arms published weekend rants scolding Canada and the U.S.

There were a few others who noted that Monday was international Human Rights Day and they reminded the unaware that Canada should be proud of its independent justice system and rule of law.

It is the world’s biggest court case, for the moment, but it was not resolved. Meng’s stay in the Alouette women’s prison in Maple Ridge was extended for at least another night. Meng’s legal team, a federal Crown lawyer and the judge spent the day inching closer to structuring a complex bail regimen for Meng until a curveball. 

What about her husband and how could he take on the role of a surety and so-called “jailer in the community”?  

Xiaozong Liu, Meng Wanzhou’s husband, outside the Law Courts (Mackin)

Meng became a permanent resident of Canada in 2001, but let that lapse in 2009. That was around the same time husband Liu Xiaozong was here studying for a master’s degree and the couple welcomed a daughter into the world. Liu’s name is on the title for two houses. One bought in 2009 in Dunbar, that is proposed as their home while she contests extradition to the U.S. on fraud charges. The other is a 2016-bought mansion in Shaughnessy, two doors down from the residence of the United States consul general. 

Lions Gate Risk Management’s Scot Filer, a retired RCMP officer, took the witness stand to explain how his company would offer round-the clock security for Meng, with two officers, a driver, a vehicle and encrypted communications technology from a Vancouver company called CommandWear Systems. The plan is to restrict Meng’s movements to City of Vancouver, Richmond and the North Shore. Filer admitted that his company has never been involved in such a project. They would work in concert with an Ontario company, Science Recovery, which provides GPS monitoring bracelets. None of the technology or the staff is guaranteed to prevent Meng from fleeing Canada, but it would minimize the risk. 

Meng wouldn’t be the first Asian jetsetter to be under strict bail conditions in Vancouver while fighting extradition. Rakesh Saxena, the “Marxist Millionaire,” was nabbed in 1996 by Mounties in Whistler. It took until 2009 to exercise all appeals and for Thai police to take him away. Ehrcke conceded that Meng’s case could proceed in similar slow fashion. 

Meng Wanzhou at Russia Calling 2014 (RT)

Meng’s lawyer, David J. Martin, continued to call her a woman of character and dignity, with deep respect for the rule of law and no criminal record herself. Martin said she has no motive to flee and the evidence, so far, is “far from overwhelming.” He again cast doubt on the U.S. charges, saying that there is hostility toward Huawei for competitive reasons or larger geopolitical reasons. 

Ehrcke reminded Martin that a 60-day clock started ticking with Meng’s Dec. 1 arrest for the U.S. to file its extradition case. Meng had arrived at YVR late morning on Cathay Pacific flight 838, on her way to meetings in Mexico, Argentina and France. Instead she was arrested and made a stop at Richmond Hospital to treat hypertension. 

Martin, however, admitted to the judge that he was unaware of Liu’s immigration status, a detail which flummoxed the court the rest of the day. For the sake of bail, Liu was proposed to be the unofficial “jailer” of Meng in the community. Martin described Liu as a “venture capitalist,” and said he would pledge $1 million cash plus $14 million in real estate. Chump change for the daughter of a multibillionaire. 

Liu’s China passport has a multi-entry visa for Canada, to expire in February. He also has a Hong Kong passport. One of Martin’s colleagues rushed to Liu in the gallery front row, behind Meng in the prisoner’s box, to retrieve his travel documents. If his Hong Kong passport was stamped, then he could stay up to six months. 

When that’s up, Martin said, Liu could fly back overseas and re-enter Canada for another six months, apply to the Canadian government for an extension, attain guardian status if their 10-year-old daughter is transferred to a school here. Martin even suggested a work visa could be a solution; Liu had previously worked for Huawei’s Mexican division. 

Federal Crown lawyer John Gibb-Carsley wasn’t buying it.

Media gathers around a pro-Huawei protester outside Meng Wanzhou’s bail hearing on Dec. 10 (Mackin)

He told the court that Liu has no local connection and said the risks remain of Meng fleeing Canada. Even a small risk could have devastating consequences. Meng has access to vast amounts of money and her ordinary life is in China. 

Gibb-Carsley upped the ante: he proposed Liu put up $7.5 million in cash and $7.5 million in property. Still, he admitted, the price of leaving the jurisdiction, is the price of bail. Martin then proposed a cash deposit for her bail and the potential transfer of the Matthews mansion from Liu to Wanzhou. 

The day ended with some mirth. Martin called residency “an elastic concept” and compared the Meng proceedings to the controversy around Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy’s claim that his primary residence was in the Maritimes when he really hung his hat in Ottawa. “I’m not sure that’s a helpful analogy,” Ehrcke quipped. 

Those in the room aware of Canadian politics broke out in laughter. Especially the man to Liu’s left, Huawei Canada’s lobbyist and unsuccessful 2011 Liberal candidate Scott Bradley. 

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

Bob Mackin  The second day of the bail

Drama in British Columbia, on two fronts. 

The Dec. 1 Vancouver International Airport arrest of Meng Wanzhou, dubbed the “Huawei Princess” on Chinese social media, sparked a war of words. 

Beijing has warned Canada and the United States, which ultimately wants to try her for fraud, of retaliation for jailing the telecom giant’s chief financial officer. Meng is also the daughter of the multinational company’s multibillionaire founder. 

A Dec. 7 bail hearing that captured global attention included evidence of Meng’s past as a permanent resident of Canada. Her husband Liu Xiaozong is named on property records for two mansions in Vancouver’s richest neighbourhoods. 

Meanwhile, the scandal at the B.C. Legislature unfolds, as Speaker Darryl Plecas emphatically defended calling-in the RCMP to investigate Clerk Craig James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz, who were suspended with pay on Nov. 20. 

In a Dec. 6 Legislative Assembly Management Committee meeting, Plecas said he had a duty to taxpayers to do due diligence and the RCMP, aided by two special prosecutors, must not be subject to interference from the opposition BC Liberals. 

Shortly after he was appointed speaker in September 2017, Plecas said he received information that he needed to act upon. 

“I felt a great duty to safeguard the integrity of this institution and be very mindful about why we’re all here. That’s to make sure that public dollars are spent appropriately.”

Plecas has proposed a separate forensic audit of James and Lenz’s offices and he vowed to resign if the public does not share his disgust. Lawyers for James and Lenz have not responded for comment. 

Hear highlights of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee. 

Plus commentaries and Pacific Rim headlines. 

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

theBreaker.news Podcast
theBreaker.news Podcast
theBreaker.news Podcast: Speaker shifts scandal spotlight back onto suspended officials
Loading
/

Drama in British Columbia, on two fronts.  The

Bob Mackin

A candidate in the last two Vancouver civic elections says nobody from his party has been invited to a meeting to discuss the lack of racial diversity on municipal councils. 

Municipal Candidates for Racial Inclusion’s Cities of Colour is Dec. 8 at the Simon Fraser University Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

“The election results show a troubling absence of elected representatives from racially diverse groups despite large numbers of Black, Indigenous or Person of Color (BIPOC) people living in Metro Vancouver,” said the invitation. “This conspicuous demographic gap triggered social media commentary with the hashtag #CouncilSoWhite.”

Vancouver 1st 2018 election candidates

Jesse Johl, executive director of Vancouver 1st and a two-time unsuccessful city council candidate, said nobody in his party has heard of this group. 

“We had the most-ethnically diverse slate,” Johl told theBreaker. “We had the only black, Jewish mayoral candidate running [Fred Harding]. We’ve got no invite.”

Johl said the conservative-leaning Vancouver 1st boasted the only slate that “reflected the faces of Vancouver.” 

He said racism was not a factor in the outcome. Instead, the well-funded NPA and Vancouver District Labour Council-backed candidates prevented smaller parties and independents from a breakthrough. 

Vancouver 1st’s Jesse Johl

Johl called the post-election #CouncilSoWhite hashtag “unacceptable” and was also critical of the group’s invitation. Municipal Candidates for Racial Inclusion suggests a $10 donation to attend, but states that any white or “non-BIPOC” candidates are not welcome on Dec. 8, because the group wants to “have a discussion amongst ourselves first.”

“If that was ‘council so yellow’ or ‘council so brown,’ would that be acceptable? How is something so blatantly racist so acceptable?” Johl asked.

“Martin Luther King said it best: judge a person by the content of their character, not by the colour of their skin. But we’ve gotten to this virtue-signalling, identity politics to the point where people can’t look past monickers, names and symbols. It’s crazy. People voted the way they voted, at the end of the day, big money, big union money, was the difference.”

The invitation did not include the name of the organizer or a contact phone number. Nobody responded by email for comment. Neither did the workshop facilitator, Natasha Aruliah. 

NPA’s Ken Sim fell 957 votes shy of labour-backed independent Kennedy Stewart in the Vancouver mayoral race. Had Sim won, he would have been the city’s first mayor of Chinese heritage. Eight of the 10 city councillors elected are female, five of whom ran on the NPA ticket. 

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

Bob Mackin A candidate in the last two