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Bob Mackin

In a new B.C. Supreme Court filing, Elections BC admits its vote-by-mail team erred in the Surrey-Guildford riding, where NDP candidate Garry Begg won by 22 votes on a judicial recount.

But it says the Conservative Party of B.C. runner-up, Honveer Singh Randhawa, filed a petition to invalidate the result more than a month after the deadline.

Premier David Eby named Begg solicitor general after the recount gave the NDP a slim 47-seat majority in the 93-seat Legislature. Randhawa held a 103-vote edge on election night, but wants the result invalidated and a by-election ordered due to irregularities.

John Rustad (left) and Honveer Singh Randhawa (IG)

In a June 19 response, Elections BC chief Anton Boegman and returning officer Rana Malhi said mail-in voting packages for 22 voters were requested Oct. 4 and 7, 2024, with a common email address and phone number. Each requested package used the last six digits of a social insurance number as the voter’s unique identifier.

Elections BC had decided before the election to permit an individual to assist more than one voter with a mail-in package, provided the individual was appointed as an election official under the Election Act.

“Upon receiving these requests, the [three-member] vote by mail team noticed the pattern of multiple requests originating from a single source and session; however, the team also noted that the requests came from a care facility with resident individuals,” said the court filing.

“The vote by mail team decided to fulfill the requests from (censored) to ensure the voters received their mail-in voting packages on time. However, the team failed to follow-up with the district electoral officer, Ms. Malhi, to confirm that an individual at (censored) was appointed as an election official.”

Elections BC said all 22 certification envelopes were signed, but three were not counted as they did not meet certain requirements for counting. It also said no individual was identified as assisting a voter on any of the 22 packages.

Elections BC said that Randhawa should have filed his petition no later than Dec. 12, a month after the writ for the riding was returned and the result declared official.

“This admission sharply contrasts Elections BC’s public narrative,” said Randhawa’s lawyer, Sunny Uppal. “In their 2024 provincial election report, Elections BC repeatedly praised the security of mail-in ballots and their successful administration of B.C.’s 2024 provincial election, while also accusing Mr. Randhawa and the Conservative Party of spreading misinformation. At no point in their 2024 provincial election report, did Elections BC disclose their now admitted error.”.

In a June 18 decision, ahead of a hearing to decide Randhawa’s petition, Justice Barbara Norell ruled that identities of voters be redacted from the court documents and replaced with an agreed number, such as Voter 1, and that any names be banned from publication.

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Bob Mackin In a new B.C. Supreme Court

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Bob Mackin

Construction of the 10,000-seat Freedom Mobile Arch at the PNE has surpassed the halfway mark with less than a year until its scheduled opening.

PNE President Shelley Frost said on June 20 that the $135 million-budgeted concert venue is on track for completion in May 2026, in time to be the centrepiece of Vancouver’s FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE.

The original price tag was supposed to be $65 million.

“Like you are hearing everywhere, this is a challenging construction cost time, but we are still looking to be on track, and on track with time,” Frost told theBreaker.news. “We do still have some pieces that need to be tendered and so we’ll know the final cost once those final pieces are tendered.”

Frost’s name appeared in the B.C. Registry of Lobbyists in April, targeting the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport — the ministry leading provincial preparations for FIFA World Cup 26 — in search of general program and project funding.

“We’re just putting a more formalized structure in place where we can have some conversations about how to bring all three levels of government to the table to help support an incredible venue,” Frost said.

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Frost said she is seeking both capital funding and support for major events and festivals, at a time when U.S. tariffs are affecting construction material prices.

“Those are the kinds of things that are always on our mind. But anything that we can do to reduce the load on the PNE, in terms of the amount that needs to be paid back [to city hall], is just helpful for us, to be able to start investing into other parts of the site,” Frost said.

The vast, wooden roof of the Freedom Mobile Arch will be longer than the 2008-opened Richmond Olympic Oval. The latter used lumber from pine beetle-killed B.C. interior forests. Meanwhile, for the Arch, Frost said “a lot of it is coming from Quebec, but it is all-Canadian wood.”

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Bob Mackin Construction of the 10,000-seat Freedom Mobile

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For the week of June 22, 2025: For two days last week, legal experts from across Canada, U.S., U.K. and Ireland discussed ways and means of taking away ill-gotten gains from criminals. 

Kim Campbell, Canada’s first female attorney general and defence minister, chaired the Vancouver Anti-Corruption Institute’s 2025 conference on asset forfeiture. She became the country’s first and only female Prime Minister in 1993. 

In the closing address of the two-day conference, Campbell sounded the alarm about the rule of law and privacy under Donald Trump’s second presidency. On this edition of thePodcast, hear Campbell’s full speech. 

As usual, Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.

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thePodcast: Ex-Canadian Prime Minister sounds the alarm about Trump 2.0 at Vancouver anti-corruption conference
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For the week of June 22, 2025:

News

Bob Mackin

Vancouver city hall rubber-stamped the renaming of Trutch Street on June 17 after keeping the program secret for years.

In September 2022, the Musqueam Indian Band proposed a new name for the street, from the surname of B.C.’s controversial first lieutenant-governor to “šxʷməθkʷəy ̓ əmasəm,” or Musqueamview Street. It held a ceremony with then-Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

Design for the new signs replacing Trutch Street in Vancouver (Pete Fry/City of Vancouver)

When theBreaker.news sought an update almost a year later, and with Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC party in power, bureaucrats at 12th and Cambie demanded payment of $270 for briefing notes and reports about the feasibility, logistics and cost/benefit analysis for renaming. theBreaker.news wanted to know about changing the signs, changing the name on maps and in databases for Canada Post, ICBC and BC Hydro.

Kevin Tuerlings in the information and privacy office claimed it would take 12 hours to search, compile and process the records. He suggested in a Sept. 16, 2023 letter to narrow the request to “feasibility, logistics and cost/benefit analysis,” because records held by Engineering Strategy and Standards could be found within three hours.

theBreaker.news agreed. But, on Dec. 5, 2023, city hall opted to withhold all responsive records.

A letter said the city feared disclosure could harm intergovernmental relations or Indigenous self-governance or treaty negotiations. It also feared release of the information could cause “damage to or interfere with the conservation of fossil sites, natural sites, valuable anthropological or heritage sites, or endangered, threatened, vulnerable or rare living resources.”

The renaming of Trutch Street was communicated to the public as an act of reconciliation and the signs are created by the city’s sign shop of synthetic material.

After City of Victoria decided to rename its Trutch Street as “Su’it Street,” Victoria city hall disclosed records, showing $3,124 in costs to change the name, including $900 in payments to three local First Nations members for attending the 2022 renaming ceremony.

Vancouver’s sign shop was already printing signs the weekend before the council vote and an unveiling ceremony was already scheduled for June 20, the day before National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Prior to Sir Joseph William Trutch representing Queen Victoria in B.C. from 1871 1876, he was the B.C. land commissioner who reduced the size of Indian reserves.

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Bob Mackin Vancouver city hall rubber-stamped the renaming

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Bob Mackin

The People’s Republic of China, which is “intently focused on ensuring the survival of the Chinese Communist Party,” is Canada’s biggest counter-intelligence threat, according to a June 18-published report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

Vladimir Putin (left) and Xi Jinping during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (PRC)

It says China has targeted all levels of government, Canadian citizens and Chinese communities, via the United Front Work Department, its primary foreign interference arm. CSIS said China is involved in recruiting people to spy on Canadians, while employing “deceptive and clandestine means” to influence policy-making, non-governmental organizations, media and academia. Its goal is to further China’s interests, hide the CCP’s intentions and weaken Canada’s democracy and institutions.

“The PRC largely targets those it sees as posing a threat to CCP rule, such as human rights activists, political dissidents, journalists, and members of religious and ethnic minority groups,” said the report. “These malign activities compromise the safety, security and rights of Canadians.”

Despite the national security threat, B.C. NDP Premier David Eby said he will not reverse BC Ferries’ June 10-announced decision to build four vessels at a Chinese state-owned shipyard. Four days later, on June 14, interim federal NDP leader Don Davies was the guest of honour at a Vancouver Chinese consulate celebration of 55 years of diplomatic ties with Canada.

Russia, Iran, India also pose threats

In the report, CSIS also named China, Russia and Iran as major cyber threats, via espionage and hacking.

On Iran, Canada declared its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist entity last June. It has sanctioned 250 entities and 205 individuals for “systematic and gross violations of human rights.”

CSIS also mentioned the U.S. Department of Justice prosecution in 2024 of Canadians Damion Ryan and Adam Pearson for a murder-for-hire plot allegedly directed by Iranian drug lord Naji Sharifi Zindashti to target dissidents in Maryland.

“Iranian threat-related activities directed at Canada and its allies are likely to continue in 2025, and may increase depending on developments in the Middle East and the Iranian regime’s own threat perceptions,” the report said.

Also in 2024, Canada listed Vancouver-based anti-Israel group Samidoun as a terrorist entity. Samidoun is associated with a 2003-designated terrorist entity, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

On India, CSIS said “real and perceived Khalistani [Punjabi separatist] extremism emerging from Canada continues to drive Indian foreign interference activities in Canada.”

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Bob Mackin The People’s Republic of China, which

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Bob Mackin

It’s official. Not only is the NDP government replacing the 1937-built, four-lane Pattullo Bridge with a new four-lane bridge, but it is also replacing the name.

Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth said in a June 16 memo obtained by theBreaker.news that the new bridge is slated to open later this year “and the new bridge will receive a new name” in the down river Halkomelem dialect of the Musqueam Indian Band and Kwantlen First Nation.

Old, 1937-built Pattullo Bridge (left) and new to-be-named bridge. (TI Corp/YouTube)

The memo said the site overlaps former Musqueam reserve #1 and Kwantlen reserve #8, “once located in the village of qiqeyt [kee-KATE].” Both bands will bestow a name for the new bridge, “as a gift to the people of British Columbia,” Farnworth said.

Farnworth said the announcement is anticipated this summer.

The current bridge was named for Thomas “Duff” Pattullo, the 22nd premier of B.C. from 1933 to 1941. Liberal Pattullo represented the Prince Rupert riding from 1916 to 1945.

The new bridge was budgeted at $1.4 billion for a 2023 opening, but was delayed to 2025 with a higher $1.637 billion price tag. Builders are Aecon and Acciona, the Spanish company Metro Vancouver fired from the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project.

Farnworth’s memo said there is also a First Nations art program that began on the Old Yale Road overpass in Surrey and will expand to the lower piers, upper tower and crossbeam of the new bridge. The NDP government is planning an “exclusive feature” with the CBC about bridge construction, bridge naming and the art program, Farnworth’s memo said.

Farnworth’s memo comes the day before Vancouver city council is expected to rubber-stamp renaming Trutch Street to šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmasəm Street, which translates in English to “Musqueam View.”

The new street signs are already in production and an unveiling is scheduled for June 20, the eve of National Indigenous Peoples Day, at St. James Community Square.

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Bob Mackin It’s official. Not only is the

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For the week of June 15, 2025:

Welcome to the 400th edition of theBreaker.news Podcast.

Instead of looking back, this edition is looking ahead.

Looking ahead to the FIFA World Cup 26, coming to Vancouver and 15 other North American cities.

Will it be worth the nearly $600 million bill for B.C. taxpayers?

On this edition, hear from: FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani, Vancouver host city secretariat leader Jessie Adcock, Destination Vancouver CEO Royce Chwin, Mayor Ken Sim, NDP Minister responsible Spencer Chandra Herbert, B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition campaign manager Chantelle Spicer and sports economist Victor Matheson. 

As usual, Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.

CLICK BELOW to listen or watch. Or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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thePodcast: Countdown to FIFA World Cup 26
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For the week of June 15, 2025:

Business, Miscellany, News, Sports

Bob Mackin

Vancouver marked the one-year countdown to FIFA World Cup 26 on June 11 by unveiling a countdown clock in front of a few hundred invitees at a fenced-off Terry Fox Plaza.

Children played soccer on a makeshift artificial turf pitch outside B.C. Place Stadium where a natural grass/synthetic hybrid pitch will be installed for seven matches between June 13 and July 7, 2026.

Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP minister responsible for FIFA 26, said a budget update is expected by the end of June. Last year, predecessor Lana Popham said it could cost as much as $581 million.

Chandra Herbert spent less than five minutes in a scrum with reporters. He left without answering questions from theBreaker.news about how Metro Vancouver’s stressed hospitals will cope with an influx of World Cup visitors and B.C. government support for FIFA sponsors Saudi Aramco oil and Qatar Airways, whose state owners ban same-sex relationships.

Earlier, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim vowed the city would “make the necessary investments” for safety and security, but he did not say how much that would cost. He also denied that homeless people in the Downtown Eastside would be displaced.

“The challenges that we have with our unhoused population, this is an ongoing thing with, you know, cities throughout the region, and so, you know, at the end of the day, this is something that we address, today, yesterday and tomorrow, and that will be ongoing,” Sim said.

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Chantelle Spicer, an advocate for the city’s poor, is not convinced.

“This does not give us confidence that people’s rights will be respected during such a large sporting event where the city hopes to draw in investment and tourism,” said Spicer, campaign manager with the B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition (BCPRC).

Spicer told theBreaker.news that the coalition is especially concerned about displacement of homeless, the impact of increased surveillance and policing on people in public spaces and impacts on people depending on public transit and social services.

To that end, Spicer said BCPRC has made numerous unsuccessful attempts to connect with the local FIFA 26 organizing committee to learn if and how it intends to uphold human rights and mitigate any harms from the mega event.

“We have been met with silence, brush-offs, or meetings we persistently try to organize over months only to not get any real answers,” Spicer said. “There is an utter lack of accountability or opportunity for real stakeholder engagement with frontline service providers in the DTES or people who will be impacted by the games.”

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Bob Mackin Vancouver marked the one-year countdown to

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Bob Mackin

On the eve of the one-year countdown, officials behind FIFA World Cup 26 tamped down the Vancouver corporate community’s expectations.

In front of Greater Vancouver Board of Trade members on June 10, FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani, who lives in West Vancouver, suggested local businesses think beyond profit.

“Legacy is not what you receive. It’s what you’re going to give, okay?” Montagliani said at the Fairmont Waterfront. “And this is where I think the business community needs to look at it from that perspective. It’s not what you’re going to get out of this — tickets or whatever — it’s what you are going to give to attach your brand to the biggest sporting event in the history of the world. You’ll never be able to say that again.”

The 48-nation, 16-city tournament kicks off June 11, 2026. B.C. Place is hosting seven matches from June 13-July 7, 2026. The PNE will stage a Fan Festival watch party through the July 19, 2026 final. The NDP government said more than a year ago that hosting could cost taxpayers $581 million. The federal government has not revealed the security budget.

The unofficial beginning of the World Cup festival is also in Vancouver, when FIFA holds its 76th Congress at the Vancouver Convention Centre on April 30. Heads of all 211 members will attend. Montagliani said that is a bigger roster than the United Nations and, in many cases, national soccer leaders are more powerful than their respective heads of government.

Premium tickets on sale

On each table, a card advertising FIFA’s new regional sponsorship program.

Starting at $195,000, packages include “exclusive access to intellectual property rights, tickets, hospitality, FIFA Fan Festival activation merchandise, access to FIFA legends.”

Jessie Adcock, the executive lead of the civic organizing committee, also curbed enthusiasm about tickets. She pointed to the VIP packages for sale and the add-ons to FIFA Club World Cup tickets in the U.S. this month and next. The rest of the tickets will be on sale this fall under a lottery system.

“Oftentimes, I think we compare the Olympics in 2010 to the situation here, and it is not going to be like that,” Adcock cautioned. “I think a lot of folks had access to a lot of tickets that were available, there was a lot of inventory that was able to be shared across partners. In this case, it is going to be quite limited, but that is why we are focusing on the Fan Festival.”

Canada is scheduled to play June 18 and 24, 2026 at B.C. Place. The rest of the teams will become known in December’s tournament draw.

Airbnb comeback?

Vancouver is one of 16 host cities, despite a hotel room shortage. Destination Vancouver CEO Royce Chwin said Metro Vancouver’s inventory of 20,000 rooms could be augmented by a temporary easing of short-term rental restrictions.

Chwin said the NDP B.C. government is being lobbied for a limited exemption “pre, during and slightly post the FIFA games.”

“That’s a live conversation right now, to see what it would look like,” Chwin said.

The NDP minister responsible for FIFA 26, tourism, arts, culture and sport minister Spencer Chandra Herbert did not attend, but sent a video greeting.

Unanswered questions

Board of Trade members were encouraged to pose questions to the featured speakers via the Slido app.

However, CEO Bridgitte Anderson, a former CTV reporter and anchor, did not touch the edgier questions.

Those included:

  • How is the City of Vancouver planning to secure venues and fan events in light of recent events?

  • How are you ensuring that you having (sic) the workforce in place to execute this series of events?

  • How is the City or [Business Improvement Association] going to help ensure the FIFA benefits small and diverse downtown businesses, while minimizing risks like access issues or disruptions?

  • Will we see the marketing and promotions increase now that we are under a year? The build up has been underwhelming all things considered.

  • How’s the city planning to manage traffic issues?

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Bob Mackin On the eve of the one-year

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Bob Mackin

Could British Columbia taxpayers unwittingly subsidize Chinese naval threats to Taiwan while sinking the Canadian shipbuilding industry?

BC Ferries announced June 10 that a Chinese shipyard will build four new vessels. It chose China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards (CMI Weihai), but did not disclose the value of the contract for the new diesel-battery hybrid ships, to be delivered between 2029 and 2031.

Parent CMI is headquartered in Hong Kong and has seven shipbuilding and repair bases, specializing in ferries, cruise ships and chemical tankers. Its website called CMI “one of the three major state-owned marine equipment manufacturing groups in China.”

Artist’s rendering of one of the four new BC Ferries to be built in China. (BC Ferries)

Last August, the Canadian Marine Industries and Shipbuilding Association (CMSA) said the Canadian government should slap a 100% tariff on Chinese-built ships and prohibit any government entity or Crown corporation from acquiring a Chinese-built vessel. CMSA cited national security, human rights and economic concerns.

“As China’s navy continues to grow, it increasingly uses its fleet to challenge Canadian interests and those of our allies in regions extending even to our own Arctic waters,” said the CMSA statement.

National security risk

A report in March by the bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. branded China’s “huge and growing” commercial shipbuilding industry as a national security risk.

China has integrated commercial and military production at many shipyards, “giving its People’s Liberation Army Navy access to infrastructure, investment, and intellectual property acquired from commercial contracts,” said the Center’s report, which said foreign orders have helped China spend less to modernize its naval fleet.

Foreign countries, including U.S. allies, buy three-quarters of ships from China’s dual-use shipyards, thus “funnelling billions of dollars in revenue and transferring key technologies into the PRC’s naval industrial base.”

A U.S. Trade Representative investigation said the Chinese shipbuilding supply chain benefits from a “lack of effective labour rights and the use of forced or compulsory labour. Likewise, China’s non-market excess capacity in inputs, such as steel, advantage downstream Chinese enterprises.”

The April executive summary said China controls a fifth of the world’s commercial shipping fleet and its goal is to displace foreign competitors and diminish choice.

“China has demonstrated in the past its willingness to weaponize dependencies for purposes of economic coercion. China’s targeting of these sectors for dominance is therefore unreasonable also due to the creation of dependencies and resulting vulnerabilities and risks.

NDP used to champion made-in-B.C. ships

While in opposition, the NDP slammed the BC Liberal government and BC Ferries for spending $165 million on three ships from Remontowa Shipbuilding SA in Gdansk, Poland. Then-transportation critic Claire Trevena proposed a provincial shipbuilding bill in 2014, aimed at ensuring vessels built with public money are built in Canada.

The announcement came while Premier David Eby is on a trade mission in South Korea. Transportation minister Mike Farnworth said he was disappointed BC Ferries opted to do business with “any country that is actively harming Canada’s economy.”

But he called BC Ferries an independent company, which is misleading. While technically private, the only shareholder is the B.C. government.

Additionally, the NDP government appoints board members, such as chair and former finance minister Joy MacPhail and former NDP government bureaucrats Eric Denhoff and Lecia Stewart.

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Bob Mackin Could British Columbia taxpayers unwittingly subsidize

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