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The Nanaimo provincial by-election did not live up to the hype. Will the Burnaby South federal by-election?

By-elections, says theBreaker.news Podcast guest Mario Canseco of Research Co, have less identification with leaders and less media exposure. But Burnaby will buck the trend, because of the spotlight on NDP leader/parachute candidate Jagmeet Singh. Singh is fighting internal forces to retain his leadership as he aims to take Kennedy Stewart’s vacated seat in the House of Commons..

Canseco said Singh’s future hinges upon the NDP caucus lining-up behind him, en route to Feb. 25.

“If we wind up in a situation where nobody from the NDP federally, nobody of name, nobody with certain fame knocks on doors with Jagmeet Singh, then that’s going to send a message that he’s way in over his head and he’s doing it alone,” Canseco told host Bob Mackin in this week’s feature interview.

Meanwhle, the NDP’s Sheila Malcolmson handily defeated BC Liberal Tony Harris, while Green Michele Ney finished a distant third in the Nanaimo vote. A BC Liberal win would’ve brought B.C. closer to a provincial election. Ontario’s Mainstreet Research was way-off when it predicted a Harris win by double digits. 

Canseco said the wildcard in Nanaimo was the release of Speaker Darryl Plecas’s scathing report on corruption at the B.C. Legislature. Clerk Craig James was a BC Liberal appointee and evidence pointed to a cozy relationship between James and the party. 

“It made a lot of people, who maybe were flirting with voting for the Liberals, a little bit uneasy about the situation,” he said. 

Listen to Canseco, commentaries and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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theBreaker.news Podcast: By-elections a go-go
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The Nanaimo provincial by-election did not live

Bob Mackin

Welcome to this new feature on theBreaker.news. A compendium of the latest headlines on corruption in British Columbia.

What took so long? 

Almost two years after Chilliwack BC Liberal MLA John Martin called the RCMP to investigate theft in his office, the B.C. Prosecution Service finally revealed that it hired a special prosecutor. 

Robin McFee was appointed March 20, 2017 by Acting Assistant Deputy Attorney General John Labossiere, but McFee’s involvement was kept secret for 682 days. 

Lawyer Robin McFee (SMRLaw.ca)

The Jan. 31 statement from the prosecution office said the announcement was postponed pending completion of the investigation and submission of the report to Crown Counsel. After the report was submitted to McFee, “Mr. McFee requested and received further investigative materials, and the charge assessment process is now underway,” the statement said. 

The announcement comes on the heels of the Jan. 21 release of Speaker Darryl Plecas’s report on corruption in the B.C. Legislature. 

When theBreaker.news renewed queries to the RCMP’s Lower Mainland public information officer about the case on Jan. 23, it took five days before Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said “the matter remains under investigation.”

Pressed further, Shoihet admitted the case had been referred to the B.C. Prosecution Service, whose spokesman, Daniel McLaughlin, finally admitted on Jan. 31 that a special prosecutor had been appointed. Minutes later, McLaughlin issued a news release. 

Martin declined comment. 

In a March 2, 2017 Chilliwack Progress story, Paul Henderson reported that Martin fired an employee after discovering tens of thousands of dollars missing from the constituency office bank account. 

Chilliwack MLA John Martin (Facebook)

Martin told reporters in Victoria that “in the process of implementing the new system, I became aware that money from my constituency account may have been inappropriately used.”

That new system that Martin referred to is believed to be a project of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee that was carried out by Craig James, the clerk who was suspended with pay on Nov. 20 because of an RCMP investigation involving two special prosecutors. 

At its Dec. 13, 2017 meeting, LAMC heard that Legislature spending rose 37.1% on information systems, driven, in-part, by the centralization of constituency office expenses and document workflow software. That three-phase centralization project wrapped-up last April. 

This is not McFee’s first rodeo as a special prosecutor. On June 25, 2010, the Criminal Justice Branch announced McFee approved a breach of trust charge against former Chilliwack city planner Grant Sanborn. He did not file a similar charge against BC Liberal MLA John Les, the former Mayor of Chilliwack, because there was no substantial likelihood of conviction. In 2012, Sanborn pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of failure to enforce provincial agricultural land regulations. 

Deadline extended

Meanwhile, also Jan. 31, LAMC extended the deadline for James and suspended Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz to respond to the Plecas report. Feb. 1 was the original deadline set at the committee’s Jan. 21 meeting. But the two men have until Feb. 7 to explain their controversial expenditures exposed by Plecas.

House leaders Mike Farnworth (NDP), Mary Polak (BC Liberal) and Sonia Furstenau (Green) agreed to the six-day extension. 

To begin the day after losing the Nanaimo by-election, BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson released his 20-point Legislature reform plan, including: proactive disclosure of travel expense claims from Legislative Officers, the Speaker, Clerk and Sergeant-at-Arms; no foreign travel without six-week prior approval by LAMC; mandatory retirement at age 75 for all Legislative officers; no booze buying except B.C. products for use at public ceremonial events; and income limits and retirement and severance based on public service guidelines. 

Gary Lenz (left), ex-speaker Linda Reid and Craig James (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association)

“We propose that these be implemented immediately, and where legislation or votes in the Legislature are required, they should proceed by agreement of all parties at the earliest possible date,” Wilkinson wrote to LAMC.

There was a glaring omission from the list. Wilkinson did not include reforms to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to expand the right to know. In an exclusive interview with theBreaker.news, Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy said there is no reason to continue shielding the Legislature from the FOI law. 

“This is something that my predecessors, all three of them, and myself, have called for over the years and I’m very pleased that it’s now in the public spotlight and the discussion is happening about it,” McEvoy said. “There is no reason why they should be treated any differently from the other 2,900 public bodies that are subject to the legislation.” 

AudGen rings in 

Auditor General Carol Bellringer added an audit of the Legislative Assembly to her 2019-2020 agenda, released Jan. 31. 

“Of note, while we were finalizing this plan, allegations surfaced about administrative processes in the legislative assembly,” Bellringer’s report said. “We have commenced an audit in this area in light of the issues brought to our attention and concerns that my office previously raised in 2007, 2012 and 2013.”

Bellringer’s work is separate from a forensic audit that LAMC will order from an auditor general from another province, as per the Jan. 21 meeting. 

Bellringer’s office has 17 audits in progress for this year and another 50 it hopes to complete before 2022. 

Mountie’s illegal five-province sex romp 

Ex-RCMP Sgt. Derek Brassington broke down in B.C. Supreme Court and admitted he treated a witness in the Surrey Six gangland slaying case “like a girlfriend.”

Brassington, who was attached to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, pleaded guilty to breach of trust and compromising the integrity and safety of a witness on Jan. 18. CBC and Global successfully challenged a publication ban. 

Brassington had a boozy affair in 2009 with the unnamed woman, that included a coast-to-coast sex tour across Canada, with trysts in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Victoria. 

Satirical Richmond button (Facebook)

Brassington’s sentence is two years, less a day, house arrest. Brassington’s superior David Attew and cohort Danny Michaud pleaded guilty to lying about Brassington’s affair and sentenced to three months house arrest. 

Five people have been convicted of the deaths of six people on Oct. 19, 2007 in a Surrey apartment tower.

And, finally…

Behold, a new satirical souvenir in Richmond. As seen on the Richmond’s Changing Neighbourhoods Facebook group.

Sure to be a hot button.

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Bob Mackin Welcome to this new feature on

Bob Mackin 

In the wake of Speaker Darryl Plecas’s damning report about corruption at the British Columbia Legislature, the province’s information and privacy watchdog called on the Green-supported NDP government to put the Legislative Assembly under the freedom of information laws.  

“There is no good reason why freedom of information legislation should not cover the Legislature, the assembly staff, offices, and members,” Commissioner Michael McEvoy told theBreaker.news. “This is something that my predecessors, all three of them, and myself, have called for over the years and I’m very pleased that it’s now in the public spotlight and the discussion is happening about it. 

B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy (right), sworn-in by the now-suspended Clerk Craig James in April 2018 (BC Leg/Twitter)

“There is no reason why they should be treated any differently from the other 2,900 public bodies that are subject to the legislation.” 

A poll released Jan. 28 by Research Co found 70% of respondents agree that amending the FOI law to include the Legislature is a leading remedy to the waste and corruption that Plecas exposed. Only 12% of respondents disagreed.

“I found it quite fascinating,” said Research Co.’s Mario Canseco. “This isn’t happening, 70% want it to happen. One of the most interesting findings.”

Canseco was surprised that more respondents who identified themselves as BC Liberal voters from the 2017 election (41%) than Green (39%) and NDP voters (33%) agreed with subjecting the Legislature to FOI.

McEvoy said that he does not expect adding the Legislature to the Act would add significant costs. While legislative privilege has been raised as a defence to secrecy, McEvoy said that can be balanced with the public’s right to know. 

“Access to information is not an absolute right, there are exceptions under the legislation,” he said. 

Administrative records, he said, should not be exempted because they are matters of public interest and the public has a right of access.

Ending secrecy at the Legislature is just one part of McEvoy’s wish list.

“Public bodies’ use of subsidiary corporations, section 13 on advice and recommendations, lack of penalties with regard to destruction of records,” he said. “These are some of the issues that I constantly bring up to government and raise to the public. I’m glad this now is a discussion that is happening amongst members of the public and hope that will encourage members of our legislature to reform our legislation.” 

Research Co. pollster Mario Canseco (Mackin)

The Legislature has paid lip service to transparency and accountability. It publishes quarterly statements and receipts about MLA spending, but the four top officers, including the clerk and sergeant-at-arms, only publish total dollar amounts they spend, without any hint of where they traveled or what they bought. The Legislature’s annual financial report shows payments to suppliers $25,000 and up and payments to staff $75,000 and up. The public has no legal right to seek correspondence and contracts, like it does from government ministries, agencies and Crown corporations. 

As such, Plecas’s report was the first glimpse British Columbians ever got to correspondence between the speaker and clerk about spending.

Canseco conducted the poll Jan. 25-27 with 800 adults in B.C. online. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5%, 19 times out of 20. Respondents agreed the wasted money should be repaid (74%) and that Plecas acted properly (54%). Some 63% said they are watching the scandal closely. 

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Bob Mackin  In the wake of Speaker Darryl

Bob Mackin

Two days after Canada’s ambassador to China was fired for saying it would be “great” if the United States dropped its case against Meng Wanzhou, top officials in Washington, D.C. announced they would pursue the Huawei chief financial officer’s extradition.

In a Jan. 28 news conference, acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker and heads of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Commerce revealed 10 charges that were filed Jan. 16 against Chinese telecom giant Huawei in Seattle and 13 charges filed Jan. 24 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The latter case centres on the Hong Kong-incorporated Skycom, which the U.S. says functioned as Huawei’s Iran-based subsidiary in order to get around trade sanctions. The other 10 charges accuse Huawei of stealing trade secrets about T-Mobile’s Tappy mobile phone testing robot. 

U.S. officials annouce charges against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou (DoJ)

Meng, who was arrested on a U.S. warrant at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, is one of three people charged in the Brooklyn filing. Names of the other two defendants are censored because they have not been arrested. 

Meng was released on $10 million bail and curfew conditions Dec. 11. She returned to B.C. Supreme Court on Jan. 29 to reorganize her sureties and to set March 6 as the next date. Canada’s justice ministry has received the official extradition application from the U.S. Deadline for approval and referral to the court is March 1. 

China retaliated by arbitrarily arresting Canadian businessman Michael Spavor and diplomat Michael Kovrig, and sentencing convicted drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg to death. Schellenberg had previously been sent to jail for 15 years. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired ambassador John McCallum Jan. 26 after McCallum first told reporters that Meng had a case to beat extradition and then for saying it would be “great” for the U.S. to drop the case. 

The Brooklyn indictment says that, following a November 2007 transfer of Skycom shares from one Huawei subsidiary to another, “Huawei falsely claimed that Skycom was one of Huawei’s local business partners in Iran, as opposed to one of Huawei’s subsidiaries or affiliates.” 

Meng was on Skycom’s board of directors in 2008 and 2009, before becoming Huawei CFO in 2010. Huawei employed at least one U.S. national in Iran whose identity is known to the Grand Jury. The U.S. alleges that Huawei repeatedly misrepresented to the U.S. and various victim banks and their U.S. and Eurozone subsidiaries and branches that “although Huawei conducted business in Iran, it did so in a manner that did not violate applicable U.S. law.”

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

Had the banks been aware Huawei had violated the sanctions, the U.S. contends, they would have thought twice continuing to do business with Huawei. 

“There are additional, troubling allegations in the indictment as well, including that Huawei lied to the federal government and attempted to obstruct justice by concealing and destroying evidence and by moving potential government witnesses back to China,” Whitaker said at the news conference.

Without naming him, the indictment says that FBI agents interviewed Meng’s father, Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, in July 2007. 

“[He] falsely stated, in substance and in part, that Huawei did not conduct ay activity in violation of U.S. export laws and that Huawei operated in compliance with all U.S. export laws.”

After Reuters’ 2012 and 2013 stories about Huawei selling goods to Iran contrary to sanctions, Huawei representatives and employees told victim banks that the allegations were false and that Huawei complied with U.S. law. Based on those false representations, the banks continued to do business with Huawei. 

The indictment says that Meng met Aug. 22, 2013 with a bank executive and relied on a PowerPoint presentation written in Chinese. “Upon request by the financial institution 1 executive, Meng arranged for an English-language version of the PowerPoint presentation to be delivered to financial institution 1 on or about Sept. 3, 2013.” 

That PowerPoint presentation was entered in B.C. Supreme Court as evidence during Meng’s December bail hearing 

The Brooklyn indictment alleges that the presentation includes four major misrepresentations about Huawei’s ownership and control of Skycom, including that Meng’s membership on the board was to “help Huawei to better understand Skycom’s financial results and business performance, and to strengthen and monitor Skycom’s compliance.” 

Meng traveled to John F. Kennedy International Airport in early 2014, “carrying an electronic device that contained a file in unallocated space — indicating that the file may have been deleted.” The file was headed “Suggested Talking Points,” but how the U.S. obtained the file is not mentioned.

Security guards outside Meng Wanzhou’s Dunbar house on Jan. 28.

The U.S. charged that in 2017, Huawei and Huawei U.S.A. learned of the U.S. government’s investigation of Huawei, so the companies “made efforts to move witnesses with knowledge about Huawei’s Iran-based business to the PRC, and beyond the jurisdiction of the U.S. government, and to destroy and conceal evidence in the United States of Huawei’s Iran-based business.” 

The indictment listed five Skycom transactions in U.S. dollars in 2013 and 2014 totalling almost $314,000 and said that the U.S. would file for criminal forfeiture of real or personal property upon conviction. That opens the door for the U.S. to take over a second property on Matthews Drive in Vancouver’s Shaughnessy. 

But first, Meng would need to be extradited, which could take months or years.

Meanwhile, another 10 charges were filed in Seattle alleging that Huawei stole T-Mobile trade secrets between 2012 and 2014 about the telecom’s Tappy Robot System which was developed to find software errors and other problems before new phones are sold to customers. 

“The Tappy robot performs ‘touches’ on phones that simulate how people use their phones. Tappy tests, among other things, the responsiveness, performance, and stability of the phone’s user interface.” 

In 2010, Futurewei Technologies, the predecessor of Huawei USA, agreed to supply phones to T-Mobile. In 2012, T-Mobile granted Huawei engineers access to Tappy for testing Huawei phones. Huawei signed two confidentiality agreements in August 2012, promising that its employees would not photograph or copy Tappy, attempt to reverse engineer Tappy’s software or hack the robot. 

The Seattle court filing says Huawei used various means to subvert the agreement and copy T-Mobile-developed technology for Huawei’s xDeviceRobot.

The FBI discovered email that said Huawei offered incentives to its workers based on “the value of information they stole from other companies around the world, and provided to Huawei via an encrypted email address.”

A federal jury awarded T-Mobile $4.8 million in damages in 2017 after it sued Huawei for $502 million for stealing trade secrets. 

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Huawei PowerPoint by on Scribd

Bob Mackin Two days after Canada’s ambassador

Bob Mackin

The managing partner of a Vancouver-headquartered personal injury law firm went to social media on Jan. 25 to announce his vote for Tony Harris in the Nanaimo by-election. 

“I voted for the BC Liberals in Nanaimo because they won’t slap 17 new/increased taxes on the city and screw the injured victim on an ICBC claim,” wrote Wes Mussio at 11:11 p.m. Jan. 25, in a since-deleted Tweet from Qualicum Beach. “Yes the Liberals have ‘issues’ but the NDP are terrible for Nanaimo business, the local economy and most homeowners.”

Nanaimo Clippers’ owner’s deleted Tweet (Twitter)

Mussio’s profile listed Vancouver as his location. He since changed that to Nanaimo. 

Mussio bought the Nanaimo Clippers of the B.C. Hockey League in fall 2017 and told theBreaker.news that he works at the Nanaimo satellite office of his Mussio Goodman firm. He said his principal residence is in the Departure Bay area of Nanaimo and that he spends only one day a week in Vancouver during hockey season, at the Shaughnessy house his wife owns.

“I live [in Nanaimo], I run a business there — two businesses — I’m there more than I’m in Vancouver,” Mussio said. “I’m more connected to Nanaimo than most people around Nanaimo. A lot of people have secondary houses there.”

Before last fall’s Vancouver civic election, he listed his Shaughnessy address on the nomination form for wife Penny Mussio’s unsuccessful city council run on Wai Young’s Coalition Vancouver ticket. Mussio said he since moved to Nanaimo to manage the Clippers’ business operations and live with his son, defenseman Devon Mussio who was traded to Nanaimo in October. He said he did not vote in either Vancouver or Nanaimo civic elections because he was in transition. 

Vancouver vs. Nanaimo; before and after (Twitter)

Social media has been rife with photographs of BC Liberal and NDP supporters from the Lower Mainland and Interior taking BC Ferries to work on campaigns for the Jan. 30 by-election. Sheila Malcolmson supporter Jinny Sims, the NDP Minister of Citizens Services and a Surrey MLA, lists Nanaimo residential property in her annual public disclosure. B.C. Conservative candidate Justin Greenwood lives in Langley, but was raised in Central Saanich and has a brother in Nanaimo.

With such a high stakes by-election, could some partisans be visiting the Hub City on extended vacations in order to cast a vote for their favourite party? 

The Election Act says Canadian citizens who are at least 18-years-old and B.C. residents for six months are eligible to vote. There is no time requirement to be resident of a certain riding. It is possible for transients to vote.

“A temporary residence, such as a hotel, can be a home address only if you consider this to be your home,” says the Elections BC website. “Individuals with no fixed place of residence may use the address of a shelter, hostel, or similar institution that provides food, lodging, or other social services.”

Elections BC spokeswoman Rebecca Penz said the Election Act prohibits individuals who are temporarily in the electoral district from voting in the by-election. 

“An individual’s residence is the place where they live and to which, whenever absent, they intend to return,” Penz said. “An individual may only be a resident of one place at a time, therefore it would be a contravention of the Act to live outside of the district and claim residency in the district for the purposes of voting.”

Clarification:

Mr. Mussio is required by the Junior A B.C. Hockey League to be a local owner as part of the Nanaimo Clippers franchise agreement. As such, he has lived in rental residences in Nanaimo since buying the franchise in November 2017 — all within the Nanaimo provincial riding boundaries — and is actively pursuing the purchase of a residence in Nanaimo. He is neither owner nor renter of personal space in Vancouver. We sincerely apologize for any misunderstanding.

In October of 2018, Mr. Mussio expanded his role with the Nanaimo Clippers and took over the business operations of the franchise when two senior managers departed. He is also the sole lawyer working at the Nanaimo office of the Mussio Goodman law firm, which specializes in ICBC cases, published the guide What ICBC Does Not Want You to Know and operates the ICBCHelp.com website. Mr. Mussio also co-publishes Backroad Mapbooks, the must-have guides for outdoor recreation enthusiasts across Canada.  

The Clippers play home games at the Frank Crane Arena in Nanaimo. Four games remain in the regular season and tickets range from $7.25 for children 12 and under to $16.70 for adults. Go Clippers! 

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Bob Mackin The managing partner of a Vancouver-headquartered

Luxury overseas travel. Expensive custom-tailored suits, shiny watches and major league baseball tickets. A log-splitter. Schemes to collect insurance benefits, retirement allowances and pay-in-lieu of vacation. All on the public tab. 

Clerk Craig James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz have a lot to answer to, after Speaker Darryl Plecas followed through on his pledge to reveal some of the reasons why he went to the RCMP, which is investigating the Nov. 20-suspended officials. 

Plecas’s outrageous 76-page report, published Jan. 21, contains shocking revelations on almost every page. Plecas said it is the tip of the iceberg. 

“The impact that all of this has all had on taxpayers, I want us to get to a place where we get our money back,” Plecas said at an event in his Abbotsford South riding, two days after the Legislative Assembly Management Committee agreed to publish the report, seek a forensic audit by an out-of-province auditor, review workplace policies and procedures and consider whether James and Lenz should be fired outright. The two officials, suspended with full pay and benefits, have until Feb. 1 to respond to the report. They maintain they did no wrong. 

On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, hear from Plecas, his chief of staff Alan Mullen, Premier John Horgan, BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson and others. Plus, we go into the Legislature’s audio vault to find out how it all began in June 2011 when the BC Liberal government made James the clerk without an open competition and without unanimous support. 

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Luxury overseas travel. Expensive custom-tailored suits, shiny

Bob Mackin

Now we know why the alarm bells went-off for Speaker Darryl Plecas, after the Jan. 21 release of his scathing report on corrupt activity in the B.C. Legislature.  

The spending scandal has not been the finest hour for some of the biggest names who report for some of the biggest media outlets about provincial politics. Outlets that have lost substantial marketshare over the last decade amid the tango of technological change, corporate media consolidation and newsroom cutbacks. 

Gary Lenz (left), ex-speaker Linda Reid and Craig James (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association)

I have compiled a selection of the goofy groupthink and ludicrous lines that just didn’t age well, beginning the day that Clerk Craig James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz were unanimously suspended by the Legislature and the RCMP investigation came to light.

[James and Lenz] are two very well-liked and highly-respected people who have been on the scene at the B.C. Legislature for a number of years. 

–Keith Baldrey, Global BC, Nov. 20

James, a friendly fellow who rides his bike to work and who will happily invite you into his office for a chat, claimed to have no idea. 

—Mike Smyth, The Province, Nov. 21

Right now, it appears to be Darryl Plecas and Alan Mullen that are in control of the Legislature, not the MLAs… the morale, I can tell you of a lot of people who served under both [James and Lenz] has suffered as a result of this.”

—Keith Baldrey, CKNW, Nov. 22

Tom Fletcher (Black Press)

Before [Linda] Reid, Penticton MLA Bill Barisoff kept a tight leash on the press gallery and a veil over legislature finances, ruling with an imperial disdain not usually seen in trucking company owners. At least I’d buy a used truck from Barisoff, which is more than I can say for the current occupant of the ornate old speaker’s office, Abbotsford South MLA Darryl Plecas. 

Last year Plecas played a key role in toppling the B.C. Liberals…*

—Tom Fletcher, Black Press, Nov. 25 

[*editor’s note: Plecas was not involved in “toppling the BC Liberals.” He was actually among the toppled. Plecas and 41 other BC Liberal MLAs were outvoted by NDP and Greens in the June 29, 2017 confidence vote on the throne speech. That led to the John Horgan government.] 

James said there is a strict auditing system in place at the building to track public dollars and prevent their theft or misuse. 

“I have established processes in the legislative assembly that are essentially bulletproof,” he said.

Both men seemed very confident of their innocence. And the fact that they would hold a press conference and take questions from reporters also says a lot.* 

—Mike Smyth, The Province, Nov. 27

News 1130’s Bill Good (Capital Direct)

[*editor’s note: Just because someone hires a public relations company and invites cameras and microphones does not automatically mean the subject is candid. Exhibit A, Donald Trump.] 

It’s hard not to lay the blame for the current mess at the hands of the speaker Darryl Plecas.

—Bill Good, News 1130, Nov. 28

Despite how wondrously this matter has been botched by the Speaker’s office, and I mean from the start, the fact remains two men are under RCMP investigation… I don’t see how the two men can return to their jobs (as they are requesting) until the investigation has been completed — as much as I sympathize with them for the suffering it’s undoubtedly caused. 

This will come to a conclusion, hopefully soon. And when it does, my gut tells me there will be some explaining to do. Lots of it. And not by the two men whose activities are being investigated.

—Gary Mason, Globe and Mail, Nov. 28

Postmedia’s Rob Shaw (Twitter)

But Reid, to her credit, never tried to investigate [Craig] James… To prevent another scandal, MLAs will need to pay more attention to who they pick for the position, as well as keep an eye on what the Speaker is doing. 

—Rob Shaw, Vancouver Sun, Dec. 3

It seems equally unlikely Plecas will actually, as he promised, explain all his concerns when he reconvenes MLAs in mid-January…

The NDP, now increasingly anxious about how the stability of its government rests on the shaky foundation of the Speaker’s credibility…

—Rob Shaw, Vancouver Sun, Dec. 10

While other outlets were madly intent on grilling the whistleblower and his aide, theBreaker.news was focused on specious spending and clandestine contracting in what is often called “the people’s house.” It was a scandal waiting to happen because the B.C. Legislature is an anachronism.

James and Lenz never imagined their secrets would be exposed by the speaker (who they seemed to forget was a renowned criminology professor), because they functioned comfortably in a high-paying vacuum where B.C.’s freedom of information laws do not apply and, according to the Plecas report, those that questioned their authority were shown the door.

Now it’s your turn, Premier Horgan, David Eby, Mike Farnworth and Jinny Sims, to amend the FOI laws, bring the Legislature into the 21st century and restore public trust and confidence.

Will you?

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Bob Mackin Now we know why the alarm

Bob Mackin

The saga of Meng Wanzhou is fraught with geopolitical intrigue. 

Some wags say it’s a kind of dog-and-pony show. 

The Huawei chief financial officer, arrested Dec. 1 at Vancouver International Airport, has lived comfortably on-bail for more than a month at the $5 million Dunbar house in the name of her husband, Liu “Carlos” Xiaozong. 

Dog and pony walked across from Meng Wanzhou’s Dunbar house on Jan. 24 (photo submitted)

Security guards and sport utility vehicles surround her house around the clock. She is allowed to travel around the City of Vancouver and parts of Richmond and the North Shore between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. She has accepted a variety of visitors, some bearing gifts. 

Meng has a date at the Law Courts on Feb. 6, to fix a date for her extradition proceedings. The United States is expected to submit its case to Canadian officials by the Jan. 30 deadline. 

Will comments by President Donald Trump and Canadian ambassador to China John McCallum undermine the court process? Trump suggested Meng could be a bargaining chip to reach a better trade deal with China. McCallum suggested Meng has a strong defense to avoid extradition to the U.S., where she could be jailed for 30 years if convicted of fraud.

Meng’s lifestyle is in stark contrast to the treatment of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor and diplomat Michael Kovrig, who were arbitrarily arrested and jailed in China in retaliation for Meng’s arrest.

A source of theBreaker.news who was in the neighbourhood on Jan. 24 found none other than Chinese-American Internet celebrity Brother Sway. 

And an area resident walking a dog and a pony across the street. 

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Bob Mackin The saga of Meng Wanzhou is

Bob Mackin

As the B.C. Legislature corruption scandal widens, Green Party leader Andrew Weaver called on ex-speaker Linda Reid to resign her assistant deputy speaker post on Jan. 23. But the 28-year Richmond BC Liberal MLA told Global News that she is going nowhere.

“I would never knowingly, willingly claim for something I wasn’t entitled to,” Reid said, pledging to cooperate with an audit ordered Jan. 21 by the Legislative Assembly Management Committee. “I have never done that in my career.”

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

In 2013, Reid knowingly and willingly claimed for her husband’s business class airfare, meals and hotel when she attended a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in South Africa. In March 2014, when Reid was exposed, she said she reimbursed the public treasury for $5,528.16 for the airfare and would eventually repay the rest of her husband’s costs.

Did she? 

Beginning in 2014, this reporter persistently sought proof from Reid. She has never acknowledged phone or email messages, much less shown any proof of repayment. Reid did not respond to theBreaker.news queries on Jan. 23.

The year 2014 was also when $79,000 of renovations to Reid’s riding office in Garden City Mall caught the eye of RCMP officials. A brown bench was bolted to concrete  by the curb and surveillance cameras installed, without any recommendation from police. Reid also renovated the kitchen and bathroom, but no charges were laid. Landlord Farrell Estates donated $24,240 to the BC Liberals between 2005 and 2017.

Reid’s latest controversy stems from the report by Speaker Darryl Plecas into alleged corruption at the Legislature. Plecas’s Jan. 21 report recounted how a BC Liberal aide was fired for questioning Reid’s expense reports. 

Connor Gibson was applauded by BC Liberal MLAs when he was introduced in the Legislature on May 29 of last year. Former Education Minister Mike Bernier joked that members of the BC Liberal caucus “had a bit of an arm wrestle” about who would introduce Gibson, his legislative assistant. Bernier then gave Gibson a glowing review that is recorded in the Hansard transcript for perpetuity.

Linda Reid’s Richmond constituency office, where a bench was installed because of her security fears. (Mackin)

“I think that [Connor is] probably one of the strongest, hardest-working LAs, because he puts up with quite a motley crew of MLAs,” Bernier said.

Just two days later, on May 31, Gibson was fired. 

In the Plecas report, where he was identified by the initials “AB,” it says Gibson was told it was for “budget concerns.”

“[He] believed he was fired for refusing to do something that he thought was unethical, and he was upset about that,” Plecas wrote.

Gibson had come forward to Plecas’s aide Alan Mullen, and agreed to an interview with Mullen, Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms Randy Ennis and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz two weeks after he was fired. “[His] concerns were that mileage claims were being made for trips the MLA had taken by taxi, and full day per diems were claimed when meals had been provided by hosts that the MLA was meeting with. Mr. Lenz remarked that he thought a forensic audit was needed,” Plecas wrote.

Later that afternoon, following the meeting, Lenz called Mullen and told him that the complaint was unsubstantiated. Meanwhile, Plecas and James were on a goodwill visit to China and having a conversation over breakfast. 

“[James] said words to the effect of, ‘I spoke with Kate [Ryan-Lloyd, the deputy clerk] and told her to rein Gary in and put a stop to this, otherwise we will all wear it’,” the report said.

Plecas spoke with Ryan-Lloyd on June 20 and she said James did not contact her about Gibson’s case. On June 20, Ryan-Lloyd told Plecas that James went to Vancouver to meet with lawyer Geoff Plant, about how to “rein in Gary and ensure he wouldn’t be conducting investigations in the future”.

Linda Reid hiding under her desk for an earthquake drill in 2018. (Twitter)

Plant is a former BC Liberal attorney general and partner at the Gall Legge Grant Zwack law firm that billed the Legislature $105,478 for the year-ended March 31, 2018.

“Any officer who takes steps to summarily quash an investigation at a preliminary stage, with an express justification of protecting expense recording patterns and insulating them from review, is a serious matter that warrants a proper enquiry,” Plecas wrote.

“I was uncomfortable with Mr. James’ suggestion that, if the matter came to light, it would have broader negative ramifications, together with his claim to have suppressed an internal investigation into a genuine issue raised in good faith by a concerned employee.”

Gibson’s case was contained in a section of Plecas’s report about shoddy workplace management at the Legislature. Some 16 ex-employees have come forward to Plecas and Mullen. Many of the fired workers had raised concerns about expense irregularities and financial mismanagement. 

“It appears that this practice of sudden without-cause terminations has fostered a culture of insecurity among staff in at least some of the departments at the Legislative Assembly that if employees spoke up about concerns or fell out of favour they could lose their jobs without warning,” Plecas wrote. “As a result, staff have stayed quiet about what they have observed.”

The all-party Legislative Assembly Management Committee voted unanimously to review workplace policies and procedures. Plecas also recommended whistleblower protection. A section of the report that dealt with termination of employees included a quote from an unnamed, 2013-fired employee. 

“I still feel disheartened over losing my job there because there’s no reason I should have been let go… when I worked there, I felt I was walking in the footsteps of history, that I was actually part of history, that I was part of something in British Columbia, and something that is really, really important.”

In 2013, then-Speaker Linda Reid billed taxpayers for a South African safari with her husband. (Twitter)

Plecas wrote that a public employer should set a standard for a respectful workplace. The Legislative Assembly, however, lacks protection for workers, because it is not unionized and the Employment Standards Act and Human Rights Code do not apply.

“Unnecessary terminations in which terminated employees receive pay in lieu of notice is also a costly practice for an employer: severance payments, recruiting expenses, training costs, lost productivity and loss of institutional knowledge are costs needlessly incurred,” said Plecas’s report.

The annual Legislative Assembly financial report shows the steadily rising costs of severance settlements, from $81,739 in the 2012-13 fiscal year to $268,802 in 2015-16 and $540,421 in 2017-18. 

The spotlight falls on Reid just days before she hosts her riding association’s annual $350-a-plate Robbie Burns Dinner fundraiser on Jan. 25 at the Mayfair Lakes Golf and Country Club. There is no mention of the scotch tasting that was advertised during the years when Reid was speaker.

In his report, Plecas recalled discovering three liquor cabinets in the speaker’s office. “It had been my previous experience that the government does not pay for alcohol for staff or members’ personal consumption, so this was surprising to me.”

An RCMP investigation of the Nov. 20-suspended James and Lenz is ongoing. They claim their innocence. LAMC has asked for an explanation from both of them and could move to fire them outright.

On Jan. 23, Plecas told reporters in Abbotsford that he wants to see justice for the staffers who were fired under James and Lenz. 

“The impact that all of this has happened on taxpayers,” Plecas said. “I want us to get to a place where we get our money back.”

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Bob Mackin As the B.C. Legislature corruption scandal

Bob Mackin

Did suspended B.C. Legislature Clerk Craig James show favouritism to Christy Clark and the BC Liberals in return for awarding him the job in 2011 without competition? 

That is a nagging question that Speaker Darryl Plecas leaves open for the reader to decide in his devastating Jan. 21 report that alleges corruption in the Legislature. 

“Multiple witnesses have informed the Speaker of their view that Mr. James was aligned with the BC Liberals (with some suggesting that Mr. James’ unexpected appointment as Clerk of the House was connected to his ‘doing a job’ for the government as acting Chief Electoral Officer),” Plecas wrote, referring to James’s much-criticized oversight of the anti-Harmonized Sales Tax petition in 2010.

Clerk Craig James came to Vancouver to swear-in Christy Clark as Westside-Kelowna MLA in 2013. (Facebook)

James got the promotion from clerk of committees in a controversial vote on June 2, 2011 when Rich Coleman was BC Liberal house leader. Then-NDP leader Adrian Dix did not dispute James’s qualifications to succeed the retiring George MacMinn, but steadfastly maintained there should have been a competitive process through the Legislative Assembly Management Committee. Instead, the BC Liberals, under then-premier Clark, used their majority to rubber-stamp James’s appointment.

“If he truly wanted to respect the position he holds, he would’ve said to the government this is not the right way to do it, even if it cost him the job,” said Dermod Travis of IntegrityBC. “The institution should always be more important than the individual holding the position in the institution.” 

Plecas wrote that, early in his tenure as speaker, the suspended Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz told him that James “was not impartial, and that he was in fact very close with the BC Liberal Party… Lenz added that I should not trust Mr. James.”

The clerk’s job description requires “full support of all political parties and [the clerk] must be seen as being even-handed and not connected to any political party.”

A comment by James nearly a year later suggested his relationship with the BC Liberals was complex.

After returning from an August 2018 trip to the United Kingdom, James asked Plecas when he would submit his bill for a $1,100 suit bought at the posh Ede & Ravenscroft store in London. Plecas said he wouldn’t charge taxpayers for the clothing.  

“I didn’t want to alarm him, so I added something to the effect of me being a public figure and that my expenses are undoubtedly scrutinized by the Members of the Opposition,” Plecas recalled. “He replied that I shouldn’t worry. He said that if they took issue with my expenses, he could put an end to it because he had ‘so much dirt on the Liberals’ and that he could threaten to ‘stop paying their legal bills’ or ‘quit paying their severance payments’. I don’t know what he was talking about, but it seemed an unusual comment.”

Said IntegrityBC’s Travis, “Anybody who is a clerk of any Legislature is going to hear anything that might pass through the halls of the Legislature. The fact that he would believe such information could be used to influence public debate is deplorable. That is so counter to what the job of the clerk of the Legislature is.”

Plecas found James spent almost $11,000 on 36 trips via Harbour Air, HeliJet and BC Ferries assured loading between Victoria and Vancouver over 18 months. He also took three trips to Penticton to meet Bill Barisoff, the BC Liberal who spent eight years in the speaker’s chair until 2013. 

“The stated purpose of those trips listed on his expense claim form is typically a single meeting; in many cases, it is not clear how the meetings fall within Mr. James’ responsibilities as Clerk of the House,” said Plecas’s report. “On these trips, Mr. James often expenses lunches for the entire group attending the meeting; if not, he consistently claims a per diem for the relevant meal. He often claims mileage that exceeds what would be expected given the indicated destination.”

Which BC Liberals did James meet? 

During the period, James traveled to meet with Clark in Vancouver: once on July 17, 2017, her final day as premier, and the remainder — Oct. 13, 2017, Dec. 14, 2017, and May 2, 2018 — after she was out of politics. On the latter date, James billed taxpayers $120.18 for lunch at the Seasons in the Park restaurant.

Ex-BC Liberal attorney general Geoff Plant (LTSA)

Clark did not respond to email and phone interview requests about her meetings with James. 

“She won’t be providing any comments on that,” said Gul Gulsen, Clark’s chief of staff at the Bennett Jones law firm where she is a special advisor. (Gulsen spent two tours of duty as executive assistant in the premier’s office.)

James traveled to Vancouver most often for meetings with Geoff Plant, the former 19-year BC Liberal MLA who was attorney general from 2001 to 2005. Plant remains active in the party: a year ago, Plant was the chief returning officer for the leadership contest that resulted in Andrew Wilkinson’s win. 

theBreaker.news counted 14 meetings with Plant. He is now a partner with the Gall Legge Grant Zwack law firm that billed the Legislature $105,478 for the year-ended March 31, 2018.

June 20, 2018 was a particularly interesting day. James’s meeting with Plant was related to the quashing of Lenz’s investigation into a complaint by whistleblower Connor Gibson, a BC Liberal staffer fired after questioning orders to submit improper expense claims on behalf of Linda Reid, the longtime Richmond MLA who was speaker from 2013 to 2017.

That same meeting included an $80.40 lunch at the Marriott Hotel’s Showcase Restaurant with real estate lawyer Paul Barbeau. At the time, Barbeau was Wilkinson’s handpicked representative on the party executive board, which manages the party’s budget, finances and promotes its purposes and principles, according to a March 21 announcement on the Barbeau Evans website. Last November, Barbeau became BC Liberal president. His firm did not show up on the list of Legislature suppliers over $25,000 for the last fiscal year. 

Neither Barbeau nor Plant returned phone calls or emails from theBreaker.news.

Most-intriguing, however, was the reason for the meeting.

James’s expense form reads: “Vancouver-Point Grey.”

That is the name of the riding represented by NDP Attorney General David Eby, whose responsibilities also include auto insurance, gambling and liquor. Eby knocked-off Clark in the 2013 election. Wilkinson’s right-hand-man Barbeau has openly opposed the NDP’s new tax on residential property worth more than $3 million (he lives at a Dunbar property worth more than $5 million). Staff at party headquarters helped organize lawn signs, protests and anonymous online petitions targeting Eby in Vancouver-Point Grey over what the NDP has euphemistically called a “school surtax.”

While James visited Vancouver that day via BC Ferries assured loading — which cost $310 round-trip — he also took a detour to Vancouver International Airport and included a $4.50 charge for a 14-minute stay at the parking lot in his expense report. It does not identify who he was dropping-off or picking-up. 

Paul Barbeau (LinkedIn)

James also traveled to Vancouver for a Jan. 31, 2018 meeting at the Liberal Vancouver offices, four days before the party’s leadership election. The expense claim does not say who he met there. On April 4 of last year, he visited BC Liberal MLA Dan Davies in a Vancouver hospital, after Davies suffered an injury while working part-time at a Fort St. John construction site.

James’s expenses also show he met on four occasions with lawyer John Hunter, whose Hunter Litigation Chambers billed the Legislature $44,866 for the last fiscal year. Two of the meetings, on May 4 and 17, 2017, are in dispute. 

Hunter was named as a judge to the B.C. Court of Appeal on April 12, 2017 and sworn-in eight days later. theBreaker.news provided Bruce Cohen, the spokesman for B.C.’s superior courts, a copy of James’s May 17, 2017 expense claim. But Cohen said Hunter told him he did not speak to or meet with James “at any time” after his judicial appointment was announced. 

James and Lenz are under investigation by the RCMP and two special prosecutors, but deny wrongdoing. They are represented by lawyers from the Fasken law firm, which donated $439,785 to the BC Liberals between 2005 and 2017.

Plecas was twice-elected as a BC Liberal MLA in Abbotsford South, but his membership was cancelled after becoming speaker in September 2017. He had threatened earlier that summer to leave caucus and sit as an independent if Clark did not quit as leader. 

theBreaker.news exclusively reported that the “final straw” for Plecas was Clark’s plan to replace non-partisan constituency office workers with BC Liberal staff in a bid to undermine the NDP government. Legislature rules require constituency offices to be non-political environments.

Plecas, who was a criminology professor before entering politics, is a rare independent speaker. He is not beholden to any party leader to sign his nomination papers, should he seek re-election. 

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Bob Mackin Did suspended B.C. Legislature Clerk Craig