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Bob Mackin

The Olympic flag will pass to Beijing 2022 at Sunday’s PyeongChang 2018 closing ceremony, and the former CEO of Vancouver 2010 is already poised to capitalize on the return of the five-ring circus to China.  

John Furlong’s 2011 memoir, Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics that Changed a Country, was published last summer in Chinese with the blessing of Xi Jinping’s government. theBreaker obtained a copy and translated several chapters of the book, which is known in China as The Sun Finally Shines

Covers of Furlong’s 2011 book and the 2017 Chinese edition.

theBreaker compared the most-controversial sections of the English edition with the Chinese edition and found they are substantially the same, despite a high-profile international controversy that raged for more than three years.  

Errors and omissions in the original English publication inspired journalist Laura Robinson’s September 2012 exposé in the Georgia Straight newspaper, which was headlined John Furlong biography omits secret past in Burns Lake

Just like the English edition, the translation of the Chinese edition includes Furlong’s anecdote about leaving his native Ireland and traveling to Canada on an autumn day in 1974, with his wife and their son and daughter, and meeting a customs officer in Edmonton who told him “Welcome to Canada, please make us better.”

Furlong wrote that he was on his way to a teaching job at a Catholic high school in Prince George, British Columbia. However, Robinson revealed that Furlong had already been in Canada. He originally came in 1969 as an 18-year-old to work as a gym teacher at the Immaculata Catholic elementary school for aboriginal children. 

Forty-three years later, several students accused him of mental, physical and sexual abuse. 

Furlong denied all the allegations and the RCMP did not recommend charges. None of the allegations has been tested in court. On the day that Robinson’s feature was published, Furlong’s co-author, Gary Mason, admitted that Furlong never told him about his time in Burns Lake. Furlong said that he didn’t include his time in Burns Lake in Patriot Hearts because it was “fairly brief and fairly uneventful.”

Furlong filed, but later withdrew, defamation lawsuits against Robinson and the Georgia Straight. Robinson countersued Furlong for defamation, but a judge ruled in September 2015 that Furlong had a right to defend his reputation.  

Laura Robinson’s exposé in the Georgia Straight, Sept. 27, 2012.

Cathy Woodgate, one of the former students who alleged abuse, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2015, asking for Trudeau to remove Furlong from chairing the federally funded, Canadian Olympic Committee affiliate, Own the Podium.

At its annual meeting in July 2016, the Assembly of First Nations resolved to ask the federal government for a “thorough and impartial investigation” into allegations that Furlong abused aboriginal students. 

Furlong travelled to the PyeongChang Olympics in his capacity as chair of Own the Podium. He also leads a Canadian Olympic Committee group that is advising Calgary on a potential bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

Russian intrigue, Korean bribery 

Just like the English edition, the translation of the Chinese edition mentions the death of his cousin, Siobhan Roice, after a terrorist car bomb exploded in Dublin in spring 1974. Furlong claimed that his father Jack was never the same after he identified Roice’s body at a makeshift morgue.  

The English translation of the Chinese edition of Patriot Hearts reads: 

However, everything changed after the afternoon of May 14 (sic), 1974. On this day, the life of our family has been completely changed…

The government urged people who lost their loved ones to go to a temporary mortuary in the city centre to claim their bodies. It was too unbearable for my aunt and uncle, and their home was 130 kilometres from the city centre. My father volunteered to take on this task. Later, he described the scene as a temporary morgue brutal beyond the imagination of people. Bombs exploded people into pieces, broken bodies were collected into bags, my father can only confirm the body of the ring by the fingers of Siobhan.

Robinson interviewed Roice’s brother Jim and quoted from a 2003 Irish newspaper interview with her father Ned, who said he found Siobhan’s body intact after the May 17, 1974 attack. 

Robinson’s lawyer, Bryan Baynham, challenged Furlong’s chronology and credibility in B.C. Supreme Court on June 23, 2015. Evidence showed that Furlong had returned to Ireland in 1972 after he was the victim of an assault during a Prince George amateur soccer game that he refereed. 

Furlong told the court that the date of his move to Canada was “frankly, irrelevant.”

“You didn’t arrive in Canada as a landed immigrant until 1975,” Baynham said.

“I’ll give you this,” Furlong replied. “I won’t say it was 1974.”

From the 2017 Chinese edition of John Furlong’s 2011 memoir.

As for his late cousin, Furlong maintained in court that Siobhan was “blown apart” and that “my version of the facts is true.” He told the court that Siobhan’s true condition was withheld from her mother for fear of adding to her grief. But he could not recall the last time he had spoken with the Roices.  

The head of Justice for the Forgotten, an Irish organization that represents victims of the 1974 terrorist attack, told this reporter in 2015 that she knew the Roices and confirmed that Siobhan’s father had travelled to Dublin to identify his daughter. “She was killed, almost certainly instantly, but was not ‘blown apart’,” said Margaret Urwin.

Like the English edition, the Chinese edition also contains sections that raised the eyebrows of the International Olympic Committee in 2011. Furlong had written about a non-monetary deal with the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, to gain Russia’s votes in the host city election. He also alleged he saw members of South Korea’s bid team distribute watches and CD players during a meeting in Buenos Aires. The IOC had strict rules banning gifts after the Salt Lake 2002 bidding scandal. 

Furlong wrote that he travelled to Moscow with international bobsled executive Bob Storey to give Luzhkov advice on bidding for the 2012 Summer Games (which eventually went to London) in exchange for Russia’s six or seven votes.

Vancouver edged PyeongChang’s 2010 bid by just three votes in the second ballot victory at Prague in July 2003. PyeongChang lost again in 2007 to Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Winter Games, but finally won the 2018 hosting rights in 2011. 

The IOC, in May 2011, opted against disciplining Furlong. ”There is no evidence of wrongdoing and this is supported by John Furlong’s confirmation that no IOC members were involved in either case,” the IOC said at the time. 

The Chinese edition was published in mid-2017 by China Pictorial Publishing House with support of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development. 

All are arms of the Communist Party government.

The English title, lifted from O Canada, was changed for the Chinese market to The Sun Finally Shines

“The original title ‘Patriot Hearts‘ was about Canadian people’s patriotism, which created some distance for Chinese readers,” publisher Yu Jiutao told China.org.cn. ‘The Sun Finally Shines is actually the title of one of its chapters. We wanted it to sound inspiring to Chinese readers, as it is.”

Bob Mackin The Olympic flag will pass to

Bob Mackin

Veteran BC Liberal and federal Conservative spinner and part-time pundit Alise Mills popped up in Toronto media on Feb. 21. 

Toronto Newstalk 1010 host Jerry Agar didn’t buy Alise Mills’ explanation for Patrick Brown’s no show on Feb. 21.

Her latest gig is press secretary for embattled ex-Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown, who is mounting a comeback after being forced to resign over sexual harassment allegations. A party committee is deliberating on whether to deny Brown’s nomination for the June provincial election, which would ruin his bid to regain the leadership.

Brown was scheduled for an in-studio interview with Newstalk 1010’s conservative talkshow host Jerry Agar.

Instead of Brown, Agar got Mills. 

Minutes before the interview, Agar’s producer was informed that Brown would not be coming in. He would be available instead by phone. Then that didn’t happen. 

Mills called-in to apologize and to claim that it was all her fault. 

“This is just an issue of confusion over the schedule, and I won’t really get into it,” Mills said. 

Replied Agar: “But I’m going to stop you right there. We’ve been talking about this for several days. how confusing is it?” 

Mills: “We went back and forth on a couple of days…I gather there was a couple of other people booking the schedule. I don’t want to put this on anyone else, this one’s on me Jerry, that’s why I wanted to jump on the show. I apologize profusely.”

Agar: “I don’t understand how there can be any confusion on this. We were back and forth and back and forth, we’ve promoting the heck out of it on the radio station. I’m not buying that.” 

Mills: “Well you should buy it, because it’s the truth, and that’s why I’ve joined the show, Patrick is not avoiding any media today.”

Agar: “He’s avoided me, as a matter of fact… How about 11? Can he come in here at 11?” 

Mills: “Jerry, I have jumped on the show today to apologize profusely. Patrick is not avoiding your show, we’ve simply had an issue around scheduling… I’m taking full responsibility for that… I wanted to apologize to you and your listeners and let you know that it was just a scheduling issue, I take full responsibility for that…”

Agar: “[Producer] Becky was checking with you even as early as this morning.”

Mills: “I, I have not spoken to Becky this morning…”

Agar: “Well we’re getting to the point here, where and I’ve tried to be a defender to the parts I thought were unfair to Patrick Brown in this whole brouhaha that’s going on… but it’s really time after time after time, everything is everybody else’s fault, and Patrick Brown isn’t responsible for anything.” 

Mills: “That’s simply not true, don’t conflate a scheduling issue, a human error this morning with his character and his truth, I think that’s taking too far. At this point Patrick has defended his reputation, he has cleared his name and he will continue to refute those other allegations. I’m taking full responsibility for the scheduling confusion…”

Agar: “What’s he doing?” 

Mills: “He’s, he’s in meetings this morning…”

Agar: “Is he doing other media today?”

Mills: “Um, he is going to be, we are beginning the campaigning today, Jerry, we are, Patrick is going to be on the ground meeting with members, exactly where he should be. The focus now has to shift to meeting with his many supporters, and also building support…

Agar: “I want to make a guess. You were already told he can’t run for leader and that’s why he’s decided not to come in.”

Mills: “Jerry that would be spreading fake news, that’s simply not true.”

Agar: “So you are telling me that there has been no decision made from the party.”

Mills: “No decision, you shouldn’t get your news off twitter Jerry. You should just wait for press releases.”

Agar: “I didn’t get that off twitter, I’m getting that from you because the candidate won’t show up.”

Mills: “So you have conflated my scheduling mistake with the party denying his right to run for leader and that he that he is somehow avoiding talking to you about this. I think this is why Canadians are fed up with where we are with the news media today… 

Agar: “I’m not reporting, I’m trying to find out from you what’s going on, I know you can apologize and you’re not going to change your story, because it doesn’t make sense to me…”

Agar continued to grill Mills. Mills continued to defend Brown. 

Mills: “This is not just a story about Patrick Brown. This is a story of democracy, civil liberties and breach of privacy, constitutional rights, all the above Jerry.

Agar: “Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff Patrick should be here saying. When’s he coming in?” 

Mills: “I will talk to Becky about it, your producer.”

Agar: “Uh-huh, well she’s here right now.” 

Mills: “We’re not going to negotiate or litigate this on air. That’s really unprofessional.”

Agar: “No, not showing up is unprofessional.” 

Mills: “Y’know Patrick did not not show up…”

Agar: “Oh, he’s here?” 

Mills: “Okay, Jerry, c’mon…” 

Agar: “Thanks for doing this.”

Mills: “Thank you for thanking me.”

After the interview, Agar told his listeners that “we had it in writing” that Brown would be on the show.

Listen to the interview at this link. 

Mills resorted to her familiar Trumpian tactics with Agar, accusing him of “fake news.” She also did that last August after theBreaker exclusively revealed how Darryl Plecas stood-up to Christy Clark, who then quit as leader of the BC Liberals after pledging to stay on and fight the Green-supported NDP government. In the wake of theBreaker bombshell, Plecas did an in-depth interview with the Abbotsford News. He later quit the BC Liberal caucus to become the Speaker of the B.C. Legislature. 

Meanwhile, Mills’ spot on CBC Radio’s post-budget B.C. political roundtable during the Feb. 20 edition of On the Coast was filled by Amy Robichaud from the backroom of Todd Stone’s failed leadership campaign. NDP lobbyist Bill Tieleman was introduced as a media commentator, not the lobbyist that he is (for 17 clients!). Tieleman also did not disclose his lobbying activities during the segment. 

When Tieleman appeared on the same show in December, after the Horgan government green-lit Site C, his work for pro-Site C unions was disclosed to listeners. But not to viewers when he later appeared with Mills on the CBC Vancouver supper hour newscast. 

Bob Mackin Veteran BC Liberal and federal Conservative

Bob Mackin

Last September’s British Columbia budget update came with an asterisk. 

The NDP government had to table a budget bill or the government would’ve shut down, so it didn’t include many of John Horgan’s key promises. It looked an awful lot like the pre-election BC Liberal budget. The Horgan Horde had only been in office for about seven weeks.

Now they’ve been in office for seven months, and the Feb. 20 edition was the first step at putting an orange stamp on government. No, it doesn’t include all the promises, but it ticks many boxes. Like any budget, it will also tick some people off.  

Here is what caught theBreaker’s eye. 

  • Finance Minister Carole James revealed that the government will crack down on tax fraud related to the real estate industry, by collecting information on presale condominium assignments and mandating a new beneficial ownership registry. 

Beneficial ownership will be declared on the Property Transfer Tax form and entered into a registry that will be made public through the Land Title Survey Authority. Laws will be amended to require corporations to hold their beneficial ownership information; how and when that will be publicly available is up to negotiations brokered by the federal government. 

Transparency International flagged the use of numbered companies and nominees as an epidemic of fraud and tax evasion. It’s 2016 No Reason To Hide report lobbied for a public beneficial ownership registry. 

  • The 15% foreign buyers’ tax in Metro Vancouver goes to 20% at midnight and expands to the Fraser Valley, Central Okanagan, Nanaimo and Victoria regions. A new tax on real estate speculation is coming, at $5 per $1,000 assessed value, to rise to $20 per $1,000 a year in 2019. “Primary residences and long term rentals will generally be exempt,” said the budget presentation. “Satellite families will be captured by the tax.” 

The 10% provincial sales tax luxury surtax on passenger vehicles over $125,000 will increase April 1 to 15% on vehicles worth $125,000 and up. It’ll double to 20% for cars and SUVs worth $150,000 or more. 

New taxes on houses and cars announced during the first week of the Year of the Dog, when there is likely an uptick in 10-Year Visa visitors from China to B.C.? A gutsy move. 

  • Despite money laundering in casinos intersecting with real estate and the illegal drug trade, the new B.C. budget allots less than $100,000 more for the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch in 2018-2019. Its budget remains less than $20 million. 

Meanwhile, policing and security will be cut by $5 million, from $400.6 million to $395.06 million. 

  • B.C. Lottery Corporation’s annual service plan, also released on budget day, contemplates a $64 million dip in net income next year, partially from measures to crack down on money laundering at casinos. 

“The decrease in fiscal 2018/19 net income reflects the assumption that BCLC’s casino business will experience an impact due to potential changes in anti-money laundering requirements, in combination with making necessary investments to ensure the long-term health of the overall business,” says the service plan.

Potential changes in anti-money laundering requirements, according to a sensitivity analysis, could mean the pendulum will swing $25 million to the black or $28 million to the red. 

  • The BC Liberals’ $700 million, three-year BC Home second mortgage loan program, a campaign gimmick announced in December 2016, will be cancelled March 31. It will cost $10 million a year to wind down for the next three years. All existing loans and accepted applications will be grandfathered. The money left in the budget will help create the new BC HousingHub office at BC Housing to connect private sector and non-profit agencies to create more affordable housing.

“A review undertaken by BC Housing concluded that the program has helped far fewer first time home buyers than originally projected and had a minimal impact on housing affordability,” said the service plan for the Municipal Affairs and Housing ministry.

  • The budget did not include the NDP’s promised $10-a-day daycare or $400 renters’ rebate. James said both are long-term goals, but some programs in this budget will help families needing daycare and renters. The government is spending $214 million on the subsidized bus pass program for 100,000 people on disability assistance, a program eliminated in 2016 by the BC Liberals. Seniors will ride BC Ferries for free again Mondays to Thursdays. 
  • Pot could be worth $50 million to government coffers when weed is legalized this summer. Liquor Distribution Branch is preparing to move to a leased warehouse this summer in Delta, a $57 million move expected to increase efficiency. The impact on liquor sales from the legalization of recreational marijuana is not known. The NDP government declared LDB the monopoly distributor for the province last December. 

“With this major project underway, there could be an impact on the LDB’s liquor related priorities in the near term.” 

LDB is also waiting for the Supreme Court of Canada to decide the Comeau case, about personal importation limits for taking liquor across provincial borders. Negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization challenge of protectionist B.C. wine sections in grocery stores could impact LDB. 

  • There is nothing in the budget for the proposed Broadway Subway or the Surrey LRT projects; money has been committed for the Pattullo Bridge replacement, which was announced last Friday.  
  • Full-time equivalent staffing in the central government is expected to increase by 500 to 29,400 next year. More staff will be hired to handle childcare and housing spending, as well as sheriffs, court services staff, social assistance services and conservation officers. 

“The projected increase in FTEs is also explained in part by new staffing to support activities related to cannabis legalization, enhanced support for workers and employers in matters related to WorkSafeBC, wildfire recovery efforts, land use planning and environmental management.” 

Bob Mackin Last September’s British Columbia budget update

Bob Mackin

So British Columbians wait. For law and order. 

Evidence is mounting about how casinos, real estate and the illicit trade of opiates intersect. The common denominator is the flood of money from Mainland China. 

Yes, hockey bags of cash, empty mansions with multiple European luxury cars (sans licence plates) and fentanyl overdose victims in bodybags are part of the same vicious circle in 21st century British Columbia. 

Attorney General Eby (Mackin)

The most-recent work by reporters Kathy Tomlinson and Sam Cooper has put more pressure on NDP Attorney General David Eby to act. And act now, he must. 

It won’t be easy, but Eby must clean up the mess left by his six BC Liberal predecessors: Suzanne Anton, Shirley Bond, Barry Penner, Mike de Jong, Wally Oppal and Geoff Plant. The latter was attorney general after Gordon Campbell came to power on a platform that promised no expanded gambling in B.C.

The opposite happened.

Under Campbell and his successor, Christy Clark, B.C. became Las Vegas North or Macau West, depending on your perspective. The BC Liberals became addicted to casino profits, even if it meant some of the money was dirty. While he was Solicitor General, ex-Mountie Rich Coleman shut down a police squad in 2009 that was supposed to protect British Columbians. At the peak of conceit, de Jong celebrated his 20 years of representing Abbotsford citizens in the Legislature, by roasting himself in Richmond at River Rock, a casino he was supposed to regulate

We are told the first steps toward law and order are coming in the Feb. 19 budget, but the public wants more than baby steps and they don’t want to wait years.

Eby has already ordered Peter German, a law professor and former head of the RCMP in Western Canada, to expand his casino money laundering review to consider suspicious real estate lending. German was hired last fall, shortly after Eby released the MNP report into River Rock Casino Resort that former gambling and real estate minister Mike de Jong buried for fear it would cost the BC Liberals their stranglehold on power. 

Before the provincial election, on March 21, 2017, Eby hosted Charbonneau Commission lawyer Sonia LeBel at the University of B.C.’s Allard School of Law on the same day he released an English translation of the Quebec anti-corruption inquiry’s key third volume: Schemes, Causes, Consequences and Recommendations. Eby was shocked with what he heard at an October 2016 Robson Square forum hosted by Transparency International, where officials from Quebec’s Unité permanente anticorruption. 

Robert Lafrenière, commissioner of the 2011-created UPAC, said at the “Follow the Money” event that the plague of corruption must be demystified. It is, in a nutshell,  “misuse of public resources, worsening of the public deficit, reduction in public revenues through tax evasion, [and] deterioration in the provision of public services and assets.”

Even rank-and-file NDP members want change. Last November’s convention adopted a Coquitlam-Burke Mountain resolution, calling for a comprehensive crackdown on corruption in B.C. 

Eby has increased the expectations and it is time for him to deliver. He spoke at UBC last December, saying the chickens have come home to roost after 16 years of BC Liberal indifference to corruption. “Our international reputation is on the line,” Eby said bluntly.

“It is clear, in my opinion, that the previous administration was aware we had a serious and growing reputational issue. It is also clear to me that they evaluated the costs of cracking down on white collar crime, on fraud, on money laundering, and determined that the benefits of inaction outweighed the costs of action. Because they did not take the actions required to address the issues we have. 

“It is hard for me not to speculate that some may gone further and seen a lax approach to money laundering, fraud, corporate transparency, land title registry transparency, as a competitive advantage, or a budgetary advantage, for the province.”

theBreaker asked Eby’s staff on Feb. 19 to arrange an interview, for some pre-budget details, but they failed to do so. They also did not answer who was the author of handwritten notes disclosed to theBreaker from a pivotal Sept. 25, 2017 meeting. It is believed the handwriting is Eby’s. 

The few lines visible in a heavily censored document give a glimpse into the meeting, the one where Eby was briefed on the “Vancouver Model” of money laundering, which had caught the attention of Canada’s partners in the “five eyes” security alliance: The United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. 

What the handwritten notes do confirm is that the meeting, about Anti-Money Laundering, included deputy minister Richard Fyfe, retiring Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch executive director of compliance Len Meilleur, his successor Anna Fitzgerald, GPEB intelligence and investigations unit manager Bob Stewart,  intelligence officer Scott McGregor, and Joint Illegal Gaming Investigation Team investigations manager Ken Ackles. 

There was discussion about the MNP report, which was released Sept. 22.

“Reform of Corporate Registry and Land Title Office.” 

“Possibility of expanding references beyond purely gaming.”

“Issue around Paragon coming to B.C. Didn’t have enough background info re granting or reviewing licences.”

B.C. does not have a registry of beneficial ownership of real estate or companies, a weakness identified in a 2016 Transparency International “No Reason to Hide” report that included input from Eby. That’s the one that said “shell companies are effectively financial getaway cars that can be used to enable criminals to vanish without a trace.” 

The NDP’s 2017 platform used icons to represent BC Liberal malfeasance (NDP)

There is no explanation why German’s references weren’t immediately expanded beyond gaming. 

Paragon opened its Parq casino later that week. Until the River Rock money laundering scandal, and while he was the opposition critic for gambling, Paragon attracted intense scrutiny from Eby. How the little-known Las Vegas company became a big time player in B.C. remains mysterious. Campbell crony T. Richard Turner, who chaired ICBC and the B.C. Lottery Corp., became a Paragon director. 

The rest of the pages, more than two dozen, were censored, in full, for intergovernmental relations, law enforcement and recommendations or advice.

So British Columbians wait. For law and order. 

MAG-2017-74079 – Eby Gaming Briefing by BobMackin on Scribd

Bob Mackin So British Columbians wait. For law

Bob Mackin

A controversial Mexican union boss, who fled to British Columbia in 2006 with his wife and three children, is a candidate for his homeland’s senate, reports Mexico’s El Universal newspaper.

Los Mineros president Napoleon Gomez Urrutia was nominated by the Morena party on Feb. 18, the eve of the 12th anniversary of an explosion at a coal mine that killed 65 men in Coahuila. 

Leo Gerard (left), Napoleon Gomez Urrutia and Len McCluskey (Facebook)

Gomez blamed mining company Grupo Mexico and the Mexican government for “industrial homicide.” He was charged in June 2006 for allegedly embezzling USD$55 million from a union trust fund that was dissolved in 2005. 

Oxford-educated Gomez succeeded his father as the union’s leader in 2000, but never worked in a mine. He denied the charges. A Mexican appeal court, on Aug. 28, 2014, called the charges unconstitutional and cancelled an arrest warrant. 

In 2013, the year before he became a Canadian citizen, Gomez published his memoir, Collapse of Dignity: The Story of a Mining Tragedy and the Fight against Greed and Corruption in Mexico. The foreword was written by United Steelworkers’ boss and B.C. NDP backer Leo Gerard. 

Elections BC’s database shows seven donations to the NDP, from 2009 to 2017, by Napoleon Gomez, totalling $2,680. 

Last September, Jerry Dias, president of Canada’s Unifor union, spoke at a Mexico City labour convention where he called on the Mexican government to let Gomez return safely. 

Mexico has a 128-member Senate, which is elected, in-part, by proportional representation. Senators are elected to six-year terms. Voting day is July 1. 

Announcement of Gomez’s candidacy, from Los Mineros website.

El Universal reported that 89 miners have died in Coahuila since the 2006 disaster. From 2008 to the third quarter of 2016, 311 miners died on the job in Mexico, according to government statistics obtained by the newspaper.

Update (Feb. 28): El Universal has reported that Mexico’s Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration (JCFA) ordered Los Mineros to pay almost $55 million to workers affected by the 2005 trust dissolution. With interest, the award could be as high as $100 million. 

The newspaper reported that companies Industrial Minera Mexico and Grupo Mexico complied with obligations. theBreaker is seeking comment from both the USW and Gomez’s union, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos, Siderúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana.

 

Developing…

Bob Mackin A controversial Mexican union boss, who

On this week’s edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, host Bob Mackin interviews sports agent Brant Feldman, who is in PyeongChang for the 2018 Winter Olympics. 

Feldman represents a variety of Canadian and American athletes, including Canadian hockey player Meghan Agosta. She is taking a break from her duties as a Vancouver Police office in a quest to win another gold medal. 

Feldman offers his perspective on what it’s like on the ground in South Korea at the Games of Ice and Snow. 

Plus all the regular features. It’s free to listen below. Find out how you can get a free copy of Bob Mackin’s e-book, Red Mittens & Red Ink: The Vancouver Olympics

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Thank-you to James Plett, a $10/month newshound. Find out how to support theBreaker. Click here.

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On this week's edition of theBreaker.news Podcast,

Bob Mackin 

Vancouver, Surrey and Richmond tried to woo Amazon to set-up its second headquarters in Lotusland with promises of cost savings and secret incentives from the provincial government. 

That, according to the 50-page bid book obtained Feb. 16 by theBreaker

Introduction to the Vancouver Economic Commission bid for Amazon’s second headquarters.

Lotusland was among 238 bids from around North America in October, hoping to lure the tech giant’s expansion, which it said could be worth US$5 billion. In mid-January, 20 cities were shortlisted, including Toronto, which proactively released its 200-page bid book last October. The only Pacific time zone bidder on the list was Los Angeles. 

The Vancouver Economic Commission-led bid book, under the title “Vancouver We Are Home,” said software engineers work for half the price of the Seattle market (US$60,107/year vs. $US$113,906/year), the Canadian loonie tends to be cheaper than the American greenback, and Canada’s medicare system means health care costs are less for employers. The health care costs alone would save US$6 billion over a decade for 50,000 employees, the bid book said, “bringing total savings to USD$34 billion.” 

The bid was handicapped from the start by being too close to Seattle, but the bid book tried to turn that weakness into a strength.

“Seattle and Vancouver are in the same time zone and located only 140 flight miles apart; that’s 2,300 flight miles closer than New York. Not only does proximity provide strategic advantages in terms of collaboration and information flow, but there are also financial and environmental benefits that come with operating 45 minutes apart – a clear benefit for any organization aiming for a triple bottom-line.”

Ironically, both New York City and neighbouring Newark, N.J. made it to the 20-city shortlist. 

The VEC bid boasted that Vancouver’s “DNA is comprised of similar cultures and values as Seattle,” such as environmentalism and left-wing politics. Like Seattle, it said, one can “ski, surf and savasana [yoga’s corpse pose] all in one day.” It included three photographs of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a letter addressed to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. 

A map suggested Amazon could look for office space at downtown’s to-be-redeveloped Main Post Office, Surrey Central, Broadway Tech Centre and/or an area in North Richmond near River Rock Casino Resort, an area the bid book referred to euphemstically as “Riverside Rendezvous.”

It said the region is already home to tech companies like Microsoft, Boeing (analytics lab), Cisco, Electronic Arts, GE, Intel, and SAP — as well as homegrown companies Slack, Hootsuite, Avigilon, Bardel, D-Wave, Lululemon Athletica and Vision Critical.

The Vancouver bid emphasized outdoor recreation.

Where would all the workers live? The bid book boasted the NDP’s promised 114,000 affordable units in B.C. over 10 years would help in the long run. In the short-term? The suburbs.

“Measures are in place to tackle housing affordability concerns. Despite the high prices in the downtown core, we are fortunate to have a wide variety of affordable housing options all within a 25-minute radius of our top sites for Amazon HQ2.”

The only section containing substantial censorship was about provincial incentives. Existing digital and production tax credits were offered, but it is not known what the NDP government was offering, except for the visible mention of  “a dedicated B.C. Provincial Nominee Program Solution for Amazon” to fast-track migration. 

The bid book stressed B.C.’s network of universities and colleges, but made special mention of foreign students and migration from Asia. In 2015-2016, 19,875 B.C university students were from China, more than India, U.S., Japan and South Korea combined. 

“The Chinese student population in BC increased by 17% annually between 2010 and 2015. The Asian student population also views Vancouver as a long-term home. 43% of Vancouver residents have Asian heritage, making it the most Asian city outside of Asia. Vancouver’s strong Asian ties are critical as Amazon continues to deepen its business throughout this region and works to ensure its talent can support growth in these key markets.”

Last November, Amazon announced it would double its Vancouver workforce to 2,000 by 2020. It is not clear whether the secret tax incentives in the HQ2 bid book played any role. 

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Vancouver-Amazon-HQ2-Proposal-Feb-2018.pdf by BobMackin on Scribd

Bob Mackin  Vancouver, Surrey and Richmond tried to

Bob Mackin

British Columbia’s NDP government wants to seize $13 million worth of properties from a company and its principals that the United States government temporarily branded a significant transnational criminal organization.

In B.C. Supreme Court filings on Feb. 14, the Director of Civil Forfeiture alleges that PacNet Services engaged in “unlawful predatory mail-fraud schemes, primarily targeting the elderly and vulnerable.” The court documents further charge PacNet processed millions of payments worth hundreds of millions of dollars from tens of thousands of victims.

None of the allegations has been proven in court and the defendants have not filed a response. A story last Nov. 22 in the Irish Times said the company laid-off 120 people, including 20 at its Shannon, Ireland office. “We were never involved in criminal activities,” PacNet executive Gerry Humphreys told the newspaper.

B.C. government wants to seize PacNet founder Rosanne Day’s Dunbar house (BC Assessment)

On Sept. 22, 2016, the Office of Foreign Assets Control blacklisted PacNet. Last August, it lifted the designation. PacNet was among several companies that received a full corporate tax break on international financial transactions, with the former BC Liberal government’s blessing. The new NDP government announced last October that it was eliminating the AdvantageBC scheme, which was run by ex-BC Liberal Finance Minister Colin Hansen.

The properties the government wants to seize and re-sell range from Boundary Bay beachfront to 10 acres on Keats Island and a waterfront house and boat dock on the Sunshine Coast.

The B.C. government applied Feb. 14 to freeze bank accounts and real estate, such as founder Rosanne Phyllis Day’s West 22nd Avenue home in Vancouver, worth more than $4.5 million, and a beachfront house on Centennial Parkway in Delta, worth $3.375 million. The Delta house is registered to the beneficiary of a trust that owns 30% of PacNet shares, James Ripplinger and his wife, Ivana.

The seizure application also lists a $1.94 million Keith Road house in West Vancouver that is registered to PacNet officer Ruth Hilda Rose Ferlow and her husband Peter Ferlow. It is, coincidentally, near a house in the name of Teresa Sharp, the wife of Frederick L. Sharp, who is under investigation for his involvement in companies related to the Mossack Fonseca law firm that were exposed in the Panama Papers leak.

The lawsuit says the Vancouver Police Department began investigating in October 2016, shortly after the U.S. action. The court filings allege that PacNet engaged in “unlawful predatory mail-fraud schemes, primarily targeting the elderly and vulnerable.”

The court application says that Det. Dwain Mah’s probe into fraudulent direct mail schemes targeting elderly and vulnerable Canadian residents found “since at least 1997, PacNet has provided cheque processing services for companies acting as fronts for individuals and organizations perpetrating mass-mailed fraudulent solicitations.”

PacNet was incorporated in 1994 by Rosanne Day at 595 Howe Street, two blocks south of the Robson Square Law Courts complex. It had been on the police radar for quite some time.

“For nearly two decades, PacNet has repeatedly been contacted by law enforcement and regulators in relation to civil and criminal fraud proceedings against its customers, and that PacNet has been notified on multiple occasions that its customers are engaged in fraudulent mass-mailings and in certain cases, PacNet has continued to facilitate the mail fraud despite this notice,” the court document said.

In 2011, VPD investigated a company involved with opening envelopes and removing payment called International Caging Services Ltd. Detectives learned that ICS routed all cheques, money orders and credit card payments from direct mail solicitations to PacNet for processing.

The court filing said it uncovered phoney direct mail prize schemes and Maria Duval schemes, “which falsely represent that a person has psychic or other supernatural powers and will use those abilities to improve a victim’s financial or emotional situation.”

“In both schemes, the solicitations appear to be personalized through the repeated use of a consumer’s name when, in reality, the consumer’s name was obtained from a commercially available mailing list. The recipients are generally asked to pay between $10 and $50 to obtain their prize or psychic service. The victims, who are often elderly, receiving nothing in return for their payment, other than an increased number of similar solicitations and/or a worthless trinket.”

The court filing says that Canada’s financial transactions watchdog was tipped-off by TD Canada Trust shortly after the U.S. government edict. Rosanne Day issued a $425,000 bank draft to husband Gordon Day from a TD Canada Trust account on Sept. 25, 2016. On Sept. 26, 2016, Gordon Day deposited the sum into a new Scotiabank account.

“TD Canada Trust considers this a suspicious transaction and accordingly filed a report with (FINTRAC).”

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PacNet Application Feb142018 by BobMackin on Scribd

Bob Mackin British Columbia’s NDP government wants to

Bob Mackin

The cost of the new Pattullo Bridge is pegged at $1.6 billion, according to a mid-October briefing note to the NDP minister responsible for TransLink.

Premier John Horgan, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Claire Trevena and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Selina Robinson will green light the New Westminster-to-Surrey spanner on Feb. 16. They are expected to announce the government, not TransLink, will be responsible for replacing the decaying 80-year-old bridge. A source close to the project also told theBreaker that the contract to build the new bridge is expected to include a community benefits clause that may require, among other things, a quota of aboriginal apprentices.

Aritst’s rendering of the new Pattullo Bridge (TransLink)

The briefing note, obtained by theBreaker under the freedom of information law, was written after the government received TransLink’s business case for the new four-lane bridge, which would be expandable to six lanes. Jan. 1, 2023 would be the target for opening.

“The Mayors’ Vision indicated that the bridge replacement would cost approximately $980 million,” said the briefing note to Robinson. “TransLink currently estimates the Pattullo Bridge replacement would cost approximately $1.6 billion.”

The project is not eligible for funding from the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund, but TransLink was exploring options with the federal infrastructure bank and Trade Transportation Corridor Initiative. Horgan and Trevena threw TransLink a curveball last summer when they kept a campaign promise and abolished tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges.

“TransLink is also looking for a subsidy to replace the tolls that were eliminated Sept. 1,” said the briefing note. “The transit authority had been counting on tolls to pay for up to two-thirds of the cost of the new Pattullo, which was estimated at about $1 billion in 2014. The amount of the subsidy has not been determined.”

Late last year, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan was voted to replace Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson as chair of the Mayors’ Council and a member of the TransLink board of directors. Corrigan suggested the Pattullo be the top priority, before TransLink builds the Broadway subway or Surrey light rail transit.

The cost estimates for the two rail projects were censored from the documents provided to theBreaker. However, one of the briefing notes was created Dec. 14 and quotes a Dec. 13 story by theBreaker about the ongoing cost secrecy.

Under the heading “Escalating Costs,” an aide to Robinson summarized theBreaker story that was headlined  “Mayors got secret update last year on TransLink mega project costs, but kept public in the dark,”

“The story is based on internal documents released through FOI that suggest the estimated costs for the megaprojects have risen significantly. Final costs will not be determined until TransLink submits its final business cases and will be shared publicly when they are approved (estimated late February).”

In 2014, the Surrey project was estimated at $2.21 billion and Broadway $1.98 billion. TransLink warned that costs have increased due to rising costs of property, labour, materials and equipment. 

A briefing note said that $300,000 is being spent on so-called due diligence panels of handpicked experts who were hired to review TransLink’s business cases. The panels were struck in January 2017 to review what is officially called the Surrey L Line and the Millennium Line Broadway Extension.

“The focus of each panel was to review current alignment, geotechnical considerations, design and methods of construction; property acquisition; costs estimates; and formation and content of business case in relation to Treasury Board expectations,” the briefing note said.

Former SNC-Lavalin executive vice-president James Burke and ex-B.C. Deputy Finance Minister Peter Milburn are on both panels. Engineer Les Elliott is the third member of the Surrey panel, while veteran SkyTrain construction engineer and transit tunnelling specialist Jeff Hewitt are on the Broadway panel.

Their recommendations were censored from the briefing notes.

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GCP-2017-74550-Mackin.pdf by BobMackin on Scribd

Bob Mackin The cost of the new Pattullo

Bob Mackin

Not only has the Trans-Rockies tarsands vs. tannin trade tiff pitted one province’s NDP government against another, but siblings are on opposing sides of the dispute. 

Alberta pro-pipeline Premier Rachel Notley’s executive assistant Parm Kahlon is the sister of rookie Delta North NDP MLA Ravi Kahlon, who became Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism and Sport under B.C. anti-pipeline Premier John Horgan last July.

Ravi (right) and Parm Kahlon (Twitter)

Parm Kahlon was a constituency assistant for NDP MLAs Spencer Chandra Herbert, Judy Darcy and Sue Hammell until 2015 when she moved to Edmonton to join the “Notley Crue.” 

By email, she told theBreaker it’s not the first time that she has disagreed with Ravi, but it’s not personal. She still loves and respects him.

“We have a very understanding family and everything is fine at home,” Parm Kahlon wrote.

In an interview, Ravi Kahlon said: “She’s a strong independent-minded person and I love her for it. For me, we disagree on various issues along the way, this is just another one. When we’re together it’s not something we contentiously debate. We try to spend time when we’re together not talking about politics, but other things.”

Meanwhile, the B.C. Finance Ministry told theBreaker that the B.C. government spent “under $40,000” on a B.C. Family Day weekend ad campaign promoting B.C. wine to counter Notley’s order to end B.C. wine imports. Last year, B.C. exported $70 million of wine to the Wild Rose province.  

Ad agency Grey Vancouver created the “Together, let’s support B.C. wine” print ad that depicts three standing corkscrews — which appear similar to Ikea’s Idealisk model — crossing levers, as if they’re holding hands.  

“This weekend, buy some B.C. wine and raise a glass to protecting B.C.’s coast,” said the copy at bottom of the full-page Vancouver Sun ad on Feb. 10. 

Grey Vancouver was among 15 advertising and polling companies that were prequalified late last year by the B.C. government for advertising contracts. 

theBreaker had asked for two days for the name of the contractor and the budget for the campaign, but the Finance Ministry’s communications office didn’t respond until 6:18 p.m. on Feb. 14. Coincidentally, there were less than two hours left until the closing of the polls in the “wine country” by-election. Quails’ Gate winery’s Ben Stewart, the former BC Liberal MLA and Beijing trade envoy, was seeking a comeback in the Kelowna West seat vacated by ex-premier Christy Clark last summer.  

Meanwhile, Notley upped the ante in her bid to thwart Horgan’s bid to foil the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. Her staff launched a “Keep Canada Working” social media campaign. and she heads a 19-person “Market Access Task Force” that includes her chief of staff, Nathan Rotman, three cabinet ministers and six deputy ministers. Among the six-pack is her climate change deputy, Eric Denhoff, who was a mandarin during NDP Premier Mike Harcourt’s administration in the 1990s. Denhoff was appointed to head B.C. Transit and later chaired SNC-Lavalin’s B.C. division. His LinkedIn profile omits mention of his work with scandal-plagued SNC-Lavalin and his later work with TransCanada Pipelines.

Other bigwigs on Notley’s board are: ex-New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna, ex-Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, Suncor lobbyist Ginny Flood, and Janet Annesley, vice-president of Li Ka-shing’s Husky.

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Bob Mackin Not only has the Trans-Rockies tarsands