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Business, News

Bob Mackin
When did the campaign really start?

We know Oct. 19 is the final voting day.

But when did the 43rd election really start?

On Sept. 21, Lt. Gov. Janet Austin met with the Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman to sign the writs and dissolve the 42nd Parliament. Premier David Eby did not visit Government House that day — he kicked off the campaign a day earlier in Surrey.

Amanda Campbell, Austin’s director of communications, told theBreaker.news that Eby formally made the request to the King’s representative on Sept. 19.

That was the same day that Eby told the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver “We’re on the campaign trail in two days.”

He did not wait two days. He embarked on the campaign trail the never next day in the Surrey-Serpentine River riding.

Ravi Kahlon’s future

If the NDP returns to power, and Ravi Kahlon is re-elected in Delta North, does he remain the Minister of Housing?

Conservative leader John Rustad and Surrey Cloverdale candidate Elenore Sturko accused him of potential conflict of interest more than once.

Sister Parm Kahlon is a partner in the new Core Firm with fellow NDP stalwarts Nikki Hill and Opreet Kang. One of their clients is Renewal Developments, which repurposes and relocates single-family houses. Brother Sunny Kahlon owns Victoria homebuilder Kahlon Developments.

A week into the campaign, Rustad wrote an open letter to Eby, asking for him to “publicly support and endorse an immediate investigation into Ravi Kahlon and provide full disclosure on whether Minister Kahlon has recused himself from decisions that may impact his family’s business interests.”

Ravi Kahlon called the allegations “false and desperate.” Parm Kahlon said the work for Renewal “did not involve government relations or interactions with the government.” Sunny Kahlon did not respond.

During the last pre-election Question Period on May 16, Rustad challenged the Housing Minister about a series of real estate deals involving three Prince George properties sold to B.C. Housing. Two of which involved Tapinder Singh Banipal of Kamloops and Tejinder Singh Khatrao of Prince George.

Knights Inn, bought for $1.1 million, sold to BC Housing for $4.1 million; North Star Inn, bought for $3.25 million, sold for $10.5 million to BC Housing; Lotus Hotel, bought for $700,000 sold for $2 million to BC Housing.

“This not only looks bad; it does not pass the smell test,” Rustad said, challenging Eby to commit to a forensic audit.

Kahlon rose to respond and said rules were followed and the purchases were urgently needed to deal with homelessness.

“The previous government, when the member was part of the BC Liberal government, did the same thing — which is good; it should be commended,” Kahlon said.

Blue-to-orange switcher

Premier David Eby (left) and Kareem Allam (X/Mike Witherly)

Kareem Allam is the federal Conservative behind Kevin Falcon’s 2022 BC Liberal leadership win and Ken Sim’s 2022 ABC Vancouver mayoral victory.

Instead of endorsing Rustad’s Conservatives, Allam said he signed up for an NDP membership, voted NDP and joined the Terry Yung campaign team in Yaletown, his home riding.

On Oct. 17, he appeared between Yung (husband of ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung) and Eby and delivered a rousing speech at Yung’s campaign office.

Yung’s Conservative opponent happens to be former NPA Coun. Melissa De Genova, who went to work at Allam’s Fairview Strategy after losing in the 2022 civic election.

Like 2024 provincially, affordable housing was top-of-mind in 2022. Last year, Allam called it an issue that the public generally views as “not solvable.”

“You can’t win an election on housing affordability, you can lose one if you don’t have a good plan, and can’t show good progress — but you can’t win an election on these issues,” Allam said during an April 24, 2023 online forum via the University of California Berkeley’s Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research. “So we never saw this as something that we had to do to win the election, we just had to come up with a good, sound approach to this to show that we were going to be able to make progress on it.”

Sinclair’s antisemitic “something”

The NDP spent several days late in the campaign doggedly prosecuting years-old, offensive Facebook posts by actor Brent Chapman, the Conservative Surrey South candidate and husband of Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Rustad refused calls to force Chapman to quit.

Meanwhile, Sturko noticed something on the Facebook account of Jim Sinclair, the NDP-appointed chair of Fraser Health Authority.

The something was Sinclair’s reposting of a graphic that quoted Hebrew University professor Nurit Peled-Elhanan: “Israel has reached an unimaginable peak of evil,” it said.

The post also accused Israel of “pure colonial nationalist and chauvinistic racism.” It said nothing about the terrorists who triggered the Israel-Hamas war, by killing 1,200 innocents and kidnapping 240 others on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Adrian Dix’s handpicked board chair of Fraser Health has shared antisemitic posts, which create an unsafe environment for Jewish patients and employees,” Sturko posted.

The date? Oct. 13, less than a week after the anniversary of the October 7 massacre.

Sinclair deleted the graphic on Oct. 14 and wrote:. “I shared something yesterday I should not have. I apologize.”

Did Sinclair post anything else about the Israel-Hamas war? Either he took a break from Facebook for all of 2023 or he deleted those, too.

Sinclair has not responded for comment.

Sinclair’s name is connected to $1.4 million in donations to the NDP since 2005, mostly during his 1999 to 2015 time as head of the B.C. Federation of Labour, when there was no limit on donations from unions.

Burma Block

One of Rustad’s last tour stops on the final campaign day was the Dundarave office of West Vancouver-Capilano Conservative Lynne Block.

Independent ex-BC United MLA Karin Kirkpatrick and her team showed up with signs. Block’s supporters grabbed theirs and hurried to the sidewalk. Some even jumped on the street. One of the Conservatives was Caroline Elliott, who had been the heir apparent to Kirkpatrick.

Elliott’s brother-in-law, Kevin Falcon, pulled BC United out of the race in August and endorsed the Rustad Conservatives. Kirkpatrick, a federal Liberal, unretired in order to seek another term as an independent “centrist.”

Kirkpatrick came to Dundarave with her top endorser and predecessor, the five-time-elected Ralph Sultan.

In 2001, Sultan defeated six challengers in a hotly contested nomination to run for the Gordon Campbell-led BC Liberals.

Peek in the files

Former BC Liberal MLA Ralph Sultan, sandwiched Oct. 18 by Caroline Elliott (left) and Colin Metcalfe.

All 323 candidates across the 93 ridings in the Oct. 19 election were required to provide a stack of documents to Elections BC in order to get their names on the ballots.

Nomination application, statement of disclosure, list of nominators, and appointments of auditor, official agent and financial agent, to be precise.

They are all public documents available for inspection at Elections BC offices. Though, they are subject to opt-out clauses so as to protect personal information, such as residential addresses and phone numbers. That makes it harder for a reporter to determine whether, for instance, a candidate lives in a house owned by a party donor. (That was the case in 2017 for then-BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark.)

On his disclosure form, Eby lists no real property or assets. He disclosed unspecified liabilities with CIBC and Scotiabank.

Rustad reported interest in four properties around Prince George. But no assets or liabilities.

Green leader Sonia Furstenau reports a charming, secondary house in Shawnigan Lake, assessed at almost $1.4 million. (Though, it is not lakefront property). She said she has no assets or liabilities.

Eby’s nominators include Leonard Schein, the Vancouver International Film Festival founder and independent cinema owner appointed by the NDP to the University of B.C. board of governors. That’s Schein’s face over Eby’s left shoulder in the group photo on the side of the NDP campaign bus.

Someone on Eby’s campaign team — maybe it was Eby himself — has a sense of humour.

The name of nominator Christa Eggens is followed by that of Eby constituency assistant Summer Bacon and three other folks named Bacon.

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Bob Mackin When did the campaign really start? We

News, Opinion

Guest commentator: Geoffrey S. Moyse

As a now-retired former B.C. government senior legal counsel on aboriginal law who spent 31 years advising six successive governments, I have an obvious interest in the subject of Indigenous reconciliation.

In 2019 the NDP government of the day enacted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), which sets out a process for bringing B.C. laws into alignment with a non-legally binding UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). During debate on this legislation, then Minister Scott Fraser informed the legislature that the government’s intention was to apply UNDRIP in a manner consistent with section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.

David Eby, centre, on Sept. 19 (BC Gov/Flickr)

Section 35 recognizes and affirms proven aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada.  The Supreme Court of Canada has issued many judgments since 1982 defining those rights and setting out tests for their proof.  This includes case law on the test for proving aboriginal title in Canada.  

Unfortunately, there are a number of articles contained in UNDRIP, which is a non-binding UN declaration that has no force of law in Canada or British Columbia, that appear to be directly contradictory to, or at least potentially inconsistent with, section 35.

As I have been observing publicly available evidence of the progress on the government’s implementation of DRIPA, I am becoming convinced that there are two particular articles in UNDRIP which can be, and I think perhaps are being, interpreted in a manner contrary to section 35.

DRIPA sets out a process for bringing B.C. laws into conformity with the articles of UNDRIP.  That obviously means bringing B.C. laws into conformity with articles such as Article 26 and Article 32(2) of UNDRIP.

Article 26 sets out a “definition” of territorial Indigenous ownership of all lands and resources found within a claimed territory.  The definition of “territory” in that article can be interpreted in a manner which goes far beyond the nature and extent of Aboriginal title as set out by the Supreme Court of Canada under section 35, since it affirms ownership of land and resources based on mere use of land, which is not consistent with the test of exclusive occupation of land as of the date of sovereignty grounding aboriginal title in Canadian law.

Article 32(2) of UNDRIP provides that nothing government wishes to do with lands that are subject to the broad Indigenous ownership rights purported by article 26 can be done without the free and prior consent of Indigenous people.

Evidence of government’s apparent intent to embrace these articles can be seen in section 7 of DRIPA, which authorizes the government to enter into agreements which provide for “joint decision making” by the government with Indigenous governments over public lands or that set out the requirement for Indigenous consent before a government decision can be made at all.

It seems clear that the proposed amendments to the Land Act, which were quickly shelved by the government in response to a vehement public backlash, were based on a broad interpretation of article 26 Indigenous ownership and jurisdiction and reliance on the “consent” requirement of Article 32(2).  They are clearly in no way based upon section 35 Canadian law.

Over the past two years I have seen many statements from government ministers about “stolen lands” and non-Indigenous “settlers”, along with admonitions that the public should not call themselves “British Columbians” for fear of offending those who see this province as illegitimate.

When I couple those statements with the manner in which I see Articles 26 and 32(2) of UNDRIP being promoted by the government in place of section 35, I am forced to ask myself what the government’s actual intentions are toward recognition of Indigenous ownership and jurisdiction over British Columbia’s public and private lands?

I find myself wondering if the vast majority of British Columbians believe that reconciliation should be based on a non-binding UN Declaration and government’s apparently broad interpretations of it, or would they more likely believe that reconciliation should be firmly based on the foundation of Canadian constitutional law?

UNDRIP does not balance the stated human rights of Indigenous peoples with the rights of other Canadians.  Section 35 case law does a surgical job of ensuring that balance is maintained while protecting vital core Aboriginal and Treaty rights.

I have read the NDP election platform on this topic.  I see absolutely nothing in it to indicate to me that a re-elected NDP government is actually committed to implementation of UNDRIP in a manner that is properly consistent with Canadian constitutional law. In fact, I find the  “commitments” in it to be so intentionally vague as to be meaningless.

 I certainly see nothing in it that persuades me that the divisiveness of calling British Columbians “settlers” on “stolen” Indigenous lands is going to stop.  Is this what reconciliation with UNDRIP as the framework means for British Columbia society?

If so, then in my view it is nothing but a recipe for societal divisiveness in this province.  I think public acceptability of the attempted amendments to the Land Act speak volumes in this regard.

As a lawyer of many years experience advising provincial governments in this province on Aboriginal law and who has worked for reconciliation for over 30 years, I have been dedicated to the belief that section 35 provides the proper basis for reconciliation in Canada.  The government’s interpretations of UNDRIP to date have done nothing to convince me otherwise.

For more, click here and listen to Bob Mackin’s interview with Geoffrey Moyse on thePodcast.

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Guest commentator: Geoffrey S. Moyse As a now-retired

Business, News

Briefly: Someone in Premier David Eby’s office mixed-up social media messages in memory of the Holocaust with the anniversary of a mass-shooting at a Quebec mosque. The incident attracted international media attention as the Israel-Hamas war raged on the other side of the world. B.C.’s independent FOI watchdog has dropped an investigation into deletion of records about the incident.

Bob Mackin

B.C.’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) refused to interview staff in NDP Premier David Eby’s office over the deletion of records about a social media mixup that gained international media attention during the Israel-Hamas war.

David Eby’s Jan. 27 error on X. (@Dave_Eby)

Instead of correctly recognizing Jan. 27 as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Eby messages on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram said “we stand with the Muslim community throughout Canada on this sorrowful day of remembrance.”

That message should have run Jan. 29, the day of action against Islamophobia and anniversary of the 2017 killing of six people at a Quebec City mosque.

During a Jan. 29 visit to Ottawa, Eby apologized and called the incident unacceptable. But he refused to discuss what he considered a personnel matter.

Instead of correctly recognizing Jan. 27 as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Eby messages on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram said “we stand with the Muslim community throughout Canada on this sorrowful day of remembrance.”

That message should have run Jan. 29, the day of action against Islamophobia and anniversary of the 2017 killing of six people at a Quebec City mosque.

During a Jan. 29 visit to Ottawa, Eby apologized and called the incident unacceptable. But he refused to discuss what he considered a personnel matter.

“I understand that you believe there should be records responsive to your request: however, the OIPC has no authority to compel a public body to explain why it does not have a copy of records that an applicant believes should exist,” Graves wrote in an email on Oct. 1, eight days before he closed the file.

In fact, the law does give the OIPC the power to order someone to answer questions under oath or affirmation and to hand over records. It did so when previous commissioner Elizabeth Denham found evidence in 2015 of mass-deleting throughout Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government.

NDP amendments to the law make it an offence to wilfully mislead or obstruct the OIPC or wilfully evade the public records law. The maximum fine upon conviction is $50,000.

The OIPC is officially an independent office of the Legislature, but it relies on the finance and government services committee to approve its annual budget. In 2023-2024, the OIPC reported $10.8 million in operating expenses. Eby’s office, by comparison, was allotted $17 million for the current fiscal year.

Until the Legislature dissolved Sept. 21 and the election was triggered, the NDP held a majority on both the committee that approves OIPC budgets and in the Legislature.

Former Newfoundland and Labrador commissioner Michael Harvey began his six-year term as the B.C. commissioner in May, succeeding Michael McEvoy.

The Green Party promises to do away with the $10 tax on FOI applications, imposed by the NDP in 2021. The Conservatives say in their platform that they will enact reforms “to achieve such a high level of voluntary and mandatory disclosure that FOIs can become obsolete. It’s time to bring government our of the shadows.”

FOI is not mentioned in the NDP platform. Its one-page response to a B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association questionnaire said: “We’re going to keep being transparent and making sure the system works for people.”

In January, McEvoy reported that the NDP government illegally exceeded FOI deadlines in 5,100 cases between 2020 and 2023. By the 2022-23 fiscal year, applicants were forced to wait an average 192 additional business days for a response from the government.

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Briefly: Someone in Premier David Eby’s office

Business, News

Briefly: With election in sight, the Eby NDP government bowed to Conservative pressure in late July and ended the two-dose minimum for healthcare workers.

Bob Mackin

NDP leader David Eby borrowed a page from Justin Trudeau’s 2021 Liberal campaign playbook and made vaccination against COVID-19 a wedge issue on the way to the Oct. 19 election day.

Eby frequently targeted Conservative leader John Rustad for his perceived vaccine hesitancy and meetings with activists opposed to COVID-19 vaccination.

Premier David Eby getting vaccinated in 2023 (Eby/X)

Responding to Eby’s allegations that he is a “conspiracy theorist,” Rustad defended himself on the Oct. 8 televised debate as “triple vaccinated.”

“The reality is in British Columbia, I also promoted and supported people getting vaccines, especially for seniors, especially for seniors in our communities,” Rustad said. “I was supportive of that. However, I am not anti-vax. I am anti-mandate. I believe that people should have choice. It shouldn’t be thrust upon them and forced upon them.”

During the last, pre-election session of the Legislature, Rustad took up the cause of unvaccinated healthcare workers. He declared victory on July 26 when the NDP government finally ended the two-dose mandate and declared the COVID-19 public health emergency over.

That was just two weeks after Eby rejected Rustad’s calls to lift the mandate. “There’s a very different approach to public health between our party and John Rustad,” Eby said on July 12 in Surrey.

“In 2024 alone, British Columbia witnessed the closure of 188 emergency rooms due to staffing shortages, with rural areas being hit the hardest,” Rustad said, calling it a direct consequence of the mandate.

During the 2021 federal election, theBreaker.news canvassed Trudeau’s B.C. team. Of the 42 candidates, nine showed proof of vaccination with a provincially issued card and four sent social media links. Another eight claimed directly or through aides to be fully vaccinated, but they did not provide proof. Staff of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky Country incumbent Patrick Weiler refused to prove he received a second dose.

The rest did not respond.

Who got the shot?

Fast forward to the 2024 B.C. election. theBreaker.news emailed a questionnaire to the addresses listed on NDP candidate websites, asking whether each of the 93 had received two or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. If so, when and where?

Only one of the 93 NDP candidates running for office responded: Vancouver-Mount Pleasant incumbent Joan Phillip.

“Yes, I have received all my shots of Moderna,” Phillip said by email. “March 23, 2021, May 31, 2021 and Dec 22, 2021 through the Penticton Indian Band.”

Eby did not respond, though he has had at least two doses.

On Nov. 24, 2023, he posted a photo from the UBC Pharmacy where he said he received both COVID-19 and flu shots.

On Jan. 12, 2022, this reporter was coincidentally behind Eby in line at the Vancouver Convention Centre COVID-19 mass-vaccination clinic and briefly spoke with him afterward.

The questionnaire also asked NDP candidates whether they favoured holding a judicial public inquiry to examine B.C.’s pandemic response, in order to be better prepared for the next one. Phillip did not respond to that question.

The federal Liberal government refused to conduct a judicial public inquiry, but will open a new agency, Health Emergency Readiness Canada.

In July 2023, the BMJ called for a national public inquiry due to the 52,750 deaths across Canada as of mid-2023. Canada’s death rate exceeded the global average.

Eby took over the majority NDP government in November 2022 from John Horgan, who called a snap election one year before the legislated election date and two months before vaccines started to arrive in B.C.

Between Sept. 21, 2020, the day the election was called, and Oct. 22, 2020, the last update before the Oct. 24, 2020 election day, 4,049 new COVID-19 infections were announced. At the time, that accounted for more than a third of all B.C. cases.

Meanwhile, the fall 2024 COVID-19 and flu vaccination campaign launched with unusually little fanfare. Government must take a break from communicating with the public during an election, except to promote or advertise important matters of public health and safety.

Everyone six months or older can get the shots at the same time. More information at the ImmunizeBC.ca website.

The virus remains a public health threat across Canada. University of Toronto Associate Prof. Tara Moriarty, who maintains the Canadian COVID-19 Hazard Index, reported Oct. 14 that B.C. had a severe rating, based on infections and spread, healthcare system impact and mortality.

The index estimated COVID-19 was spreading at the rate of 28,000 new infections every day in B.C.

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Briefly: With election in sight, the Eby

Business, News

Briefly: NDP leader David Eby’s Feb. 5 firing of Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills Selina Robinson came after a pressure campaign co-organized by a group deemed terrorist on Oct. 15 by the Canadian and U.S. governments.
Robinson left the NDP caucus the next month and accused former colleagues of antisemitism. She is finishing a memoir.

Bob Mackin

Former B.C. NDP cabinet minister Selina Robinson said that there was a “collective Jewish sigh throughout Canada” on Oct. 15 when the anti-Israel Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and Khaled Barakat were declared terrorists by the governments of Canada and the United States.

B.C. NDP finance minister Selina Robinson tables the 2021-22 budget on April 20 (BC Gov)

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control described the Vancouver-based group — run by Barakat and wife Charlotte Kates — as a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”

Samidoun has organized, promoted and/or supported every major anti-Israel protest in Metro Vancouver since the day after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 240, sparking war with Israel.

It also co-sponsored an Action Network online petition that succeeded in convincing Premier David Eby to remove prominent Jewish politician Robinson from cabinet after she called pre-1948 Israel a “crappy piece of land” during a Jan. 30 B’nai Brith Canada online forum.

Robinson, who represented Coquitlam-Maillardville for 11 years, issued two apologies and pledged to make amends with the Muslim community. Eby bowed to the pressure campaign and fired her from the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills on Feb. 5.

“Week after week after week, these hateful protests,” Robinson said in an interview with theBreaker.news. “They are not peace rallies, they are not even rallies. They are designed to stir-up animosity towards a group of people, and that’s not okay.”

Nobody from Samidoun has responded for comment.

Samidon international director Charlotte Kates accepting an award in Iran in August 2024 (Samidoun.net)

Samidoun incorporated as a Canadian not-for-profit in 2021 by directors Kates, Dave Diewert of Surrey and Thomas Gerhard Hofland of Amsterdam. The Canadian terrorist listing said Samidoun emerged in 2011, maintains 20 chapters in a dozen countries and advocates for the release of Palestinian prisoners who are often tied to terrorism, assassinations and attacks on Israel.

“Samidoun’s ideology revolves exclusively around the worldview that Israel and Zionism are the greatest danger to the Middle East and the world,” said the Canadian listing. “Their main goals are the destruction of Israel and establishing a Palestinian state in its place. To achieve this goal, Samidoun advocates all kinds of activities, including violence.”

On Feb. 7, the PFLP’s Central Media Office issued a statement on Telegram celebrating Robinson’s downfall as “an important precedent” and saluted those who participated in the campaign.

Robinson quit the NDP caucus the next month and accused several former colleagues of antisemitism. She is not running for re-election, but finishing a memoir for November publication.

Robinson said none of the Samidoun actions are going to help people suffering in Gaza.

Khaled Barakat at a Samidoun protest in Vancouver (Instagram)

“All it does is it makes the world so unsafe for Canadians who live here and, some argue, it actually becomes a barrier to doing anything that will bring peace to the [Middle East] region, because it distracts from that important work,” Robinson said. “And so I hope people who participated [in Samidoun protests] think long and hard about that.”

Peter German, chair of the Vancouver Anti-Corruption Institute, suggested the terrorist listing could bring the end of Samidoun. He said it has been known for decades that terrorist organizations use front groups to raise money where they cannot do so directly.

“Countries with large ethnic diasporas, such as Canada, are prime targets for these funding efforts,” German said. “Once listed and sanctioned, severe restrictions are placed on the ability of entities, such as Samidoun, to raise funds, deal in property, and recruit members. Typically, they will dissolve, move their activities elsewhere, or rebrand.”

The announcement came a week after Kates was scheduled to appear in Vancouver Provincial Court after her April arrest by Vancouver Police for allegedly inciting or promoting hatred at a downtown rally. B.C. Prosecution Service did not proceed with charges, so Kates did not have to attend court and was free to return to attending protests.

“This government has refused to prosecute, refused to move forward with it,” said Conservative leader John Rustad, who had called for Samidoun to be banned. “That speaks volumes in terms of why we are seeing so much disruption, so much hate. Why we see mobs on the steps of the art gallery, burning the Canadian flag and saying death to Canadians.”

After the announcement, Eby posted on X, formerly Twitter, to say that he agreed with the federal terrorist designation.

“There is no place in British Columbia for groups inciting and glorifying violence,” said the Eby post.

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Briefly: NDP leader David Eby’s Feb. 5

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Briefly: Thanksgiving Day bombshell amid B.C.’s election, where Surrey is the battleground. NDP’s David Eby and Conservative John Rustad comment after Canada expels ambassador and five other diplomats. Top RCMP officials offer investigation update.

Bob Mackin

Ten seats are up for grabs in the Oct. 19 British Columbia election in Surrey, where the next government could be decided.

It is also the ultimate epicentre for a diplomatic crisis between Canada and India that erupted on Thanksgiving Day when Canada expelled High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five other diplomats.

Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma Kumar (second from left) and Vancouver Consul General Manish (second from right) with NDP MLAs Aman Singh, Jagrup Brar, Jinny Sims, Speaker Raj Chouhan, and Harwinder Sandhu with Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd on March 2, 2024 in Victoria (X/Indian High Commission)

RCMP Comm. Michael Duheme and Asst. Comm. Brigitte Gauvin held an extraordinary, virtual news conference in Ottawa after news broke that Indian officials in Canada had refused to co-operate in the investigation of the 2023 Surrey assassination of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Duheme said the RCMP is investigating the role of Indian agents and organized crime targeting the South Asian community and interfering in democratic processes.

“We reached a point where we felt it was imperative to confront the Government of India and inform the public about some very serious findings that have been uncovered through our investigations,” Duheme said.

It is not yet known whether Vancouver Consul General Masakui Rungsung is among those expelled. Rungsung replaced the previous consul general, a four-year veteran known as Manish who left in May to take up a post in Cyprus. Manish and Kumar both visited the B.C. Legislature on March 2 and met with NDP government officials.

Gauvin said RCMP attempts to engage law enforcement partners in India have been unsuccessful and the outcome of a meeting with Indian officials over the weekend “was not what we had hoped.”

“We are open and would like to continue to work with our law enforcement partners in India, and we urge them to take up, take us up on our offer,” Gauvin said.

Premier David Eby took a break from the NDP election campaign to call the “unprecedented allegations… profoundly disturbing to me.”

Eby said he had spoken with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc to seek “their assurance that federal agencies will keep working with local law enforcement to address these threats and keep people in B.C. safe.”

John Rustad, leader of the Conservative Party of B.C., called for a full investigation of foreign interference in B.C. because it is a violation of Canada’s sovereignty and a threat to the rights and freedoms of every citizen.

“No Canadian, including members of BC’s Sikh community, should ever fear for their safety or freedom of expression because of foreign interference on Canadian soil,” Rustad said in a statement.

India’s external affairs department issued a statement Oct. 14 that said since September 2023 — when Trudeau implicated the Government of India in the House of Commons — Ottawa has not provided “a shred of evidence.” It accused Trudeau of “currying favour at the vote bank” with Khalistani separatists. Moreover, it accused Trudeau of foreign interference in India, with the help of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who is campaigning for the B.C. NDP.

“His government was dependent on a political party, whose leader openly espouses a separatist ideology vis-à-vis India, only ag

A banner in memory of slain pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar at the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey’s Newtown district. (Mackin)

gravated matters,” the statement said.

Nijjar was gunned down June 18, 2023 in the rear parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey’s Newton district. The 45-year-old temple president Nijjar was a prominent leader of the overseas movement to create a separate Sikh state within India, called Khalistan. India considers the Khalistani movement to be terrorist.

Almost a year later, on May 3, RCMP announced murder charges against Indian nationals Karan Brar, Karanpreet Singh and Kamalpreet Singh, who were arrested in the Edmonton area. A fourth man, Amandeep Singh, was already in custody in Ontario and charged May 11.

Gauvin indicated the Nijjar murder investigation is not the only case with national security overtones. A national task force created in response to an extortion spree is investigating both foreign interference by agents of India and Canada-based, Khalistani violent extremists.

“The objective here is Canada’s public safety, and therefore sometimes prosecutions and charges are not the best option,” Gauvin said. “Our objective is to disrupt the networks and to stop the violence in our country.”

Gauvin did not name names or specify cities and provinces, but said approximately eight individuals have been arrested and charged in relation to homicides.

Four of the homicide arrestees would be the quartet facing charges in Surrey. Their lawyers appeared Oct. 1 in Provincial Court and are due to return for another administrative hearing on Nov. 21. A trial date has not been announced.

“In relation to extortions, there’s at least 22 individuals that have been arrested and charged. Some of these have connections to the Government of India,” she said.

Entering the Oct. 19 election campaign, the Eby-led NDP government held a 7-2 edge in the existing Surrey ridings. A 10th riding was created due to population-driven redistribution.

When Eby became premier in December 2022, he replaced George Chow with Surrey-Fleetwood MLA Jagrup Brar as the new provincial minister of state for trade.

The move signalled the NDP government’s support for the Liberal government’s new Indo-Pacific foreign affairs and trade policy.

It was aimed at fostering closer ties with India and Southeast Asian countries while reducing reliance on China.

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Briefly: Thanksgiving Day bombshell amid B.C.'s election,

News

Briefly: Burnaby North Conservative candidate Michael Wu’s campaign is attracting the support of people allied with the Chinese consulate. James Wu Jiaming and Michael Wu were seen in a 2021 video with a group that helped Liberal Parm Bains upset Conservative MP Kenny Chiu.

Bob Mackin

Two men associated with a campaign that helped Liberal Parm Bains upset Conservative MP Kenny Chiu in the 2021 federal election were photographed with a Conservative Party of B.C. candidate at his campaign office.

Conservative candidate Michael Wu (left), James Wu Jiaming and Pifeng Hu (WeChat)

A photograph circulating on the Chinese state-surveilled WeChat app shows Burnaby North candidate Michael Wu with a group of campaign T-shirt wearing supporters, including James Wu Jiaming and Pifeng Hu.

Jiaming is executive chairman of the Canada-China City Friendship Association and Hu the honorary president of the Peace and Development Forum of Canada. The latter group advocates for the People’s Republic of China to annex self-governing, democratic Taiwan.

Hu was involved in the Chinese nationalist protests in August 2019 against Lower Mainland advocates for democracy in Hong Kong. The pro-China protesters waved the Chinese flag, and chanted slogans and sang songs in celebration of the Chinese Communist Party.

Neither Wu nor the Conservative Party of B.C. headquarters has responded for comment.

Wu’s X bio says: ”Born in Taiwan. Proud Canadian. Entrepreneur. 17 years with RCMP (auxiliary).”

The Commissioner of Canada Elections (CCE) investigated foreign interference in the Steveston-Richmond East federal riding, including a videotaped pre-election meeting between Bains and supporters of the Chinese Canadians Goto Vote Association. Jiaming and Hu were both seen in the video wearing the association’s shirts.

The CCE investigation, tabled at the Hogue Commission on foreign interference in September, found officials from the People’s Republic of China government gave “the impetus and direction” for the successful campaign to defeat Chiu and the Conservatives in 2021.

But investigators said they did not find enough evidence to charge anyone under the Canada Elections Act for undue foreign influence, intimidation, unregistered third party or use of foreign funds.

Michael Wu also attracted attention of pro-Beijing Phoenix TV, which covered his campaign office launch inside a former Pizza Hut restaurant.

Among those wearing blue Wu shirts were Canada Shandong Business Association head Zheng Yan, who led a Vancouver delegation to China for Xi Jinping Thought in 2023. Also, former Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations secretary Shumei Lu, ex-Liberal candidate Karen Wang and Chis Qiu, a former aide to Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and ex-Marpole modular housing opponent.

In a July interview, John Rustad told theBreaker.news that personnel from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) arranged to brief him about foreign interference in early July.

“I spent about an hour or so talking to them about issues. But I won’t talk any further about what we discussed,” Rustad said.

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Briefly: Burnaby North Conservative candidate Michael Wu's

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Briefly: West Vancouver-Capilano NDP candidate Sara Eftekhar told all-candidates meeting she will choose community over party when necessary. The nurse practitioner, however, would be subject to party discipline, if she becomes the MLA on  Oct. 19.
Bob Mackin

The NDP candidate in West Vancouver-Capilano told an all-candidates meeting that she is not fully committed to the party’s platform.

At the Sept. 29 event in West Vancouver, hosted by the Canadian Iranian Foundation, Sara Eftekhar spoke in Farsi, pledging to oppose the party when necessary.

“Some might say I am a member of NDP, and I have to be committed to their platform and listen to whatever they dictate. How come?” said an English translation of Eftekhar’s comments. “I am an Iranian woman coming from Woman, Life, Freedom movement. I have no problem to oppose the party if there is anything not useful for the community. I have no issue to listen to my community and have an objection if an inconvenient situation arises.”

NDP candidate Sara Eftekhar on Sept. 29 (Canadian Iranian Foundation/YouTube)

Eftekhar has not responded for comment. Neither has the central office of the NDP. Click here to read a full transcript of Eftekhar’s Farsi comments in English.

In B.C., there is traditionally little, if any, room for government MLAs to show public dissent with their party, its policies and leader.

In time for the 2013 election, Sean Holman, now a professor of environmental and climate journalism at the University of Victoria, produced Whipped: The Secret World of Party Discipline. The 43-minute documentary explained that MLAs in B.C. are historically beholden to their leader and sometimes must ignore the will of the people who voted them into office.

As Holman reported, if a backbencher dissents, then there is a political cost. He or she may not get into cabinet and may not receive the party leader’s endorsement to run for the party in the next election.

Holman’s documentary also explained that the real business of government does not go on inside the Legislature, but in closed-door caucus and cabinet meetings and in the Office of the Premier, itself.

Party discipline has continued under the NDP since 2017. Until the 2020 election, it was necessary for MLAs to show up and vote the way then-premier John Horgan required because of the narrow minority government that required support of three Green Party MLAs.

Horgan led the party to a majority win in the 2020 snap election. Afterward, whipped votes continued. One example of the passage of politically motivated, publicly unpopular legislation took place Nov. 25, 2021: controversial amendments to the freedom of information law that resulted in the imposition of a $10 application fee to access public records.

Then-attorney general, now-premier David Eby voted for the amendments that he has refused to repeal.

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Briefly: West Vancouver-Capilano NDP candidate Sara Eftekhar

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For the week of  Oct. 13, 2024:

The home stretch for the Oct. 19 B.C. election. No better time than now to reconvene the MMA Panel. 

Join host Bob Mackin, Research Co president Mario Canseco and Simon Fraser University city program director Andy Yan to analyze the campaigns so far and look ahead to election night. 

Plus, what lies beyond Oct. 19 when it comes to First Nations land settlements in B.C.? If David Eby remains premier, will he revisit the controversial proposal to co-manage Crown land with First Nations? 

Retired lawyer Geoffrey Moyse, who advised six B.C. governments on aboriginal land use, is Bob Mackin’s guest. 

Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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

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

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For the week of  Oct. 13, 2024:

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Briefly: NDP and Green leaders attack Conservative Rustad’s lack of platform during Oct. 8 debate at the CBC studios in Vancouver.
Bob Mackin
Part Deux

After the Oct. 2 radio debate at the CKNW studios in downtown Vancouver, the three leaders reconvened two blocks east at CBC for the second and final debate on the Tuesday evening before the opening of early voting en route to the Oct. 19 election.

Who won?

Green leader Sonia Furstenau. She leads the third-place party, the only leader chosen by a vote of her party membership, but came into this campaign with less than a full slate of candidates (69). Furstenau had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so she sold herself as a viable option for disaffected environmental voters and increased her profile, weighed the good and bad of B.C., sprinkled with a few optimistic comments. “We have so many solutions that we could be implementing, and yet our politics and our governance gets caught up in exactly this, in the polarization,” she said.

John Rustad (left), David Eby and Sonia Furstenau on Oct. 8 (CBC/YouTube)

Furstenau needed the profile if she’s going to stay in the Legislature, after moving from Cowichan to the NDP-held riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill.

Conservative leader John Rustad needed to win. Though he held his own, he failed to make a friendly connection with viewers seeing him for the first time. NDP leader David Eby found creative ways to avoid talking about his government’s economic and healthcare record.

No platform?

“It should have been a prerequisite to walk into this room, to have a costed platform,” NDP’s David Eby challenged Conservative John Rustad.

Eby’s platform proposes another $3 billion of spending. Furstenau’s party was first out with a platform, containing some policies that the NDP abandoned as well as others aimed at redistributing wealth:

“There’s no plan in the NDP platform, there’s no Conservative platform so far. But if we were concerned about that enormous accumulation of wealth, if we were concerned about the growing inequality and the growing poverty, we would be looking at ways to actually tax some of that wealth,” Furstenau said. “We have that in our platform.”

Rustad said at the post-debate news conference that the platform would be out later in the week. He did correctly note that the Conservatives had released much of it already. Although, it’s a la carte on the party website, rather than in one handy, full-course, downloadable document.

Will it make a difference to voters? History says unlikely.

In the 2008 federal leaders debate, NDP leader Jack Layton challenged Conservative Stephen Harper.

“Where’s your platform? Under the sweater?” Layton said, noting Harper’s casual wear on the campaign trail.

Harper remained Prime Minister when he led his party to a minority win, with 16 more seats than the previous election.

Give it a shot

Eby challenged Rustad on his pre-election interactions with activists hesitant of or outright opposing COVID-19 vaccines. He also told one group that he was open to the idea of a war crimes-style trial for health officials — an idea Rustad had condemned the night before.

(Notably, none of the leaders suggested a judicial public inquiry about handling of the pandemic, a concept promoted last year by the esteemed British Medical Journal.)

Rustad: “I’m triple-vaccinated. The reality is in British Columbia, I also promoted and supported people getting vaccines, especially for seniors, especially for seniors in our communities. I was supportive of that. However, I am not anti-vax. I am anti-mandate. I believe that people should have choice. It shouldn’t be thrust upon them and forced upon them.”

B.C. Leaders Debate 2024, with moderator Shachi Kurl. (CBC)

No, he did not say that

Eby accused Rustad of comparing “a relationship with First Nations to parent and child.”

But Rustad did not. Eby misconstrued what Rustad had said moments earlier.

In explaining his party’s “economic reconciliation” plank, Rustad said “we are actually going to look at the strategic return of land to First Nations people. It needs to happen. This is rights and title… section 35 of our constitution, so we will be engaged with First Nations. But we want to make sure that what we’re doing with First Nations is creating those opportunities for success.”

He then launched into an anecdote about an appreciative single mother who he said gave him a “meat offering,” because she had found a job and was turning her life around after living on streets.

“That is what economic reconciliation is, connecting with people, making sure they have an opportunity to build a future and look after the kids. That’s what any parent would want in the province,” Rustad said. “That’s what we need to deliver when we’re working with First Nations in B.C.”

Elephant in the room

Just 24 hours earlier, downtown Vancouver, including the plaza outside the CBC studios, was the site of a roving anti-Israel protest march organized by Samidoun to glorify the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.

On the Vancouver Art Gallery steps, speakers chanted “death to Canada” and “death to Israel,” burned a Canadian flag and loudly declared allegiance to Hamas and Hezbollah, groups listed as terrorist by the Canadian government. The Vancouver Police are investigating.

Rustad waited until the closing statements of the debate to make reference to the incident in a parting blow to Eby.

“I care about the fact that our youth want to be able to have a future here. I care about the fact that our youth want to be able to have safety here. You know, we have a government that kicks out a Jewish cabinet minister, Selina Robinson, to appease a mob who, last night, was burning flags in front of the art gallery,” Rustad said. “I find that incredibly offensive in British Columbia. We want to make sure we build that positive opportunity for people to have that future. It’s why our entire plan is about putting you first.”

Quotable

Eby: “When John was in government, gangsters brought hockey bags full of unmarked bills to B.C. casinos. They laundered money with impunity. They used our court system to enforce those same gambling debts. Government had no interest in taking that on.”

Furstenau: “It’s fascinating to me that that John Rustad’s vision for this province is one that’s rooted somewhere around 1957. I mean, he cannot look ahead because he can only look back.”

Rustad: “We just need to get rid of the stuff that sucks in B.C. Paper straws suck. I’m sorry we got to get rid of those. It doesn’t work for people in B.C. There’s a little meme I saw where there was two lines for white powder paper straws, for cocaine, and a plastic straw, and the bottom side said: one of these is illegal in B.C. That to me tells a great story in terms of David Eby’s British Columbia.”

Early voting polling places open Oct. 10. Contact Elections BC about voting by mail and voting at a local election office. Election day is Oct. 19.

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Briefly: NDP and Green leaders attack Conservative

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