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Bob Mackin

A Crown prosecutor wants the son of former BC Liberal MLA Judi Tyabji jailed for four-to-five years for sexual interference of a person under 16. 

However, Kasimir Tyabji-Sandana’s defence lawyer said he should not be incarcerated because his biological father is Indigenous.

Kasimir Tyabji-Sandana (left) and Judi Tyabji (Instagram)

Tyabji-Sandana, 36, was convicted by a jury last October in B.C. Supreme Court in Powell River. The jury found him not guilty of a second count, invitation to sexual touching of a person under 16. 

“When an offence requires priority on denunciation and deterrence, the judge must place greater weight on the offence rather than on personal circumstances of the offender,” Crown prosecutor Jeffrey Young told Justice Peter Edelmann. 

Young called the crime “among the most-serious” in the Criminal Code and the more serious the crime, the more likely the term of imprisonment. Young also said the courts have held that it is “unreasonable to assume that Aboriginal people do not believe in the importance of traditional sentencing goals” when such a sentence is warranted. 

In an emotional statement to the court, Tyabji-Sandana’s victim said that a part of her died when Tyabji-Sandana, then-28, took advantage of her over the course of five months in 2016. 

“I’m here today as a 23-year-old woman, to take my power back from you,” the woman said.

She said she was shamed and embarrassed, spent many days crying alone, pondering what her life was worth and kept the secret for three years until deciding to speak up. 

“There was fear that I would not be taken seriously and that I would be told that this was all my fault it happened,” the woman said. 

Kasimir Tyabji-Sandana at a high school graduation event. (Facebook)

“It’s been four years and three months and two weeks since I provided my first statements to police —1,569 days I’ve been waiting for this moment to come. This is where I take my power back,” she said. 

Defence lawyer David Tarnow asked Edelmann not to incarcerate his client, but put him on a community-based sentence instead. 

Tarnow said Tyabji-Sandana learned at age 11 that he had a different father and suffered racism and abuse because of it from his stepfather, Kim Sandana, and schoolmates in Kelowna. He developed a drinking problem when he was 14-years-old and continues to receive counselling. 

Tarnow told Edelmann that Tyabji-Sandana qualifies for leniency because expert pre-sentencing reports about Indigenous identity, known as Gladue reports, said his paternal family was Metis and he suffered intergenerational trauma, poverty and disconnection from his Indigenous roots. 

The jury heard last October that Tyabji-Sandana met a 14-year-old girl when she and a fellow high school student volunteered on Saturdays at Tyabji and stepfather Gordon Wilson’s sheep farm beginning in January 2016 in order to collect credit toward high school graduation. However, in court, Tyabji-Sandana admitted he never asked her age, believing she was mature. Tyabji and Wilson, the former BC Liberal leader, testified that they assumed the girl was a senior high school student. 

She left for a job in a grocery store after three months of volunteering, but Tyabji-Sandana reconnected with her via email. They began a relationship through the summer that advanced to sexual intercourse in September of 2016. 

The victim testified that she told Tyabji-Sandana after their first kiss that she was 15-years-old.

This is not Tyabji-Sandana’s first brush with the law. In 2018, he pleaded guilty in Calgary to attempting to possess a controlled substance and was sentenced to eight months of house arrest and eight months under curfew. 

In 2015, the year before he committed sexual interference in Powell River, police busted Tyabji-Sandana in Calgary after a Canada Border Services agent in Vancouver intercepted a package that was addressed to him. It contained 122 grams of acetyl fentanyl, worth an estimated $348,000. 

The sentencing hearing continues June 4 in Powell River. 

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Bob Mackin A Crown prosecutor wants the son

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For the week of June 2, 2024:

The 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre is June 4. 

Throughout the spring of 1989, university students occupied the vast square in the centre of the capital, demanding democratic reforms. 

Then the People’s Liberation Army violently quashed the protests as the world watched the horror unfold. Nobody knows for sure if the death toll was in the high hundreds or low thousands.

Since then, the Chinese Communist Party has only become more powerful inside and outside China. Xi Jinping has taken away civil liberties from Hong Kongers and is threatening to invade Taiwan. China continues to interfere in democracies, such as Canada, through its United Front Work Department propaganda and espionage program. 

On this edition of the Podcast, hear highlights of interviews from the vault with Tiananmen Square survivor Zhou Fengsuo (2019) and former Hong Kong reporter Fenella Sung (2018). 

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

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

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For the week of June 2, 2024: The

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Bob Mackin

The Vancouver anti-Israel communist who praised Hamas for the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks appeared on a webinar hosted by a group sympathetic to Iran’s hardline Islamic regime. 

At an April 26 rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, Charlotte Kates, the international director of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, called Iran-backed Hamas “heroic and brave” and urged followers to support those inside and outside Gaza who are fighting to end the state of Israel. Kates also said Hamas and its allies do not belong on Canada’s terrorist list.

Charlotte Kates of Samidoun on May 29 (CASI)

Prosecutors are considering whether to charge Kates for inciting or promoting hatred after Vancouver Police arrested her on April 29, the day the 44-year-old helped set-up an anti-Israel protest camp at the University of B.C. They released Kates on an undertaking to not attend protests, demonstrations or assemblies until a tentative Oct. 8 court date. Samidoun has organized or promoted most, if not all, Lower Mainland anti-Israel protests beginning since October.

On May 29, Kates was featured on a webinar hosted by the Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran (CASI), which she co-founded. Not only does CASI oppose Israel and advocate for Iran and Palestine, but it also favours abolishing military, police and immigration forces in the U.S. and supports “all indigenous, black and immigrant movements that seek an end to U.S. colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy and heteropatriarchy.”

On the Zoom meeting (SEE highlights below) Kates called Hamas “brave and self-sacrificing” for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel and criticized the International Criminal Court war crimes charges against three Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh related to the killing of 1,200 and kidnapping of 240. 

“There can be no equation made between the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people and their leadership and the illegitimate Zionist colonizer,” Kates told viewers. 

Kates applauded the “growing global intifada” involving university students in Canada, U.S. and Europe and said there is a duty to serve the resistance and expand the intifada “until it is a true crisis for imperialism.”

“The achievements that can be framed as legal achievements are not brought about by the objective application of law, but by the changes in reality that have been brought about by the armed struggle,” said Kates, who holds a law degree from Rutgers University, but is not licensed in B.C.

Charlotte Kates of Samidoun (Instagram/Samidounvan)

Kates finished her CASI speech with words similar to her April 26 rant. She implored listeners to “become a meaningful and worthwhile partner” of Hamas and its allies. 

“It is the resistance that stretches from Iran to Palestine, from Yemen to Syria to Iraq to Lebanon,” Kates said. “But that further stretches to Haiti to Cuba to Venezuela to Eritrea to South Africa, and to all of the peoples of the world that are fighting back together to every campus and labour union and organization that is taking the streets and shutting things down for Palestine, to every escalation and action. 

“We can and must build our international camp of resistance that is capable of making the axis of resistance larger, stronger, bigger and broader than ever before, to stand behind and together with the resistance forces as they defend humanity and seek a future in which October 7 is not just one day, but the promise of a future of a world that is free of Zionism, colonialism, imperialism, and their reactionary agents.”

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) 2023 annual report said “axis of resistance” is a phrase used by Iran to describe its regional alliance with Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah and other non-state proxy actors.

“Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack against Israel, Iran has publicly praised the militancy targeting Israel and authorized its proxies and allies, including the Houthis in Yemen, to conduct attacks against Israel and US interests in Iraq and Syria,” the CSIS report said. 

CSIS warned that Iran and its intelligence services actively target the Iranian diaspora in Canada, including “anti-regime activists and political dissidents; human, women’s and minority rights activists; and fugitives wanted by the regime. Iran also targets Israeli and Jewish interests as part of its ongoing shadow war with Israel.”

The agents, proxies and sympathizers Iran uses may be witting or unwitting accomplices, CSIS reported. The objective is generally to silence criticism of the Tehran regime. 

Iran attacked Israel with missiles and drones for the first time on April 14, prompting more sanctions from Canada’s Liberal government on April 25. That was also the day that Kates’s husband,  Khaled Barakat, spoke on a CASI webinar about Palestine and Iran. Barakat was described as a member of the executive committee of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. The Middle East Media Research Institute called him a former senior official in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which also appears on Canada’s terrorist list. 

“Iran continues to threaten international peace and security through multiple destabilizing activities across the Middle East region and beyond,” said Global Affairs Canada on April 25. “Iran poses a threat to the region both through its armed forces and through its support for its proxies, which includes funding, arms provision and training and political and ideological support.”

On Jan. 8, 2020, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down Ukraine Airlines Flight 752, killing all 176 people — 63 were Canadian citizens. North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Avenue became a focal point for memorials. 

Iranian dissidents in North Vancouver and around the world protested against the regime following the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old arrested and beaten for removing her hijab. 

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Bob Mackin The Vancouver anti-Israel communist who praised

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Bob Mackin 

Capilano University spent another $55 million to buy three of the four dorm buildings at the former Quest University, according to a May 29 announcement from the B.C. NDP government.

Student housing at ex-Quest University (NAI)

Last August, the province and university bought the 18-acre campus for $63.2 million from Primacorp after Quest suspended operations earlier in the year. It is expected to reopen under Capilano University management in fall 2024. 

Post-Secondary Education Minister Lisa Beare said in a news release that the ministry provided $48 million and the university the other $7 million for the three-building complex, which will house 333 students. 

Primacorp owned the land under four vacant dorm buildings that contain 416 student residential units. Each was assessed at $11.072 million. The buildings belonged to the company that built them, Southern Star Developments. In an affidavit in November 2020, Southern Star president Michael Hutchison said his company spent $41.7 million to build the residences specifically for student use, with financing from a Bank of Montreal mortgage. 

The NDP government said each building has 89 beds in single rooms paired with a shared washroom, six double-bed occupancy units with washrooms and five accessible single units with private washrooms. Each building has one two-bedroom and one three-bedroom apartment, containing a kitchen and washroom. 

Primacorp paid $43 million for the land and university buildings to rescue Quest out of court protection from creditors in December 2020 and agreed to provide student recruitment, marketing and fundraising services for Quest. Quest’s biggest lender, the Vanchorverve Foundation, had demanded repayment of $23.4 million at the start of 2020. 

Researcher Vivian Krause said police need to probe the full history of land investments in Squamish’s Garibaldi Highlands.

“I beg the premier, b-e-g, to halt the expenditure of public funding and ask the RCMP to investigate,” Krause said. 

Land titles records dated May 8 show Northwest Territories diamond mining pioneer Stewart Blusson owns a nearly 10-acre, vacant parcel worth $4.46 million. Lot 12, as it is known, is near the university at 3348 Mamquam Road.

Blusson reportedly made a $32 million donation to establish Quest University in 2002. His Eden Glen Foundation lost its Canada Revenue Agency charitable status last year over a nearly $5 million gift to a numbered company when it sold one of Quest’s original land parcels in 2018.

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Bob Mackin  Capilano University spent another $55 million

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Bob Mackin 

An Ontario man in custody in B.C. was granted full parole just over a year ago after serving time for weapons, drugs, assault and dangerous driving convictions. 

Tyrell Evans, 36, appeared by video in North Vancouver Provincial Court on May 29, a week after he surrendered to West Vancouver Police Department (WVPD) at an $8.2 million King Georges Way mansion. He is accused of committing assault causing bodily harm, assault by choking and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Tyrell Evans (Toronto Police Service)

WVPD said officers responded to calls from area residents on May 21 about an injured woman in distress. Police found a suspect with a large knife in the short-term rental, which is advertised for $20,000 a month. Police negotiated the suspect’s surrender the next morning. Evans is being held at the federal, medium security Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford and has yet to retain a lawyer. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 6.   

The April 4, 2023 decision by a Parole Board of Canada panel, obtained by theBreaker.news, described Evans as a “first time federal offender” who was serving a seven-year, four-month sentence stemming from an April 2017 fight at a Toronto nightclub and August 2017 flight from police. 

In the first incident, Evans pulled a handgun from his waist, pointed it at the head of a man and pulled the trigger. He was on probation at the time and under a weapons prohibition. 

“The gun did not discharge, and [he] tried to fire it again as the man fled,” the Parole Board decision said. 

Four months later, police found his driver’s licence and DNA in a parked, stolen vehicle. Evans fled from police twice, in different vehicles, at high rates of speed. While driving the first vehicle, Evans collided with a police car. Police searched his home the next day and found Oxycodone pills and ammunition. 

Police eventually nabbed Evans after a February 2018 call about a dangerous driver believed to be under the influence. They found a vehicle smashed into a median and caught up to Evans on foot. He was carrying two cell phones and large amount of cash. More than 2.5 kilograms of cocaine was found discarded nearby.

The judge who sentenced Evans also imposed a lifetime weapons prohibition, ordered him to provide a DNA sample and banned him from driving for three years. 

West Vancouver Police outside a King Georges Way mansion on May 22, 2024 (Mackin)

 The Parole Board decision said that Evans grew up in a broken home, his best friend was murdered when he was 16 and he dropped out of high school. Evans worked as a drywaller but trafficked in drugs “to live above [his] means.” 

When he was released on day parole in July 2022, Evans got a job with a demolition company, reconnected with his family and signed up for college courses. He told the Parole Board hearing that he cut ties with former associates, no longer drinks alcohol, and is no longer motivated to engage in the drug subculture or criminal lifestyle. Instead, he was motivated to be a positive role model for his two sons. 

Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) recommended full parole and seven special conditions: not to consume alcohol, seek or remain employed, do not enter drinking establishments, no contact with a certain person, report relationships, financial disclosure and a telecommunication restriction.

Parole Board members Alison Scott and Kathleen Gowanlock ultimately ruled in favour of full parole for Evans, with the special conditions. They concluded that he did not present an undue risk to society. 

“The board finds your pattern of offending and your index offence to be aggravating factors. To your credit, you have accepted responsibility, completed programming to reduce your risk and address your needs with noted improvements and you have demonstrated positive progress while in the community on day parole,” the panel’s decision said. “You appear to have used your day parole for its intended purpose and the board concludes that you have demonstrated that your risk can be managed on a more expanded form of release.”

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Bob Mackin  An Ontario man in custody in

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Bob Mackin 

The NDP minister in charge of British Columbia government cybersecurity broke his silence May 24 on the cyberattack against government systems. 

NDP minister George Chow embracing fellow MLA Katrina Chen on May 24 at the PNE (Mackin)

George Chow, the Minister of Citizens’ Services, was absent when Solicitor General Mike Farnworth took questions from reporters on May 10 about the incident by a state or state-sponsored actor from a country that was not specified.

Chow sat in the front row at the announcement of Freedom Mobile as the naming sponsor for the $104 million PNE Amphitheatre when it opens in 2026. A reporter asked Chow where he was when Farnworth appeared before reporters.  

“I was doing my work in my constituency,” Chow said. “Why does that matter? I think we do have the cabinet member to answer the question. So I think that’s the most important thing.”

It is standard for all relevant cabinet ministers to be involved in a government announcement. For instance, on May 9, the ministers of emergency management, forests and water, land, resource stewardship teamed-up for a wildfire prevention news conference. The latter minister, Nathan Cullen, appeared by videoconference. 

Chow’s Vancouver-Fraserview office is 11.2 kilometres from the Vancouver cabinet office in the Canada Place complex. Chow’s office is also 3.1 kilometres south of Nanaimo SkyTrain station, which would have taken Chow to Canada Place in 15 minutes.

None of the reporters chosen May 10 to ask Farnworth a question inquired about Chow’s whereabouts and Chow’s communications staff did not explain why he was absent. 

Asked why Farnworth took the lead, Chow said “he’s the deputy [premier] and the question came to the premier in the beginning, we work as a team.”

Chow was also asked if China was the source of the cyberattack. 

“That, I don’t have no information,” he said. “Our office is working with the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, I think they’re still investigating. And we don’t have any more information that is actually said to the media by the deputy premier and the premier.”

George Chow stands with Xi Jinping’s top B.C. diplomat Yang Shu in September 2023 in Richmond’s Lipont Place on a Chinese TV network report. (Phoenix TV)

Otherwise, Chow called the situation “under control” and said all data is secure. He had no comment on the recent ransomware attacks on the London Drugs chain and the First Nations Health Authority. 

Premier David Eby disclosed in a May 8 statement that “sophisticated cybersecurity incidents” had occurred. Two days later, Eby’s deputy minister, Shannon Salter, said there were three attempts, beginning April 10, to breach the government system. The attack prompted a government-wide memo on April 29 ordering workers to change their passwords from 10 characters to 14. 

The government reported the incidents to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, RCMP, Microsoft Detection and Response Team and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

The 2023 Canadian Security Intelligence Service public report said China, Russia, Iran and India are “major perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage in Canada.” 

“Foreign states engage in a variety of hostile activities such as elicitation, cultivation, coercion, illicit financing, malicious cyber activities, and information manipulation to interfere in Canada,” the CSIS report said. 

Malicious cyber techniques include compromising electronic devices through various means including socially engineered emails, ransomware, and malware. Farnworth did not specify the attacker’s method, but denied it was ransomware.

Chow became Minister of Citizens’ Services in February. He was previously the Minister of State for International Trade under Premier John Horgan. When Eby replaced Horgan in November 2022, Jagrup Brar replaced Chow in the junior portfolio. 

China-born Chow is a former president of the pro-Beijing Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver. He served two terms on the Vision Vancouver city council majority from 2005 to 2011, when the mayor was pro-Beijing environmentalist Gregor Robertson. Chow is in his second and final term as an NDP MLA. 

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Bob Mackin  The NDP minister in charge of

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For the week of May 26, 2024:

Premier David Eby’s NDP no longer has an insurmountable lead. John Rustad’s Conservatives are poised to become the free enterprise vehicle for voters in October’s election — but are they destined for opposition? Will Kevin Falcon’s B.C. United be in a battle for third-party status with the B.C. Greens? And what about the top three issues on voters’ minds, with 21 weeks to go before voting day?

All of that is discussed in the return of Research Co pollster Mario Canseco. Listen to the full interview on this edition of thePodcast with Bob Mackin.

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

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

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

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For the week of May 26, 2024: Premier

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Bob Mackin

Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau (Mackin)

When the PNE Amphitheatre opens in spring 2026, the name on the marquee will be one of four variations proposed by naming rights sponsor Freedom Mobile.

A 12-year agreement between the Quebecor-owned wireless carrier and civic-owned operator of Vancouver’s biggest annual event, the PNE Fair, was revealed May 24 beside the construction site for the $104 million, 10,000-seat venue.

Public voting began immediately on the names Freedom Mobile Amp, Freedom Mobile Arch, Freedom Mobile Rise or Freedom Mobile Place.

But the financial terms were not disclosed by either party. 

More than two dozen companies responded after the PNE advertised the naming rights sale more than a year ago. PNE President Shelley Frost said the top five or six best bids were narrowed to two before settling on Freedom Mobile’s proposal, which includes the first 10 years of the venue’s operations. Bidders came from various sectors, including consumer goods, food and beverage and telecom. 

“We’re really pleased with the financial results, that will go a long way in paying for a lot of costs for the amphitheatre,” Frost said. “Although I’m never going to be able to say out loud exactly what that number is, we’re really pleased with it and I know Freedom is really pleased with their investment.”

Last July, Vancouver city council revealed that the cost had ballooned from $64.8 million to $103.7 million due to additional features, market conditions, soil remediation, an archaeological assessment and relocation of an underground pipe.

Frost said the budget and schedule remain the same, but she was unable to say how much the Freedom Mobile agreement will reduce the price. 

“I know that you would really love to be able to say, instead of 15 years [to pay for the project], it’s 13 years and things like that,” Frost said. “But actually, to be honest, I haven’t really done the math yet of that extra money, how that would all flow through.”

Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau called the financial terms “proprietary.”

“We’ve been honoured to be the one that was chosen by the organization,” Peladeau said. “Now, obviously the financial situation is of importance, but this is the PNE.”

PNE’s Shelley Frost (left) and Quebecor’s Pierre Karl Peladeau (Mackin)

“Being the fourth national operator now will give the opportunity for all Canadians to enjoy that situation. So having the Freedom Mobile name on this amphitheatre, for us an honour, for us, also, a sign of commitment for Canadians to bring value added for their services.”

The Videotron arm of TSX-traded Quebecor acquired Freedom in 2023 for $2.85 billion from Shaw Communications, after the federal government required the sale as a condition of the Rogers Communications merger with Shaw.

The sponsorship brings Freedom Mobile’s name to a major venue in a city where competitors are active. 

Rogers took over naming rights of the Vancouver Canucks’ home from General Motors in 2010 for a reported $60 million over a decade. That was since renewed to 2033. The Rogers brand is also attached to the Vancouver Canadians’ diamond at Nat Bailey Stadium. 

When B.C. Place Stadium reopened in 2011 after undergoing a $514 million renovation, signs reading “Telus Park” were supposed to be installed as part of a $40 million, 20-year agreement. 

The BC Liberal cabinet, however, decided in early 2012 to back out of the agreement and spend $15.2 million to compensate Telus for telecommunications goods and services already provided. 

After the NDP came to power in 2017, stadium manager B.C. Pavilion Corp. went back to the market in February 2019 to find a naming rights sponsor. But that process was shelved due to the pandemic. 

In Toronto, Scotiabank paid $800 million beginning in 2018 to put its name on the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors arena for 20 years. BCE paid $100 million in 2002 over 20 years for the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens.

A June 2021 report to Vancouver city council’s Standing Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities said the financial forecast for the PNE Amphitheatre “showed a strong economic return with a 12-year payback, $49 million 40-year net present value and 9 per cent internal rate of return.” 

It fills a gap in the event market for a year-round, rain-sheltered building that could hold between 2,000 and 10,000 spectators. The report forecast the amount of events outside the annual summer fair would grow from five to 49 a year, with revenue increasing from $1.4 million to $9.7 million annually. 

The amphitheatre’s first tenant is expected to be FIFA, for the 2026 World Cup’s daily fan fest watch parties. An announcement is scheduled in June. 

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Bob Mackin [caption id="attachment_14153" align="alignright" width="865"] Quebecor CEO

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Reset the counter.  

After 27 days and 14 hours without a truck crashing into a Lower Mainland highway overpass, the Metro Vancouver Overpass Impact Counter on X, formerly Twitter, reported the 12th incident of 2024.

It happened early afternoon May 21 on Highway 1 westbound near 232nd Street in Langley. An M&H Transport semi-truck carrying a smaller truck on a flatbed got stuck underneath the CPKC railway overpass.

CPKC overpass near Langley on May 21, 2024 (MVOverpassDWI/X)

Trucker Dan Wright had earlier noticed the truck on Highway 1 and tried to warn the driver about his oversized cargo. 

“I was bobtailing [driving without a trailer] and turned on all my lights, my flashers, my beacons and everything,” Wright said in an interview. “I got him to stop and told I’m it wasn’t going to fit.”

Wright said the driver initially feigned ignorance of English — despite language proficiency being required to obtain a Class 1 commercial trucking licence. He said the driver and his navigator walked around the vehicle and appeared as if they were going to let air out of the tires on the trailer to reduce the height. 

Wright said he left, phoned the Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement branch (CVSE), which went to voice mail, and called the police, who told him to call CVSE. He reached someone at the Nordel CVSE inspection office to report the oversized load and returned later to the highway from an appointment to find the truck had become stuck under the overpass. 

“They had no permit because anybody who has a permit knows you can’t go past Highway 11 in Abbotsford with anything over 4.3 metres (height),” Wright said, adding that a single-trip, oversize permit can be bought over the phone for $15. 

Wright said CVSE’s active compliance and enforcement ebbs and flows. When a Chohan Freight Forwarders truck crashed for the sixth time in two years after last Christmas “they were like a fat kid on cake, checking everybody for height, making sure you were within what your permit was and everything else.” 

Coincidentally, CVSE ended a three-day enforcement blitz before the Victoria Day long weekend. 

“(CVSE) can’t be everywhere all the time. There’s so many of these fly by night outfits running around.”

NDP Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Rob Fleming cancelled Chohan’s B.C. licence in February (the company continued to operate in Alberta). In March, he increased maximum fines from $500 to $100,000, plus up to 18 months in jail. Wright said that is still not enough. 

Wright said the NDP government needs to listen less to industry lobby groups, like the B.C. Trucking Association and the Western Trucking Association, and listen more to the truckers who use the highways on a day-to-day basis. 

“We know our jobs, but they’re letting too many of these ass-clowns haul this stuff, because it’s the lowest bidder,” he said. 

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Bob Mackin Reset the counter.   After 27 days

Business, News, Opinion, Sports

For the week of May 19, 2024:

Should athletes who were born male be allowed to compete in women’s sports against women? What is more important in sport: inclusivity or safety and a level playing field?

In 2023, World Athletics, the track and field governing body, chose the latter. It banned “male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty.”

On April 30, John Rustad, the leader of the Conservative Party of B.C.,  tabled the Fairness in Women’s and Girls’ Sports Bill in the B.C. Legislature. 

While private member’s bills rarely get passed in B.C.’s whipped Legislature, the governing party rarely stands in the way of a bill’s introduction. That is exactly what Premier David Eby’s NDP majority did, alleging that it was transphobic. 

Guests Linda Blade and Hannah Driedger say Eby is wrong. They join host Bob Mackin to talk about what was in the bill. Blade is a high performance coach and author who advocates for women and girls in sport. Driedger is the communications and research director for the Conservative caucus and she helped draft the bill. 

Listen to the full interview. 

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

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

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For the week of May 19, 2024: Should

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theBreaker.news and theBreaker.news Podcast: your source for news, opinion and analysis about British Columbia issues, institutions and influencers.

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