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Business, News, Sports

Bob Mackin 

Looking into the crystal ball at the sports business headlines for the coming 12 months.

Goodbye, 2023, the year of Connor Bedard. Hello 2024 and Macklin Celebrini. 

North Vancouver delivered the Chicago Blackhawks their number one choice in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, via the Regina Pats and Canada’s world junior champions.

Macklin Celebrini (Boston University)

Another North Vancouver phenom, Boston University freshman star Celebrini, has NHL scouts abuzz. 

The son of Golden State Warriors’ sports medicine director Rick Celebrini could one-up Bedard by the very venue where he could don an NHL sweater for the first time. 

It’s not a rink, but Sphere in Las Vegas will host the June 28-29 draft.

Messi is coming… maybe. 

Save the date. May 25. That’s when the David Beckham-owned, Leagues Cup champion Inter Miami CF will visit B.C. Place Stadium. As long as he is healthy, World Cup champion Lionel Messi should be in the lineup. 

When he was asked last August about playing on a plastic pitch, of which there are several in Major League Soccer, the Argentine wizard told reporters it would not deter him. 

“The truth is my youth was spent on artificial turf, my whole life was on that pitch,” Messi said. “Truth is it’s been a while since I’ve played on artificial turf, but I have no problem adapting myself again.”

Ticket resale prices for the May 25 match may rival those for the B.C. Place appearances by the Rolling Stones in July and Taylor Swift in December. 

A Vancouver football team will be the home side in the Victoria suburb Langford in 2024. 

Lionel Messi (Inter Miami)

But not the one the Westshore expected.

The Whitecaps will host Mexico’s Tigres UANL on Feb. 7 at Starlight Stadium in a CONCACAF Champions league match, because of the Home and Garden Show at B.C. Place. 

Starlight, with its 6,000 seats and 18 suites, was hoping for a visit from the B.C. Lions. Instead, Royal Athletic Park in Victoria will host the CFL’s first Touchdown Pacific on Labour Day weekend. 

The Aug. 31 meeting with the Ottawa Redblacks will be the Lions’ first in the regular season on natural grass in B.C. since 1969 at their original home, Empire Stadium. Tartan Turf was installed the next season. The Redblacks have been the lowest-drawing visitors in recent years to B.C. Place, but will that won’t matter with a cosy 13,000 to 14,000-seat setup in the provincial capital. 

The Lions hope to end their 70th anniversary season victorious on Nov. 17, when B.C. Place hosts the 111th Grey Cup. 

The Paris Olympics are July 26-Aug. 11 and the focus will be Canadians on the courts and the pitch. 

First, the pitch. Coach Bev Priestman’s squad will defend its 2021 Tokyo women’s soccer gold medal in the first major tournament of the post-Christine Sinclair era. Success in France would be just the ticket for a successful launch of the national women’s pro league in 2025, which will include the Whitecaps. 

On the basketball court, high expectations for a podium finish after Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada to a bronze medal win over the U.S. at last summer’s FIBA men’s World Cup bronze medal. On the tennis court, members of Canada’s teams that became men’s (2022 Davis Cup) and women’s (2023 Billie Jean Cup) world champions could vie for medals. 

Just before the Games, the International Olympic Committee is expected to award the 2030 Winter Games to the French Alps and the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City. 

For some of 2022, it was believed that 2010 host Vancouver and 1972 host Sapporo, Japan were frontrunners for one or the other. But corruption in the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and B.C.’s multitude of politically fraught social and economic challenges scuttled the bids. 

Online gambling has exploded in Ontario, since the federal legalization of single-event wagering in 2021. The ads are wall-to-wall on TSN and Sportsnet. 

B.C. Lottery Corporation holds the B.C. monopoly. But lobbyists for BetMGM, PointsBet and Canadian Online Gaming Alliance are lining up to convince the NDP government to adopt the competitive Ontario license-and-regulate model.

Inside a B.C. Place Pacific Rim suite (PavCo)

This is an election year, so don’t bet on the NDP breaking up BCLC. With all the money sloshing around this young industry, it’s only a matter of time before a sports gambling scandal pops up somewhere in Canada. 

Costs of hosting FIFA 26 World Cup matches in Vancouver will come into focus in 2024. 

Last January, the province gave the City of Vancouver power to levy a 2.5 percent accommodation tax through 2030 to pay off the anticipated $230 million host city bill.

The provincial hosting budget remains a mystery for now, but could get some clarity in February when Finance Minister Katrine Conroy tables her election year spending blueprint. 

Major, pre-World Cup renovations are coming to B.C. Place, where B.C. Pavilion Corporation is seeking a construction manager to guide it through the expansion of level three suites, a new elevator, washroom and restaurant facilities and more. The successful applicant must have at least one $50 million project under his or her belt, a hint of the magnitude of work that B.C. Place is pondering for 2026. 

Speaking of the stadium, it’s now older than 40. Which makes it a senior citizen from the era of multiplexes. The second oldest, behind Mexico City’s 1966-opened Azteca, on the FIFA 26 roster. 

The NDP’s new housing development laws include instant upzoning to densify areas around SkyTrain stations. In 2018, Vancouver city council approved in-principle a mixed-use tower outside the stadium’s southeast corner, but B.C. Pavilion Corporation has not sold the land. Just like it has not sold the stadium’s name to a sponsor. 

Could the stadium be in play after 2026? It was assessed last year at $222.9 million ($167.5 million for the building and $55.4 million for the land underneath), a 13.7 percent year-over-year increase.  

If the Lions and Whitecaps need a new home in the long-term, could one be built just a punt away from their original stomping grounds?

At Hastings Racecourse, which dates back to 1892, the thoroughbred owners pine for modern facilities. But they remain in an uneasy marriage with track’s leaseholder, Great Canadian Entertainment. The casino is not the bonanza originally promised and slots players have glitzier options at the Grand Villa in Burnaby and Parq in downtown Vancouver. 

Mayor Ken Sim’s 2022 campaign included a photo op in the Hastings grandstand. But not to discuss the ponies. He’s in favour of expanding SkyTrain under or over Hastings Street and onward to North Vancouver.

Great Canadian’s lease with city hall is up for renewal in November 2024.

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Bob Mackin  Looking into the crystal ball at

Business, News

Bob Mackin 

Planning to start the new year with a bang in Surrey? You might want to think twice.  

Heavily censored incident reports and photographs, obtained under the freedom of information law, include details of coordinated fireworks seizures by civic bylaw enforcement officers and RCMP constables from underground retailers and buyers without permits.

Fireworks seized in a Surrey bylaw enforcement operation (Surrey/FOI)

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke boasted last month that staff and cops seized $345,000 worth of fireworks from four locations during the Halloween and Diwali period in late October and early November. They also attended 269 discharge locations and issued 23 fines. 

The sale and discharge of fireworks, without a fire department permit and federal fireworks operator certificate, is punishable in Surrey with fines up to $5,000. Incident reports state Surrey did not issue any permit in 2023. 

In one Oct. 31 case, bylaw officer Tyler Lunn “observed that a propane torch, connected via a hose, to a 100-lb tank was being used to light the fireworks. The propane tank was located just inside the garage of the building on the property.” 

A Nov. 1 file said bylaw officer Kevin Yip “observed a large display of fireworks being discharged from a wheelbarrow and from an area beside a wheelbarrow” into the air and into traffic.  

Yip “could hear laughter as they were being shot onto the street area” and witnessed people return to twice to relight fireworks in the wheelbarrow.   

“The officer remained on scene for approximately 10 minutes and had his amber lights flashing while gathering evidence. The group on the property continued to discharge fireworks into the air and towards the officer’s vehicle as well as traffic,” said the incident report. 

Officers seized $80,000 of fireworks from a clandestine store set up in an abandoned house during a Nov. 3 inspection. 

Bylaw officer Jaspreet Kandola found a Google ad for fireworks for sale and posed as a customer in order to receive the address by text message from the proprietor.

Fireworks seized in a Surrey bylaw enforcement operation (Surrey/FOI)

The seller arrived at the location late, driving a grey Tesla with B.C. licence plates, with multiple fireworks boxes in the back seat. The interior of the house “was down to the studs,” but a room was filled with packed shelves of fireworks, and a cash register on a table. A photograph also shows a PIN pad for credit and debit transactions. 

Prices varied, from $70 to $90 per package for the family pack. The officer said she would buy six packages and then advised the seller she was with Surrey bylaw enforcement.

“RCMP went into the property and confirmed the house was full of firework packages 

and the property was unoccupied,” said the incident report. “RCMP seized all of the fireworks from the house.” Constables and bylaw officers delivered the fireworks to the RCMP main detachment bay garage for destruction. 

Another officer similarly obtained the address for another store via text message. Two officers, Taranjit Bains and another only identified as Maghera, and two constables, identified only as Carozza and Gibson, entered the store on Oct. 27 during a bust of fireworks valued at $100,000.

“Const. Gibson asked the employees if they were the owners and they said no. Employees said they will call the business owner to attend. Meanwhile, Const. Gibson asked the employees to stand outside while all the fireworks are being seized,” said the incident report. 

An additional pair of constables arrived and Maghera asked for more bylaw officers to join in the removal of the fireworks for delivery to the main RCMP detachment for destruction. 

The apparent business owner arrived and said “they do not sell directly from the store but store the items so when costumers buy online, it is easier for shipping.”

A cash register and credit/debit PIN pad at a clandestine fireworks retail store busted in Surrey (City of Surrey/FOI)

The owner and two employees were given fine notices. 

Photographs shot at the scene show a hand printed sign offering free sparklers to customers who post reviews to Google Maps. Price tags on shelves contained the logo for the Pyro Bob’s chain and products included names like Wake the Neighbours, The Two-Four and Kerfuffle.

Among the seized boxes were several labelled as explosives and marked with the name of Abbotsford distributor Mystical Fireworks, which sources fireworks from China and Cambodia.

In an additional Nov. 4 report, Bains and Kandola attended the subject address. Bains knocked on the front and rear doors, but nobody answered. They walked back to their work vehicle and observed movement in a black Kia SUV. 

Bains approached the vehicle to find a person in the front seat, which was pushed all the way down. Bains requested identification and re-served the municipal violation tickets. The Oct. 27 originals were cancelled due to an error in the address. 

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Bob Mackin  Planning to start the new year

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Bob Mackin

War drags on in Ukraine, nearly two years since Vladimir Putin’s Russian army invaded.

Seaforth Peace Park (Mackin)

There is also no end in sight for the Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the Oct. 7 massacre, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. 

Xi Jinping has not ruled out invading self-governing Taiwan. China’s navy and air force have threatened the Canadians and Americans helping guard transportation routes around the democratic island.

At Christmastime 2023, peace on Earth seems further away than ever. The atomic scientists who keep the Doomsday Clock set it to 90 seconds to midnight. “The closest to global catastrophe it has ever been,” they said last January.

A metaphor for a world in conflict languishes in Kitsilano’s Seaforth Peace Park, south of the Burrard Bridge, in the shadow of Lululemon’s headquarters. 

That is where the Peace Flame Monument decays behind a fence. 

The park opened in 1949, across Burrard Street from the Canadian Forces Seaforth Armoury. It was the site where the annual, Cold War-era End the Arms Race marches began in the 1980s and 1990s. Hence the location for the city’s 36-year-old monument to remember the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima. 

Nobody knows for sure how many died after the U.S. Air Force Boeing B-29 dropped the bomb named “Little Boy” on the Japanese city. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimates a death toll between 70,000 and 140,000. 

Kinuko Laskey and Gordon Campbell, Aug. 13, 1987 (Kitsilano NTV:Vancouver Archives)

Mayor Ken Sim’s plan to abolish Vancouver’s elected Park Board overshadowed everything else at the the Dec. 11 meeting, where commissioners rejected a plan that would have brought the fire and water sculpture back to life. 

A report projected a $13 million cost to rehabilitate 30 decorative fountains, ponds and waterfalls around the city. The board chose to spend $2.6 million at 11 sites.

“The Peace Flame Monument in Seaforth Peace Park is a non-compliant water feature that was not chosen by the board for rehabilitation in this capital plan,” said a statement from the Park Board.

The fountain is in “very poor” condition, according to the inventory of water features in the city. The current replacement value was pegged at $370,000 and rehabilitation cost estimated at $491,600. 

“Staff will be bringing an additional report the board for decision in 2024 regarding next steps for the water features that were not identified for rehabilitation by the board.”

In February 2022, staff told commissioners that the water and gas supply lines were so severely corroded that both were shut off in 2018. The control system for the natural gas supplying the flame “became very unreliable, discharging natural gas into the atmosphere whenever the flame went out.”

A large, bronze sheet from one side of the fountain exposed sharp edges, so the fence was erected for public safety. The briefing note said that staff began discussions with the artist and stakeholders, but work paused due the pandemic. 

The artist, Sam Carter, died Nov. 4 at age 80, “in the afternoon holding hands with the people he loved and who loved him,” said his obituary. Loved ones gathered in his memory Dec. 1 where Carter taught for 46 years, Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

In a 1987 interview for Kitsilano NTV’s “Message for Peace: The Lighting of the Peace Flame Monument,” Carter said that the goal was to “interpret the spirit of the monument in Hiroshima and not replicate it.”

Seaforth Peace Park (Mackin)

He used granite from Nelson Island, “a very Indigenous material,” he called it. He incorporated the elements of fire and water and a pyramid representing the north, south, east and west axis. 

“I think, in a nutshell, what we’ve done is we’ve combined all these basic Earth elements and have animated them in such a way that they replicate or give people the idea of a very peaceful environment and a very delicate environment,” Carter said at the time. 

Then-mayor Gordon Campbell presided at the Aug. 13, 1987 ceremony, where he joined Hiroshima bombing survivor Kinuko Laskey to light the flame. 

“As long as we remember that each man and each woman in the world shares the same commitment to peace, and as long as we remember that each of us can make a small contribution,” Campbell said in his speech. “I think that we’re going to be moving further and further along the path of ultimate peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.” 

Campbell read a letter from the Mayor of Hiroshima. Laskey, who moved to Vancouver in 1953, recounted the horror of suffering physical and mental injuries as a 16-year-old student.

“I hope no one has to follow my footsteps. I believe that bombs are only for destroying things and teach us to hate,” Laskey said. “They cannot give us peace or love. I deeply believe love and understanding is the only way.”

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Bob Mackin War drags on in Ukraine, nearly

Business, News

Bob Mackin

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,

NDP members, for October they prepare,

Pollsters shout: “housing, economy, healthcare!”

Hospitals are full, the scarcity of beds,

What about the billions from the feds?

Surrey Memorial has a portable, oh snap!

And Peace Arch’s movie set caused a flap,

Cancer patients to Bellingham, sparked even more chatter,

More fentanyl victims, can it get any sadder?

August in West Kelowna, forests became ash, 

Hotels and motels lost so much cash.

Summer drought, rationed H2O,

Grouse and Whistler cry out for snow, 

Climate is a-changin’, that is quite clear, 

Weather’s in flux, both far and near. 

Eby says carbon tax will stick, 

Conservative Rustad says “hey, not so quick!” 

Falcon, busy changing the name, 

Were Liberals, now United, like a soccer game.

From Prince George to Princeton, 

Free enterprise vote splittin’.

Margin of victory could be small, 

It favours Premier Dave, so tall. 

At Cambie and 12th, it’s Sim, Kirby-Yung and Bligh,

Another year property taxes go high.

That surprise ABC threw 

Was not the Bright Nights choo-choo,

But the park board, they hope it goes poof!

Sim says he’ll save millions, but where’s the proof? 

A split in his caucus, conflict abound, 

Ex-commissioners find common ground.

ABC voted to make the board go kaput 

An opposition movement is afoot. 

Pools, rinks, fields and track,

Will Stanley Park forests grow back? 

We still have False Creek and its ferry, 

And PNE Fright Nights, oh so scary. 

Away in Surrey, that never-ending show, 

Locke versus Farnworth, a battle of ego,

From Fraser River to Ocean Park heath,

The Sol-Gen declares: “Surrey Police!”  

Hold on, before you say “Machiavelli!”

It’s the Mayor again, fighting back on the telly, 

“I have a plan, right there on my shelf,

“Keep the Mounties, I say, from 0 to 112th!”

“Don’t want NDP police,” she also said.

“Blame Eby for any tax hikes ahead!”

Off to the lawyer, schedule a judge in the court,

Who said this battle was going to be short?

Locke has her fans, and it shows, 

Of course not McCallum, but ex-Mayor Bose. 

Look, above Whalley, beyond the drizzle,

It’s Santa, himself, not a civic official.

I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight—

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

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Bob Mackin 'Twas the night before Christmas, when

Business, Companies, Miscellany, News, Opinion, Sports

For the week of Dec. 24, 2023:

Merry Christmas from theBreaker.news and thePodcast!

Yule enjoy the special Christmas edition featuring 2023 in review with the MMA panel: Host Bob Mackin and guests Mario Canseco of ResearchCo and Andy Yan of the Simon Fraser University City Program. 

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 Dec. 24, 2023: Merry

Business, News

Bob Mackin

Some British Columbians better be home for Christmas. 

Specifically, those under a judge’s house arrest, curfew or probation order.

Smart Tag anklet (Buddi)

To enforce those orders, B.C. Corrections runs an electronic monitoring program, but it is not foolproof. Devices were removed without authorization 201 times between April 1, 2021 and Nov. 8, 2023, according to figures released by the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General under the freedom of information law. 

From January to October of this year, a daily average 339 B.C. Corrections clients were on court-ordered electronic supervision, up from 305 in 2022 and almost 36 percent greater than 2021’s 250. 

B.C. was the first province to begin such a program in 1987 as a low-cost alternative to jailing low-risk offenders.

In October, based on the average daily count by community office, an average 288.8 clients were monitored, including 245.9 on bail orders, 37.9 on conditional sentence orders and five on probation. B.C. Corrections’ Fraser Metro region, which includes Delta, Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge and the Tri-Cities, accounted for more than a third of all clients monitored. Only eight percent of clients monitored were in the Vancouver region, stretching from New Westminster to Squamish and Sechelt.

One client in the province, connected to the Surrey North community corrections office, was monitored due to high risk offender designation.

The ministry said that the B.C. Corrections Central Monitoring Unit (CMU) operates around the clock and staff are alerted when an individual violates a condition, the battery is at risk of running out or if the electronic supervision anklet is tampered with or removed.

“Upon receiving an alert, CMU staff investigate to substantiate whether a breach has occurred and notify probation and police as appropriate,” the ministry said in the FOI response. “A breach of court-ordered conditions can result in charges and possibly time in custody, at the discretion of the courts.” 

The statistics do not include Randall Hopley, who went missing from a Downtown Eastside halfway house for 10 days in November after Vancouver Police found his cut-off anklet in a Mount Pleasant alley. Hopley served six years in federal prison for abducting a boy in Sparwood in 2011 and was already accused last January of violating his 10-year federal supervision order. Hopley is in custody and scheduled to make another court appearance Friday. 

In 2022, B.C. Corrections contracted an electronic monitoring company from Hertfordshire, England. Public Accounts show $1.2 million spent last year with Buddi Ltd. in the first year of a three-year subscription agreement, which includes a three-year option to renew. 

The contract said Buddi was hired to provide a “scalable electronic supervision solution, capable of enabling the province through users to electronically supervise all clients under different time and geographic area restrictions at the time located anywhere in B.C. where cellular or landline telecommunications service coverage is available.”

Buddi markets the one-piece Smart Tag, described in its promotional material as “the smallest, lightest available tag, with the longest battery life in the market, is charged wirelessly and is fully waterproof.”

The contract said the Smart Tag requires a strap, on-body charger, charging dock for the on-body charger and two single-use, disposable locking plates. Buddi is responsible for the cost of repair and replacement due to any normal wear and tear or defects or faults in its equipment, whether new or refurbished. Buddi agreed to provide the devices, compatible radio frequency units for each device, battery chargers, cables, tools, batteries and spares, including straps.

The maximum amount of Buddi’s contract in the second and third years is $750,000 each. B.C. is charged a daily $8.20 fee for each activated device, but if any are lost or damaged, replacement costs run from $220 to $1,400 each, depending on the component. 

Standard strap sizes range from 19 to 40.5 centimetres, but 25 percent of clients require a 23 cm strap and 20 percent need 24 cm. 

The contract includes ongoing training, customer support, maintenance and system support and updated or revised geospatial data configuring and loading. Amazon Web Services is the hosting subcontractor, with data centres in Toronto and Montreal.

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Bob Mackin Some British Columbians better be home

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Bob Mackin

The Richmond RCMP public service video that sparked an online debate among road users, and drew Premier David Eby’s criticism, was produced by a high school filmmaker with an ICBC grant and co-stars an officer.

Richmond RCMP’s road safety video (Richmond RCMP/YouTube)

The dramatic 42-second video without dialogue, posted Oct. 13 to X, formerly known as Twitter, was intended to help reduce the number of collisions involving pedestrians in Richmond. Last year, there were 65, including 43 in winter.

The proposal to ICBC’s community grant program in December 2022, obtained under the federal access to information law, sought $500 to “provide token financial compensation” to an aspiring Grade 11 filmmaker at a Richmond high school. 

“Capitalizing on this student’s passion, creativity and skills, we hope to provide a wider platform for his craft, while being able to develop a high quality and extremely effective video that is beyond the modest amount it will cost to develop,” wrote Randall Walrond, City of Richmond’s community police station coordinator, in the proposal. 

The video got bang for the buck, registering 7.4 million impressions and 1.4 million views, according to public information officer Cpl. Adriana O’Malley.  

Walrond’s proposal cited the 2016 to 2020 B.C. annual average of 2,400 injuries and 52 deaths of pedestrians and said the goal was: “Increased community awareness around the roles and responsibilities that drivers and pedestrians collectively have in keeping our roads safe for pedestrians.”

The proposal said the video could be adapted for multiple languages and distributed through immigrant assistance charities, posted on YouTube and promoted through social medial channels.

“With Richmond being a dynamic, growing and multi-ethnic community, boasting the highest percentage of immigrants in Canada, there is a high number of pedestrian injuries and fatalities in our community,” said the proposal. “Some of these incidents may be a result of newcomers being unfamiliar with the driving and pedestrian rules of Canada so an awareness campaign targeting this demographic would be beneficial.”

Richmond RCMP’s road safety video (Richmond RCMP/YouTube)

ICBC road safety and community coordinator Harvey Kooner was delighted with the script, including how it emphasized “we all have a choice with wardrobe selection,” the close-up of the pedestrian’s shoes, the distractions for both driver and pedestrian and the shared responsibility tagline. 

“I like that,” Kooner wrote Jan. 30. 

A week earlier, Walrond wanted the script to focus on visibility and expressed concern that “the messaging ends up being one-sided (drivers can’t make a pedestrian more visible).” 

He suggested that the video contain separate slides with point-form advice for drivers and pedestrians. 

For drivers: to focus on the road, be ready to yield to pedestrians, especially at intersections and near transit stops, and expect the unexpected, even mid-block. 

Similarly, after a shot of the frightened pedestrian, pointers for pedestrians: always use a crosswalk and follow signs and signals, remove headphones when crossing, wear reflective clothing to be seen in wet weather, at dusk and night, and make eye contact with drivers, because “it’s hard to be seen when visibility is poor.”

But, in the end, it did not make the cut. Only the title, “Pedestrian Safety is a Two-Way Street,” appeared before logos for the RCMP and federal government. The advice did, however, appear in the Richmond RCMP news release. 

Email shows Const. Frank Bryson volunteered in February to portray the distracted driver and to use his own car, but nobody on camera received payment. 

O’Malley, citing privacy laws, declined to identify either the pedestrian in the video or the student producer. 

During an October news conference, Eby agreed with advocates for pedestrians and cyclists that the “video probably misses the mark.” But he did not give an overall thumbs down. 

“The pedestrian is crossing at a crosswalk and following the law and the driver is looking at his cellphone, and there’s sort of an equivalency there in the video,” Eby said. “The message though, overall, about this being a time of year to be alert as a driver and as a pedestrian, is important.”

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Bob Mackin The Richmond RCMP public service video

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Bob Mackin

If you feel the Earth move under your feet next month, don’t bother looking to the Earthquakes Canada @CanadaQuakes account on X to find out where it measured on the Richter scale.

“As of Jan. 13, 2024, this account will no longer be updated,” said a notice posted Dec. 13 by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) on X, the Elon Musk-owned site formerly known as Twitter.

(NRCan/X)

Jane Furlong, the department’s communications officer, said NRCan will stop issuing earthquake information on third-party platforms and is urging citizens to use the source website, natural-resources.canada.ca or sign-up to the RSS feed. 

“The functionality of many third-party social media platforms has changed and are no longer meeting the intended objectives of accounts,” Furlong said. “For example, some platforms no longer display posts in chronological order, which can create confusion to Canadians for time-based notification systems like earthquake alerts.”

Furlong said NRCan would continue to update its website and via its RSS feed, but continuously monitor and evaluate how the department engages on social media “to maximize the reach and effectiveness of communications to Canadians.”

The B.C. government, however, is sticking to X for its emergency notifications. 

“EmergencyInfoBC on X (Twitter) and EmergencyInfoBC.ca will continue to share information about all provincial emergencies, including earthquakes,” said a statement provided by the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.

“We recommend people follow trusted sources, such as EmergencyInfoBC, DriveBC and their relevant First Nation or local authority, on multiple channels, including their website, Facebook and X (Twitter).”

The province also uses B.C. Emergency Alerts broadcast to mobile phones and on radio and TV stations when needed for urgent wildfire, flood, heat and tsunami emergency information. 

By spring 2024, it said the federal government will, in some cases, be able to issue earthquake early warnings (EEW) to mobile phones and broadcasters to provide short-notice warnings to drop, cover and hold on. 

“These EEW notifications will be published to the EmergencyInfoBC website, and amplified on the EmergencyInfoBC X (Twitter) account,” it said. 

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Bob Mackin If you feel the Earth move

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For the week of Dec. 17, 2023:

The Trudeau Liberal government finally admitted Dec. 11 that abuse and corruption are spoiling Canada’s sport system. 

But instead of green-lighting a public inquiry — with power to order sworn testimony and documents — Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough opted for “The Future of Sport in Canada Commission.” 

It is modelled after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian residential schools and will cost $10 million to $15 million over the next 18 months. 

Is it a pre-election box-ticking exercise or will it save sport and protect athletes? 

On this edition of thePodcast, hear highlights of Qualtrough’s announcement and an interview with guest Rob Koehler, director general of Global Athlete, which advocates for athlete safety and sport integrity.

Plus 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 Dec. 17, 2023: The

Business, News

Bob Mackin 

Crews at Main Street-Science World SkyTrain station rescued a female who had fallen under a train after a quarrel near the station’s west side entrance on Nov. 21.

Main Street-Science World Station (TransLink)

An incident report obtained under the freedom of information law said a platform intrusion emergency sensor activated at 8:09 p.m. on the outbound tracks when train number 26 arrived. 

The incident report by TransLink employee Sukhdeep Parihar said there were two females and one male involved, all estimated to be aged 15 to 20-years-old. Parihar wrote that “loud screaming” was heard at 8:09 p.m. When Transit Police arrived, the male “ran off northbound.” 

Trains were evacuated, the station closed and the SkyTrain system paused. Vancouver Fire and Rescue and Emergency Health Services (EHS) arrived at 8:19 p.m. The timeline said the train was rolled off the victim at 8:33 p.m. and paramedics rushed her to Vancouver General Hospital at 8:44 p.m. A biohazard technician from Trauma Clean spent nearly a half-hour on-site prior to the approval for service to resume before 11 p.m.

Metro Vancouver Transit Police public information officer Const. Travis Blair said there had been an altercation between the three people. 

“One individual involved in the altercation made her way to the platform level of the Main Street station where she was struck by a train,” Blair said. “Transit Police investigated the incident and determined that the matter was not criminal and no foul play was involved. The female’s injuries were non-life-threatening.”

EHS communications officer Jane Campbell said an ambulance, paramedic specialist and paramedic supervisor were dispatched to the scene after the 8:11 p.m. call. One patient was transported in serious condition to hospital, but Campbell would not provide any more information due to privacy laws. 

TransLink representative Dan Mountain did not comment and referred a reporter to Transit Police. Mountain said TransLink and its B.C. Rapid Transit Co. division are seeking experts to conduct a trackway intrusion engineering study, including the feasibility of installing platform barriers. But the study is not expected to be complete until sometime in 2025. 

On Nov. 13, just eight days before the Main Street-Science World station incident, a 41-year-old male died after he was struck by a SkyTrain at Surrey Central station. Transit Police determined the man accidentally fell into the guideway as a train entered the station. 

As of Nov. 23, there had been four SkyTrain and SkyTrain track-related deaths in 2023, according to the B.C. Coroners Service.

The record was nine in 1994.

Since 1987, 109 people have died on the rapid transit system, which launched 38 years ago this week. Eighty four percent by suicide and 15 percent due to accident. The remaining one percent is classified as “undetermined.” 

A coroner’s report on the 2001 death of a male at Royal Oak station quoted a 1994 study that estimated the cost of installing platform barriers at $1.7 million to $2.2 million per station, now worth $3.15 million to $4.07 million after inflation. Coroner Liana Wright suggested a low-cost solution: limiting access to platforms until trains come to a full stop.

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Bob Mackin  Crews at Main Street-Science World SkyTrain

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