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Bob Mackin

Kevin Falcon’s rebranded opposition party finished 2023’s second quarter with an embarrassing fourth-place finish in a Vancouver Island by-election. 

But BC United does have fundraising momentum, with just over a year until the next scheduled provincial election.

BC United logo

On Aug. 2, Elections BC released campaign finance returns for the April to June period, showing BC United raised $768,091.62, for a half-year total of almost $1.4 million in donations from individuals.

Premier David Eby’s party raised $1.02 million in the quarter and the NDP’s half-year total is $1.78 million. That is a $380,000 advantage over BC United, known until April 12 as the BC Liberals. 

But, year-over-year, the NDP is only $52,200 ahead of 2022’s January to June total. BC United grew by $404,000. 

The BC Greens reported almost $300,000 in second quarter donations for $500,000 after six months of 2023, $29,000 better than 2022. The BC Conservatives went from $52,400 in the first half of 2022 to $91,200 in the first half of 2023. Former BC Liberal MLA John Rustad was acclaimed as the new Conservative leader on March 31. 

The parties also received their half-year, taxpayer-funded allowances on July 15, based on vote totals in the 2020 election: NDP ($786,086); BC United ($556,629.50); Greens ($248,632.12) and BC Conservatives ($31,414.25).

David Eby

In the June 24 Langford-Juan de Fuca by-election, NDP rookie Ravi Parmar succeeded retired ex-Premier John Horgan with more than 53% of the popular vote. Conservative Mike Harris edged Green candidate Camille Currie by almost 300 votes. BC United’s Elena Lawson, with 1,173 votes, would have finished last, had it not been for the Communist Party of B.C. candidate who garnered 74 votes. 

On the same day in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, the NDP’s Joan Phillip succeeded ex-cabinet minister Melanie Mark, by winning 68% of the popular vote in the NDP stronghold. 

BC United’s Jackie Lee finished a distant second, with 1,101 votes.  

Parmar and Phillip were sworn-in during a July 28 ceremony at the B.C. Legislature. 

The BC United report to Elections BC said the party transferred $59,573.35 to Lawson’s campaign and $49,925.89 to Lee’s campaign. 

The next provincial election is scheduled for Oct. 24, 2024. Eby has repeatedly denied that he is considering a snap election prior to that date. 

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Bob Mackin Kevin Falcon’s rebranded opposition party finished

Bob Mackin

After censoring documents about its Victoria Day technology crash, BC Ferries said Aug. 2 that the problem was preventable.

James Tan, the July-hired chief information officer, told reporters during a news conference about B.C. Day long weekend plans that steps are underway to prevent a repeat of the May 22 website, app and call-centre outage.

BC Ferries James Tan (LinkedIn)

“On the May long weekend, the root cause of the issue that caused the outage across multiple systems was the main storage at the server level in our Kamloops data centre reached a threshold unexpectedly and basically ran out of space, and because of that, it caused multiple systems then to come down and fail,” Tan said. 

Tan said BC Ferries is increasing storage and is confident there will be no repeat of the Victoria Day outage. 

“As we were investigating the root causes of what should have been done proactively, [we] made sure that we’ve got monitoring thresholds so that we’re actually catching these unexpected spikes in usage of the systems much earlier than what we had on the May long weekend,” Tan said.

BC Ferries charged a $10 application fee and an additional $37.50 for the internal email and briefing notes. BC Ferries heavily censored the documents because it felt they contained policy advice or recommendations and it feared disclosure would harm computer and communications systems and public safety. 

According to the timeline, the problem on Victoria Day began before 5:30 a.m. and was not fully resolved until almost 3 p.m. CEO Nicolas Jimenez was provided a script the next day that said staff were “undertaking a deep dive to determine if the problem could have been avoided or dealt with earlier” and “undertaking broader work to revisit our technical environment to make sure it’s resilient for our business needs. That’s not a short-term fix.”

At Wednesday’s news conference in BC Ferries’ Victoria headquarters, Jimenez said that the website will have a virtual waiting room for people making reservations and checking current sailing conditions. 

BC Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez (BC Ferries)

“So when there’s a surge of demand on the system, it doesn’t bring down the whole system, but we queue people up in an orderly fashion,” Jimenez said. 

Jimenez said a longer-term solution to the multiple-sailing delays that have hampered the system this summer is to find more-efficient ways of bringing passengers and vehicles into the terminals, through the ticket booths and onboard the ferries.

“That includes the data that will inform what is going on in that particular sailing so that we can provide better real time information to customers,” Jimenez said. “So we’ve got a project currently before the [B.C. Ferry] commissioner in order to do that work.”

Tan worked at ICBC under Jimenez, most-recently as vice-president of claims customer and material damage services. He was also asked whether BC Ferries had assessed its cybersecurity risks and if it is prepared for a potential attack. 

He said there is a multiple layer defence system, “both system-driven, as well we have humans actually going in and checking alerts as they come on board.” Tan said BC Ferries also relies on external expert support and is in constant communication with cybersecurity authorities. 

BC Ferries is urging passengers to book ahead and, if possible, take public transit to terminals and walk-on sailings during the B.C. Day long weekend, traditionally the busiest weekend of the year. 

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Bob Mackin After censoring documents about its Victoria

Bob Mackin 

The agency that represents B.C.’s healthcare employers denies that it was the latest victim of a Russian cybercrime gang. 

During a hastily called Aug. 1 news conference to announce a major privacy breach, Health Employers Association of B.C. (HEABC) CEO Michael McMillan offered few details, citing an active police investigation. McMillan, however, said the incident is not connected to multiple hacks of the MoveIt file transfer program. The Nova Scotia government and Metro Vancouver Transit Police are among the many victims.

HEABC CEO Michael McMillan (HEABC)

“I think I can say, without breaching anything important, that is not the vulnerability that was exploited,” McMillan said. 

McMillan said the HEABC, which negotiates the six major contracts covering 170,000 unionized healthcare workers in B.C., discovered the hack during routine maintenance on July 13. Its systems were accessed between May 9 and June 10 and the hackers may have taken birthdates, social insurance numbers, passport and driver’s licensing information and educational credentials associated with as many as 240,000 unique email addresses from three databases for physicians, care aides and community health workers. 

Health Minister Adrian Dix said no patient information was taken and government systems were not compromised.

“We do know that not all of the information in these databases was taken from the server, but at this time, we are unable to conclusively determine which information is potentially taken,” McMillan said. “As a result, we are acting as if all the information was potentially taken.”

McMillan did not name names, but said HEABC had contracted private “internationally recognized cybersecurity experts” and is working with cybersecurity experts in government and at health authorities. He also said that HEABC is contacting all affected individuals and offering credit and identity protection services. 

Coincidentally, the HEABC announcement came after the previously scheduled release of a cybersecurity audit at Vancouver Island University. Auditor General Michael Pickup found that the board had no training program about cybersecurity risk, had yet to approve an update of the outdated 2012 risk management policy and, for most of the year, had not reviewed cybersecurity risk mitigation strategies. 

HEABC’s board includes the CEOs of B.C.’s six health authorities: Vancouver Coastal, Fraser, Interior, Island, Northern and Provincial Health Services.

NDP Health Minister Adrian Dix and Telus CEO Darren Entwistle in 2012 (Mackin)

B.C.’s healthcare system is no stranger to cyberattacks. 

Diagnostics contractor LifeLabs was hacked by a ransomware gang in October 2019. A joint investigation by the Ontario and B.C. information and privacy commissioners found the company failed to protect personal information of 15 million patients in one of Canada’s biggest cybersecurity incidents. 

In May 2020, Vancouver Coastal Health went public after ransomware hackers broke into the Employee and Family Assistance Program system.

The pandemic triggered a boom in hacking. A March 2022 cybersecurity briefing for then-Premier John Horgan said the B.C. government faced a near tenfold increase in unauthorized access attempts in 2020 over 2015.

The report, obtained under freedom of information, said the provincial government spends $25 million on information technology security annually. In 2021, it updated mandatory security training for public servants and implemented advanced security systems to prevent email-based attacks. 

The presentation for Horgan from the Ministry of Citizens’ Services cited a 2021 IBM report that estimated the total cost per breach had risen 20% to $6.7 million. The incidents result in losses of data, productivity, service, intellectual property and public funds. They also harm organizational interconnectedness, lead to lawsuits and threaten public safety.

The presentation also quoted the Canalys Cybersecurity Report that estimated there were more breaches and records lost across industry and government in 2020 than the previous 15 years combined, despite a 10% growth in cybersecurity spending. 

The Ministry claimed B.C.’s “cybersecurity posture” was stronger than ever and the government is a leader in privacy, security and digital identity. It said it was challenged to keep systems secure while the pandemic forced it to transform to hybrid work and cloud computing. 

However, even some of the world’s most-secure systems are vulnerable. Last weekend, the New York Times reported that the U.S. government is worried that hackers connected to China’s People’s Liberation Army slipped malware into U.S. networks that could affect communications, power and water supply at U.S. military bases should China invade Taiwan. 

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Bob Mackin  The agency that represents B.C.’s healthcare

Bob Mackin

Despite the need for more skilled immigrants, especially in healthcare, the B.C. NDP government hiked the application fee on Aug. 1 by more than 28%. 

In a ministerial order on July 18, Municipal Affairs Minister Anne Kang, who is responsible for provincial immigration programs, approved the $325 increase for skilled immigrants to apply for permanent residency under the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

NDP MLAs Henry Yao (left), George Chow and Anne Kang (CCSA/Lahoo)

Instead of $1,150, they will have to pay $1,475. There is currently a three-month waiting period for application processing. 

Under an agreement with the federal government, B.C. nominates a certain number of immigrants every year to become permanent residents of Canada. The federal government ultimately decides who gets the visa. 

B.C. issued 7,000 nominations in 2022, a number expected to increase by 1,000 annually until reaching 10,000 in 2025. Applicants are scored based on directly related work experience, highest level of education, language proficiency in English or French, hourly wage of the B.C. job offer, and area within B.C.

Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland wonders if the fee increase is really necessary. 

“Why be penny wise and pound foolish?” Kurland said. “Do you really need the extra $325 per application at the present time, when there’s a greater need, in terms of balancing the economics of it, of bringing in skilled labor?”

Kurland does not expect the higher cost to be a significant barrier. However, he suggests keeping the price point the same and only charging the additional fee after qualification would have been fair.

In a statement, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs said the increased fee is intended “to maintain service standards and enhance features of the PNP, such as targeted outreach to regions and areas of labour shortage, and proactive analysis of program performance.”

It said the program operates on a cost-recovery model, with additional revenue to hire more staff. 

“The program currently employs 103 staff that are occasionally supported by contractors. All staff, including the program systems, facilities support, are 100% paid through cost recovery, which means the program is entirely funded by fees.”

Parliament Buildings, VIctoria, on Aug. 13, 2020 (Mackin)

B.C.’s application fee remains less than Ontario, which requires a $2,000 application if the job is offered in Toronto or $1,500 outside the Greater Toronto Area. The fee to apply in the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program is $500. The Ministry said it has seen 74% more healthcare nominees and 374% more early childhood sector nominees.  

In a 2020 report, acting Auditor General Russ Jones said the Ministry had met its nomination targets and most immigrants who became permanent residents through the PNP chose to remain in B.C. and were employed. But there was room for improvement. 

That report said B.C. forecast 861,000 job openings from 2019 to 2029 and the number of people (including nominees and accompanying spouses and dependents) who came to B.C. from 2015 to 2018 through the PNP was 32,000. 

“The emphasis on filling the province’s nomination quota could encourage unintended behaviours, such as focusing on quantity over quality of nominees, or approving applications with less scrutiny than warranted,” Jones reported. “We also found that the ministry had not done enough to assess and mitigate the risks of misrepresentation, fraud and corruption. The ministry had set up safeguards to protect the program’s integrity. However, it had not conducted a structured risk assessment to ensure that it had the right safeguards in place. It also had not monitored to ensure that safeguards were implemented as intended.”

The Ministry’s overall budget for 2023-2024 is almost $269.3 million. The Immigration Services and Strategic Planning department’s net budget is $25.7 million after $149.7 million in external recoveries. 

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Bob Mackin Despite the need for more skilled

Bob Mackin

Former Vancouver Park Board chair John Coupar said the early closing hours of the board’s biggest ticketed attractions are a bummer of the summer.

On July 28, after dinner at Seasons in the Park, he noticed the crowds of people on the plaza atop Queen Elizabeth Park. But the Bloedel Conservatory, which he campaigned to restore, had closed two hours earlier. Its April to September hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Bloedel Conservatory (City of Vancouver)

“We’ve just seen our taxes go up 10%, the new mayor [Ken Sim] is talking a lot about bringing the fun back, getting the swagger back,” said Coupar, a board commissioner from 2011 to 2022. “We’ve got two facilities that are already there and we’re not maximizing revenue.”

Coupar said the ABC supermajority, elected to all but one seat last October, is not using the power to maximize revenue. 

“I think they’re trying, but none of them have any experience or any history with the park board,” Coupar said.

Meanwhile, VanDusen Garden operated through July on a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule, except 6 p.m. Fridays to Sundays. August sees 7 p.m. closings on Thursdays. 

Less than a month ago, staff delivered the “Think Big” revenue strategy report, which contained a key line about “existing [Park Board] assets and facilities may be under-utilized in some areas, such as advertising, sponsorship, partnerships, and market rate rentals.”

VanDusen ($4.46 million) and Bloedel ($1.07 million) contributed to the $64 million revenue last year. Golf courses were the biggest money makers at $11.59 million. 

A statement from Ema Tanaka, the garden director for both Bloedel and VanDusen, said hours are determined annually by staff in the fourth quarter “guided by data-driven decisions that consider demand and historical visitation patterns.” She said staff will continue to “analyze demand and data to optimize our operating hours.” 

Ex-NPA mayoral candidate John Coupar (NPA)

“The current hours are similar to many other local attractions, striking a balance between providing public access and ensuring operational efficiency,” Tanaka said. “For comparison, the Vancouver Aquarium operates from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the UBC Botanical Garden from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Science World from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.”  

Coupar points to the history of Bloedel, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019 and opened daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. in December of that year for Festival Tropicale. He said it would need a cashier and security guard to remain open longer. The Aquarium is a totally different facility with fish and marine mammals that require constant care and tanks and pools needing after hours maintenance and repair. 

“You could always cherry pick to justify a decision and I think that’s what’s being done here,” Coupar said.

Coupar said a better comparison would be to civic facilities such as the Creekside (6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and Hillcrest community centres (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library (9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.).

Elsewhere, Chicago’s Botanic Garden runs 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Butchart Gardens outside Victoria remain open until 10 p.m Wednesdays to Sundays from June to mid-September. 

Coupar was the NPA mayoral candidate until a dispute over fundraising with the party board a year ago. The NPA board replaced him with Beijing resident Fred Harding, but the ex-cop finished fifth and the entire slate of the city’s oldest party was shut out. 

Coupar said he would “never say never” to another run for Park Board in 2026, but is enjoying retirement.

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Bob Mackin Former Vancouver Park Board chair John

Bob Mackin 

When Daniel Fontaine ran for New Westminster city council for the first time in 2018, he finished seventh in the race for six seats. Shortly afterward, he realized he was tired of seeing toxic messages directed at him on Twitter, so he quit and decided he would win for the New West Progressives party in 2022, “without Twitter, not because of Twitter.”

New Westminster City Councillor Daniel Fontaine (Zoom)

Fontaine chose old-fashioned knocking on doors — 4,500 to 5,000, by his count — and talking face-to-face with real people, with real names. He finished sixth last October, winning a seat with almost 1,900 more votes than his 2018 tally. 

“I never regret that decision,” Fontaine said.

That didn’t solve the entire problem for Fontaine, who was the CEO of the Metis Nation B.C. from March 2020 to May 2022. He was still a target online. 

“The only way I find out about them is if people screenshot them and send them to me,” said Fontaine. “So I am aware that there were several incredibly vile and disgusting tweets that were sent out and imagery on the @NWRegressives [account], putting me into orange T-shirts and mocking the fact that that I’m Indigenous was just beyond the pale.”

The most-notorious account was under the name Allan Whitterstone. Whistleblower Sarah Arboleda went public on June 14, with evidence that Community First New West (CFNW) school board trustee Dee Beattie was tweeting from @AlfromNW “to harass parents, teachers, and even the head of the BCTF for years.” Arboleda said she and her husband, James Plett, noticed odd comments from “Allan” any time they were critical of the school board. 

Dee Beattie (second from left) in the 2022 Community First NW campaign photo (CFNW)

Beattie admitted to it, was kicked out of the the NDP-aligned party’s caucus and announced she would go on leave due to illness. She has resisted calls from the rest of the board and the District Parents’ Advisory Committee to resign. She refused an interview request. 

Rather than launch an immediate internal investigation, party chair Cheryl Greenhalgh sent Plett a brisk message on June 16. 

“You and Sarah are members of Community First and I would have expected that you make a complaint directly to the executive of CF or to the chair of the School Board rather than through Twitter,” Greenhalgh wrote. “That you chose to do that publicly makes it difficult for me to now have a conversation with you about the issue until it is resolved.”

Greenhalgh did not respond to an interview request. 

Arboleda, Plett and Fontaine spoke at the June 20 school board meeting, but the school board rejected calls for a third-party investigation.

“There are still a lot of questions that remain unanswered and the only way that that will ever get answered is if there is an independent investigation as to what happened,” Fontaine said. “I’d like to know, did anyone know if Ms. Beattie had this account? Is there any elected official that was aware or had heard rumours? Or was potentially privy to information related to whether or not this account actually existed and was run by one of their colleagues? I don’t know. I certainly hope not.”

The “Allan Whitterstone” mugshot Dee Beattie used for her fraudulent account (Twitter).

Fontaine said he is encouraged that city council is in the middle of modernizing its code of conduct. It may result in the hiring of an external ethics commissioner to probe complaints from citizens, staff and politicians. He also said city manager Lisa Spitale moved swiftly in early January after a citizen complained that civic social media accounts were following @NWRegressives, the account that claimed to be a parody, but often pilloried Fontaine. 

@NWRegressives shut down the day after Beattie’s June 16 announcement and subsequently disappeared. Some of the evidence was archived and re-posted as “@NWRegressFan.”

“The timing of it shutting down so quickly after the Dee Beattie affair seems a bit more than simply coincidental,” Fontaine said. 

@NWRegressives’ parting messages called Beattie, Fontaine and others bullies, and claimed Fontaine had feigned offence. The four-part thread ended: “If you enjoyed the memes, I call on you to call out the many sock puppet, trolls, and assholes here adding nothing to #NewWest discourse, not even humour. You know who they are. Don’t cede this space to them. Bye.”

@NWRegressives first appeared Feb. 18, 2022, some eight months before the election. “We are not affiliated with any party,” said one of the first tweets, beside a winking emoji.

The #NewWestRegressives hashtag was, coincidentally, used the previous day in a tweet by New Westminster architect Robert Billard, when he called NWP “out of touch with what’s already going on.” Almost a year later, on Feb. 14, 2023, Billard issued a denial. “I am NOT @NWRegressives, and I don’t know who is.”

Billard frequently contacts elected and appointed officials on behalf of his clients seeking development permits. He donated $105 to CFNW on election day. On April 8, he quit tweeting, with a message expressing anger at “self-serving politicians, hateful people, unbridled racism, armchair experts, and chronic complainers. Twitter gets me so angry, wanting to ‘fix it’. I can’t. At times I say the wrong thing. My health can’t take it anymore. I’m getting off. Bye.”

Billard did not respond to phone messages left at his architecture practice from a reporter seeking his reaction to the Beattie scandal. Of the four email queries in the last week of June, he responded just once after a reporter noticed his dormant account was gone.

“Your email reminded me that I hadn’t fully shut it down instead of just stop using it,” Billard wrote. “Thanks for the reminder.”

Dee Beattie is not the first B.C. politician found using a pseudonym in a dirty tricks scandal. The most-famous happened 25 years ago in Parksville when the local newspaper caught BC Liberal MLA Paul Reitsma writing letters to the editor, in praise of himself and critical of opponents, under the pseudonym “Warren Betanko.” Reitsma quit, rather than face a recall vote, after a petition attracted more than enough signatures to oust him. 

Some 20 years later, a 2018 investigation by The Ringer resulted in the resignation of Philadelphia 76ers president Bryan Colangelo, whose wife, Barbara Bottini, admitted she was behind anonymous accounts slamming NBA players (including some 76ers) and executives. 

Earlier this month, the Washington Post questioned the legitimacy of a viral, polarizing account under the name Erica Marsh, who claimed to be a proud Democrat and denied being a parody, fake or bot.

Coun. Colleen Hardwick (left) and Mayor Kennedy Stewart at the April 12 city council meeting (City of Vancouver)

Reporters looked into the September 2022-created account, which was followed by 130,000 users and popular among Republicans. They couldn’t find anyone with that name in the Washington, D.C. phone directory or voting list. The Biden presidential campaign and Obama Foundation had no record of Marsh, despite her claims of involvement with both. The Washington Post story speculated that Marsh could have been the rage-baiting creation of an Eastern European “troll farm” service, aimed at influencing the midterm elections. 

A Toronto-based thinktank’s June report on abusive content directed at candidates and parties in last fall’s elections in Vancouver and Surrey included a dire warning.

“These working conditions, facilitated by digital technologies, threaten to reduce participation and representation in our democracies,” said the report from the Samara Centre for Democracy. 

Its “Sam-bot” found 13% of Tweets analyzed during the 35-day Surrey election period were either insults, toxic, threats, sexually explicit and/or identity attacks. Fourth-place mayoral candidate Jinny Sims, the NDP Surrey-Panorama MLA, had the most-abusive tweets received at 199, followed by eventual winner Brenda Locke at 169. Incumbent Doug McCallum had no account. 

Vancouver had a similar 13% rate. Incumbent mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart received one-in-five of the total abusive tweets (2,031), followed by TEAM for a Livable Vancouver’s Colleen Hardwick (599) and eventual winner Ken Sim (562).  

Not all politicians are innocent.

In June 2022, Stewart got in trouble for falsely accusing Hardwick on Twitter of violating the non-binding agreement with First Nations and Whistler to explore a bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics. Integrity commissioner Lisa Southern reprimanded Stewart.

New West Regressives Twitter debut (Twitter)

Southern also reprimanded the co-chair of Vancouver’s renters’ advisory committee last October for calling Hardwick the “witch of the westside” on Facebook. Former BC Liberal operative Kit Sauder apologized to Hardwick before Easter. She hoped it would be a lesson for others.

“I’m glad it’s been dealt with, it would have been nice if it had been dealt with at the time,” Hardwick said. “It would have been nice if it hadn’t happened at all.”

Southern recently issued a bulletin, “Government vs. Personal Use of Twitter,” that opened the door to politicians blocking citizens on Twitter. Her guidance offered a reminder that councillors appear at open meetings and can be contacted through traditional means, such as email and regular mail. 

Fontaine acknowledges that Twitter has, from time to time, been a tool for good, used by pro-democracy movements during the “Arab spring” of 2011, Hong Kong anti-Communist protests in 2019 and last year’s feminist uprising against Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist regime.

The reliability of the platform has eroded due to ownership, technical, regulatory and market changes. Owner Elon Musk’s rival Mark Zuckerberg has launched a similar service called Threads.

Fontaine said the uncertainty worries him, since Twitter can also be useful for a government to mass-communicate urgent messages about public safety and security. For instance, on July 2, when Musk announced a temporary cap on tweets, the B.C. Ministry of Transportation’s DriveBC highway alerts account was restricted in warning the public about crashes, delays and wildfire-related closures. 

Fontaine said governments should not rely solely on multinational corporations to get the word out, when they have local newspapers and their own channels, specifically civic websites. 

“I’m a huge fan of diversity of communication,” he said. 

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Bob Mackin  When Daniel Fontaine ran for New

For the week of July 30, 2023:

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke broke her silence at the July 26 Surrey Police Board meeting, a week after the NDP government ordered Surrey to replace the RCMP with the Surrey Police Service over the next two-to-three years. 

That happened the day after a Quebec judge agreed to July 25 to release retired RCMP detective Bill Majcher on conditional bail. Majcher, a former Vancouverite, is charged under the Security of Information Act for allegedly intimidating an individual wanted by China. The judge banned him from contacting his mentor, former FBI special agent Ross Gaffney. 

On this edition of thePodcast, hear Locke at a tension-filled police board meeting and hear Majcher during a 2020 webcast interview with Gaffney and a former CIA agent. 

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

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For the week of July 30, 2023: Surrey

Bob Mackin

The North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant incurred $598 million in costs as of April, more than half the total budgeted for the troubled North Vancouver project. 

The monthly status report for April, released by Metro Vancouver under freedom of information, shows $682.3 million had been committed to date. The total budget is almost $1.058 billion, double the $525 million announced in 2017 by original design/build/finance contractor Acciona.

Aerial view of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant site (Metro Vancouver)

The project’s fourth property and equipment damage incident and fifth near-miss happened in April, according to the status report. 

“PCL identified items (electrical cable) that had been taken/removed from their designated areas, suspected to be theft,” said the report. “A subcontractor was observed not in 100% tied-off while transitioning a scaffold above six feet.”

Residents of a mobile home between the site and staff parking lot on West First “have shown aggression to staff coming out of the parking lot and walking towards site. This has been reported to the RCMP and Metro Vancouver Safety Security and Emergency Management.”

The project, backed by $405 million in joint provincial-federal funding, was supposed to be complete in 2020. In March 2021, Metro Vancouver admitted the budget had doubled and the plant wouldn’t be in service until 2024. Acciona was fired in early 2022 and the Spanish company responded with a $250 million lawsuit. Metro Vancouver countersued in June 2022, claiming more than $500 million in damages, costs and expenses. The dispute has yet to be tried in court.

In March, Metro Vancouver’s liquid waste committee heard that it will cost $85 million more for new construction manager PCL to fix Acciona’s errors, but the current budget could absorb the additional cost. The April status report said Metro Vancouver and Acciona are negotiating a product transfer agreement. 

In July, Metro Vancouver staff chose Stantec Consulting Ltd. for a $25 million contract as owner’s engineer and increased engineer of record AECOM’s contract to $153 million to finish phase two work. 

The April report said that AECOM had around 150 staff in April for total 3,300-hours per week. PCL averaged 22 staff onsite for the month and 45 craftworkers and subcontractors. 

The project also includes decommissioning the existing sewage plant west of the Lions Gate Bridge, after the new plant is finished, and a new pump station and sewer pipes. The latter, known as the conveyance project, was finished last September, to connect the new plant with the existing outfall pipe near the Lions Gate Bridge.

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Bob Mackin The North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant

Bob Mackin

The California man caught in Surrey after allegedly driving a stolen vehicle across the Peace Arch border crossing on July 22 was not booked for impaired driving because he had been given a pain reliever at Surrey Memorial Hospital.

Vehicle that was driven through the border on July 22 (WSP/Twitter)

A Washington State Patrol trooper’s incident report, released under the state’s public records law, said he originally pursued a silver 2010 Hyundai Tucson SUV on Interstate 5 near Bellingham because the vehicle was reported stolen and the driver suspected of being under the influence.

The vehicle’s owner had left the keys in the ignition while shopping and the theft from Seattle was reported at 5:30 p.m. Trooper Dexter Beard’s report said he was notified by dispatch at 7:55 p.m. of the northbound vehicle near Bellingham and was one of two troopers in separate vehicles led on a chase that reached up to 185 kilometres-per-hour. 

Before Beard abandoned pursuit near exit 275 to Blaine, a dispatcher said border authorities had been notified. Beard continued toward the Peace Arch at routine speed and turned on emergency lights to signal Canada Border Services agents. 

“The line cleared in the Nexus lane and the Tucson accelerated through the crossing before the border officer was able to close the lane,” Beard wrote. “I advised the officer that the vehicle was stolen and that we had been in pursuit of the vehicle, also asking if they had been notified of the incoming pursuit. They said they had not been advised. They then relayed the information to Surrey PD and RCMP as the Tucson appeared to continue northbound into Canada from the border crossing.”

Beard returned through U.S. Customs but was informed the vehicle had crashed and the driver taken into custody. Police in Surrey agreed to investigate the collision and return both the vehicle and driver. While he waited for the suspect, Clover Towing transferred the badly burned Hyundai at the border to Meridian Towing.

The driver, who had become aggressive and attempted to flee, had been subdued with a taser. He was handed over at 10:30 a.m. July 23 after being treated overnight for a possible punctured lung in Surrey Memorial Hospital. 

“Due to the circumstances of the [suspect] being in Canadian custody for an extended period of time, with medical treatment ahead of a blood sample, I decided to not pursue charges of DUI,” Beard wrote. 

Emil Abdullah Tunsel, 21, of Irvine, Calif., was charged with attempting to elude a police vehicle, being without a valid operator’s licence and taking a motor vehicle without permission. Tunsel remains in custody in Bellingham.

Earlier July 22, tens of thousands of Lower Mainlanders headed south through the Peace Arch border crossing on their way to see the Seattle Mariners host the Toronto Blue Jays or Taylor Swift in concert.

Just over a month earlier, on June 18, a 30-year-old Seattle man was booked on charges of attempting to elude a police vehicle, possession of a stolen vehicle, theft and assault.

Jordan Joshua Richardson allegedly struck several vehicles waiting to cross into B.C. at the Peace Arch and ran across the border. CBSA officers nabbed Richardson and turned him over to U.S. authorities. That case also featured a Hyundai SUV stolen from Seattle, specifically a Santa Fe. Richardson remains in the Whatcom County Jail.

Under Washington State’s version of the freedom of information law, public bodies are provided five business days to disclose records or notify the applicant that more time is needed. It could take up to 30 business days for a B.C. municipal police force to respond or 30 calendar days for the RCMP, but a Canadian police department may refuse access to an incident report if it believes disclosure could harm an investigation. 

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Bob Mackin The California man caught in Surrey

Bob Mackin

The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) is sending almost 300 members to the World Police and Fire Games, which opened July 28 in Winnipeg.

(Hong Kong Police Force/YouTube)

But Global Affairs Canada (GAC) says they are not allowed to act as police while visiting for the Olympic-style multisport festival, which runs through Aug. 6. 

“We reiterate that the Hong Kong authorities have no jurisdiction in applying the law within our borders,” said GAC spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod. “Canada strongly opposes any attempt to intimidate or silence anyone residing in Canada.”

A statement from the organizing committee in Winnipeg said it was “not allowed to share with the public how many people from which country and how many sports/events they are registered in as it is private information.”

However, the duty officer in the public relations wing of the HKPF, who did not provide a name, said 287 members are going to Winnipeg for the event. They will compete in: adventure, archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, cycling, dragon boat, football, golfing, judo, rowing, rugby, shooting swimming, table tennis, 10-pin bowling and volleyball. 

MacLeod said the government has condemned Hong Kong authorities for issuing warrants and offering cash rewards for the return of eight pro-democracy advocates living overseas, including some with ties to Canada. 

Anyone experiencing foreign interference or state-backed harassment and intimidation should contact their local police and the RCMP National Security Information Network, MacLeod said.

(Hong Kong Police Force/YouTube)

A Vancouver human rights activist said HKPF officers have brutally attacked innocent Hong Kongers and she fears their presence in Winnipeg will cause particular stress for any Hong Konger living there in exile.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for such a dictatorship, the city police, who have cracked down on Hong Kongers’ fight for the basic rights, to be in Canada,” said Mabel Tung, chair of the Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement.

Tung said when Canada hosts such an event, it should only do so by ensuring that visiting police officers represent cities or countries “that have the same universal value as Canadians.”

When the People’s Republic of China took over Hong Kong from the U.K. in 1997, it promised the former colony would operate, business as usual, under a “one country, two systems” style of government for 50 years after the handover. That effectively ended in 2020 with the imposition of a national security law that resulted in HKPF officers arresting peaceful protesters, journalists and lawyers and shutting down media companies.

The World Police and Fire Games launched in 1985 in San Jose, Calif. and are held every two years. The 2023 edition is the fifth in Canada, after Vancouver hosted in 1989 and 2009, Quebec City in 2005 and Calgary in 1997.

Province of Manitoba is paying $4.9 million of the $17 million cost to stage the Games, which will see more than 5,000 police, fire and other first responders compete in 63 events at 34 venues. The Games also got a $2 million grant from federal taxpayers in 2019, via Western Economic Diversification Canada, for a smart cities technology exhibition to showcase law enforcement software and records management systems.

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Bob Mackin The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF)