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One of the men charged in the early 2021 death of a senior citizen pleaded guilty to manslaughter on July 4 in B.C. Supreme Court.

Sandy Jack Parisian, 49, had been scheduled to go on trial for nearly four weeks for the death of 78-year-old Usha Singh. Instead, he made the plea before Justice Kathleen Ker.

Singh, who lived alone, was found badly beaten in her house on Jan. 31, 2021. Vancouver Police said two men gained entry to Singh’s Little Mountain home around 6 a.m. on the Sunday morning by posing as police officers. 

Singh succumbed to her injuries in hospital two days later. Parisian and Pascal Jean Claude Bouthillete, 43, were arrested Feb. 3, 2021 and remain in custody. 

Bouthilette is scheduled to go on trial for first degree murder on May 27, 2024. 

Parisian was living in the Strathcona Park homeless camp — six kilometres north of the crime scene — when he was arrested. Bouthillette was arrested near Main Street and Terminal Avenue, living in a trailer.

Parisian described himself in 2019 as the “mayor” of the Oppenheimer Park homeless camp. When he was arrested, Bouthillette was early in a 12-month probation for a June 2020 break and enter in the Queen Elizabeth Park area.

The tent cities cost city taxpayers more than $6 million in police, fire, parks and sanitation services. 

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Bob Mackin One of the men charged in

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The tentative new contract between B.C. Rapid Transit Company and SkyTrain workers calls for a 6.75% pay raise effective Sept. 1. 

On June 29, CUPE 7000, which represents workers on the Expo and Millennium lines, reached the agreement with the division of TransLink after 10 days of talks. Details were not announced.

SkyTrain near Pattullo Bridge (TransLink)

According to a leaked copy of the memorandum of agreement, pay will rise by at least 16.25% over the life of the five-year deal. The union recommends members accept the contract and is holding information meetings via Zoom on July 17, before a vote later in the month.

This follows the April-negotiated contract between Unifor locals 111 and 2200 and Coast Mountain Bus Company that would see pay rise between 11.25% and 12.5% through March 31, 2026 at TransLink’s bus division. 

The CUPE 7000 deal contains a no contracting out clause to protect jobs of existing SkyTrain workers and the formation of a joint committee of three company representatives and three union representatives to discuss “contracting in” work that is currently contracted out.

Pay will also increase on Sept. 1, 2024 by 2% or 3%, based on the 12-month rate of inflation beginning Sept. 21, 2023. Further increases are scheduled at 2.5% annually in 2025 through 2027. The the final two years could be higher in order to match whatever general wage increase Unifor members achieve in their next contract from CMBC. 

Non-skilled trades workers get a .24% adjustment plus 25 cents per hour in 2025.

According to an appendix in the Aug. 31-expiring contract, SkyTrain pay ranges from $29 an hour for a parts driver to $58.41 an hour for an elevator/escalator technician. For administrative workers, $28.08 is the hourly rate for receptionists and administrative support clerks and, on the other end of the scale, $57.18 per hour for a control centre instructor.

Workers on duty Sundays will be paid time-and-a-quarter for all work hours beginning Sept. 1. That increases to time-and-a-half in 2026. Workers on afternoon shifts will see their $1.80-an-hour shift differential bumped to $2 an hour on Sept. 1. The nighttime differential increases by $1 to $4 an hour on Sept. 1. By 2027, it will reach $6 an hour. 

The company will pay union president Tony Rebelo’s wages for one day a month to a maximum of 120 hours per year and also pay $20,000 to the union for the purposes of bargaining.

The new deal also gives workers eight, full-paid individual sick days beginning Jan. 1, 2024. A maximum of five sick days may be used consecutively. There are various increases to benefits and allowances, such as $2,500 more to see a psychologist or registered clinical counsellor, to a maximum $4,000 a year, and a $500 increase to annual physiotherapy payments, now capped at $1,500. 

(TransLink)

The maximum $5,000, interest-free loan for entering a residential substance abuse treatment program is tripled to $15,000. Upon successful completion of a monitoring agreement, the company will forgive the loan. The company can recover the debt in the event of failure or forgive 100% of the loan one time during the worker’s employment with the company.

Maternity leave is increased by six weeks to 18 weeks and the contract language is amended to replace references to mother with “birthing parent.”

Similarly, male and female pronouns are out and “they,” “them” and “their” are in. The wording of the fair practice anti-discrimination clause changes sexual “preference” to sexual “orientation” and adds protection for gender expression. 

A letter of understanding upholds the provincially adopted United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and contains measures aimed at increasing recruitment, retention and advancement of Indigenous employees. It contemplates an employment equity committee and training for anti-racism and cultural competency.

The Sept. 30 National Truth and Reconciliation Day is added to the list of statutory, paid holidays. Indigenous workers will receive an unpaid day off to observe National Indigenous Peoples Day every June 21. By request, an employee may have an elder or support person of their choice present when dealing with issues affecting Indigenous employees. 

A side letter from BCRTC labour relations director Kevin Payne to Rebelo on June 29 says that the union will be given an opportunity to discuss its concerns should the company rescind its November 2021-implemented work-from-home policy. 

Another June 29 letter clarifies how the company deals with special leave requests for employees who attend incidents after a person is struck or run over by a SkyTrain. 

Affected employees may request time off for special leave through their manager/supervisor to the labour relations department. 

“Special leave will only be approved for the remainder of the shift; and if necessary, the shift immediately following the date of incident. Should an employee require additional time off as a result of their attendance at the incident site, they will be required to file a claim with WorkSafeBC,” the letter said. 

So-called “dirty work employees” called to don personal protective equipment and clean up after a track level incident involving human contact shall receive a premium of two hours equal to 200% of their normal straight time pay rate. 

A new clause about accident/incident investigations says supervisors involved in a safety investigation will only participate as a witness and any statements by an employee will not be used beyond the investigation.

TransLink is studying the feasibility of erecting platform barriers to prevent people from jumping or falling into the track area as it approaches the 40th anniversary of service in two years. A 2001 B.C. Coroners Service (BCCS) report cited a 1994 SkyTrain safety review that estimated it could cost as much as $2.2 million to retrofit each station with platform screen doors. 

BCCS statistics show that, between 2008 and 2018, 32 people died of suicide on the SkyTrain system.  

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Bob Mackin  The tentative new contract between B.C.

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A rival party’s campaign manager, who complained to New Westminster Police about Gurveen Dhaliwal scrutineering while running for re-election to the school board, said her integrity remains questionable.

The B.C. Prosecution Service published lawyer John Gordon’s recommendation on July 6, finding Dhaliwal likely contravened the Local Government Act, but it was not in the public interest to charge her.

Community First New West’s Gurveen Dhaliwal (Twitter)

“Students and parents should really consider whether someone who has been explicitly trained and informed to not attend a voting place, other than for voting, but yet claim a mistake to have done so, should be qualified to make decisions for students and parents in the community of New Westminster,” Jason Chan of the New West Progressives said in an interview.

Chan was scrutineering at the Queensborough Community Centre polling station last Oct. 5 when he recognized Dhaliwal. He confirmed with election staff on-site that the 2018-elected Community First New West candidate had been acting as a scrutineer. Election officials referred Chan to the police and he formally complained Oct. 9. They investigated and forwarded a report to Crown counsel earlier this year. 

In a May 1 cabinet order, Dhaliwal was named a ministerial assistant to Health Minister Adrian Dix. Assistant Deputy Attorney General Peter Juk secretly appointed Gordon on May 4, the same day that a reporter unsuccessfully sought comment from Dhaliwal, Juk, Dix and Premier David Eby.

Dhaliwal was shuffled from Dix’s office without explanation to the office of Labour Minister Harry Bains on May 15. Eleven days later, on May 26, the B.C. Prosecution Service announced Juk had appointed Gordon. Gordon submitted his recommendation to Juk on June 29. 

Chan said he was “flabbergasted” that both Dhaliwal and Community First New West city council candidate Ruby Campbell (on whose behalf Dhaliwal attended the voting station) failed to heed the detailed warnings from candidate manuals and in-person from New Westminster’s chief election officer Jacque Killawee.

Chan said he attended candidate meetings where Killawee was clear, repetitive and emphatic about the rules and regulations, including the one that he saw Dhaliwal disobey.

“(She) painstakingly went through what are the ‘can do’s’ and ‘must not do’s,’ including candidates cannot attend the place of voting, other than voting themselves,” Chan said. 

By keeping her seat in the Oct. 15 election, Chan also noted that Dhaliwal was subject to the School Act’s oath of office, which states: “I have not, by myself or any other person, knowingly contravened the School Act respecting vote buying, intimidation or other election offences in relation to my election as a trustee.”

Dhaliwal, a member of the NDP-aligned party, stepped aside as school board chair a month ago due to the investigation. 

After the incident last October, Cheryl Greenhalgh, the chair of Community First New West — but not Dhaliwal herself — admitted in a statement that Dhaliwal regretted her mistake and she had intended to observe the process and provide information to other volunteer scrutineers.

Dhaliwal did not respond for comment on Thursday, but her lawyer, Joven Narwal, told the New Westminster Record that Dhaliwal was “vindicated by this decision.”  

Gordon listed several public interest factors against charging Dhaliwal, including the offence was committed due to genuine mistake or misunderstanding of fact, the loss or harm as a result of a single incident was minor in nature, and Dhaliwal has no prior criminal record. 

Gurveen Dhaliwal (Twitter)

“Her background of community involvement speaks well of her,” said the BCPS statement. “Her re-election to a second term shows she is well regarded in New Westminster.”

If Dhaliwal had been charged and convicted, she could have faced a maximum $5,000 fine and year in jail. 

Gordon’s investigation found Dhaliwal spent 20 minutes as a scrutineer after she voted. While she did not identify herself as a candidate, the presiding election official did not ask if she was a candidate and mistakenly neglected to check her name against the list of candidates. 

Gordon speculated that Dhaliwal could have successfully argued in court that she was “induced by the election official’s error” and therefore permitted by the official.

Gordon also noted that when Killawee became aware of the incident, she took steps to notify all parties and there was no known recurrence. 

“The incident was isolated. Ms. Dhaliwal has not demonstrated a wilful or repeated non-compliance with the Act and the ‘integrity of regulatory scheme,’ specifically the electoral process, was not, in the particular circumstances of this case, adversely affected,” said the BCPS statement.

Prior to the May cabinet order, Dhaliwal had been appointed in February 2021 to be an aide to Minister of State for Infrastructure Bowinn Ma. She previously worked for Richmond-Queensborough MLA Aman Singh’s campaign and in the constituency office of Burnaby-Lougheed MLA Katrina Chen. 

On May 27, the day after the special prosecutor was announced, Eby told reporters that Dhaliwal had been placed on administrative leave. His staff did not respond to questions about whether she continued to receive pay and benefits. 

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The Pakistani student who organized and participated in illegal blockades on Lower Mainland roads, bridges and highways was led out of a Vancouver courtroom by a sheriff July 5 to begin a seven-day jail sentence.

Muhammad Zain Ul-Haq, a Pakistani national outside the North Fraser Pretrial Centre (Save Old Growth)

Provincial Court Judge Reginald Harris also ordered climate change protester Muhammad Zain Ul Haq, 22, to serve 30 days house arrest (with allowance to leave for three hours every Saturday morning), 31 days under 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and perform 75 hours of community work service. He must not block or impede pedestrians or traffic at any B.C. road, highway or public space during a 12-month period of probation. 

Haq showed disdain for the rule of law, publicly encouraged others to do the same and celebrated his arrests, the judge said during the 40-minute hearing.

“His conduct speaks to an arrogance of his ideals at the expense of the democratic process, and pro-social dialogue,” Harris said.

Haq pleaded guilty in January to five charges of mischief for his role in the Extinction Rebellion climate change blockades in 2021 in Vancouver and Richmond. He also pleaded guilty last November to one charge of breaching a release order for the August 2022 Stop Fracking Around protest that blocked the Cambie Bridge. 

Haq, who also co-founded and led Save Old Growth, separately faces deportation to Pakistan and a one-year ban on returning to Canada for violating the terms of his visa to study at Simon Fraser University.

Crown prosecutor Ellen Leno had sought 90 days in jail and 18 months probation. Haq’s lead defence lawyer Ben Isitt argued for a conditional discharge. Harris had reserved his decision in March and the sentencing decision was delayed by more than a month due to his trial schedule. 

Provincial Court Judge Reginald Harris (Langara/YouTube)

Harris read the circumstances of each of the charges between March and October 2021, in which Haq and others were arrested for blocking traffic on the Cambie, Granville and Burrard bridges, and intersections in downtown Vancouver and near Vancouver International Airport. 

To gain release from police custody, Haq promised each time that that he would not return to the area where he was arrested. However, he returned to the Cambie Bridge last August for the Stop Fracking Around march, which led to another arrest and the breach of undertaking charge.

Harris highlighted two occasions when the protests blocked routes normally used by emergency vehicles to access St. Paul’s Hospital, including the social media-promoted event on July 24, 2021 at the north end of the Burrard Bridge. 

“Concerned about the impact that closing the bridge would have on those trying to access St Paul’s Hospital, police contacted Mr. Haq and informed him that the group would not be allowed to access a bridge, cautioning persons would be arrested,” Harris said.

Harris said the sentence should send a message to others that committing multiple criminal offences on a “platform of change” will also lead to criminal consequences. 

“Traffic on major roadways was impacted, access to an international airport was denied, emergency traffic was impacted and significant police resources were consumed,” Harris said. “As for Mr. Haq’s moral culpability, the evidence is clear: he knowingly and deliberately broke the law, and he did so fully aware of the consequences and the impact that his actions would have on innocent parties. Further, that his placement of his wishes and desires, no matter how laudable, do not reduce his culpability. Simply. the rule of law must be obeyed, unless legal justification permits otherwise.”

Harris mentioned that Haq spent nine days in North Fraser Pretrial Centre for contempt of court in February 2022 after blocking a Trans Mountain Pipeline construction site in violation of a judge’s order. That judgment indicated Haq was the national action and strategy coordinator for Extinction Rebellion at the time of the offence.

Ian Schortinghuis on June 13 at the Massey Tunnel (Save Old Growth/Twitter)

But Harris cited a pre-sentencing report for deciding that Haq had been rehabilitated and was not a risk to reoffend. The author of that report said Haq had taken responsibility for his actions and recognized “that radical activism is not productive on many levels.” That report and letters filed in support of Haq led Harris to believe Haq is “an intelligent, motivated young person who is a staunch protector of the environment, who can, provided he does so through legitimate means, (be) a catalyst for positive change.”

In March, Harris heard that should Haq succeed in overturning his deportation on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, he has a job offer from environmentalist Tzeporah Berman at the charity Stand.earth. In late May, Harris varied Haq’s bail conditions to allow him to move to Victoria and live with Sophia Papp, a fellow protester that he married in April.

Haq and four others incorporated Eco-Mobilization Canada, a federal not-for-profit behind the Extinction Rebellion splinter group Save Old Growth in January 2022. Haq had boasted in August 2022 in a New York Times story that Save Old Growth received US$170,000 in grants from the California-based Climate Emergency Fund (CEF). Haq is now listed on the non-profit’s website as a member of the advisory board.

CEF’s 2022 annual report said it granted US$5.2 million of the US$6.07 million it raised to back “disruptive non-violent activism” around the world. 

While activities in B.C. have subsided due to prosecution of mischief charges, CEF U.K. beneficiary Just Stop Oil has run a campaign of roadblocks, art vandalism and invasions of the field of play at sporting events. Three protesters were arrested for disrupting play at the Wimbledon tennis championships on Wednesday.

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Bob Mackin The Pakistani student who organized and

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What drew Yannick Joseph Alexandre Bandaogo to North Vancouver and what motivated him to go on a stabbing spree March 27, 2021, during a used book sale at the Lynn Valley Library?

Paul Cullen’s March 22, 2021 photograph.

Answers were anticipated at a three-day sentencing hearing that began July 5 in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.

On May 29, Bandaogo pleaded guilty as charged to second degree murder of a woman whose identity is protected by a judge’s order. Bandaogo also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder five other people and one count of aggravated assault against another. 

A 25-year sentence is automatic for second degree murder. The court will hear from lawyers for the Crown and Bandaogo’s defence, about how many years the 30-year-old should serve in jail before becoming eligible for parole. The minimum is 10. 

Court will also hear the words of witnesses and victims, about how the horror that unfolded in an otherwise peaceful place on that Saturday harmed them physically and mentally. 

Bandaogo is originally from Cote d’Ivoire in Africa. He appeared in a YouTube video from 2012 set in a Longeuil, Que. boxing gym called Techno Boxe. In spring 2021, he was wanted for arrest in Quebec and Manitoba. 

B.C. court files since March 27, 2021 show he was guilty of assaulting peace officers in May 2021 and May 2022 in Port Coquitlam and Oliver jails, respectively. 

One of the many hoping for answers is an area resident who witnessed a man identical to Bandaogo five days earlier, sleeping in the mid-afternoon sunshine, beside the lane at the back of Lynn Valley Village. 

“I tend to photograph everything I see, and it seemed unusual so I took a photo,” said Paul Bullen. “His pillow was a pizza box, which I later confirmed was from pizza he bought from the pizza place inside the Lynn Valley Centre.”

Bandaogo was sleeping near the entry to Lynn Valley Village.

The shadowy area to the right of Bullen’s photograph is the passageway that leads to the public square and, ultimately, Lynn Valley Library. 

Bullen is a self-described “street photographer” who used to sneak his camera and telephoto lens into Bob Dylan concerts when he was younger. Now he uses an iPhone, which is always with him. 

On March 22, 2021, Bullen was walking with a friend near the lane between Lynn Valley Centre and Lynn Valley Village, when he saw something out of the ordinary for Lynn Valley.

“We know that he was sleeping, lying on the ground sleeping near that place where he ultimately went nuts,” Bullen said. “So, to the extent that that’s of any interest, it’s not going to bring anyone back to life or figure out who the criminal was. But it is of some interest.”

Some interest that could spur a community discussion about services for those without a roof or needing other types of emergency assistance. 

Bullen, who has a doctorate in political science and a teaching career at universities and colleges in the U.S., said that day had a “sociological effect” on Lynn Valley.

The community was wounded emotionally, desperate for ways to heal. It also sought ways to support the victims of March 27, 2021. 

A floral shrine appeared overnight and it got bigger by the hour. The community was already reeling from the pandemic, which claimed its first Canadian victim at the Lynn Valley Care Centre just over a year earlier. Three days after Bandaogo’s crime, an arsonist torched the Lynn Valley Masonic Hall.

Memorial bench near Lynn Valley Library (Mackin)

GoFundMe campaigns raised more than $400,000 for victims. The community came together in a socially distant fashion. More than 1,000 vehicles joined an emotional drive-thru candlelight vigil procession on April 3, 2021 through Lynn Canyon Park.

The makeshift memorial at Lynn Valley Village is long gone.

Near the Lynn Valley Road pathway, a faded white decal with the #Lynnvalleystrong hashtag remains on the side of a silver planter. The letter-g is missing, beside the red outline of a heart. 

On the opposite side, a rock painted blue and green, with “LV Strong” in white, beneath a planted tree. 

But, to the left, a wooden bench, where shiny gold characters on a black plaque read simply: “Lynn Valley Remembers March 27, 2021.”

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The fourth-place finisher in last fall’s race for the Vancouver mayoralty has been disqualified from running in the 2026 local elections and his party deregistered. 

Elections BC also announced July 4 that the finances of the Mark Marissen-led Progress Vancouver are under investigation and none of the other seven candidates is eligible to seek local office until after 2026.

Mark Marissen (right) with Daoping Bao, his daughter and Sam Sullivan (Marissen/Facebook)

“Further enforcement actions may apply depending on the results of this investigation,”Elections BC said in its announcement. “Elections BC will provide an update on the outcome of this investigation once it conclusion.”

Elections BC cited Progress Vancouver for multiple violations: taking a non-permissible loan of $50,000; receiving donations without reporting the required information (missing or incomplete contributor names and addresses); prohibited campaign contributions from outside B.C.; and contributions more than the annual limit.

Marissen received 5,830 votes in a Vancouver civic election dominated by Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party. 

Progress Vancouver raised $256,097.79 (including the loan) and spent $265,673.53, according to its month-late filing with Elections BC, for which it was fined $500.

Six of the eight Progress Vancouver candidates did not submit their campaign finance reports by the Jan. 13 deadline. The remaining filed by the Feb. 13 late-filing deadline, but the report by the party itself did not meet Local Elections Campaign Financing Act (LECFA) requirements. 

“Elections BC notified Progress Vancouver on March 10 that they were required to file a corrective supplementary report within 30 days,” the Elections BC statement said. “Since then, Elections BC advised Progress Vancouver multiple times on their legal responsibilities and what was required of them to correct the deficiencies in the financial reports. Despite this Progress Vancouver did not provide a supplementary report that addressed the legislated reporting deficiencies by the compliance deadline.”

In a statement posted to his Twitter account on July 4, Marissen repeated much of the statement he provided to a reporter in February before a story about the prohibited $50,000 loan from Jason McLean. 

Marissen said the party failed to notice the NDP government’s amendments to local election campaign financing laws in 2021, which deem all loans to an elector organization to be loans for election expenses and subject to the prescribed limit on loans from non-financial institutions. 

Marissen also said the party received wrong advice in early January 2022 from an unnamed lawyer, that there was no jurisdictional limit, dollar limit, or limit based on individual versus corporate status to fund the day-to-day operations of a party office outside of campaign or election periods. 

“Progress Vancouver became aware of the full extent of the amendments having come into effect only after it had paid bills for the purposes set out for the party as explained above,” said Marissen’s statement. “At the time, Progress Vancouver also disclosed that there were issues with a handful of donations that came from out of province, and with some missing contributors data, and addressed those issues as best it could with the information available by the time the supplementary report was filed.”

Joining Marissen on the disqualification list are city council candidates Mauro Francis, Marie Noelle Rosa, Morganne Oger, May He, David Chin and Asha Hayer, and Metro Vancouver Regional District candidate Jonah Gonzales. 

None was elected in the Oct. 15, 2022 election. 

Under Elections BC deregistration rules, the party must file a report by next Jan. 4 for the period of Jan. 1 to July 4, 2023. A separate report must also be filed if any financial transactions are made after July 4.

Marissen is the principal of lobbying and strategic communications firm Burrard Strategy and a longtime federal Liberal and BC Liberal backroom strategist. He is also a senior advisor to McMillan Vantage, a lobbying company related to the McMillan law firm. Since the election, Surrey city hall contracted Marissen for $20,000 to lobby the B.C. NDP government to close down the Surrey Police Service and keep the RCMP as the local police force.

Sam Sullivan (left) with Jason McLean and Mark Marissen (Marissen/Facebook)

Marissen, who enjoyed success in organizing corporate-funded political campaigns before the 2017 end of B.C.’s big money era, had vowed in February to repay McLean for the loan that was intended to finance day-to-day administration of the party office. It was due for repayment on the Oct. 15 election day, subject to 5% interest.  

McLean is the CEO of the privately held McLean Group, which owns real estate, construction, film production, IT and communications, and flight charter companies. He is a former Vancouver Board of Trade chair and former Vancouver Police Board member who worked as an aide in the office of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien. 

In a June 18 Facebook post, Marissen posed for a photograph with McLean in a Coal Harbour condo at a fundraiser aimed at paying off campaign debts: “It’s much more challenging afterwards — every bit helps,” Marissen wrote. 

Also present were ex-B.C. Premier and Marissen’s ex-wife Christy Clark, former Vancouver Mayor and former BC Liberal MLA Sam Sullivan, ex-Liberal MP Herb Dhaliwal and Daoping Bao, the CEO of Burnaby’s Smart Label Solutions, where Marissen is on the advisory board. 

Bao and chief development officer Ivan Pak were two of the three founders of the Chinese Canadians Goto Vote Association (CCGVA) that formed a week after the 2021 federal election. 

Supporters of CCGVA, including two heads of groups aligned with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front, promoted Liberal Parm Bains in the controversial 2021 defeat of Conservative incumbent Kenny Chiu in Steveston-Richmond East. 

Chiu has alleged a disinformation campaign against him on Chinese-language social media helped topple his re-election bid   

Commissioner of Canada Elections Caroline Simard told a House of Commons committee hearing in March that her agency was investigating foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. 

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For the week of July 2, 2023:

A special Canada Day long weekend edition of thePodcast, with host Bob Mackin.

Two down, two to go. It’s halftime in 2023. Which means the return of the MMA panel to make sense of it all.

MMA: Mackin, Mario and Andy, looking back at the second quarter and ahead to the third.

Mario Canseco, president of ResearchCo. Andy Yan, the director of the city program at Simon Fraser University.

Plus Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim headlines.

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

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Only six people from the closed Lonzo Road homeless camp in Abbotsford accepted offers to move to two nearby shelters. 

The Ministry of Housing announced June 30 that the camp is gone, now surrounded by fences and awaiting construction of a 50-bed shelter. It has budgeted $4 million for the facility, to be operated by the Lookout Housing and Health Society.

In a news release, the government said 17 people had been offered indoor housing, but it did not provide a breakdown. 

Asked for details, a ministry spokesperson said that 15 people had received eviction notices on June 13, but two more people came to the site afterward. 

“Everyone at the site was offered shelter, storage and connections to housing, health, income and social supports.”

Six took up the offers to move to the Riverside and Lighthouse shelters. Nine others chose to relocate “to other locations in the region,” of which two were provided payments to subsidize their rent in privately owned accommodation. 

One person had market housing, but kept an RV at the site. The new accommodation for another person was behind bars. 

“This person was wanted for criminal charges and so is now currently in custody. As this is a police matter, we cannot provide more information.”

The site had more than two dozen RVs and cars, some of which were used as shelters. 

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Bob Mackin Only six people from the closed

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Two Canadian pension funds — one of which is Victoria-based — are shareholders in London’s troubled water and sewage utility company.

The Financial Times reported June 28 that Thames Water is in talks with the U.K. government about potentially nationalizing the company, which is facing a crisis over its GBP 14 billion debt, worth $23.4 billion in Canadian funds. CEO Sarah Bentley suddenly quit June 27 and a new chair, Adrian Montague, was officially announced June 30.

(Thames Water)

Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is the biggest external shareholder with a 31.777% stake. B.C. Investment Management Corporation (BCIMC) holds 8.706%. Other investors include sovereign wealth funds in Abu Dhabi and China.

In 2006, the BCIMC Crown corporation was part of the Kemble Water Ltd. consortium, led by Australian investment bank Macquarie, that acquired Thames Water from Germany’s RWE AG for GBP 8 billion. 

Thames Water issued a statement to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Wednesday, downplaying what it called “press speculation.”

OMERS has not replied. BCIMC refused comment, instead referring a reporter to the LSE statement, which said the company had the equivalent of $7.4 billion in cash, received $841 million of new funding from shareholders in March “and is continuing to work constructively with its shareholders.” 

Financial Times reported that shareholders pledged more than $2.5 billion a year ago.

BCIMC’s most-recently released investment inventory, dated March 31, 2022, showed Thames Water among 27 companies under its infrastructure and renewable resources portfolio, which represents 9.5% of BCIMC assets under management. The portfolio represents 9.5% of BCIMC’s $233 billion assets under management. 

The regulator, Water Services Regulation Authority, which goes by the brand name Ofwat, was “deeply concerned” about Thames Water and four other regional monopolies, which it deemed “the worst performing companies operationally.”

In November, Ofwat ordered Thames Water to return more than $84 million and Southern Water $50.5 million to customers after missing performance targets. 

“The poorest performers, Thames Water and Southern Water, are consistently falling beneath our expectations and those of their customers,” Ofwat said. “They need to take immediate action to improve their performance and rebuild trust with the people they serve. We will continue to hold companies to account for their performance and we will make sure that they raise their game.”

One of the biggest voices urging action to reform Thames Water is fly-fishing enthusiast and environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey, who gained fame as the lead singer of Northern Ireland punk band the Undertones in the late 70s and early 80s. 

“We, the customers, have for 30 years already provided all of the funding necessary for water companies to comply with the law, something water companies confirm to Ofwat each and every year,” Sharkey Tweeted. “Where’s our money gone? What has happened to it? When can we the customer have a refund?”

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Bob Mackin Two Canadian pension funds — one

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Bob Mackin

The NDP government has rejected a freedom of information request for the transcripts and recordings of interviews with the subjects of the damning May report about the BC Housing nepotism scandal.

The Ministry of Housing claimed it has no records from meetings or correspondence between Ernst and Young (EY), which the Office of the Comptroller General contracted for the job, and ex-BC Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay and his wife, ex-Atira Women’s Resource Society CEO Janice Abbott.

Ravi Kahlon (left) and David Eby in December 2022 (Flickr/BCGov)

“Prior to responding to your request with the Ministry of Housing, Information Access Operations contacted [the Ministry of] Finance on your behalf to inquire if they would hold the sought records,” wrote Patrick Craib, a manager with the government’s centralized freedom of information office. “However, as the only EY deliverable was the final investigation report, they would not hold records either, the response to the request remains as no records.”

Of the 24 people interviewed, only the names of Ramsay, Abbott and ex-BC Housing CFO Abbas Barodawalla were not censored from the list in the EY report. 

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon did not respond to a text message interview request. 

Despite the Ministry’s response, the template for government services contracts states that the province exclusively owns material produced by contractors and that “the contractor must deliver any material to the province immediately upon the province’s request.”

Additionally, a key 2004 ruling by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner states that records created or acquired by or for a public body, as part of its mandate and functions, are public records under a public body’s control. Therefore, those records are subject to release.  

That case stemmed from the Saanich School Board’s hiring of an investigator to report on a harassment complaint. The employee under investigation unsuccessfully applied to the school board for the investigator’s notes, but an adjudicator later overturned that decision and ruled in favour of disclosure. 

Ramsay (BC Housing)

“The duty to provide access to records under the Act is not defined by the willingness of the public body or its staff, contractors or agents,” wrote adjudicator Celia Francis.

The executive director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association said the government strategically bypassed the Auditor General and Ombudsperson in favour of hiring one of the big, global accounting brands for political reasons. 

“One of those dynamics where it’s in the government’s interest to outsource these types of reviews to private corporations in order to try and create barriers to people gaining access to the information,” said Jason Woywada. “That is the unintended consequence, or perhaps the intended consequence, of what they’re doing, by doing this.”

Woywada said the public has the right to see background records after ultimately paying for the EY report that the government used to justify its decision-making.

“What were the questions that Ernst and Young asked in these interviews? What is the summary of those interviews?” Woywada said. “All of that is relevant information, to inform the report that then informed [the government’s] decision. Those are relevant pieces of information for the public.”

Atira CEO Janice Abbott with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (second from left) (Nomodic/CMHC)

The 50-page report was dated March 6 but not released until May 8. It found that Ramsay had subverted conflict of interest rules since 2019 in order to award contracts and funding to the Abbott-run Atira. Atira’s funding outpaced other agencies, culminating in 2022 when it received $35 million more than the next-highest provider. 

The report also said that Ramsay modified meeting minutes and routinely deleted text messages, despite the Office of the Comptroller General’s explicit instructions to preserve records. 

David Eby ordered the EY forensic audit before he resigned as Housing Minister and announced his candidacy last July 19 to replace John Horgan as premier.   

Less than two weeks later, Ramsay announced his retirement from BC Housing after 26 years with the Crown corporation. He went to work in September for Squamish Nation-owned Nch’kay Development as its executive vice-president. 

Nch’kay announced May 12 that Ramsay was no longer employed with the company that is partnered with developer Westbank to build the Senakw residential towers cluster on reserve land beside the Burrard Bridge. 

Abbott resigned the following week from both Atira and the board of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., which is backing Senakw with a $1.4 billion loan.

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Bob Mackin The NDP government has rejected a

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