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Bob Mackin

The president of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) told the House of Commons Canadian Heritage committee on June 12 that the organization’s high performance director was a victim of abuse.

New Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton president Tara McNeil (BCS/Twitter)

Tara McNeil was acclaimed president at the BCS meeting last November in Whistler when the embattled Sarah Storey bowed to pressure from athletes and did not run for a third term. Storey, who was also the acting CEO, and high performance director Chris Le Bihan were both targets of a post-Beijing Olympics campaign by sliding athletes who demanded they resign over a combination of toxic culture, inadequate safety, lack of transparency and poor governance. The BCS scandal was the first mass-uprising of Canadian athletes in a year of upheaval across the Canadian sport system. 

McNeil said she discovered in her first week with BCS that Le Bihan had been “the recipient of abuse” and had been treated unfairly. She did not provide further details. 

“So imagine my surprise and concern about all of this,” McNeil told the committee. “And so, with that, we sought careful legal counsel as to how to manage all the circumstances. We were in daily contact with our sport partners as to how to manage and we brought on a CEO as quickly as possible, an interim CEO [Patrick Jarvis, the ex-Canadian Paralympic Committee president and Snowboard Canada executive director], to be able to do a very extensive deep dive into the staffing concerns.”

McNeil called it a “very challenging time,” because the organization’s assets were also frozen.

McNeil, a Calgary physiologist who has consulted for BCS, Canadian Luge Association, WinSport and the Canadian Sport Institute, testified the organization is at a crossroads, focused on restoring operational stability and good governance.

“Once we have our operations and board of directors fully in place, we’ll be working to fully adopt all governance principles in the Canadian Sport Governance Code, as requested by Sport Canada, by April 2025,” McNeil said. “This will also require further review of all of our bylaws.”

BCS is based in Calgary, but the Whistler Sliding Centre, built for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, is the country’s main international sliding venue because the Calgary 1988 track needs a major upgrade.  

For 2021-2022, the most-recent fiscal year published, BCS reported just over $3 million of its $4.1 million revenue came from federal taxpayers. The organization finished with a $194,000 surplus. 

Meanwhile, the committee also heard from Skate Canada CEO Debra Armstrong. In late April, an anonymous whistleblower, through Skating For Change, alleged there had been incidents of physical, verbal and emotional abuse by coaches from the Champs International Skating Centre of British Columbia, formerly known as the B.C. Centre of Excellence, at the Scotia Barn in Burnaby. 

“We are very disturbed when allegations like this come to our attention and so we immediately provided links to Skate-Safe [confidential reporting system], as well as to Abuse Free Sport, and we then took the initiative to send the information we received in that open letter on the 27th [of April] directly to Skate-Safe, our investigator,” Armstrong said. “We have no knowledge of what’s happened since we’ve sent it there.”

Armstrong said the organization also had no prior knowledge of the allegations, but has ongoing dialogue with Figure Skating For Change.

“We are not aware of the athletes who are involved in this particular set of allegations that are raised in the open letter,” Armstrong said. “So we have had no change in our approach to athletes since that time.”

For the year ended March 31, 2023, Skate Canada reported a $2.7 million deficit. Of its $21.1 million revenue, almost $2.9 million came from government grants and $8.8 million from membership fees.

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Bob Mackin The president of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton

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Bob Mackin

A Richmond city councillor said now that the RCMP is investigating China’s intimidation of a Member of Parliament, the federal force needs to show results. 

Commissioner Michael Duheme told a House of Commons committee on Tuesday that there are more than 100 foreign interference investigations. One of the newest files is about the targeting of Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills).

RCMP Comm. Michael Duheme (RCMP)

Coun. Kash Heed, who is also a former B.C. solicitor general and municipal police chief, said arrests and prosecutions would reduce calls for a public inquiry. 

“Utilize the current system and we’ll be able to deal with it,” Heed said. “But now we’re kind of focused too much on the inquiries act for political reasons, we’re not really looking at how to deal with the cause of this, how to make sure that there’s deterrence in place — so it does not happen again — and that there are significant consequences for those who act as agents, for example, of foreign countries.”

Duheme testified that the RCMP began investigating after the Globe and Mail reported May 1 on a leak from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) involving a Chinese diplomat focusing on Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly expelled Zhao Wei the following week. 

CSIS subsequently briefed the NDP’s Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) and Conservative Erin O’Toole (Durham) that they were also targets of the Chinese Communist Party. Their cases were referred to the Commissioner of Canada Elections for investigation.

Duheme, sworn-in May 25 as the 25th top officer in the Mounties’ 150-year history, told the house’s procedure committee that the RCMP shut down the illegal overseas police service stations that were operating in Richmond, Toronto and Montreal, but investigations continue. 

“We took an overt action, aggressive overt action, marked cars, people in uniform, a lot of outreach in the communities to have people come forward,” Duheme said. 

One of those under the national security investigation is the Wenzhou Friendship Society, which maintains a clubhouse in Richmond. Last December, RCMP officers canvassed neighbours and left an RCMP-marked, black SUV parked overnight outside the Hazelbridge Way building. Hua Wei (Harvey) Su, one of the society’s directors, has not responded for comment. 

“You’re able to shut down these so-called police stations on our sovereign soil and not prosecute? I don’t understand that,” Heed said. “If you’ve got enough to do all of what you’ve done so far, in my opinion, you should have enough to prosecute.”

Kash Heed (Mackin)

Duheme also said the RCMP has offered assistance to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, which investigates and enforces violations of the Canada Elections Act. The agency’s head, Caroline Simard, told MPs in March that it was investigating allegations of Chinese government meddling in the last two elections. Steveston-Richmond East Conservative incumbent Kenny Chiu lost to Liberal Parm Bains in 2021 after a disinformation campaign on Chinese social media. 

Like the RCMP, Heed said, elections overseers also need to improve their compliance and enforcement. 

“I’ve been through this, I know this, if someone doesn’t file it and you have a rogue campaign manager, which I did, you have to deal with the consequences of that,” said Heed, who was fined $8,000 after his BC Liberal Vancouver-Fraserview campaign manager overspent the limit in 2009 without his knowledge. 

“Elections BC, Elections Canada have the power to deal with it. The problem is, we get frustrated by the lack of enforcing our current laws that we default to this so-called public inquiry process thinking that it’s going to make a difference.”

Duheme recently attended a meeting for the Five Eyes security alliance in Australia, where foreign interference was a key topic of discussions. He identified the People’s Republic of China as the greatest threat to democracy in Canada.

RCMP SUV outside the Wenzhou Friendship Society clubhouse in Richmond on Dec. 10, 2022 (Mackin)

At the committee, Duheme also named the Russian Federation and Islamic Republic of Iran as other adversaries actively undermining Canada, its institutions and individuals.

“The strategic interests of a state and methods can include threats of violence, coercion, or surveillance of the public, including culturally or linguistically diverse groups, human rights defenders, political dissidents, pro-democracy advocates, and politicians at all levels, including members of parliament,” Duheme said. 

Former governor general David Johnston quit last Friday as the special rapporteur appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after opposition parties disagreed with his recommendation against a foreign interference public inquiry. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc suggested the government may hire a replacement and proceed with the Johnston-recommended public meetings this summer. But he challenged the opposition leaders to propose public inquiry commissioners, timelines and terms of reference. 

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Bob Mackin A Richmond city councillor said now

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Bob Mackin

A former Conservative MP, who lost his seat in 2021 after being targeted by a Chinese social disinformation campaign, said he is not holding his breath for a public inquiry, despite a senior cabinet minister suggesting one could happen. 

Special rapporteur David Johnston quit his $1,400 to $1,600-a-day post June 9, citing the partisan debate since his May 23 report that recommended no public inquiry into Chinese Communist Party interference in Canadian elections. The former governor general recommended the Liberal government consult opposition leaders — the same ones who called for his resignation — about a replacement.

Kenny Chiu on March 31 at a House of Commons committee hearing on foreign interference (ParlVu)

Kenny Chiu, the Steveston-Richmond East MP from 2019 to 2021, said the Liberals would rather hold the opposition parties accountable than be accountable for their own actions and inactions in dealing with foreign interference and intimidation. 

“The government that has all the power in legislation, and also the executive powers, they are the ones who are throwing up their hands,” Chiu said. “[They say] ’you want it? Here you go,’ just toss it. I don’t think that’s a mature act. And, unfortunately, from their track record, from their histories, it looks like that they will continue to find ways to bury this.”

On June 10, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc blamed Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre for “partisan buffoonery.” LeBlanc suggested a public inquiry could still happen, but the government may simply hire a replacement for Johnston and proceed with Johnston’s concept for a public meeting tour this summer. 

“If he says this is a serious issue, this is the moment, very quickly, to come back to me and say, we think that these are two examples of the kinds of people who could lead this, we think this should be the terms of reference, here’s how we suggest that you deal with the obvious legal impediment around dealing with highly classified information,” LeBlanc told reporters. “Serious leaders would have serious suggestions on those issues.”

Chiu said Johnston was among the best to serve as governor general, but was “used” by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose party benefited from Chinese government interference to stay in power. Chiu said Johnston’s lack of independence gave the opposition too many reasons to doubt Johnston, due to his friendship with the Trudeau family, membership in the Trudeau Foundation and frequent meetings with People’s Republic of China officials throughout his career. Johnston’s lawyer Sheila Block made more than $7,000 in donations to the Liberal Party and he even admitted to taking advice from veteran Liberal and NDP campaign masterminds, Don Guy and Brian Topp, respectively. 

“So the whole thing gives people the impression that Mr. Johnston is in a hurry to prove that nothing to see here on the government side, and a public inquiry that would call people subpoena witnesses to it, and put witnesses under legally binding conditions, would not help somehow,” Chiu said.

Chiu said Johnston’s two months as “special rapporteur” began to unravel when he told a House of Commons committee on June 6 that he wasn’t able to access all the information and evidence before his report. The report already been drafted and sent to translation before he sat down with 2021 Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. Chiu said the turning point was when O’Toole spoke a week after Johnston’s report in the House of Commons about the Canadian Security Intelligence Service briefing that confirmed he was a target of the Chinese government.

“He did have a few pages to cover Steveston-Richmond East, in my case, because there have been media indications that the riding has been having more than a fair share of Chinese interference. But Mr. Johnston, and his resourceful office, has not even bothered to contact me,” Chiu said.

Johnston cited the breadth of classified information as the reason that a public inquiry was impossible. However, former Supreme Court Justice John Major oversaw the Air India Flight 182 inquiry from 2006 to 2010, which still managed to hold public hearings. Major’s report mentioned that commission counsel had access to uncensored versions of all documents, but only redacted versions could be disclosed to parties and entered as evidence.  

History also shows that a public inquiry could be bogged down by restrictive terms of reference, conflict of interest and meddling.

The public inquiry into RCMP conduct at the 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit at the University of B.C. was temporarily derailed by resignations in late 1998. Commission lawyer Marvin Storrow quit after he attended a Liberal fundraiser, Solicitor General Andy Scott stepped down over allegations that the outcome was fixed and commission chair Gerald Morin resigned due to interference allegations. Morin’s successor Ted Hughes, the former Saskatchewan judge and B.C. conflict of interest commissioner, did not have the power to order Prime Minister Jean Chretien to testify. Chretien declined an invitation to appear.

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Bob Mackin A former Conservative MP, who lost

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Bob Mackin

A B.C. Supreme Court judge refused to block the June 30 closure of Queen Elizabeth Annex, after he refused to grant parents an injunction to keep the Kindergarten to Grade 3 French immersion school open.

Queen Elizabeth Annex (VSB)

But Justice David Crerar’s Tuesday verdict in favour of the Vancouver School Board, published on Friday, says that there will be classes at the Dunbar school under different management in the fall. 

“Successful judicial reviews of school closures are rare, reflecting the appropriately very limited jurisdiction of the court to interfere with the multifaceted decision of an elected body,” Crerar wrote. “While the petitioner parents [Queen Elizabeth Annex Parents’ Society] are unhappy with the form of consultations, and the ultimate outcome, they had many opportunities to argue their case to the board and its representatives, and did so extensively and powerfully.”

The School Board voted in April to declare the the school surplus. But Crerar said the worst-case scenario is for Annex students to move to one of two Kindergarten to Grade 7 schools a kilometre away. One of the alternatives, Jules Quesnel Elementary, offers French immersion. 

The 1964-built, one-storey Annex has 70 students, but the land was assessed last year at $45.1 million. The board had pondered its closure since 2008, when Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique (Conseil), the provincial school board for francophones, began pursuit of the property. 

The Annex and 10 other schools were under consideration for surplus designation in 2016, the year that the provincial government fired the elected school board. 

Also in 2016, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in favour of Conseil, that the rights of francophone students were infringed because their education needs were underserved on the West Side of Vancouver.

A 2018 report by PartnershipsBC recommended developing a new elementary school for Conseil on the Annex site. 

In December 2020, Conseil filed suit against the board and the province, seeking the transfer of the Annex site, in order to comply with the 2016 court decision. The Queen Elizabeth Annex Parents’ Society argued that the board’s 2022 consultation process was a sham, because it already decided to close the Annex and transfer the school to Conseil.

“The petition alleges that the closure of the school was a fait accompli, coordinated between the board, the province, and the Conseil, to provide a future or potential settlement of the Conseil action, in return for provincial funding for the board’s number one priority since June 2018: an elementary school in the densely-populated Olympic Village neighbourhood,” Crerar wrote.

The verdict said the board and Conseil have entered into a lease for the next school year and the Conseil is proceeding to register and prepare the school for francophone operations in September.  

“While the Court is sympathetic to the petitioner, a group of parents rather than a corporate entity brimming with cash and resources, its members consist primarily of sophisticated professionals,” the judge wrote. “They were well–motivated and well–organized to challenge the proposed closure of the Annex in the many months leading up to the closure decision: they would also have been in a position to continue those effort in the immediate wake of the closure decision, and to file its petition more promptly.”

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Bob Mackin A B.C. Supreme Court judge refused

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For the week of June 11, 2023:

What’s next for Wall Street and Main Street? Returning to thePodcast host this week is featured guest Glenn Ross, supply chain expert with ACC Group in Surrey, B.C., with his look at trends in geopolitics and economics. Ross publishes a weekly newsletter on global import and export trends and a daily look at the Ukraine War.  

Also, former Conservative Steveston-Richmond MP Kenny Chiu reacts to the resignation of Special Rapporteur David Johnston. Will Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listen to Canadians demanding a public inquiry into China’s meddling in Canadian elections? 

Listen to the interview. Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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

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

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Bob Mackin

A Vancouver School Board committee took another step June 7 toward selling or leasing land on the border with Burnaby. 

Behind closed-doors on May 29, the board decided to begin a public consultation process about whether to declare the eastern part of the Graham Bruce Community Elementary School land as surplus.

Graham Bruce Elementary (VSB)

“Bruce Elementary has a larger site area (1.98 hectares) when compared to the average VSB elementary school size (1.78 hectares),” said a memo to parents from Principal Karen Noel-Bentley. “Staff are proposing to sell or long-term lease the eastern portion to generate necessary capital revenue to address board capital commitments and priorities that would benefit students in the VSB.”

The matter came to the facilities planning committee on Wednesday, where school board trustees heard from communications manager Jiana Chow about the 0.39 hectare portion targeted for subdivision. 

“If the board decides to surplus the area, it is looking at about 1.59 hectares left for the Bruce school site,” Chow said.

“The district must consider future enrolment growth, including K to 12, adult programs and early learning, we must also consider alternative community use of surplus space.”

Chow said consultations would be held with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations, the Bruce school community and neighbouring communities and residents associations, such as Renfrew, Grenfell, Collingwood, Norquay and Windermere, along with Vancouver city hall and BC Housing. 

“If the board does decide to surplus the area, then we can begin conversations about the disposition of the site or the area,” Chow said. “And this case, it would be either a sale or long term lease.”

The move comes while a B.C. Supreme Court judge decides the fate of a petition filed by the Queen Elizabeth Annex Parents’ Society against closure of the French immersion elementary school in Dunbar. A three-day court hearing ended June 2. 

In April, the board voted to close the school and declare it surplus, due to high operating costs and declining enrolment, despite forecasts for increased population across the city. 

The committee also decided to forward a report to the board recommending permanent closure of Sir Guy Carleton Elementary School at Kingsway and Joyce. The school that originally opened in 1896 has not reopened from a 2016 fire and it could be sold off. The estimated cost of repairs is $8 million to $10 million and the building is considered a high seismic risk. The board will consider June 26 whether to begin consultations on a surplus declaration and sale process. 

Meanwhile, the committee heard from director of educational planning John Dawson that the promised, $86 million school near the Olympic Village is in project development report stage. A major, five-year capital program proposal to the Ministry of Education has put Mackenzie, Renfrew and False Creek elementary schools and David Thompson and Killarney secondaries at the top of the list for seismic upgrading or replacement. It is also proposing new elementary schools near University Hill secondary and the Roberts Annex site. 

The wish list through 2030 for seismic mitigation and expansion across the district totals more than $1.8 billion. 

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Bob Mackin A Vancouver School Board committee took

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Bob Mackin

The German auto giant that scored a multi-billion-dollar federal incentive package to build a factory in Ontario is “nickel-and-diming” its West Coast parking app users, says one of its customers.

Vancouver parking meter (Mackin)

Yaletown-based PayByPhone Technologies Inc., acquired in 2016 by Volkswagen Group subsidiary Volkswagen Financial Services AG (VWFS), told customers May 1 that it would charge them 15 cents every time they receive a text message about their parking purchase at City of Vancouver-metered spots. The 15 cents per message charge also applies in Burnaby. In White Rock and Whistler, it is 20 cents.

Dave Pasin, who owns Pink Solution Canada cleaning products company in East Vancouver, said he spends approximately $30 a month on street parking via the PayByPhone app. He chalks up the new 15 cent text charge to a company that is “maximizing shareholder value while screwing over customers” during a time of high inflation. 

“Do they really need to nickel-and-dime their customers for a warning alert, especially if you want to extend your parking?” Pasin said. “I mean, I understand it’s a service, but you really need to spend another 15 cents?”

Carmen Donnell, managing director for PayByPhone in North America, said app users receive a text confirmation when they start a parking session and a text reminder that their parking session is about to expire. The notification charge aligns with other regions in which the company operates, such as Germany, Italy and Switzerland, she said.

Donnell emphasized the service is optional. Users can change their account settings to stop the texts and avoid the additional charges. 

“The benefit for parkers of being reminded of when their parking session is about to expire is helping them to avoid costly citations should they not move their car,” Donnell said. “This is a great reassurance to the parker, since the cost of the citation far outweighs the cost of the reminder [text message].”

Vancouver parking meters are in effect seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Spots downtown can cost as much as $9 an hour during daytime, according to VanMap. A parking violation ticket costs $77, discounted by 40% if paid within two weeks.

Alina Cheng, the city’s parking manager, said city hall learned of the additional fee at the end of January, but the contract with PayByPhone allows it to charge no more than 15 cents per message.

Justin Trudeau at the VW subsidy announcement (CPAC)

“App users may opt out of receiving receipts and reminders via SMS (text message) and choose to receive them via email or app notification instead, both of which remain free,” Cheng said, suggesting setting an alarm on a phone or watch as another alternative. “Drivers may also pay for parking with coins or credit cards at pay stations and meters.”

City of Vancouver paid PayByPhone $2.31 million in 2022, according to the latest statement of financial information.

VWFS bought 2000-founded PayByPhone in December 2016 from PayPoint PLC. At the time, T-Net reported the deal was worth $43.8 million. In 2021, the company said it processed more than 125 million transactions totalling USD$550 million.

PayByPhone Technologies Inc. is one of the 105 VWFS subsidiaries listed in the 2022 annual report, including PayByPhone companies in Italy, U.K., France, Switzerland and the U.S.

The VWFS financial report included $66.459 million equity in the Vancouver company, which lost $40.898 million in 2021. Overall, VWFS reported a before-tax profit of more than 3 billion euros last year, or more than $4.1 billion. 

“We don’t comment further on financials beyond what is in the public domain,” Donnell said.

Volkswagen Group reported $406 billion revenue and a $22.6 billion after-tax profit last year. In April, the federal Liberal government promised $13 billion in subsidies for Volkswagen to build its first electric vehicle battery plant outside Europe in St. Thomas, Ont.

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Bob Mackin The German auto giant that scored

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Bob Mackin

A man who had been charged with first degree murder and attempted murder after a 2020 gangland shooting in a Richmond restaurant pleaded guilty last week to a lesser charge.

Richmond RCMP (Mackin)

Yuexi “Alex” Lei, 38, was originally arrested in March of 2022 on two counts of accessory after the fact and one count of accessory after the fact to murder. Last September, while in custody, charges against Lei were upgraded, alleging he played a greater role in the shooting of two men connected to the notorious underground Richmond bank that was busted for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars through casinos. 

Silver International Ltd. mastermind Jian Jun Zhu died the day after the Sept. 18, 2020 incident at the Manzo Itamae Japanese Restaurant. Paul King Jin, the subject of several criminal and civil money laundering and loan sharking investigations, survived the shooting. 

On May 29, Lei pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm with readily accessible ammunition and unlawful possession of a prohibited weapon. 

He is scheduled to be sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 20 by Justice Janet Winteringham. 

Richard Charles Reed, who is charged with first degree murder and attempted murder, is set for trial in April 2024, said Daniel McLaughlin, spokesperson for the B.C. Prosecution Service (BCPS). The murder and attempted murder charges against Lei were “discontinued as part of a resolution agreement,” McLaughlin said. 

“Prosecutors conduct resolution discussions based on the principles of fairness, openness, accuracy, non-discrimination and the public interest,” McLaughlin said. “The entirety of the information known to Crown counsel is taken into account, including information that is oftentimes not in the public domain. As the matter remains before the court the BCPS will have no further comment at this time with respect to the facts of these particular charges or the specific process by which the resolution in this case was achieved.”

Paul King Jin (BCLC/Cullen Commission)

Jin is the defendant in four civil forfeiture lawsuits, including one related to a Richmond gym that hosted events for Chinese Communist Party supporters. His role in loaning sums of cash to whale gamblers from Mainland China at Richmond casinos was probed during the Cullen Commission public inquiry into money laundering. Jin was not called to testify.

RCMP officers investigated Jin during their E-Pirate and E-Nationalize operations. The former collapsed in 2018 before defendants Zhu and Caixuan Qin could be tried. In March, the BCPS announced there would be no charges against Jin stemming from E-Nationalize. 

A special prosecutor, who was secretly appointed a year earlier, concluded there was no substantial likelihood or reasonable prospect of convicting Jin for money laundering offences between February and May 2017. 

“Regrettably, the challenge of proving a viable predicate offence, given the wording of the current legislation, combined with the complexity of an enormous data set in a foreign language, have conspired to make the prospects for conviction poor, despite the best efforts of many dedicated officers,” wrote lawyer Chris Considine. 

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Bob Mackin A man who had been charged

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A consultant’s report for the District of Sooke said the municipal government’s lack of leadership, siloed staff and history of bullying and harassment were only magnified by the pandemic.

“As experienced by many organizations, the last three years have been a tumultuous time, and lockdowns, shortage of qualified job applicants, working from home and the like are taking their toll,” said the report by Jonathan Huggett, the veteran engineer that City of Victoria hired to oversee completion of the troubled Johnson Street Bridge project.

Sooke district hall (Sooke.ca)

The council in the capital region’s westernmost municipality, with a population of 16,000, retained Huggett last November. He interviewed senior staff, councillors and selected community members, determined strengths and weaknesses of the organization and its staffing, and submitted the report in February. In late April, District of Sooke published a summary on its website, but a the redacted version of the confidential Organizational Review was later released under the freedom of information law.

The report said there was a cascade of change within the organization, after July 2019-appointed chief administrative officer (CAO) Norm McInnis took ill and was replaced by an interim CAO, Don Schaffer, in May 2022. New director of planning Matthew Pawlow arrived in March 2020, just in time for the pandemic upheaval, and a new director of engineering and operations shortly after.

One of the report’s recommendations was to hire a new CAO as soon as possible. Huggett said the successful candidate must be readily available, experienced in motivating senior staff to work cooperatively with key stakeholders, and possess extensive experience in B.C. municipal government. 

Huggett also identified problems and delays in development permit and project approvals that jeopardized local investment, development revenue and employment opportunities. 

“My view is that neither council, staff or developers are at fault. The process is simply wrong,” Huggett wrote. “Both staff and developers have indicated to me that many of the bylaws are outdated or simply unworkable. Presumably that was one of the reasons why council and staff both wanted an amended [official community plan], which then drives revised bylaws.” 

As an example, Huggett mentioned the Mid America Venture Capital-proposed retail and office development, held-up by a difference of opinion over three metres of required road right of way. 

“This should be easily resolved between staff and the developer, but there appears to be no mechanism for compromise and negotiation. The District acknowledges a full 20 m right of way is not required and even 17 m is not required for at least 10 years and likely longer. The developer is also unwilling to move on this issue.”

In the planning and development department, Huggett said the official community plan process needs to be restarted, bylaws reviewed and more staff hired. 

“There are really two types of development applications: the minor work where a local person wants to do some minor applications, and then there are major projects like the proposed shopping centre, etc. Minor and major should likely be treated differently. A number of developers have indicated a willingness to fund planning consultants who would work under district direction to review applications for major projects.”

Sooke began reviewing its OCP in 2016-2017 during Mayor Maja Tait’s first term and the 2018-elected council committed to finish it before the 2022 election. Rather than updating the existing version, council decided to prepare a new one because of changes in legislation, projections and greenhouse gas targets. Huggett suggested Sooke look at the efficiency of City of Surrey’s 2013, four-step OCP process. 

“Restarting the OCP process would take considerable staff resources. Council and the CAO need to establish priorities. It is not possible with the existing staff to do everything such as restarting the OCP, revising bylaws, dealing with development applications in a timely manner and hiring additional staff. Priorities must be set.”

The report also recommended hiring an outside specialist to deal with bullying and harassment and require detailed business plans for every project from engineering and operations.

When Sooke published the summary of Huggett’s report, it said it had engaged a headhunting firm to find a new CAO and it was working on the other recommendations.  

“Mr. Huggett’s findings, while not surprising, provide value through a third-party affirmation of the direction of the District of Sooke operations,” said the Sooke statement. 

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Bob Mackin A consultant’s report for the District

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Lawyers for the former Mexican general who fled to B.C. four years ago may be allowed to present some new evidence that casts doubt on the Mexican government’s extradition case.

B.C.-arrested Eduardo Leon Trauwitz

Eduardo Leon Trauwitz, 56, was arrested in December 2021 and freed on bail conditions in March 2022. The Mexican government wants Canada to return Trauwitz to face trial on organized crime and fuel theft charges. It alleges that Trauwitz, while working as head of security for state oil company Pemex, facilitated theft of 1.87 billion litres of hydrocarbons from clandestine taps in Pemex pipelines. 

In a May 29 ruling, B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes considered defence applications to include statements from a former Pemex worker and an architect. 

The case record said Moises Angel Merlin Sibaja told Mexican prosecutors in February 2017 and January 2019 that he was among workers threatened with firing if they did not follow orders from Trauwitz and four other public officials about a new December 2015 procedure to neutralize and not report clandestine taps.

Trauwitz’s lawyers asked to submit a three-page typewritten statement from March 2020 in which Sibaja expressed concern that “my version of events has been distorted, putting words in my mouth that I have not said, all this with apparent political motives.”

Sibaja’s statement came from a deposition in Mexico City in the presence of a notary public and Trauwitz’s defence lawyer, David Samuel Mejia Cruz. In it, Sibaja clarified that the new procedure was for the purpose of combatting theft of hydrocarbons. 

“Mr. Sibaja explains also, in the new statement, that he had reported the irregular procedure to the Mexican authorities only because of ‘labor discontent’,” Holmes wrote. “Dismantling clandestine taps was not the work for which he was hired, and he had never agreed to perform it. He carried it out only because of threats that he would lose his job if he did not.”

Lawyers for the Attorney General of Canada, on behalf of Mexico, questioned the authenticity of Sibaja’s statement and said it did not meet the standard for admission in the case. 

Mexico’s state oil company Pemex

Holmes gave Trauwitz’s lawyers leave to provide further evidence to correct the deficiencies, “particularly since at least two lawyers, with professional responsibilities and ethical duties, appear to have handled the statement and taken a part in placing it before an adjudicative body [the Immigration and Refugee Board],” Holmes wrote.

Trauwitz’s lawyers also wanted to include a short report and curriculum vitae from architect Ernest Perez Rodriguez, which had been submitted in June 2022 to the Immigration and Refugee Board by Trauwitz’s Toronto lawyer. 

Rodriguez’s report said that allegations by Mexican prosecutors in Trauwitz’s case are without substance. Despite Rodriguez appearing to be qualified to comment on the new procedure, Holmes ruled his report did not offer reliable or relevant evidence. 

Rodriguez’s report, she found, “reads more as a will-say than as an expression of expert or other opinion or fact, such that the reliability of its content cannot be assessed.”

Holmes concluded that if satisfactory evidence is tendered about the reliability of Sibaja’s statement, portions may be admitted “to make clear that Mr. Sibaja did not, and will not, state or imply that clandestine taps disabled in accordance with the new procedure could be reused, or say that he personally received orders from Mr. Trauwitz about the new procedure.”

Last Friday, Justice David Crossin granted an application to allow Trauwitz to move from Surrey to the Burquitlam area of Coquitlam. 

Trauwitz’s original bail conditions included a $20,000 surety, requirement to live with his daughter in Surrey, an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, wearing of an electronic monitoring device around the clock and regular reporting to a probation officer. 

Trauwitz’s lawyer, Katherine Kirkpatrick, said that he would report daily to his bail supervisor by phone and once a week in person until a new technical suitability report is completed into the feasibility of electronic monitoring at his new residence.

Crown lawyer Ryan Dawodharry, on behalf of the Mexican government, consented to the application. 

Trauwitz’s lawyer told the court in December 2021 that he had been the victim of a politically motivated prosecution.  

“Mr. Trauwitz was the one who was trying to stop hydrocarbon theft and his actions actually prohibited other corrupt individuals from engaging in carbon theft,” Tom Arbogast said. 

The case was adjourned to June 20.

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Bob Mackin Lawyers for the former Mexican general

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