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Bob Mackin 

Surrey city hall hired a veteran federal and BC Liberal insider for $20,000 to lobby the NDP government to keep the RCMP in Surrey. 

The contract with Mark Marissen of Burrard Strategy Inc., obtained via freedom of information, set the rate at $10,000 per month, from Jan. 5 to March 5. Marissen’s hourly rate was censored from the copy released by Surrey city hall.

Christy Clark (left) and Mark Marissen – divorced but always a political couple (Silvester Law/Instagram)

“Anytime taxpayers are paying for lobbyists to lobby the government, it’s a slap in the face,” said Carson Binda, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Folks are having to tighten their belts right now and for insiders and lobbyists to be getting fat paycheques while the rest of us are struggling is unacceptable.”

The contract, signed by Donna Jones, Surrey’s general manager of investment and intergovernmental relations, said Marissen was expected to “reach out to relevant and influential senior officials at the Province to provide briefing information and to advocate for the retention of the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction in Surrey.”

Marissen’s orders included reviewing and understanding the history of the halted police transition and the Solicitor General’s authority over policing in the province, creating an outreach plan and fact sheet to be used as the basis for discussions and advocacy, and providing timely feedback to the city. 

On the surface, Marissen’s contract raises eyebrows because of his past campaigning against the NDP. Especially because his political collaborator and ex-wife is former BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark. But Marissen has a long acquaintance with one of the most-powerful officials in Premier David Eby’s office. 

The Lobbyist Registry contains one activity entry for a communication on Jan. 10 with Shannon Salter, Eby’s deputy minister, cabinet secretary and head of the public service. In 2005, when Paul Martin was Prime Minister, Marissen was the campaign director for the Liberal Party of Canada in B.C. and Salter was in charge of communications. 

Surrey city hall isn’t alone in spending on a lobbyist. The Surrey Police Union hired NDP-aligned labour lawyer Sebastien Anderson of Coquitlam in late February to plead its case to provincial officials. Anderson has so far arranged two meetings for his client with Farnworth and NDP MLAs from Surrey and neighbouring Coquitlam and New Westminster.

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke defeated Doug McCallum in last October’s election on a promise to keep the RCMP and wind-down the Surrey Police Service. The leader of the Surrey Connect majority originally supported a new municipal force before quitting McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition caucus in mid-2019.

Keep the RCMP in Surrey campaigning with Surrey mayoral candidate Brenda Locke (Twitter)

Solicitor General Mike Farnworth had promised to answer the Surrey policing question in mid-January, but delayed the decision due to what he said were gaps in the proposals from City of Surrey, RCMP and SPS. 

Locke did not respond for comment. In January, she estimated finishing the cop swap would cost taxpayers another $235 million. During a rare Saturday news conference on Feb. 18, she announced a 17.5% tax hike for 2023. After receiving nearly $90 million from the province under a temporary municipal subsidy program, city council asked staff to revise the budget by April 3 with a tax increase of no more than 12.5%. 

When a reporter originally asked in January for the value of Marissen’s contract, Locke let her two communications staffers, Oliver Lum and Amy Jugpal, send the query and an interview request to the freedom of information office, which demanded payment of the $10 FOI application fee that McCallum imposed in February 2022. 

The documents were eventually provided this month, but not the interview. 

“Democracy dies in darkness and charging taxpayers to access public records is throwing democracy into a black hole,” said Binda. “Those public records should be publicly viewable. Everyone should get to see them and for government to be throwing pay walls and barriers in the way, it’s unacceptable.”

Locke’s election platform included a promise to eliminate $10 FOI application fee.

“The Surrey Connect team sees the fee as a barrier for the public. By eliminating the fee, residents will see we are serious about transparency and good government,” said the news release Locke issued on International Right to Know Day last Sept. 28.

Marissen finished fourth in the Vancouver mayoral election last October. His Progress Vancouver party’s Elections BC return disclosed receiving a prohibited $50,000 loan. He continues soliciting funds in order to repay the lender, businessman Jason McLean. 

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Bob Mackin  Surrey city hall hired a veteran

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Bob Mackin

A subsidiary of China Poly Group, one of China’s biggest state-owned enterprises, has quietly closed its North American office in Richmond and art gallery in downtown Vancouver.

Poly Culture’s downtown Vancouver gallery is for lease (Mackin)

Gallery and theatre manager and art auctioneer Poly Culture North America launched to great fanfare more than six years ago, before pandemic, economic and geopolitical headwinds.  

In late February, Colliers Canada agents Sherman Scott and Derek May listed the shuttered Poly Culture Art Center for lease. The vacant 4,117 square feet on street level at the northwest corner of West Pender and Hornby is marketed as a “high exposure retail space.” 

Poly Culture also vacated its seventh floor office at Richmond Place, east of Richmond city hall, at the end of last November, according to leasing agent Jeff Toews of Warrington PCI Development. 

Poly Culture’s local phone numbers are out of service, its website set to maintenance mode, and the WeChat account has been inactive since early January.  

Jiang Yingchun, Poly Culture’s vice-chair and a director of the B.C. subsidiary, did not respond to an email query before publication. 

The Richmond business licence for January 2015-incorporated Poly Culture North America Investment Corp. Ltd. said it employed 12 people full-time in the categories of investment company, management services and culture information exchange.

Poly Culture received an unspecified amount under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy job saving program during the height of the pandemic. 

It originally announced the trans-Pacific expansion in fall 2015 under an agreement with HQ Vancouver that was signed during BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark and International Trade Minister Teresa Wat’s trade mission to Beijing.

Poly Culture North America’s empty office in a Richmond tower (Jasmine Wang)

HQ Vancouver was a $6.5 million partnership between the federal Western Economic Diversification agency, B.C. Ministry of International Trade and Business Council of B.C. to promote Vancouver as a destination for Asia Pacific corporate expansion. 

HQ Vancouver’s advisors included Dominic Barton, then global managing director of McKinsey and Co. The CEO was Yuen Pau Woo, who quit in 2016 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed him to represent B.C. in the Senate.

Poly Culture’s gallery launched Nov. 30, 2016 with an exhibit of bronze-cast animal heads originally from China’s Old Summer Palace, the same day the Poly-sponsored China Philharmonic Orchestra began its North American tour at the Chan Centre. Poly Culture also promoted the 12 Girls’ Band’s 2018 Lunar New Year celebration and collaborated on the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s Tan Dun: Crouching Tiger and Beyond concert in 2019. 

During an interview before the 2016 grand opening, Jiang told BIV that Vancouver’s proximity to China, multicultural environment and favourable tax policies made it an attractive destination. 

“We will hold exhibitions free of charge to the local communities every year,” Jiang said. “Those exhibitions include some of those from China. We will also hold exhibitions for the local artists and Aboriginal people, so we hope it will be a cultural exchange platform to boost the cultural exchange from both sides.”

Jiang also said that other divisions of the China Poly Group were eyeing Vancouver for expansion.  

“For example, Poly Real Estate has sent people to come to visit Vancouver twice to know the environment here,” he said. 

The gallery was also known for private hospitality events. By coincidence, the Canada-China Business Council’s cocktail party with China’s Vancouver Consul-General Tong Xiaoling was the same December 2018 night that a B.C. Supreme Court judge released Huawei executive Meng Wenzhou to live under curfew and electronic monitoring at her Shaughnessy mansion. Partygoers included former Liberal Senator Jack Austin and former Conservative Public Safety and International Trade Minister Stockwell Day.

China’s Vancouver envoy Tong Xiaoling (right) with former international trade minister Stockwell Day on Dec. 11, 2018 (Mackin)

Tong’s Vancouver consulate posting ended last July, but she is in the news after leaked reports by Canada’s spy agency claimed that she meddled in both the 2021 federal election and Vancouver’s 2022 civic election.

The Land Owner Transparency Registry says the gallery landlords were Liu Shu of Vancouver, Zeng Chaolin of Shanghai and a November 2015-incorporated numbered company. The B.C.-registered Poly Culture subsidiary’s directors include Jiang, Chen Yi and Xing Mei of Richmond, and Guo Jianwei of Beijing.

China Poly Group originally began in 1984 as a People’s Liberation Army co-founded arms dealer. It now boasts 11 major subsidiaries, more than 2,000 wholly-owned or controlled enterprises and 110,000 employees. 

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4DS) reported last year that it found evidence of almost 300 shipments of sensitive goods from Poly subsidiaries to Russian defence organizations between 2014 and 2022. 

“Poly Group’s significant size and industry breadth comingles international weapons trade with consumer electronics, art, and antiquities, and more, which complicates efforts to isolate the companies involved in defence trade and limits the effectiveness of sanctions targeted at only one company within the broader group,” said the C4ADS Trade Secrets report on China-Russia military trade. 

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Bob Mackin A subsidiary of China Poly Group,

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Bob Mackin

A 37-year-old Vancouver woman has been charged with mischief after appearing topless on the Juno Awards stage March 13 in Edmonton. 

The woman, who had slogans scrawled on her torso and back in opposition to the Ontario government’s plan to build housing on farmland, interrupted Avril Lavigne. The singer reacted with expletives and demanded she leave as the CBC cameras zoomed out from the Rogers Place stage.

Casey Hatherly’s Juno Awards topless stage crash (On2Ottawa/Twitter)

Casey Hatherly, who also goes by the nickname “Ever,” was held in custody and appeared in court in Edmonton on March 15. Her next court date is April 5.

Hatherly gained attention twice last year for similar stunts in Vancouver and Victoria. 

Last August, she scaled the Art Deco Tourism Victoria Visitor Centre, a former gas station, in a Save Old Growth protest.

“My dangerous areolas are a threat to some,” Hatherly said in a Facebook post last summer. “I’m attracting attention to raise an alarm for our world in crisis—a place where ancient trees that give all of us the oxygen we breathe are clear cut for profit.”

Last June 9, Hatherly and a male Save Old Growth protester walked down a level 2 end zone aisle at B.C. Place Stadium, climbed over a barrier, walked past contracted security guards from Genesis Security and onto the pitch during the CONCACAF Nations League match between Canada and Curaçao. 

They proceeded to attach themselves to opposite goalposts with zap straps. Ever’s breasts were partially covered by Save Old Growth stickers. Many of the 14,809 attendees reacted by booing the protest. 

The attention-getting stunt by the U.S.-funded group, incorporated as Eco-Mobilization Canada, promoted its next wave of illegal bridge and highway blockades, which led to multiple arrests and convictions for mischief. 

“Charges of mischief were recommended by police, but Crown did not approve them,” said Vancouver Police public information officer Const. Tania Visintin.

Save Old Growth protester Casey Hatherly at B.C. Place Stadium in June 2022 (Save Old Growth/Facebook)

According to documents obtained via freedom of information from B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the regional FIFA subsidiary sent a warning letter to the Canadian Soccer Association after the incident. 

The heavily redacted letter on June 11 from Carlos Fernandez, the CONCACAF director of competitions, was forwarded by CSA director of competition and events Jessie Daly to stadium management. 

Fernandez’s letter was copied to CONCACAF general secretary Philippe Moggio, head of national competitions Pedro Velasquez and Alejandra Yepes, the senior manager of disciplinary and administration. 

Fernandez had sent the letter to Earl Cochrane, the CSA’s general secretary, about the incident in the 67th minute of the match. The pitch invasion led to a three-minute stoppage in play.  

The PavCo internal incident report said that around 8:55 p.m., a security manager responded and found the pair attached to separate goalposts. Two police officers arrested and escorted them to the stadium’s east staff entrance/exit, where a security supervisor and Vancouver Police sergeant took over.

After a March 2016 Canadian men’s World Cup qualifying match against Mexico at B.C. Place, FIFA fined the CSA 27,000 Swiss francs (now worth C$40,000) under its disciplinary code for pitch invasion by supporters and insulting chants by supporters. 

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Bob Mackin A 37-year-old Vancouver woman has been

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Bob Mackin 

Two weeks after federal and B.C. officials announced they’d ban the TikTok video app on government devices over fears of Chinese government surveillance, the City of Vancouver has followed. 

The ban was quietly implemented on March 13.

(TikTok/Douyin)

“The City of Vancouver reviewed our Technology Acceptable Use Policy which governs City-issued devices and followed suit,” said a statement from city hall. “The TikTok app has now been removed from all city-issued devices. This removal is specific to the TikTok app and does not apply to the WeChat app.” 

On Feb. 27, Treasury Board President Mona Fortier gave federal workers one day’s notice to remove TikTok from government devices. She cited security risks, but said there was no evidence yet of government information being compromised. 

B.C. Citizens’ Services Minister Lisa Beare followed Fortier’s lead and announced a temporary TikTok ban on B.C. government devices “as we continue to examine the risks associated with the app.”

For the wider public, Fortier said social media apps and platforms are a personal choice, but echoed the Communications Security Establishment’s caution to put personal security before convenience and consider where data is stored. 

During a Feb. 23 conference in Vancouver, the privacy commissioners of Canada, Quebec, B.C. and Alberta announced a joint investigation of TikTok’s handling of personal information, including whether children’s privacy is at risk. A representative of B.C. commissioner Michael McEvoy said WeChat would not be examined, but offered no reason.

The privacy commissioners cited U.S. class action lawsuits and media reports about TikTok. Last June, BuzzFeed reported on leaked audio recordings from internal TikTok meetings that proved China-based employees of parent company ByteDance repeatedly accessed non-public data about users in the U.S.

Prof. Benjamin Fung (McGill/YouTube)

In early January, Ohio banned its state workers from using both TikTok and WeChat. By mid-month, similar bans, mainly targeting TikTok, were announced by a total 27 states. U.S. President Joe Biden has expanded the TikTok prohibition to federal devices. Lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, have even proposed banning TikTok from public use in the U.S. on national security grounds.

Benjamin Fung, a professor in the School of Information Studies at McGill University, said TikTok users are vulnerable to inadvertently sharing information on their devices, including passwords. Despite ByteDance claiming that U.S.-housed data is safe, its workers in China are legally obliged to cooperate when the Chinese government demands to see data.

“It’s just like a Chinese company wearing a mask, and then pretending to be an American company,” Fung said. “So if there’s strong evidence showing that the engineer in China can access the data data in Canada, or in America, then the privacy commissioner should look into that very closely.”
Fung said TikTok is built on a very powerful “recommender system,” a machine learning algorithm that helps decide what the user sees. 

“This tool has the power to change people’s perception on some particular issues,” Fung said.

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Bob Mackin  Two weeks after federal and B.C.

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Bob Mackin

B.C. Place Stadium could host more than five matches when the FIFA World Cup comes to North America in 2026. 

Vancouver was chosen last June to be one of the 16 cities for the 48-nation tournament that FIFA originally awarded in 2018 to U.S., Canada and Mexico under an 80-match format.

West Vancouver’s Victor Montagliani announces Vancouver will host 2026 World Cup matches (FIFA/YouTube)

However, after high international TV ratings for first round matches at Qatar 2022, the FIFA Council decided March 14 to expand the tournament by two-dozen matches to 104.

“Based on a thorough review that considered sporting integrity, player welfare, team travel, commercial and sporting attractiveness, as well as team and fan experience, the FIFA Council unanimously approved the proposed amendment to the FIFA World Cup 2026 competition format from 16 groups of three to 12 groups of four with the top two and eight best third-placed teams progressing to a round of 32,” the Switzerland-based soccer governing body announced. “The revised format mitigates the risk of collusion and ensures that all the teams play a minimum of three matches, while providing balanced rest time between competing teams.”

The U.S. was already committed to hosting 60 matches, with 10 for Mexico and 10 for Canada, to be split between B.C. Place and Toronto’s BMO Field. FIFA set a minimum 60,000 capacity to host a match in the quarter-finals and beyond. The two Canadian venues are among the smallest of the 16 for 2026, so Vancouver and Toronto could be allotted more first round and round of 32 matches. 

But how much will it cost taxpayers to subsidize FIFA, one of the world’s richest sports organizations? 

City of Vancouver is charging an additional 2.5% tax on accommodations through 2030 to pay the $230 million cost of hosting. The province has not revealed how much it plans to spend at B.C. Place, nor has the federal government revealed a security budget. 

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

“The expansion just announced by FIFA is really exciting for sport fans and host cities,” said a prepared statement from the B.C. Ministry of Tourism, Art, Culture and Sport. “However, FIFA has not yet indicated how this will affect the schedule, or the number of matches to be played in Vancouver. We expect more information on this later this year, and we will continue to provide further updates as they become available in the lead up to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.”

Similarly, Vancouver city hall did not comment on additional costs. 

“At this time, we await the match schedule from FIFA which will outline which games will land in Vancouver,” said a statement sent by Natasha Qereshniku of the city hall communications office. “Until that time, we continue to operate under existing assumptions that we will host five matches in Vancouver.” 

Taxpayers are expected to pay heavily for hosting the tournament, despite FIFA reporting a US$2.37 billion net on the US$5.7 billion revenue raised during the 2019 to 2022 cycle. The lion’s share of FIFA revenue came from the sale of TV broadcast rights.

The Crown corporation that operates B.C. Place is considering expansion of its 50 private suites that hold between 10 and 24 people each. If B.C. Pavilion Corporation (PavCo) goes ahead with the project, it would take over back-of-house archival space from the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.

During the 2015 Women’s World Cup, FIFA exerted its strict guidelines for third party operations inside official venues to prevent the Sports Hall from opening on match days.

Both the province and city hall are keeping secret the extent of their relationship with FIFA. 

In response to a freedom of information request for B.C.’s hosting proposal, PavCo withheld almost all 117 pages. The taxpayer-owned stadium operator cited exceptions to the public records law that protect policy advice or recommendations, intergovernmental relations or negotiations, financial or economic interests of a public body, and business interests of a third party.

The only information visible includes Ministry and PavCo letterhead, PavCo CEO Ken Cretney’s signature, the words “table of contents” and “introduction,” and nine pages with “Vancouver Questionnaire” at the top.

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Bob Mackin B.C. Place Stadium could host more

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Bob Mackin

In the space of two days in the summer of 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Montreal riding association received almost $63,000 from donors in Vancouver, Richmond, West Vancouver and Delta.

Rongxiang “Tiger” Yuan on Jan. 7 (CCSA/FX186)

Almost all of the 41 donations to the Papineau Federal Liberal Association, dated July 6 and 7, 2016, were $1,500 each. Three came from directors of the Tiger Arms Ltd. Port Coquitlam gun store, including its namesake Rongxiang “Tiger” Yuan and Ke Xiao of Richmond and Peiran Yang of Vancouver. Another $1,500 donation came from Avery H. Chow of Richmond, who  replaced Yuan, Xiao and Yang on the Tiger Arms company registration in March 2020.

Elections Canada’s database shows that between October 2014 and September 2016, B.C. donors sent more than $224,000 across the country to Trudeau’s local re-election fund. Eighty-two of those donations, worth $118,774.55, were dated between Aug. 7, 2015 and Oct. 30, 2015 — five days after the start of the federal election campaign and two weeks after Trudeau’s Liberal majority win. 

Individual Canadian citizens can donate to any riding association, up to the annual limit set by Elections Canada. At the time, former Richmond Liberal MP Raymond Chan was one of the Liberal Party’s key fundraisers, targeting wealthy immigrants from Mainland China. His wife, Ting Ting Wang, was a special advisor to Trudeau. 

Justin Trudeau, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and Xi Jinping (PMO)

Fenella Sung of the Canadian Friends of Hong Kong said a public inquiry is needed into foreign influence by the Chinese government and its Canadian supporters, including the financing and operation of Canadian political parties. Sung said Trudeau’s March 6 plan to hire a “special rapporteur” and refer the issue to two national security committees is totally inadequate. 

“That’s one key thing, of all the allegations from the CSIS-leaked report,” Sung said. “That things are happening right at the grassroots level, at the ridings level, about the candidate nomination process, at nomination meetings, as well as political donations. How the money has been changing hands, who donated what?”

In 2015, the year before real estate investor Yuan sent money to Trudeau’s riding association, the former member of China’s People’s Liberation Army made cash buy-ins totalling $4.19 million at River Rock in Richmond, according to a Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch report. In January of this year, Yuan appeared on-stage at a River Rock Lunar New Year banquet in his role as president of the Canada-China Friendship Promotion Association.

“As ethnic minorities, we must also actively participate in and discuss state affairs, we must obey the law and pay taxes according to regulations,” Yuan said in a short speech, before returning to sit across the head table from NDP Municipal Affairs Minister Anne Kang. 

Elections Canada’s database also shows 23 contributions worth $28,400 from B.C. donors to the Don Valley North riding in Toronto from 2016 to 2019.

Richmond real estate and immigration lawyer Hong Guo gave $1,500 in June 2016 to the association behind Liberal Geng Tan, the first China-born, Mandarin-speaking Member of Parliament. Tan did not run for re-election in 2019. According to a Global News report, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warned Trudeau before the election that replacement candidate Han Dong was part of China’s foreign influence network.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shaking hands with Miaofei Pan at a 2016 Liberal fundraiser. Party bagman Raymond Chan is at the right. (Wenzhou government)

More than two-thirds of the B.C. donations to Don Valley North, worth $11,000, were in August 2016, as Tan was preparing to travel with Trudeau on his first official visit to China. 

Wang Dianqi, the executive chairman of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations (CACA) from June 2016 to June 2018, donated $1,500 to Tan’s association. CACA is the Richmond-based umbrella for more than 100 business and cultural groups, whose website states that it is in active participant in Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) activities. OCAO is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front program that aims to influence foreign politicians to adopt positions favourable to the Chinese government. 

Wang also contributes goods and money to the People’s Liberation Army and frequently attends Chinese government celebrations and meetings in Beijing. During his term heading CACA, Wang gave $3,950 to the association behind Vancouver-East NDP MP Jenny Kwan, which eclipsed his $3,390 in donations to the Liberals.

Wei Renmin, the South Surrey resident who was CACA executive chair from October 2020 to October 2022, made 15 political donations totalling $21,022.99. That included five to Kwan’s campaigns, one to the Ottawa area riding of former Canadian Forces Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie in February 2015 and $1,500 to Trudeau’s Papineau association in October 2015. 

His predecessor, Yongtao Chen, donated $10,558.96, of which 43% went to the Conservatives, 42.5% to the Liberals and 13.7% to the NDP. Chen sent $1,510 to Michael Chong’s bid for the Conservative leadership in May 2017.

Miaofei Pan’s photograph with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2011 (Mackin)

In 2016, two years after his term as CACA executive chairman, Miaofei Pan gave $2,898.96 to the Liberals and $2,450 to the NDP. Pan was also Wenzhou Friendship Society president and famously hosted Trudeau at one of his Shaughnessy mansions for a private event on Nov. 7, 2016. 

By April of 2017, still reeling from the controversial party at Pan’s, the Liberal Party buckled to pressure and announced proactive disclosure of fundraising events and attendee lists. Elections Canada later began an online registry of major fundraising events involving party leaders and cabinet ministers. 

In an interview before the 2019 election, Pan correctly predicted the Trudeau Liberals would lose seats, but still remain in power. 

Trudeau, he said, is a “good guy and with enough capability to be a prime minister in Canada. Of course [Stephen] Harper was also a good guy as well.”

Hanging on one of Pan’s walls was his framed photograph with Harper. In September 2011, Pan donated $1,100 to the Abbotsford Conservative Association. 

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Bob Mackin In the space of two days

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For the week of March 12, 2023: 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to resist calls for a public inquiry into the Chinese Communist Party’s interference in Canadian elections and is taking his time to ponder a registry for foreign government lobbyists.

Fenella Sung of the Friends of Hong Kong (Mackin)

Trudeau said March 6 that he plans to hire an “eminent Canadian” to investigate and asked two national security committees to conduct reviews. Human rights advocate Fenella Sung of the Canadian Friends of Hong Kong says those half measures announced will prolong the harm to Canadian institutions. She said a full, independent inquiry is necessary, including how Canadian political parties are funded and operated. 

“I doubt anything will come out before the next election, but that’s exactly the situation we don’t want to see,” Sung told thePodcast host Bob Mackin. “We’ve already got doubts about the 2019 and the 2021 election, not about the result, but about the process, about whether any interference has affected or compromised our democracy. The last thing you want is to have Canadians to go to the polls for the election, next time, and have this doubt in the mind.”

On this edition of thePodcast, hear Mackin’s full interview with Sung. 

Plus: Martin Kendell of Clean Up Burnaby on the controversial proposal to build a green waste plant on sensitive parkland and headlines from the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim.

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

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For the week of March 12, 2023:  Prime

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Bob Mackin

Fraud was detected within the last year at 61% of the B.C. government organizations polled by Auditor General Michael Pickup.

Michael Pickup, B.C.’s new auditor general (Nova Scotia)

The most common incidents were theft of physical assets (43%), misappropriation of company funds (22%) and information theft, regulatory or compliance breach and internal financial fraud (17% each). 

Pickup’s staff surveyed 23 organizations representing 86% of government assets for the Fraud Risk and Financial Statements: B.C. Public Sector, Part 1 report, which was published March 7. 

“Fraud is a lot more than stealing money or cash out of the drawer,” Pickup told reporters. “There’s many facets to what constitutes fraud. So we have to think of fraud in that broader context.”

Pickup found more than two in 10 organizations polled had not assessed the need for fraud risk management training for staff and 9% had not assigned a senior manager to oversee fraud risks. More than a third did not have a dedicated fraud risk management policy and almost four in 10 organizations did not have ways and means of identifying and documenting fraud risks.

The Office of the Auditor General asked Crown corporations, agencies, universities, health boards and school boards to self-report. They ranged from B.C. Housing, B.C. Lottery Corporation and B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch and BC Hydro to the Burnaby and Surrey school boards, University of B.C., Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and Community Living B.C. 

A similar survey gauging fraud risks in ministries is forthcoming, Pickup said. 

Pickup’s report, however, did not name names. 

“There are findings in here that organizations can look at and say, okay, why aren’t we doing this? Does this make sense that we’re not doing it? Here’s what other organizations may be doing,” Pickup said.

B.C. Legislature.

Pickup found that one organization had no fraud risk management policies at all, while another said it did not have all incidents of fraud and corrective reviewed by senior executives and senior management. 

The report also did not mention any specific incidents. 

Pickup’s office is the auditor for five of the 23 organizations polled. One of those is the Provincial Health Services Authority, which employed a fake nurse at B.C. Women’s Hospital in 2020 and 2021. 

Brigitte Cleroux was charged in late 2021 with fraud over $5,000 and personation with intent. She is serving a seven-year jail sentence in Ontario. 

Pickup’s office also audits BC Hydro. In April 2022, he found the NDP-appointed board did not formally assess the potential for fraud at the $16 billion Site C dam project until after his staff began to investigate. 

The Tuesday-released survey did not include the Legislative Assembly. Disgraced former clerk Craig James was convicted last May of fraud and breach of trust for using taxpayers’ money to buy personal clothing. He was sentenced to a month of house arrest followed by two months under curfew. 

Also not included was the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Former social worker Robert Riley Saunders was jailed for five years in 2002. He used a fraudulent university degree to get the job and then deprived Indigenous clients of $460,000.

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Bob Mackin Fraud was detected within the last

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Bob Mackin

Burnaby’s Christine Sinclair, the greatest soccer player Canada has produced, said the “most painstaking battle” for national team players has been with their own federation.

Christine Sinclair on Parliament Hill, March 9 (OurCommons/ParlVu)

“As a team, we do not trust Canada Soccer to be open and honest as we continue to negotiate for not only fair and equitable compensation and treatment, but for the future of our program,” Sinclair testified March 9 to the House of Commons Canadian Heritage committee. 

Sinclair was joined in Ottawa by teammates Janine Beckie, Quinn, and Sophie Schmidt for the hearing, part of the ongoing, all-party investigation of the governance of federally funded sport organizations.

Sinclair said soccer in Canada is at a crossroads. The men’s team played last fall in a World Cup for the first time in 36 years and is co-hosting the next men’s World Cup in 2026. Meanwhile, the Canadian women’s team is the reigning Olympic champion and is bound for the Women’s World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand. 

Yet, the four players noted that Canada has no professional women’s soccer league, they get no royalties from merchandise sales and must go public with their collective bargaining grievances in order to get the CSA’s attention. Players announced a strike last month over program cuts, but relented when the CSA threatened to sue them. 

Sinclair said the CSA has long refused to provide full details of its finances and compensation. In 2021, the CSA reported $5.03 million in revenue from player registration fees, $4.7 million from government grants and $18.25 million in commercial and other fees. Yet, it spent $11.03 million on the men’s teams but only $5.09 million on women’s. The CSA does not disclose how much it pays executives or details on its supplier and sponsor contracts. 

CSA acting president Charmaine Crooks (NSB)

Players on the women’s national team were shocked to learn in 2021 that players on the men’s team were paid five times more. 

“For many years we’ve been forced to negotiate in the dark. Canada Soccer’s approach has reflected a culture of secrecy and obstruction,” Sinclair told the Members of Parliament. 

At the end of February, president Nick Bontis resigned after losing confidence of provincial soccer association presidents. West Vancouver’s Charmaine Crooks, a former International Olympic Committee member, was promoted from vice-president to acting president. Sinclair said she welcomes a woman in the top role. However, she said Crooks, a member of the board since 2013, has not communicated directly to the players. 

“During her tenure, she has shown nothing to the women’s national team that proves that she’s there fighting for us,” Sinclair said. “In fact, since she’s been elected president, she has not reached out, and, in fact, her first action involving the women’s national team was to release that statement earlier today, which I found to be highly inappropriate in terms of the timing of it and the way that was done.’

That statement came a couple hours before the committee meeting, an apparent pre-emptive move by the CSA to claim it is solving the pay dispute. 

CSA claimed that the Canadian women’s team would become the second-highest paid among all of FIFA’s 211 member associations, only behind the U.S. national team.

FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani (Mackin)

Players for men’s and women’s senior national teams would be offered $3,500 per-match, plus win bonuses of up to $5,500 per player, depending on the rank of the opposing team. Each team would receive $1.15 million for World Cup qualification and other incentives. 

Sinclair also told the committee that she believes former CSA president and current FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani should be called to testify. She also wants the committee to obtain the CSA’s agreement with Canadian Soccer Business, which the committee has already demanded to see. The private company behind the Canadian Premier League and OneSoccer streaming service receives the CSA’s marketing and broadcast royalties and reportedly pays the CSA a fee of $3 million to $4 million a year. 

“It shocks me,” said committee chair Hedy Fry (Liberal, Vancouver Centre). “When we heard earlier on with Hockey Canada, and now we’re hearing again, that the places where we send our young children to learn how to be team players, to learn how to have courage and resilience, and to go for it, seems to have so little transparency and accountability. All of them.” 

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Bob Mackin Burnaby’s Christine Sinclair, the greatest soccer

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