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Bob Mackin 

Vancouver city hall says taxpayers are on the hook for more than $66,000 due to the Barge on the Beach. But bureaucrats are seeking reimbursement.

Barge deconstruction on July 13 (Mackin)

The 84-metre-long bin barge that ran aground at Sunset Beach in a Nov. 15, 2021 windstorm, known officially as STM-5000, became a local pop culture icon for the first few months of its stay. An early attempt to tow it away failed and expert reports showed it was an environmental hazard. 

Crews from Vancouver Pile Driving took apart the barge, piece-by-piece, during a three-and-a-half month period last summer and fall in project estimated at $2.4 million. 

They finished the work Nov. 17, 2022 by making a final check of the seabed and disassembled the last remnants of scaffolding. Vancouver Pile Driving gave its final weekly update on Dec. 12. 

According to a statement from the city’s communications department on Monday, $66,112.23 in costs have been submitted for reimbursement from the vessel owner Sentry Marine Towing Ltd. and insurer Coast Claims Insurance. 

The total includes $58,264 billed by contractor Securiguard for round-the-clock protection from November 2021 to January 2022 and $7,848.23 for Vancouver Police on Nov. 15-16, 2021. 

Meanwhile, there will be no further clean-up work on the beach related to the Barge removal.

The Barge on the Beach (Mackin)

“The Park Board reviewed the assessments that were completed following the removal of the barge and were satisfied with the existing condition of the shoreline post-deconstruction. No remediation work is required,” said the statement 

A post-deconstruction habitat survey had been planned for May 2023.

Documents obtained via freedom of information showed that the barge wasn’t supposed to remain for the anniversary of its arrival. A late-April version of the contractor’s schedule estimated deconstruction and removal would be over by mid-July. Approval to use provincially owned land, negotiations for a licensing agreement between the city, Sentry and Coast Claims and discussions about the weight and type of site barriers all caused delays. 

Safety barriers were erected June 30 and deconstruction finally began July 25. 

A hazardous materials survey by Orca Health and Safety found breaches of the hull in at least three places. Testing found lead throughout the hull and bulwarks and diesel oil and hydraulic fluids. Copper and zinc were presumed in the hull underwater. No asbestos, volatile organic compounds or PCBs were found, but materials that were detected needed to be removed or contained prior to demolition.

“The presence of lead in the vessel’s paint systems is considered to pose a moderate to high risk to workers during breaking,” said the Orca report.

The barge was originally built in 1966 by Zidell Explorations Inc. in Portland, Ore., and known as Foss 275. It became STM-5000 after it was rebuilt and converted into a bin barge in 1987.

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Bob Mackin  Vancouver city hall says taxpayers are

Business, News

Bob Mackin

After Quest University’s president told a reporter that its landlord was aware of its troubles, the Squamish university says it was caught by surprise when Primacorp Ventures Inc. put the campus and surrounding lands for sale.

Quest University Canada in Squamish, B.C. (Quest)

NAI Commercial published a flyer for the 55-acre property on Friday morning, less than a day after Quest announced it would close indefinitely at the end of April for financial reasons.

“The chair of the Quest University board of governors wishes to definitively state that the board’s decision to suspend regular academic operations after completion of the spring term in April 2023 was in no way related to any real estate offerings or transactions that its landlord may be involved in,” read a statement from the university on Feb. 25. 

“Upon contacting the agent, we learned that the posting went live sometime after our announcement on Feb. 23. In that discussion we also learned that the university lands have been on offer through NAI Commercial since some point in late 2022.”

Quest president Art Coren had told the Squamish Chief on Feb. 24 morning that Primacorp was “aware of where we’re at, and we’re counting on them to help us through an orderly and dignified windup.”

Quest University president Art Coren (Quest)

The asking price is only available to serious bidders who sign a non-disclosure agreement. The land was assessed last year at $15.08 million and buildings $54.17 million. The Quest campus and sportsplex occupy 23 acres. The remaining land could be redeveloped for market and non-market housing and commercial uses.

The university is adamant that it is suspending academic operations, but not ceasing to exist. Neither is it for sale, despite the headline on the NAI Commercial flyer. “Quest is still a university whether it resides in the Garibaldi Highlands, down by Oceanfront, or smack in the middle of Brackendale. We are much more than a piece of land.”

Quest sought court protection from creditors in January 2020 after its biggest lender, the Vanchorverve Foundation, demanded repayment of $23.4 million. Vanchorverve is one of dozens of charities registered by Vancouver lawyer Blake Bromley. 

In December 2020, Primacorp paid $43 million for the land and university buildings to rescue Quest. The deal included an agreement for Primacorp to provide Quest student recruitment, marketing and fundraising services. Primacorp vice-president of marketing Melissa Davis said by email that Primacorp has completed its $20 million agreement with Quest, but she did not disclose the date that it ended.

Primacorp, under chair Peter Chung, bills itself as Canada’s largest provider of private post-secondary education with 15,000 annual enrolments and has subsidiaries in seniors’ housing, commercial real estate and self storage in Canada and the U.S. Requests to interview Chung have not been fulfilled.

Peter Chung (Primacorp)

The board that oversees operations of the private liberal arts and science university announced Feb. 23 that it plans to restructure finances and operations, but did not provide an estimated timeline. Quest said it had been seeking additional funding to continue beyond April, but “the board concluded that it had no alternative but to make the responsible decision it has at this time.” The board pledged to refund tuition owing and help students transfer elsewhere. 

“The board’s first priority is to protect our current and prospective students,” said the statement. “It is not prepared to continue offering our innovative programming if the university cannot confidently deliver the full 2023/24 academic year.”

Coren, who has not responded to interview requests, joined Quest as president in June 2022 after selection by a committee involving members of the Quest board, faculty, students and alumni. In 2012, he was hired to run the private University Canada West (UCW) when Chung’s company, then known as Eminata, was owner. 

He told the Professionals in International Education newsletter in 2017 that he joined UCW “basically as a rescue mission. They had gone through a lot of problems in the press in the previous ownership and we came in to do a turnaround.”

In April 2013, Coren and Chung were part of the Eminata delegation to Guangdong province in China for an agreement to establish an international Kindergarten to Grade 12 program at Taishan City Education Bureau. Coren’s Quest bio states that he holds a visiting professorship at Guangdong University of Foreign students. 

Quest opened in 2007 and graduated 1,000 students as of 2022. It receives no funding from the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, which said Feb. 27 that there are only 135 students eligible to graduate in April or transfer. The Ministry said it will make students whole if Quest doesn’t and encourages students to reach out to the Degree Quality Assessment Board Secretariat with any questions or concerns. 

The Quest website says it charges Canadians $23,000 and non-Canadians $38,000 for annual  tuition. Room, board, travel and other fees are estimated at $15,000.  

Quest is governed by the provincial Sea to Sky University Act, which includes a section about winding up and dissolution. If the university were to close permanently, instead of the announced suspension of operations, all funds and property remaining after payment to employees, cover debts, and fund student access to transcripts must be distributed to “qualified donees” designated by the board, as defined in the federal Income Tax Act. 

—with a file from Steven Chua

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Bob Mackin After Quest University’s president told a

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Bob Mackin

The fourth-place finisher in last fall’s race for the Vancouver mayoralty, who enjoyed success organizing political campaigns before the 2017 end of B.C.’s big money era, received an illegal $50,000 loan and is now struggling to return the money.

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

Mark Marissen was the leader of Progress Vancouver and had received the loan from Jason McLean in February 2022 “to finance the day-to-day administration of Progress Vancouver’s elector organization office intended to operate on a continuing basis outside campaign periods,” according to an Elections BC prohibited campaign loan form. 

It was due for repayment on the Oct. 15 election day, subject to a 5% interest rate.

Jason McLean is 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. He declined comment. 

The Elections BC guide for elector organizations states that a loan received from an eligible individual must be counted towards the contribution limit for that individual in the calendar year the loan was received. Individual donations to parties and candidates in 2022 were capped at $1,250. The guide also said that if a financial agent becomes aware that it was accepted contrary to the law, the loan must be returned or repaid within 30 days. Elections BC has the power to issue fines for accepting or making a prohibited loan. 

After a reporter sought comment from Marissen, financial agent AnnMarie Aase forwarded a statement from Marissen, the principal of lobbying and strategic communications firm Burrard Strategy.

Marissen admitted Progress Vancouver was unaware of the NDP government’s amendments to campaign financing laws via the March 2021 Local Elections Statutes Amendment Act, “As it pertains to the effect of deeming all loans to an elector organization to be loans for election expenses and subject to the prescribed limit on loans from non-financial institutions.”

David McLean (left) and Jason McLean (McLean Group)

He also said the party received wrong advice from an unnamed lawyer in January 2022, who said 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,” Marissen said. “It hoped to be able to return Mr. McLean’s loan through campaign contributions, but has not been successful to date in doing so. Progress Vancouver continues to solicit permitted donations and intends to repay Mr. McLean.”

McLean made three donations totalling $3,239 to Progress Vancouver last year. Other family members donated $1,239 each, including Andrea, Melanie, Brenda and David McLean. 

David McLean was a major BC Liberal donor who backed Gordon Campbell and later Christy Clark in their rise to power. He was also the chair of CN Rail when it privatized BC Rail after the tainted 2003 bidding process. Only BC Liberal aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk were ever charged. They pleaded guilty during their 2010 breach of trust trial in exchange for taxpayers picking up their $6.2 million legal tab.

Marissen received 5,830 votes in a Vancouver civic election dominated by Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party. None of Marissen’s six candidates for city council or Metro Vancouver’s electoral area A were elected. Since the election, he registered to lobby the NDP government on behalf of Surrey city hall to close down the Surrey Police Service and keep the RCMP as the local police force. Neither Mayor Brenda Locke nor Marissen have disclosed his contract value.

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. 

Marissen’s ex-wife Clark endorsed his campaign and appeared on a robocall. She made donations totalling $2,224. Their son, Hamish Marissen Clark, is also listed for a $1,000 contribution.

Hector Bremner

Marissen was supported financially by numerous figures from the BC Liberals 2001 to 2017 dynasty: Clark’s ex-deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad ($1,250), ex-chief of staff Ken Boessenkool ($1,239), campaign mastermind and lobbyist Patrick Kinsella ($1,239), former cabinet ministers Olga Ilich ($2,500) and Suzanne Anton ($400), and Clark biographer Judi Tyabji ($1,000).

Hector Bremner, who ran for mayor in 2018 under Marissen’s Yes Vancouver banner, gave $100, veteran federal Liberal Party activists David Gruber ($2,250) and Bill Cunningham ($500), and Dirk Brinkman, husband of Vancouver Quadra Liberal MP Joyce Murray ($975). 

British Columbia was famously deemed the “Wild West of Canadian Political Cash” in a 2017 New York Times investigation because it had no limits on the source or size of political donations. The NDP banned corporate and union donations after it came to power in 2017 with the support of the Green Party. Annual limits were set for individuals to contribute to provincial and municipal parties and candidates, and donors must be a resident of B.C. and a citizen or permanent resident of Canada. 

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Bob Mackin The fourth-place finisher in last fall’s

Business, News, Opinion, Sports

For the week of Feb. 26, 2023: 

The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival is back for a 26th season.

On this edition of thePodcast, meet one of its headliners, Squamish, B.C. adventure racer Mark Sky. 

Last July, Sky and Swede Malin Ek spent 17 days completing a 575-kilometre hiking, cycling, climbing and kayaking journey they call the Sea to Sky Infinity Loop. It took them to Deep Cove, Cypress, Garibaldi, Black Tusk and the Tantalus Range. 

“During the COVID times, when we couldn’t travel anywhere, we were like, yeah we should really do something here,” Sky told host Bob Mackin.

Sky and Ek are featured on March 2’s Adventures in Canada night at Kay Meek Arts Centre in West Vancouver. Hear a preview on this week’s podcast. 

Plus, hear former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu’s reaction to the bombshell report by Canada’s spy agency about the Chinese government’s meddling in the 2021 federal election that cost Chiu his seat in Parliament. 

Plus Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim headlines.

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

Now on Google Podcasts!

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For the week of Feb. 26, 2023:  The

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Bob Mackin

Less than 24 hours after its board announced indefinite closure when the academic year ends in April, Quest University’s buildings and surrounding land are for sale.

“Operating university with extensive development potential,” says the Feb. 24-published flyer through NAI Commercial Associate Vice-President Marshall MacLeod.

Quest University Canada in Squamish, B.C. (Quest)

MacLeod said the asking price is confidential and subject to a non-disclosure agreement for a serious bidder. 

B.C. Assessment Authority pegged the land at $15.08 million and buildings $54.168 million in 2022, for a total $69.256 million. 

The campus and sportsplex occupy 23 out of approximately 55 acres.

“Currently, a single legal title (lot 1), once subdivided, the remaining land will provide for an estimated 38 acres of gross development land for a number of identified uses which include market and non-market housing, commercial development, university uses, public elementary school and park dedication,” said the NAI Commercial flyer. 

MacLeod said the sale had been in the works for a while. The underlying information for the digital flyer said it was originally created Oct. 5, 2022. 

Primacorp Ventures Inc. paid $43 million for the land and university buildings to rescue Quest University out of court protection from creditors in December 2020. Quest sought protection in January of that year after its biggest lender, the Vanchorverve Foundation, demanded repayment of $23.4 million. Vanchorverve is one of dozens of charities registered by Vancouver lawyer Blake Bromley.

Primacorp recently discontinued its agreement to provide comprehensive student recruitment, marketing and fundraising services to keep Quest going.

The board that oversees operations of the private university announced Thursday that it plans to restructure finances and operations, but did not provide an estimated timeline. Quest said it had been seeking additional funding to continue beyond April, but “the board concluded that it had no alternative but to make the responsible decision it has at this time.”

Quest University president Art Coren (Quest)

“The board’s first priority is to protect our current and prospective students,” said the statement. “It is not prepared to continue offering our innovative programming if the university cannot confidently deliver the full 2023/24 academic year.”

Primacorp, under chair Peter Chung, bills itself as Canada’s largest provider of private post-secondary education with 15,000 annual enrolments and has subsidiaries in seniors’ housing, commercial real estate and self storage in Canada and the U.S. Requests to interview Chung have not been fulfilled. 

Quest president Art Coren has not responded to repeated interview requests. It is understood that staff layoffs are already underway. 

In November 2020, then-Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott expressed “grave concern” over Primacorp’s takeover.

In her prescient statement, Elliott said the deal with for-profit Primacorp created “an uphill runway that will make it difficult for it to be viable.”

As of 2022, more than 1,000 students had graduated from Quest. It had an estimated 200 students to start this year. The Quest website says it charges Canadians $23,000 and non-Canadians $38,000 for annual  tuition. Room, board, travel and other fees are estimated at $15,000.  

B.C.’s Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills said Friday that it will make students whole if Quest University doesn’t, after the Squamish university announced a day earlier that it will close indefinitely when its academic year ends in April. 

The private liberal arts and science university that opened in 2007 receives no funding from the ministry, but the province’s role is to ensure programming quality and student protection. 

“The Ministry holds a financial security from Quest University to secure student tuition refunds, if necessary,” a statement from a representative of Minister Selina Robinson. 

The financial security ensures that if students paid for education they did not receive, that they are provided a refund. Quest pledged that refunds will be forthcoming and that Students not graduating in April will receive one-on-one counselling to transfer elsewhere. 

“The Ministry will be available to support students as this transition continues.”

Meanwhile, District of Squamish said in a statement of its own that it is “saddened and disappointed” with Quest’s decision. The district admitted it had been secretly briefed by the board and knew the university was in dire straits. 

Since a June 2000 memorandum of understanding, the district waived property taxes for the university and spent $5 million on municipal services infrastructure.

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Bob Mackin Less than 24 hours after its

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Bob Mackin

Almost three months since a rush hour snowstorm stranded hundreds, if not thousands, of commuters overnight on bridges and feeder routes, a New Westminster city councillor is disappointed that the idea of a regional snow summit didn’t gain traction. 

Coun. Daniel Fontaine and Surrey Coun. Linda Annis proposed a high-level, multiparty meeting about the Nov. 29-30 debacle.

New Westminster City Councillor Daniel Fontaine (Zoom)

There were more dumps in December and fierce February flurries are forecast Saturday night, Feb. 25. Environment Canada has advised that 10 to 30 centimetres of snow will fall across Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Sea to Sky.

Fontaine speculates there are likely internal reviews about brining, salting, sanding and plowing in various jurisdictions, “but it’s all out of public sight.”

“What we could have done better, or areas that we could improve, that was the main thrust and the main purpose behind the summit,” Fontaine said. “Bringing everybody together to discover what happened, and if there are ways for us to prevent it from from happening again.”

Documents obtained via Freedom of Information about the end of November storm show key arms of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and TransLink were not working as a team. 

A draft Nov. 29 memo from TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn outlined TransLink’s plans, while appealing for the region’s mayors to muster resources to deal with as much as 25 centimetres of snow. 

(TransLink)

“To ensure our transit vehicles can travel safely on the roads in the winter weather, I kindly ask that your engineering teams continue to prioritize the clearing and treatment of transit routes, especially major roads, bridges, and boulevards that could create bottlenecks for commuters of all modes. TransLink will be focused on rapid identification of trouble spots and will communicate with your staff as needed,” Quinn wrote. 

TransLink was calling in extra staff, deploying special anti-icing trucks for trolley wires, replacing articulated buses with standard 40-foot-long buses, running special de-icing cars on SkyTrain, preparing brass cutters to break ice on trolley wires and “snow socks” to install on bus tires for hilly routes in Vancouver, Burnaby and the North Shore. 

TransLink held a mid-afternoon conference call with more than two dozen managers Nov. 28 to gear-up for the next day. The situation was dire by mid-evening Nov. 29. 

“All municipalities are having clearing issues – Surrey is critical area. Heavy crowds at Surrey Central. City of Surrey, all snow mitigation assets have been deployed. Heavy delays,” said notes from the 8 p.m. conference call.

Contractors were having issues with traffic and a transit supervisor had been dispatched because coaches were stuck on the Alex Fraser Bridge. 

The 6 a.m. conference call notes mentioned 176 stranded buses, 30 of which were abandoned. 

“Team has a detailed list of bus locations and if there are passengers/drivers on board.”

“Escalated Concern: Passengers stuck on bus since 8 p.m. last night — everyone is safe and working to get them. Focus on recovery of operators and passengers.”

There had been 30 accidents, with one “pedestrian contact,” but no report of an employee injury. More than 90 operators were unable to come to work. There was an update during the call, that two buses stranded overnight with passengers had been returned. 

TransLink is best-known for bus, rapid transit, commuter train and SeaBus divisions, but it also oversees the 2,600 lane-kilometre major road network that connects local roads with provincial highways, four vehicle bridges (Knight, Pattullo, Golden Ears and Westham Island) and the Canada Line bike and pedestrian bridge. 

Yet the highest-profile problem areas were provincial — Alex Fraser, Port Mann and Queensborough bridges — and provincial staff had nearly 12 hours to react. 

“Rapidly accumulating snow will make travel difficult. Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow,” read the forecast in Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure snow and ice program manager Steve Robertson’s email box at 5:31 a.m. Nov. 29.

Port Mann Bridge snow clearing technicians (TranBC)

Snow and ice teams were mobilized before 9:30 a.m. to monitor the Port Mann and Alex Fraser. Maintenance contractor crews and rope access technicians were sent later. Seven ministry staff and four from contractor Mainroad met at 11:30 a.m. to plot strategy. 

But it wasn’t enough, the weather had the upper hand. Next morning, Robertson provided a statistics report to staff. 

The snowpack between 2 p.m. and 6 a.m. was 20 cm, but actual snowfall amounts were higher as the snowpack was settling while the snow was falling. 

“With the high precipitation rates we saw, I would expect 25-30 cm fell in some areas,” Robertson wrote.

Between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., it came down at a rate of 3-4 cm per hour, increasing to 5-6 cm per hour and then 7-11 cm between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. The accumulations continued until 10:30 p.m.

Port Mann temperatures started at -2.5 Celsius and ended at 0.5 Celsius when precipitation stopped in the morning. High winds, throughout the first three-quarters of the event, were steady from the east at 30-40 km-h, gusting to 60 km-h between 2 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

“This blowing snow greatly affected the roads by reducing visibility and depositing snow drifts on the roads,” Robertson wrote.

Meanwhile, the NDP government’s freedom of information office has decided to delay the release of internal correspondence about the pre-Christmas storm response in the Lower Mainland and the Christmas Eve bus crash that killed four people on the Okanagan Connector to March 21 and March 28, respectively.

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Bob Mackin Almost three months since a rush

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Bob Mackin 

Trouble has returned to Quest University. 

The private Squamish liberal arts and sciences university was under court protection from creditors in 2020 before a New Westminster company threw it a lifeline. Three years later, the board of governors announced Thursday that it voted to suspend classes indefinitely following completion of the current academic year in April.

Quest University president Art Coren (Quest)

The board made the move public at 5 p.m. Feb. 23, after meetings with staff and faculty. 

“This action is being taken so the board and the executive can focus on restructuring finances and operations,” said the Quest statement. “The university will continue current operations through the spring and then undertake an evaluation as to when it may be able to resume future enrolments and full academic programming.”

The announcement comes after Quest President Art Coren and Vice President Academic Jeff Warren and several other senior members of staff and faculty ignored repeated phone calls and emails from a reporter for more than a week. Board chair Arthur Willms also did not respond.

The news release said “several factors” contributed to the decision, but the factors were not detailed. 

Glacier Media reported Feb. 22 that Quest landlord Primacorp Ventures had discontinued providing the student recruitment, marketing, fundraising and other support services that it committed in the October 2020 agreement to acquire the land and buildings. 

Primacorp, under chair Peter Chung, bills itself as Canada’s largest provider of private post-secondary education with 15,000 annual enrolments and has subsidiaries in seniors’ housing, commercial real estate and self storage in Canada and the U.S. Requests to interview Chung have not been fulfilled. 

Quest University Canada in Squamish, B.C. (Quest)

Thursday’s statement said Quest had been seeking additional funding to continue beyond April, but “the board concluded that it had no alternative but to make the responsible decision it has at this time.”

“The board’s first priority is to protect our current and prospective students. It is not prepared to continue offering our innovative programming if the university cannot confidently deliver the full 2023/24 academic year.”

The spring graduation will proceed on April 29 on campus. Students not yet eligible for graduation will receive one-on-one help to transition to other schools under transfer agreements, while prospective students who have paid application fees or enrolment deposits for September 2023 will receive refunds. 

The workforce at Quest, however, is in limbo. The statement said they would be advised “in the coming days” about their future. 

Quest opened in 2007 under former University of B.C. president David Strangway. As of 2022, more than 1,000 students had graduated from Quest. The Quest website says it charges Canadians $23,000 and non-Canadians $38,000 for annual  tuition. Room, board, travel and other fees are estimated at $15,000.  

In January 2020, Quest sought court protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act after the Vanchorverve Foundation, a charity registered by Vancouver lawyer Blake Bromley, demanded repayment of $23.4 million.

In November 2020, then Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott issued a public statement expressing “grave concern” over Primacorp’s takeover. The district had supported Quest since a June 2000 memorandum of understanding and later waived property taxes for the university and spent $5 million on municipal services infrastructure.

Elliott said the deal with for-profit Primacorp created “an uphill runway that will make it difficult for it to be viable.”

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Bob Mackin  Trouble has returned to Quest University.  The

Business, News

Bob Mackin 

Staff and students at Quest University Canada could learn the future of the Squamish institution this week. 

Meetings are expected as soon as today, after the university’s landlord stopped providing services under its late 2020 agreement to rescue Quest.

Quest University Canada in Squamish, B.C. (Quest)

Three years ago last month, the private liberal arts and science college sought court protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. Quest’s biggest lender was the Vanchorverve Foundation, a charity registered by Vancouver lawyer Blake Bromley, which demanded repayment of $23.4 million.

In October 2020, New Westminster-based Primacorp Ventures Inc. announced it would buy the campus building and lands, lease them to Quest and provide comprehensive services for student recruitment, marketing, fundraising and other support.

Primacorp, under chair Peter Chung, bills itself as Canada’s largest provider of private post-secondary education with 15,000 annual enrolments and has subsidiaries in seniors’ housing, commercial real estate and self storage in Canada and the U.S.

However, the relationship appears to have suddenly changed. 

Melissa Davis, director of marketing and communications for Primacorp, did not respond to phone calls, but did say by email that “Primacorp is no longer involved in Quest outside of the support with buildings and land.” 

She did not respond to followup email or phone calls, seeking to know when Primacorp discontinued providing the broad range of services. 

Former University of B.C. board of governors chair Michael Korenberg was the vice-chair of Primacorp, in charge of Quest. 

“I am no longer associated with Primacorp in any way,” he said by email. Like Davis, Korenberg also did not answer followup phone calls and email.

Quest President Art Coren and Vice President Academic Jeff Warren ignored repeated calls and emails. Board chair Arthur Willms also did not respond.

Quest University president Art Coren (Quest)

Academic dean Halia Valladares Montemayor was the only faculty member to reply, but she deferred comment to the marketing and communications department, which has not responded.

Quest opened in 2007 under former UBC president David Strangway. As of 2022, more than 1,000 students had graduated from Quest. The Quest website says it charges Canadians $23,000 and non-Canadians $38,000 for annual  tuition. Room, board, travel and other fees are estimated at $15,000.  

In November 2020, then Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott issued a public statement expressing “grave concern” over Primacorp’s takeover. The district had supported Quest since a June 2000 memorandum of understanding and later waived property taxes for the university and spent $5 million on municipal services infrastructure.

“We are deeply concerned that the agreement signed does not reflect the district’s interests, creates an uphill runway for Quest that will make it difficult for it to be viable given the ongoing challenges related to the pandemic, possibly reduces student refunds and faculty severances as unsecured creditors, and leaves a for-profit company controlling the lands, instead of a university of significant standing should Quest not succeed,” Elliott said.

Armand Hurford became mayor last October. Instead of responding to a reporter, he deferred to the district’s communications director Christina Moore, who sent a prepared statement. 

“The district’s early investments were made, and ongoing support provided, because of its shared vision that a reputable and ground-breaking university on those lands would bring social and economic benefits to the community. This is therefore a relationship and a situation that we have great interest in and will continue to follow closely,” said Moore’s statement.

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Bob Mackin  Staff and students at Quest University

Business, News

Bob Mackin

Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu said he does not feel vindicated after raising the alarm since September 2021 about his defeat in Steveston-Richmond East.

Kenny Chiu Official Portrait

On Jan. 17, the Globe and Mail reported on leaked documents from Canada’s spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, that the People’s Republic of China meddled in the last federal election with the goal of seeing a Liberal minority government. The newspaper said then-Vancouver Consul General Tong Xiaoling even boasted she helped defeat two Conservative incumbents: Richmond Centre’s Alice Wong and Chiu, who had been elected in 2019.

Neither of the Liberal MPs who won election, Parm Bains (Steveston-Richmond East) nor Wilson Miao (Richmond Centre), responded for comment. 

The website for the Consulate-General quickly responded with a statement on Friday that said it “has never interfered in any Canadian election or internal affairs in any way.”

“For the past year-and-a-half, I’ve been kind of reliving, whether am I hallucinating, or whether it is truly?” he said. “The amount of evidence, the number of pointers has been so much that I cannot refute that it is a significant contributing factor to the defeat, not just for myself, but also for the Conservative Party.”

He said he does not feel vindication because Canada remains a target of disinformation, hacking and espionage by the Chinese Communist Party.  

“The fact still remains that Canada has not enacted anything to protect itself, we are still presenting ourselves as the weakest link, not just to the People’s Republic of China, but also all the other dictatorial, aggressive predatorily regimes that are interested in, in influencing us, be it Russia or Iran or other nations,” he said. “We’re sending a very bad message here.” 

Chiu defeated incumbent Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido in the October 2019 election by a 2,747 vote margin in a campaign that featured allegations of foreign influence. 

Peschisolido’s campaign team included Eileen Chen, CEO of CYC Royal International Group, an events production and advertising company with offices in Richmond and China. Chen was front and centre, waving a Chinese flag and shouting slogans during a pro-China protest near Vancouver city hall in August 2019, countering a rally in support of democracy in Hong Kong. 

In 2021, there was evidence of Bains courting pro-China voters in his bid to unseat Chiu. 

Wilson Miao (left), Parm Bains and Tong Xiaoling, with Lam Siu Ngai, Taleeb Noormohamed and Michael Lee. (PRC consulate)

In a front page ad on the pro-Beijing Rise Weekly, Bains echoed the build harmonious society slogan used by the CCP since the mid-2000s. He also appeared in an interview on the publication’s YouTube channel where he opposed Chiu’s proposal for a foreign agents registry. “To me, it looks like a very discriminatory type of policy,” he said.

A video surfaced on Chinese language social media of Bains addressing a group wearing Chinese Canadians Goto Vote Association T-shirts and holding signs bearing the society’s “Your Vote Matters” slogan. 

The group included James Wu Jiaming, executive chairman of the Canada-China City Friendship Association, and Wang Dianqi, honorary chairman of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations. The Metro Vancouver organizations are related to the CCP’s United Front foreign influence and propaganda program. 

Bains, who won by 3,477 votes, denied Wu and Wang had a role in his campaign. 

The latest revelations follow Global News reporting in November that China meddled in the 2019 election. It sparked an emergency meeting of the Procedure and House Affairs committee, which agreed Tuesday to expand its probe of foreign interference in elections.

Parm Bains (foreground) and Wang Dianqi (centre) (WeChat)

“Think about it,” Chiu said. “I mean, this is CSIS, people they have, they have become so frustrated that they have to be a whistleblower, leaking documents to the outside. You know, Canada, it’s at peril if we don’t act immediately.”

Chiu was disappointed that, during the committee meeting, Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell (Pickering-Uxbridge) accused the Conservatives of “Trump-type tactics to question election results” — ironic, since U.S. authorities found Russian meddling in favour of Trump during the 2016 presidential election. 

He is also still shaking his head after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seemed more concerned last Friday with finding the whistleblower than safeguarding Canada’s democracy. 

“For somebody who has an admiration for, you know, the Chinese Communist regime, on one hand, we’re not surprised that he would be ideologically friendly to the CCP regime,” Chiu said, referring to comments Trudeau made in 2013, two years before becoming PM. “But at the same time, he had in that same question, in the answer that he provided, it revealed that he is somebody who enjoys the unchecked authority.”

Chiu said he is concerned there won’t be the same level of discourse about the tainted 2021 election in Richmond, where it happened, because it has one of the highest-rates in the country of non-English speakers.  

He said members of the diaspora are exploited and threatened by the foreign regimes from which they left, whether it’s China, Russia or Iran. Those regimes will all be watching Canada closely and adjusting their tactics accordingly. 

Chiu still hasn’t made up his mind about his political future; the next election must happen by 2025. But the new revelations have only accelerated the campaign for what he originally proposed: a registry for lobbyists acting on behalf of foreign governments. 

“Yes, it is unfortunate that I’m no longer in office. But on the other hand, if, as a result of that, Canada can actually have protection for our community, for this country, and have something like what the Australians have, the Americans have, I think I have done what I wanted to do in 2019 and I’m happy about that.”

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Bob Mackin Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu said

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Bob Mackin 

A man convicted Jan. 27 of holding a man against his will in Richmond, and using weapons to coerce the victim to commit bestiality, pleaded guilty Feb. 21 to obstruction of justice. 

In B.C. Supreme Court, before Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, Taymour Aghtai, 28, waived his right to a trial. He will be sentenced May 5.

Law Courts Vancouver (Joe Mabel)

After Holmes read the charge against Aghtai, he agreed that he used threats, bribes or other corrupt means in a bid to persuade another person, whose name is covered by a publication ban, to not testify at his trial. The offences happened between Jan. 19, 2021 and April 13, 2021. 

“As I understand it, you were in custody at the time and you made phone calls to your mother and, essentially, asked her to relay messages, either directly or indirectly to [the witness]. Is that correct? 

“Yes,” Aghtai said. 

“And the purpose of your doing that was to try to cause [the witness] not to testify in the trial.”

“Yes,” he said. 

At trial, Holmes heard that once Aghtai arrived at the apartment near the Richmond Olympic Oval on Sept. 4, 2020, he hit the victim on the head from behind, and restrained him with handcuffs and zap straps. The victim testified that Aghtai and others assaulted and humiliated over the course of 30 hours until he escaped. The man testified that Aghtai “was not the main aggressor, but played a very significant role,” Holmes said in her verdict.

Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the B.C. Supreme Court.

Aghtai denied the charges, but Holmes found the evidence showed beyond a reasonable doubt that Aghtai kept the man restrained physically and sometimes used threats and intimidation against the victim.

Holmes found Aghtai guilty of sexual assault with a weapon, assault with a weapon, extortion, unlawful confinement and use of an imitation firearm in relation to the unlawful confinement.

Aghtai had known the victim since they were teenagers and was in the business of buying and selling merchandise from his home. 

Aghtai was also sentenced Feb. 7 in North Vancouver Provincial Court to time served for public mischief and conveying a false message with intent to alarm. 

He had pleaded guilty in December 2021 to making 63 malicious crank calls to four managers, six nurses and two administrators at the Lynn Valley Care Centre early in the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. 

He also pleaded guilty to a hoax phone call to a Parksville Fields store and RCMP detachment in November 2019, claiming that a black man was shooting people in the store. Police attended and found no such incident. 

Judge Patricia Janzen chastised Aghtai for putting others at risk of harm in both incidents, especially any black men near the Fields store and senior citizens and staff at the Lynn Valley Care Centre. She said the senselessness of his crime was only matched by its cruelty. 

“Your criminal record is appalling,” Janzen said.

A 2014 psychological assessment provided to the judge concluded that Aghtai was a narcissistic, anti-social alcohol abuser with psychopathic tendencies. 

Aghtai has a criminal record dating back to 2008 for making hoax phone calls that falsely alleged heinous crimes or impersonated police officers. He also has a record of assault, robbery, break and enter, confinement and weapons offences, and violating court orders.

In 2020, he stole personal protective equipment from a seniors care home and escaped lawful custody at Richmond Hospital where he assaulted two corrections officers by threatening them with a contaminated syringe. 

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Bob Mackin  A man convicted Jan. 27 of

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