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Bob Mackin

Taiwan’s top diplomat in Vancouver said the 10 Members of Parliament touring the island nation this week are not only talking trade, but learning about advanced efforts to counter interference by the People’s Republic of China.

Lihsin Angel Liu (TECO/Twitter)

The self-governing democracy is preparing to elect a new president next January, as President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party completes her second term. Lihsin Angel Liu, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), Taiwan’s de facto consulate in Vancouver, said Taiwanese are expecting the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies to meddle in the election again.

“We are facing more-aggressive cognitive warfare from the PRC,” Liu said.

The government has co-operated with a variety of civil society organizations to monitor, fact-check and debunk any kind of fake news that could disrupt the Taiwanese population. 

“So there is a whole-of-the-government approach to fight against the Chinese cognitive warfare against Taiwan,” Liu said.

The most-prominent group is called the Doublethink Lab, but there are others providing similar services, with names like Cofacts, MyGoPen, Taiwan FactCheck Center and Fake News Cleaner.

Doublethink’s 2021 report on the 2020 presidential election, called Deafening Whispers, found countless disseminators of political and financial disinformation in both China and Taiwan, whose goal was to disrupt the election and influence its outcome. Many pushed a narrative that “democracy is a failure” in order to cast China in a favourable light and belittle both Taiwan and Hong Kong. Tsai won in a landslide, but Doublethink warned against complacency. 

“Unlike the previous view that China’s cyber army is only ‘cheerleading’, China’s information operations are also negative and aggressive. They amplify discord, harshly criticize certain ideologies, and fabricate conspiracies,” said the report. 

Liu said it wasn’t the first time Taiwanese resisted Mainland China propaganda. In 2014, the Sunflower Movement stopped the ruling Kuomintang government’s trade agreement with China, amid a media campaign to convince Taiwanese to develop closer ties with China. 

The MPs from four parties, led by National Defence Committee chair John McKay (Liberal), and including Surrey Liberal MPs Ken Hardie and Randeep Sarai, arrived in Taipei as China’s military was wrapping up three days of war games to intimidate Taiwan after Tsai returned from a trip that included a Los Angeles meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. 

Xi Jinping has made annexing the nation of 23 million, roughly the size of Vancouver Island, a priority for China and has threatened to use force. The U.S. has promised to defend Taiwan if China attacks. China and Taiwan are separated by the 180-kilometre Taiwan Strait, but Taiwan’s territory also includes the the Kinmen Islands, just 10 km from Xiamen in China’s Fujian province. 

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and the Canadian MPs on tour. (President.Gov.TW)

When the delegation met with Tsai on April 12, she said that it is critical for democracies to stand together, in the face of authoritarian expansionism. 

“Canada is a very important democratic partner to Taiwan. We will do our utmost to jointly safeguard the values of freedom and democracy with Canada and other like-minded international partners,” Tsai said. 

According to a transcript on Tsai’s website, McKay said the group was eager to learn how Taiwan has strengthened its democracy and prosperity amid the challenges of its bigger, hostile neighbour across the Taiwan Strait. 

“I’m sure you’ve been briefed on the interference and influence operations carried on by the government of China in Canada,” McKay said. “And that has heightened our awareness of these times and brought us together as nations – democratic nations who are facing this menace.”

Liu said the trip to Taiwan also includes meetings about Indigenous relations. Like Canada, Taiwan is also embracing reconciliation with Indigenous people. 

“Transformative justice, as we call in Taiwan, is what President Tsai since her election, as President of Taiwan, she has vowed to do something for the Indigenous community,” she said. 

Taiwan’s Indigenous affairs ministry has endeavoured to spur economic and education opportunities for Indigenous people. Indigenous groups have also traveled to B.C. to collaborate with First Nations here.

“To talk about cultural and language revitalization for both countries, to learn from each other. I think this means a lot,” Liu said.

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Bob Mackin Taiwan’s top diplomat in Vancouver said

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Bob Mackin

In its last full year under its old name, the BC Liberal Party reported almost $4.03 million income, but lost $278,000. 

The Kevin Falcon-led official opposition party, which rebranded as BC United on April 12, raised $2.53 million in donations in 2022, according to April 13-released financial statements from Elections BC.

David Eby and John Horgan (BC Gov/Flickr)

The BC Liberals also received $1.1 million under the annual taxpayer allowance program, funds that they originally opposed when the NDP government banned corporate and union donations in 2017 and instituted subsidies to replace big money donations. 

The party’s biggest line item was the $1.4 million cost of salaries and benefits. It also spent $591,000 on running the leadership election in early 2022. 

The NDP reported $5.9 million income and $4.18 million expenses for a $1.73 million surplus. It spent $2.135 million on salaries and benefits. 

Total donations for the governing party were $4.012 million. It also received $1.57 million from taxpayers. 

The NDP also reported a whopping $10.7 million accumulated surplus, dwarfing the $2.3 million for the BC Liberals at year-end. 

The NDP spent $110,500 on its aborted leadership election. David Eby was anointed the successor to Premier John Horgan in October when challenger Anjali Appadurai was disqualified due to alleged fraudulent memberships and collusion with environmental charities.  

The BC Greens raised $1.076 million from donors. The total $1.63 million income included the $497,000 allowance from taxpayers. Sonia Furstenau’s party ended the year with a $208,000 surplus. 

Meanwhile, Elections BC said Thursday that three of the 48 municipal parties required to file their 2022 returns by March 31 received extensions. 

The once-mighty Vision Vancouver, which ruled Vancouver from 2008 to 2018, has until April 17 due to “extenuating circumstances.” 

The new due date for Team Surrey Schools and Contract with Langley is May 1. Contract with Langley is Township Mayor Eric Woodward’s party and it was fined $500. 

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Bob Mackin In its last full year under

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Five Simon Fraser University football players sued the university April 13 for breach of contract, the week after the university suddenly announced their 1965-founded program was cancelled.

“SFU’s decision to immediately terminate the SFU football program breaches the commitments made to the plaintiff players that they would be able to play football with the SFU program while attending SFU to obtain a quality education,” said the lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court by lawyer Peter Gall.

(SFU Football)

The filing said that not playing in 2023 will harm the Red Leafs’ players’ academic and athletic pursuits. They want a judge to order SFU to reinstate all players and coaches in order to play in 2023. Otherwise, they seek unspecified damages for breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and interest.

The plaintiffs include: quarterback Gideone Kremler, a fifth-year communications major and psychology minor with two years remaining of NCAA eligibility; cornerback Kimo Hiu, a third-year business student with two years remaining; defensive back Andrew Lirag, a second-year student of criminology, with three years remaining; defensive back Ryan Barthelson, a criminology student with one year left; and linebacker Dayton Ingenhaag, a third-year double minor in kinesiology and sociology, with two years left.

“All of the plaintiff players aspire to play competitive or professional football,” said the players’ lawsuit. “For all of them it was extremely important that they attend a university in which they were able to play competitive football at a high inter-collegiate level. They chose to attend SFU primarily for this reason.”

SFU has graduated more Canadian Football League draft picks than any other university. Since 2010, it has been the only Canadian member of the NCAA.

The lawsuit said that SFU coaches made commitments, promises or representations to the plaintiff players that SFU was strongly committed to student athletes’ success and SFU football players in particular.

It also said SFU induced the players to attend SFU, rather than some other university, but did not inform the players that there was any risk, possibility or likelihood that SFU would terminate its program without reasonable notice.

“In accepting SFU’s offer to attend SFU, the plaintiff players relied on the express or implied commitments, promises or representations made by SFU or its representatives to the effect that the plaintiff players would be able to play on the SFU football team in the NCAA for their entire collegiate career, and that SFU was committed to the football program.”

SFU made the April 4 announcement that it was immediately cancelling football because it had no place to play in the 2024 season due to the Lone Star Conference’s decision to end its membership after the 2023 season.

Terry Fox Field (SFU Football)

“[Athletic director Theresa] Hanson did not explain to the plaintiff players why SFU had decided to immediately terminate the SFU football program, despite having the opportunity to continue in the NCAA Lone Star Conference for the 2023 season, at least, during which time other possibilities could be explored for next season.”

An affidavit in support of the players, from ex-head coach Michael Rigell, said shutting down the Red Leafs’ football program would be contrary to what he told them when they made their decision to attend SFU. Specifically, that “they would have the opportunity to play competitive football for their full eligibility while attending an elite academic institution.

“In making this representation to them, I relied on representations made to me by multiple members of the SFU Athletics department that they would maintain the football program,” said Rigell’s sworn statement.

Rigell recruited players since he joined SFU football in 2018 and was head coach from March 2020 until last week when the program was sacked.

“Given the timing of the decision to terminate the SFU football program, many of the student-athletes, including the plaintiff players, will have difficulty finding comparable places to play football and also accomplish their academic objectives,” Rigell’s statement said. “No advance notice was given to myself or the players about this decision, or even that the elimination of the football program was being considered by SFU.”

None of the allegations has been tested in court and SFU has yet to file a statement of defence. SFU management offered one-on-one meetings to eligible players seeking to transfer to another football-playing school for this fall. It has also offered to honour the 2023-2024 scholarships for players who want to remain students at SFU.

Quarterback Key’Shaun Dorsey was outside the Law Courts Thursday afternoon, in support of his teammates.

“Personally, my dream is to play football, so as much as I appreciate them offering one more year of academic scholarship, I don’t think I could stay here,” Dorsey said. “Just due to the fact that I want to pursue my dream to play football.”

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Filed Notice of Civil Claim – SFU Football by Bob Mackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin Five Simon Fraser University football players

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Bob Mackin 

A touring delegation of Members of Parliament, including two Liberals from Surrey, dined with the speaker of Taiwan’s parliament in Taipei on April 10. 

In a speech, You Si-kun, officially known as the president of the Legislative Yuan, said that Taiwan and Canada have suffered similarly from China’s hostage diplomacy, economic coercion, theft of scientific research, interference in elections and intimidation of citizens.

“The economy is very important, but if we lose ‘freedom, equality and fraternit

Lihsin Angel Liu (TECO/Twitter)

’, human beings will fall into the abyss of the jungle and return to the uncivilized world,” You told the group, according to the Legislative Yuan website. 

Ken Hardie (Surrey-Fleetwood), the chair of the Special Committee on the Canada–People’s Republic of China Relationship, and Randeep Sarai (Surrey Centre), the chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, are part of the House of Commons break week trip. John McKay, the Scarborough-Guildwood Liberal who who chairs the National Defence Committee, is the official leader of the 10-member group that also includes Conservative Michael Chong, NDP’s Heather McPherson and Stephane Bergeron of the Bloc Quebecois. 

According to a translation of the Legislative Yuan website, McKay said Taiwan and Canada have “become more and more compatible in recent years” and that Canada must stand with Taiwan. 

Last October, Liberal MP Judy Sgro (Humber River-Black Creek) led a delegation to Taiwan, where she said Taiwan should become a member of the World Health Organization and International Civil Aviation Authority.

More than 23 million people live in Taiwan, which is similar in size to Vancouver Island. Taiwanese companies have almost two-thirds of global market share in computer chips, key to the 21st century economy. Canada and Taiwan trade reached $10.2 billion in 2021, up from $7.4 billion a year earlier. Both governments agreed in February to start talks on an investment deal in the wake of November’s announcement of Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy. 

You also mentioned another link between Canada and Taiwan, Presbyterian missionary-dentist George Leslie Mackay who arrived in 1871 Taiwan, when it was known as Formosa. 

The MPs are scheduled to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice-President William Lai. Tsai returned home last week following a trip to allies Belize and Guatemala that included stopovers in New York and Los Angeles, where she met with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That meeting triggered the People’s Republic of China to conduct three days of war games around Taiwan, similar to last summer when previous Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to meet Tsai in Taipei. 

Canadian MPs during their junket to Taipei (Facebook)

The Canadian delegation’s trip is also less than two weeks after the committee that Hardie chairs released a report called “Canada and Taiwan: A Strong Relationship in Turbulent Times.” It included 18 recommendations on strengthening bilateral economic, trade, cultural and diplomatic ties while adhering to Canada’s “one China” policy. Since 1970, Canada has only officially recognized Mainland China, but maintains informal relations with Taiwan. 

The report recommended the federal government declare the future of Taiwan be solely in the hands of Taiwanese people and that it publicly call on Beijing to refrain from escalating military threats against Taiwan. 

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa reacted angrily to the committee’s report, declaring that the “Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair.”

China claims Taiwan is a rebel province and its Communist leader Xi Jinping has said his goal is “reunification,” even by military force. Taiwan, however, was never part of the 1949-formed People’s Republic of China.

Taiwan’s top diplomat on Canada’s West Coast said April 11 that the Canadian delegation in Taiwan should be seen as a routine visit, because lawmakers from various democracies frequently travel to share ideas with like-minded officials elsewhere. 

“We don’t want to let the Chinese government feel that they can decide which friends the Taiwan government can make and which friends not to make,” said Lihsin Angel Liu, the director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver.

Liu said Taiwan condemns China’s military aggression, the “three-day military drills that mimic a whole-Taiwan blockade.” 

She also said her government is satisfied that both the Indo-Pacific strategy and the House of Commons committee’s report “urge the Canadian government to forge closer ties with Taiwan in economic, trade and technology, education and Indigenous affairs. So a lot of the areas that we can work together, in non-sensitive issues.”

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Bob Mackin  A touring delegation of Members of

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“Just informed about a fire at this privately managed SRO where Atira provides rent supps and support,” BC Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay wrote in an email to operations and communications managers at 11:28 a.m. on April 11, 2022. “Do we know anything about it yet?”

Winters Hotel (City of Vancouver)

“Haven’t heard yet but have staff checking,” replied Dale McMann, the Crown corporation’s vice-president of operations. 

By 11:41 a.m., McMann had spoken to Janice Abbott, Ramsay’s wife and the CEO of Atira Property Management, about what was unfolding at the four-storey Winters Hotel on the corner of Abbott and Water in Gastown.

“Not a lot of details at this time. Appears to be more smoke than flames but Atira has the entire team there checking on tenants,” McMann wrote in the email, obtained via freedom of information. “Will update as more information becomes available.”

The federally recognized, 115-year-old Edwardian-era heritage building originally housed fishermen and loggers and was advertised in its heyday as “the perfect hotel for particular people.”

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) declared a fourth alarm. Five people were sent to hospital. It would become the worst of the 223 fires that displaced 417 tenants at Vancouver single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels in 2022. The bodies of residents Mary Ann Garlow and Dennis Guay were discovered more than a week-and-a-half later. A Coroner’s jury inquest was ordered. 

In the months that followed the tragedy, the Downtown Eastside went from bad to worse. Sidewalks on both sides of East Hastings Street filled with tents containing 200 people, many with addictions and/or mental illness. Many of them refused to live inside buildings similar to the Winters Hotel, even if rooms were available. Vancouver Police officers and civic crews finally moved last week to dismantle the remaining tents. 

It was a tragedy waiting to happen. On April 8, 2022, after a minor fire, VFRS had ordered Winters Hotel management to immediately hire a qualified technician to service the fire alarm and sprinkler and provide 24-hour fire watch until the system could be reset and fully functional.  

“There was a smaller fire contained to one room over the weekend which resulted in water damage,” wrote BC Housing senior manager Will Valenciano at noon on April 11, 2022. “A second fire started today in two rooms and had spread because it is believed the sprinkler system did not go back on line from [the] weekend fire. At this point, it is not known how today and last weekend fires started.”

Where would all the displaced people go? BC Housing’s daily shelter bed count was already slim, with only 11 beds available across 17 sites: 10 at the Lookout’s emergency winter shelter and one at Atira’s Powell Place. It wasn’t as bad as Nov. 10, 2021, when there was no space available at shelters. Estimated SRO vacancies were in the usual range of 15 to 20, however.

BC Housing’s 4:50 p.m. internal issues alert said 86 Winters Hotel tenants had been displaced. Neighbouring buildings were also evacuated, leaving as many as 300 people without a place to stay for the night. The city’s emergency services office had enough cots and blankets for them all. They wouldn’t need to dip into the provincial emergency stock at Riverview. A triage to help connect displaced residents to group lodging was established at Bette’s Boutique on Main and Cordova. 

“BC Housing, City of Vancouver and emergency response services have identified 157 spaces which can be activated today if for evacuees if needed. Winters Hotel residents will be prioritized for spaces where there is 24 hour operations,” said the issues update from Henry Glazebrook in the communications department.
Officials believed residents had been accounted for, but the optimism in McMann’s 8:58 p.m. update would prove to be premature. 

Ramsay (BC Housing)

“Just received word that we think all tenants and staff in the building have been located and are safe. (Great News),” he wrote. “This has not been officially confirmed yet but it seems to be fairly certain. Please do not report this until we have received official confirmation.”

On April 22, during demolition, Garlow and Guay’s bodies were found. 

McMann told staff that all providers in the Downtown Eastside were asked to temporarily hold all vacancies. The New Columbia, with 70 unoccupied rooms, was eyed as a longer-term solution. 

“We were soon to start moving residents from the Colonial to the New Columbia but we will likely now consider extending the lease on the Colonial and moving residents from the Winters Hotel into the New Columbia. We still have some minor work to do in the New Columbia and I am just now trying to determine the extent of work still to be done and how we can expedite this,” McMann wrote. 

The devastating fire a year ago was also the first of a series of unfortunate events for the social housing Crown corporation. Its board was replaced and the CEO went to work elsewhere. The former housing minister, who would become the new premier, ordered a forensic audit that awaits publication.

Less than a month after the fire, on May 10, Ernst and Young completed its report, Financial Systems and Operational Review of BC Housing. But it was kept secret until June 30. 

In three years, the NDP had more than doubled BC Housing’s budget to $1.9 billion and committed $7 billion over a decade. Ernst and Young acknowledged the perfect storm of increased homelessness and encampments along with demands to house mentally ill and addicted clients amid a competitive job market. But, how would BC Housing solve the problem if it continued to be siloed, with antiquated computer systems and undocumented project administration? 

The week after the report’s release, David Eby announced early on a Friday evening that he replaced most of the board. 

Last Aug. 2, the 2000 NDP appointee Ramsay gave more than a month’s notice that he would retire from the top BC Housing job that paid him $366,013 in 2021-2022. He cited the declining living conditions on the Downtown Eastside and his desire to spend more time with family.

“I no longer have confidence I can solve the complex problems facing us at BC Housing,” wrote Ramsay, who would leave after Labour Day. 

Ramsay resurfaced before the end of September in a new job. He is the executive vice-president of real estate and development for the Squamish Nation’s Nch’kay Development Corp., Westbank’s partner in the ambitious Senakw towers project around the south side of the Burrard Bridge.

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Bob Mackin “Just informed about a fire at

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Three months after the NCAA Division II’s Lone Star Conference told Simon Fraser University to find somewhere else to play football in 2024, the university’s president announced the 1965-established program was over immediately.

(SFU Football)

But, at a private meeting, a player asked athletic director Theresa Hanson why the Red Leafs could not play one more season this fall.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s any real reason other than, like I said, save money, save face, business decision, whatever it may be,” said the player on a recording of the meeting posted April 4 on Facebook. “Just because there isn’t anything for 2024 doesn’t mean we can’t have something now.”

“It’s very difficult, the uncertainty is very difficult,” Hanson replied, while standing on a stage beside Wade Parkhouse, SFU’s Vice-President Academic. “We’ve had this uncertainty since January. The decision to not play this year, we could not go another five months without saying anything. That’s not fair to you. The university made a very difficult decision and came to this conclusion and felt it was in the best interest to announce it now.”

SFU President Joy Johnson’s April 4 open letter said the university would support players by helping them transfer elsewhere and honour the scholarships of eligible students who want to remain at SFU for the 2023-2024 school year. But Johnson offered no further details about why the program had to end this week. 

A request to interview Johnson about whether the university conducted a cost-benefit analysis or whether it exhausted options to transfer to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics or Canada’s U-Sports league was denied. SFU media relations director Braden McMillan said Johnson was “not available.” 

Jim Mullin, the president of Football Canada, said he was stunned by the announcement because there was no consultation with any of the stakeholders, be they players, coaches, alumni, the B.C. Lions, or football’s provincial or national governing bodies. 

It also happened less than two years since the opening of the $20 million SFU Stadium at Terry Fox Field on the Burnaby Mountain campus. 

“There’s 27 other teams across this country playing university football, and as much as they’re competitive, it’s like NATO. You attack one, you attack all 27,” Mullin said. “So, in terms of Football Canada, we’re standing by Simon Fraser and their football program in this case, to try to find a way to make sure they play in 2023, and try to be a part of that dialogue to get them back into Canadian competition in 2024, so we don’t have to contemplate a a loss of 100 to 125 spots for young men to play football.”

Terry Fox Field (SFU Football)

Mullin said he does not buy the SFU line about “uncertainty” and believes it was really a cost-cutting measure. “This announcement was made a day-and-a-half into the start of a new fiscal year.” 

Glen Orris, a Vancouver criminal lawyer and former wide receiver who graduated SFU in 1968, is a director on the SFU Football Alumni Society. The society has launched an online petition and Orris hopes alumni can find a way to persuade SFU to play in 2023. 

Orris called being recruited out of Winnipeg as a 17-year-old a “life-changer” in 1965 when football, track and field, basketball and swimming were the core sports at the fledgling university. 

“It was the first school that was publicly giving scholarships for athletics,” he said.

Orris said those hoping to save the program could file for a court injunction on the basis of breach of contract suffered by athletes recruited to play for the Red Leafs. 

“I’m hoping we don’t have to do that, but nobody’s prepared to walk away from this without a full airing of what’s going on,” said Orris, who played two seasons in the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. 

“If it becomes apparent that there is no way to go forward, well, okay, we’ll have to face that when it happens. But nobody is prepared to concede that at this stage and there’s a lot of angry people out there.”

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Bob Mackin Three months after the NCAA Division

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For the week of April 9, 2023:

Happy Easter… Happy Passover and Ramadan, too.

Football Canada president and Krown Gridiron Nation host on TSN Jim Mullin

Join thePodcast host Bob Mackin and guest Jim Mullin for the return of the View from Bowen Island.

Mullin, the president of Football Canada and host of Krown Gridiron Nation on TSN, weighs-in on last week’s sudden end of the Simon Fraser University football program and efforts to reverse the university’s decision. Plus the battle over a regional park on Bowen Island.

Also, headlines from the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific Rim.

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

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For the week of April 9, 2023:

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The leader of the B.C. Green Party plans to table a private member’s bill aimed at closing the “revolving door” after former Premier John Horgan announced he is joining the board of Teck’s steelmaking coal spinoff. 

In a series of Tweets on April 4, Sonia Furstenau said Horgan’s move “weakens people’s trust in our institutions.”

John Horgan (BC Gov/Flickr)

Just 24 hours after an NDP fundraiser in Victoria in Horgan’s honour, and on the day of his retirement as Langford-Juan de Fuca MLA, Horgan revealed in a Globe and Mail interview that he would join the board of Elk Valley Resources. 

“This practice undermines trust in our democracy and institutions. Reform is needed,” Tweeted Furstenau. “It’s time for this revolving door to end, and you can expect the B.C. Green caucus to be introducing legislation to ensure this.”

JoJo Beattie, the caucus spokesperson, said the Greens are not sure about the timeline for tabling such a bill because of their small staff. 

Private member’s bills rarely pass in B.C. and Furstenau conceded the governing party may not call it for debate. “After all, their friends in oil, gas and mining have them on speed dial,” she Tweeted.

In the interview about his career move, Horgan bristled at the suggestion of criticism. 

“I don’t have a lot of time any more, none in fact, for public comment on my world view, or what I am doing with my time,” Horgan said. “I don’t want to be snippy about it, but there are others that are making policy decisions.”

There is a chance that Horgan’s coal gig could get derailed. On Monday, Teck rejected a $22.5 billion takeover bid from Swiss-headquartered Glencore Inc., but Glencore said it is not giving up. 

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said Horgan’s rapid rise to the corporate world shows just how weak B.C.’s political ethics rules are. 

“Although it is not enforced effectively by the federal Ethics Commissioner, the federal ethics law contains a few rules that all together prohibit the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, their staff and other top government officials from taking jobs with businesses or organizations when there is an ongoing transaction, legal or regulatory process involving the government, which there is between the company and the B.C. government,” Conacher said. 

“B.C. needs to add these rules to its political ethics law to prohibit politicians cashing in on their so-called public service, and also needs to close loopholes in its lobbying law that allow for secret, unregistered lobbying, and to increase the current two-year prohibition on lobbying by former public officials to five years.”

Just over two years ago, on March 26, 2021, a judge ordered Teck Coal Ltd. to pay a record $60 million after a guilty plea on two counts of violating the Fisheries Act for polluting the Fording River. 

As opposition leader, Horgan was critical of the BC Liberal government when senior Crown corporation appointees left to join government-regulated companies. The most-blatant was when Michael Graydon quit as CEO of B.C. Lottery Corporation to become head of the Paragon Gaming, the company behind development of Parq Casino. Horgan said in Question Period in May 2014 that the government should ensure insiders don’t get special treatment.

Premier Christy Clark (Mackin photo)

“According to the conflict rules for members of government boards, this is what the document says ‘a director should not use his position with the organization to pursue or advance their personal interests.’’ Horgan said. “Seems a reasonable proposition.”

During Horgan’s five years as premier, the NDP government did not close the revolving door. It did amend laws to ban cabinet members and deputy ministers from lobbying the government for two years after they leave their posts. But other junior public employees, who may have worked closer with key decision-makers, are free to become lobbyists right after they quit. 

Examples include Horgan’s former speechwriter Danielle Dalzell, who joined Earnscliffe, former Ministry of Health communications director Jeffrey Ferrier, now with Hill and Knowlton, and Jean-Marc Prevost, who worked in strategic communications for Dr. Bonnie Henry during the first year of the pandemic before his Counsel Public Affairs hiring.

Horgan said he was approached about the Elk Valley Resources position in December. The calendar for his last full month as premier shows he met virtually with Teck executives on Oct. 11. David Eby succeeded Horgan on Nov. 18. 

Teck announced in February that it would split into two companies, Teck Metals Corp. and Elk Valley Resources Ltd., pending approval from shareholders at the April 26 annual general meeting. 

During the last year of his premiership, Horgan’s total pay was $218,587.27. He could receive more on the board of Elk Valley. In 2021, Teck paid each non-executive director $105,000 in a cash retainer and $130,000 in a share-based retainer.

Horgan has a long way to climb the corporate ladder before he matches Glen Clark, the former NDP premier who spent more than 20 years with the Jim Pattison Group. Clark became president in 2011, chief operating officer in 2017 and quietly retired at the end of 2022. He remains on the boards of lumber, pulp and paper producer Canfor and coal exporter Westshore Terminals, companies that count Pattison as their largest shareholder. 

Former BC Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell is chair of Brit Insurance and director of Laurentian Bank, Bryte Insurance and Equinox Gold Corp. In addition to his Hawksmuir International Partners Ltd. consultancy, he is also listed as counsel on the Gall Legge Grant Zwack law firm’s website.

Campbell’s successor, Christy Clark, became a senior advisor at the Bennett Jones law firm less than a year after quitting as opposition leader. She is also a director with AlaskCan LNG, Shaw Communications, The Keg’s parent Recipe Unlimited and beer, wine, liquor and marijuana company Constellation Brands.

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Bob Mackin 

Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin had a lot to talk about in their first summit meeting, 30 years ago in Vancouver on April 3-4, 1993.

Vancouver Summit T-shirt (Reddit)

But the new U.S. President saved some quality time for the host, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, to discuss contentious trade, resources and environmental issues. 

Mulroney had announced more than a month earlier that he would resign after eight years in office, pending the Progressive Conservative Party’s choice of a successor. He met with Clinton and Russia’s Yeltsin and a small group of aides for lunch and then held a one-on-one meeting with Clinton at Norman MacKenzie House, the University of B.C. president’s mansion, on April 3, 1993.

“Tell Mulroney that U.S. law provides little discretion on the softwood lumber countervailing duty case,” said Clinton’s declassified White House briefing notes. “Deflect Mulroney’s request for a farewell White House meeting in May. Reiterate your concern about the Windy Craggy Copper Mine project and the need to resolve the Victoria municipal sewage issue.”

White House aides told Clinton that the summit allowed Mulroney to project himself as an “elder statesman” and hosting such an event “resonates well with a Canadian public which has long memories.” It cited Canada’s hosting of historic meetings between President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War II. 

“Next to the summit, you will find Canadians seized by electoral politics. With a new Prime Minister set to take office in June, and federal elections which must be held no  later than December 12, the country has turned its attention away from its ever-present and increasingly insoluble unity question. Even the economy has receded as an issue, due to the arrival of the long awaited recovery.”

That new Prime Minister, Clinton’s aides correctly predicted, would be the 48-year-old Minister of Defence and Vancouver Centre MP named Kim Campbell. 

“You can fully expect that within two months, you will be dealing with Canada’s first female Prime Minister.”

Clinton’s aides anticipated Mulroney would ask about progress on passing the new trade deal and told him to say that he is “fully engaged in pressing for North American Free Trade Agreement ratification when the package is complete and submitted to congress.”

Mulroney was expected to highlight B.C. issues, not only softwood lumber, but two environmental controversies. 

Site of the 1993 Vancouver Summit, Norman MacKenzie House (UBC Communications/Flickr)

“You may want to tell Mulroney that the U.S. will continue to make the case against the [Windy Craggy] project, and may take it to the International Joint Commission (a bi-national, semi-autonomous body established by the U.S.-Canada Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909),” it said.

“We recommend you tell Mulroney that [Victoria’s untreated sewage] is a big issue in the northwest, particularly given the burden on local American taxpayers who are doing their fair share to keep [Puget] Sound clean.” 

The briefing notes mentioned that Mulroney’s staff wanted to visit Clinton at the White House on May 23 or 24, as part of Mulroney’s farewell tour to Western capital cities. 

“Canadian preference is for a small, personal lunch and a tour d’horizon. Given the fact that you will have met twice with Mulroney in three months, we recommend that you give Mulroney a non-committal answer for the present.”

In his script of prepared answers, Clinton’s aides suggested he tell Mulroney: “It may be difficult with my schedule prior to the G-7 summit in July but I will get back to you.”

Mulroney eventually made the trip June 1-2. 

In his files about the Yeltsin meetings in Vancouver, Clinton was reminded he would be the first Democrat President to meet a Russian counterpart since Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev in 1979 at Vienna. The Vancouver Summit would be “unique,” because the Cold War was over and it was programmed to focus on economic issues. 

“No longer adversaries, we now find ourselves as one of the strongest supporters of Russian reforms.”

Though Yeltsin would receive a US$1.6 billion aid package in Vancouver, he also had a great deal to lose at home. A Russian constitutional referendum loomed three weeks later.

Canada’s first female Prime Minister, Kim Campbell (Government of Canada)

“The Vancouver summit helps Yeltsin in many ways,” said the briefing notes. “A trip abroad at this time shows his people and the world that things have settled down at home and he has weathered the crisis. He gains in stature from being treated as an equal by the American President — a perception underscored by the fact that your first meeting abroad with a foreign leader is with the leader of Russia.”

It said Yeltsin could quell his Russian critics who called him too pro-Western, if he could bring home “tangible assistance under the mantle of mutual advantage and partnership.” 

Clinton and Yeltsin met again in July 1993 at the G-7 summit in Tokyo, then 16 more times through the years. Four meetings were in Moscow and one in Washington, D.C.

In 2000, Clinton traveled to the Kremlin to meet Yeltsin’s handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin. 

Over the next two decades, the former KGB intelligence officer took Russia back to an autocratic state and started wars with Georgia and Ukraine, undoing all the work that began in Vancouver on the first weekend of April in 1993. 

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Bob Mackin  Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin had

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