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For the week of June 11, 2023:

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

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

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

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For the week of June 11, 2023: What’s

Bob Mackin

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

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

Graham Bruce Elementary (VSB)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bob Mackin A Vancouver School Board committee took

Bob Mackin

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

Vancouver parking meter (Mackin)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Justin Trudeau at the VW subsidy announcement (CPAC)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bob Mackin The German auto giant that scored

Bob Mackin

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

Richmond RCMP (Mackin)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paul King Jin (BCLC/Cullen Commission)

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

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

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

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

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Bob Mackin A man who had been charged

Bob Mackin

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

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

Sooke district hall (Sooke.ca)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bob Mackin A consultant’s report for the District

Bob Mackin

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

B.C.-arrested Eduardo Leon Trauwitz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mexico’s state oil company Pemex

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The case was adjourned to June 20.

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Bob Mackin Lawyers for the former Mexican general

Construction site signs from North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant (Mackin)

Bob Mackin

The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that Metro Vancouver’s top bureaucrat must be cross-examined over statements he swore about the leaked report that recommended firing the builder of a North Vancouver sewage plant. 

In court filings last December, Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District (GVSDD) said that Acciona Wastewater Solutions LP had learned that one of its employees, Anika Calder, took photographs of a confidential board report and shared it with at least four colleagues. Calder was visiting her father, Coquitlam city manager Peter Steblin, who used GVSDD chair and Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart’s log-in credentials to access the report. 

In his May 9 decision, published June 5, Master Terry Vos granted Acciona’s application to question Commissioner Jerry Dobrovolny under oath about his December 2022 and March 2023 affidavits. 

The confidential Jan. 17, 2022 report summarized facts and legal advice about Acciona’s alleged contract breaches and sought the board’s closed-door approval on Jan. 20, 2022 to end the contract, the same day Calder visited Steblin, who retired a year later.

“There is no dispute that the confidential closed meeting report was disclosed to the GVSDD board in confidence, and that it was misused by Ms. Calder when she photographed portions of the report on Mr. Steblin’s computer and provided it to Acciona,” Vos wrote in his decision.

On Jan. 21, 2022, when GVSDD issued the termination notice, Acciona became aware that an employee had received a forwarded email with photographs of the document attached. 

“Acciona recognized that the way in which the photographed document was obtained was unusual,” Vos wrote. “Acciona took steps to prevent further transmission of the photographed document and appointed a member of its in-house legal team to gather and securely store all emails or messages transmitting the photographed document.”

Just over two months later, Acciona sued GVSDD for more than $250 million. GVSDD countersued in June 2022, claiming more than $500 million in damages, costs and expenses. The case has yet to be scheduled for trial.

Last December, GVSDD applied for an injunction to ban Acciona from copying or sharing the confidential information and included the first affidavit by Dobrovolny. 

Law Courts Vancouver (Joe Mabel)

According to a letter from Stewart’s lawyer in January of this year to Acciona and GVSDD, Stewart reviewed materials in the GVSDD application and “became concerned that the materials do not accurately set out certain key events in this matter.” 

In an appendix to his letter, Stewart indicated that he met June 3, 2022 with Dobrovolny who showed him the photographs of his computer screen and told him the source was Steblin’s daughter Calder. The appendix also said that Dobrovolny was aware it was common practice for directors to share log-in credentials with senior staff at their municipal halls. Stewart confirmed he followed this practice and shared credentials with Steblin. He also mentioned an occasion in 2018 when GVSDD assisted Coquitlam administrative staff having difficulty accessing the web portal using Stewart’s log-in credentials. 

“GVSDD was fully aware that Mayor Stewart’s log-in credentials had been shared with City of Coquitlam staff, consistent with the aforementioned practice,” said the Stewart appendix.

Dobrovolny swore a second affidavit in March of this year, stating some of Stewart’s letter needed clarification.

Acciona’s March application said it wants to ask Dobrovolny about the breadth of circulation of the confidential report, the ease with which individuals other than board members could access the report and the extent that GVSDD “may have placed misleading affidavit evidence before the court when it initially relied on Mr. Dobrovolny’s Dec. 15, 2022 affidavit.”

GVSDD agreed in April 2017 for Acciona to build the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant. Less than five years later, GVSDD fired Acciona. 

In March, Metro Vancouver’s liquid waste committee heard that it will cost $85 million more for PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. to fix Acciona’s errors, but the current budget could absorb the additional cost. 

The $1.058 billion project was supposed to cost around half that and be ready in 2020. The Metro Vancouver website now says it will be operational in 2024.

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[caption id="attachment_13290" align="alignright" width="1024"] Construction site signs

Bob Mackin 

Nearly five percent of City of Vancouver-issued staff mobile devices included TikTok before city hall blocked the controversial, Chinese-owned video app in March. 

But city employees were allowed to continue using TikTok on their own devices, even when accessing city systems.

Vancouver city hall at night (City of Vancouver)

According to internal email obtained under freedom of information, the city’s chief technology officer initially expressed reluctance after the federal government announced Feb. 27 that it banned TikTok on federal devices. Tadhg Healy noted that Apple and Google extensively vet the apps they carry. 

“At this point we don’t have evidence pointing at TikTok being a security risk for the City of Vancouver,” Healy told city manager Paul Mochrie.

Later that day, B.C. Citizens’ Services Minister Lisa Beare followed the federal lead and banned B.C. government staff from using TikTok on provincial government devices. 

Mochrie mentioned Feb. 28 that B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner Michael McEvoy had announced a joint investigation with federal, Ontario and Alberta commissioners the previous week. 

“Are the Province or Feds sharing any more intel regarding their decisions on this? Is there something beyond ‘based in China’?” Mochrie asked on March 1. 

Healy told him that the issue was privacy, rather than cybersecurity, “given that TikTok harvests a lot of data about the user and their behaviours and that that data is potentially available to the Chinese government in a similar fashion to the data harvested by apps such as Facebook could be made available to the U.S. government.”

The city had 132 iPhones containing TikTok out of its fleet of 2,700 devices. The approximately 100 Android devices were deployed in a locked-down configuration, so that users could only choose from a list of approved apps. 

“TikTok is not one of them,” Healy wrote. “So it is only iPhones we need to worry about.”

On March 4, Healy told Mochrie that Delta, Maple Ridge and Metro Vancouver were implementing TikTok bans on all staff devices. “At this point I believe we should strongly consider this option,” he said. “Let me know if you want to have a quick chat on it.”

Before doing so, Mochrie asked Healy on March 6 to draft a note to Mayor Ken Sim and city council. 

“If there is any major heartburn for them, it would be good for us to understand before we implement,” Mochrie wrote. 

Mochrie sent the memo the next day, recommending the app be blocked from city-issued devices at 3 p.m. March 14, citing the data harvested from contacts, calendars and keystroke patterns.

Vancouver Coun. Lenny Zhou of ABC on Nov. 27, 2022 outside Vancouver Art Gallery (Twitter/LennyNanZhou)

“Can we also ban Twitter? :)” replied Park Board general manager Donnie Rosa on March 8. “I guess that’s wishful.”

Instead of “heartburn,” there was support for the ban and questions about the process from the only politician to reply, ABC Coun. Lenny Zhou. Zhou wondered about the technical feasibility and whether a council motion was necessary. 

Deputy City Manager Karen Levitt said that city technology-use policies allowed staff to act without council approval and that the city was not planning to follow Toronto’s example by issuing a news release.

“Our device management software allows us to block the app so once that block is in place its not possible to download it,” Levitt wrote. “Our technology services department can also run periodic scans to confirm that the app has not been downloaded to city issued devices.”

Zhou responded: “Great to see CoV takes leadership in protecting privacy and security of the use of mobile devices.” 

City hall notified the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), Vancouver Public Library and Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) the day after the ban took effect.  

In response to Kyle Kennedy, the VEC senior finance and operations manager, Kyle Foster, the city’s acting director of infrastructure and operations, clarified that the ban “has no effect on city employees using city credentials on other devices.”

VPD information and communications technology director Raymond Lai told Healy that users in the force can only install apps from an allowed list. 

“TikTok is not on the list,” said Lai. “We also blocked TikTok from our firewall. We also supplied one standalone phone to public affairs for their TikTok needs.”

The Citizen Lab in the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto studied TikTok in 2021. Director, Prof. Ron Deibert cautioned TikTok gobbles up a lot of personal data, just like other social media apps, and the company is not transparent about what it does with user data.  

“Our analysis was explicit about having no visibility into what happened to user data once it was collected and transmitted back to TikTok’s servers,” Deibert wrote in March. “Although we had no way to determine whether or not it had happened, we even speculated about possible mechanisms through which the Chinese government might use unconventional techniques to obtain TikTok user data via pressure on ByteDance.”

Benjamin Fung, a professor in the School of Information Studies at McGill University, said TikTok’s claim that data is housed on U.S. servers is hollow because workers in China are legally obliged under the National Security Law to co-operate when the Chinese government demands to see data.

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Bob Mackin  Nearly five percent of City of

For the week of June 4, 2023:

Benedict Rogers came to Ottawa just in time for the latest chapter in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s China Crisis.

Benedict Rogers (Facebook)

The author of “The China Nexus: 30 Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny” launched Hong Kong Watch Canada the same week that ex-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and longtime NDP MP Jenny Kwan revealed that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service told them how the Chinese Communist Party targeted them for intimidation. Canada’s spy agency met with them after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accepted David Johnston’s recommendation against a public inquiry into Chinese government interference, citing national security. 

“You can have an inquiry where not everything that is presented to the inquiry body is made public and I can’t see a reason why that principle couldn’t be applied here,” Rogers told thePodcast host Bob Mackin. “So it does seem like the government and the prime minister have have something to hide or at least want to control and manage the process for political reasons.”

Rogers spoke with Mackin on June 2, two days before the 34th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. Hong Kong is home to the biggest concentration of Canadians outside Canada, but Mainland China’s 2020 imposition of a national security law has spelled the end of the largest annual memorial for the victims.

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

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For the week of June 4, 2023: Benedict

Bob Mackin

The Pakistani climate change protester who pleaded guilty to repeatedly blocking traffic and reneging on his promises to stop must wait longer to be sentenced.  

Judge Reginald Harris reserved decision in March after Crown prosecutor Ellen Leno asked him to send Muhammad Zain Ul Haq to jail for 90 days and impose 18 months probation. Haq’s lead defence lawyer Ben Isitt argued for a conditional discharge.

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

On May 31 in Vancouver Provincial Court, Harris — citing his commitments to complex, ongoing trials — delayed sentencing Haq. Harris suggested he could have time to deliver his verdict in late June, but gave the 22-year-old permission to move from Vancouver to Victoria so that he can live with the fellow protester that he married last month. 

Haq pleaded guilty to five charges of mischief for his role in illegal Extinction Rebellion road and bridge blockades in 2021 and one charge of breaching a release order for the August 2022 Stop Fracking Around protest on the Cambie Bridge. Haq separately faces deportation to Pakistan and a one-year ban on returning to Canada for violating the terms of his visa to study at Simon Fraser University. 

Isitt told the court that Haq married Sophia Papp on April 29 in Vancouver and that the court and the Crown have no role in supervising who Haq marries. 

“He’s chosen Miss Papp as his life partner,” Isitt said. “They are going to be life partners, they will likely be talking about the climate crisis, they’ll likely talk about how to raise awareness.”

Haq has been residing in Vancouver with activists Janice Oakley and Quetzo Herejk, who posted a $4,000 surety to the court. Leno opposed the application and argued that arrangement should continue. 

“So the Crown’s concern is we’re taking him from a stable environment with some mature supervision that seems to have been working, and it would disrupt that and potentially put him in a different location with influences that are less positive,” Leno said. 

Protester Sophie Papp vandalizing the Gastown Steam Clock in August 2022 (Instagram/Stop Fracking Around)

Leno showed Harris photographic evidence of Papp with Haq at last August’s Stop Fracking Around protest where Haq violated the terms of his release from previous arrests. 

Also last August, Papp publicly poured molasses on the Gastown Steam Clock in another anti-pipeline protest. Last November, a judge gave Papp an absolute discharge after a mischief charge from a Victoria protest last June. 

In March of this year, Leno said, Papp helped videotape a protester pouring pink paint on the Royal B.C. Museum’s woolly mammoth for another climate change campaign. 

Harris approved Haq’s application because there is no evidence Haq had broken the conditions of his bail during the last eight months. 

“I’m satisfied that it could be amended, I’m satisfied it’s not going to upset the applecart, he’s just got too much to lose by non-compliance at all,” Harris said. 

In January 2022, Haq and four others incorporated Eco-Mobilization Canada, a federal not-for-profit behind the Extinction Rebellion splinter group Save Old Growth. Haq had boasted last August in a New York Times story that Save Old Growth received US$170,000 in grants from the California-based Climate Emergency Fund.

In March, the court heard that should Haq succeed in overturning his deportation on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, he has a job offer from environmentalist Tzeporah Berman at the charity Stand.earth.

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Bob Mackin The Pakistani climate change protester who