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Bob Mackin A B.C. Supreme Court judge has

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Figure skaters the latest to demand Canadian sport system reform, over allegations of abuse at Burnaby rink

Bob Mackin

Add B.C. figure skaters to the long list of Canadian athletes demanding reform.

A group called Figure Skating for Change Canada published an open letter April 27 to Minister of Sport Pascal St-Onge and President of Skate Canada Karen Butcher, claiming incidents of physical, verbal and emotional abuse by coaches at a Burnaby skating club over the last 15 years.

Burnaby Scotia Barn (Canlan)

“Figure skaters who have come forward to us in confidence have described incidences such as being locked in change rooms as punishment, being pushed and shoved around the ice, public slandering of athletes, bribery, psychological manipulation and gaslighting, unsafe training conditions, body-shaming, and stonewalling,” said the letter, which names Champs International Skating Centre of British Columbia, formerly known as the B.C. Centre of Excellence.

Champs is based at the Canlan Ice Sports Centre in Burnaby, better known as the Scotia Barn. Club administrator Hatty Tang and coach Joanne McLeod have not immediately responded for comment. McLeod has coached skaters at three Winter Olympics.

The letter said athletes are reluctant to report incidents for fear of retribution and they lack confidence in Skate Canada leadership because it has not adequately dealt with complaints. It also said the group lacks trust in the federal Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner to protect athletes and demands a judicial inquiry into the Canadian sport system.

Skate Canada responded with a statement to say that it is “deeply troubled” by the allegations, but has referred the allegations to Skate-Safe, a confidential misconduct reporting system operated by IntegrityCounts. The third-party contractor may decide to involve the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner.

“We have had no previous contact with this group and have not received any complaints or any communications regarding the matters listed in the letter,” said the Skate Canada statement.

“Skate Canada recognizes that historically we have not always had the proper policies and processes in place to address misconduct but since the launch of the National Safe Sport Program in 2019 we believe we are equipped to support our community. We know that trust must be earned, and we hope to rebuild that trust with any members who have been negatively impacted.”

For the year ended March 31, 2022, Skate Canada reported $4.53 million of its $17 million revenue came from government and other grants and $7.15 million from membership fees. By comparison, it reported $659,376 from sponsorship and $2.7 million from events.

In 2022, athletes from Athletics Canada, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, Canadian Fencing Federation, Rugby Canada, Canadian Soccer Association, Water Polo Canada, Boxing Canada and Gymnastics Canada, went public with complaints about coaches, administration and/or boards from their national sport organizations.

In some cases of misconduct, like Hockey Canada, St-Onge temporarily suspended federal funding. She also appointed Sarah-Eve Pelletier as the Sport Integrity Commissioner in April 2022, but has resisted the repeated calls for a federal public inquiry.

The latest came Monday, when soccer’s Andrea Neil and Ciara McCormack appealed to the House of Commons Canadian Heritage Committee.

“I don’t understand what’s holding back a national inquiry, how can we cheer on our athletes if we’re telling you that this is the reality of what it looks like, behind every single sport, province, gender?” said McCormack, who blew the whistle on former Whitecaps and national team coach Bob Birarda in 2019.

“You just wonder, is she even watching, is the Minister of Sport watching, is the Prime Minister watching this? Whoever is making these decisions are they watching? Because it’s very much impacted our lives, far past our sporting careers, and it’s just disappointing and I just feel ashamed, honestly, to be Canadian, that this is the reality of what it means, and the response to, being a Canadian athlete.”

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April 29, 2023

Bob Mackin Add B.C. figure skaters to the

Ken Sim’s ex-chief of staff opens up about ABC election strategy, calls Vancouver a “Chinese city”

Bob Mackin

The campaign manager behind Mayor Ken Sim’s October landslide victory said ABC Vancouver’s marquee promise may not make a difference in combatting crime and mental illness in the city.

Kareem Allam with Mayor Ken Sim in the background. (Twitter)

Kareem Allam of Fairview Strategy spoke April 24 on the University of California, Berkeley’s Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research online forum, about Asian voters’ demands for change in Vancouver and San Francisco.

Allam called the issue that won ABC the election the plan to hire 100 new police officers and 100 new mental health nurses. The new city council earmarked $16 million in November to begin recruitment.

“One hundred new police officers, we already have 1,600, so adding another 100, so what’s that, 4 or 5% new police? Is that really going to have a dramatic impact on reducing crime? Probably not,” said Allam, who was also Sim’s chief of staff until resigning in early February. “Are the 100 mental health nurses going to help get more people help? Yes, it will have a positive impact, but is it going to make measurable differences in resolving some of these public safety issues? Likely not.”

The city’s limited resources aren’t going to solve the problem, so Allam said Sim’s fortunes rely on good relations with and support from Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“As time goes on, and the crime stats don’t drop, I think the sheen on the win can easily come off,” Allam said.

Allam called the promise a “policy balance” that catered to voters on opposite ends of the spectrum.

“When you’re running a radio ad [that said] we’re gonna hire 100 new cops and 100 nurses, the right side of the coalition that we built just heard 100 cops and the left side of the coalition just heard 100 mental health nurses, so everyone could hear what they wanted to hear,” he said.

While housing affordability has supplanted the environment as the number one issue nationwide, it is a challenge too big to solve. So the ABC strategy aimed for modest improvements, such as cutting red tape and speeding up development approvals.

“You can’t win an election on housing affordability, you can lose one if you don’t have a good plan and can’t show good progress,” he said.

Allam explained to the American audience that Vancouver is “very, very progressive” with a long history of labour and social activism, pointing to the 10 years of Vision Vancouver rule and four under Mayor Kennedy Stewart, and the success of centre/left candidates in provincial and federal ridings. At the end of the campaign, he said ABC polling found 60% of its voters were aligned with the Liberal Party, 20% Conservative and 20% NDP.

As for demographics, Allam called his approach “deliberately provocative.”

Vancouver’s first Chinese-Canadian mayor, Ken Sim (left), with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before the 2023 Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown (@kensimcity/Twitter)

“There is no Chinese community in Vancouver, you wouldn’t go to Beijing, Shanghai or Taipei and talk about the Chinese communities there, because they’re just fundamentally Chinese cities,” he said. “And Vancouver is precisely just that: a Chinese city.”

Allam believes Statistics Canada undercounted the Asian composition of Vancouver’s population, which is officially 45%. He noted that up to a quarter of marriages in the city are mixed race, a vast majority featuring one partner who is Asian. The East Asian diversity spans descendants of 19th century Cantonese-speaking immigrants to more-recent Mandarin-speaking arrivals from Mainland China, many affected by reports of anti-Asian racism. Its influence in business and culture has also shaped the attitudes of voters with European ancestry.

“The fact that at the core of our campaign was that acknowledgement that Vancouver is a Chinese city meant that for the first time in history, there was an authentic, direct campaign aimed right at the heart of issues that mattered to Asian voters,” Allam said.

Three weeks before election day, Allam said ABC was five or six points ahead of Stewart, but a “hockey stick curve of support” developed in the final two weeks. The centre-right and centre-left vote came to ABC while Stewart’s support collapsed.

In 2018, Sim narrowly lost to Stewart by just 957 votes. But, last Oct. 15, Sim won by a 36,000-vote margin, becoming Vancouver’s first Chinese-Canadian mayor, and ABC took supermajorities on city council and park board.

ABC also saw Filipino, Korean, South Asian and Black voters roll into the coalition, another reflection of the party’s diverse slate.

“We didn’t really fully understand it till after the election, that a lot of people were feeling that they had been shut out of the political process,” he said.

During the online forum, Allam did not mention ABC’s hefty war chest of nearly $2 million, almost double what Stewart’s Forward Together campaign spent. Nor did he mention the Globe and Mail’s coverage of leaks from Canada’s spy agency that indicated China’s consul general was working to defeat Taiwan-supporter Stewart and help get a Chinese-Canadian candidate elected.

“If there is proof of this, I’d be as mad as hell as everyone else. But right now, there are a bunch of insinuations, and it’s actually quite hurtful,” Sim told reporters on March 16, reacting to the foreign interference allegations.

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April 28, 2023

Bob Mackin The campaign manager behind Mayor Ken

BC Hydro found PCBs where it believed none existed

Bob Mackin

The BC Hydro project to phase-out equipment containing high levels of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) found the toxic chemical in assets that had previously been deemed PCB-free.

BC Hydro PCB storage from 1982
(BC Hydro/BC Archives)

“Several shunt capacitor manufacturer nameplates indicated they were ‘PCB Free’. However, subsequent testing during disposal found they contained PCBs greater than 50 ppm [parts per million],” said a November 2022 briefing note for senior executives, obtained via freedom of information. “Further testing of the 17 remaining original in-service capacitor banks found four banks contained PCB levels targeted for phase out. One bank remains to be tested. All capacitor banks are planned to be phased out before the internal deadline.”

Further, it said, BC Hydro has measures to check integrity of PCB inventories, including resampling and testing, field audits and evaluating random samples.

According to its submission to the B.C. Utilities Commission, the cooling and insulating chemical, banned from production in Canada since 1977, is commonly found in BC Hydro’s power transformers, oil filled reactors, distribution transformers, voltage regulators, instrument transformers, metering kits, circuit breakers, and reclosers and sectionalizers.

Most equipment containing 50 ppm or more of PCBs must be phased out by the end of December 2025 under federal regulations. The briefing note said BC Hydro is on track to meet that deadline, but it won’t meet an internal deadline set for the end of March 2024.

Even when BC Hydro finishes the job, PCBs are expected to be around until mid-century.

“Equipment containing lower levels of PCBs will remain in service for at least the next 20 to 30 years. These will continue to require active management, to minimize releases to the environment and maintain compliance,” said the briefing note.

PCB release from equipment and waste is prohibited and punishable by individual fines up to $1 million and three years in jail for first offence or $6 million for a corporation.

The briefing note quoted from a presentation by Roman Dusil, BC Hydro’s technical strategic principal, that said more than 370,000 assets were assessed since 2014 for PCB content. Approximately 9,000 were targeted for phase out.

“There are four broad categories of phase out efforts that are experiencing unique challenges in meeting BC Hydro’s own internal deadline and, without mitigation measures, have the potential to miss the regulation deadline resulting in non-compliance,” the briefing note said.

Those four areas involve station decommissioning, capital project schedules, distribution equipment and supply chains, and last-minute identification of equipment targeted for phase out. Strategies to mitigate phase out delays include replacing equipment early or removing equipment from service.

At the time of the briefing note, BC Hydro believed the vast majority of equipment would meet the internal deadline, “except for a few.” But none is forecast to miss the 2025 federal deadline. BC Hydro said it requires greater diligence and reporting to avoid further delays.

“While BC Hydro has not identified any PCB equipment phase out at risk of missing the regulation deadline, we have increased our documentation of delays and mitigation efforts for PCB equipment that miss our internal deadline.”

There are 16 projects with PCB equipment targeted for phase out, five of which are forecast to be removed after the internal deadline, but before the regulation deadline.

Thirteen stations containing PCB equipment are slated for decommissioning, 12 of those are dependent on voltage conversion projects being completed before decommissioning. Three station decommissioning projects are at risk from delays due to permitting, customer agreements, engineering design, and labour and materials shortages.

An appendix shows the forecast PCB phase out of August 2024 at the Lougheed substation in Burnaby and October 2024 at the Glenmore substation in North Vancouver. Norgate in North Vancouver is listed with an April 2025 phase out date.

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April 28, 2023

Bob Mackin The BC Hydro project to phase-out

Ex-Liberal MP not asking House of Commons to reimburse legal fees

Bob Mackin

The Toronto-area MP suing Global News for defamation is not seeking reimbursement for legal fees from the House of Commons.

Han Dong left the Liberal caucus a month ago amid allegations of involvement in China’s foreign interference network. His April 20 defamation lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeks $15 million in damages. Dong denied that he advocated in 2021 for the continued imprisonment of hostages Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, but admitted he liaised with Chinese diplomats in Toronto and Ottawa on behalf of constituents and in his capacity as co-chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association (CCLA).

Han Dong (third from right) at the River Rock Show Theatre during last July’s 20th anniversary of the Canadian Community Service Association, with CCSA founder Harris Niu (second from right) and China’s Deputy Consul General Wang Chengjun (far right). (Rise Weekly)

“Dong’s relationships with the Chinese Ambassador and the Consul General are professional; they are not close friends,” said the statement of claim. “To the best of Dong’s knowledge, he had phone conversations with the Consul General five times and the Ambassador seven times between 2020 and 2022.”

The claim said Dong’s family left China for Canada in search of freedom, opportunity and democracy and that his father was a prisoner in a state-run forced labour and re-education camp near Shanghai in 1970.

Global has yet to file its statement of defence.

“Global News is governed by a rigorous set of journalistic principles and practices,” said a statement sent by parent company Corus Entertainment. “We are very mindful of the public interest and legal responsibility of this important accountability reporting.”

House of Commons policy states that, if a legal issue arises while carrying out parliamentary duties, a member of parliament may retain outside counsel for representation and ask for reimbursement of legal fees via the all-party committee that oversees administration of the House of Commons.

“We can advise that Mr. Dong does not intend to seek reimbursement for his legal fees through the Legal Fees Policy of the Board of Internal Economy,” said associate Emily Young of the Polley Faith law firm by email. “He has accordingly not submitted a request to the Speaker of the House seeking reimbursement.”

Asked why, Young said the policy does not appear to allow reimbursement of fees incurred if the MP making the request has initiated the legal proceedings.

Despite that, the policy says the board may, at its discretion, grant an exception, if it deems reimbursement appropriate and in the public interest. While the policy states that it will reimburse legal fees up to $350 an hour, the board may exercise its discretion to pay a higher hourly rate in exceptional circumstances.

Under the policy, the board reported that it paid out $1,855 for one reimbursement request between April and June of last year and $310 between July and September 2022. From July to September 2021, there were two requests for reimbursement of legal fees, totalling $57,030.02.

Young refused to say whether Dong is paying for his legal fees out of his own pocket.

“We are not otherwise able to comment on matters relating to Mr. Dong’s payment of legal fees,” she said.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said MPs should have their legal fees paid in defamation cases, but with reasonable limits. Conacher said Dong’s options are limited, because the conflict of interest rules for the House of Commons state that an MP cannot accept, directly or indirectly, any gifts or benefits that could be seen to influence the member.

Han Dong in the House of Commons on March 22 (ParlVu)

“MPs are public figures who are subject to libel, but, if you lost your lawsuit, then you should have to pay the fees,” Conacher said. “Because you wouldn’t want [an MP to say] ‘hey this is paid by taxpayers, so I’m just gonna launch this lawsuit to kind of kill everyone from talking and the public will pay for that, whether I win or lose’. And so that’s what I think the rule should be.”

The National Post reported that Ontario provincial lawmaker Vincent Ke, who left the Ontario Progressive Conservative caucus, is asking for donations to pay for a defamation lawsuit against Global and has contacted Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner for advice. Ke denies a report that he received campaign donations from the Chinese consulate in Toronto via middlemen.

Dong co-chairs the CCLA and has represented the Don Valley North riding in Toronto since 2019. Last summer, he visited Vancouver, Richmond and Burnaby and charged taxpayers $2,391.73 for transportation “to attend meetings with stakeholders about business of the House.” He did not charge for accommodation and meals for the July 28 to Aug. 5, 2022 trip.

There is nothing on the CCLA website about Dong’s trip to the West Coast. Dong did not respond to interview requests about the trip, which included meetings with heads of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations and Canadian Community Service Association, two groups aligned with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front foreign influence program. Dong sat at the head table of a banquet in River Rock casino’s theatre with senior diplomats from China’s Vancouver consulate.

Conservative Kenny Chiu, who was the Steveston-Richmond MP from 2019 to 2021, called Dong’s trip to the West Coast “questionable.”

“If you are not conducting any committee business, or if you are not fulfilling any duty because of your portfolio, then it becomes a bit questionable and weird,” Chiu said. “Because his riding is Don Valley North, which is quite a few thousand kilometres away from Greater Vancouver.”

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Bob Mackin The Toronto-area MP suing Global News

“Highly hypothetical”: TikTok CEO reacts to questions at Vancouver TED Conference about app’s potential to disrupt elections

Bob Mackin

The questions about the potential for an app from China to sway voters were posed in the American context, for an audience of mostly American visitors, but in a ballroom at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at TED în Vancouver (TED/YouTube)

Chris Anderson, the TED Conference’s “curator,” interviewed Shou Zi Chew, the Singaporean CEO of Chinese-owned short video app TikTok on April 20.

It was just over two months since the Globe and Mail reported on a leak from Canada’s spy agency. Disinformation via a different app from China, WeChat, helped sway voters in Richmond during the 2021 federal election, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

It was almost a month since members of a U.S. Congress committee grilled Chew about national security concerns surrounding his company.

Near the end of the 40-minute TED sit-down, Anderson asked what would happen if the Chinese government looked at an upcoming U.S. election and figured it could use TikTok to favour one party over another or cause civil unrest by amplifying “certain troublemaking, disturbing people causing uncertainty, spreading misinformation, et cetera.”

“If you were required by [parent company] ByteDance to do this, first of all, is there a pathway where theoretically that’s possible?” Anderson asked. “What’s your personal line in the sand on this?”

Chew called the scenarios Anderson described “highly hypothetical” and boasted that corporate transparency and third-party reviews of TikTok’s source code and content on the platform are enough to address those concerns.

“We give people access to monitor us and we can just make it very, very transparent. And that’s our approach to the problem,” Chew said.

“So you will say directly, to this group,” Anderson said, referring to the audience, “that the scenario I talked about of, theoretical Chinese government interference in an American election, you can say that will not happen?”

Chew replied: “I can say that we are building all the tools to prevent any of these actions from happening. And I’m very confident that, with an unprecedented amount of transparency that we’re giving on the platform, we can reduce this risk to as low as zero, as possible.”

“To as low as zero, as possible?” a skeptical Anderson repeated each word slowly.

Chew: “To as close to zero as possible.”

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at TED în Vancouver (TED/YouTube)

“As close to zero as possible — that’s fairly reassuring, fairly,” Anderson deadpanned amid a brief eruption of nervous laughter from the audience.

“I mean, how would the world know?” Anderson asked.

“If you discovered this, or thought you had to do it, is this a line in the sand for you? You would not let the company that you know, now, and that you are running, do this?”

Chew: “Absolutely. That’s the reason why we’re letting third parties monitor this, because if they find out, you know, they will disclose this.”

One prominent third party that reviewed TikTok was the Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. While it concluded that TikTok isn’t spyware, the Citizen Lab’s director, Prof. Ron Deibert, cautioned it gobbles up a lot of personal data just like other social media apps.

Coinciding with Chew’s testimony in Washington, D.C., Deibert wrote on his blog that TikTok is not as open and transparent as Chew claims.

“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. “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.”

Deibert is not alone. At the Vancouver International Privacy and Security Summit on Feb. 23, the official privacy watchdogs for Canada, Alberta, B.C. and Quebec announced a joint investigation of TikTok. The next week, the federal government cited national security concerns when it banned TikTok from public service devices. Provinces and municipalities followed suit.

On April 4, the U.K.’s Privacy Commissioner announced a £12.7 million ($21.48 million) fine against TikTok for allowing up to 1.4 million children under 13 on the app in 2020, despite rules banning children that age.

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 cooperate when the Chinese government demands to see data. Benjamin Fung said TikTok’s parent ByteDance is a Chinese company, wearing a mask to pretend it is American when convenient, and Chew constantly emphasizes freedom of expression and the ability to search anything on TikTok.

“The primary purpose of TikTok is not a search engine. The most valuable component of TikTok is the recommender system at the backend. The recommender system suggests the next few videos that the users should watch. Is there any bias in the recommendation on political issues?” Fung said. “That’s the key question!”

The machine learning algorithm that helps decide what the user sees, Fung said, is a tool that has the power to change people’s perception on particular issues.

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Bob Mackin The questions about the potential for

B.C.’s highest court sides with parents seeking shift change from mining company to accommodate childcare

Bob Mackin

The B.C. Court of Appeal decision on a journeyman welder’s discrimination case against one of Canada’s biggest mines is an “important step forward,” according to the province’s Human Rights Commissioner.

Gibraltar Mine (Taseko)

In the unanimous, April 21-released verdict in the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal versus Gibraltar Mines Ltd., B.C.’s top court ruled that a term or condition of employment need not be changed in order for an employer to be found in contravention of the B.C. Human Rights Code.

“I conclude that for purposes of assessing conflicts between work requirements and family obligations, prima facie [or apparent] discrimination is made out when a term or condition of employment results in a serious interference with a substantial parental or other family duty or obligation,” wrote Justice John Hunter.

Four other judges, including Chief Justice Robert Bauman, concurred.

By allowing the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal’s appeal, they set aside a lower court judge’s decision and remitted the case back to the B.C. Supreme Court to decide remaining issues.

Commissioner Kasari Govender said that the ruling clarifies rights of parents and caregivers who seek accommodation to balance professional and personal obligations. Govender became an intervenor for the hearing, which took place last Oct. 24 and 27, because she felt B.C. Supreme Court Justice Margot Fleming’s March 2022 decision perpetuated gender inequality due to women often being the primary caregivers.

“The [appeal] court’s decision is welcome and is a significant win for gender equality in the workplace in many ways,” Govender said in a statement. “It is an important step forward, but there remain outstanding issues that need to be resolved to ensure that mothers and other caregivers are able to access the full protection of human rights law.”

Complainant Lisa Harvey was a journeyman welder at the the 87.5% Taseko-owned Gibraltar mine, 60 kilometres north of Williams Lake. Harvey and her husband, a journeyman electrician, were both union members, working the same 12-hour shifts, but sometimes on different night shifts.

Harvey became pregnant in fall 2016 and gave birth to her first child in August 2017. Near the end of her maternity leave, the new mother and her husband sought Gibraltar’s permission to change their work schedules to meet their parenting duties.

But Harvey and the company failed to agree. The company later proposed the couple work opposing 12-hour shifts. She filed a human rights complaint, alleging Gibraltar discriminated against her family status, marital status and sex under the Human Rights Code.

Gibraltar asked the tribunal to quash the complaint because it did not arise from a change in terms or conditions of Harvey’s employment. The tribunal dismissed Harvey’s sex and marital status complaints, but declined to throw out the family status complaint.

A judicial review in B.C. Supreme Court overturned the tribunal’s decision. Fleming decided that the tribunal was bound by a previous court decision and must dismiss the case. Fleming ruled that family status discrimination happens only when an employer changes a condition of employment.

“The Tribunal is pleased to have clarity on the substance of the applicable legal test in employment cases alleging discrimination based on family status related to care giving responsibilities,” chair Emily Ohler said of the appeal court ruling. “Given that the Tribunal is a neutral body responsible for applying the law to the cases before it, I cannot comment further.”

The Taseko (TSX:TKO) Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine is the second largest open pit copper mine in Canada. Taseko has not responded for comment.

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Bob Mackin The B.C. Court of Appeal decision

Business, News, Sports

Soccer players wonder why Trudeau government hasn’t called an inquiry into sport abuse, corruption

Canadian soccer legend Andrea Neil on April 24 (ParlVu)

Bob Mackin

A professional soccer player from North Vancouver accused the federal Liberal government of “silent complicity” for ignoring repeated calls by Canadian athletes for a public inquiry into abuse and corruption in the sport system.

“I don’t understand what’s holding back a national inquiry, how can we cheer on our athletes if we’re telling you that this is the reality of what it looks like, behind every single sport, province, gender?” Ciara McCormack said April 24 before the House of Commons Canadian Heritage committee.

At the end of January, St-Onge said in a CBC interview that there needs to be multiple investigations instead of a single inquiry, because a federal inquiry would not address problems in provincial and community sport.

McCormack blew the whistle in early 2019 on the return of disgraced former national team coach Bob Birarda to coaching teenage girls. Birarda was sentenced last November to almost 16 months in jail for three counts of sexual assault and one count of touching a young person for sexual purpose, crimes that occurred between 1988 and 2008.

Former W-League Whitecap McCormack is in her first season with Treaty United FC in Ireland’s Women’s Premier Division. She said she is playing with the Limerick-based team because there is no women’s league in Canada and she has no faith in the Canadian Soccer Association.

It was McCormack’s second appearance at the House of Commons. She testified at the Status of Women committee in December. Likewise for Andrea Neil, the former Whitecaps and senior national team player who appeared in four Women’s World Cups. Neil testified that a public inquiry is necessary to provide healing and justice to beleaguered athletes across sports.

“We need a national inquiry,” Neil said. “When the Ben Johnson steroid scandal rocked Canada, we responded by becoming a world leader on doping in sport. This is a pivotal moment for Canadian athletes, to be sure, but we can meet it with the wisdom and the compassion that has been missing from this all. We can transform this difficulty into a more ethical, healthy, dignified and effective way of administrating sports in our country.”

Ciara McCormack on April 24 (ParlVu)

Neil called the CSA a monopoly not subject to proper oversight, with a culture of exploitation and lack of accountability.

“Our leaders are so deeply embedded in FIFA, an organization renowned for its sexism and corruption,” Neil said. “But with Canada about to play host to the World Cup, it behooves us to pay attention.”

Neil was referring to Victor Montagliani, the West Vancouverite who is president of FIFA’s North and Central American and Caribbean confederation, and Peter Montopoli, the chief operating officer of Canada’s FIFA 2026 organizing committee.

When Whitecaps and national team players complained to the CSA of Birarda’s sexual harassment in 2008, Montagliani was on the board and Montopoli the general secretary. Montopoli has not appeared before the committee. Montagliani downplayed his involvement in the matter when he testified March 31. Sports lawyer Richard McLaren’s July 2022 report, however, said Montagliani was involved in the organization’s cover-up that included the October 2008 news release announcing a “mutual decision to part ways” with Birarda.

“I can’t help but wonder, will you force us to watch Montopoli and Montagliani take centre stage at the Canadian taxpayer-funded 2026 FIFA World Cup, despite the documented harm they have caused, or will this government step up and take a stand against their behaviour?” McCormack asked the committee.

McLaren concluded that the CSA’s failure to fire and discipline Birarda for his misconduct “afforded him the opportunity to continue coaching, putting other players at potential risk.” McCormack’s early 2019 blog post, “A Horrific Canadian Soccer Story – The Story No One Wants to Listen To, But Everyone Needs to Hear,” prompted dozens of players to demand a police investigation that led to charges against Birarda in late 2020.

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[caption id="attachment_13160" align="alignright" width="912"] Canadian soccer legend

BC Hydro cryptic about crypto electricity use

Bob Mackin

BC Hydro is concealing statistics about electricity use by cryptocurrency miners during the first half of the fiscal year.

In its Nov. 1 load update briefing note to senior executives of the Crown corporation, BC Hydro shows that the entire large industrial sector accounted for 6,591 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) during the period, 1% less than forecast in the service plan.

Itron OpenWay smart meter (BC Hydro)

BC Hydro censored load statistics about crypto mining, coal mining and chemicals from the briefing note, which was obtained under the freedom of information law, because it feared that disclosure would harm Crown corporation finances and third-party business interests.

Crypto mining requires quantities of high-powered computers to constantly run and be cooled around the clock. So much so, that cabinet ordered the B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) last December to place an 18-month moratorium on crypto mining connection requests.

In a news release, the government said that 21 projects seeking 1,403 megawatts (MW) were temporarily suspended. The government said that would be enough to power 570,000 homes or 2.1 million electric vehicles for a year.

A report issued by BC Hydro before Christmas said that there were already 166 MW of operational projects at seven sites and another six projects totalling 107 MW were nearing connection, which could bring the total load to 273 MW.

Richard McCandless, a retired assistant deputy minister who analyzes the performance of BC Hydro and ICBC, said China’s May 2021 ban on crypto mining had a major ripple effect on those seeking cheap and reliable power.

“When China cracked down, these guys fled to different areas,” McCandless said in an interview. “So they took their computers and went somewhere else. Some wound up in B.C.”

BC Hydro headquarters (BC Hydro)

BC Hydro’s secrecy about crypto loads appears rooted in the Crown corporation underestimating load demand, he said.

“Crypto is up so dramatically, they didn’t want to show that,” McCandless said. “Maybe they didn’t want to be seen as being asleep at the switch.”

Indeed, BCUC’s April 21 decision on BC Hydro’s 2021 revenue forecasts through the 2025 fiscal year included BC Hydro’s forecast increase for crypto and data centres of about 100 GWh through fiscal 2024, before returning to 2021 levels by 2025. The BCUC document said that BC Hydro’s December 2020 load forecast was lower than previous forecasts because of project cancellations and updated load requests.

“Given the segment’s continued uncertainty and volatility, the forecast assumes these facilities are not long lived,” the BC Hydro application said.

A September 2022 report to the White House, “Crypto-Assets in the United States,” said increased electricity demand from crypto-asset mining can lead to rate increases.

“Crypto-asset mining in upstate New York increased annual household electric bills by $82 and annual small business electric bills by $164, with net total losses from local consumers and businesses estimated to be $179 million from 2016-2018,” the report said. The report mentioned Plattsburgh, New York’s 18-month moratorium in 2018. Manitoba announced a similar moratorium almost a month before B.C.

B.C.’s total core domestic load of 23,666 GWh was 2% higher than the service plan, with commercial and light industrial (9,198 GWh) and residential (7,877 GWh) the top two customer segments.

“A cooler spring and warmer summer supported increased loads. However, warmer daytime temperatures in September impacted heating more than cooling,” said the briefing note.

“Commercial and light industrial consumption benefited from warmer temperatures in August, but has also been impacted to a lesser degree by reduced heating load in the first three weeks of October.”

Loads improved relative to 2021, but offices, retail businesses and restaurants remained below pre-pandemic levels. Education, recreation and hotel sectors were in line with pre-pandemic levels. Light industrial sector growth offset the declines.

For heavy industry, pulp and paper electricity use was 15% ahead of forecast, but wood manufacturing 16% below forecast. Oil and gas grew 9% relative to the previous year, but fell 9% below the service plan, the briefing note said.

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April 25, 2023

Bob Mackin BC Hydro is concealing statistics about

Plane carrying Prime Minister to Vancouver parade burned more than 13,000 litres of fuel

11Bob Mackin

The Canadian Forces jet that brought Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Vancouver for the Chinatown Lunar New Year parade needed more than 13,000 litres of aviation fuel.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Vancouver’s 2023 Chinatown Parade (PMO/Twitter)

The itinerary shows Trudeau was on the ground in Vancouver for only four hours on a trip that cost taxpayers an estimated $58,000.

Receipts released via access to information by the Department of National Defence show 6,400.3 litres of aviation fuel were pumped into the Bombardier CC-144D Challenger jet, which is called Can Force 1 when Trudeau is aboard, on Jan. 21 at the Ottawa Shell Aerocentre. The cost was not shown on the receipt.

The itinerary showed a 7:48 a.m. departure from Ottawa Jan. 22 and the breakfast menu included crepes, espresso, overnight oats and fresh fruit. Light snacks were served closer to the end of the flight. A receipt showed ingredients were sourced on a $425.97 shopping trip to a Loblaws grocery store in Ottawa.

After the plane’s Vancouver International Airport arrival at 9:46 a.m., a motorcade whisked Trudeau to Chinatown, where he met with Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim before marching in the Lunar New Year parade with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, B.C. Premier David Eby, Chinese consul-general Yang Shu and other local politicians.

After his parade appearance, Trudeau returned to the airport, where the jet was waiting. Signature Flight Support had replenished its tank with 6,735 litres of aviation fuel.

The itinerary listed a 2:05 p.m. departure and 9:54 p.m. landing in Toronto. Trudeau had a photo op scheduled the next morning before beginning the Liberal caucus retreat in Hamilton. The passenger report showed only one seat occupied for the return leg to Ottawa late Jan. 22, Trudeau advance travel aide Benjamin Sparkes.

The entourage for the Vancouver trip also included executive assistant James Armbruster, press secretary Alison Murphy and four other PMO staffers, including a videographer, photographer and digital media specialist.

Inside a Bombardier Challenger jet.

Because of the quick turnaround, the jet left Vancouver with three new Canadian Forces crewmembers who had traveled to Vancouver by a commercial flight a day earlier.

The itinerary showed a total flight time for the jet’s mission of 10.4 hours, but the documents did not include the total cost to fuel, staff and operate the flight.

Before the pandemic, records released under access to information about trips in July and August 2019 showed that the average hourly cost to operate Trudeau’s flights on the Challenger jet was $5,636.

Based on that figure, the Ottawa to Vancouver to Toronto trip’s cost would have been around $58,614.

Carson Binda, the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation B.C. director, called it “incredibly hypocritical for the Prime Minister to be telling the rest of us to tighten our belts” when it comes to spending on fossil fuels.

“It really speaks to the culture of wasting taxpayers money that exists in the Prime Minister’s Office,” Binda said. “We’ve seen it with him spending $6,000-a-night on a hotel room in London, we saw it with him blowing tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on a trip to Jamaica.”

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April 25, 2023