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Bob Mackin

Vancouver city hall plans to deploy up to 200 new remotely monitored surveillance cameras and integrate as many as 1,000 existing cameras to fulfill FIFA security requirements for the 2026 World Cup.

That is according to a call for companies to bid on contracts under a “Digital Infrastructure and innovation for FIFA Games” program.

“Provide modern public surveillance cameras designed for effective identification of incidents and monitoring of crowd movements and behaviour,” reads the Jan. 23 request for proposals. “A secure, centralized platform for live viewing, recording, and archival footage.”

More than 200 cameras will be watching in 2026 City of Vancouver)

The system would comply with Canadian privacy laws and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and vendors be responsible for hardware procurement, installation, configuration and integration with the city’s existing systems.

“The city will provide access to poles, buildings, or other suitable mounting locations, subject to permits and safety guidelines. Vendors may also propose to use their own or third-party rooftop sites, cell towers, or similar infrastructure, as appropriate.”

It is not mandatory, but the city indicated it is welcome to proposals for artificial intelligence-assisted “threat detection or advanced analytics.”

The overall number of cameras could exceed the 900 Honeywell supplied for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, which Queen’s University sociology Prof. David Lyon dubbed the “surveillance Games.” Honeywell spent at least $30.5 million and subcontracted some of the work to American military contractor Science Applications International Corporation.

Vancouver 2010 had a $900 million, taxpayer-funded security budget. The all-in cost of securing Vancouver and Toronto in June and July 2026 has not been announced. One of the biggest critics of Vancouver 2010 was civil liberties activist David Eby, who is now British Columbia’s premier.

Under the same program, the city is seeking proposals for other turnkey solutions such as public wifi, fibre Internet and IT support.

“The city requires end-to-end service, including design, deployment, management, support, as well as post-event teardown or removal of all temporary infrastructure.”

City hall said it would give successful bidders a chance to become tier one “Host City Supporters,” under a new FIFA local sponsorship program, “providing enhanced brand visibility across B.C. and Yukon.”

Deadline for bids is Feb. 25.

B.C. Place Stadium is scheduled to host seven matches between June 13 and July 7, 2026. A Fan Festival will operate throughout the 39-day, 16-city tournament at the PNE grounds on Hastings Park. The cost to taxpayers for hosting FIFA 26 in Vancouver could be as high as $581 million.

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Bob Mackin Vancouver city hall plans to deploy

News

Bob Mackin

One year ago today, B.C. Premier David Eby’s X and Instagram accounts displayed messages against Islamophobia instead of commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Jan. 27, 2024 incident gained international attention almost four months after Hamas terrorists sparked the war in Gaza by killing 1,200 people in Israel. Oct. 7, 2023 was the worst day for Jews since the Holocaust.

It took two days for Eby to personally address the controversy. He apologized and called it unacceptable, but refused to discuss what he deemed a personnel matter. The identity of the person responsible remains a mystery.

David Eby’s Jan. 27 error on X. (@Dave_Eby)

Coincidentally, Eby apologized while visiting Ottawa on Jan. 29 — the Day of Action Against Islamophobia and anniversary of the 2017 murder of six people at a Quebec City mosque.

Was it an honest mistake or deliberate?

A freedom of information request to the Office of the Premier, filed by theBreaker.news, sought copies of the schedule of Eby’s social media posts for Jan. 27-29, 2024, the approved text and related correspondence about the approval for each post, and copies of correspondence about the error and the correction.

The request asked for a search of accounts and devices of the NDP premier’s chief of staff Matt Smith and communications staff George Smith, Manveer Sihota, Bhinder Sajan and Jimmy Smith. The Office of the Premier said no records were located. (All the above named officials remain employed in the government, except for Matt Smith, who left Eby’s office just before Christmas with a $278,629 severance.)

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) opened a file in April after theBreaker.news complained. During last fall’s provincial election campaign, an OIPC investigator closed the file without interviewing any of the persons named in the request.

The investigator, Ryan Graves, formerly worked inside the NDP government as a senior analyst for the Ministry of Citizens’ Services, which processes government-wide FOI requests.

“I understand that you believe there should be records responsive to your request: however, the OIPC has no authority to compel a public body to explain why it does not have a copy of records that an applicant believes should exist,” Graves wrote in an email on Oct. 1, eight days before he closed the file.

In fact, section 44 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act does give the OIPC the power to order someone to answer questions under oath or affirmation and to hand over records. It did so when a previous commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, found evidence in 2015 of mass-deleting throughout Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government.

NDP amendments to the law make it an offence to wilfully mislead or obstruct the OIPC or wilfully evade the public records law. The maximum fine upon conviction is $50,000.

The OIPC is officially an independent office of the Legislative Assembly, but it relies on the NDP-majority Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services for its annual funding. In 2023-2024, the OIPC reported $10.8 million in operating expenses. Eby’s office, by comparison, was allotted $17 million for the current fiscal year.

In January 2024, Commissioner Michael McEvoy reported that the NDP government had continuously broken the FOI law. The government was taking an average 85 business days to respond to requests, the worst performance since McEvoy’s office began reporting on timeliness of responses 13 years earlier.

In 5,100 cases between 2020 and 2023, the government exceeded deadlines without legal authority. By the 2022-23 fiscal year, applicants were forced to wait an average 192 additional business days for a response.

McEvoy’s six-year term ended in 2024. His successor is former Newfoundland and Labrador commissioner Michael Harvey.

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Bob Mackin One year ago today, B.C. Premier

News, Opinion

For the week of Jan. 26, 2025:

It didn’t happen the day he was sworn-in, but President Donald Trump said  tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports to the U.S. are coming Feb. 1.

Donald Trump and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Smith/IG)

British Columbia’s lumber, mines and petroleum industries and the communities that rely on them are bracing for impact. Political leaders are plotting retaliation. 

This week’s guest is Barry Penner, the chair of the Energy Futures Institute, former president of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region and former B.C. Minister of Environment, Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Attorney General. 

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of Jan. 26, 2025: It

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Bob Mackin

Jan. 26 is the day that a Pakistani citizen who violated the terms of his student visa faces deportation, according to a Federal Court judge’s decision.

On Jan. 23, Justice Catherine Kane rejected Muhammad Zain Ul Haq’s application to stay his removal from Canada for being criminally inadmissible. Haq had sought leave for a judicial review of a Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) Inland Enforcement Officer’s Jan. 6 decision against deferral.

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

Kane heard Haq’s appeal in a Jan. 22 videoconference, but found that he reiterated many of the same arguments from his failed April 2024 application. Haq was spared deportation with a six-month temporary resident permit after intervention by Liberal MP Joyce Murray and immigration minister Marc Miller. That expired in October.

Haq came to Canada to study at Simon Fraser University in 2019, but became a paid organizer of illegal protests in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. He pleaded guilty in January 2023 to five charges of mischief for his role in Extinction Rebellion blockades in 2021 in Vancouver and Richmond. Haq also pleaded guilty in November 2022 for breaching a release order for the August 2022 Stop Fracking Around protest that blocked the Cambie Bridge.

Haq, Kane wrote, “has not provided any clear, convincing and non‑speculative evidence to establish any irreparable harm that amounts to exposing him ‘to the risk of death, extreme sanction or inhumane treatment’; but rather raises speculative risks and other harms that are related to the inherent consequences of removal, including the impact on his spouse, who relies on him for valid reasons and, although this impact may be difficult, it remains an unfortunate yet inherent consequence of removal.”

In April 2023, Haq married fellow protester Sophia Papp in a bid to gain spousal sponsorship status. Haq’s lawyer argued that the application is in the later stages of processing. But a lawyer for the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness argued that the decision is not certain nor necessarily imminent.

“The [Minister] is tasked with ensuring the integrity and confidence in Canada’s immigration system, which includes ensuring that the provisions of the Act are carried out including the statutory duty under section 48 of the Act is to enforce a removal order as soon as possible,” Kane wrote.

Kane’s decision noted that Haq’s offences were non-violent and that he has complied with conditions of his CBSA bail.

In July 2023, Provincial Court Judge Reginald Harris sentenced Haq to seven days in jail, 30 days house arrest, 31 days of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and 75 hours of community work service, plus a 12-month probation.

“His conduct speaks to an arrogance of his ideals at the expense of the democratic process and pro-social dialogue,” Harris said in his sentencing decision.

Harris mentioned that Haq twice organized protests that blocked emergency routes to St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver.

Haq was a director of the January 2022-founded Eco-Mobilization Canada, the federal not-for-profit company behind Extinction Rebellion splinter group Save Old Growth(SOG). Haq had boasted in August 2022 in a New York Times story that SOG received US$170,000 in grants from the California-based Climate Emergency Fund (CEF). Haq later appeared on the non-profit’s website as a member of the CEF advisory board.

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Bob Mackin Jan. 26 is the day that

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Bob Mackin

More than 70,000 people could be involved in organized crime groups across Canada, according to an estimate from the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada.

A Canada Border Service Agency drug-sniffing dog was involved in major cocaine busts at the Canadian border last fall. (CBSA)

The agency’s 2024 Public Report on Organized Crime in Canada said it has assigned threat ratings to 668, of which seven are deemed high-level threats and 128 medium-level threats. More than 20 street gangs are evolving into higher threats and more than 70 are involved in smuggling firearms from the U.S.

Most are in the cocaine racket, but a whopping 235 are in fentanyl.

The 668 known groups include a combined 12,075 criminal actors, “many of whom interact within more than one group.”

No surprise, the three most-populated provinces, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, are where three-quarters of the groups are based, because they can access densely populated cities, international airports, ports and major highways necessary to import and transport illicit goods.

The report said organized crime groups in Canada were linked to 48 countries, with U.S., Mexico and Colombia at the top of the list, “all of which are generally source and transit countries for illicit drugs, such as methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine. The U.S. also remains the primary source for firearms smuggled into Canada.”

Vancouver, which lacks a dedicated policing agency at its ports, is a key hub for illicit trade with Asian markets.

Most organized crime groups continue to be heavily involved in cocaine, “with pricing at its lowest in 25 years.”

“Fentanyl and methamphetamine activities continue to expand; involvement in fentanyl has increased by 42% since 2019,” the report said. “Organized crime groups continue to be involved in illicit cannabis production and trafficking activities. They have also infiltrated and exploited the legal framework to continue to profit from high consumer demand.”

Vehicle theft remained steady last year, after doubling the previous year. The crackdown in Eastern Canada has increased theft in Western Canada.

Organized crime involvement in human trafficking has grown 24% since 2020, with Indigenous and gender and sexual minorities the most-targeted. “Some then groomed into recruiters.” Online platforms like Snapchat are used to approach victims, then criminals use online escort or classified profiles to control and exploit the recruits.

The report summarized activities of five Western Canada-based networks, but did not name them, disclose their geographic base or number of members. One that is connected to North American and Asian countries, “is involved in cocaine, fentanyl, precursor chemicals, cannabis, fraud, money laundering, loansharking, bookmaking, and intimidation/extortion. It uses individuals with specialized skills, using a hierarchy of roles depending on the specific job to optimize the group’s overall proficiency.”

In its 2021 report, CISC said high-level national threat groups had infiltrated the public sector in Canada.

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Bob Mackin More than 70,000 people could be

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Bob Mackin

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered an Iranian-born permanent resident of Dubai to be extradited to the U.S. to face fraud and money laundering charges.

In a Jan. 10 judgment released Jan. 21, Justice Michael Tammen found there was a “sufficient body of evidence” that a reasonable jury might conclude Seyed Abood Sari, 62, was more than a middle manager for an airline designated a terrorist entity.

(BC Court of Appeal)

Tammen said Sari would not be surrendered until after 30 days elapsed. He has the right to appeal the decision and seek bail. The court order was forwarded to Canada’s Minister of Justice Arif Virani for final approval.

Sari was the general manager in Dubai for Tehran-based Mahan Air, which the U.S. government sanctioned in October 2011 for financially, materially and technologically supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force and Beirut-based Hezbollah.

Sari arrived Jan. 17, 2019 at Vancouver International Airport on a British Airways flight from London and told officers that he planned to celebrate his birthday with his two sons who were studying at universities in Vancouver. Sari was arrested due to an outstanding U.S. warrant for allegedly using front companies and middlemen to disguise financial transactions for Mahan Air and deceive banks in order to get around U.S. sanctions.

“A jury might conclude that Mr. Sari was a participant in a scheme which used fraudulent means to carry out banking transactions on behalf of Mahan Air, knowing that in so doing he was putting the bank’s financial interests at risk,” Tammen wrote. “There is thus sufficient evidence for committal for conduct which corresponds to the Canadian offence of fraud.”

Tammen’s verdict said the entire body of evidence was circumstantial and based on searches of various email accounts, including Sari’s. The U.S. built its case around email that revealed a conspiracy among Mahan Air employees to disguise the corporate identity of those engaging in transactions with U.S. banks to benefit Mahan Air.

Sari claimed there was insufficient evidence to deem him the directing mind or financial authority of any of the 21 front companies. But Tammen disagreed.

Sari “at minimum, acted as a conduit for some of the allegedly fraudulent transactions. An available inference is that Mr. Sari had knowledge of the scheme and was a knowing participant in it,” Tammen wrote.

Despite all that, Tammen called the case record dense and suggested the U.S. may fall short at trial in proving the case against Sari beyond a reasonable doubt.

In May 2020, during the first Trump administration, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned China-based Shanghai Saint Logistics for providing freight booking on Mahan Air flights between China and Iran. The U.S. said Mahan Air was aiding both the Maduro regime in Venezuela and the Assad regime in Syria.

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Bob Mackin A B.C. Supreme Court judge

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Bob Mackin

Friends of Memorial South Park have defeated Mayor Ken Sim.

As theBreaker.news exclusively reported in the morning of Jan. 20, Vancouver city hall and the park board delayed the closure of Memorial South Park’s cricket oval for conversion to a FIFA World Cup 26 practice pitch.

Contractor Canadian Turner Construction was supposed to begin the $8.75 million, early works phase on Jan. 2, but bureaucrats were in talks with the University of B.C. about a plan B.

The Memorial South Park cricket oval, running track, playground and field house are scheduled to be closed to the public and transformed into a temporary FIFA World Cup 26 training site. (Mackin)

Late afternoon on Jan. 20, the city announced it had signed a letter of intent to use the National Soccer Development Centre at the Point Grey campus — home of the Vancouver Whitecaps — as a team base camp and training site for the Canadian men’s national team.

“Construction of the upgrades that were planned for Memorial South Park will no longer proceed, and the park will remain fully accessible to the community in its current condition leading up to, and during the FIFA World Cup 2026 event,” said the city announcement.

Work continues on the $16.25 million early works phase at Killarney Park.

Park board commissioners voted unanimously behind closed doors in October 2023 to turn Memorial South and Killarney parks into FIFA World Cup 26 training sites for $37 million. No public consultation occurred. Civic officials waited until July 16, 2024 to announce large portions of the parks would be closed for almost two years.

Friends of Memorial South Park garnered almost 2,000 supporters to its “Our park, not FIFA’s field” petition on Change.org.

Friends of Memorial South Park’s Cindy Heinrichs was “elated” with the announcement.

“This should never have happened in the first place,” Heinrichs said. “They did hear us — parks board did. City hall did not, Ken Sim’s office did not.”

In late November, Sim dismissed neighbours’ opposition: “I apologize for any disruption that happens. But if we were to make that decision over again, we would make it in a second. But let’s focus on the good.”

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Bob Mackin Friends of Memorial South Park have

News, Opinion

For the week of Jan. 19, 2025:

Monday is inauguration day in the U.S.A. 

Out with Joe Biden. In with Donald Trump, again. 

All signs point to a trade war between neighbours and that could hit an isolated U.S. community connected to Tsawwassen, B.C. harder than the COVID-19 border restrictions. 

Bob Mackin’s guest is Brian Calder, the former president of the Point Roberts, Wash. Chamber of Commerce, who sounds the alarm about Trump’s 25% tariff threat. 

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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

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For the week of Jan. 19, 2025: Monday

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For the week of Jan. 12, 2025:

Justin Trudeau’s epiphany. The unpopular, 23rd Prime Minister finally realized Jan. 6 that the Liberals cannot be re-elected with him at the helm and he vowed to leave office when his party chooses a new leader. 

What does that mean politically and economically for Canada? 

Joining host Bob Mackin: Mario Canseco, president of Research Co,, and Timothy Renshaw, publisher of the Substack Shipping News. 

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of Jan. 12, 2025: Justin

Business, News

Bob Mackin

The runner-up in the Surrey-Guildford riding said Jan. 9 that he would file a B.C. Supreme Court petition aimed at invalidating the election of Garry Begg as the NDP MLA.

Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa had a 103-vote edge after the polls closed on the Oct. 19 provincial election night. The seat flipped to Begg by 27 votes after mail-in ballots were tallied, forcing a judicial recount. When that ended Nov. 8, Begg was declared the winner by 22 votes. He was appointed Solicitor General in Premier David Eby’s new cabinet.

John Rustad (left) and Honveer Singh Randhawa (IG)

Begg’s win gave the NDP a bare, 47-seat majority in the new, 93-seat Legislature scheduled to open Feb. 18. That left the Conservatives in opposition with 44 seats.

Randhawa, however, said that the party has found 45 voting irregularities. Of that, 21 were mail-in votes from a Fraser Health-licensed addiction and substance abuse recovery house across the street from the Guildford Park Secondary School polling station.

“Justice must prevail and the democracy must be protected,” said Randhawa, who is a lawyer.

The Conservatives released redacted statutory declarations from two residents of Argyll Lodge who swore that they were unaware the election was occurring, shocked to learn that there was a polling station across the street and given mail-in ballots that they did not order.

“I was rushed into marking the ballot,” said one of the affidavits. “I do not know who I have voted for, I marked the ballot where they pointed it and I was led to believe that I had no choice but to mark the ballot otherwise I feared that I would be kicked out of the house.”

Said the other affidavit: “I did not know which box was for which party. I just marked the box as instructed. I did not believe I had a choice to not mark a box as instructed.”

B.C.’s Election Act states that an individual must not assist more than one voter, except for an election official or for an individual to assist more than one member of the individual’s family. It also states that it is illegal for someone to intimidate another person to cast a ballot.

Randhawa’s investigation found that an Argyll manager, Baljit Kandola, has the same name as someone who donated $1,400 to the NDP in May 2023.

Conservative leader John Rustad originally accepted the election results. He said on Jan. 9 that the new found evidence prompted the complaint to Elections BC and for Randhawa to prepare a petition to court within the 90-day period after a contravention.

“People have the right to be able to vote by mail ballot,” Rustad said. “The issue is whether or not they’re capable of doing that, whether or not there was an individual who participated in many people voting by mail.”

Begg was not immediately available for comment. On X, formerly Twitter, Deputy Premier and Attorney General Niki Sharma downplayed the complaint.

“Our elections are independent with safeguards to ensure they are free and fair. John Rustad is free to raise his concerns with Elections BC. That’s his right,” Sharma wrote. “We are focused on addressing the issues facing the people of our province like the threat of tariffs from the U.S.”

Even if the Conservatives are successful and the NDP loses the seat, the NDP announced a Dec. 13 alliance with the two-member Green caucus. The third party vowed to prop-up the NDP on any confidence and budget votes.

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Bob Mackin The runner-up in the Surrey-Guildford riding

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