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Bob Mackin

Real estate developers and lobbyists were prominent donors to David Eby’s campaign for NDP leadership, according to the premier’s finance report to Elections BC. 

Eby succeeded John Horgan by default after the party board disqualified challenger Anjali Appadurai Oct. 19 for fraudulent memberships and collusion with environmental charities.

David Eby and John Horgan (BC Gov/Flickr)

The Jan. 24 disclosure shows that Eby spent $338,173.65 of the $383,570.27 in donations raised. Elections BC capped individual donations in 2022 at $1,309.09.

The list includes a total $6,359.09 from Giulio, Marcello, Morris, Paolo and Rossano De Cotiis, members of the family behind Onni and Amacon. Amacon’s director of business development, Stepan Vdovine, donated $1,300. 

Other real estate players included Polygon Homes chair Michael Audain and Nch’Kay Development Corp. director Mike Magee ($1309.09 each), Jameson’s Anthony Pappajohn and Thind Properties’ CEO Daljit Thind and COO Paul Thind ($1,000 each), Raymond Louie of Coromandel Properties Ltd. and Daisen Gee-Wing of Canadian Metropolitan Properties ($500 each).

Acciona Infrastructure Canada Inc. lobbyist Katie Shaw of Earnscliffe and Rogers Communications lobbyist Angela Valentini gave $1,309.09 each. 

FortisBC and GCT Global Container Terminals lobbyist Gurpreet Vinning of Prospectus Associates and Jeff Guignard of B.C.’s Alliance of Beverage Licensees donated $1,300 and $1,000, respectively.

Other lobbyists of note were Canadian Home Builders’ Association of B.C. representative David Bieber of Counsel Public Affairs ($600) and Craig Keating of Strategies 360, the former NDP president who represents the Small Housing BC Society ($500).

Former Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart and Joel Solomon, the Hollyhock chair emeritus and member of the University of B.C. board, both gave Eby’s campaign the $1,309.09 maximum. 

Phantom Creek Estates winery owner Jiping Bai ($1,300), Omni TV producer and Rise Media commentator Guo Ding ($1,250), labour mediator Vince Ready ($800), and the NDP-appointed BC Ferry Authority chair Lecia Stewart ($500) were also listed. 

Eby’s campaign spent almost half the donations on professional services ($90,688.82) and salaries and benefits ($76,200.00) combined.

Of the $36,574.35 spent on advertising, $23,123.54 went to in-person or mobile phone canvassing.

Eby racked-up $13,807.26 in personal expenses, including $7,950.76 for air travel, $2,743.73 in vehicle expenses and $1,902.67 for accommodation.

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Bob Mackin Real estate developers and lobbyists were

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Bob Mackin

Almost a year after forming a company to organize illegal roadblocks, a leader of three climate change protest brands pleaded guilty to five mischief charges Jan. 23 in Vancouver Provincial Court.

Muhammad Zain Ul-Haq faces possible deportation (Save Old Growth)

Muhammad Zain Ul-Haq, a student from Pakistan, was scheduled to go on trial for mischief related to the July 24, 2021 Extinction Rebellion (ER) protest that blocked the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver.

He pleaded guilty to that incident and for blocking the Cambie Bridge on March 27, 2021, Granville Bridge on May 2, 2021, the intersection of Georgia and Burrard streets on Oct. 16, 2021, and the Templeton Street and Grant McConachie Way intersection leading to Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 25, 2021. 

Haq’s next court date is Feb. 9 for a pre-sentence report.

Just over two months ago, on Nov. 15, Haq pleaded guilty to mischief under $5,000 and breach of a release order. He had been charged for failure to comply with bail conditions after the Stop Fracking Around (SFA) anti-pipeline protest march blocked Cambie Bridge traffic on Aug. 15.

On Jan. 27, 2022, Haq and four others incorporated Eco-Mobilization Canada, a federal not-for-profit behind the ER splinter group Save Old Growth (SOG). In 2022, there were 48 arrests leading to charges for 34 individuals of the group whose tactics have failed to convince the NDP government to stop old growth logging. 

In the December sentencing of a Vancouver schoolteacher, Judge Nancy Adams said it is not the message of SOG protesters that is wrong, but their methods, which put both protesters and public in danger. She fined Deborah Sherry Janet Tin Tun $1,000 and sentenced her to 18 months probation after she “usurped public infrastructure in order to extort a democratically elected government to do something”

SOG’s website says the group receives most of its funding for recruitment, training, capacity building and education from the Climate Emergency Fund, which disbursed US$5.3 million to 43 protest groups around the world last year. The New York Times quoted Haq last summer saying that SOG had received US$170,000 in grants from the California-based charity. 

Last June, Canada Border Services Agency held Haq in custody for violating the terms of his Simon Fraser University student visa. Neither CBSA nor the Immigration and Refugee Board commented after a closed-door hearing. He resurfaced in August as the central coordinator of SFA. Activists from the anti-fracking campaign have sought media attention for their cause by vandalizing the Gastown Steam Clock, Olympic cauldron and an Emily Carr painting at Vancouver Art Gallery. 

In February 2022, Haq spent nine days in jail for contempt of court after blocking a Trans Mountain Pipeline construction site in September 2021. Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick’s verdict said that Haq had been protesting in his role as the national action and strategy coordinator for ER. 

Fitzpatrick expressed concern about Haq’s comments in the media about the potential for violence stemming from the pipeline, after he called government actions “treason.”

In an Instagram video shot outside the North Fraser Pretrial Centre after his release, Haq joked about spending his time in jail watching Seinfeld reruns. He also suggested Prime Minister Justin Trudeau be tried and sentenced for crimes against humanity. 

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Bob Mackin Almost a year after forming a

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That Hal Laycoe became the first ex-coach of the Vancouver Canucks on May 2, 1972 wasn’t a big surprise. 

Under Laycoe for their first two NHL seasons, the Canucks went 44-96-16. They were, after all, the only western franchise in the tough East division, playing against five of the original six franchises and fellow 1970 entrant Buffalo Sabres.

Rick Tocchet (left), Patrick Alvin and Jim Rutherford (Canucks/YouTube)

With Vic Stasiuk replacing him, Laycoe got kicked upstairs to the front office. The vice-president of player development and scouting became general manager in 1973. 

When Stasiuk was introduced, reporters of the day noted that owner Tom Scallen was absent from the news conference. 

Just like today’s owner, Francesco Aquilini, when Rick Tocchet replaced Bruce Boudreau on Jan. 22, the latest in the Canucks’ history of dubious departures. 

November 22, 1984

Roger Neilson was shown the door Jan. 18, 1984, about a year-and-a-half after he famously guided the suspended Harry Neale’s team to the Stanley Cup finals, losing to the New York Islanders in a sweep. Later in 1984, Neilson sued the Canucks for $53,500 for breach of contract. 

Neale stepped back behind the bench, but hired Bill LaForge in the off-season. The 32-year-old NHL rookie was famous for his “Pride, Hustle, Desire” mantra. 

But the Canucks began the season pitiful and hapless, with 14 defeats in 20 games. So Neale fired LaForge and returned to coaching after a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues in the half-empty Pacific Coliseum.

Neale got the axe at the end of the season, which was the club’s worst yet.

Francesco Aquilini (left) and Premier John Horgan in Abbotsford in 2021 (BC Gov/Flickr)

Nov. 4, 1997

Seattle’s McCaw family invested some of their cell phone profits into the Canucks when the Griffiths family felt the pinch of downtown arena construction cost overruns and the Grizzlies’ exorbitant NBA expansion fees. 

By 1996, the McCaws had bought out the Griffiths. Former BC Gas CEO Stephen Bellringer had been installed as the CEO of Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment. When the Canucks started the 1997-1998 season at 3-10-2, Bellringer fired president Pat Quinn rather than head coach Tom Renney during a seven-game losing streak. 

The mighty, beloved Quinn had been a member of that original 1970 team under Laycoe, the team’s “super boss” since 1987 and head coach of the 1994 Stanley Cup finalist who hired, fired and replaced coaches Bob McCammon and Rick Ley. 

Renney was next, nine days later. His replacement, Mike Keenan, was reunited with the Canucks’ controversial offseason free agent acquisition, Mark Messier. 

Jan. 24, 1999: 

More change at Griffiths Way. After Keenan’s first year as both head coach and de facto general manager, Brian Burke, Quinn’s understudy in 1987, had returned to the Canucks on June 23, 1998 to fill Quinn’s shoes. 

Under Keenan, the Canucks traded away fan favourites from the machine Quinn built, including Trevor Linden and Kirk McLean. Under Burke, Pavel Bure was dealt to the Florida Panthers on Jan. 17, 1999 in a blockbuster trade involving six players and two draft picks changing coasts. 

A week later, Keenan was gone, replaced by Marc Crawford, the former Canuck who coached the Colorado Avalanche to their first Stanley Cup championship in 1996.

The Canucks finished last-place in the Western conference, out of the playoffs for the third straight season. The highlight of the off-season proved the saying that it’s darkest before dawn.

With the second and third picks in the June 26, 1999 draft, the Canucks picked the Sedin twins. 

July 25, 2018

Owner Francesco Aquilini went to Twitter to say that Trevor Linden had “stepped down” as president of hockey operations, a role the team’s greatest captain had occupied since April 2014.  

Bruce Boudreau (Canucks/YouTube)“He’s looking forward to pursuing other opportunities and spending time with his family,” Aquilini Tweeted, leaving many Canucks’ fans confused.   

The move made Jim Benning the head of hockey operations, reporting directly to the Aquilinis. 

“Jim and Travis Green will continue rebuilding the team as per the plan we have in place. A new president will be named in due course.” 

Aquilini said he had one unfulfilled dream: “I want to bring the Stanley Cup to Vancouver.”

Jan. 22, 2023

That dream remains unfulfilled. 

The Benning and Green era ended Dec. 5, 2021. Bruce Boudreau replaced Green the next day, and Jim Rutherford as president three days after that. 

The Canucks were a different team under modest, easy-going Boudreau, racking up pre-Christmas wins. Fans chanted “Bruce (There It Is)” a la one-hit wonder Tag Team’s “Whoomp (There It Is).” 

Boudreau lasted 412 days — less than Keenan’s 436. No tears were shed when Keenan departed. Different story for both Boudreau and Canucks’ faithful the night before Rutherford fired him and introduced Rick Tocchet.

Two coaches whose career paths couldn’t have been more different.

In 1977, Boudreau had a bit part in the ultimate hockey movie Slap Shot. 

Tocchet pleaded guilty in 2007, and got two years probation, for conspiracy and promoting gambling in New Jersey, after an FBI sting code named “Operation Snapshot.” Commissioner Gary Bettman reinstated Tocchet almost nine months later, in February 2008. 

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Bob Mackin That Hal Laycoe became the first

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Bob Mackin

Almost three weeks before she died of suicide, a Vancouver Police Department constable’s impact statement accused a senior officer of ruining her personal life and law enforcement career.

Late VPD Const. Nicole Chan (Legacy.com)

At the Jan. 23 opening of a B.C. Coroners Service inquest in Burnaby, Jennifer Chan paraphrased from the Jan. 7, 2019 statement by her late sister, Nicole Chan. The 30-year-old described suffering depression and anxiety, and feeling unsafe because of a superior in the human resources section, Sgt. David Van Patten. She had lost her ability to concentrate and could no longer talk to criminals, one of her talents, and experienced flashbacks of coercion.

”She believes that it stems from the sexual assault inside David’s apartment and she’s unable to develop and maintain personal relationships because of that,” Jennifer Chan testified. “She felt that she’s tried her best with different kinds of sessions, going to see psychologists and taking courses and therapies to try and help herself recover. It also says that she’s a solutions-based person and not someone who gives up easily. 

“At the end, she’s really just kind of pleading for justice, and someone to help fight for her. There’s only one person and it’s ruined her personal and professional life, and she wanted to be a survivor and not another victim.”

Nicole Chan originally complained in 2017 to Chief Adam Palmer. The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) was investigating Van Patten in December 2018 for discreditable conduct. In January 2020, nearly a year after Nicole Chan’s death, OPCC ordered the VPD to fire Van Patten for exploiting the power imbalance. 

Jennifer Chan said her sister often visited her while off-work. They would watch movies or go for dog walks, and Nicole told her “bits and pieces” of the case against some officers at work after she had been put on desk duty. 

“I thought an officer was blackmailing her to have sex with her basically, it’s my understanding, and I knew that the officer was in HR,” she said.

Nicole Chan left post-secondary schooling early in 2009 to pursue a career in policing, wanting to speak up for victims. She initially worked in the police jail cells and had ambitions of joining the emergency response team. She became a full-time officer two years later in 2011.

“She just wanted to be able to do right in the world,” Jennifer Chan said.

In early 2019, she said her sister was on a rollercoaster of emotions, feeling isolated and helpless, experiencing gossip at work and felt the union could not help, because her superiors were also members. She filled her time pursuing hobbies, like making dog collars. 

“She would talk to me about like, oh, I don’t know, what should I do next? Like, should I open a coffee shop or something out of the VPD world, I suppose. Because she didn’t feel like she could go back.”

Jennifer Chan recounted Jan. 26, 2019, when she received a call while attending a nighttime event at the Vancouver Aquarium with her partner. Nicole’s boyfriend said that she had locked herself in a bathroom at their residence in the Olympic Village and had the means to injure herself. 

“Eventually, I did get her on the phone, I think just for a brief minute and she kind of brushed it off like, ‘oh, I’m fine, we’re just having a fight.’ Like, I’ll talk to you later, kind of thing. And that’s pretty much the end of the phone call and that was actually the last time I talked to her.”

The mental health unit took Nicole to a hospital under the Mental Health Act. When Jennifer tried texting and calling Nicole the next morning, Jan. 27, 2019, there was no reply. A friend helped call around to hospitals to locate her ailing sister to no avail.

“We didn’t hear anything back, we didn’t know anything, basically, until later on that afternoon when Chief Adam Palmer and another constable came by my house and notified me that Nicole had passed away,” Jennifer Chan said. “And that’s when I learned that she actually passed away in the morning.”

Presiding coroner Susan Barth and the five-person jury also heard that Nicole Chan had prior suicide attempts, including an off-duty vehicle crash in 2012 and an incident in Bellingham, Wash. in 2016. 

Thirty-two witnesses were scheduled through Jan. 30. The list does not include Palmer, who sent lawyers David McKnight and Naomi Krueger. Also missing from the list are Van Patten and another former officer, Sgt. Greg McCullough, who had a relationship with Chan in 2015 and resigned after a suspension. 

Sgt. Cory Bech is scheduled to testify on Jan. 26. The Chan family’s lawsuit against the VPD and several officers alleges that Bech recruited Chan to join the force and had a sexual relationship with her. 

The objective of a coroner’s inquest is not to find fault, but to find facts and make recommendations to prevent deaths. 

  • If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call 1-800-784-2433 (1-800-SUICIDE), or call your local crisis centre.

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Bob Mackin Almost three weeks before she died

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Another Coast Mountain bus window was destroyed, a year after a spate of pellet gun attacks in the Downtown Eastside.

A large hole was visible in a passenger side upper window of a route 210 bus after a post-11 a.m. incident Jan. 21 on Pender between Main and Columbia in Chinatown. TransLink spokesperson Dan Mountain deferred comment to police.

Metro Vancouver Transit Police officers responded to a report of a bus window struck “with a high velocity projectile,” said Const. Amanda Steed. 

“There were no reports of passengers being injured.”

Vancouver Police Department later took conduct of the investigation. 

“Thankfully, there were no injuries,” said VPD Sgt. Steve Addison. “We have not yet determined from where the BB gun was fired.”

There is no indication yet that this incident is connected to the pellet gun shooting of a bus two weeks ago on Jan. 7 or the series of shootings from Jan. 19-29, 2022, all in the Downtown Eastside.

William Frank Dale Tallio, 43, was charged last August with 11 counts of mischief and 11 counts of possession of a weapon after 26 buses were shot.

Tallio’s next appearance is Feb. 1 in Vancouver Provincial Court. 

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Bob Mackin Another Coast Mountain bus window was

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For the week of Jan. 22, 2023: 

Kennedy Stewart is back.

At Simon Fraser University, that is.

Three months after Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver defeated him in the Vancouver mayoral election, Stewart has resumed his career as a political science professor as the new director of the Centre for Public Policy Research. He is also finishing a manuscript for a book called “Decrim: How We Decriminalized Drugs in British Columbia.” 

On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, hear Stewart reflect on the ups and downs of his term in office and last year’s campaign. 

Plus, remembering Gino Odjick, who died Jan. 15 at age 52.

Jeff Sandes covered the Vancouver Canucks for United Press International when Odjick debuted in the National Hockey League in 1990. He joins the podcast to ponder Odjick’s legacy.

Plus Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim headlines. 

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

Now on Google Podcasts!

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

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For the week of Jan. 22, 2023:  Kennedy

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The former Simon Fraser University criminology student convicted in 2012 of killing pets was scheduled to be back in Vancouver Provincial Court on Jan. 20.

Kayla Bourque (RCMP)

Crown counsel is seeking a preventive justice order against Kayla Alexina Nelis Bourque, 33. B.C. Prosecution Service spokesperson Daniel McLaughlin said Bourque is out on a release order with conditions and that a date for the recognizance application to be heard will be set Feb. 3. 

“The application was initiated following the receipt of a report to Crown Counsel,” McLaughlin said. “The circumstances in support of the application will be related at the hearing. As the matter is now before the court, the BCPS will have no further comment.”

According to the Crown Counsel Manual, the purpose of a recognizance order “is to prevent serious harm by imposing conditions upon a person, which may restrict their movement or behaviour to reduce the risk of them committing a future offence.”

For a court to approve such an application, it said, there must be proof on a balance of probabilities of substantive fear that a defendant will cause injury to another person or damage to property. 

Bourque was born in Romania and adopted from an orphanage at eight-months by Canadian parents from Prince George who later separated. In 2012, she pleaded guilty to killing and eviscerating her family’s dog and cat, which she filmed and photographed. Court heard that she had a desire to obtain a gun and shoot a homeless person. 

A forensic psychiatrist’s assessment submitted to Judge Malcolm MacLean found Bourque had antisocial, psychopathic and narcissistic traits. 

MacLean jailed Bourque for two months, in addition to the seven-months served before trial, plus three years probation. One of her 46 court-ordered conditions was a lifelong ban on owning or residing with animals.

When Bourque lost an appeal in 2013, Justice Elizabeth Bennett wrote that Bourque lost the privilege of animal companionship “by betraying their trust in her.”

“Ms. Bourque has a history of killing and torturing animals. She takes pleasure from this conduct, and has no insight into the harm and suffering she causes these creatures. Her condition is life-long, and is not situational,” Bennett wrote.

Bourque was sent to jail for four months in 2019 for breaching a ban on accessing social media. The previous year, authorities warned the public she was leaving New Westminster to reside in Surrey.

Last June, a judge allowed Bourque to travel by air between Vancouver and Prince George without wearing an electric monitoring device. 

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Bob Mackin The former Simon Fraser University criminology

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The all-party committee that oversees B.C.’s Legislative Assembly is asking the NDP government for a $100.3 million operational budget in the next fiscal year.

B.C. Parliament Buildings (Mackin)

The amount in the estimates passed at the Jan. 13 meeting of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee is $8.4 million, or 9%, higher than the current year, but almost $5 million less than the draft tabled in December when MLAs decided to freeze their pay for the next fiscal year.

Foregoxing the cost of living increase that was scheduled for April 1 will save $645,000, but the MLAs also decided not to proceed with a new funding model for constituency offices and staff benefits. That allowed them to pare down the proposed budget by nearly $3 million. 

“Taken as a complete package, in our opinion, it seemed to be excessive,” BC Liberal house leader Todd Stone told the committee meeting. “It seemed to be a bit too much, again considering the backdrop of the struggles that British Columbians are facing right now.”

Green Party house leader Adam Olsen said he was disappointed the issue was politicized and improperly framed, because constituency offices are not to support MLAs, but the end user.

“That was made to be seen to be a dirty act, that it was an MLA service when, really, it was how MLAs serve their communities, how they communicate with their communities, ensuring that there are adequate resources to do a good enough job, ensuring that the constituency advocates and assistants can get paid a living wage and are able to survive under the extreme pressures that they’re facing,” Olsen said. 

Basic MLA pay remains $115,045.93 a year. David Eby receives an additional $103,541.34 a year as premier for a total $218,587.27. Cabinet ministers and opposition leader Kevin Falcon are paid $172,568.80 annually. 

In last spring’s budget, the NDP government did away with the 10% penalty for each cabinet members whose ministry overspends. It amounted to a $5,551 raise per minister. 

Even without a pay raise for inflation in 2023, MLAs who were first-elected in 2017 are looking forward to June. That is when they meet the six-year requirement to qualify for a pension.

The proposed budget is split mainly between members’ services, which funds MLAs, their staff and offices, ($45.02 million) and legislative support services staff at the Legislature ($43.3 million). Caucus support services, which funds each party’s operations at the Legislature, is the third major budget category ($8.9 million).

The earlier version of the budget had foreseen a 12% increase to members services at $49.4 million. 

The new budget does increase constituency office allowances, capital city living allowances and in-constituency staff travel allowance by 6% for inflation.

The Office of Speaker Raj Chouhan ($694,000) and Office of Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd ($341,000) are getting increases.

The budget includes $3.75 million more for base salaries and overtime (13.9%) to $30.72 million and an employee benefits increase of $2.46 million (19.4%) to $15.15 million.

Within the $7.2 million Legislature Support Services increase (an 18% year-over-year increase), is allowance for the Sergeant-at-Arms department to hire 15 new full-time security and safety staff and information technology to increase its staff by four. 

The Legislative Assembly is also seeking $9.3 million for capital funding, 2% less than the current year, for safety, building envelope and security upgrades, along with IT infrastructure improvements. 

The Legislature reconvenes for the Feb. 6 Throne Speech. NDP Finance Minister Katrine Conroy is scheduled to table the budget on Feb. 28. 

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Bob Mackin The all-party committee that oversees B.C.’s

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The extradition hearing for the former Mexican general who fled to B.C. in 2019 was postponed Jan. 19 after his defence lawyer sought to introduce evidence that could help clear his client.

B.C.-arrested Eduardo Leon Trauwitz

Eduardo Leon Trauwitz, 56, was arrested in December 2021 and freed on bail conditions March 14, 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 head of security for state oil company Pemex, facilitated theft of 1.87 billion litres of hydrocarbons from clandestine taps in Pemex pipelines. 

Trauwitz’s lawyer, Tom Arbogast, told Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick in B.C. Supreme Court that among thousands of pages received from the lawyer representing Trauwitz at the Immigration and Refugee Board were some that he realized could be used in the two-day extradition hearing. 

One of those documents is a translated letter from a witness in Mexico.

“This letter essentially recants his evidence or explains his evidence in some form,” Arbogast told the court.

Arbogast said admissibility of the documents could be dealt with during the first day of the hearing. Federal prosecutor Amanjyot Sanghera said he was ready to proceed, but disputed Arbogast’s proposal. 

“With respect, the late disclosure is problematic from our perspective as it derails the committal process that has been set down,” Sanghera said.

Fitzpatrick said the case was at a crossroads, with the sides needing to either begin hearing the application to admit the documents immediately or take time to develop their arguments. After hearing further from Arbogast and Sanghera, she decided to adjourn the case because the documents could be critical to Trauwitz’s application.

“But it will be on the basis that there’s a fairly quick turnaround to get this matter back up and running,” Fitzpatrick said. 

After the morning recess, Fitzpatrick returned and set Feb. 23 to hear the application and March 23 and 24 as new dates for the extradition hearing.

Last March, Justice Michael Tammen freed Trauwitz on a $20,000 surety to live under an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew with his daughter in Surrey, wear an electronic monitoring device around the clock and report to a probation officer. 

Mexico’s state oil company Pemex

The Crown had unsuccessfully argued for his continued detention because of flight risk. 

Tammen heard that a lawyer for ex-Pemex employees filed a criminal complaint in March 2017 to the office of Mexico’s Attorney General, claiming they were threatened with firing if they did not follow the fuel theft scheme. Trauwitz fled to B.C. in May 2019, instead of appearing in a Mexican court, and applied for Canadian refugee status. 

During Trauwitz’s hearing in December 2021, Arbogast said Trauwitz was 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,” Arbogast said. “They are now turning that back against him because they are higher up in the political food chain.”

At last March’s bail hearing, Tammen said the Crown, on behalf of Mexico, would have to satisfy the judge hearing the extradition application that the Mexican charges are compatible with Canadian laws.

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Bob Mackin  The extradition hearing for the former

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Elections BC fined five winning candidates for West Vancouver’s seven-member municipal council, including Mayor Mark Sager, for a 2022 campaign advertising violation.

In separate enforcement notices released Jan. 18, Sager was fined $200, councillors Peter Lamber and Sharon Thompson $150 each and councillors Scott Snider and Linda Watt $100 each. They all failed to include the statutory authorization line in campaign ads.

West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager (Sager Nairne LLP)

The Local Elections Campaign Financing Act requires advertising identify the candidate or party’s financial agent, that the ad was authorized by the financial agent and to provide a B.C. phone number, email address or mailing address at which the agent may be contacted. 

Sager’s notice said a complaint was received Oct. 11 that his ads lacked the wording, but he contacted Elections BC on the same date to self-report the oversight. 

“You provided Elections BC with images of the flyers, multi-paged brochures and door hangers. You confirmed that you had amended the remaining material to add an authorization statement,” the notice said. 

Sager told Elections BC that there were 20,000 flyers and brochures mailed and 100 door hanger distributed before the error of omission was identified. Invoices showed the cost was $18,615.16, which was shared with Lambur, Snider, Thompson and Watt.

Elections BC could have fined each up to $5,000 under the law, but took into account several mitigating factors. In Sager’s case, his self-reporting, cooperative amendment of ads where possible and lack of previous violation.

“The lack of an authorization statement would not likely have misled a reader to conclude that the signs were sponsored by another individual or organization – the transparency purpose of the Act had been substantially met,” said the notice from director of investigations Adam Barnes.

Sager is facing bigger trouble from the Law Society of B.C., which alleges he committed professional misconduct, conduct unbecoming a lawyer and breach of the Legal Profession Act. 

Ex-West Vancouver Mayor Mary-Ann Booth (Twitter)

The founding partner of the Sager Nairne law firm in West Vancouver is accused of withdrawing up to $40,000 in execution fees and $24,113.25 in management fees without authorization and improperly withdrawing $8,801.03 from a trust. Sager is disputing the allegations, none of which have been proven. A hearing is expected later this year.  

The citation was originally issued Sept. 29, but Sager appealed and disclosure was delayed until six weeks after voters returned him to the mayoralty 26 years after his first time in office. 

Sager narrowly lost in the 2018 election to Mary Ann Booth after he was cited for another misconduct. 

In 2020, the Law Society fined Sager $20,000 and ordered him to pay $20,000 in legal costs for conflict of interest after he accepted a $75,000 gift from his godmother and rewrote her will.  

Meanwhile, the deadline for all candidates and parties in the 2022 local government elections to submit their campaign finance returns was Jan. 13. 

“After the filing deadline it will take us some time to enter the reports and campaign contributions into [the database],” Elections BC spokesperson Andrew Watson said. “We’re targeting the end of the month for publication and will distribute an advisory once the reports are available.”

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Bob Mackin Elections BC fined five winning candidates

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