The legacy of Gregor Robertson’s decade as Mayor of Vancouver extended beyond the Lower Mainland.
A promise to end homelessness backfired. Drug overdoses skyrocketed. Gangs flourished. Locals were priced out of their homes. Vancouver became a world money laundering capital. All while Robertson used Vancouver city hall and taxpayers’ money to campaign against pipelines and tankers.
Frank Caputo, the Conservative incumbent in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, joins Bob Mackin to talk about Mark Carney’s star candidate, who was parachuted into Vancouver Fraserview-South Burnaby for the April 28 election.
Prior to winning a seat in 2021, Caputo was a Crown prosecutor.
Two weeks after becoming Liberal Party leader, Prime Minister Mark Carney called a snap election for April 28. The 45th federal election had been scheduled, by law, for Oct. 20.
The dissolution of the prorogued parliament came 54 days after the final report of the Hogue Commission public inquiry, which was triggered by China’s interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
When it was announced in September 2023, the commission had a deadline of December 2024 (extended to January 2025) with a view toward new measures to protect the 2025 election. Over the course of the public inquiry, concerns emerged about challenges to Canadian sovereignty from Russia, India, Iran and now the United States.
The 2025 election will go ahead seven months early and without the safeguards recommended in Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue’s Jan. 28 report. An advocate for government integrity told theBreaker.news podcast that former Brookfield Asset Management chair Carney should have reopened Parliament to turn some of Hogue’s recommendations into law.
“This election is, I think, going to be undermined by foreign interference more than any other election has been,” said Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher.
There is related unfinished business. Namely, the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act, which mandated the creation of the Foreign Influence Transparency Registry. It received Royal assent in June 2024.
The new law required “entities that enter into an arrangement with a foreign principal to register their arrangements and disclose foreign influence activities in relation to government or political processes in Canada.”
But Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government did not hire a Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner. So neither the office nor the registry exists.
From the Hogue Commission final report: key, election-related recommendations waiting for legislative and policy action.
Foreign Interference Strategy
Recommendation 8:
The government should make it a priority to develop a whole-of- government Foreign Interference Strategy and provide a public timeline for its completion. This strategy should be integrated into a renewed National Security Strategy.
Communications strategy
Recommendation 9:
Develop a government-wide communications strategy to publicize the measures taken and mechanisms in place to protect our democratic institutions and processes from foreign interference.
Building trust with the public and stakeholders
Recommendation 17:
There should be a single, highly visible and easily accessible point of contact or hotline for reporting foreign interference to the government, which is responsible for engaging the appropriate agency or department. Follow-up with those who seek support should be systematic and ensure that those who make reports fully understand what can and cannot be done in response.
The government should prepare a guide about best practices against foreign interference specifically designed for political parties and their processes. This guide could, for example, cover subjects including foreign interference risks involving the use of personal devices, interacting with foreign officials and travel abroad. Political parties in turn should provide this guide, or specific training materials included in it, to their staffs and to all nomination candidates and candidates for office.
The RCMP
Recommendation 36:
All Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers working in affected communities should receive training about foreign interference, including transnational repression.
Recommendation 37:
The government should ensure that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is adequately resourced to investigate and disrupt foreign interference activities.
Third party political financing
Recommendation 42:
The Canada Elections Act should provide that third parties, other than individuals, who wish to rely on their own funds to finance regulated electoral activities, provide Elections Canada with audited financial statements showing that no more than 10 percent of their revenue in the previous fiscal year came from contributions. All other third parties that are not individuals should be required to incur expenses to support or oppose parties and candidates only from funds received from Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
Foreign entities should be prohibited from contributing to a third party for the purpose of conducting regulated activities.
The Canada Elections Act should clarify that a third party is prohibited from using property or services provided by a foreign entity for regulated activities.
Editor’s note: Before Liberal Parm Bains upset Conservative incumbent Kenny Chiu in the 2021 election, Bains met in Steveston with United Front activists wearing Chinese Canadians Goto Vote Association (CCGVA) shirts and carrying Bains election signs.
The Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections investigation did not result in charges, due to the weakness of existing laws. The report said CCGVA may have been acting as an unregistered third party: “We believe the interaction with Parm Bains was coordinated and not coincidental.”
Penalties
Recommendation 43:
The government should increase maximum administrative monetary penalties as well as fines for violations of Canada Elections Act prohibitions applicable to foreign interference.
Canada is on the cusp of a pivotal federal election. But voters will go to the polls with little information about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s leadership campaign donors and his potential conflicts of interest. The Liberal leader says he is following the rules and has shifted his assets into a blind trust.
Democracy Watch’s Duff Conacher
A top advocate for government integrity, transparency and accountability says that is not good enough.
This week’s guest is Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch. He told host Bob Mackin on March 19 that Canadians have the right to know, now. But the system is riddled with secrecy, loopholes and lax enforcement. It allows politicians to profit from their decisions.
Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.
In the media business, it is called “take out the trash Friday.” When government reserves time on a Friday afternoon to make a bad news announcement.
That is what happened in the middle of Spring Break, one year ago today at the Metro Vancouver offices in the Metrotower skyscraper complex in Burnaby.
theBreaker.news was there on March 22, 2024, when Commissioner Jerry Dobrovolny announced that the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Project would cost $3.86 billion and not be finished until 2030. More than five times the original budget and 10 years later than promised. Dobrovolny blamed construction materials and labour inflation and the 2022 firing of original builder Acciona. The two sides are suing each other.
A year later, citizens in the region still don’t know who exactly is to blame and whether it was incompetence or corruption at play. But they will pay for it on their utility bills. Last month, Metro Vancouver hired a quartet of experts, led by former B.C. Deputy Finance Minister Peter Milburn, to audit the program. It is not the public inquiry or investigation that New Westminster Coun. Daniel Fontaine, Richmond Coun. Kash Heed or the North Shore Neighbourhoods Alliance demanded.
Click and watch highlights of one of the most-expensive news conferences in British Columbia history.
Despite a new policy discouraging business with U.S. suppliers, Toronto city hall could buy $10.7 million of FIFA World Cup 26 tickets, suites and lounges from a New York company run by Donald Trump’s former manager and part-owned by Trump’s Secretary of Education.
Toronto’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Subcommittee recommended on March 18 that city council buy the hospitality packages. City council is expected to decide March 26.
A staff report said MLSE, the owner of Toronto FC and operator of BMO Field, is the contracted commercial sales agent for the program. But the name of FIFA’s official hospitality provider, On Location Events LLC, was not mentioned in the report or at the subcommittee meeting.
TKO’s Ari Emanuel (second from right) with UFC’s Dana White and WWE’s Vince McMahon outside the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 12, 2023 (NYSE/IG)
Toronto city hall confirmed to theBreaker.news that “it is securing the assets” from On Location.
“The vendor was not named in the report because it was not material to the recommendations before committee,” senior communications advisor Elise von Scheel said by email.
Vancouver city hall, which does not conduct World Cup business in open meetings, is “still evaluating that opportunity” to buy packages from On Location, said Natasha Qereshniku of Vancouver’s World Cup secretariat.
In February, TKO Group Holdings Inc. completed the acquisition of On Location, bringing it under the same corporate umbrella as UFC and WWE, two companies that count Trump as a fan. In December, Trump’s Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, reported owning more than $50 million in TKO shares and receiving between $1 million and $5 million in dividends.
TKO CEO Ari Emanuel represented Trump when he hosted The Apprentice on NBC.
At the Endeavor Group in 2015, Emanuel bought the Miss Universe Organization from Trump. In 2021 and 2022, Elon Musk was a member of Endeavor’s board of directors.
A pamphlet attached to FIFA host city contracts details the “rights and assets” available to host committees, including the opportunity to buy up to 1.5% of the available tickets for each match at the host city’s stadium.
“These tickets can be used to assist fundraising efforts and included as part of a host city supporter package,” said the FIFA pamphlet.
FIFA also provides host committees with 175 to 250 complimentary VIP tickets at each match the city hosts. Host cities are also eligible for a small amount of tickets at matches they don’t host — including four to the final. Those tickets are not available for public purchase and cannot be resold.
Seven matches are scheduled for Vancouver and six in Toronto during the June and July 2026 tournament. Eleven U.S. cities and three in Mexico are also hosts.
On March 7, Trump welcomed FIFA president Gianni Infantino to the Oval Office and announced a Department of Homeland Security-led task force.
On the eve of its opening, the Vancouver Auto Show made international news by ejecting Tesla for fear that its display would be targeted by anti-Elon Musk/anti-Donald Trump protesters.
The New Car Dealers Association continued to make headlines on opening day, March 19, when auto industry lobbyists told reporters that the B.C. NDP government needs to delay its electric vehicle mandate. They did so at an event whose marquee sponsors include BC Hydro and the Ministry of Environment’s CleanBC program.
The NDP amended the 2019 Zero-Emissions Vehicles (ZEV) Act in 2023 to require ZEVs to make up 26% of sales of cars, light trucks and minivans by 2026, 90% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
“There are clear headwinds to ongoing zero emission vehicle adoption, which include the restriction or elimination of purchase incentives, which we’ve seen here in B.C. and federally,” said Lucas Malinowski, director of federal affairs for the Global Automakers of Canada. “We have economic uncertainty with trade tariffs and not enough infrastructure is being built out to give consumers confidence that they can take and reliably charge their EVs anywhere.”
Brian Kingston, CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, said if U.S. tariffs do not go ahead, B.C. could, at best, reach 57% EV sales by 2030.
“This is well short of the mandated target of 90%,” Kingston said. “If EV sales do not increase at the rates that the government has mandated, the only way for automakers to comply is through restrictions of the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles in this province, or paying penalties of up to $20,000 per vehicle sold. The result of this, for British Columbians, is higher vehicle prices and limited vehicle choice.”
Kingston said new vehicle sales would flatline and cause job losses.
The Vancouver Auto Show runs through March 23 at Vancouver Convention Centre West.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim invested in and helped promote a real estate crowdfunding company that ran afoul of regulators.
B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) announced March 17 that Addy Technology Inc. had paid a $100,000 fine for trading without being registered. The company, which bills itself as Canada’s largest real estate investing platform, offered fractional shares in properties and developments for as low as $1.
“Between 2018 and 2025, Addy traded in approximately $26 million of securities of various issuers, with the average amount invested being $700 per investor,” said the BCSC announcement. “Addy charged investor membership fees for early access to certain properties and additional features on its platform, and charged software licensing fees to issuers and exempt market dealers (EMDs) for their use of its platform.”
BCSC said Addy unsuccessfully claimed it was exempt because of crowdfunding and that it used registered dealers to facilitate trades. BCSC said the company co-operated with the investigation and has applied for registration as a dealer.
Sim listed Addy in his statement of disclosure for 2024 and 2025. However, it does not show how many Addy shares Sim holds or the value of those shares.
On Sept. 19, 2023, Sim was the featured guest speaker at Addy’s “fireside chat” event in the Vancouver Lawn and Tennis Club with the company’s co-founder Stephen Jagger.
“We’re lucky to have a whole bunch of our issuers and dealers in the room, and the event was quite the success,” Jagger said on a recap video.
“Full disclosure, I think I’m an investor in Addy as well, right?” Sim said after Jagger introduced him. “So, yeah, so I want to get it out there. I, actually, this isn’t a plug for you, but I am an investor, and I actually think it’s incredible what you’re doing.”
Nobody from the Office of the Mayor has responded for comment. Addy’s head of operations, Kolina Kretzschmar, said the $100,000 settlement and application for registration as an EMD “reflects our ongoing commitment to working within the regulatory framework while continuing to innovate.”
On March 14, Mark Carney took the oath of office and unveiled his Ontario-centric, 24-minister cabinet. It was five days after the Liberal Party leadership coronation. It was also one day after Justin Trudeau said farewell via 30-second social media video.
Mark Carney’s buzzword is building. Is he building a new government or building an election campaign with leftovers from the Trudeau era?
To answer that question and more is guest Mario Canseco of Research Co.
Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and a special St. Patrick’s Day edition of the Virtual Nanaimo Bar.
A man claims he was scammed out of $26 million worth of his Bitcoin by a woman claiming to be a cryptocurrency expert living in Vancouver.
In a Feb. 6 B.C. Supreme Court ruling, released March 13, Justice Bruce Elwood said that Lixiao Wang hired private investigator Gregory Tweed to help him trace cryptocurrency transactions that flowed to Binance Holdings Ltd. and Coinbase Global Inc.
Wang said he made 13 transfers totalling more than $26 million to an account on the weeexproit.com website after he was contacted in early 2024 on WhatsApp by Qin Xin.
Wang attempted to withdraw funds but found his account locked. weeexproit.com staff told him his account had been locked after cyberattacks and offered to perform a security audit if he deposited $6 million.
“Mr. Wang became suspicious and did not comply with this demand,” Eldwood said. “He has since been unable to access his account and unable to recover his funds.”
Wang applied to the court for and received production and preservation orders for information about the identities of the account holders who received the transactions and for the cryptocurrency and fiat funds held by the account holders to be preserved.
At the time of the two-day hearing, Wang had not served the petition and he did not allege wrondgoing by either Binance or Coinbase. But he intends to commence an action against the account holders and possibly others.
Elwood found that Wang showed first impression evidence against the individuals in control of the accounts on Binance and Coinbase, “acting together with Xin to perpetrate a fraudulent scheme to defraud him of his cryptocurrency.”
“I am satisfied that the respondents, Binance and Coinbase, are the only practical source of the personal information identifying the wrongdoers, and the only source of the information identifying the individuals in whose accounts the stolen bitcoin is presently being held,” Elwood concluded.
When Taylor Swift ended the Eras Tour in Vancouver last December, local tourism boosters said it would be a $157 million gold rush for the economy.
So how much did the superstar’s promoter pay to rent money-losing B.C. Place Stadium for the final three nights of her $2 billion grossing tour?
Outside B.C. Place Stadium on Dec. 7, 2024. (Mackin)
It is a state secret.
Under British Columbia’s freedom of information law, theBreaker.news obtained a copy of the license agreement between the taxpayer-owned stadium and the Ontario subsidiary of Swift’s Texas promoter, Messina Touring Group. Attendance for the three shows was a combined 178,042.
What MTG agreed to pay for the Dec. 1-5 move-in, Dec. 6-8 concerts and Dec. 8-10 move-out is censored. B.C. Place claims disclosure would harm its finances and reveal MTG’s trade secrets.
According to the key clause in the Sept. 27, 2024 contract:
Also, B.C. Place management was entitled to receive an undisclosed quantity of free tickets and suites:
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner adjudicators and B.C. Supreme Court judges have repeatedly held that the public has the right to see contracts negotiated between private companies and public bodies.
B.C. Pavilion Corp., the stadium’s parent, forecasts it will end the fiscal year on March 31 with a $2.7 million loss.
