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Bob Mackin

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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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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Bob Mackin

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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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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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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A veteran federal and B.C. Liberal insider who finished fourth in the 2022 Vancouver mayoral election is lobbying the NDP government on behalf of Surrey city hall to keep the RCMP. 

Mark Marissen registered Jan. 5 with a projected end date of March 6 to arrange meetings between Surrey officials and counterparts in the Office of Premier David Eby and the Solicitor General and Municipal Affairs ministries. According to the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists, Marissen’s stated topic of communications is “acting on Surrey city council’s request to maintain the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction in Surrey.”

Christy Clark (left) and Mark Marissen – divorced but always a political couple (Silvester Law/Instagram)

Mayor Brenda Locke ran on a platform last fall to shut down the fledgling Surrey Police Service. A city hall report estimates it would cost another $235 million over five years to finish the cop swap. On Jan. 6, the day after Marissen began lobbying, Locke said that keeping the Surrey Police Service would mean a 55% property tax hike.

Solicitor General Mike Farnworth is considering Surrey’s December-submitted proposal and an announcement is expected before the Legislature reconvenes Feb. 6.

Marissen has a history of acrimonious political battles with the NDP. In the 2013 election, Eby upset his political collaborator and ex-wife, then-Premier Christy Clark, in Vancouver-Point Grey. 

However, Marissen is also a longtime associate of Shannon Salter, Eby’s deputy minister, cabinet secretary and head of the public service. 

In 2005, when Paul Martin was Prime Minister, Marissen was the campaign director for the Liberal Party of Canada in B.C. and Salter in charge of communications. 

It isn’t the first time Surrey city hall has hired a Liberal insider to lobby. In 2016, under Mayor Linda Hepner, Prem Vinning’s Concise Consulting given a $28,800 no-bid contract to arrange meetings aimed at securing federal funding for a light rail transit system.

How much is Surrey paying Marissen for an assignment that could last two months? 

It is a secret, for now. 

Keep the RCMP in Surrey campaigning with Surrey mayoral candidate Brenda Locke (Twitter)

On Jan. 17, a reporter asked Locke’s communications staffers, Oliver Lum and Amy Jugpal, for the maximum value of Marissen’s contract, why he was chosen for the assignment and whether Locke would be available for an interview. 

Instead of answering the questions and scheduling an interview, they arranged for Jai Baska of the freedom of information office to send an email on Jan. 18 demanding a $10 payment. Under the FOI law, public bodies can take 30 business days or longer to provide information to an applicant. 

Locke did not respond to a text message or call to her mobile number. Jugpal later said by email that “Mayor Locke will not be commenting.”

Locke’s platform last fall included a promise to eliminate the $10 FOI fee imposed by former Mayor Doug McCallum and his Safe Surrey Coalition council majority. 

Locke voted against the measure during an early 2022 city council meeting and used the annual international Right to Know Day for universal access to information last Sept. 28 as the backdrop to announce she would end the fee. 

“We believe that access to information should be accessible for everyone, and that’s why we will be dropping the fee for information requests, if elected,” declared Locke in a Surrey Connect campaign news release. “The current fee for each information request is a minimum of $10. The Surrey Connect team sees the fee as a barrier for the public. By eliminating the fee, residents will see we are serious about transparency and good government.”

Locke’s successful campaign to unseat McCallum last Oct. 15 also criticized him for keeping secret the amount he was spending on the team of defence lawyers he retained to fight a public mischief charge. 

A Provincial Court judge acquitted McCallum Nov. 21. Four downtown Vancouver lawyers represented him at the trial, including Richard Peck and Eric Gottardi, who defended Huawei executive Meng Wenzhou in extradition proceedings at B.C. Supreme Court. 

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Bob Mackin A veteran federal and B.C. Liberal

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Orientation briefings from senior bureaucrats, introductions to B.C. and federal cabinet ministers and city council meetings dominated Ken Sim’s first month-and-a-half schedule as Vancouver mayor.

Ken Sim speaking at his Nov. 7, 2022 swearing-in (City of Vancouver)

According to his calendar, Sim started his first full day as the city’s 41st mayor on Nov. 8 with a Global TV interview. He was formally sworn-in the previous afternoon at the Orpheum Theatre. The first week ended with Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Victory Park cenotaph and Chinatown memorial plaza. 

Sim met with Carolyn Bennett, the federal Liberal Minister of Mental Health and Addiction, on Nov. 9 and Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson on Nov. 18. The latter day was one of his busiest, with the swearing-in of David Eby as B.C.’s 37th Premier and meetings with then-Municipal Affairs Minister Nathan Cullen, the weekly get together for senior staff of the city manager’s office and mayor’s office, and his swearing-in as chair of the Vancouver Police Board.

Sim did not attend the Nov. 24 Police Board meeting, because he was in Qatar at the FIFA World Cup on a trip that had been planned prior to his Oct. 15 election victory. 

Despite that, Sim’s calendar makes no mention of taking time out to see Canada’s first tournament appearance in 36 years. For Nov. 23, at the same time as Sim watched Canada outplay Belgium in a 1-0 loss, his calendar shows a council orientation briefing about the civic code of conduct followed by the weekly meeting with the city manager’s office.

Vancouver is one of 16 host cities for the 2026 tournament, but it does not appear that Sim received or generated any records about lessons learned in Qatar that could be applied locally. Freedom of information office staff say there are no records of meetings or correspondence that Sim had with any official of FIFA or the Qatar 2022 organizing committee. A manager from city hall and two police officers attended official FIFA meetings in early December for future hosts. 

The only World Cup-related engagement on Sim’s calendar was a Dec. 8 meet and greet at city hall with Sam Adekugbe, the former Vancouver Whitecap who set up Canada’s second goal, officially recorded as an own goal by a Moroccan defender. 

Ken Sim at the Qatar 2022 World Cup (Ken Sim/Twitter)

Rather than travelling to Ottawa, Sim met virtually with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other big city mayors on Dec. 6, and spoke with the mayors of Coquitlam (Richard Stewart), Burnaby (Mike Hurley) and North Vancouver District (Mike Little) on Nov. 9, Nov. 30 and Dec. 13 respectively, 

The first entry for December, on the 2nd of the month, was a meeting with “G. Clark and D. Watts.” Former Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts was on Sim’s transition team and she is a director with former B.C. Premier Glen Clark on the board of Westshore Terminals, whose biggest shareholder is Jim Pattison. Clark retired without any public announcement in December as the Jim Pattison Group’s president. 

Sim also met that day with real estate marketer Bob Rennie and his vice-president of advisory services, Andrew Ramlo. 

Sim attended the Union Gospel Mission Dec. 3, where he helped serve Christmas dinner to the needy, and later attended the Vancouver Police Department executive’s Christmas reception.

On Dec. 9, the calendar shows a meeting with officials from B.C. Pavilion Corporation, new Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon, a roundtable with Eby, and visit with Port Coquitlam Mayor and new TransLink Mayor’s Council chair Brad West. 

Appointments for Dec. 12 included Canada’s Ambassador to China Jennifer May and Vancouver Coastal Health CEO Vivian Eliopoulos. VCH provides psychiatric nurses to the VPD’s Car 87 program. During the election, Sim promised to hire 100 more cops and nurses. 

The first meeting with one of the city’s labour leaders was Dec. 14 with Warren Williams, president of CUPE local 15. The inside workers union is in the early stages of talks for a new contract. That was the same day as a call with Solicitor General Mike Farnworth. The subject matter was not mentioned, but should Farnworth opt to keep the RCMP in Surrey and shut down the Surrey Police Service, Sim may have a simpler path to fulfilling his police recruitment promise.   

His last day of engagements in the office for the year was Dec. 16, which included a photo shoot for Vancouver Magazine and a retirement reception for Harold Johnson, the Chinatown merchants’ security guard who survived a mugging in August.
Except for a Dec. 21 interview with Mike Howell of Vancouver Is Awesome, Sim had no other engagements listed for the second half of December. 

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