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Bob Mackin A Provincial Court judge adjourned a

Holiday to mourn monarch rare, but costly

Bob Mackin

The cost to British Columbia’s economy for a day to mourn Queen Elizabeth II could have been almost $280 million, had Premier John Horgan declared a statutory holiday.

Canada’s $20 bill with the face of the late Queen Elizabeth II (Bank of Canada)

But it won’t be cheap for the government to shut down for the solemn occasion.

Horgan announced Sept. 13 that schools, colleges, universities, courts and most Crown corporations would be closed Sept. 19. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a day earlier that federal government offices would close. Both stopped short of declaring a full, statutory holiday.

“We encourage private-sector employers to find a way to recognize or reflect on the day in a way that is appropriate for their employees,” Horgan said in a statement.

Economic activity is bound to suffer while public sector employees will benefit. A briefing note produced before British Columbia’s first Family Day holiday in 2013, obtained under freedom of information, cited a formula developed by BMO Capital Markets first used when Ontario adopted Family Day in 2007.

“The Ministry’s rough estimate is that a new statutory holiday could result in reduced economic activity in the range of about $198 million (i.e., the equivalent of approximately 0.1% of provincial Gross Domestic Product),” said the briefing note for the Ministry of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government. “In addition, a February holiday would have a direct fiscal impact on government. The Public Sector Employers’ Council Secretariat has estimated this to be approximately $28 million in additional wage/salary and benefit costs for employers in the broad public sector (0.12% of the public sector compensation base of $22.9 billion).”

B.C.’s real GDP in 2021 was estimated at $279 billion, according to the Ministry of Finance. At 0.1%, that would be $279 million. The cost of government has also risen over the last decade. As of last April, B.C.’s public sector compensation base was $38.6 billion, which would peg the cost of additional wages/salary and benefit costs for a day off at $46.3 million during a period of high inflation.

While the costs are significant amid a pandemic and high inflation, the occasion is rare and historic. Queen Elizabeth II was head of state for 70 of Canada’s 155 years and the previous day off for a monarch’s funeral was Feb. 15, 1952, when King George VI was laid to rest.

Vancouver city hall is closed for a civic holiday. Public services and the 3-1-1 hotline will continue operating. Park Board facilities will open as usual with added options for parents without childcare or youth support. Vancouver Public Libraries will also open.

Richmond city hall and works yard will be closed, but community centres and associated programs will remain open and in place as scheduled, said city hall spokesman Clay Adams.

Vancouver city hall at night (City of Vancouver)

“Garbage, recycling and green cart collection will also remain as scheduled,” Adams said.

Burnaby city hall won’t open and the regular meeting of city council is cancelled out of respect to the Queen’s memory.

The federal government has declared a national day of mourning on the date of the Queen’s funeral, and the Province of BC and several other provinces are also observing this federal holiday. In BC this means that K-12 public schools, public post-secondary institutions and most Crown corporations will also be closed.

TransLink’s communications director Tina Lovgreen said bus, SeaBus, West Coast Express and Canada Line will operate on a standard weekday schedule. SkyTrain will run standard weekday hours with reduced peak service. Bad news for seniors and people with mobility issues: HandyDART will operate on holiday-level service.

“The TransLink customer service centre, access transit customer care office and lost property will be closed. Regular fares will be in effect,” Lovgreen said.

Don Bradley of Metro Vancouver said the regional government will recognize the national day of mourning, “as if it were a statutory holiday, for 2022 only.”

“Our flags at our various sites are at half-mast and will remain so for several days,” Bradley said. “All essential services will continue to be provided to the region without disruption.”

Maria Ladouceur of Canada Border Services Agency said administration offices will close, but border crossings will treat it as a regular Monday.

“Our front line employees will continue their regularly scheduled shifts given that they deliver critical services to Canadians,” Ladouceur said.

Deborah Marshall of BC Ferries said there was already additional service on the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route planned prior to the announcement of the Sept. 19 funeral. “We are not planning to add any extra sailings beyond what was already scheduled,” she said.

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September 15, 2022

Bob Mackin The cost to British Columbia’s economy

Lynn Valley Care Centre hoaxer remains in jail, awaiting sentencing

Bob Mackin

A man who threatened two corrections officers with a syringe before fleeing from Richmond Hospital two years ago was sentenced to time served on Sept. 12.

Richmond Hospital (Mackin)

Judge Derek Mah, in Richmond Provincial Court, gave Taymour Aghtai, 28, a nine-month jail sentence for assault and escaping lawful custody. Mah credited Aghtai with 270 days after serving 180 in custody, based on the time-and-a-half credit. Aghtai remains behind bars to await sentencing for making a hoax call to the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver early in the pandemic.

Court heard that Aghtai had been arrested Sept. 12, 2020 and taken from Richmond RCMP cells to hospital after he told police he had swallowed a bag of drugs. He had a bail hearing while at the hospital and was remanded until Sept. 15, 2020. Aghtai had been unshackled from his hospital bed to go to the bathroom, but took a needle from his arm, pointed it at one of the officers, and asked “do you want to get hep?”, in reference to hepatitis. “I’m getting back out of here, they’re after me,” he said before making a dash for the exit.

The officers chased and shouted at Aghtai, hoping that hospital security would help. Chairs were thrown in Aghtai’s path to no avail. He left the hospital, but police found him a block away, holding a syringe containing blood. He did not resist police orders to drop the syringe.

The court heard that Aghtai has a lengthy criminal record, including a three-year sentence in March 2015 for break and enter, robbery, unlawful confinement and use of an imitation firearm within an indictable offence. Aghtai and another male committed an apartment invasion in April 2014 in which a knife was held to the throat of a victim.

“The scene was quite chaotic and terrifying,” Mah said.

The Crown sought one year in jail — or 243 days time served, which would have amounted to 365 days credit. Aghtai’s lawyer sought six months for the assault charge and two months for the escape from lawful custody to be served concurrently.

Aghtai appeared via video from custody. He told court that he is apologetic and regretted his actions after spending time to think about his aging father and grandparents.

“I haven’t done good and one of my main goals in life is to be good, be a law-abiding, productive member of society,” Aghtai said. “And I know that can’t happen at this second, I know that can’t happen in the next few months. But eventually it can.”

Mah said he took into account the time spent by Aghtai in jail during the pandemic, his remorse, age and earlier diagnoses for obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. He banned Aghtai from possessing firearms for 10 years and ordered him to provide a DNA sample.

Last December, Aghtai pleaded guilty to conveying a false message with intent to alarm after making a hoax phone call to Lynn Valley Care Centre in March 2020 before it was the site of Canada’s first-known death from coronavirus. Aghtai pretended to be a public health officer warning the facility should be closed. His call led to a shift cancellation the next day.

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September 15, 2022

Bob Mackin A man who threatened two corrections

Vancouver election chief asking judge to decide whether candidates can use Chinese characters on civic election ballot

Bob Mackin

The head of Vancouver’s civic election office is going to court Sept. 15 after 15 candidates applied to include their names on the ballot in Chinese characters or other languages.

Ten of the candidates are with the NPA, including Fred Harding, the Beijing-based mayoral candidate, and the party’s only incumbent, Coun. Melissa De Genova.

Chief election officer Rosemary Hagiwara (City of Vancouver)

Chief election officer Rosemary Hagiwara wants a judge to rule on the proper meaning of the term “usual name” contained in the Vancouver Charter. A morning hearing is scheduled for Robson Square Provincial Court.

“This application is not a challenge to any candidate’s entitlement to be a candidate, but simply to use a usual name proposed in their nomination documents,” said Hagiwara’s affidavit.

The court filing said 138 people submitted nomination documents between Aug. 30 and Sept. 9, and 15 of them submitted documents that claim they use a name that is not from Latin alphabet. Hagiwara’s affidavit said she is not aware of any judicial interpretation of the term “usual name” from the Vancouver Charter.

“The Vancouver Charter does not specify that a candidate’s full name or usual name must be in the Latin alphabet, but section 78 of the Vancouver Charter does state that candidate names are to be ordered ‘alphabetically by their surname’.”

Candidates will not be listed alphabetically on the ballot for the Oct. 15 election. The order will be determined by lottery on Sept. 16. Hagiwara’s affidavit noted current and historical inconsistencies and omissions, and said that all candidates must swear “to the best of my knowledge, all information provided in these nomination documents is true.”

Harding did not include a name in Chinese on the ballot when he ran for mayor in 2018 for Vancouver 1st. A Chinese name was also not included on his Sept. 6 nomination form.

On Sept. 8, NPA campaign worker James Letvinchuck emailed Hagiwara to ask why OneCity council candidate Iona Bonamis was using Chinese characters. Bonamis works as a transportation planner at city hall. On Sept. 9, the last day for nominations, Harding was among a group of NPA candidates who added Chinese characters to their forms.

Law Courts Vancouver (Joe Mabel)

According to Hagiwara’s affidavit, an election staff member fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin explained Bonamis’s name could be translated as Tao Sie Wing, her maiden last name and Chinese name. Hagiwara said that she instructed two other officials, deputies Tamarra Wong and Jessica Yee, to inform candidates proposing a “usual name” in another alphabet or language that it could be subject to challenge.

None of the candidates in the 2017 city council by-election used a name in another language and only in two previous elections have candidates listed a non-Latin alphabet name on the ballot. In 2018, Brandon Yan of OneCity included Chinese characters. In 2014, Audrey Siegl of COPE included an Indigenous name. Neither was elected.

Hagiwara referenced an email from NPA co-campaign manager Mike Wilson, less than two hours before Friday’s fling deadline, that explained the meanings of Chinese characters for 10 NPA candidates. On behalf of Harding, Wilson wrote: “Fu is my Chinese last name, Ai – love and Dak – moral.”

Another NPA council hopeful, Ken Charko, ran for office in 2018 but did not seek to include the Chinese characters in that election. NPA council candidate Morning Lee ran for Coalition Vancouver under the name Morning Li in 2018. He did not seek to use Chinese characters then and, like Harding, only revised his documents just before deadline.

NPA school board candidate Milan Kljajic explained in an email to Hagiwara that he has used Chinese characters for his name while working at the Richmond Kiwanis Senior Citizens Housing Society, where many residents do not speak or read English and have a hard time pronouncing his first name.

Vancouver city hall (CoV)

Vision Vancouver school board candidate Allan Wong ran in 2014 and 2018 without Chinese characters, but included Chinese characters in his Sept. 7 nomination documents. Vision Vancouver council candidate Honieh Barzegari used a Farsi font on her form while Forward Together council candidate Tesicca Truong wants to use both Chinese and Vietnamese beside her name on the ballot. Hagiwara asked Truong for clarification, but Truong responded “can you help me understand what you mean by ‘indicate the meaning of the characters’?”

Meanwhile, in a virtual meeting on Sept. 10, Harding told campaign staff that the NPA would rely heavily on Chinese students, under direction from a Mandarin-speaking volunteer director.

“A lot of our volunteers are going to be Chinese students, or families with Chinese speaking communities,” Harding said.

Harding, who is formally Harold Christopher Harding, has lived and worked as a business consultant in Beijing since 2017, after retiring as a police officer and selling a residence in Burnaby. He replaced Park Board commissioner John Coupar, who quit the mayoral campaign on Aug. 4 in a dispute with the party board over support from developer Peter Wall. Harding claimed in his nomination papers that he resides in a Telus Garden condo, but property records show it is owned by a self-described homemaker from West Vancouver.

Harding’s wife is Chinese celebrity singer Zhang Mi, who, after recovering from cancer last year, released a song in praise of the Chinese Communist Party in time for its centennial celebration.

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September 15, 2022

Bob Mackin The head of Vancouver’s civic election

Second man charged with murder in 2020 Richmond Japanese restaurant slaying

Bob Mackin

A second man is accused of first-degree murder in connection to the 2020 killing of a key figure in B.C.’s casino money laundering scandal.

Law Courts Vancouver (Joe Mabel)

Yuexi “Alex” Lei, 37, was originally arrested March 10 on two counts of accessory after the fact and one count of accessory after the fact to murder.

Lei was already in custody when he was served a new warrant for additional charges on Sept. 9. He appeared in B.C. Supreme Court Sept. 12 by video to schedule a one-hour bail hearing on Sept. 22.

“Mr. Lei is now charged with first-degree murder, attempt murder and reckless discharge of a firearm for the September 18, 2020 incidents along with co-accused Richard Reed,” said Daniel McLaughlin, spokesman for the B.C. Prosecution Service.

Last November, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team announced the first-degree murder charge against Reed, 23, for the Sept. 18, 2020, fatal shooting of Jian Jun Zhu, 44.

Reed was also charged with aggravated assault; possessing a firearm with altered serial number; possessing a loaded, prohibited or restricted firearm; unlawful discharge of a firearm; and discharge a firearm with intent to wound/disfigure.

Zhu was shot at the Manzo Japanese Restaurant on Cambie and Capstan in Richmond and died the next day in hospital. A second victim, Paul King Jin, survived.

Zhu was well-known to Richmond RCMP as the man behind the underground Richmond bank Silver International Ltd. that was accused of laundering $200 million annually. A criminal case against Zhu and director Caixuan Qin collapsed in November 2018 and the charges were stayed when federal prosecutors inadvertently exposed the name of an informant.

Paul King Jin (BCLC/Cullen Commission)

Jin was banned from B.C. casinos in 2012, and the B.C. government alleged in a 2020 civil forfeiture lawsuit that he used proceeds of crime to buy a boxing and mixed martial arts gym at the south end of No. 5 Road.

The World Champion Club gym, a kilometre south of the Richmond RCMP headquarters, became the North American training base for China’s national boxing team, hosted social events with local allies of the People’s Republic of China consulate and the Chinese Communist Party, and even a 2019 provincial government news conference featuring then-BC NDP sport minister Lisa Beare.

Commissioner Austin Cullen, in his June-released final report on the B.C. money laundering public inquiry, said the predominant purpose of Jin’s money-lending activity was to facilitate high-stakes gamblers making large cash buy-ins at Lower Mainland casinos. Cullen also found that most, if not all, of the cash left at Silver International “was derived from profit-oriented criminal activity such as drug trafficking.”

Lei’s co-accused Reed was charged separately earlier this year on sexual assault, child pornography and imitation weapons charges stemming from incidents in December 2020 and January 2021.

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Bob Mackin A second man is accused of

NDP set aside $875 million to handle COVID-19 prevention, mitigation

Bob Mackin

The NDP government budgeted $875 million to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, including the next phase of the mass-vaccination program.

The funds are contained in $4.8 billion of contingencies, according to the government’s first quarterly report released Sept. 12.

The $875 million is the biggest portion of the $2 billion set-aside for pandemic health and recovery measures for the fiscal year through March 31, 2023. Another $870 million is available within the pandemic contingencies account, but not earmarked.

B.C. NDP finance minister Selina Robinson tables the 2021-22 budget on April 20 (BC Gov)

The Ministry of Health said that it spent $626 million on the province’s COVID-19 mass-vaccination campaign during the fiscal year that ended on March 31, including the mass-vaccination clinics, call centre and vaccine management database.

B.C. still faces rolling closures or reduced hours at some hospital emergency departments, particularly in rural areas and ongoing staffing challenges at Emergency Health Services.

“We’re still seeing people away sick and that creates a lack of coverage, in some instances,” Minister of Finance Selina Robinson told reporters. “And so that is really a significant challenge. So we do have contingencies built into support, support that work to deliver health care to British Columbia. You’ve also seen deliver more resources [$118 million] to primary care physicians, for example, as an interim measure to help keep their doors open.”

Robinson’s updated budget forecasts a $706 million surplus, a turnaround from a predicted $5.5 billion deficit. Revenue is $9.3 billion higher than projected, at $77.8 billion, driven by increased tax revenue, while the government expects to spend $3.14 billion more, at $74.15 billion. The increased spending includes $1.9 billion for contract settlements with public sector unions, $1 billion for inflation relief payments and $229 million more to fight wildfires.

“It’s important that we recognize that these numbers are based on how things have have been for the first three months of the year, and we’re projecting forward,” Robinson said. “So it’s a forward-looking about how we anticipate but we also know that things can change.”

Robinson’s budget continues to assume economic and job recovery, but ongoing risks from inflation, the pandemic and geopolitical strife, including Russia’s war on Ukraine. Robinson also pinpointed the recent lockdown of 22 million people in Chengdu, China that is expected to further hamper global supply chains.

At the end of August, Robinson released the public accounts for the last fiscal year and reported a $1.3 billion surplus.

Auditor General Michael Pickup issued a qualified opinion, criticizing Robinson for incomplete disclosures and under-reporting. Pickup red-flagged a $6.5 billion surplus discrepancy, because the government continues to use a different accounting standard, more than $1 billion of understated contractual obligations in 2023 and 2024, and $91 million of First Nations gambling revenue sharing that was also understated.

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Bob Mackin The NDP government budgeted $875 million

U.S. enviro charity activist suspected of NDP leadership vote buying also involved with civic party

Bob Mackin

An NDP leadership candidate and supporter under internal investigation for alleged vote buying are also active in Vancouver’s OneCity party.

Atiya Jaffar (left) and Anjali Appadurai (Instagram)

Atiya Jaffar volunteered to pay membership fees for prospective leadership election voters while on an Instagram live event hosted by NDP leadership candidate Anjali Appadurai.

“It’s a handful of people that get to decide who our next premier is,” Jaffar told viewers. “Message me if you need the $10, because I’m happy to provide that for you.”

Section 255 of the Election Act states that an individual or organization must not give, pay, lend or induce an individual to vote for or against a particular candidate. Sept. 4 was the deadline to sign-up new members to decide whether Appadurai or frontrunner David Eby should replace the returning John Horgan as premier later this fall.

Appadurai and Jaffar both signed the nomination papers for OneCity city council candidate Iona Bonamis, who works for Vancouver city hall as a transportation planner.

The campaign director for OneCity admits both have also had a role in the OneCity campaign, but only Appadurai is a member of the party.

“Neither has a paid role on the campaign,” said Alex McGowan. “In recent months, both have joined us, alongside many other volunteers, for canvassing and mainstreeting events to speak to voters. However, as far as I know, Ms. Appadurai has not volunteered with us since the beginning of her campaign.”

Bonamis is one of 10 city council candidates in the Oct. 15 civic election, including four from OneCity, who were endorsed by the Vancouver and District Labour Council’s political action committee.

In 2018, Christine Boyle was the only OneCity candidate elected to city council.

Shut Down Canada Tweets from Atiya Jaffar, a digital campaigner since 2015 with 350.org.

Jaffar has not responded for comment.

Jaffar is the senior digital specialist at 350.org, a U.S.-based environmental charity that organizes anti-oil and gas pipeline protests. Jaffar was integral in the Shut Down Canada campaign in the first quarter of 2020, when she used social media platforms to promote illegal blockades at the Port of Vancouver, Deltaport, the Granville Bridge and on CP Rail tracks in East Vancouver. She was also involved in the 2020 sit-in at Eby’s Point Grey riding office.

Appadurai entered the leadership contest Aug. 10 after saying that she raised the $40,000 entry fee in a matter of minutes during an online event with supporters. The registered lobbyist with the David Suzuki Institute ran for the federal NDP and narrowly lost to Liberal Taleeb Noormohamed in the Vancouver Granville riding during the 2021 federal election.

Previous vote-buying scandals in NDP and BC Liberal leadership races have not resulted in disqualifications.

In 2011, Vancouver Kensington NDP MLA Mable Elmore was caught on video stapling $10 bills to membership forms sold by the campaign of eventual victor Adrian Dix. Earlier this year, opponents of Kevin Falcon alleged the eventual BC Liberal leadership winner was providing prepaid debit cards to pay for new memberships.

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Bob Mackin An NDP leadership candidate and supporter

Kennedy Stewart faces 14 challengers in Oct. 15 civic election

Bob Mackin

Mayor Kennedy Stewart is facing 14 challengers in the Oct. 15 Vancouver election.

The Aug. 30-Sept. 9 candidate registration window closed at 4 p.m. on Sept. 9, but Vancouver city hall’s election office did not officially declare the candidates’ list until after 11 p.m.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart (Mackin)

Ten of Stewart’s challengers are fringe candidates, due to the low-barrier for entry: a $100 deposit and signatures from a minimum 25 qualified electors.

Four challengers represent elector organizations registered with Elections BC: Fred Harding (NPA), Colleen Hardwick (TEAM for a Livable Vancouver), Mark Marissen (Progress Vancouver) and Ken Sim (ABC Vancouver).

Candidates with second thoughts about running have until 4 p.m. Sept. 16 to remove themselves from the ballot. That is also the deadline for an eligible voter, another candidate or the chief election officer to legally challenge a candidate’s nomination or party endorsement.

Censored versions of candidate nomination papers and conflict of interest disclosure statements are available on the civic website. Unredacted versions can only be viewed during business hours in-person at the city election office.

Sim fell 957 votes shy of independent former NDP MP Stewart in 2018. Since then, Stewart has formed his own party, Forward Together, and Sim left the NPA to lead ABC Vancouver.

Forward Together announced its star candidate earlier on deadline day: Jeanette Ashe, Stewart’s wife who was the NDP’s runner-up in April’s Vancouver-Quilchena by-election to BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon.

Collen Hardwick (Mackin)

TEAM leader Hardwick is the only elected official challenging Stewart. She was elected to city council on Sim’s ticket in 2018, but left the NPA after the party chose John Coupar behind closed doors last year. Coupar quit as mayoral candidate in early August. By the end of the month, Fred Harding parachuted in from Beijing to take the reins of the NPA. Harding ran with Vancouver 1st in 2018 and registered 5,640 votes, contributing to Sim’s defeat and causing the NPA to fall one seat shy of a council majority.

In 2022, the NPA’s only incumbent candidate is Coun. Melissa De Genova after incumbent Park Board Commissioner Tricia Barker defected to TEAM. Prospective NPA Park Board candidate Ray Goldenchild, who complained to the board after an argument with Barker in late July, did not register. He told supporters he will volunteer for Harding instead.

The Vancouver and District Labour Council political action committee endorsed Stewart and two of his Forward Together candidates, along with incumbents Christine Boyle (OneCity), Adriane Carr, Pete Fry and Michael Wiebe (Green) and Jean Swanson (COPE).

Vision Vancouver, the party that ruled the city for a decade until 2018, is attempting a comeback, with five candidates for city council, including former Park Board commissioners Stuart Mackinnon and John Irwin.

In Surrey, B.C.’s second-biggest city, it is almost as competitive for the top job. Controversial Mayor and Safe Surrey Coalition leader Doug McCallum faces seven challengers, four of whom are veteran politicians: Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, ex-Liberal MP/BC Liberal MLA Gordie Hogg, Coun. Brenda Locke and NDP MLA Jinny Sims.

Also running are Amrit Birring, Kuldip Pelia and John Wolanski.

Next door in Delta, Mayor George Harvie of Achieving for Delta has two challengers: Joginder Randhawa and Peter Van Der Velden.

Clockwise, from upper left: Sims, McCallum, Hogg, Dhaliwal and Locke.

Across the Fraser River in Richmond, it’s the same. Mayor Malcolm Brodie, the longest-serving mayor across Metro Vancouver, is hoping to defeat RITE Richmond’s John Roston and independent Wei Ping Chen, who resides in Burnaby.

It is also a three-way race in New Westminster to replace Jonathan Cote. City councillors Patrick Johnstone of Community First and independent Chuck Puchmayr versus Ken Armstrong of New West Progressives.

In the North Vancouvers, a pair of head-to-heads:

City Mayor Linda Buchanan against Guy Heywood, who is making his second run at the job.

In the District, incumbent mayor Mike Little is facing-off against veteran councillor Matthew Bond.

The field is even more-crowded in West Vancouver, where ex-Mayor Mark Sager is trying for another comeback after losing by a scant 21 votes in a 2018 recount to Mary-Ann Booth.

Instead of running for council again, Marcus Wong is seeking the top job. The fourth contestant is real estate agent Teresa De Cotiis.

Meanwhile, Port Coquitlam’s Brad West and Burnaby’s Mike Hurley were both acclaimed for their second terms.

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Now on Google Podcasts!

Bob Mackin Mayor Kennedy Stewart is facing 14

Business, News, Opinion

thePodcast: Countdown to Vancouver’s civic election

For the week of Sept. 11, 2022:

It’s MMA time again: Mackin-Mario-Andy.

theBreaker.news Podcast host Bob Mackin, ResearchCo pollster Mario Canseco and Simon Fraser University city program director Andy Yan, that is.

The topic: setting the stage for Vancouver’s Oct. 15 civic election.

Stewart vs. Sim, 2.0

Is the NPA beyond its best before date?

The wildcard: Colleen Hardwick.

Plus Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim headlines and a virtual Nanaimo bar for a difference maker.

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

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theBreaker.news Podcast

thePodcast: Countdown to Vancouver's civic election

00:00 / 00:33:07

September 11, 2022

For the week of Sept. 11, 2022:

IOC president says schedule for choosing 2030 Winter Olympics host “in the hands” of subcommittee

Bob Mackin

The International Olympic Committee’s president said Sept. 9 that next steps in choosing a host for the 2030 Winter Olympics are “in the hands” of the Future Host Commission for the Olympic Winter Games.

On Sept. 8, the executive board delayed the 2023 session, including the 2030 host decision, from next May to September, citing a governance crisis at India’s national Olympic committee, which was scheduled to host the IOC’s next annual meeting in Mumbai.

IOC President Thomas Bach on Sept. 9, 2022 (IOC/YouTube)

Speaking after the executive board’s meeting at headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thomas Bach told reporters that it will be up to the subcommittee, chaired by Romanian IOC member and European rugby executive Octavian Morariu, whether to stick to a schedule that called for closed-door talks to begin in December with bidders.

Vancouver, Salt Lake City and Sapporo, Japan are exploring bids for 2030.

“We have taken this decision just yesterday, and have informed the chair of the commission only, I think, yesterday evening or today in the course of the day,” Bach said. “So they will have to take these into consideration and then come up with a schedule. This is in their hands.”

The delay comes amid turmoil in Japan and B.C.

The host country of last year’s Summer Olympics is wrestling with a corruption scandal involving a former Tokyo organizing committee executive.

In B.C., new municipal councils are to be elected in proposed hosts Vancouver, Whistler, Richmond and Sun Peaks on Oct. 15. The Canadian Olympic Committee awaits a decision later this fall from the B.C. NDP government whether it will fund another Games and cover any deficits. It could take the NDP until early December to decide whether to replace retiring Premier John Horgan with David Eby or Anjali Appadurai. Eby was a critic of Vancouver 2010 security spending while working as the B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director.

COC president Tricia Smith did not respond for comment, but the COC sent a statement that read: “Working under the leadership of Lil’wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, the BC2030 Feasibility Team is focused on the Indigenous-led domestic assessment process. We are continuing to work with partners on determining the feasibility of moving forward with a potential bid to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games back to Canada and will discuss any impacts to international process with the IOC in the coming weeks.”

Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith (left) and Four Host First Nations executive director Tewanee Joseph (second from left) at the Dec. 10 bid exploration announcement (Twitter/Tewanee Joseph)

Last month, the COC delivered a proposal requested by Tourism, Art, Culture and Sport Minister Melanie Mark, who wanted to know whether all partners, including the first nations, would share in the costs and risks.

The COC estimated Vancouver 2030 would cost $4 billion, including at least $1 billion from taxpayers. It proposes reusing most of the Vancouver 2010 venues in Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler, with the exception of the Agrodome for curling, Hastings Racecourse for big air skiing and snowboard jumping and Sun Peaks resort near Kamloops for snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

The 2010 Games are believed to have cost $8 billion, all-in. The true costs are unknown, because the Auditor General never did a post-Games study, the organizing committee was not subject to the freedom of information law and its board minutes and financial files won’t be open to the public at the City Archives until fall 2025.

Meanwhile, Bach said IOC finances are “in a pretty good position,” noting that rights-holding broadcasters and global sponsors are “very loyal to the IOC, while facing their own challenges.”

He said the IOC has drawn on reserves and is making efforts to reduce expenses to battle inflation, starting with procurement and supply chain departments.

“So I can say that, for the IOC, there is no reason to panic,” Bach said. “We are, considering the worldwide financial and economic crisis, pretty stable and confident that we remain very financially stable, and we’ll be able to support the athletes as it has been planned.”

The IOC went ahead with the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in February, despite the pandemic and despite the diplomatic boycott from several western nations, including Canada, over China’s human rights record. Bach was asked for his reaction to an Aug. 31 report from the United Nations Human Rights commissioner, who accused China of serious human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

“We have, of course, taken out of this report,” Bach said. “With regard to the Olympic Winter Games, Beijing 2022, which fall within our remit, the IOC worked together with the Organizing Committee to ensure that all the obligations in the host city contract were met, and if you read the report, there by the UN High Commissioner, and you look into the recommendations, which are directed to the wider society, there is the call there, for the respect of the UN [guiding principles], and this is what we are doing.”

The IOC recommended Russian and Belarusian athletes be excluded from international events, due to the invasion of Ukraine, but has taken no action against China over Xinjiang.

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September 10, 2022