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Bob Mackin

The CEO of BC Housing is retiring, less than a month after the board was replaced in the wake of a damning report about mismanagement of the Crown social housing corporation. 

Shayne Ramsay, who spent 26 years with BC Housing, and was CEO since May 2000, said he celebrated his 61st birthday in July and wants to spend more time with family. His last day will be Sept. 6.

Ramsay (BC Housing)

In a 10-part Tweet thread midday Aug. 2, Ramsay said “something shifted” on May 7, after a neighbour was bowled over by two men who had allegedly committed murder at the CRAB Park homeless camp. He said the last straw was the July 30 Vancouver Police shooting of a man alleged to have seriously injured a police officer on the Downtown Eastside. 

“I think the shooting on Hastings Street, surrounded by the encampment and during another heat wave, finally did it for me,” Ramsay wrote. “I no longer have confidence I can solve the complex problems facing us at BC Housing.”

Ramsay also referred to the July 25 rampage shooting in Langley, which killed a homeless man and a man in social housing, and the July 26 public hearing on the controversial Arbutus social housing tower. He claimed he was swarmed and threatened by opponents after he spoke with reporters. A majority of Vancouver city council approved the project two days later.

It took housing ministry officials four hours to respond to a query for comment on Ramsay’s announcement, but they did not indicate in the four-paragraph statement whether there had been a board of directors meeting.

“The BC Housing board will immediately begin work to identify a new CEO to lead the organization into the future,” said the statement, attributed to Murray Rankin, the Acting Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing.

“Shayne Ramsay has dedicated many years to the challenging work of CEO at BC Housing. In his retirement announcement today, he mentioned his desire to spend time with family,” said the statement. 

The other two paragraphs were about the NDP’s housing strategy since taking power in 2017 and aspirations to expand affordable housing. Rankin, coincidentally, was officially designated the housing minister on Aug. 2, almost two weeks after predecessor David Eby said he was stepping down in a bid to succeed the retiring John Horgan. 

While Ramsay referred to a litany of external turmoil for his retirement decision, there was no shortage of problems inside BC Housing under his watch. 

On July 8 at 6:35 p.m., Eby announced the firing of a majority of the board and the immediate appointment of two current and two former deputy ministers and a former acting auditor general to implement the recommendations of a May 10 report by Ernst and Young. Eby has since resigned in a bid to become NDP leader and succeed John Horgan as premier. 

Attorney General Eby (Mackin)

The Ernst and Young report, called Financial Systems and Operational Review of BC Housing, was dated May 10, but kept secret until June 30. 

The report said BC Housing suffers a siloed approach to delivery, has made limited investments in IT infrastructure and resources, and its project administration is largely undocumented and does not include a risk-based approach.

The report also described a perfect storm of increased homelessness and encampments along with demands to house mentally ill and addicted clients amid a competitive job market.

BC Housing’s budget grew from $782 million in 2017-2018, the first year of the NDP government, to $1.9 billion in 2020-2021. The NDP committed to $7 billion more over 10 years

and expanded borrowing power from $165 million to $2.8 billion. Despite the funding windfall, BC Housing became one of the first major Crown corporations to adopt the controversial, non-refundable $10-per-application freedom of information fee enacted last fall by the NDP majority.

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth ordered B.C. Coroners Service on July 21 to hold an inquest into the deaths of two people in the April 11 fire at the Winters Hotel in Gastown. 

The demolished property was funded by BC Housing and managed by Atira, an organization run by Ramsay’s wife Janice Abbott. 

For more than a decade, Ramsay has been dogged by questions about his marriage to Abbott. They disclosed their relationship to the BC Housing board in 2010 and managed the conflict of interest according to a June 2010 protocol that was updated last November. 

Under that protocol, Ramsay agreed not to communicate with any employee or board member about Atira and to recuse himself from, and avoid any discussions or decisions about anything directly related to Atira. He also agreed not to access any BC Housing information directly related to Atira, except that which is of general application or already in the public domain.

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Bob Mackin The CEO of BC Housing is

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For the week of July 31, 2022:

Meet Leo Seewald, Taiwan’s newest video star.

Leo Seewald, the Happy Fisherman on TaiwanPlus, at Go Fish in Vancouver on July 13, 2022 (Mackin)

He is the Happy Fisherman on the TaiwanPlus show of the same name.

The former Vancouverite is now Taiwanese, speaks Mandarin and has an ambitious goal: to sail in all 250 of Taiwan’s fishing harbours and document his journeys, the people he meets and the seafood he catches and eats.

When Leo visited Vancouver in July, theBreaker.news Podcast host Bob Mackin caught up with him for a seafood lunch at Go Fish and walk around the False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf.

On this edition, hear the story of how Leo became the Happy Fisherman. 

Also, headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest. 

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 July 31, 2022: Meet

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Bob Mackin

In one of its final moves before the civic election campaign’s official kickoff, Vancouver city council decided to give up the $500,000 deposit paid by the Montreal-based promoter of the cancelled electric car race and festival, on the condition that it use the money to refund ticket buyers, suppliers and/or sponsors.

The 2018-2022 Vancouver City Council (City of Vancouver)

Officially known as Canadian E-Fest, the event was scheduled for June 30-July 2 and it was to include a Nickelback concert, an environmental conference and the ABB Formula E World Championship race.

Promoter One-Stop Strategy Group (OSS) failed to secure all necessary permits to use land around East False Creek, so the event was cancelled in late April. OSS lost its contract in June with U.K.-based Formula E, which did not include Vancouver in the 2023 race calendar.

“Questions about funds being paid or refunded by OSS to ticket-holders, suppliers, sponsors, and/or other potential creditors should be directed to OSS,” said city hall’s July 29 announcement. 

OSS CEO Matthew Carter declined comment when reached by a reporter. He recently said ticket holders would receive refunds, but refused to say when, citing unspecified legal restrictions.

Clauses in the Jan. 26 contract between city hall and OSS, obtained under freedom of information, allowed city hall to keep the full sum.

“It is correct that, according to the Host City Agreement, OSS’s performance security payments were not refundable to OSS, whether the July 2022 event took place or not,” confirmed city hall senior communications specialist Kai-lani Rutland. “However, because the event did not ultimately take place, it was city council’s view that it would be appropriate to return these funds so that they could be applied to refunding and/or paying ticket-holders, suppliers, sponsors and other creditors involved with the cancelled event.

OSS Group’s Matthew Carter (LinkedIn)

The agreement said the city was entitled to draw down on the deposit “at any time and from time to time” to reimburse taxpayers for any and all costs under the agreement. In the event of termination of the agreement due to the promoter’s default, the portion of the deposit intended to subsidize local musicians and as many as 20 car charging stations for community centres was non-refundable.

Had the event happened, the city would have been obliged to return any remaining balance within 180 days after the event. 

OSS was responsible for all costs of producing the event, including city engineering and policing. The choice of summer’s first long weekend meant OSS was also on the hook for city staff overtime costs.

“[OSS] recognizes it is a ‘late-comer’ event that has selected a location and date typically blacked out for new major events; specifically, the downtown core on Canada Day long weekend and has declined recommendations by the city to select a date that is not ‘blacked out’,” said the contract.

Map of the proposed route for the Vancouver Formula E race.

“Furthermore, the organizer recognizes that it was informed that the selection of the Canada Day long weekend could increase costs due to resource constraints and has selected the event dates knowing that risk.”

The parties agreed to “maintain an open book policy towards each other” and provide each other full inspection rights to all records relating to the event. But the financial terms and timelines in the contract were redacted from the copy released by the city hall FOI office, under a section of the law dealing with fear of harm to a third-party’s business interests. The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has consistently upheld the public’s right to see entire government contracts with private companies. 

OSS was also required to create a community benefits agreement. The city suggested that include affirmative action hiring of women in trades and Indigenous people and procuring of goods and services from “social impact and/or equity-seeking businesses.” To measure the community benefits agreement and the tourism and economic impact of the event, the city also required hiring independent third-party monitors to conduct separate reviews. Had Canadian E-Fest gone ahead, city hall ultimately wanted to know whether it aligned and supported council priorities about affordability, diversity, equity, reconciliation and climate change. 

Coun. Michael Wiebe (left) and Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung in 2018 (Mackin)

In return for all that, OSS agreed to give city hall space for community engagement and fundraising activities with a footprint of no less than 20 feet by 20 feet, “in a location having comparable frontage, visibility and accessibility as that of the organizer’s sponsors.”

Green Party Coun. Mike Wiebe and ABC Vancouver Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung co-sponsored the April 2021 city council motion to bring Formula E to Vancouver. They did not immediately respond for comment.

The deposit refund announcement came the day after the 2018-elected city council held its last scheduled meeting before the Oct. 15 civic election. 

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Bob Mackin In one of its final moves

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Bob Mackin

A scathing independent review of the Canadian Soccer Association found national women’s under-20 head coach Bob Birarda operated without oversight and had too much power.

Bob Birarda in 2005 (CSA)

Birarda, 55, awaits the completion of his Provincial Court sentencing after pleading guilty to three counts of sexually assault players and one count of touching a young person for sexual purpose. In June, a Crown lawyer asked a judge for two years less a day.

In the 125-page report released July 28, world-renowned University of Western Ontario sports law professor Richard McLaren said part-time CSA employee Birarda’s unilateral control was described by several players on the 2008 squad as being “God-like.”

“With no one directing or overseeing him, and given his expansive personality, power, influence, and control over the U-20-Women’s National Team and its players, Birarda ran the team as he saw fit, moved players around at his whim, and engaged in what should have been identified by CSA as highly questionable if not flatly proscribed relationships, communications, and activities with his female players (e.g. sexting, flirting, discussing personal relationships, making sexual overtures, going out at night with players, total disregard for the rule of two, and blurring of other professional boundaries).”

In an early 2019 blog report, former player Ciara McCormack blew the whistle on Birarda’s return to coaching youth soccer, which led to the criminal investigation of Birarda and the review by McLaren. McLaren is best-known for investigating widespread, government-sanctioned Russian doping at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. 

Richard McLaren (UWO)

“Quite damning on the conduct of those in leadership in Canada Soccer in 2008,” McCormack said. “And, honestly, sickening on a human level that so many could cover up and minimize such egregious behaviour for so many years despite being warned many times.” 

At the time, Birarda was also an assistant on the Beijing 2008 Olympics team and the head coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps W-League team. McLaren found senior CSA officials in 2008 had a complete lack of familiarity with the CSA harassment policy. They also gave players no training or education to identify or report harassment.

McLaren said there was no written operating agreement between the Whitecaps and the CSA women’s team program that year while the association was going through executive leadership upheaval. Governance was characterized by a “dangerous lack of attention to planning and accountability matters.”

The CSA was in the late stages of a three-year agreement made in 2006 with the Greg Kerfoot Family Trust to provide financial support to the women’s national team program. Kerfoot paid players $20,000 a year, which was topped up to $38,000 to $40,000 with Sport Canada funding.  

“The strength of the relationship between the Whitecaps and the CSA was not simply predicated on a financial arrangement. It also benefitted from the CSA moving the WNT  program from Toronto to Vancouver,” McLaren wrote.

Senior team head coach Even Pellerud and his wife rented a West Vancouver mansion owned by Kerfoot. The Whitecaps and CSA were located on the same floor of an office building owned by Kerfoot in 2007. As many as 25 players listed on the 2008 Whitecaps roster were affiliated with the U-20 team and many of them lived in a Vancouver apartment building called the Monteray. The Whitecaps also provided a unit for team and coach meetings, in which Birarda temporarily lived. 

A player on both teams complained in May 2008 that Birarda was sending inappropriate, sexually-charged emails. The CSA’s general secretary told Pellerud to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Whitecaps’ owner Greg Kerfoot (Santa Ono, Twitter)

Lawyer Anne Chopra was retained to conduct an investigation from late August 2008 to early October 2008. Chopra did not cooperate with McLaren’s investigation. McLaren found her review took place over 11 days and many former players on the under-20 team were not invited to participate and others claimed a lack of followup. The CSA and Whitecaps jointly suspended Birarda on Oct. 3, 2008, but McLaren found no written minutes of CSA board decisions about Birarda. 

Chopra verbally recommended Birarda no longer be allowed to coach the teams “based on a continuing pattern of harassing behaviour and power imbalance.” Five days later, Birarda sent a written resignation on Oct. 8, 2008 and the parties agreed to a mutual parting of ways, rather than firing.

“The generic public statement issued by the CSA following Birarda’s departure did not acknowledge Birarda’s harassment or the recommendations of the Ombudswoman,” McLaren wrote. “The CSA Executive Committee’s intent to terminate Birarda was communicated as a ‘mutual parting of ways’ which mischaracterised,. if not glossed over, the real circumstances surrounding his departure.”

Little information was shared with players, though some went to a meeting where new coach Ian Bridge read a Birarda-drafted “self-serving statement” that referred to family and health challenges, but not the real reason for his departure. Players were left angry and taken aback as to Chopra’s investigation process and outcomes, McLaren wrote. 

McLaren made 38 recommendations, including a whistleblower policy, better regulation, oversight and discipline of coaches, and governance reform, including better record-keeping and “complete transparency, and thus accountability, of Executive Committee and Board and Judicial Committee decisions in all Safe Sport matters.” 

In a July 28 statement, recently appointed CSA general secretary Earl Cochrane unequivocally apologized for letting players down in 2008.

“We accept the findings outlined in the McLaren Report, and more importantly, we accept all recommendations and commit publicly to review, adopt, and enhance those recommendations,” said Cochrane’s statement. 

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Bob Mackin A scathing independent review of the

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Bob Mackin

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia spent $23.98 million on salaries and expenses for claims lawyers, paralegals and assistants in the fiscal year ended March 31, a drop of $2.01 million from the first year of the pandemic.

ICBC’s North Vancouver headquarters (LinkedIn)

Documents obtained via freedom of information from the public-owned basic auto insurance monopoly showed there were 343 people employed in the claims legal services department between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 at a cost of $25.99 million. Last year, the number employed dropped to 299. 

Despite that, the top 10 highest-paid senior managers received pay raises, four of them in the double-digits.

Director of claims programs and strategies Christopher Ryan topped the pay parade at $224,386 in salary. He filed only $46.39 in expense claims. Director of claims and legal services Robert Warner’s salary was $210,538, followed by the manager of claims legal services knowledge management, Robert McCullough. His $194,672 salary was a whopping 24% more than the previous year.

“Any increases in salary for individual employees can be tied directly to promotions and performance-based increases,” said ICBC spokesman Brent Shearer.

Shearer said ICBC is not alone with challenges to attract and retain employees in a tight labour market, but changes in staffing levels were not directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

David Eby, who led ICBC’s switch to no-fault insurance. (BC Gov)

“Where possible, we moved to a virtual working environment and continued operating business as usual,” he said. “That said, our expenses during the pandemic went down as a result of more litigation activities being conducted virtually rather than in-person.”

Budget and staffing numbers for the current fiscal year are comparable with the last, he said.

The department’s 2021 organization chart covers 24 pages, while 2022’s totals 21 pages. 

The total cost of claims services was $395.09 million through March 31, 2021, down from $406.47 million in 2020.

Richard McCandless, a retired senior B.C. government bureaucrat who analyzes performance of Crown corporations, said ICBC continues to grapple with a multiyear backlog of claims, even after changing its business model in May 2021.

“They’re not talking about no-fault resulting in a significant drop in their claims staffing and I interpret that to mean that they’re trying to keep the people there to to reduce the backlog of claims, because we’ve got quite a buildup of claims pending,” McCandless said.

In an April analysis, McCandless noted the decline in settled property damage claims in 2020-2021 reflected the reduction in claims due to COVID-19. But the increase in settled injury claims last year may reflect the lower intake of new claims which allowed ICBC staff to focus on the pending claims.

ICBC is also exploring alternative means to reduce the backlog, such as the 25-case pilot project through the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre for disputes valued at no more than $200,000. 

“In their presentation to the Utilities Commission, they weren’t really forecasting any kind of major reduction in the claims business — both staffing and other operations,” McCandless said. “I think they’re taking the opportunity to go after the backlog.”

In the most-recent fiscal year, $7,040.08 was the highest expense tab for one employee. Otherwise, expenses in the department averaged $1,106.44. A total of 141 employees, mostly paralegals and legal assistants, had no expense claims for the year. In 2020-2021, the highest was $11,740.98. But the department-wide average was $845.16 and 148 staff had no expenses charged. 

In 2021, there were  47 vacancies, including 18 legal assistant litigation jobs, seven in paralegal and six in the “Counsel IV” designation. At the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2022, 17 of the 37 vacancies were in legal assistant litigation and five in paralegal.

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Claims Legal Services Org Chart by Bob Mackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia

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Bob Mackin

A Surrey woman described in an Instagram video how she discovered the gunman who went on a deadly rampage in Langley over six hours early Monday was the same, troubled 28-year-old who lived on her property. 

Charity Ciszek said that after receiving the broadcast text message from the RCMP at 6:19 a.m., she had an eerie feeling it was Jordan Daniel Goggin, the tenant of the coach house at her two-storey house near Shannon Park in the East Clayton North neighbourhood.

Jordan Daniel Goggin (IHIT)

“Then I thought to myself, oh my god, I wonder if it’s him. And then the SWAT team shows up at my house, and then cops show up my house,” Ciszek said.

Goggin was killed in a shootout with police at RioCan Langley Centre near 200th Street and Highway 10, after he was alleged to have killed two people and wounded two others. The Independent Investigations Office is probing Goggin’s interaction with police. 

Ciszek said that Goggin had been recently acting erratically. She had noticed he was “going a little bit crazy” during his last two weeks, “like saying ‘I’m f’d up, I’m f’d up’.” 

“You know, it just breaks my heart because I could feel the pain in him, I could see he was so lost, and I obviously didn’t do anything about it,” she said. “And it’s really tragic what happened to him, but at least he’s at peace now. And the two people that passed away, you know, I send them love as well, and the two people in critical [care], I hope that this changes their life around for the better.”

Ciszek hopes the tragedy is a wakeup call to say hello to neighbours and care for their mental wellbeing.

“I just hope that he’s peaceful now in a better place. Because from what I saw, he was really broken and really hurt and very confused.”

Police have not commented on Goggin’s whereabouts prior to the first shooting scene outside Cascades Casino, but Google Maps show that his residence was six kilometres, or a 12-minute drive, from the Cascades Casino.

Cascades Casino (Google Maps)

 

Four individuals were shot, two fatally at Creekstone Place and the Langley City bus loop, during the rampage, which began around midnight. No information has been released about the weapon he used. 

On Tuesday afternoon, IHIT said that Goggin, who drove a white, four-door Mazda sedan, was six-foot-one, 68 kilograms with light brown hair and a slight goatee. He wore a black t-shirt and board shorts before changing into brown overalls and a short-sleeve, camouflage t-shirt. IHIT is hoping additional witnesses will come forward and to learn the motive for the rampage. 

Victim services teams from Langley RCMP and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) are hosting a community outreach event Tuesday at Nickomekl Elementary School today. Crisis counsellors will be on-hand. 

Goggin’s name does not appear in the province’s online criminal courts registry. Lee said he was known to police, but vaguely described it as “non-criminal contact.” 

While Goggin had no apparent criminal charges prior to July 25, he was the defendant in a vehicle crash lawsuit scheduled for a five-day B.C. Supreme Court trial in February 2023 in New Westminster. 

A woman claimed in civil court filings that she suffered knee, leg, shoulder and arm injuries and accused Goggin of driving a 2010 Dodge Journey negligently on Sept. 15, 2018. Goggin allegedly crossed over a pedestrian island at an intersection and struck the front of the plaintiff’s vehicle. Goggin, who was represented by an ICBC lawyer, denied the allegations. Goggin’s address listed on the November 2020 lawsuit is at a residence beside Don Christian Park in Cloverdale.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Paul Formby, said he was on holiday and did not recall the details of the case or anything about Goggin. 

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Bob Mackin A Surrey woman described in an

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Bob Mackin

A former cabinet minister who oversaw B.C. Corrections says the North Fraser Pretrial Centre escape of Rabih Alkhalil and how the RCMP has communicated about the incident have dealt another blow to public confidence in the justice system.

Escaped gangster Rabih Alkhalil (RCMP)

Coquitlam RCMP said Alkhalil, 35, was dressed in a black jumpsuit and high visibility vest when he left in a white Ford Econoline van at 6:48 p.m. July 21 with two men posing as contractors. The next day, RCMP released photographs of the alleged accomplices and claimed they had identified them. RCMP was forced to admit July 23 that the photographs were not of the suspects, but stock photos published around the internet that resemble the suspects. 

“I have never in my 32 years in policing, and my time since policing, seen such an inept investigation on a suspected murderer that has escaped from one of our secure institutions,” said Kash Heed, the Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister in 2009 and 2010. 

“I visited that institution, you just have to look at the incredible surveillance system that they have there, the quality of that system, and how could you not have images of individuals that assisted in that escape not available to the public,” Heed said. “But you have photos taken off the internet, that are not even them, that you publish as accomplices to the escape?”

Heed said there are overlapping security systems and checks and balances. 

Kash Heed (Mackin)

“For you to get into the facility or anywhere near where some of the prisoners would be, especially some of these high risk prisoners, you will have gone through several surveillance systems or you ought to have gone through several surveillance systems, which would have captured your image,” Heed said.

The public deserves a full explanation, including for the delay in issuing the original bulletin about the escape and the confusion created by the publication of fake identification of the suspects.

“[Alkhalil] obviously had a well-planned escape plan, and who knows where he is right now, whether he is sitting low and waiting for things to calm down, or he’s already made his way to another country,” Heed said. “Will we ever know? I’m not sure. But do we have confidence that the investigation will lead us or give us the answers? No, I don’t have the confidence in it.”

Alan Mullen, who was chief of staff to former Legislature Speaker Darryl Plecas, spent 10 years as a correctional manager for Kent Institution and frequently visited North Fraser Pretrial Centre for inmate transfers between the federal and B.C. systems.

Fake ID released by RCMP (upper left and lower right) compared with images found on obscure websites.

“We definitely have more questions than answers at this point, it’s not clear whether these two accomplices even entered the institution, it’s not clear whether they were on the compound or just outside the fence, whether they were in the building, we don’t know, how deep they actually got in,” Mullen said. “We do know if given the reports that a blowtorch was used and one of the fences was compromised.”

While Solicitor General Mike Farnworth has said there will be an investigation, Mullen said it needs to be independent and conducted by someone who is from out of province and who knows the corrections system, in order to prevent another escape.

In November 2007, it was an inside job. Omid Tahvili escaped North Fraser Pretrial Centre with help of guard Edwin Ticne. Tahvili was sentenced to 11-years in absentia for kidnapping. Ticne was sentenced to three years in prison.

Mullen said Alkhalil’s escape should also spark dialogue about whether to hold violent criminals and gang associates for long periods of time in a place like suburban North Fraser or at a higher-security federal institution in a rural area. 

“I think there’s an opportunity to house them at a facility that’s better equipped to handle that level of, inmate high-profile, whether it be at Matsqui Institution or Kent or Mountain. You can still be on pretrial status, you can still be on a provincial status, you’re not, inhibiting their rights or freedoms, any more than you would at North Fraser, they just happen to be housed at a facility that’s better equipped.” 

A key question for an investigation would be inmate-to-officer ratio. The more crowded a facility, the more officers are needed to prevent an escape. 

Alan Mullen, who was chief of staff to ex-Speaker Darryl Plecas (Mackin)

“How did this individual happen to be at that fence, at that specific time? I mean, the timing is impeccable. This was well-planned. This was well thought out, and it was well executed,” Mullen said. “It’s scary that this can happen.”

Alkhalil was one of four men convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a 2012 murder in Toronto’s Little Italy during a Euro soccer watch party at a cafe. He was arrested in Greece in 2013.

Alkhalil’s first degree murder trial will go on without him on July 27 in B.C. Supreme Court. He is charged with the Jan. 17, 2012 killing of gangster Sandip Duhre at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel in Vancouver. Hells Angel Larry Ronald Amero is also standing trial for conspiring to murder Duhre.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Maisonville told the jury that Alkhalil had absconded and said she would instruct them later how to handle that fact. She also warned jurors to ignore any media reports about the case and reminded them that Alkhalil remains presumed innocent until the Crown has proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Bob Mackin A former cabinet minister who oversaw

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Bob Mackin

When the first Honda Celebration of Light splashed above English Bay in 1990, it was known as the Symphony of Fire, there were no electric car chargers in parking lots, no carbon taxes charged at gas pumps and no separated bike lanes criss-crossing downtown streets and bridges.

(Honda Celebration of Light)

Drone shows have started to replace 4th of July fireworks displays south of the border. But don’t expect the green revolution to replace old fashioned fireworks anytime soon for Vancouver’s biggest public event, which returned July 23 from a two-year pandemic pause and continues July 27 and 30.

“In the short term, no, adding a drone show would really only just add expense,” said Celebration of Light producer Paul Runnals of Brandlive Management Group.

Runnals said there aren’t significant fleets of drones in Western Canada and downtown Vancouver has few large, convenient lots necessary for take-off and landing.

“In time, and as the drone technology gets to a point where it’s both financially viable and logistically viable, I think there may start to be more and more pressure on some of these big shows,” Runnals said. “But it’s hard to say if that’s three years away or 10 years away.”

Drones and fireworks at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on July 22 (Seattle Mariners)

Vancouver got a taste of the future in 2017, when Ontario company Arrowonics produced a nightly drone show instead of fireworks at the Pacific National Exhibition Fair. 

The main selling point for drone shows is the obvious replacement of fireworks pollution, both smoke and sound. The latter scares pets and wildlife, and even humans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. The former has been linked to lung and heart ailments. There is also the remote risk of sparking a wildfire.

“It’s the new, shiny thing everybody wants,” said Jeff Clarmo, CEO of Waterloo, Ont.-based drone and fireworks company North Star Entertainment and vice-president of Virginia-based Pixis Drones. “It’s environmentally the way to go and, because of the pandemic, people are starting to listen to the scientists. A lot more global warming, look at the summer around the world, It’s insane how dry and hot everything is.”

Jeff Clarmo (North Star Entertainment)

Pyrotechnics industry veteran Clarmo said his company has a fleet of 900 drones, but has few competitors. It costs around half-a-million-dollars to set-up a 100-drone system, he said, and drone shows can cost three times more than a traditional fireworks display. While Celebration of Light fireworks are 20-25 minutes, a drone show can only last 10-12 minutes, due to battery life. 

Clarmo admits fireworks are “on the downward spiral,” partly due to social media backlash. 

“Back in the day, everybody loved the good firework show, the odd person complained but with social media, everybody gets on the bandwagon, about their dogs and their pollution and the birds, and the environment,” he said. “And they’re not wrong, they’re not wrong.”

A 2014 study in Wuhan University in China found dramatic increases in particulate matter from Lunar New Year fireworks displays and that it took more than 15 hours for contaminant levels to return to pre-celebration levels. In Spain, the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research released a 2010 study that wondered “is the cocktail worth the show?”

Drones and fireworks at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on July 22 (Seattle Mariners)

Fireworks displays added the burden of smoke emissions to already contaminated urban air, putting people with pre-existing respiratory or heart conditions at greater risk. “The metalliferous and highly respirable nature of fireworks emissions makes them per se hazardous to the general population,” said the Spanish study.

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation said it has not conducted a formal study of the environmental impacts of the Celebration of Light nor has it formally considered a drone show. 

Park Board chair Camil Dumont and city hall’s climate policy manager Matt Horne did not respond for comment. Neither did Coun. Adriane Carr or Coun. Christine Boyle. 

Clarmo said drone shows are rapidly winning over skeptics. In June, North Star produced a drone show to open L’International des Feux Loto-Québec fireworks festival in Montreal. 

“It’s a big step for these fireworks guys to actually say, you know, this is a real thing, because a lot of them, especially in the early years, were pooh-poohing it,” Clarmo said.

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Coquitlam RCMP is backtracking on the photographs it released of the alleged accomplices of a man on trial for first degree murder who escaped July 21 from North Fraser Pretrial Centre, after a reporter noticed nearly identical images were published on various obscure websites.

Escaped gangster Rabih Alkhalil (RCMP)

Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil, 35, was dressed in a black jumpsuit and high visibility vest when he left in a white Ford Econoline van at 6:48 p.m. July 21 with two others who were posing as contractors.

The RCMP’s news release from the late morning of July 22 showed black and white images of two men, but not their names. Later in the day, the RCMP issued a news release that said police had tentatively identified the two suspects. 

However, this reporter contacted Const. Deanna Law just after 2 p.m. on July 23, noting that colour images of Suspect 2 were found on three different websites with three different names. A fourth image was found on a passport printing website in India. Law was asked to explain whether the RCMP-issued photograph of Suspect 2 was genuine or if the image was used because it most closely resembled the suspect. 

Almost an hour later, Law responded by email, to say she was in contact with investigators and would respond with an update as soon as possible. 

The face of “Suspect 2” in the RCMP July 22 news release was actually found throughout the Internet (theBreaker photo collage)

At 4:31 p.m., the RCMP issued a third news release about the case, confirming that the photographs were not the suspects. 

“It is believed that the suspects who helped Alkhalil escape bear a close resemblance to the photos they left behind, but those images are not them,” Law said in a prepared statement. “As with many complex investigations, the information is rapidly changing as we progress. For this case, time is crucial and it’s important to keep the public as informed as possible even though the facts could change as we go.”

Meanwhile, the RCMP says the Ford Econoline getaway van was found and is being examined by forensics experts. It also said North Fraser Pretrial Centre is cooperating with the investigation, which is turning into a global search. 

Alkhalil’s first degree murder trial will go on without him. He is charged with the Jan. 17, 2012 killing of gangster Sandip Duhre at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel in Vancouver. Hells Angel Larry Ronald Amero is also standing trial for conspiring to murder Duhre.

Email exchange with RCMP communications officer.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Maisonville recalled the jury July 22 to say jurors would return on Wednesday to carry on the trial. She informed the jury that Alkhalil had absconded and said she would instruct them later how to handle that fact. She also warned jurors to ignore any media reports about the case. 

“I remind you again that both accused including including Mr. Alkhalil, who is not before you, is presumed innocent until the Crown has proven their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Maisonville said.

In the original bulletin issued at 10:19 p.m. on July 22, Coquitlam RCMP said corrections staff informed the RCMP of the escape at 7:30 p.m. It said Alkhalil left in the van at 6:48 p.m., but Law would not comment on the actual time that the warden had considered Alkhalil to have escaped. 

Alkhalil was one of four men convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a 2012 murder in Toronto’s Little Italy during a Euro soccer watch party at a cafe.

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For the week of July 24, 2022:

Vancouver city council voted to continue exploring a bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics, despite deputy city manager Karen Levitt’s recommendation to put it on hold while cost and risk questions about the $4 billion-plus mega-event remain unanswered. 

At the same July 20 meeting, councillors with left wing and right wing parties aligned to defeat Coun. Colleen Hardwick’s proposal to add a plebiscite to the Oct. 15 civic election ballot. The Canadian Olympic Committee (and its Four Host First Nations partners) breathed a sigh of relief, four years after Calgary voters turned down a 2026 bid.

“The people deserve to have the voice in whether or not we move ahead with the Olympics,” said Hardwick, Bob Mackin’s guest on this week’s edition of theBreaker.news Podcast. 

Hardwick is running for mayor with TEAM for a Livable Vancouver and promises to give voters the right to decide on the 2030 bid, just like they did almost 20 years ago when Vancouver successfully bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics. 

Also, headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest. 

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For the week of July 24, 2022: Vancouver

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