Recent Posts
Business, News
News
Connect with:
Friday / June 6.
  • No products in the cart.
SECTION
logo
mobile-logo
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 94)
Business, News

Bob Mackin

Fred Harding, the Non-Partisan Association’s imported-from-Beijing candidate for mayor, has told the City of Vancouver election office that he is residing in a 47th floor condo in a luxury downtown skyscraper.

Fred Harding’s Twitter account, before the NPA hid it.

Harding provided a Telus Garden address in his Sept. 6-filed nomination and disclosure filing, even though he has called the Chinese capital home since 2017, the year he sold a Burnaby duplex. Harding is the replacement for veteran Park Board commissioner John Coupar, who quit Aug. 4 over a dispute about support from developer Peter Wall. 

The land title registry shows Harding’s condo, valued at $1.447 million, is registered to Chun Yan Zhang of West Vancouver, whose self-declared occupation is  “homemaker.”

Harding solemnly declared to city hall that he has resided in B.C. for the six months prior to Sept. 6. The Local Government Act says a “person is a resident of the area where the person lives and to which, whenever absent, the person intends to return.”

In 2018, when Harding run for mayor with the Vancouver 1st party, he provided city hall the address of a rented house in Marpole. 

Harding, campaign manager Mark Werner and party president David Mawhinney did not respond for comment. Candidates have until 4 p.m. Friday to submit nomination packages, which are published online with the candidates and nominator addresses censored. Unredacted filings can only be viewed in-person, at the city’s 305 W. 8th Ave. election office, during business hours. In 2018, city staff provided the full versions to reporters by email.  

Telus Garden (Telus)

On Harding’s form, he answered “no” to whether he owns shares in a corporation which total more than 30% of votes for electing directors. He answered not applicable to questions about real estate holdings and liabilities. 

Under the heading of assets, he provided Harding Global Consultants HK Ltd. and Harding Idea Consulting Services Ltd. The former company appears to have been incorporated in 2016 in Hong Kong. A search of the B.C. corporate registry found neither company name.

Harding is formally known as Harold Christopher Harding, but wants to be identified on the ballot as Fred Harding. The retired former officer with the London Metropolitan Police and West Vancouver Police Department is running on a law and order platform, just like in 2018. He is married to Chinese singer Zhang Mi, a public supporter of the Chinese Communist Party.

Ironically, Harding likely prevented the NPA from winning majority control of city council in 2018. He finished sixth with 5,640 votes on the night NPA candidate Ken Sim fell 957 votes shy of victorious Kennedy Stewart. Sim is now leader of the ABC Vancouver party. 

Sim’s disclosure form indicates he resides in a house near Jericho Park, that B.C. Assessment Authority values at $4.73 million, and also has interest in a Whistler condo worth almost $400,000. He reported living in an Arbutus Ridge house in 2018, which sold for $3.02 million in late 2020. 

Also different from 2018 is Sim’s investment portfolio. Gone are mining stocks like Cameco Corp., Teck and Wheaton, in favour of shares in crypto miners Coin Citadel and MGT Capital Investments, crypto exchange Coinbase Global and the Purpose Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. He also lists investments in the so-called FANG stocks (Facebook, Apple, Netflix and Google), online shopping platform Shopify, chip maker Nvidia, lender Upstart Holdings, cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike Holdings, and virtual care provider Teladoc Health.

Sim also holds shares in the Armstrong Hospitality Group, the parent company of the Rocky Mountaineer tourist train. According to the party, owner Peter Armstrong donated $1,200 to annually since 2019 after a long history of backing the NPA. 

Sim is both chair and shareholder in Nurse Next Door homecare and the Rosemary Rocksalt bagelries. He also heads Chindian Holdings Ltd. and Sim (2016) Family Trust.

ABC Vancouver’s campaign ad with Ken Sim and co-star Laura Appleton (ABC Vancouver)

There are 17 Nurse Next Door and Rosemary Rocksalt creditors over $5,000 disclosed, including three law firms (Alexander Holburn, Blake, Cassels and Graydon, and McCarthy Tetrault), Marriott Vancouver, Salesforce.com Canada, three arms of Telus (Communications, Mobility and Services), and NND Royalties LP.

NND Royalties LP is the result of the $52 million, November 2019 sale of Nurse Next Door’s trademarks to Diversified Royalty Corp.

Meanwhile, ABC launched a TV ad campaign Sept. 7, featuring Sim at an outdoor coffee table chatting with a purported member of the public. Sim’s fist-bump is actually with Laura Appleton, the partner of incumbent Coun. Rebecca Bligh and an equity, diversity and inclusion manager at Arc’teryx, the North Vancouver-headquartered outdoor sportswear company part-owned by Chip Wilson. 

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

Bob Mackin Fred Harding, the Non-Partisan Association’s imported-from-Beijing

Business, News

Bob Mackin

The International Olympic Committee has delayed its 2023 annual meeting, which also means a delay in choosing the host city for the 2030 Winter Olympics. 

Vancouver is exploring a bid against 2002 host Salt Lake City and 1972 host Sapporo, Japan. 

The IOC had been scheduled to meet in Mumbai at the end of May 2023, but the IOC Executive Board decided Sept. 8 at headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland to delay the next session to September 2023 due to a governance upheaval at India’s national Olympic committee.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams on Sept. 8, 2022 (IOC/YouTube)

“Whether it takes place in Mumbai or whether it takes place elsewhere, the decision for 2030 will be taken at that session,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters.

Adams denied it was a “major disruption,” but was unable to say whether the extra three months would affect the schedule for bidding and closed-door negotiations under the IOC’s new system for awarding the Games. Interested cities were expected to begin so-called “targeted dialogue” with the IOC in late fall and submit bid books by next February. 

“I can’t give you a definitive answer,” Adams said. “What I can tell you is obviously the process is quite flexible. The idea of targeted dialogue is one that allows us to start a targeted dialogue when the time is right. What I would say, at the moment, is that the main thing you need to know is that decision will still be made at the session.”

Neil Monckton, chief of staff for Kennedy Stewart, said the mayor had no comment. The Canadian Olympic Committee is acting as the bid committee in collaboration with the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Lil’wat first nations. COC president Tricia Smith has not immediately responded. 

On July 20, Vancouver city council rejected a proposal from Coun. Colleen Hardwick, the TEAM for a Livable Vancouver mayoral candidate, to include a bid plebiscite on the Oct. 15 civic election ballot. A majority opted to carry on exploring the bid and directed staff to keep negotiating multiparty agreements. Deputy City Manager Karen Levitt had warned city council that there was not enough time and too many questions about costs and risks for an already burdened bureaucracy at 12th and Cambie.

On Aug. 9, Stewart wrote to B.C. Tourism, Art, Culture and Sport Minister Melanie Mark and Federal Sport Minister Pascal St-Onge to ask whether the senior governments would fund another Games for 2010 host Vancouver. The following week, Mark’s office received the mini-business plan she had sought from Smith in June, so that the NDP government could decide later this fall whether to fund another Olympics in 2030 and cover any deficits. Mark wanted to know whether all the parties would share in the costs and risks of hosting the Games. 

Vancouver 2030 proposed venues map (COC)

“Consideration of hosting major international sporting events requires significant time and resources by all parties,” said Mark’s June 24 letter. “The experience in preparing for the 2010 Games, the magnitude of an Olympic and Paralympic Games is very large and complex, and requires careful consideration by all levels of government and host First Nations. As you will appreciate, our environment has changed since 2010, particularly in relation to the risks and challenges created by pandemics, evolving domestic and international security threats, and the effect of global climate change.”

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.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

Bob Mackin The International Olympic Committee has delayed

Business, News

Bob Mackin

Two workers fell into the water off Canada Place Sept. 5, while unloading baggage from a cruise ship.

Rescue crews on the Canada Place dock (Sukhwant Dhillon/Sher-e-Punjab)

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services and a B.C. Emergency Health Services ambulance and bicycle crew were called to the scene by the Disney Wonder at 8:12 a.m. Labour Day. 

VFRS public information officer Matthew Trudeau said four people ended up in the water, one of whom climbed out and three others got onto a pontoon from where they were rescued. BC EHS said two people were treated on-scene, nobody was taken to hospital.

An executive with terminal manager Ceres said two workers had fallen in the water and two others went in to assist. One of the workers climbed back up the ladder. 

“At this time we are still completing our investigation with the workers involved to confirm the details of what happened,” said Kathy deLisser, the regional vice-president for Ceres. “The safety of our employees is our top priority and we take every incident seriously. Following the investigation we will take any steps warranted to ensure the safety of our employees.” 

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

Bob Mackin Two workers fell into the water

Business, News

Bob Mackin

The B.C. NDP government and the union representing 33,000 workers have a deal. 

B.C. General Employees’ Union announced Sept. 7 that it has a tentative three-year agreement through the end of March 2025, the product of nine days of negotiations behind closed doors.

Stephanie Smith (BCGEU)

Dates for the ratification vote have not been released. 

The deal came five days after the group negotiating for 60,000 unionized hospital and long-term care workers reached a tentative agreement with the Health Employers Association of B.C. 

The BCGEU’s tentative agreement includes a 25 cents per hour plus 3.24% pay raise retroactive to April 1, then, beginning next April 1, a 5.5% to 6.75% pay raise, based on the average rate of inflation over 12 months beginning March 1, 2022. 

In the final year, a minimum 2% and maximum 3% pay increase based on the annualized average inflation rate over 12 months beginning March 1, 2023. 

BCGEU members at Liquor Distribution Branch warehouses walked off the job Aug. 12. They went back to work Aug. 31 when talks resumed. 

The most-recent BCGEU contract expired April 1. Negotiations began Feb. 8, but reached an impasse on April 6. Members voted 95% to strike in a tally announced June 22. There was no progress when the two sides met in July. The union had until Sept. 20 to serve strike notice.

BCGEU rejected a nearly 11% increase over three years plus up to $2,500 per member signing bonus offered by the government. Its key demand was for a cost of living adjustment clause to keep up with inflation. When talks began in February, inflation was 5.7%. It hit a 40-year high of 8.1% in May.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

Bob Mackin The B.C. NDP government and the

Business, News

Bob Mackin

The Ministry of Health said that it spent $626 million on the province’s COVID-19 mass-vaccination campaign during the fiscal year ended March 31.

VCH chair Penny Ballem (left), Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister Adrian Dix in July 2020 (BC Gov)

“Included in that figure are costs to secure and operate the mass vaccination clinics across B.C., distribution of the vaccine to those clinics, and to operate the Get Vaccinated Call Centre and the Provincial Vaccine Management Platform,” said a prepared statement sent from ministry senior public affairs officer Amy Crofts. 

Crofts responded after Minister of Finance Selina Robinson failed to answer a question about program costs during an Aug. 30 news conference about the annual release of the province’s public accounts.

The government has not provided a budget estimate for the fall 2022 phase of the mass-vaccination program, which formally launched Sept. 6.

In a June response to a freedom of information request, the Ministry of Health said it had no records about the budget and spending for the ImmunizeBC-branded program between Jan. 1 and April 13. 

“The Ministry did not locate records as they do not have budget or financial reports for the ImmunizeBC program,” said the FOI reply. 

Last year, the Ministry of Health had the highest budget of any government department at $27.6 billion. Robinson said said the government spent $3.8 billion on pandemic response and recovery programs.

Public accounts show that Penny Ballem, the head of the mass-vaccination program, was paid $740,119 since her January 2021 hiring as the program head. 

Ballem’s numbered company, 354948 B.C. Ltd., received $589,706 in 2021-2022, after $150,413 in payments for the previous year. 

Her initial $250-an-hour contract was supposed to pay $220,000 through the end of last October. The former Vancouver city manager and former deputy health minister is also the chair of Vancouver Coastal Health. 

Ballem hired numerous contractors who worked as executives for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee, including Mary Conibear’s Calla Strategies ($404,670), Lizette Parsons Bell and Associates Inc. ($326,183), and John H. McLaughlin ($227,798). 

The plan announced today offers fall boosters for everyone aged 5 and up at six-month intervals from their last shot. Anyone infected with the virus since their last shot is recommended to receive a new shot three months after that infection. 

A Moderna combination/bivalent vaccine is expected to begin arriving this week. Pharmacies will be first to receive stock and health authority clinics will begin after Sept. 19. Officials expect to jab 280,000 people per week.

Flu shots will also be offered beginning in early October when they arrive. The Get Vaccinated BC phone and online system will be used for both COVID-19 and influenza vaccines. 

The government spent $47.66 million on a contract with Telus during the 2021 calendar year to operate the vaccine appointment booking hotline. 

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

Bob Mackin The Ministry of Health said that

Business, News

 

Bob Mackin

Ian Gillespie, the Westbank Corporation CEO, accepted a token 50 cent payment from members of the Squamish Nation during a ceremony under the Burrard Bridge on Sept. 6, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke ground to begin the four-phase, 11-tower Senakw condo project.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau breaks ground under the Burrard Bridge for Westbank’s development on the Squamish Nation’s Senakw reserve (pm.gc.ca)

Squamish Nation members agreed to a 50-50 partnership in 2019 with Westbank to build 6,000 units on 4.7 hectares of Kitsilano Indian Reserve 6 regained through court settlements. Since then, Westbank’s share was reduced to 30% and OP Trust, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Government of Ontario pension fund, now holds 20%. 

By 2029, up to 10,000 people could be living in the rental towers on either side of the bridge. A consultant’s estimate from 2019 suggested the deal could generate as much as $12.7 billion in cashflow for the band and developer. 

Trudeau was accompanied by four cabinet ministers, Patty Hajdu (Indigenous services), Ahmed Hussen (housing), Marc Miller (Crown-Indigenous relations) and Jonathan Wikinson (natural resources). Before the start of their three-day cabinet retreat in Vancouver, Trudeau announced a $1.4 billion loan through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to finance half the units, touting it as the largest loan in the Crown corporation’s history. CMHC spokesman Leonard Catling said the Rental Construction Financing Initiative is providing $668 million for phase one and $745 million for phase two. The loan is on a 10-year term, fixed interest rate and 50-year amortization. 

“While we cannot comment on the interest rate for any specific RCF loan, our interest rate generally is lower than alternative financing available in the market,” Catling said.

Senakw is marketed as the “largest net-zero residential project in the country,” but officials did not specify whether that would include the energy-intensive construction process or how many carbon offsets they would buy to achieve the goal.

Westbank’s Ian Gillespie with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2015 (Westbank)

After almost two hours of rituals and speeches, Trudeau took questions from reporters for 12 minutes. He dodged a question about Kitsilano Point residents concerned over construction noise, the building of an access road through Vanier Park and the impact of up to 10,000 new residents in such a small area.

“This investment, this creation of thousands upon thousands of new, affordable rental units, a number of them low income rental units, is going to make a huge difference in the lives of thousands of families, who will suddenly have the stability, the opportunity, the proximity to work,” Trudeau said. “That will be a big step forward for Vancouver in terms of taking off some of the pressures that are around on housing. And I know that this is a good thing for the city, for the province and for the country.”

Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart signed an agreement in late May with Squamish Nation council chair Dustin Rivers, aka Khelsilem, to provide civic utilities and access to the construction site. That agreement was quietly released more than two months later, on the Friday before B.C. Day weekend. Because the Squamish Nation remains under the federal Indian Act, the development needed approval from several federal departments rather than city council. Squamish Nation talks with the federal and B.C. governments about self-government stalled after the 1995 signing of an openness protocol. The B.C. Treaty Commission website shows the Squamish Nation is only halfway through the six-step process. 

In 1913, the province subverted the Indian Act, paid 18 family heads a total $200,000 to surrender Senakaw and forced them onto boats headed for other Squamish villages. Squamish Nation later claimed all of Kitsilano Point, but ceded 60 acres in a $92.5 million settlement with the federal government in 2000.

Gillespie, a Liberal Party supporter and proprietor of Trudeau’s preferred luxury hotel, the Fairmont Pacific Rim, sat beside NDP Vancouver-Point Grey MLA David Eby. Though the construction site is in the Vancouver-False Creek provincial riding, Eby is the frontrunner to replace John Horgan as Premier this fall. The Squamish Nation is a partner in the MST Development company with the Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations in the Jericho lands project in Eby’s riding. Some of that land is proposed for an Olympic Village, if the NDP government backs the Canadian Olympic Committee bid for the 2030 Games and the International Olympic Committee chooses Vancouver next May. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Squamish Nation’s Dustin Rivers (left) and Wilson Williams (pm.gc.ca)

Seated nearby were directors of the Squamish Nation’s economic development company, Nch’kay, including Mike Magee, former Mayor Gregor Robertson’s chief of staff, and NDP insider Joy MacPhail. 

Senakw is the biggest federally-involved construction project on Squamish land announced by a Trudeau since April 1974. 

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau promised 48 years ago to build the Pacific Environment Centre and a Coast Guard Base across Vancouver’s Stanley Park. The federal government took out a 71-year lease on 55 acres east of the Lions Gate Bridge on Capilano Indian Reserve 5.

Three months later, Trudeau led the Liberals to re-election. The plan began to unravel after Capilano Liberal MP Jack Davis, Canada’s first environment minister, lost his seat in the July 1974 election to Progressive Conservative Ron Huntington.

During the first 35 years of the lease, the federal government paid $124 million to Squamish Nation for the land, even though nothing has been built there. It was deemed contaminated in the mid-1990s because of its proximity to the Vancouver Wharves mineral port.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

  Bob Mackin Ian Gillespie, the Westbank Corporation CEO,

Business, News, Opinion, Sports

For the week of Sept. 4, 2022: 

A look at the life of late Pat McGeer: scientist, politician, athlete. 

A British Columbian like no other, who died at age 95 on Aug. 29.

The late Pat McGeer’s London 1948 Olympic basketball jersey (B.C. Sports Hall of Fame)

Hear clips of McGeer from 2017 and 2018, and an interview with Jason Beck of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. 

“Any one of those three aspects of his life and what he achieved in them would be amazing, but collectively, he’s got to be one of the more fascinating British Columbian figures of the past 50, 60, 70, 80 years,” Beck told host Bob Mackin. “As an athlete, he was a very good athlete, I think his work as a scientist and politician has kind of overshadowed that.”  

McGeer famously led the University of B.C. Thunderbirds basketball team in a victory over the Harlem Globetrotters and starred for the UBC team that represented Canada at the London 1948 Olympics. 

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.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

theBreaker.news Podcast
theBreaker.news Podcast
the Podcast: The late Pat McGeer, British Columbia's renaissance man
Loading
/
0 Comments

For the week of Sept. 4, 2022:  A

Business, News

Bob Mackin

Almost 27% of taxpayers’ money the B.C. Legislative Assembly spent in 2021 on salaries and suppliers was hidden in the institution’s annual report.

Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Association of Former MLAs of B.C./John Yanyshyn)

The annual disclosure report, published in the Aug. 30 B.C. government public accounts, shows almost $60.7 million was paid out during the last fiscal year, which ended March 31. Of that, individual recipients of aggregate payments totalling $16.28 million are not shown because they do not meet reporting thresholds and the freedom of information law does not apply to the seat of government. 

A list of named and titled employees shows $11.38 million in salaries over $75,000. But another $12.58 million was paid in salaries under the $75,000 mark. The report does not include salaries and wages paid to constituency assistants on behalf of MLAs.  

The list also shows payments totalling $33,017,841 to suppliers for goods and services, as well as other provincial and federal departments for taxes and pensions. There is an unknown number of suppliers who were paid $24,999 or less last year, for a total of $3,696,443. 

NDP House Leader Mike Farnworth promised in early 2019, after Speaker Darryl Plecas and chief of staff Alan Mullen discovered corruption by the clerk and sergeant-at-arms, that the Legislature would finally come under the 1993 Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Three Legislature-appointed watchdogs, including Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy, had publicly called for new transparency and accountability measures to prevent another spending scandal. 

Green house leader Sonia Furstenau (left), NDP’s Mike Farnworth and BC Liberals’ Mary Polak in 2019 (Mackin)

However, more than three-and-a-half years later, the NDP has still not acted on Farnworth’s promise. In June, an all-party committee recommended the law be extended to cover the Legislative Assembly’s administrative functions, which would include spending. 

“There is no reason why the Legislative Assembly should not, in respect of its administrative functions, be subject to the same transparency and accountability rules as the more than 2,900 public bodies across the province,” McEvoy said in April 7 testimony to the committee. 

“It is time for the Legislative Assembly to adhere to the same standards.” 

Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd was the highest-paid employee last year, at $284,504, followed by law clerk and parliamentary counsel Suzie Seo at $225,860 and executive financial officer Hilary Woodward, at $206,780.

Woodward was apparently terminated June 22 after a sudden meeting with Ryan-Lloyd. Ryan-Lloyd refused to comment, calling it a personnel matter. Replacement Randall Smith began June 23. There was no mention made about Woodward’s departure during the open portion of a Legislative Assembly Management Committee meeting the following week.

B.C. Legislature beancounter Hillary Woodward (BC Leg)

Woodward was the last witness at the fraud and breach of trust trial of Ryan-Lloyd’s mentor Craig James. Ex-clerk James, found guilty of spending almost $1,900 of taxpayers’ money on a custom suit and shirts for personal use, was sentenced in July to a month of house arrest and two months of curfew. 

The biggest private sector supplier to the Legislative Assembly was computer support contractor Tecnet Canada Inc. at $1,049,556, followed by Microsoft Canada for $804,135. There were $312,316 in severance payments, but the number of recipients and their names and titles were not disclosed. 

Suppliers included NDP advertising agencies Romar Communications ($184,800) and Now Communications Group ($145,606). McCarthy Tetrault LLP was the top-paid law firm ($105,097). The list did not include any payments to Fasken, the Vancouver law firm that defended James at his B.C. Supreme Court trial.

Otherwise, the three biggest payments were $7,392,604 to B.C. Pension Corp., $2,202,211 to Receiver General for Canada, and $1,514,428 to the B.C. Public Service Agency. The Legislature paid $929,365 for the employer health tax in 2021-2022.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

Bob Mackin Almost 27% of taxpayers’ money the

Business, News, Sports

Bob Mackin

The former coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team and the national junior women’s team, who sexually assaulted four of his players, apologized for “selfish, irrational and delusional conduct” during the second day of his sentencing hearing on Sept. 2.

North Vancouver Provincial Court (B.C. Courthouse Libraries)

Over the course of a tearful 10 minutes, Bob Birarda, 55, stood in North Vancouver Provincial Court and read a statement of remorse to the victims, whose names are banned from publication. 

“I’m truly sorry, to each of you for the pain, the upset and the trauma my behavior has caused you,” Birarda said, before Judge Deanna Gaffar. “I cannot find the words to adequately express the depth of my regret, sorrow, shame and even self-loathing I have been filled with for all these years. I have read the victim impact statements, and I feel so horrible for how much pain I have caused each of you.”

Birarda was charged in late 2020 and pleaded guilty in February of this year for crimes that occurred between 1988 and 2008 — specifically, three counts of sexual assault and one count of touching a young person for sexual purpose. On June 8, the first day of sentencing, the Crown proposed a two-years less-a-day jail sentence. On Sept. 2, defence proposed a one-year sentence, eight months in custody and four months conditional. The judge’s decision is expected during a half-day hearing to be scheduled Sept. 13.

Birarda admitted he brought disgrace and embarrassment to the sport and conceded that his apology might mean something to the victims in the years to come.

“I’m here today to take responsibility for my actions and the impact I’ve had on you. I also want to apologize to all the people my past behaviour has affected all those who believed in and trusted me, including former players and their families, and mentors and colleagues, the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Canadian soccer community as a whole,” Birarda said.

Bob Birarda in 2005 (CSA)

He said he cannot justify his actions, but blamed his immaturity and insecurity on scars of his childhood.

“How could I let down so many people who believed in me? How can I do these things and betray my wife and family I so dearly love?”

He said he “felt like a fraud my entire life” and couldn’t imagine where he was going to fit into the world, until he found coaching soccer could partially fill that void. 

“Despite my perceived success as a coach, my lack of self belief and my lack of self confidence never left me, I am devastated.” 

Despite becoming a national and club coach in 2006, he said his life was in turmoil, traveling 150 days a year, suffering panic attacks and living in isolation from friends and family. He referred specifically to his youngest victim and said he was horrified the impact of his behaviour on her. “I have a daughter, I cannot imagine a man communicating with her in the way that I was communicating with you.”

Birarda said he began therapy after his 2008 firing from the Whitecaps and national team, attempting to come to terms with childhood trauma and to save his marriage. He said he continues to see a therapist and psychiatrist, who taught him “cognitive understanding and shame can be good things, if I use them to change my behaviour and work to ensure that I approach the way I’ve traditionally thought about things differently going forward.

CSA and Whitecaps

Earlier, Birarda’s defence lawyer William Smart asked for a lenient sentence because Birarda has no criminal record, is sincerely remorseful and understands the harm he caused and the wrongfulness of his actions. He said mitigating factors also include pleading guilty to avoid a trial. Although he agreed to the essential facts of the crimes, he said Birarda doesn’t recall the details from so many years ago. 

Smart submitted testimonial letters from former players who said Birarda had their trust and his coaching helped further their careers in soccer, academics and employment. He also said Birarda had been hospitalized when his family feared he was suicidal and he suffered public shaming by international media attention. Smart referenced sentencing of former B.C. Legislature Clerk Craig James, which considered public stigma a mitigating factor to reduce the sentence. The enormous publicity about Birarda, Smart told the court, has had a “profound impact in educating and deterring other coaches, likely in all sports in Canada,” leading to other investigations.  

In her rebuttal, Crown prosecutor Linda Ostry acknowledged the testimonial letters, but argued public criticism and media attention cannot entirely displace the court’s role to denounce conduct and deter others in the sentence it imposes.

Ultimately, she said, Birarda bears moral culpability that must be denounced in sentencing. He was not simply attempting to connect with another individual, but he used his position of power to make sexual overtures. 

“Through his wrongdoing, it also underscores the gravity of the offending behaviour and the depth of betrayal, when the trust that has been placed in him is betrayed,” Ostry said. “It underscores the degree of harm to the victims caused through the betrayal of his trust.”

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

Bob Mackin The former coach of the Vancouver

Business, News

Bob Mackin 

The Non-Partisan Association has one incumbent candidate left, after Park Board commissioner Tricia Barker announced she was quitting the party on Sept. 1. 

But she is not leaving civic politics.

Tricia Barker (left) and John Coupar (Park Board)

“Today I gave the NPA board my resignation as a Park Board candidate with the Non-Partisan Association. I am grateful to the board for the opportunity to run and the support they gave me during the 2018 campaign and my subsequent election as a Park

Board Commissioner,” Barker Tweeted. “It has always been and will continue to be my goal to bè the voice for seniors and people with disabilities in our parks and recreational facilities here in Vancouver. I intend to find a way to continue this important work.”

That way is with TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, headed by mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick, who was elected to city council with the NPA in 2018. Kumi Kimura, manager of the Musqueam Golf and Learning Academy, also left the NPA’s Park Board campaign to join TEAM’s campaign for the Oct. 15 civic election.

Hardwick called Barker a “voice of reason” and Kimura an expert in recreational facilities management. 

“Another nail in the coffin of the NPA,” Hardwick said. 

Barker and Kimura’s defection came just two days after Beijing resident Fred Harding announced his candidacy for mayor, replacing the resigned John Coupar. During the 2018-2022 term, Coupar and Barker were the opposition caucus on a Park Board dominated by COPE and Green politicians. 

Coun. Melissa De Genova remains the only veteran running with the city’s oldest political party. She was among five NPA candidates elected to city council last time, but three joined 2018 mayoral runner-up Ken Sim’s ABC Vancouver and Hardwick formed her own party.

NPA Park Board candidate Ray Goldenchild (Twitter)

Barker was not at Harding’s Tuesday photo op, but one of the people standing behind him was NPA Park Board candidate Ray Goldenchild. Goldenchild ran on Harding’s Vancouver 1st slate in 2018 and recently filed a complaint to the NPA board against Barker over a July 25 verbal altercation after a meeting at the NPA office. 

Goldenchild alleged Barker interrupted his conversation with another candidate, swore at him and badgered him. His email claimed the incident prompted him to quit on the spot, but two other candidates and Coupar convinced him to remain a candidate.

“John said that he just needed for me to stay with the team and he would deal with Tricia Barker and ensure she apologized to me.  He said he would get back to me, but he never did,” said Goldenchild’s email. 

Coupar resigned Aug. 4 in a dispute with the board over support from real estate developer Peter Wall. 

Goldenchild wrote that he complained after hearing rumours from an unnamed candidate with a rival party that he was a loud bully. His Aug. 17 email demanded a formal, written apology from Barker by Aug. 22. 

Reached after Barker’s resignation announcement, Goldenchild initially feigned ignorance about his Aug. 17 email and then refused to answer any questions. 

Barker said she was unaware of the substance of Goldenchild’s complaint and it was not investigated.

Colleen Hardwick (PlaceSpeak)

“That is a board issue. I think Ray was discussing things with the board,” Barker said. “So you know what, I don’t like to get into all these personal things. And as I said, if you got something that was leaked, then I can’t comment on it. Because I never saw it.”

Barker said her defection to TEAM was unrelated to Goldenchild’s allegations or Harding becoming leader of the party. She simply wanted the chance to be part of a majority on Park Board, as TEAM now has six candidates running. 

“The last four years has been really, really tough to sit there,” she said. 

Goldenchild and Dave Pasin are the only Park Board candidates remaining on the NPA website. The window to nominate candidates for the Oct. 15 ballot closes Sept. 9.

Barker admitted she would likely still be with the NPA had Coupar not resigned.

None of the members of the NPA board responded prior to Barker’s resignation, except president Dave Mawhinney, who said “no comment.” Mawhinney did not respond after Barker’s defection. 

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

0 Comments

Bob Mackin  The Non-Partisan Association has one incumbent

m
About Us

theBreaker.news and theBreaker.news Podcast: your source for news, opinion and analysis about British Columbia issues, institutions and influencers.

Contact
theBreaker is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and published by Bob Mackin.
Email: bob@thebreaker.news
Send tips via secure Protonmail theBreakernews@protonmail.com
Support theBreaker.news
For as low as $2 a month, you can help support theBreaker.news on Patreon
Support theBreaker.news on Patreon
Find out how by clicking here!