2010 Gold Rush

Bell chimes in on B.C. Place screen flap

2012-01-23T09:04:00.001-08:00

Finally, the British Columbia government reveals the response by Pat Bell, minister responsible for B.C. Place Stadium, to Mayor Gregor Robertson on the controversial B.C. Place Stadium advertising screens.

These are the screens that the Vision Vancouver majority city council calls "not in compliance." They refuse to use the plain English expression "too big, too bright."

Bell claims in the reply to Robertson's Oct. 24, 2011 letter that B.C. Pavilion Corporation has reduced operating hours of the Beatty Street sign (at Terry Fox Plaza) and claimed neighbours complained during the testing phase "when it was brighter than planned." He claims the screen was dimmed by 50 percent during the day and 20 percent in the early evening. Similar dimming occurred on the outdoor screens that face the Cambie Bridge and Georgia Viaduct.

The Bell letter (below) was typed Nov. 23, 2011. Kevin Quinlan, Robertson's assistant, said it was received Dec. 12, 2011.

The signs, as I reported in the Vancouver Courier, are owned and operated by Telus. Telus was supposed to become the naming rights sponsor of the stadium. Bell continues to ignore my requests for an interview. So I'll make it easy for him:

How far above the $563 million budget did renovation costs escalate? Is it a $10 million overrun... $50 million... $100 million... $200 million?

How much does PavCo owe Telus?

And what about that lawsuit between Freyssinet and Canam?

There is a comments box below, Mr. Bell. You can also email or Tweet me.

Over to you, Mr. Bell.

PavCo Responds to Mayor

Clark jobs propaganda: $866,697 and counting

2012-01-23T08:30:00.001-08:00

This isn't a handshake, this is a blog showing Premier Christy Clark's jobs and families plan in action!

Yes, she's spending taxpayers' dollars to support jobs at advertising agencies and (mostly) radio and TV stations. She's trying to prop-up her floundering popularity with propaganda. It's the British Columbia way. The Social Credit Party started doing this in the 1980s, the NDP thought they turned it into a fine art in the 1990s and then the Liberals came along and have been at it for more than a decade.

If you've been watching National Football League playoffs, you've seen the latest ads ad nauseam. The Liberals know this is so sensitive that they don't want to tell you or me about how many millions of dollars of advertising time has been booked for these ads in the weeks and months to come.

On Dec. 14, 2011, I filed a Freedom of Information request seeking the advertising plan, including budget and expenditures, for creation, production and placement of ads.

Below is the single-page document I received on Jan. 18, 2012, showing that $866,697 had been spent. The ads were created by Cossette and the media buyer is Vizeum. The campaign is far from over. And I am not done trying to find out exactly how much this campaign will cost.

The B.C. government spends about $30 million a year on advertising. Government has a legitimate reason to advertise information about public services, but B.C. is known for wasting millions of dollars on glitzy image campaigns intended to heighten the profile of the party in power.

Notice how the memo provided me was dated Dec. 22, 2011, but the response was dated Jan. 18, 2012.

Did Clark give jobs to families of sloths?

$866,697 and counting

B.C. Place's field of fire

2012-01-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

I was first to report in the Vancouver Courier that Telus owns and operates B.C. Place Stadium's external video screens.

This means that area residents complaining of light pollution from privately owned signs on provincially governed B.C. Place property have a case to file a lawsuit.

Telus, which scored a 10-year, $1 billion telecommunications contract with the B.C. government, doesn't want to talk about it. B.C. Pavilion Corporation gave a wordy, non-answer. Minister responsible Pat Bell was hanging out with Telus director and former Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day in Prince George on Jan. 11 and his staff haven't made him available.

Telus installed the telecommunications and technology infrastructure at the stadium, from wifi to video monitors and the infamous outdoor advertising screens. In exchange, it was supposed to get the right to rename the stadium for the corporation or its Optik Internet TV product.

Telus chief financial officer Robert McFarlane told me in mid-October there would be a "coming out party" for what has been called the most technologically advanced stadium on the continent. The Sept. 30 reopening came and went. So did the 99th Grey Cup on Nov. 27. Its still B.C. Place. Neither Telus nor Cisco, which was hired to install its StadiumVision video management system, have done any media hype.

Will the so-called "coming out party" ever happen?

That is one of many unanswered questions.

How much has Telus invested in the stadium and how much is Telus owed, should it remain B.C. Place?

What is the final cost of the stadium for taxpayers? How much is it over the $563 million figure that PavCo has mysteriously stopped quoting?

Will it require the auditor general to investigate?

While we ponder those questions -- and wait for the B.C. Liberal government to provide answers -- the new retractable roof continues to leak whenever Vancouver is hit by heavy rains. A portion of the leak-drenched field was restricted by makeshift barriers on Jan. 5 -- the fifth anniversary of the original roof's embarrassing rip and collapse.

Unfortunately, one problem was not able to solve another problem on Jan. 11. There was no rain when crews accidentally burned the Polytan Ligaturf synthetic playing field. A source told me it happened during a smoke test of the stadium's ventilation. The stadium's next event is the Jan. 19-29 CONCACAF women's Olympic soccer qualifying tournament.

According to a statement from B.C. Place spokesman Duncan Blomfield:

"During routine pyrotechnic testing on Wednesday, some errant sparks from the devices made contact with the turf. In a small area of the field, some of the turf’s fibres were singed. The supplier has examined the field and deemed the required repairs to be minor -- they will repair the affected area, using extra turf kept on site at the stadium, within the next 24 hours."

The workers used to call this place the Blunderdome.

After 204 days, the wait is over!

2012-01-06T13:39:00.001-08:00

Finally.

The Stanley Cup riot 2011 accountability clock has been deactivated and removed from this blog.

It took 204 days for someone to admit guilt on Jan. 6, 2012.

Let it be known that the first person was 20-year-old Ryan Dickinson.

He was charged Dec. 5, 2011 with participating in a riot, two counts of mischief over $5,000 and for breaking curfew on the night of the riot. He was arrested two days later by Coquitlam RCMP and spent Christmas in jail, according to a story in The Province.

On Jan. 6, Dickinson copped a plea bargain and entered a guilty plea in Vancouver Provincial Court for participating in a riot and breach of recognizance. He is to be sentenced Feb. 7 and the hearing could be broadcast, if the judge approves a government-driven Crown counsel application.

Dickinson was put on probation for a year in October after a separate assault conviction. He is, coincidentally, a sheet-metal apprentice who works at a window-repair company. The streets were riddled with broken metal and glass on June 15, when the Vancouver Canucks were embarrassed on home ice to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup final.

No public officials, whether they be elected politicians or appointed staff, have taken fault for the poorly planned Stanley Cup fan zone in downtown Vancouver on June 15.

If one ever does, you'll read about it here.

2010 Games live forever at B.C. Sports Hall of Fame

2012-01-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics opened and closed at B.C. Place Stadium, and that’s where the tangible memories are now housed.

Almost two years after the Games, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum doors reopen Jan. 6 at Gate A with its marquee Vancouver 2010 Gallery.

The 2,000 artifacts in the Olympic and Paralympic collection include gold, silver and bronze medals, mascots Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, a podium, torches, the late Jack Poole’s Olympic Order award, athlete uniforms and equipment and gifts brought by national Olympic committees. For Olympic pinheads, the Hall purports to have every single one of the keepsakes made for the 2010 Games.

The treasures were gathered via the tireless efforts of president Sue Griffin, curator Jason Beck, operations director Allison Mailer and trustee Joanie McMaster. Griffin reasonably feared before the Games that cash-strapped VANOC was going to put everything up for auction.

Much of the collection is organized in five display cases resembling each of the Olympic rings and representing the venues where the Games took place. You will find artifacts worn, used or signed by Canada's stars of the Games, like Alexandre Bilodeau, Joannie Rochette, Maelle Ricker, Jon Montgomery, Sidney Crosby and Hayley Wickenheiser. But there is a plethora of other nuggets that might surprise you.

There is a suit, helmet, goggles and practice snowboard that belonged to Johnny Lyall, who flew through the air on a ramp from level 4 and landed on the floor of B.C. Place to greet opening ceremony viewers from around the world. His script on a folded white piece of paper in large Helvetica type is included in the display case: "Welcome to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games! Bienvenue!"

Nancy Greene-Raine’s torch relay uniform and the torch she used to light the ceremonial cauldron was autographed by Wayne Gretzky, Steve Nash, Catriona Le May Doan and Rick Hansen.

Two dozen of the 84 nations of the Games donated a set of ceremonial uniforms.

"Azerbaijan, they've got some good pants, just as good as the Norwegian curling crew,” said the hall’s operations director Allison Mailer during a preview tour.

Hockey superfan Dave Ash, who owns Regina-based Dash Tours, donated his white hockey helmet with the red siren light and his giant Canada flag that Corey Perry borrowed for Team Canada’s victory celebration. Ash paid $3,000 for his front-row seat to the Feb. 28, 2010 gold medal hockey game.

Pakistani alpine skier Muhammad Abbas, who was 79th in the giant slalom, donated the hand-carved, wood plank skis on which he learned as a child.

"Our wish list has been completed, we're just so thrilled,” Mailer said. “The only thing we really want is a Shaun White snowboard. I think we'll still work on it. Maybe we'll send him pictures of the gallery and tell him what's missing."

The provincial sports shrine also reopens with a redesigned Hall of Champions that features a touchscreen multimedia archive of all 325 individuals and 54 teams inducted since its 1966 establishment. Nearby is a display case that include mementoes of Vancouver visits by the 20th century’s greatest athletes -- a Santos jersey worn and signed by Pele and handwraps autographed by Muhammad Ali -- plus the puck used to score the Vancouver Canucks’ first National Hockey League goal and a stopwatch that timed the famed 1954 Miracle Mile between Roger Bannister and John Landy at Empire Stadium.

Elsewhere, the hall includes jerseys, trophies and gear spanning the histories of the B.C. Lions, Canucks, Vancouver Whitecaps and Vancouver Canadians, plus galleries devoted to Hansen, late race car driver Greg Moore and national hero Terry Fox.

The grand reopening is planned for Feb. 10, two days before the second anniversary of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Five years ago today: where were you when the roof went down?

2012-01-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

(Originally published Jan. 5, 2011)

Where were you on Jan. 5, 2007?

It was a cold day with occasional drizzle, even wet snow. I was watching the World Junior Hockey Championship final broadcast when a friend frantically called and told me to turn on CKNW, because the B.C. Place Stadium roof collapsed. (This is how it all went down.)

I did, then hastily called a source who might know what really happened. What an embarrassment for the 2010 Olympic stadium! I was told the roof had numerous patches and that management cut back on use of the snow melting system. For the next week, B.C. Place management denied snow was a factor, despite the evidence I was supplied.

Reporters allowed into the east airlock of the dome were speechless at the downed roof, damaged equipment, puddles of water and piles of snow. Here is my report from Jan. 5, 2007.

A year later, a Geiger Engineers report (dated Oct. 12, 2007) was issued that confirmed it was preventable. Snow had accumulated and five snow alarms ignored. Finally the air pressure was frantically increased, the snow avalanched and ripped the roof. PavCo called it a controlled deflation but my sources told me that chaos reigned while the big top came down. There is even more in this report by the B.C. Place joint health and safety committee.

On Jan. 19, 2007, the patched roof was reinflated. A major renovation, including the new roof, was announced by Premier Gordon Campbell on May 18, 2008. A heavy-duty roof heating system by Genivar was installed before the 2010 Winter Olympics. If you went to B.C. Lions' games in 2009, you may have spotted those big, white bent finger pipes in each of the corners. The roof barely made it through the Olympics. The weight of lights and speakers caused it to flatten. Crews were stationed atop the roof around the clock to prevent big puddles that could have ripped the roof. That almost happened on Jan. 14, 2010.

The roof was finally deflated for good on May 4, 2010. 24 Hours' videographer Mark Yuen shot the definitive time-lapse video of the historic morning. Some of the material was shipped to Celista, a community near Kamloops, where it is now a liner for an outdoor hockey rink. The rest went to Minnesota for repurposing. Some of the material was kept for a B.C. Sports Hall of Fame fundraiser.

A German-engineered retractable system is being installed. Fall and winter winds have not been kind to the construction schedule. All 36 cable-support towers were supposed to be installed by the end of 2010, but the last three may not be done until Jan. 9. B.C. Pavilion Corporation is sticking to its "early fall" completion and subsequent opening. Chairman David Podmore said in November he'd have a better idea in March. An Aug. 20 construction committee document, however, says Nov. 1, 2011 is the estimate for "substantial completion." The Vanier Cup (Nov. 25) and Grey Cup (Nov. 27) are the only confirmed events.

The B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps are at the mercy of PavCo, which is ultimately at the mercy of construction-safe weather conditions. The Caps and Leos will both start their seasons at Empire Field but are selling tickets based on moving into B.C. Place in September.

UPDATE: B.C. Place reopened on Sept. 30, 2011. Documents show the stadium remained a construction site when 50,213 people were there. Area neighbours continue to complain about the bright lights from the Telus-installed advertising video screen at Terry Fox Plaza. The budget for the renovation was $563 million, but PavCo is stalling the release of several Freedom of Information requests that would show whether there are indeed major overruns. Two key contractors are suing each other for millions of dollars and, in the process, exposing the troubles of the renovation.

As for the roof? I shot photographs during the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' Grey Cup week practice on Nov. 25, 2011 -- the day after heavy rains hit the Vancouver area and caused more leaks. Notice the makeshift barriers of the area drenched by leaks from the new roof.

Vancouver was hit by heavy rains again Jan. 3-4. The same area of the B.C. Place field's east end was again cordoned off when I visited the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame on Jan. 5 (below). Construction workers in hardhats and safety vests were seen on the roof and ring beam around 11 a.m.

Similar leak problems dogged Frankfurt, Germany's Commerzbank Arena for many months after it opened in 2005 with a retractable roof system that inspired the B.C. Place renovation.

That's a wrap for "plenty"-eleven

2011-12-31T12:13:00.001-08:00

After hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics last year, some of you thought Vancouver would revert to its old, boring self.

The year 2011 was anything but dull and kept us journalists on our toes.

The Stanley Cup riot on June 15 was the biggest local news story of the year and the ripple effects will continue in 2012 as accused rioters and looters are slowly prosecuted. Those of us who remembered 1994 were hoping for a victory parade instead of that ugly, four-letter word.

There was only one day better than the Vancouver Whitecaps' triumphant Major League Soccer debut under sunny skies at Empire Field on March 19. That was Nov. 27 when the B.C. Lions won the Grey Cup at home for the second time. The first time was Nov. 27, 1994. Yes, that year also included a riot by Canucks' fans.

B.C. Place Stadium reopened from a $563 million renovation on Sept. 30. The jury is still out on the engineering marvel and we don't know the final cost to taxpayers. Telus was supposed to become the naming rights sponsor; the deal mysteriously went sideways. A proposed mega-casino was supposed to help pay for the project, but an effective campaign forced city council to vote it down on April 19.

The Occupy movement provided citizens across the broad political spectrum a chance to come together Oct. 15 at the Vancouver Art Gallery's north plaza to vent their frustration at the varying degrees of government action and inaction with the problem of so-called crony capitalism. The movement was part of a broader wave of global rage against corruption that toppled dictators. What next?

There were elections. Federal on May 2 and municipal on Nov. 19. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives got a majority and Mayor Gregor Robertson's Vision Vancouver got three more years. On both counts, however, turnout was disappointing. Civic independents in Vancouver are pondering an alliance to neuter the influence of the real estate development lobby on governing Vision Vancouver and the opposition Non-Partisan Association. A desired fall provincial vote was scuttled by new Premier Christy Clark on Aug. 31. Clark was installed by the B.C. Liberal Party in February to replace Gordon Campbell. Clark has done little governing and plenty of campaigning. Evidently, you can take the host out of the talkshow, but you can't take the talkshow out of the host.

Power to the people who defeated the Hated Sales Tax. A mail-in ballotseemingly engineered to give the government the result it wanted -- to keep the Harmonized Sales Tax -- resulted in 54.73 percent of voters opting to quash the tax. The two Dutch Bills -- right-winger Vander Zalm and left-winger Tieleman -- celebrated at Jack Poole Plaza, in the shadow of the Olympic cauldron, on Aug. 26.

Alas, Tieleman (and others like Alex Tsakumis) still hope and wait for an inquiry into the corrupt sale of B.C. Rail.

Here's wishing Premier Clark has a courageous change of heart and orders one in 2012.

Families want jobs, but they also deserve a transparent government they can trust.

Happy New Year. Play hard and play fair in 2012.

TransLink ticket scandal revealed

2011-12-29T16:30:00.000-08:00

On Oct. 25, 2011, Transit Police announced two men were accused of stealing thousands of FareSavers tickets from the Richmond recycling warehouse where they worked.

Documents released to me by TransLink indicate the taxpayer-funded regional transit company was negligent in the way it handled the destruction of tickets deemed obsolete by a fare increase.

Read my story from the Vancouver Courier here.

The source documents below show the faulty decision-making and new policies to beef-up security next time bulk tickets are to be destroyed.

TransLink Ticket Destruction FOI Release - 2011-167 - MACKIN, Bob

City hall's first family rocked

2011-12-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

Eight years ago, on Dec. 28, 2003, police raided the B.C. Legislature. They didn't tell us at the time it was about the corrupt sale of B.C. Rail, but indicated it was connected to an organized crime investigation. Premier Gordon Campbell was away in Hawaii.

On Dec. 29, 2011, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was away in Hawaii when the Richmond Review reported that his foster son Jinagh Farrouch Navas-Rivas is wanted for serious guns and drugs charges by the Richmond RCMP. An arrest warrant was issued Dec. 23.

Robertson's prepared statement issued to the media at 4:54 p.m. Dec. 29 aims to distance Navas-Rivas from the family, claiming:

"My wife and I foster parented Jinagh for two years until 2009. We have always believed that providing support to youth in need is of great importance and that fostering is an important contribution our family can make."

“It was in this spirit that we took in Jinagh to live with us. He has been on his own now since June 2009."

The Mayor's Dec. 14-updated bio on the city hall website says: "Gregor and his wife Amy have four children: Terra, Satchel, Jinagh and Johanna." (The same bio also claims Robertson's organic juice company Happy Planet is "Vancouver-based," but my Vancouver Courier story in October revealed it is actually now based in Burnaby.)

The 21-year-old Jinagh was onstage at the Wall Centre for Robertson's re-election victory party on Nov. 19 and introduced by Robertson as the "birthday boy."

Jinagh also had exclusive access to the Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean-hosted Hotel Vancouver party with foreign dignitaries before the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony and he also sat in the dignitaries box at B.C. Place Stadium for the closing ceremony. On the official guest list for the Feb. 12, 2010 event and on the name card attached to his chair for the Feb. 28, 2010 ceremony, he was identified only as Jinagh Robertson.

According to Court Services Online, Navas-Rivas is charged with alleged trafficking in a controlled substance on Nov. 4 in Vancouver and Dec. 9 in Richmond. He is also accused of manufacturing or transferring a firearm on Nov. 18 in New Westminster -- the eve of the election! See the charge sheet below.

This puts the Mayor, who is also chairman of the Vancouver Police Board, in a very uncomfortable position.

Court Services Online charge sheet

What wasn't included in the Furlong and Keefe report

2011-12-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest stories in Vancouver of 2011 was the Stanley Cup riot of June 15. A terrible blemish on the reputation of British Columbia unlikely to heal for some time.

When provincially-appointed reviewers John Furlong and Doug Keefe released their expensive report into the riot on Sept. 1, 2011, what they didn't include were the 85 submissions received via email and Canada Post from the public and various interest groups.

On Dec. 20 I finally received the records I requested via Freedom of Information. Here is my story from the Vancouver Courier.

Some of the comments were not flattering to Furlong, Premier Christy Clark or the Vancouver Canucks.

See the records (which were partially censored by the government) below.

Riot Review Submissions-Mackin

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-12-24T19:42:00.001-08:00

'Twas the Night Before Christmas inside B.C. Place,
A lone pigeon flew in the space.
While the roof stayed closed,
Two questions he posed,
"Didn't the Caps suck?"
"Hey, didja see the Leos beat Buck?"
Across Griffiths Way,
Where the Canucks do play,
Despite Game 7's crash,
The brothers Aquilini counted cash.
"Grazie Luongo, Merci Burrows and Tack to the Sedins,
"We kept your bonuses when you played like has-beens!"
Meanwhile uptown at the Nat,
Kerr and Mooney's wallets grew fat.
Out with the A's,
In with the Jays!
At the 60-year-old ballpark,
The C's are league champs, hark!
A year after Olympics, 2011 it was,
Many stories created a buzz.
So after elections, Occupy, and the riot,
Relax and let's all have peace and quiet.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

(With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore.)

Mayor rings Bell with letter about lousy lights

2011-12-16T17:30:00.000-08:00

Publicly, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is a rather placid fella.

So I found the tone of this Oct. 24 letter to Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell stern.

Bell is responsible for B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the provincial Crown corporation that operates B.C. Place Stadium. As part of the $563 million stadium renovation, Terry Fox Plaza was remade with Douglas Coupland's statues of the Canadian hero, forever heading west.

PavCo erected a giant video screen on the exterior of the stadium, angering area residents who won't tolerate bright lights flashing in their apartment windows. They were never consulted and are fighting back. PavCo used B.C. Place's provincial status under the B.C. Enterprise Corporation Act to bypass the city hall bureaucracy.

Not only did Robertson ask Bell to respect the city's sign bylaw, but he also asked PavCo to turn off the lights inside the stadium at night. PavCo has claimed that the stadium is more energy efficient than before the renovation, despite erecting so many video screens.

I obtained Robertson's letter via Freedom of Information. I am waiting for Bell's ministry to send me a copy of his reply, which apparently was sent Dec. 12 or 13.

Read my story here. See Robertson's letter below.

Vancouver Mayor's stern letter to Minister Responsible for PavCo

Jersey Girl also the Charter Chick?

2011-12-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

Jobs and families. Premier Christy Clark's two favourite words. One thing is certain, she has given the powerful McLean family the job of flying her entourage.

I learned that Clark flew on eight trips during her first six months in office on Blackcomb Aviation, which is co-owned by the McLean Group. See my story here. The invoices and itineraries are below.

Premier Christy Clark's charters on a Liberal-friendly airline

Patriarch David McLean led the privatization of CN Rail and became its chairman in 1994. He is also a prominent B.C. Liberal Party fundraiser and donor. His Elections BC record shows he donated $209,707.50 since 2005. McLean was one of many supporters of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic bid. As owner of The Landing in Gastown, he was landlord of ICBC which sublet space to the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation. BidCorp. morphed into VANOC, expanded and moved into a city-owned complex in East Vancouver. (The Landing is where post-Olympic VANOC moved-in with the Twentyten Group, a marketing firm that also manages VANOC CEO John Furlong's speaking engagements.)

Premier Gordon Campbell had promised not to sell the people's railway. CN Rail bought BC Rail operations for $1 billion in 2003 in a suspect tendering process. Competing bidder Canadian Pacific Railway withdrew, calling the process unfair.

Son Sacha McLean is Blackcomb Aviation's CEO and donated use of the company's jets to Clark during her leadership campaign in early 2011, a fact initially reported by Sean Holman. McLean's other son Jason was an aide to Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien from 2000-2002, is a member of the Vancouver Police Board and became president of the Vancouver Board of Trade in 2010.

David McLean was expected to be among the witnesses called to testify in the B.C. Supreme Court corruption trial of Dave Basi and Bob Virk. The former B.C. Liberal ministerial assistants copped a plea bargain on Oct. 18, 2010 and the trial abruptly ended. Taxpayers were saddled with their $6 million legal bill, despite being convicted.

With a reliance on the McLean Group, why would Clark want to risk embarrassing political friends by ordering an inquiry into the sale of BC Rail? She has not changed her stance since the leadership campaign. An inquiry, to restore the integrity of government, is something that both Bill Tieleman and Alex Tsakumis wish would happen.

Luge slides back to 2010 Olympics venue

2011-12-09T22:20:00.000-08:00

Felix Loch has mastered the Whistler Sliding Centre.

The German won the Olympic gold medal at the track during the 2010 Games and he was atop the podium again Dec. 9 during the second International Luge Federation world cup stop of the 2011-2012 season.

Loch’s combined time of 1:36.48 was 0.278 better than fellow German Johannes Ludwig. David Moller, the 2010 Olympics silver medallist, completed the German podium sweep.

“I like the fast track here, the start is good for me, it's not too steep. It's good for all Germans. The sled was today very fast,” Loch said. “The track became more safe, those nations that are not on the level of Germany, they are learning and getting better on this track.”

Calgary's Sam Edney was fifth in 1:37.061. Edney's seventh-place in the Olympics at Whistler was a best for a Canadian in men’s singles.

“Five Germans and a Canadian (among the last six) -- it's clear to me where they have that edge, at the start,” Edney said. “This has got to be the best track in the world. The feeling you get when you're sliding down you can't express it, the speed and that feeling of that adrenaline rush. Hearing the crowd as you're sliding down is one of the coolest things you can ever feel as you're sliding.”

Italy's Armin Zoggeler, the 2002 and 2006 Olympic champion and bronze medallist in 2010, was a disappointing 13th.

The first FIL world cup in Whistler was in 2009 when Moller won gold, Zoggeler silver and Loch bronze. Ludwig was fourth and Edney 12th.

* * * * *

In the men's doubles, 2010 Olympic champions Andreas and Wolfgang Linger of Austria won gold, beating countrymen Peter Penz and Georg Fischler by 0.244. Italians Christian Obsertotz and Patrick Gruber were third.

Linger and Linger established a doubles track record of 41.255 seconds. Penz and Fischler, however, are FIL leaders after two rounds of the nine-stop World Cup tour, which continues next weekend in Calgary. The Lingers are second.

Canada's Tristan Walker and Justin Smith were 10th.

* * * * *

No sliders from Georgia have competed in the first two rounds of the FIL world cup. But Georgia’s flag was displayed in memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili.

The 21-year-old died after crashing near the end of his last training run on Feb. 12, 2010, the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics. A small flag marks the spot where the tragedy happened.

A bigger flag is outside the track offices, near the Olympic podium.

The start area for women’s races continues to be used, as it was the day after Kumaritashvili’s crash. A safety audit ordered by the British Columbia Coroners Service was conducted by the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. The results are expected to be made public in the first quarter of 2012.

During the summer of 2010, concrete on curves 12 to 16 was modified with the blessing of FIL and the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. More changes are coming.

Whistler Sliding Centre begins its second season of public skeleton rides on Dec. 16. On Dec. 22, it launches a public bobsled program. The two-hour courses are $149. The bobsled experience includes professional pilots. Retired Canadian legend Pierre Lueders, the 1998 Olympic champion and two-time world champion, will be among the guest pilots this winter.

* * * *

The official attendance wasn’t announced. In diplomatic terms, other things must have occupied the collective interest of Whistler locals and visitors. There were more athletes and reporters at the end of the track than there were fans.
Whistler is host of the 2013 world championships.

B.C. Place's multimillion-dollar legal fiasco

2011-12-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

A very messy legal battle is unfolding over the controversial $563 million renovation of B.C. Place Stadium, home of the Grey Cup champion B.C. Lions and the Major League Soccer chump Whitecaps.

Quebec-based steel supplier Canam Group slapped French cable specialist Freyssinet with a $26.15 million countersuit on Nov. 18. Read all about it here.

Canam's Structal division was responsible for the steel masts. It hired Freyssinet to supply and install the cables for the new retractable roof. Quite simply, the two companies couldn't get along. Now they're pointing fingers at the other, alleging bad management and shoddy workmanship.

This lawsuit has been festering since April, when Canam informed shareholders of a major cost overrun. B.C. Pavilion Corporation claimed it wouldn't cost taxpayers more, because the contract was fixed-price. This is what I reported then.

This is what I reported in August, as the reopening of the stadium rapidly approached and construction was going around the clock.

If you followed any of the roof leaks and box office and food and beverage service troubles during the reopening, the root cause of the rocky reopening was the Canam/Freyssinet conflict.

Had erection of the steel masts and attachment of the cables gone smoothly and according to schedule, the roof would have been fully installed by the start of summer and game day staff would have had several weeks of training inside the building before the Sept. 30 reopening. Workers could have leisurely done their best to make the new roof leak-proof, while days were long, sunny and dry.

Read the key court filings below.

Though unproven and untested in court, these filings lead to more questions than answers about the risky renovation.

What did PavCo and general contractor PCL know about the dispute?

When did they know the two important subcontractors were encountering major difficulties?

Why did taxpayers have to wait until lawsuits were filed to learn about these problems?

How much will the stadium ultimately cost taxpayers?

B.C. Place renovation lawsuit: Freyssinet Statement of Claim

B.C. Place renovation lawsuit: Canam Response

B.C. Place renovation lawsuit: Canam Counterclaim

B.C. Place renovation lawsuit: PavCo Response

After 168 days, the wait is over

2011-11-30T21:26:00.000-08:00

The first 25 people charged in Vancouver Provincial Court with taking part in the June 15, 2011 Stanley Cup riot were announced Nov. 30, 2011. All are innocent until proven guilty. Here are their names and the additional charges.

Emmanuel Seren Alviar of Surrey, 20: two counts of mischief
Sean Charles Burkett of Surrey, 18: two counts of mischief
Oliver Cornelius Burke of Vancouver, 28: break and enter
Matthew William Cottrell of North Vancouver, 23: break and enter
Richard John William Dorosh of Surrey, 18: break and enter
Connor Blair Epp of Maple Ridge, 20: mischief
Kristian Toomas Johanson (aka Christian Johanson) of Vancouver, 20: three counts of mischief and two counts of break and enter
Kelly George Johnson of Surrey, 20: two counts of mischief.
Spencer Robert Kirkwood of Vancouver, 25: mischief
Timothy Tin-Chew Kwong of Burnaby, 30: arson
Sophie Carmelle Laboissonniere of Richmond, 20: break and enter
Anthony Joseph Karl Larsen of Surrey 18: break and enter
Matthew John Lennox of Vancouver, 24: break and enter
Nigel Boxuan Li of Vancouver, 19: mischief
Dylan Ray Lloyd Long of Surrey, 19: break and enter and mischief
Mobeen Mohammed of Surrey 33: break and enter
Alexander Keelty Peepre of Vancouver, 20: assault and mischief
Alexander Frederick Pennington of Burnaby, 21: break and enter
Alicia Price of Surrey, 22: mischief and arson
Robert Mitchell Snelgrove of Vancouver, 25: break and enter
Name withheld of Surrey, 17: break and enter
Jeffrey Ray Post of Maple Ridge 20: mischief
Jerry H. Wernicke of Vancouver, 28: mischief
Jensen Peter White of Seattle, 21: mischief
Lincoln Ray Kennedy Williams (aka Lincoln Kennedy) of Delta, 21: mischief and arson

According to a search on Court Services Online, none of the adults charged appears to have had any prior criminal record. Unless there are cases of mistaken identity or weak cases by Crown prosecutors, don't be surprised if there are plea bargains galore and conditional sentences: no criminal record in exchange for a year's probation and 100 hours community service or a like sentence. The courts are bursting at the seams, burdened by a lack of facilities, judges and sheriffs. For that reason, you could very well see trials (if any) happening in 2013.

Karanvir Singh Saran, 18, has the distinction of being the first person charged and processed, albeit in Surrey Provincial Court in a matter investigated by the RCMP. He got an absolute discharge Nov. 2 on a lesser charge of possessing stolen items. Joshua Lyle Evans of Calgary was wrongly accused by Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu of possessing a weapon. The 27-year-old's charges were dropped when witnesses said Evans was disarming a knife-wielding man. Charges of aggravated assault were also stayed for Burnaby 20-year-old Edgar Ricardo Garcia.

If you need a hint of what's to come, consider the variety of conditional discharges and dropped charges from the Feb. 13, 2010 anti-Olympic march. Willow Riley was the last to appear in Vancouver Provincial Court. She received a conditional discharge from a sympathetic judge who noted she had no prior criminal record.

Now, about those public officials who have yet to admit fault for the ill-conceived and poorly planned Stanley Cup fan zone...

Angus Reid: "Let's just enjoy it"

2011-11-26T16:51:00.001-08:00

What the B.C. Lions have done to get to the Grey Cup is nothing short of miraculous. They opened the season with five straight losses. Since losing 30-17 to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Aug. 13 at home, B.C. has won 11 of 12 games. The team will ultimately be judged on the result of the 99th Grey Cup at home in B.C. Place Stadium.

This orange and black team can become the first Canadian Football League squad to win the Grey Cup on home field since the 1994 Lions beat Baltimore on Lui Passaglia's dramatic last-play field goal. That was also on a Nov. 27.

The Lions have battled a bad economy and new competition in the form of the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer. Commentators speculated that the Lions would be overshadowed by both the Vancouver Canucks and Whitecaps. The Canucks were Stanley Cup losers and the Whitecaps mired in last-place with 18 losses to end their first MLS campaign.

"As players you can't approach a season on what media thinks who's going to be the biggest team in the league, how are we going to fit into the media circle and what are fans going to think of us? All we knew was we were losing games early on," said veteran centre Angus Reid.

"That's the beauty of this team: we never looked outside of the room, we had to pull together, we don't point fingers, we don't cannibalize each other...

"Look at what's happened. The media's behind us, the city's rallied behind us. That came with us doing our jobs as football players, not worrying about public image."

Not only is the game an opportunity for the 2011 Lions to become one of the greatest teams in CFL history, but it could also further the healing for a city bruised by the June 15 Stanley Cup riot. The last time the Canucks lost in the Stanley Cup and fans rioted, the Lions won the championship at home.

"There's going to be almost 60,000 people in one building that will be filtering out together. That's a recipe for anything. I'm not going to compare CFL fans with NHL fans, because a lot of that wasn't sports fans, they were just idiots being idiots," Reid said.

"We can take this opportunity as a city and prove that we can have a mass amount of people here involved in a massive sporting event, where I'm sure there will be alcohol involved, and I'm sure there will be all the fuel you'd need to be a bad situation and, yet, we have it be a joyous celebration regardless of outcome."

"It's a great event, let's just enjoy it for what it is and prove that this is a city that can have great things here and not screw it all up."

Vanier Cup protest foiled?

2011-11-26T16:26:00.001-08:00

Federal sport minister Bal Gosal was at the 47th Vanier Cup -- a Canadian football game like no other -- but not Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper was in Vancouver earlier Nov. 25 to commemorate the renovations at Science World. He was protested there by members of Occupy Vancouver.

Someone at the McMaster versus Laval epic evidently wanted to remind fellow Canadians of Harper's habit of limiting the number of questions he takes from reporters at news conferences. His handlers also pre-screen questions, though us crafty journalists try to avoid that problem by adding a second, so-called "dirty" question when it's our turn.

I spotted this sign inside Gate H at B.C. Place on Nov. 26, near garbage cans that were used during the previous night's Vanier Cup. It says "I want a Prime Minister that's not afraid of live questions from reporters."

By the way, anyone else get the same creepy feeling I got when I saw a Canadian Security Intelligence Service "Intelligence Matters" recruitment ad on the big-screen at B.C. Place?

The glum, downbeat musical score and impersonal nature of the creative was off-putting, to say the least. Then again, maybe Canada's spy agency really bears no resemblance to the jet-setting, womanizing and martini-drinking lifestyle of spies from the James Bond flicks.

Oh, say can you see?

2011-11-26T16:09:00.000-08:00

The official sellout of the 99th Grey Cup game, announced in July, was 52,511. B.C. Place Stadium is said to hold a maximum 54,500. But will every seat truly be occupied on Nov. 27?

While the panoramic view can be described as spectacular, the renovation of the stadium left hundreds of seats near the top of level 4 with obstructed views. From some seats, only one of the two end zones is visible. You may also not be able to see the giant, centre-hung, shoebox-style video board for replays. The first, and often second, aisle seat in the top four or five rows of level four is impeded by structural columns.

If you have aisle tickets in rows VV-ZZ on level 4, you should contact TicketMaster or the Grey Cup committee. (Then email me to tell me about your experience.)

Occupy eviction intended to protect Grey Cup bank

2011-11-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

What's really behind the City of Vancouver’s rush to disband Occupy Vancouver’s camp from the bark mulch and concrete of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s north plaza?

Grey Cup Festival organizers fear protesters could disrupt the Nov. 26 Grey Cup parade and embarrass a major sponsor. The B.C. Supreme Court granted an injunction that allows police to evict protesters if they don't remove tents and structures from the Vancouver Art Gallery's north plaza by 2 p.m. Nov. 21.

No Grey Cup events were planned for the VAG plaza, where the protest began Oct. 15, and the Saturday morning parade route uses Burrard Street. There is no intelligence that such a protest would happen and Occupy Vancouver has not made a public statement against the Grey Cup festival or its sponsors. But a source involved with the 99th Grey Cup game organization indicated that nobody wants to risk embarrassing Scotiabank.

The Occupy movement’s protest targets have included banks. In Vancouver, locations of TD Canada Trust and RBC have been protest sites. Occupy protesters have also picketed against Enbridge, the company that wants to build a pipeline between the Alberta tarsands and coastal British Columbia to carry oil for export to Asia. Aboriginals opposed to the proposed pipeline attended the Scotiabank annual general meeting in Halifax last April. A Yinka Dene Alliance news release claimed Scotiabank raised $10 billion for Enbridge.

The newly re-elected Vision Vancouver-dominated city council enacted restrictive measures before the 2010 Winter Olympics to protect VANOC sponsors. No similar bylaws are in place for the Grey Cup. Mayor Gregor Robertson and his opponent Coun. Suzanne Anton are among the Grey Cup Committee members.

Planning for the Grey Cup Festival has been complicated by the ugly legacy of the June 15, 2011 Stanley Cup riot. The 1966 Grey Cup parade was a night-time affair and revelers rioted with Vancouver Police and RCMP outside the Hotel Georgia and courthouse (now the art gallery).

Freedom of Information requests for agendas and minutes of the large events oversight committee, central management team and Grey Cup committee have been denied in-full by the City of Vancouver.

Riot redemption or Eskimo jinx?

2011-11-20T09:34:00.001-08:00

The Edmonton Eskimos are back in Vancouver for the third time in less than two months to seek their first win under the new roof at B.C. Place Stadium.

If they win Nov. 20, they will get a chance the next week to get their second win -- in the 99th Grey Cup.

The more times the teams play on the new synthetic turf field, the greater the odds that the Eskimos will finally win one. But will that win spoil the B.C. Lions’ ambition to finish the season as the home team in the Grey Cup?

Edmonton has rained on the parade before. Enough that you might suggest there is a green and gold jinx.

Every time the Lions have met the Esks in the West final of a B.C. Place Grey Cup hosting year, the Esks have eliminated B.C.

Nov. 23, 1986: Esks 41-Leos 5 in Edmonton (Mike Kerrigan and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat the Esks 39-15 in the Grey Cup).
Nov. 22, 1987: Esks 31-Leos 7 in Vancouver (Gizmo Williams and the Esks beat the Toronto Argonauts 38-36 in the Grey Cup.)
Nov. 20, 2005: Esks 28-Leos 23 in Vancouver (The Danny Maciocia-coached Esks beat the Montreal Alouettes 38-35 in overtime to win the Grey Cup).

What’s more, the Calgary Stampeders eliminated B.C. on Nov. 21, 1999, 26-24 at B.C. Place. The Stamps returned the following week to lose 32-21 to Darren Flutie and the Ti-Cats.

Could the Stanley Cup riot be a good omen?

The last year in which the Vancouver Canucks were losers and fans reacted by rioting in downtown, the Lions beat an Alberta team in the West final and won the Grey Cup at B.C. Place.

The Lions edged the Stampeders 37-36 in dramatic fashion in the snow at Calgary on Nov. 20, 1994. On Nov. 27, 1994, Lui Passaglia kicked the game-winning field goal on the final play to beat Baltimore 26-23. That remains the greatest sports moment in the history of 1983-opened B.C. Place and, arguably, the greatest 20th century moment in Vancouver sports history.

Vancouver was rocked by another Stanley Cup riot when the Canucks were losers on June 15, 2011.

Can the city end this year with a home-won Grey Cup as consolation?

Will it be 'independents night' in Vancouver?

2011-11-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

One of the most vicious election campaigns in recent memory ends Nov. 19.

The Scotsman who wore a kilt to his 2008 swearing-in isn't taking the high road. Mayor Gregor Robertson originally pledged that Vision Vancouver would stay positive, but the party switched its strategy in the middle of the final week when the Non-Partisan Association closed the gap to within the margin of error according to some polling.

This is remarkable, because Vision Vancouver's own in-house polling claimed Robertson had 78 percent approval of Vancouverites at mid-term and he looked unbeatable. In Robertson's corner is Joel Solomon, the left-wing bagman from Tennessee whose intricate finances were deftly deconstructed by Vivian Krause. She calls her blog Fair Questions and reasonably wonders if the Vision Vancouver funding via various U.S. charitable foundations is legal. I discovered that the juice company Robertson co-founded moved out of Vancouver, therefore questioning the credibility of his spin that Vision Vancouver has attracted investment.

The NPA went straight for the Juice Man's jugular from the beginning, highlighting his party's backyard chickens, front-yard wheatfields, $500,000 Occupy Vancouver campsite, the million-dollar Stanley Cup riot, empty bike lanes… Let's just say Robertson provided his opponents a bounty of low-hanging fruit from which to make juice. The NPA's campaign chairman is Peter Armstrong, the Rocky Mountaineer tourist railway boss. His company got headlines for the wrong reason when replacement workers were hired because of a strike.

Vision Vancouver focussed on NPA candidate Jason Lamarche and his "Date Matrix" from his college days early in the campaign. COPE took aim at wannabe Mayor Suzanne Anton's unauthorized campaign pamphlet photograph with two Filipino-Canadian children late in the campaign. Anton quickly said sorry.

Robertson did more damage to his own cause by not acting decisively to strike a balance between the rights of Occupy Vancouver to protest with the bylaws that reasonably regulate public space. The three-day B.C. Supreme Court hearing on the city's application to tear down the Occupy Vancouver protest camp ended Nov. 18 with the city getting the court order it wanted (but didn't really need). Occupy Vancouver's pro boon lawyers Michael McCubbin and Jason Gratl scored some key points against city hall. Robertson's pet project is solving homelessness, but the court heard that the city's homeless shelters are both scarce and dangerous!

Robertson was mayor during the 2011 Stanley Cup riot. Now he faces the real possibility of a Grey Cup-week riot if Occupy Vancouver squatters resist the 2 p.m. Nov. 21 deadline to remove tents and structures from the Vancouver Art Gallery's north plaza.

Occupy Vancouver protested both NPA and Vision Vancouver campaign offices on the afternoon of Nov. 18, after calling into question the two parties' finances. Neither came clean on who's paying their bills by Occupy Vancouver's Nov. 17 deadline. They aren't required to during the campaign, but they really should. It comes down to the old maxim that he (or she) who pays the piper, calls the tune. Voters should have been able to know who the tune callers are of the two big parties before they go to the ballot box.

In 2008, Vision Vancouver spent $2,502,566 and its ally COPE $346,730. NPA spent $2,1101,229.

You'll have to wait to find out what the NPA and Vision Vancouver spent for their 2011 campaigns. But Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver disclosed $37,965 in donations.

NSV, led by mayoral candidate and West End Neighbours' present Randy Helten, endorsed COPE's R.J. Aquino, Tim Louis and Ellen Woodsworth, Green's Adriane Carr, independent Sandy Garossino and NPA's Bill McCreery for council along with its own slate of Nicole Benson, Marie Kerchum, Terry Martin and Elizabeth Murphy.

Helten got fed up with Vision Vancouver's pandering to developers and ignorance of neighbourhood issues, so he formed his own party. If it's as close as many believe, Helten could be the spoiler if he can draw 1,500 or more votes. I'll be watching Carr and Garossino's numbers closely. Carr is the veteran candidate of provincial and federal battles for the Greens. Garossino rose to prominence as the leader of the Vancouver Not Vegas coalition that defeated the Paragon Gaming/B.C. Pavilion Corporation bid to build Western Canada's biggest casino connected to B.C. Place Stadium.

A city council with Carr and Garossino would certainly keep Vision Vancouver and the NPA honest for the next three years. Helten would be more valuable as a councillor, but he seems to have a vision to grown NSV into the city's third party and his name on the top of the NSV slate is an attention-getter.

Speaking of Occupy Vancouver, that's where you can often find mayoral candidate Darrell "Saxmaniac" Zimmerman and council candidates Lauren (Rent is Crazy High) Gill and Chris Shaw of De-Growth. While John Furlong was boosting the Olympics for the better part of a decade, Shaw was the well-researched critic and the media's go-to-guy who a VANOC reality-check who risked his own privacy -- police spied on him -- to exercise his right to dissent.

It takes all kinds to run for office. Gerry McGuire of Vancouver Citizens Voice. Gölök Zoltan Buday has the most umlauts of any candidate and is running for the fifth time. He's "lusting" for power, that is Liberty, Unity, Sature and Trust. Dubgee is a fab rapper with the most creative mayoral campaign.

The moral of the story is that you don't need to vote for a candidate from one of the big parties. You have a choice. Whatever you do, get out and vote. It's your right.

Here's all you need to know about the City of Vancouver election.

By the way, if you notice any voting irregularities (broken machines, people voting twice, campaign signs too close to polling stations), report to 3-1-1 and then email me.

Elsewhere…

I'm watching out for Alexa Loo in Richmond and Larry Anschell in White Rock.

Loo is the Olympic snowboarder, running for Richmond city council. Mayoral candidate Anschell is an accomplished recording producer and engineer who has worked with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nickelback and Sarah McLachlan.

And, in the Olympic resort municipality of Whistler, will Ken Melamed win re-election or will the Olympic Village asphalt scandal bring him down? Will Whistlerites tell the incumbent to hit the asphalt? Under Melamed, Whistler was ranked second worst in municipal spending in B.C. by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Election day in British Columbia. Get out and vote. Then getcha popcorn ready!

Three more years?

2011-11-18T09:44:00.001-08:00

Since 2008, it has been the best and cheapest place in Vancouver to witness tragedy and comedy. The seats are new and comfy and there is even “free” wifi.

I’m talking about Vancouver city hall, at Cambie and 12th. Government is not supposed to be so entertaining. But that’s how it has been under Vision Vancouver's management.

In my 21-year career, no single government I have followed has dealt with so much upheaval in such a short amount of time. Governing an Olympic city before, during and after the Games has proven harder than Vision Vancouver ever imagined. On Nov. 19, it will be up to the voters to decide whether Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver-dominated city council should be rewarded.

Robertson overcame an unpaid SkyTrain ticket and rode the Olympic Village financing scandal to victory in the 2008 election. His administration has been anything but the moderate, business-like one that was promised. At a time of global and local socio-economic upheaval demanding no-frills, cost-conscious government, Vision Vancouver has made bike lanes and chicken coops priorities. I haven’t seen any rogue roosters on the streets yet, but I found evidence that helmet and safety bylaws are not being properly enforced.

It all seemed to unwind for Vision Vancouver just before the Olympics, with the firing of chief electrician Ark Tsisserev for nothing more than cost-cutting. The original spin was that Tsisserev had retired or quit. Instead, his lawyer threatened a wrongful dismissal lawsuit and the city changed its tune. Ark floated away with a nice golden parachute.

Tsisserev had red-flagged concerns about safety at Olympic sites, including the Olympic Village. During the Games, a barrier collapsed at the City of Vancouver’s David Lam Park live site when the crowd surged. I found out later that city hall knew there were serious safety concerns because: A) none of the officials had not figured out the maximum capacity of the site and B) the emergency exits were locked and nobody knew where to find the key!

So 19 people were injured and nine hospitalized on Feb. 16, 2010 in the worst crowd control incident of the Olympics. There are at least two lawsuits against the city. One girl’s flesh was ripped from her leg in the melee.

After the Games, more chaos with city hall oversight and infrastructure.

It’s lucky nobody was killed in a demolition gone-wrong on Hornby Street or a hazardous materials incident on Nelson Street at the old B.C. Hydro building, now the Electra apartments and offices. Both incidents exposed city hall regulatory shortcomings. There were sinkholes in South Vancouver and downtown that affected major transportation routes and harmed businesses. There was a propane explosion at the Vancouver Christmas Market, on the day it was to open.

And then the ultimate tragedy -- the preventable deaths of three men before Christmas 2010 in an illegal rooming house on Pandora Street. Common sense says the city should have acted swiftly and decisively and condemned the building and found the men suitable accommodation elsewhere. But that did not happen. Inspector Carlene Robbins sued in the aftermath.

After the Games, Robertson went to New York City in spring 2010 to make him look like a statesman back home, but instead spent much of his time meeting with New York-based party supporters. Chief of staff Mike Magee held mysterious “hosting” functions at bars and restaurants in the Big Apple, but kept secret the identities of his guests.

Robertson was caught calling concerned citizens “fucking hacks” after a lengthy council meeting. Some of those “hacks” were members of his own party. Randy Helten got so angry at Vision Vancouver, he started his own party called Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver.

The Mayor’s Office hired a spin doctor who in turn hired a blogger to attack other bloggers and the media. It was officially a contract for “conversation mining.”

Researcher Vivian Krause probed Vision Vancouver’s intricate web of campaign financing. Her fair questions about whether American interests are breaking Canadian laws and influencing Vancouver policy making have gone unanswered. Vision Vancouver bagman Joel Solomon lobbied deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston to find a spot for one of his coffee company investments.

Of course, that should have been the job for the Vancouver Economic Commission, but it was too busy trying to pad the results of its Olympic business promotion while hiding the real information from nosy journalists.

Journalists have been stymied, under Vision Vancouver, because of city manager Penny Ballem’s gag order for staff. Meanwhile, the city communications budget has skyrocketed and the Freedom of Information office gutted. The city has fought tooth and nail against those who have sought copies of important reports. It even decided to withhold key information about contracts and spending on the Stanley Cup fan zone until after the election!

Robertson promised in his swearing-in speech that transparency was a top priority. No ifs, ands or buts.

"That accountability must extend to every aspect of City Hall. When the city uses your money, you have a right to know where it’s being spent, and what it’s being used for. When leaders fall short of that standard, public confidence is shaken.

"Over the next three years, we will rebuild that confidence, and ensure transparency, accountability and public debate at City Hall.

"Politicians do not always live up to that responsibility, I know. But I also know that there were literally thousands of people voting last November for the very first time.

"My commitment to them, on behalf of every member of my team, is that I will not let you down on making City Hall more open and accountable."

What is the Mayor hiding? The election will come and go with not a single rioter or looter being charged in Vancouver, yet Robertson, city manager Penny Ballem, Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu and Deputy Chief Doug Le Pard have gone out of their way to protect their reputations amid criticism they failed the public on June 15. No fun city? No fault city.

Unelected, $300,000-a-year-plus Ballem was appointed a member of the VANOC board after her 2008 hiring and has used her power to spend $2.32 million on used VANOC furniture and computers and to sign a contract that keeps Olympic financial and board documents secret until 2025. She did so without council approval and denies conflict of interest. Shouldn’t citizens who employ her be the ultimate judge of that question?

The Mayor is supposed to be the number one cheerleader for business in the city, but the juice company he co-founded made a bee-line for Burnaby a year after the Olympics and quietly closed up its Downtown Eastside warehouse and office. Robertson claims he owns less than 10 percent of shares but was noncommital when I asked him the simple question: did you make any effort to persuade the majority shareholders to maintain a Vancouver presence?

The Olympic Village remains a story without end. When a municipal auditor general is finally appointed, this project must be the first he or she probes. Vision Vancouver inherited the mess from previous COPE and NPA dominated city councils and has continued to keep citizens in the dark about how much the real loss is.

On the eve of the election, lawyers for the Occupy Vancouver protesters were trying to thwart the city's bid to disband the anti-corporate greed tent village on the Vancouver Art Gallery's north plaza. (Y'know, where the B.C. government replaced the green grass with bark mulch after the Olympics.)

Robertson could have enforced bylaws to remove tents and structures in the days after the Oct. 15 rally. He could have followed the lead of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and sought a compromise that included issuing of permits to the protesters, so that they could exercise their right to freedom of speech and assembly while adhering to reasonable bylaws. McGinn served protesters coffee and his council voted to support the movement. Robertson claims he has visited the Occupy Vancouver site, but my repeated questions have turned up no proof of dates or times of any such visits.

Robertson didn’t and now his city hall’s failure to provide safe and ample homeless shelters to the city's weakest people is an issue for the defence lawyers.

The last three years have been a treasure trove of stories. Those of us in the media thrive on conflict and controversy.

Citizens of Vancouver who pay the bills probably don't share that sentiment. They want a responsible, compassionate and transparent government that upholds laws, protects and respects all citizens (and their rights) and, most of all, spends public money wisely.

Do they really want three more years of Vision Vancouver?

We'll find out on Nov. 19.

Flyer photo flap

2011-11-16T01:02:00.000-08:00

A Filipino-Canadian man who complained that photographs of his daughter and niece were used in an NPA campaign flyer without permission appears to have backed off a lawsuit threat. But he is complaining to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and the civic elections office. He has also issued a list of demands.

Clifford Belgica wants the NPA campaign to pay for full-page apology advertisements in five major newspapers, donate a mutually agreed sum on behalf of the children to B.C. Children's Hospital and perform community service volunteer hours to an adolescent psychiatric unit.

Here is the full complaint, emailed to media early Nov. 16 from Belgica, whose complaint was publicized by the Coalition of Progressive Electors in a Nov. 13 news release.

RE : Vancouver NPA Party

Attention : Peter Armstrong, Party Chairperson
Suzanne Anton, Mayoral Candidate

This is to formally inform the Vancouver NPA and Ms. Anton that a formal complaint had been forwarded to the Office of the Information and Privacy Comissioner for British Columbia as well as Elections Vancouver [File #237386].

This is with regards to the blatant violation of the rights of the my child [Ella Belgica] and her cousin [Gabrielle Mojica] by the NPA and Ms. Anton; done by using their photo image taken in a public event that should have been for posterity purposes; but however the party decided to use as a leverage to show their electorate of their association and "concern" towards the minorities and the multicultural fabric of Vancouver if only to be able to sway votes for party and Ms. Anton's favour without the due process of obtaining consent.

We would also like to inform you that we were at the parade representing a 20 year old duly registered society protected under the BC societies' act upon which the organization is mandated to remain apolitical and not allowed by it's constitution and by-laws not to wear any political color. BIBAK organization of British Columbia is a conglomeration of British Columbians who owe their ancestry and heritage to the indigenous people called Igorots that inhibit the Cordillera mountain ranges in the Northern Philippines hence the traditional garbs being worn by the children during the parade.

This is also to inform you formally that a brief call of no more than 2 minutes to me from Ms. Anton detailing that it was a mistake by a junior staff and the kids are cute anyways ended up providing "insult to injury" specially the media releases sent out by your team right after to say that an "apology" had been made and using media to do the work for you for free . We have given ample time to when a family member had informed your party who were then distributing the materials to withraw up until we had issued our first media release on sunday [Nov 14, 2011] but you only contacted me after the release.

On Ms. Anton's admission, she also stated that the pictures were also used in platform broc
We are ready to move forward with our lives that had suddenly spiralled out of a peaceful existence with a wishful thought of the party making right and setting the wrong that had been done once and for all. As such, in the complaint sent out we wish for the following outcome:

[1] A full page paid party ad with 5 major newspapers [including the Vancouver Sun and The Province] of a full apology and full description of the violation as well as concrete measures that the party had and will do to prevent this from happening again [not a haphazard "apology" via free press]; content to be agreed upon by us prior to release.
[2] A mutually agreed compensation for the incident to include a donation on behalf of both child to BC Children's Hospital
[3] A mutually agreed community service volunteer hours on one of the adolescent psychiatric units in the GVR
[4] Any other outcome that Gabrielle's family has asked in their formal complaint also lodged with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Thank you and best regards to the upcoming elections,

Clifford P. Belgica

From tent city to the Village?

2011-11-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

Occupy Vancouver's next rally, on Nov. 12 at 1:30 p.m., is a pro-housing march after a noontime speech by University of British Columbia Urban Studies chair Elvin Wyly on "the Vancouver housing shortage (and) overpriced condos" and a 1 p.m. speech by Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver mayoralty candidate and City Hall Watch-er Randy Helten on how campaign finance and corporate influence have tainted city hall.

Where will that pro-housing march go?

The Occupy Vancouver website doesn't show the route, but I'm going to guess: could this be the day that Occupy Vancouver meets the Olympic Village?

The Olympic Village, which went into receivership on Nov. 17, 2010, is now known as the Village on False Creek and remains the most controversial luxury housing development in Canada. The Olympic Village's lender once was a division of Fortress Investment Group, the debt-laden, Wall Street hedge fund that, through a subsidiary, foreclosed on victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

According to the fifth point of a six-point motion passed at the Nov. 10 general assembly (see below), Occupy Vancouver members would like to move to the Village, into the portion of units that were originally to be set aside as non-market, social housing. The inventory of 252 was halved when Vision Vancouver decided to give unionized first responders, teachers and nurses first dibs. Residents of the other half of the so-called affordable units have been burdened by a confusing and costly utilities regime run by a company with ties to Vision Vancouver.

In 2008, a different OV -- the Olympic Village -- changed the course of Vancouver politics and enabled Vision Vancouver to win election to Cambie and 12th.

It can be argued that Occupy Vancouver, though leaderless, has become the dominant force of the Nov. 19, 2011 civic election, dictating how both Vision Vancouver and the NPA have campaigned.

If Occupy Vancouver visits the Olympic Village, will that cause Vancouverites to ask more questions about the billion-dollar bailout, such as how much it's really costing taxpayers and could the money have been better spent on housing the homeless?

RESULTS OF TENT CITY NEGOTIATION WORKGROUP
Passed by General Assembly, Nov 10, 2011

That if BC Housing, Judy Graves, or any representative of any housing
agencies come to Occupy Vancouver to offer housing options to those on
site, that members of this tent city collectively, and in solidarity
with one another and the movement, negotiate as a block for housing
with the following, or other, stipulations.

1) That those receiving housing from the tent city at occupy Vancouver
be housed in the same vicinity as each other, and ideally, the same
building, to maintain the vital community that has grown here, and
continue the movement in accessible, local, social space.
2) That those housed continue to maintain collective bargaining rights
in dealing with building managers and non-profit housing providers
regarding tenancy rights issues once housing has been provided. This
is to ensure adequate and appropriate housing options for those with
families, pets, or other ‘barriers,’ and to avoid slumlords,
infestations, and restrictive conditions preventing guests.
3) That BC Housing or some other entity provide daily transportation
funds or provide a shuttle bus between the new housing and the
Vancouver Art Gallery, to ensure accessibility within the Occupy
Vancouver movement.
4) That the encampment at the Vancouver Art Gallery continue, in order
to, amongst other things, allow those who have not yet been provided
permanent housing an interim safe, warm, and dry space to sleep and to
connect with housing agencies to secure housing.
5) That this housing be at the site of the promised, but lost, social
and affordable housing at the Olympic Village.
6) Before a final decision is reached, it would be brought to the
General Assembly for approval.

Things to make you go, "hmmm...."

2011-11-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

Mayor Moonbeam
So who produced the clever satirical Mayor Moonbeam video that is going viral on YouTube?

I asked NPA campaign manager Norman Stowe -- who emailed me the link on Nov. 8 out of the blue -- and his response was: "Not ours… but I love it."

It's a well-produced satire. Slick, you might say. Do I believe Stowe? No.

Notice how the video doesn't use the Vancouver Canucks' logo, but it does include the Olympic rings and the Stanley Cup. All three are trademarked, but usually those who dabble in the world of satire are not afraid to poke fun at corporate logos, regardless of the distance of the corporation's head office.

Dear Freevancity -- the YouTube account name attached to this video -- contact me and tell me more, please!

UPDATE (Nov. 10 morning): Evidently the producer spent too much time worrying about the Canucks' logo and not enough on getting permission to use the music. New York-based MPL Music Publishing Inc. -- part of Beatle Paul McCartney's empire -- found out and was displeased. The video is gone from YouTube. The "Mayor Moonbeam" tune was from "Mr. Sandman," which was written by Pat Ballard and recorded by the Chordettes in 1954.

UPDATE (Nov. 10 afternoon). "Mayor Moonbeam" lives! Dave Teixeira, who I originally knew as wrestling impresario Dave Republic, has preserved the video on his site. You can enjoy "Mayor Moonbeam" here.

"Bum, bum, bum, bum..."

#OccupyVancouver

When Mayor Gregor Robertson did a media scrum on Nov. 5 in the aftermath of the death of Ashlie Gough, he did it with his back to the wall of the Vancouver Art Gallery, near the building's Hornby Street entrance.

I asked him if he would go to the protest camp, a couple dozen metres north and around the corner on the VAG north plaza.

He said:

"I've been on this site many times over the last couple of weeks. Every day over the last several weeks."

Robertson did not go to the Occupy Vancouver camp on Saturday night to offer his condolences or diplomatically and kindly tell the campers that he supports their message but not their mess. Instead, he walked across the bike lane he built and got in the passenger side of a waiting car.

Within minutes, I asked Chris Shaw and Eric Hamilton-Smith, both involved with Occupy Vancouver. They told me they had no recollection of seeing Robertson on the site.

I Tweeted and blogged about it, encouraging any witnesses of a Robertson visit to Occupy Vancouver to tell me what date and time he was seen.

No response.

I asked City of Vancouver spokeswoman Wendy Stewart who referred me to the Mayor's assistant Lara Honrado who did not respond. So I contacted Vision Vancouver spokeswoman Marcella Munro on Nov. 8, who said:

"I know he has been down, but I will need to check with him re. specifics."

UPDATE: On Wednesday afternoon, I got an email response from Honrado, who said:

"As the Mayor has said, he has been to the Occupy Vancouver encampment several times without the media present. There are no photos of these visits but they have occurred throughout the duration of the encampment."

Still no answer to the simple question about precisely when did the Mayor visit.

I continue to wait.

Coun. Suzanne Anton, his mayoralty opponent, has visited at least twice. Randy Helten, a former Vision Vancouver member and mayoral candidate for the new Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver was there on Sunday. Shaw told me that he saw Coun. Geoff Meggs there on Wednesday.

"He went through liked greased lightning," Shaw said.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, who comes from the same left side of the political spectrum as Robertson, visited Occupy Seattle. McGinn, in fact, seems to have achieved what Robertson can't: an uneasy truce with the Occupiers. The protesters in Seattle have permits including a lengthy list of bylaws they must respect while exercising their right to free speech!

McGinn even hung out with them and gave them coffee.

So I am no further ahead in my quest to answer this question:

Has Mayor Gregor Robertson really visited the Occupy Vancouver camp on the north plaza of VAG? If so, when? Does anyone have photos?

The Juice Man and The Powdered Juice Man

Mayor Gregor Robertson is on heavy rotation on CKNW with advertisements pumping up Vision Vancouver council candidate Tony Tang. The ad says that, like the Mayor, Tang is a businessman. Funny, Tang's bio mentions he has an engineering degree, has been a volunteer and that he has a "rambunctious dog." But it makes no mention of being involved with any business. The ads are in such high rotation, that one has to wonder: is the fate of Vision Vancouver's majority riding on Tang's shoulders?

Tang has the same name as that famous juice that sustained astronauts (and us kids in the 1970s).

Robertson is the infamous co-founder of Happy Planet Foods, whose juices have only been ingested on this planet.

He says he owns less than 10 percent of the company and was noncommittal when I asked him if he made any effort to persuade majority owner Earth's Own Food Company of Burnaby from closing the office on Powell Street in Vancouver last February. Read my stories about the Mayor of Vancouver's former Vancouver company here and here.

#OccupyLawCourts?

2011-11-07T23:41:00.000-08:00

City of Vancouver lawyer Ben Parkin has a 2 p.m. date on Nov. 8 with a judge at British Columbia Supreme Court in the Law Courts at Robson Square, near the Occupy Vancouver camp at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Or is it 9:45 a.m.? The chambers schedule (below) that includes the case known as City of Vancouver vs. Sean O'Flynn-Magee, Jane Doe, John Doe and other unknown persons (File S-117498) says it's in the 9:45 a.m. session.

City of Vancouver wouldn't hustle this matter before a judge when people aren't expecting? A stealth application to avoid an occupation of the court? UPDATE: The "Attendance List for the 8th Day of November, 2011" still lists the application in the 9:45 a.m. session, but the more authoritative "Vancouver Supreme Court List" shows the city application is to be heard by Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie in room 55 at 2 p.m. (MacKenzie was the judge who presided over the Basi-Virk B.C. Rail corruption trial, which occupiers might call a case of 1% crony capitalism.)

Website List

City of Vancouver's bid to end Occupy Vancouver on the docket

Parkin's mission, as ordered by Mayor Gregor Robertson and city manager Penny Ballem, is to convince a judge to order protest structures removed from the Vancouver Art Gallery where the protest began Oct. 15. The city also wants the authority to empower police to enforce the Land Regulation Bylaw on VAG property, which is leased by the city from the Province of British Columbia. Robertson and his governing Vision Vancouver party are desperate to end the protest camp for fear that NPA challenger Suzanne Anton will gain in popularity as the Nov. 19 election approaches.

The legal filings do not explain why Sean O'Flynn-Magee was chosen. Occupy Vancouver, like all the Occupy Wall Street clones, is supposedly leaderless. Magee is a digital journalist in Vancouver and here is his Facebook page.

The legal filings (below) spell out the reasons for the city's injunction and the laws it wants to enforce. Specifically, the Land Regulation Bylaw says it is illegal, without permission of the city manager, to:

(d) construct, erect, place, deposit, maintain, occupy, or cause to be constructed, erected, placed, deposited, maintained or occupied, any structure, tent, shelter, object, substance, or thing on city land.

The city is also pleading sections of the Bylaw that ban lighting fires and burning materials; depositing garbage outside of garbage containers; and removing soil.

This may not be a slam-dunk for the city. In fact, it's plausible that the protesters' lawyer could introduce a City of Vancouver Tweet sent Oct. 15 via Hootsuite as evidence that city manager Ballem permitted the protest!

@CityofVancouver #occupyvancouver rumour you will be kicked out at 10pm false, but pls allow others nearby to sleep tonight by lowering PA volume!

The city did not become serious about regulating activity on the site until Nov. 4, the day after a camper nearly died of a drug overdose and the day before a camper did die of an apparent drug overdose.

Even if the court approves the city's application, the Occupy Vancouver protesters vow to stay and resist authorities. Stay tuned.

City of Vancouver's application for a court order against Occupy Vancouver

Check the record, Robertson

2011-11-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

Politicians say the darnedest things, don't they?

Case in point. Mayor Gregor Robertson on CKNW on Nov. 7, 2011 when Bill Good hosted a debate between the incumbent and his challenger, NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton. The dominant topic for the hour-long debate was the future of the Occupy Vancouver tent village protest, 21 storeys below the CKNW studios, at the Vancouver Art Gallery's north plaza. Host Good challenged Robertson on his support for the protest, which began Oct. 15, 2011. The exchange is at the 11:00 mark on the CKNW audio vault file.

Good: "Mr. Robertson, you did say the occupiers could stay indefinitely. Why did you say that?"

Robertson: "That's not correct, what I said was..."

Good: "You did say that."

Robertson: "No, you can check the record on that. The protest could be indefinite. People have a right to protest in Canada, that is our right. The encampment has never been acceptable. It's against city bylaws and we've been clear about that all along."

Oh, really, Mr. Mayor?

I checked the record.

Below are your quotes from Jeff Lee's story in the Vancouver Sun on Oct. 18, 2011. The headline was "Occupy Vancouver can continue if it remains peaceful: Gregor Robertson."

The story remains online and it contains no clarification or correction.

“Obviously safety and cleanliness is crucial to the protest continuing, and violence won’t be tolerated,” Robertson said. “It is premature to say in terms of timelines [how long the protest will last] given the magnitude of this protest globally. I think we’re close to a thousand cities with these protests.”

“I believe this movement has a lot of support and kudos to the protesters and police for keeping it constructive and peaceful,” he said.

“I think everyone’s waiting to see what takes shape in terms of outcomes and agendas. There is a lot of energy around it and it has yet to be seen what results from this.”

The key word in the well-meaning Occupy Wall Street-inspired protests around the world is occupy. Occupy means "to take or hold possession or control" and "to reside in as an owner or tenant." In the context of the Occupy movement, protest and camp are one and the same. From these protest camps, the followers aim to create a movement. Mr. Mayor, you encouraged and enabled the protest camp, even when occupiers said they were gearing up for a long stay outside VAG. You accepted the camp, despite the bylaws that exist. Bylaws that could have afforded you a chance to strike a constitutional balance between public order and free speech. Don't hide from it. Now you're trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube and it's not going to be a pretty end.

Here's a suggestion. And you can thank me later for this. Charter a BC Ferry, invite all the occupiers for an all expenses-paid cruise up the coast to the campground at your Hollyhock getaway on Cortes Island and feed them as much juice and soup from your Burnaby-based Happy Planet Foods company for the rest of winter. Set-up a round-the-clock Livestream feed so that Vancouverites and others around the world can watch the general assemblies and other activities for months to come.

#OccupyHollyhock would be cheaper in the end and create the peaceful outcome you say you want.

Vancouver Police have more important things to do than a mass arrest of protesters. (Like solving the gang war.) Crown counsel has more important things to do. (Like reviewing the charges recommended against 60 alleged Stanley Cup rioters and looters.)

You have more important things to do. Like clowning around with your fake Movember mustache and campaigning for re-election on Nov. 19.

Because you surely don't want to go down in history as just a three-year NDP MLA and three-year Vision Vancouver Mayor. And you surely don't want to hear these three words: "Mayor Suzanne Anton."

Penny says pack up now, protest later

2011-11-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

A letter has been posted at the Vancouver Art Gallery's north plaza where Occupy Vancouver's camp was erected Oct. 15 and 23-year-old Ashlie Gough of Victoria died Nov. 5 of an apparent drug overdose.

Below is the text of the letter from city manager Penny Ballem. It is not a court order, but a request. Occupy Vancouver general assemblies have previously reached consensus that the campers will not respect requests from the city that are not delivered by officials during a general assembly. See the Twitter photo of the City of Vancouver notice by @DorianBanks at this link.

"To: The persons occupying the Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza and surrounding grounds.

The City has long supported the right to gather and carry out peaceful protest. The Occupy movement is a global protest addressing a number of important issues of concern to our citizens.

However, the safety of people is paramount. Much work has been done to cooperatively find solutions to safety issues on the Occupy Vancouver site. However, over the last 4 days, there has been an escalation of safety concerns in the area of fire safety, injection drug use, the presence of pests and other hazards. Saturday there was a death in the encampment and on Thursday November 3 there was a near death du to drug overdose.

Staff have been directed to end the encampment in a way that can be done safety and peacefully while respecting the right to protest.

The Vancouver Art Gallery site will remain a site where protest is welcomed and the city commits to retain the stage and electric power for the sound system…. at the ongoing Occupy Vancouver protest.

However by this notice we ask you to take your tents, belongings and any other items or structures off the city immediately so that the safety concerns can be addressed.

Signed this 7 day of November, 2011

Penny Ballem, city manager

The letter comes two days after Mayor Gregor Robertson held a media scrum near the Hornby Street entrance of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Robertson did not go to the camp. He claims he has been there, but I have received no evidence from the city or independent witnesses that he has been at VAG's north plaza between Oct. 15 and present day.

Occupy Vancouver notebook: He came but did not see

2011-11-06T14:27:00.000-08:00

He arrived by car after 8 p.m. and walked across the bike lane he built.

He stood to the left of the soft-spoken police spokeswoman and waited for her to finish. The left is where he is most comfortable.

His back was to the Vancouver Art Gallery wall as he faced the cameras and microphones. His handlers were nearby. Deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston was in the shadows.

“A young woman has lost her life and it is a terrible tragedy, our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and her close friends,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Obviously really, really tragic circumstances. This loss of life and the overdose a few days ago clearly demonstrate that the situation here at the encampment has deteriorated.

“I have directed the city manager to expedite the appropriate steps to end the encampment as safe as possible, with a safe resolution being absolutely critical.”

Will it be a court order delivered by police that ends the Occupy Vancouver protest camp which began Oct. 15? He did not say.

The Mayor was finally taking action and talking semi-tough because of 23-year-old Ashlie Gough’s death. She had been found in a tent, unresponsive, around 4:30 p.m. Police wouldn’t confirm that she died of an overdose. Gough (right) was from Victoria. (This is her Facebook page and here is her hi5 page..)

She was dead on arrival at hospital. Coincidentally, the punk band DOA played a 5 p.m. gig on the steps of the old courthouse amid a surreal scene as dusk turned to darkness on the crisp Saturday night.

An area of the plaza bordering on the Howe Street sidewalk was cordoned-off with yellow police tape. Several civic workers in fluorescent safety vests over their street clothes stood around, smoking cigarettes inside the tape, keeping guard. Some wore Occupy Vancouver buttons. Some wore Remembrance Day poppies. Some wore both. Police inside the area spoke with some of the distraught punk and hippy campers -- some call them squatters -- as they consoled each other.

One man toting an “End Tent City Now” sign walked along the Georgia Street sidewalk, oblivious to the situation unfolding. Protesting the economy is good, but squatting is not, said Greg Burke. He was followed by a camper with a makeshift sign of his own that said “LOL” with an arrow pointing to Burke's sign.

“I have no political aspirations, I don't belong to any political party,” said Greg Burke. “I’m a 23-year old disenfranchised youth who works two jobs to bust my ass to have the things I have and I don't think a bunch of people can come here and have everything handed to them."

Reporters gathered near a fire truck, waiting for someone from Occupy Vancouver or the Vancouver police or fire departments to talk about the tragedy. Suddenly a man was grabbed by police and forcibly removed from the plaza. Cameras rolled. Then the 9/11 Truthers appeared, blocked cameras and shouted “corporate media scum!”

The conspiracy theorists were blocking the media from reporting on a potential case of police brutality. Fancy that!

A group of well-dressed women in their 50s and 60s stopped by, on their way to a birthday party and posed for photographs with the police officers, who stood with their backs to the scene. One of the cops took the photo for the giddy ladies. They all smiled but the misery continued behind them.

The band played on. There was slam dancing and pot-smoking and beer drinking. Did they know one of their own had died?

Occupy Vancouver member Lauren Gill, an addiction services worker, was shocked that the show went on.
“It’s a real tragedy, is it the breaking point? No,” Gill said. “I’m sure we’re going to support each other through this.”

But it may be the breaking point for the Mayor, who tried to say all the right things for a Mayor whose future will be decided by voters in just two weeks.

“We want the protest to continue, the encampment is not okay anymore,” he said to the media. “We can have a vibrant robust protest here, but having people die on this site, having ongoing issues that really undermined the bigger picture is not okay.”

The Occupiers stood on the edge of the media scrum, wondering aloud why he hasn’t solved homelessness and why other drug overdoses elsewhere in the city don’t attract similar attention.

The Mayor, who instructed top officials to take steps to end the camp, did not take steps of his own towards the camp. He did not go there to offer his condolences to the friends of the dead woman or repeat his media lines.

Safety would not have been an issue. There were enough police to guard him. The Occupiers, who declared the plaza a “self-ruling autonomous zone” insist they’re peaceful. They even cheered him at city council on Nov. 1 when he thwarted mayoral opponent Suzanne Anton’s motion to shut down the site.

That was then, this is now. A woman is dead. There is an election campaign. The Mayor has an image to protect and a job he wants to keep for another three years. Opinion polls before Nov. 5 indicated he’s in a can’t lose race for re-election. Now he’s in a can’t win situation with a tent village that he originally enabled.

So he walked south and crossed the bike lane he built and departed in a car on Hornby Street at 8:20 p.m.

* * * * *

During the scrum, I asked the Mayor if he would walk down the sidewalk, turn the corner to the tent village and meet the residents. I also asked him if he had been there yet.

He didn’t answer the first part of my question, but said: “I've been on this site many times over the last couple of weeks... every day over the last several weeks.”

“I have not seen him once,” said Chris Shaw, a volunteer medic and well-known anti-Olympic activist and author. “The Mayor is playing politics with a tragic incident, if it happened two blocks away he would not have cared.”

“I've never seen him down here,” said Eric Hamilton-Smith. “I'm down here a lot, most of the time I'm usually in the tent getting some work done. I can't speak to the fact that he says he's been here. I don't want to call him a liar, but I've never seen him personally.”

I’m hoping the Office of the Mayor will disclose the days and times of the Mayor’s Occupy Vancouver visits. There is no reason to keep such visits secret. If I’m forced to file a Freedom of Information, it could be a long wait.

Anton visited the camp on Oct. 31. She returned there on Nov. 6 to pay condolences to Gough.

* * * * *

Hamilton-Smith had an interesting take on Gough's death.

“Today's incident was a clear reflection of that, the fact there are so many marginalized people in society where they have lost hope and hate themselves so much where they can't find any fulfillment in life so they turn to drugs,” he said.

“Look at the people who become discouraged, the unemployed. that labor market transition from unemployment to exiting the labor force.”

Said Shaw: “It had nothing to do with it being on this site, if it had been somewhere else the person would have died.
“(Robertson is) playing politics with a tragic indecent and trying to use it as an excuse to shut down the camp. that is an embarrassment to his campaign.

* * * * *

The man who overdosed Nov. 3 on heroin at Occupy Vancouver was treated and released from St. Paul’s Hospital only three hours after he was revived from cardiac arrest, according to volunteer medic Leah Pagels.

Volunteer medic Mathew Kagis was first on-scene Nov. 3 and performed CPR to save his life.

“Going into cardiac arrest, you should be under observation for 24 hours,” Pagels said. “That to me is ridiculous that somebody overdoses and is released back into the street because they’re stable. That’s basically sending him back to die.”

He returned to Occupy Vancouver and was taken to Vancouver General Hospital on Nov. 4 after medics became concerned with his condition.

Pagels said the man is an aboriginal from Arizona who lost a leg in a freight train incident. He waited five hours for treatment at VGH and was transferred to detox for a week. She said his name is Tyler, but declined to give his last name.

“I find him very pleasant, a guy that hasn’t been given the best opportunities in life,” she said.

* * * * *

Shaw is one of at least three candidates for office in the Nov. 19 civic election involved with the camp. He is running for the De-Growth party for city council. Housing activist Gill is a candidate for council, under the RICH banner (Rent Is Crazy High). Darrell “Saxmaniac” Zimmerman is running for the mayoralty. He is the infamous stuffed lobster-toting, saxophone player who disrupted the Board of Trade mayoral debate on Oct. 25.

They could be doorknocking, mainstreeting, fundraising and baby-kissing. They’re at Occupy Vancouver instead, trying do do what they think is the right thing for society.

* * * * *

The coroner investigating the death was Kate Corcoran, a former Vancouver TV reporter who won awards for her work at CKVU and CTV 9.

* * * * *

Volunteer medic Danika Surm was moved emotionally twice on Nov. 5. First by 10-year-old aboriginal Ta'kaiya Blaney's beautiful song (watch it here) and later by Robertson's media scrum.

"Gregor, I am not that political. I am also not supportive of violence. But honestly, Gregor, today I could have taken you down. I was that angry. And I was that ashamed of you. If only you could be as astute as Ta'kaiya...and she is only 10 Gregor. Shame. Shame on you. Shame on everyone that wishes Occupy away because of this event (this death). Find a better reason. Don't shut it down because you suddenly feel guilty about a death in your city. It's just another death, why start feeling guilty now?"

I recommend you read this

2011-11-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

Recommend means to "advise a particular course of action."

The Vancouver Police Department did so on Oct. 31 in the case of 60 people that it believes should be charged for their roles in the June 15 Stanley Cup riot.

Now it is up to Crown counsel -- the British Columbia prosecutors -- to review the recommendations, approve charges and file them with the courts. Public interest and likelihood of conviction is the simple, two-pronged test that the Crown uses in this process. That is how the system works in the province.

In order to clarify, for the benefit of readers, that nobody was charged on Oct. 31, I asked Neil MacKenzie of the Attorney General's ministry.

"The charge assessments are not completed on these individuals as yet. Crown are reviewing the files, but I don't have a specific timeline as to when any of the reviews will be completed."

While it is possible that none of the 60 recommendations will be approved, I believe we are likely to see several people charged. When remains the question. But don't hold your breath for swift justice and punishment. I have covered enough cases in my career to know that hearings, trials, plea bargains, verdicts, convictions and sentencing do not come quick in B.C. The courts are so backlogged that many Stanley Cup rioting and looting cases will stretch into 2013.

Those unfamiliar with the courts will joke about the glacial speed. "Will there be verdicts before another set of Sedin twins is drafted by the Canucks?"

Premier Christy Clark laughably said that she wants charges laid within 10 days. She didn't say calendar days or business days, but she wants it done quick. Yet again she proves you can take the host out of the talkshow but you can't take the talkshow out of the host. The wheels of justice in B.C. are exceedingly slow and underfunded. One might even call them flat or square. Prosecutors don't do the work of politicians and should be spending their scarce time on the most deplorable cases -- rapes and murders -- before dealing with the riot files.

So the clock on this blog continues and will do so until the first of the 60 people is actually charged. Names of the accused, who are presumed innocent until proven guilty, will be published here unless they are minors protected by law.

Of Giggles Graham, two years on

2011-10-30T11:58:00.001-07:00

It's a controversy that shows no end in sight and the next chapter is Nov. 4 in Victoria, B.C.

Victoria Police Chief Jamie Graham famously stated on Nov. 30, 2009 during the 12th annual Vancouver International Security Conference at the Marriott Pinnacle Hotel: "…you knew that the protesters weren’t really that organized when on the ferry on the way over they all rented a bus. They all came over on a bus. And there was a cop driving the bus."

The protesters were members of the Olympic Resistance Network and they hired a bus to take them, via ferry, from the Lower Mainland to Victoria for the Oct. 30, 2009 launch of the cross-Canada Olympic torch relay. They joined with anti-Olympics protesters in Victoria for a non-violent, pre-Halloween march around the capital city to disrupt the first day of the 106-day procession that ended at the Vancouver Games Feb. 12, 2010 opening ceremony.

Bruce Dean, a self-described "professional recreationalist," read my Dec. 1, 2009 story about Graham's revelation. Dean had a 2007 run-in with Victoria Police officers who confiscated his camera and deleted photographs because they claimed he had shot pictures of an undercover cop. The Police Complaint Commissioner sided with the cops.

On Dec. 15, 2009, Dean complained to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, alleging Graham disclosed "the identity of an undercover officer to the general public" and that by disclosing the identity he was "jeopardizing the safety of the officer."

RCMP South East District Chief Supt. Don Harrison was hired to probe the matter. In his June 16, 2010 report, Harrison came to the astounding conclusion that Graham did not breach the public trust. He bought ex-North Vancouver and Surrey RCMP chief Graham's claim that his comments were “made spur of the moment and meant to be entertaining and humorous, nothing more.”

Anyone who listens to the entire recording of Graham's speech can tell Graham broke the ice with witty comments about Tiger Woods's marital problems. When he later told the story of the torch relay security operation -- including the monitoring of protesters -- Graham was gleefully boasting. But he wasn't joking.

Graham was hoping his notorious sense of humour would be enough to get him through this controversy, like it did when he was Vancouver's police chief and gave a bullet-riddled shooting target for ex-Vancouver city manager Judy Rogers. Graham is a big fan of the late Leslie Nielsen and even met the Naked Gun star at a 2005 police fundraiser in Vancouver.

Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin took Harrison's advice and decided the misconduct allegation was unsubstantiated. Both Dean and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association successfully complained about the Harrison report being flawed. Harrison used valuable space in the report discrediting complainant Dean, when he should have been probing Graham's conduct.

A new external investigation was ordered on July 30, 2010.

Burnaby RCMP Chief Supt. Rick Taylor found Graham committed "discreditable conduct" even though he found no evidence that Graham knew a police officer was actually at the wheel. Graham “did cause concern amongst senior police personnel engaged in planning and security operations” for both the torch relay and 2010 Winter Olympics.

Graham was alleged to have engaged in discreditable conduct -- "conducting oneself in a manner that the member knows, or ought to know, would be likely to bring discredit on the municipal police department," according to section 77 of the Police Act.

Graham stuck to his story of wanting to "poke fun" at the protesters. Harrison called it "highly inappropriate in that setting and context and a very poor attempt at humour."

On March 31, 2011 a discipline hearing was held in which Taylor and Graham, represented by lawyer Sean Hern, testified. On May 12, 2011 the Victoria Police Board decided that a written reprimand was the appropriate discipline for Graham.

But that was not the end.

B.C. Police Complaint Commissioner Stan Lowe ordered a review on the record because it was a "more efficient and effective means of adjudicative review having regard to the sufficiency of the record of disciplinary decision and the issues engaged."

Retired Provincial Court Judge Alan Filmer was appointed July 13, 2011 and rendered his decision Aug. 9, 2011.

"There was no opportunity for submissions or applications for leave to provide submissions by parties involved in the complaint," Lowe wrote in an Oct. 7, 2011 decision ordering another review. This one will be adjudicated by retired Provincial Court Judge Jakob de Villiers.

"Having reviewed the provisions of the Police Act relating to a Review on the Record, including its legislative development, I am of the view that a material procedural irregularity has occurred, requiring a new Review on the Record of this matter in the interests of procedural fairness in accordance with administrative law principles," Lowe wrote.

Meanwhile, Dean is a rightfully dissatisfied citizen, who only wanted an important public official (Graham) held accountable. Two years later, he is still waiting for that accountability. Once and for all, he wants it settled in the form of a public hearing. He wants Graham to face tough questions in a room open to the public and media.

"I am the only one who has made no false claims, or broke any rules, laws or violated the Police Act. My involvement in this kangaroo court system started when the police violated my Charter rights, seized my camera without warrant and then destroyed evidence -- all sancionted by the OPCC, the Victoria Police Department and the City of Victoria," Dean said via email.

"I'm just a broke single disabled father trying to raise my daughter in poverty. I don't have time for this bullshit and the taxpayers should not be paying for inadequate policing and repeat-after-repeat of failed investigations."

Dean and Fortin are expected to be at a "review management conference" Nov. 4 at 2:30 p.m. in boardroom C at the OPCC office at 501-947 Fort Street in Victoria. Will Graham be there?

Time running out for B.C. Place name?

2011-10-29T19:22:00.001-07:00

A news conference is in the planning stages for Tuesday, Nov. 1 at B.C. Place Stadium for an announcement regarding the B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps, who are expected to be involved in the event because they're the primary tenants of the stadium.

The silence has been deafening. Neither Telus, Cisco nor B.C. Pavilion Corporation's public relations firm Pace Group have responded to my queries to confirm or deny the event or their involvement.

Telus is the telecommunications and technology provider at B.C. Place and Cisco's StadiumVision is the "video and digital content distribution solution" (read: the software that runs the multitude of video screens, large and small). Before the Sept. 30 reopening, the major Telus hardware and wiring installation at B.C. Place was cloaked in secrecy. So much so that it was even code-named "Project Frog."

Telus also has a 10-year, $1 billion contract to supply telecommunications services to the British Columbia government, Crown corporations BC Hydro, BC Lottery Corporation and ICBC and regional health authorities.

When I asked Oct. 14 if his company bought the naming rights, Telus chief financial officer Robert McFarlane would neither confirm nor deny. He would only say there would be a "coming out party" for Telus at B.C. Place in the near future.

There may be a reason for the secrecy. PavCo awaits the results of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union local 1703 vote on a new contract. The two sides reached a tentative deal on Oct. 24. Voting is supposed to end Nov. 1. There is no pay raise, but the workers apparently got the job security and anti-bullying provisions they wanted. The catch? The contract, if ratified, would expire May 31, 2012.

Nov. 1, coincidentally, was also the original date set by PavCo for the reopening of B.C. Place. PavCo chairman David Podmore moved the date forward by a month in February, despite problems installing roof-support cables. The domino effect meant crews didn't begin installing roof fabric until June. The roof opened and closed as advertised Sept. 30, but the sealing job was not complete and leaks continued well into October.

Read more about the controversial $563 million renovation of the 1983-opened stadium here.

Lu on the bubble?

2011-10-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

For only the second time since joining the Vancouver Canucks, goaltender Roberto Luongo was on the bench and healthy to start a second consecutive home game.

Backup Cory Schneider started against the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 26 at Rogers Arena. It was the fifth time in 11 games this season that the Man from Marblehead, Mass. was featured between the pipes. He also backstopped the Canucks in their Oct. 22, 3-2 overtime matinee win at Rogers Arena against the Minnesota Wild.

Luongo returned to the net for the 3-2 Oct. 25 loss in Edmonton. Number 1 was pulled after giving up three goals in a four-minute span. So he will ride the pine on hump day.

The only other time Luongo has sat for a pair at home was when Schneider started, and won, two 5-1 games last year (Oct. 17, 2010 vs. Carolina Hurricanes and Oct. 22, 2010 vs. Minnesota).

When Luongo joined the Canucks in 2006 from the Florida Panthers after a blockbuster trade, he was the only member of the team that management could rely upon to sell tickets.

"Bobby Lu" was guaranteed to make one awe-inspiring save every game. Daniel and Henrik Sedin had yet to blossom and were known for cycling the puck; goals were neither a given nor would they be sparkling.

So Luongo -- who was marketed to Vancouver fans as the "world's best goalie" -- had a lock to start all home games and away pay-per-view and Hockey Night in Canada games. They desperately needed him for TV ratings and to inflate sponsorship and ticket tallies.

But not anymore. The Sedins and Ryan Kesler are as big as -- if not bigger -- than Luongo. They're the ones scoring goals and selling tickets. The Canucks can afford to start Schneider. It is also the path of least resistance because of an impatient, dare I say fickle, fan base that has booed and jeered the man it once revered. Not even the Olympic gold medal won on home ice on Feb. 28, 2010 (and celebrated in a new Rogers Arena display) is enough to give Luongo the benefit of the doubt. Too many fans remember too much about the 4-0, Stanley Cup final Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins. Many understand that it's highly unlikely the Canucks will return to the final in 2012. History is not on their side.

If you think fans are getting anxious, how about the people who sign the paycheques? A source told me that Canucks Sports and Entertainment boss Francesco Aquilini privately expressed his frustration about Luongo in a meeting with general manager Mike Gillis. Aquilini even dangled the idea of a trade before the deadline if Luongo doesn't return to form.

Head coach Alain Vigneault doesn't want to gamble, so he went with Schneider against the Blues. Gillis already traded Marco Sturm and Mikael Samuelsson to the Florida Panthers Oct. 22 and may not be averse to making more changes if the Stanley Cup losers still need stimulating.

In six 2011-2012 appearances, Luongo has two wins and four losses, one of which was in a shootout. He allowed 19 goals in those games. He also lost four of the last five Stanley Cup finals games, allowing 18 goals.

Add it up and Luongo is 3-8 with 37 goals allowed in his last 11 games. A lousy start for Lu. No wonder fans are getting restless in a city known as the NHL's "goalie graveyard."

Four of the previous goaltenders the Canucks acquired from the Sunshine State contributed to that reputation. Alex Auld and Kevin Weekes were once property of the Panthers. Corey Schwab and Dan Cloutier were Tampa Bay Lightning netminders. Will Luongo be the fifth futility from Florida?

Part-time poker player Luongo has another gig this year, endorsing the British Columbia Lottery Corporation's legal, but controversial, poker and sports gambling website (despite his appeal to children and youths who emulate him on school playgrounds and community ice rinks).

Money shouldn't be any problem for him. He was paid $10 million in 2010-2011, the first of a 12-year, $64 million contract. He is due to be paid $6.714 million this season. And the next season. And the next. And the next. And so on. And on. The same sum through 2017-2018, to be exact.

No wonder the shrewd businessman who calls the shots on Griffiths Way is getting antsy. His return on investment is diminishing before his eyes.

Labour peace at The Bundle

2011-10-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Game on!

The B.C. Lions game against the Edmonton Eskimos on Oct. 29, a battle to be the best in the west, is a go. There is labour peace at B.C. Place Stadium, where members of local 1703 of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union were in a position to strike to gain a new contract. A deal was reached late Oct. 24. Pending a vote by the workers, all events, including the Nov. 25 Vanier Cup and Nov. 27 Grey Cup, will go ahead as scheduled.

And maybe we'll finally have a news conference where Telus will tell us about the Cisco StadiumVision technology at B.C. Place and the stadium's new corporate name.

Here is the announcement from B.C. Pavilion Corporation and the union:

MEDIA RELEASE

TENTATIVE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT REACHED BETWEEN BC PLACE AND BCGEU

Vancouver, BC (October 25, 2011): BC Place, operated by the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), and the BC Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU) are very pleased to announce that a tentative agreement was reached late last night, after both parties resumed collective bargaining.

The BCGEU is recommending acceptance of the tentative agreement to its membership belonging to BCGEU Local 1703, and is scheduling a ratification vote to take place this weekend.

The tentative agreement also ensures there will be no disruption of the BC Lions vs. Edmonton Eskimos game scheduled for this Saturday, October 29th at BC Place.

“We’re glad this tentative agreement could be reached without any disruption to operations at BC Place,” said BCGEU President Darryl Walker. “Our members were seeking a fair collective agreement and they got it.”

“With this tentative agreement, we’re now able to finalize plans to host the BC Lions game this weekend,” said Howard Crosley, General Manager of BC Place. “We are pleased that we have reached a tentative collective agreement satisfactory to both parties, and we look forward to moving ahead together with all of the events planned for BC Place in the future”.

Breakin' the law, breakin' the law?

2011-10-23T21:29:00.000-07:00

B.C. Place Stadium went a week-and-a-half without any event before the Vancouver Whitecaps hosted the Colorado Rapids in the local Major League Soccer season finale. Apparently plastic beer cups were in short supply on Oct. 22! That's why you saw fans in public seating areas and the level 2 concourse drinking straight out of cans of Budweiser.

In fact, they were being served unopened cans. A reader of this blog who was at the game reported to me that fans were also observed buying unopened bottles and departed the stadium with said containers, both opened and unopened. B.C. Place essentially became the biggest off-sales retailer of booze in B.C. on Oct. 22.

"They can't let people take beer out of the venue," said the reader. "When they sell it, they're supposed to open it."

True. It says so in the Liquor Control and Licensing Regulation.

Stadiums
49 If a liquor primary licence is issued in respect of a stadium, the following terms and conditions apply:
(a) beverages must be served in plastic, paper or other disposable containers, unless otherwise authorized by the general manager;
(b) liquor must not be sold at an activity or event without the written consent of the organizer or promoter sponsoring the activity or event;
(c) the licensee must designate areas of the stadium's tiered seating area as areas where the possession and consumption of liquor is not allowed and must, unless otherwise authorized by the general manager, ensure that those areas
(i) consist of a reasonable choice of seats within the range of ticket prices offered at the stadium, and
(ii) are each of a size appropriate to the level of demand for seats in those areas of the stadium.

The general manager is Karen Ayers of the LCLB. Would she have authorized the sale of unopened cans and bottles? I'll endeavour to find out and update this blog.

At Rogers Arena and Nat Bailey Stadium, staff diligently open all containers and pour them into plastic cups. I have never seen it any other way. Some sports venues in the United States will sell an aluminum can or aluminum bottle, but I have never been provided an unopened container in such a setting.

There are good reasons why laws exist that mandate stadiums and arenas to pour booze into cups. Full, sealed cans and bottles can be used as projectiles and seriously injure other fans, players or staff. Empty cans and bottles can be broken and transformed into deadly weapons.

In this post-Stanley Cup riot 2.0 era, it's essential that both venues and fans be on their best behaviour.

B.C. Place officials can't forget history. On Aug. 15, 1998, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 24-21 before 45,202 in the American Bowl. It was a muggy, Bud-sponsored and Bud-fuelled afternoon of violence in the grandstands.

Some fans were tailgating for three hours before the game. Beer sales were so brisk that purchase limits and age identification were often ignored. Two brawls broke out, including one near the secondary press box. Security guards ejected 37 fans from the stadium. One fan was arrested.

There has not been another NFL exhibition game at B.C. Place since that day.

Whitecaps (and Lions) get no respect

2011-10-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

No respect.

The immortal words of legendary standup comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

It seems neither the Vancouver Whitecaps nor the B.C. Lions can get the full respect of their landlord, B.C. Place Stadium.

I shot these photographs Oct. 22 from the concourse of Rogers Arena. It is a solitary flag affixed to one of the cables on the east side of B.C. Place's roof. It's ostensibly there to offer a visual signal of the wind direction. Wind is key for B.C. Place, as it can sometimes be the deciding factor for opening or closing the retractable roof.

Look closely. The flag is neither a Whitecaps nor a Lions flag. (As you can see, there is plenty of room for two... or two dozen, for that matter.)

It is the flag of the Vancouver Canucks, emblazoned with Johnny Canuck.

The Canucks don't play at B.C. Place. They have their own venue, across Griffiths Way at Rogers Arena.

No respect.

B.C. Place: no strike before Sunday

2011-10-18T16:43:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: The Vancouver Whitecaps will play their season finale in labour peace on Oct. 22. The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union has decided not to immediately act on its strike threat. Fan appreciation day will go ahead with the 4 p.m. kickoff against the Colorado Rapids. Read more here.

The last Vancouver Whitecaps game of their inaugural Major League Soccer season is now in jeopardy.

Same goes for the rest of the B.C. Lions' home schedule, Vanier Cup and the Grey Cup.

Local 1703 of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union has issued 72-hour strike notice to B.C. Pavilion Corporation, which means the stadium could be behind picket lines by Oct. 21, the day before the Whitecaps are scheduled to host the MLS-champion Colorado Rapids.

A source tells me that talks have gone nowhere, as the Crown corporation that operates the stadium is intent on contracting out work that once was performed by union members. PavCo also doesn't want to include anti-bullying language in the new contract. No pay raise is on the table, because of a public sector wage freeze.

The previous contract expired May 31. The breakdown in contract talks contravenes the shiny, happy optimism expressed by Premier Christy Clark at a Grey Cup festival news conference on Oct. 13.

Depending on what happens, the game may have to be relocated, since Empire Field appears to be beyond the point of return. The north end zone seating was dismantled and the roof panels removed when I drove by the site on Oct. 17.

Below is the news release issued in the afternoon on Oct. 18.

BCGEU issues 72 Hours Strike Notice to BC Pavilion Corporation

The parties have made several attempts to reach a tentative agreement, but even with the assistance of a mediator, we have failed to do so.

On October 17, 2011, the BCGEU asked the mediator book out of the mediated talks between the parties.

The focus of the bargaining committee has been around job security, which is our key issue. We are concerned about contracting out and reduction of work hours.

The union wants to advise the membership it has exercised the strike mandate, and has issued the employer 72 hours strike notice today October 18, 2011.

It is in the legal position to exercise the strike mandate as early this Friday afternoon.

It took PavCo three hours to respond with a statement of its own:

"BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), which operates BC Place, is issuing the following brief statement in response to the strike notice issued by BC Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) Local 1703 regarding the latest round of bargaining:

“BC Place is disappointed to announce that despite its agreement to a number of significant union demands, the BCGEU has asked Mediator Mark Brown to book out of the negotiations. This afternoon, the BCGEU served 72 hour strike notice, and has indicated that it will be in a legal strike position as early as Friday afternoon.

"Should the BCGEU commence strike action and withdraw their members, BC Place will be unable to operate for upcoming scheduled events.

"While PavCo and the union are both committed to not commenting on the details of these issues in public, PavCo stresses that it has agreed to numerous union proposals in the past six months, including some new issues introduced late in the process. PavCo has also agreed to accept the mediator's recommendations in full.

"Despite this setback, PavCo remains optimistic that further progress will be made and upcoming events will not be impacted."

Whitecaps chief executive Paul Barber is now facing one last challenge in an exceedingly difficult season.

"We're hoping the situation gets resolved in the next few days. Empire's not an option, given the size of our season ticket base neither is Swangard," Barber told me. "We're very much relying on PavCo and the union working things through."

Barber said the Whitecaps may move their Oct. 21 practice scheduled for B.C. Place, so as to avoid a picket line.

The season finale match is important on several counts. The club has two consecutive home wins and is hoping for a third. It's also fan appreciation night.

"In a season that's been as difficult as it has been for us, the way fans have stuck with us, (we want) to say thank you to them," Barber said.

As of 5:15 p.m., PavCo had not issued a statement.

Oct. 21 just so happens to be a Friday... and Fridays are not kind to B.C. Place Stadium, which underwent a $563 million, taxpayer-funded renovation.

Consider the history of B.C. Place's "Friday Frustration" in my latest Business in Vancouver column:

Biv Bc Place

Occupy Vancouver: the great unknown

2011-10-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

Is the City of Vancouver ready for Occupy Vancouver on Oct. 15?

Transportation director Jerry Dobrovolny says it is, but admits the local version of Occupy Wall Street is a great unknown.

“The difficulty here is that there is not a clear organizer, there is nobody that has stepped forward to take out a permit, there is no plan that we can review with them and approve,” Dobrovolny said on the eve of the protest at the Vancouver Art Gallery. “Our number one priority is safety to the public and property in the area.”

If protesters occupy the VAG plaza and try to camp there, Dobrovolny said city staff will ensure they are not using combustibles, such as propane-powered stoves. A propane tank exploded before the official opening of the Vancouver Christmas Market at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre last year.

Occupy Vancouver organizers held a planning meeting on Oct. 8 at W2. Asked if any of City of Vancouver staff attended to gather information or connect with the organizers, Dobrovolny said: "I'm not aware if any staff were at the planning meetings."

Mayor Gregor Robertson issued a statement on Oct. 14, recognizing the discontent with the global economical upheaval but encouraging peaceful protest. He mentioned the June 15 Stanley Cup riot as an event marred by a minority. The Stanley Cup fan zone that was marred by the riot was organized by Robertson, who is among the public officials who have not admitted fault for the chaos that happened the night the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup on home ice. Four months after the riot, not a single rioter or looter has been charged.

Occupy Vancouver could be the first big test of the April-enacted Bylaw number 10252, better known as an amendment to the Street and Traffic Bylaw regarding political expression on structures on streets. The controversial bylaw says “a person must not build, place, maintain, occupy or cause to be constructed, placed, maintained or occupied in any street any structure, object or substance which is an obstruction to the free use of such street, or which may encroach thereon, without having first obtained a permit issued by the City Engineer...”

Those who do get permits must take down their temporary structures from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily. Tables that convey political expression, however, do not require a permit, if they meet 18 requirements, including the 8 p.m. curfew and a limit of one table per city block at any time.

But, as Dobrovolny said, the Occupy Vancouver group has not applied for a permit.

One can only wonder whether the lack of permit might be all the police need to move in and put an abrupt end to any protest that lasts more than a day.

Needless to say, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association was opposed to the measures when they were introduced in reaction to a court ruling on a long-running protest hut outside the Chinese consulate in Vancouver by members of Falun Gong.

BCCLA executive director David Eby is scoffing at the Vancouver Police Department’s ridiculous Oct. 14 advice to protesters to not wear masks “for everyone’s safety.”

“You have no business wearing a mask at a legitimate protest,” said Const. Jana McGuinness.

Said Eby:

"I guess I've just never seen the press release from the RCMP or VPD that talks about the threat presented by insider trading and corporate malfeasance to Canadians' pensions and retirements. Or how a large gathering of corporate executives can act as a cover for 1% to pay themselves absurd rewards at the expense of the rest.

"Hey, no mask required!

"Don't wear a mask, says the VPD release. 'We need to identify you because your protest is a threat to the public,' is the implicit message.

Yes, we have seen irresponsible, violent mask wearers at the 1999 World Trade Organization protest in Seattle, the 2010 Heart Attack protest on the second day of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and when the G20 summit was hosted in Toronto in 2010. The ugly actions of a few (coupled with bad reactions by police) overshadowed the important messages of the majority of people expressing dissent.

But since when did the VPD anoint themselves the fashion police, especially during the mask-wearing season of Hallowe’en? It’s not a one-night celebration anymore, but a multi-weekend, big business season that rivals Christmastime from a business standpoint. I have never heard VPD discourage the wearing of masks among attendees of Playland's Fright Nights or nightclubs on the Granville Mall.

I witnessed a peaceful anti-Olympic torch relay protest in Victoria on Oct. 30, 2009 where most of the participants wore some form of mask or face paint. The participants were under the constant watch of both police and media and got their message across without violence or damage. Mind you, they didn't exactly make new friends when they forced the torch relay's re-routing and disappointed several people who were looking forward to running the Olympic flame on its first day in Canada.

There is no law that prohibits law-abiding citizens from wearing a mask in public, either as individuals or members of a group. Go right ahead and draw attention to yourself -- expect stares and whispers. A reasonable person should never wear a mask in places like a bank or a hospital.

If a masked citizen in public crosses the line and assaults another person or damages property, that's when police have reasonable grounds to unmask and arrest a masked person under the “Disguise with Intent” law in section 351(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada. The consequences are serious. It says:

“Every one who, with intent to commit an indictable offence, has his face masked or coloured or is otherwise disguised is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.”

So that means you’re free to wear a Guy Fawkes mask, Phantom of the Opera mask, cucumber/avocado facial healing mask or even paint your face like your favourite member of KISS (I always wanted to paint my face like Ace “Spaceman” Frehley). Just obey the law and respect people and property while exercising your freedom of speech and assembly.

Protests where the words speak louder than the actions are the most effective. Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, the roles and responsibilities of governments and corporations in our lives deserve to be debated in a rational manner.

False Creek water is clearer than Olympic Village sales

2011-10-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

Vancouver’s Olympic Village is the multiparty monument to megalomania. The entire complex may no longer be a ghost-town, but Canada House (right), the waterfront home of Canada's 2010 Olympic team, remains an eerily empty haunted pocket on the controversial $1.1 billion site.

Whether it was the NPA, COPE or Vision Vancouver in charge at 12th and Cambie, they all share in the blame for creating this financial monster and it's the civic taxpayer that winds up with the ghastly loss.

The official version is a $48 million loss. We will never know the value of the time spent (or lost) by bureaucrats on this file since word leaked that a secret meeting took place on Oct. 14, 2008 to give developer Millennium a $100 million bailout after lender Fortress Credit Corporation walked away amid cost overruns and the global economic crisis.

The rush to slap the "sustainability" label onto this project was laughable and, frankly, deceptive.

Did you know? The original plan in the 1998 bid to the Canadian Olympic Committee was for the village to be student housing at UBC. UBC went ahead and built housing for students, but also for the market, anyway. City hall under NPA Mayor Philip Owen wanted to use the village to kickstart development in Southeast False Creek. A laudable goal, but it was a victim of scope escalation. Just like the Olympics, it had to be bigger, better, glitzier. World class!

Did the city really need more luxury real estate?

It's also the classic case of overpromising and underdelivering in the realm of social housing. Plentiful and affordable it’s not.

NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton, who is running to be mayor, has proposed a motion to council on Oct. 18 seeking the up-to-date numbers on sales and occupancy. We haven't had an official report since May 17 when Ernst and Young made new court filings. Anton really ought to be promising a full and complete independent audit and inquiry of the entire history of the project, should she upset incumbent Mayor Gregor Robertson in the Nov. 19 civic election. Of course, Anton was wearing her pom-poms when the NPA-majority city council chose Millennium as the developer in 2006. Millennium did not have the experience and, it turns out, the financial backing to undertake the ambitious project. A report by KPMG questioned Millennium's selection.

Lo and behold, city manager Penny Ballem has become a late addition to the agenda, to provide an update on the Olympic Village. Perhaps Ballem will explain why she signed a document filed at the Land Title Office that appears to let Millennium Development off the hook for $1 billion. Read my story here and see the documents here. Millennium is also a partner in a controversial West End condo tower where 49 rental apartments are being built under the politically motivated Short Term Incentives for Rental program. Ballem did not respond to my repeated requests for an interview on the topic.

Did Ballem, either working alone or on the instruction of the Mayor or council, leave money on the table in the negotiations with Millennium over its $740 million debt?

Perhaps Ballem will untangle the web of confusion and answer questions about those Land Title Office documents. Not to mention, tell us exactly how many Olympic Village units were sold and when. The answers are so elusive.

Marketer Bob Rennie told me in an April 11 interview that as of April 5, there had been 118 unconditional sales of units worth $80 million since the February marketing relaunch as the Village on False Creek.

On Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs blog, it says there were 164 sold as of mid-September. His blog also says that 427 of the 737 total market units are sold.

Back in July 2009, Rennie told me there were 265 buyers. Does that mean only 162 units have sold in the last two years?

And how many of those since April 5? Forty-six?

Spokeswoman Lesli Boldt pointed out that the May 17 report from receiver Ernst and Young said there were 124 sales or unconditional offers, with a gross value of $86 million, since the relaunch.

"In other words, 40 additional condo sales occurred between mid-May and mid-September (and this is during summer, a typically slow sales season)," Boldt said.

That's four months with just 40 sales -- 10 per month, averaging 2 1/4 per week.

Meanwhile, lawyer Bryan Baynham, who is acting for 70 purchasers who want refunds for alleged shoddy workmanship and deceptive marketing, tells me there are no settlements or hearing dates scheduled and the city has yet to send him a list of documents.

The civic election happens Nov. 19, two days after the first anniversary of the receivership of Millennium’s Southeast False Creek division that developed the Village.

This story is far from over.

Gorby vs. Christy: statesman vs. eternal talkshow host

2011-10-14T09:03:00.001-07:00

Oct. 13, 1986 was the closing day of Vancouver’s Expo 86. The world exposition on transportation and communication. I was there, all the way until the end, roaming the empty, closed site one last time. From end-to-end.

Twenty-five years later I was in two venues that didn’t exist at the time: Rogers Arena, built in 1995 near the site of Expo 86’s giant flag, hockey stick and puck and Vancouver Convention Centre West, opened in 2009 to be the international broadcast centre for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The east wing was built as the Expo 86 Canada Pavilion.

At Rogers Arena, it was Free the Children’s annual We Day. A day of inspirational speakers and hopeful messages for the leaders of tomorrow. With what passes for today’s top 40 music between the speakers.

Among the speakers was Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. A man who changed the world and won the Nobel Peace Prize on Oct. 14, 1990. I was among the minority of people in the arena who was alive when Gorbachev was in power. (I also remember one of his previous Vancouver visits, when Nardwuar the Human Serviette made him laugh.)

Gorbachev, who turned 80 earlier this year, told the youth audience, through his translator, that the hopes of the world after the Cold War have not been fulfilled. The world is troubled by terrorism, poverty and an environmental crisis.

“The global financial crisis that was caused by the greed of a few people is being resolved at the expense of ordinary people, ordinary people who are not to blame for that crisis,” he said.

He said we're on the cusp of a new arms race that could be more dangerous than the last one.

His most poignant message?

"Never despair… never panic. Unite," Gorbachev said. "Don't allow anyone to deceive you. Don't allow anyone to exploit you."

After his speech, he came to a news conference. Reporters were crestfallen when told by a We Day organizer that the news conference would last only 10 minutes. We got angry when the moderator cut it short. Both Gorbachev and his interpreter briefly pleaded with their hosts for more time! Imagine that, a career politician who did not want a press conference to end!

That bought him a few more minutes, but it was still not enough. A great statesman deserves more time. A man who changed the world deserves more time.

He was asked for his thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street movement. During his presidency, people in the Eastern Bloc risked their lives and took to the streets to demand better government and better jobs. It even influenced the short-lived pro-democracy movement in China that ended so violently at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

"The constitution of your country, the constitution of our country, the constitutions of all democratic countries contain democratic rights, including the right to protest. In Russia, we know that there are people, including people in government, who don’t like it when people protest in the streets and when they present their demands by demonstrating. And sometimes there are even bad consequences and even clashes as a result,” Gorbachev said.

“We have to be wary, though, of certain extremist elements who are trying to turn these just demands and just protests in a certain direction to exploit those movements. Nevertheless, those elements are an exception. People today are more confident when they act; they are more confident of the rightness of their demands and their actions.”

In the afternoon, I attended a news conference to announce the Grey Cup festival in Vancouver, where the star attraction was not the Grey Cup (it wasn’t there) or the Vanier Cup (which was there), but Premier Christy Clark. The B.C. Liberals “jersey girl” added a Grey Cup souvenir jersey to her collection. She even dropped a football, in a neo-Stanfieldian moment. (My camera was unfortunately not rolling.)

This is what she had to say about the Occupy Wall Street movement coming to Vancouver on Oct. 15:

"Canada is a profoundly different place than America. When we look south of the border and see what's going on there, we feel pretty grateful that we live here, in a country where we have a thriving middle class, where we have a large degree of equity and social justice. I think groups that want to try and start up something like Occupy Wall Street here aren't going to see the same kind of success. We are a fundamentally different country from America. We are a fair country, we're not always perfect, there's no question about that, but this is a country that is a whole lot fairer than almost any other country in the world. I think when you live in a country like this it's a lot harder to recruit people to groups like Occupy Wall Street than it is in other countries in the world where maybe they don't have the same kind of equity that we have here."

Translation: Be a good Canadian. Be deferential to the powers that be. You have it good, don't demand better. Don't complain or ask questions.

After a scrum that lasted exactly four minutes and 52 seconds, Clark turned her back and walked away. My shouted question about the upcoming first anniversary of the end of the notorious "Basi-Virk" government corruption trial didn’t prompt her to turn around. Instead it made her walk away faster, into a nearby ballroom.

Before her tenure as a CKNW talkshow host, Clark was deputy premier when BC Rail, a taxpayer-owned railway, was privatized in a fishy deal with CN Rail in 2003. A deal which sparked the famed bribery trial of ministerial aides David Basi and Bob Virk, which shockingly ended on Oct. 18, 2010 with a plea bargain and the government agreeing to pay Basi and Virk’s $6 million legal bills.

Here’s my story on the first anniversary and renewed calls for a public inquiry by the men who know the scandal the best: Bill Tieleman and Alex Tsakumis.

While the Occupy Wall Street movement encourages discourse about the role of governments and corporations, British Columbians should never forget the scandal which dominated the news for most of a decade. The BC Rail corruption scandal was the most egregious example in this province's history of government cozying up to corporate interests and losing sight of its responsibility to the people. A public asset was sold in sordid fashion and none of the politicians involved has offered a full and complete explanation about how and why the deal went down.

Premier Gordon Campbell said it was only about two men who admitted their guilt. His successor Clark has parroted the line. She has refused calls for a public inquiry.

Are they telling the truth or was this a massive cover-up? Were Basi and Virk the only perpetrators or were they patsies?

The reality is government has to buy from and sell to private companies. If a tendering process cannot be transparent when it demands transparency or be secret when it demands secrecy, why should the taxpaying public or private companies have any trust in government? Until "BC Railscam" is fully understood and government integrity rescued, citizens will remain skeptical of any case of any private-public partnership, privatization, subsidy or bailout.

Contrast Clark's behavior with that of Gorbachev, a man of courage, willing to spend more time to take more questions. During his presidency, he was a politician who wanted less power, not more, in a country with a nasty history of megalomania (read: Stalin). Gorbachev is not universally admired in Russia. Many of his compatriots wish the Soviet Union still existed. Others are thankful they could taste some freedom, but want less corruption and more democracy from today's leadership duo of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.

Gorbachev wanted the people to take a deep breath and shape their own future, not politicians. "Glasnost" (openness) and "Perestroika" (restructuring) were the hallmarks of Gorbachev's administration. What a concept? They mean so much more than Clark's "jobs" and "families" mantra. Without openness and restructuring, how can families enjoy prosperity?

If people don’t trust their government to listen to the people, then people take to the streets in protest. A protest like Occupy Wall Street. Or Occupy Vancouver.

Going to B.C. Place Stadium? Dress accordingly.

2011-10-10T10:35:00.001-07:00

If you're going to see the Vancouver Whitecaps host D.C. United on Oct. 12, wear a rain jacket and bring an umbrella. In fact, this umbrella hat could be the most appropriate attire for any event at B.C. Place Stadium for the time being.

Oh, the new retractable roof of B.C. Place Stadium is bound to be closed for most of this fall for the obvious seasonal weather. But after several fans at the B.C. Lions' Oct. 8 win over the Calgary Stampeders got wet, B.C. Pavilion Corporation cannot guarantee a dry experience. Workers are still sealing the roof from the elements.

Should we be surprised? British Columbia has a long history of leaky buildings.

Expo 86 modular pavilions were leaky and needed patching. Same for the Expo Centre, now known as Science World, after it opened in 1985. There was a billion-dollar epidemic of leaky condominiums because of shoddy 1980s and 1990s workmanship. An estimated 65,000 dwellings had leaks that rotted walls. Former Premier Dave Barrett conducted an inquiry into the scandal.

As the 2010 Winter Olympics approached, B.C. Place Stadium’s 1982-installed, air-supported roof needed constant care from maintenance workers. Many gray garbage cans were redeployed from trash catching to drip catching. (That original roof was inflated in November 1982, more than six months before it opened, affording workers a shield from the elements while they finished the building.)

B.C. Pavilion Corporation is blaming the weather for the leaks after reopening from a $563 million renovation. But that is not the root cause.

Minutes of the B.C. Pavilion Corporation construction committee in August 2010 show the stadium was on-track for a Nov. 1, 2011 “substantial completion.” Owner’s representative Roy Patzer called the schedule “tight.” Then, suddenly, on Feb. 7, 2011, PavCo chairman David Podmore announced a Sept. 30 reopening -- a full month sooner.

When Podmore announced the accelerated opening, the governing B.C. Liberal Party was in the middle of a leadership campaign to replace the unpopular Premier Gordon Campbell. The successor, who turned out to be Christy Clark, was expected to call an election for October. There even is an internal government document called "Implications of a Fall Election" that contemplated a Sept. 14 election call and Oct. 12 voting day. That issue note was written Feb. 9 and dated Feb. 10. So it's not a great leap of logic for the stadium's reopening to have been a photo opportunity on the election trail.

Within a matter of weeks of Podmore's proclamation, construction was in turmoil. The installation of roof fabric was supposed to begin in February, but was delayed to April and then until June. Quebec-based steel supplier Canam Group reported to shareholders that its Structal division suffered a $25 million cost overrun and blamed it on French cable installer Freyssinet. Architects, engineers and builders had to shuffle work schedules. The B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps were chomping at the bit to return downtown. It would have been a major embarrassment for the two main tenants to have delayed their moves to B.C. Place after announcing their schedules.

Under the original schedule, crews would have enjoyed the long, mostly dry days of August to methodically put the finishing touches on B.C. Place’s roof. Instead, they had to battle the September and October rains. More than a week after the stadium's reopening, crews are still welding and sealing the fixed fabric panels.

What’s more, leaks were a problem for many months after Commerzbank Arena opened in 2005. The Frankfurt stadium’s retractable roof technology is at work in Vancouver.

After the reopening night gong show that subjected paying customers to long lineups at ticket booths and concession stands and a lack of food and beverage supplies, delaying the opening seems like one of those "hindsight is 20/20" thoughts.

As it is, Telus has delayed the announcement that it is the naming rights sponsor for seemingly pragmatic reasons. The multi-year, multimillion-dollar deal will include some cash, but it will largely be what's called "value in-kind" or goods and services in lieu of cash. Technicians are still installing telecommunications gear and teaching B.C. Place staff how to use the new equipment. Cisco is a key contractor working with Telus on the StadiumVision media management system that includes the shoebox-style, centre-hung scoreboard (what I call the Titanic Tube Under the Tarp.) Telus is using the screens at B.C. Place, both big and small, but is understandably reluctant to attach its name to the building amid what can be termed a rocky reopening. Why show off the expensive bells and whistles before you're confident they'll ding and toot properly? Why would Telus, a combatant in the telecom marketing war, want to risk embarrassment?

PavCo is hoping that all the glitches will be forgotten by Nov. 27 when the stadium hosts the 99th Grey Cup, for which the government paid $1.88 million to the Canadian Football League for hosting rights.

Expect a glitzy press conference near the end of October or start of November for the corporate renaming of B.C. Place. Will we have to dress accordingly?

Three years later, more questions than answers

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

October 14 is an ominous day for the history of the City of Vancouver.

Vancouver city council voted unanimously in a closed-door meeting on that day in 2008 for a $100 million bailout of Olympic Village developer Millennium. Financier Fortress Credit Corporation, an arm of a Wall Street hedge fund, walked away from the deal in the wake of $65 million in cost overruns and the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Fortress exploited a loophole in the deal in which Vancouver city hall agreed to fund the project if Millennium faltered.

When Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason broke the story on Nov. 6, 2008, it was the turning point in the civic election. Ex-NDP MLA Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver party swept to power over Coun. Peter Ladner and the NPA. Robertson became the Olympic mayor and is seen in the photo above giving the key to the Olympic Village to Millennium owners/brothers Shahram Malekyazdi and Peter Malek at the public opening on May 15, 2010.

Not even a month after Robertson was sworn-in, he proclaimed after a Jan. 9, 2009 technical briefing that taxpayers were "on the hook" for the $1.1 billion athletes' village. Premier Gordon Campbell and his B.C. Liberals amended the Vancouver Charter to allow the city to borrow without a referendum. The village was refinanced and opened in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Post-Games sales were so dismal that Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties was petitioned into receivership on Nov. 17, 2010 because of a $740 million debt. Ernst and Young took over and rebranded Millennium Water as The Village on False Creek for its February 2011 relaunch. The controversy is bound to be on voters' minds as the Nov. 19 civic election approaches.

City manager Penny Ballem gleefully showed off a list of properties in an April 8, 2011 presentation that Millennium agreed to give the city. She claimed the city would recover between $56 million and $70 million but end up with a projected $48 million loss once all condos were sold in the next couple of years.

Lo and behold, filings from the Land Title Office that I obtained show that Ballem signed a form on Feb. 2, 2011 to discharge Millennium from a mortgage that was worth $1 billion on Sept. 14, 2010. See my Vancouver Courier story here.

A debenture signed Oct. 14, 2008 -- the same day as the $100 million secret bailout -- shows Millennium admits that it was really "on-the-hook" for $1 billion.

"The Grantors (Millennium Development, Millennium Properties, et al) jointly and severally make the agreements set out in this debenture and jointly and severally acknowledge themselves liable to and promise to pay to or to the order of the city, ON DEMAND, the principal sum of one billion ($1,000,000,000) dollars at such place as the city may designate by notice in writing to the grantors and to pay interest on the principal sum outstanding from time to time… at the rate of 20% per annum both before and after demand, default and judgement."

Millennium English Bay Properties was among the seven arms of Millennium listed as a grantor on the debenture. Millennium EBP is also a partner in the Alexandra condo tower under construction at Davie and Bidwell. It is to contain 49 rental suites, as per Mayor Gregor Robertson's controversial Short Term Incentives for Rental program intended to increase rental housing in the city. Here is a critical look at STIR by the West End Neighbours, who are opposed to Alexandra.

Neither Ballem nor Millennium's Malekyazdi responded to repeated requests for an interview.

The questions remain.

Could the City of Vancouver have negotiated for or seized more of Millennium's assets, so as to avoid leaving taxpayers with a loss on the Olympic Village?

Did Millennium's commitment to build politically motivated rental apartments in the Alexandra tower cause city hall to go soft on Millennium in the 2011 election year?

See the Land Title Office documents for yourself.

Premier Christy Clark plans to introduce an auditor general for municipalities. Here's hoping that the Olympic Village mess is the first matter examined by the watchdog.

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History not on the Canucks' side

2011-10-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

The Vancouver Canucks open their 41st season on Oct. 6 at home in Rogers Arena, where their 40th season came to an abrupt and disappointing halt on June 15 with a 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. I don’t have to remind Vancouverites about the ugliness of that night.

The Canucks still don’t have a Stanley Cup despite three attempts. They do have President’s Trophy and Western Conference championship banners from 2010-2011. Nice to have, but a tough consolation prize. Canadians grow up dreaming of the Stanley Cup, not the other silverware.

Another President's Trophy banner may be the best that Canucks’ fans can hope for at the end of the 2011-2012 campaign. The team's jersey can hang beside that of the Vancouver Millionaires, but the 1915 Millionaires will remain the only Vancouver-based Stanley Cup champion for the time being.

Being the Cup loser one year and winner the next has been done before, but it is exceedingly difficult and, dare I say, won't happen for the Canucks. The Boston Bruins have a better chance of returning to the final than the Canucks do of even getting there next June.

Only seven times since 1943 has a loser climbed the mountain again the next season and claimed the Cup. Five of those involved Original Six teams.

More importantly and more relevant to the 1970-established Canucks is this: Only two of those seven teams triumphed in the post-1968 expansion era. The Canucks cannot be compared with the 1984 Edmonton Oilers, one of the greatest rosters in the sport's history. The 2009 Penguins were led by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Here is a rundown of the runners-up who became winners with the Cup the next year.

The 1942 Detroit Red Wings lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games, then won 1943’s final over the Boston Bruins in a four-game sweep. The Red Wings were losers in 1949 to Toronto in four games, then winners over the New York Rangers in 1950 in seven.

The Montreal Canadiens were swept in 1952, but beat the Bruins in five games in 1953. In 1955, the Habs were seven-game losers to Detroit under coach Dick Irvin, but got revenge in five games in 1956 to begin a five-year Cup-winning streak under coach Toe Blake. They beat the Bruins twice and Leafs twice.

The Leafs beat the Habs in six games in 1967. The Habs responded in 1968, the first year of the expansion era, by sweeping the St. Louis Blues. The Habs did the same thing in 1969. The Blues lost again in 1970 to the Bruins in, yes, another sweep.

The New York Islanders won their fourth consecutive Cup in 1983 with a sweep of the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers got revenge in five games in 1984.

Detroit beat the Penguins for the 2008 Cup in six games. The Pens fired coach Michel Therrien during the next season and replaced him with Dan Bylsma, who propelled the team back to the Stanley Cup where it achieved revenge against the Red Wings in seven games.

The moral of the story? It's easier to win one year and return the next to win or lose the Cup you're holding than it is to transform from a loser one year to a winner the next.

Being a Cup loser means more than having no trophy to enjoy. Your calendar summer is shorter than all other teams except one. It is also the longest because of the emotional let-down of being a chump instead of champ.

Your team either undergoes too much change or too little change. If the coach is the same, other teams know what style to expect because it was on display for all to observe and analyze during the spring's playoffs. The coach simply has too little time to reinvent himself for the next season. Teams that advance to the final also tend to go without season-ending injuries to their most important stars. Those stars are one year older and the wear and tear accumulates.

Good luck, Canucks. You're going to need every molecule of good fortune to go beyond the Western Conference championship series in 2012.

(My pledge. I just know that I will be flamed by the diehards of Canuckistan, so I offer this pledge: If the Canucks prove me wrong and win the Stanley Cup next June, I will literally eat my words. That is to say, I will print this blog post, cut it up and eat it with my breakfast in public before the victory parade.)

Christy Clark's "Steve Jobs Plan"

2011-10-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

Is Stephanie Cadieux the favourite among Premier Christy Clark's brood of 17 cabinet ministers?

One can only speculate, because Cadieux has two iPads and the rest of her British Columbia Liberal (er, B.C. Christy) cabinet colleagues have just one, according to a list published Oct. 4 after an unspecified political party's Freedom of Information request.

Pity the poor backbenchers, who weren't included in the shipment of 267 purchased by Shared Services B.C. Members of the Opposition NDP caucus are also among the have-nots.

The list does not show which iPad model was purchased, how much the government spent or whether the government took advantage of Apple's free engraving offer. iPads start at $519 each, according to Apple's online store. The pre-HST retail price for the entire shipment would have been at least $138,573.

Of course, the iPad is now an indispensable tool for communication and productivity. But who knows how many of these people are playing Angry Birds or annoying their co-workers with the vuvuzela app on the taxpayer's dime and time.

The list contains 31 entries for David Henry, the team lead, technology support in the Operational Support office of the Finance ministry. But a disclaimer says those tablets are not all his.

"The tablets allocated to David Henry are to be distributed to government sub‐committees under the control of the Legislative Precinct."

There may have been other purchases of iPads or other tablet computers elsewhere in government.

"This list will not include any devices acquired directly by other Ministries and provincial agencies. Each Ministry would have to be approached directly for a list of their tablet purchases."

Oddly, one of the recipients was Philip Steenkamp, a former veteran deputy minister now at Simon Fraser University.

British Columbia government gets into the iPad age

B.C. Place open, but not smoothly

2011-10-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

The renovated B.C. Place Stadium is two-for-two in the category of opening the roof for events. In other categories, it's not so successful.

The fabric retracted for all to see before the Canadian Football League's streaking B.C. Lions beat the Edmonton Eskimos 33-24 on Sept. 30 and before the listless Vancouver Whitecaps fell 1-0 to their Major League Soccer expansion cousins, the Portland Timbers on Oct. 2. It was really quite spectacular and was much faster than advertised.

The Lions' 50,213 crowd was below the 54,500-seat capacity, but the attendance was the most for an open-air team field sport in British Columbia history. The only events bigger were the annual Molson Indy Vancouver auto races between 1990 and 2004.

Among those spotted at the reopening were billionaire Jim Pattison, ex-Premier Bill Bennett, ex-Canucks' coach Pat Quinn, Canuck Ryan Kesler, Sen. Larry Campbell, VANOC CEO John Furlong, ex-Conservative minister/now Telus director Stockwell Day and political campaigner/lobbyist Patrick Kinsella. Premier Christy Clark led the ribbon cutting and scanned the tickets of the first two fans.

The stadium reopened as B.C. Place, not the new corporate name. Telus is the telecommunications provider and its logo is on advertisements on heavy rotation throughout the stadium's network of LED and HD screens. Expect the naming rights deal with Telus to be announced before the Grey Cup, though likely sooner. The delay may have been for political reasons, but Telus is not complaining. It got a $1 billion, 10-year deal from the government to supply its services.

Many of the 50,213, however, missed large portions of the game because they were in lineups for tickets, food and beer. Food and beer were scarce and apparently not enough workers were on the job. Seeing as how there was no dress rehearsal, it should have been an all-hands-on-deck event. Why, in this economy, would newly hired or returning workers skip the chance to work, especially on reopening night? Will management be held accountable? Will any angry Lions' fans demand a refund or free tickets to a future game?

There were reports of toilets that didn't flush and taps that did not work.

At the Whitecaps' game, with an announced crowd of 21,000 the complaints of poor mobile phone service continued. It's evident that telecommunications provider Telus has not finished its installation. There were also season ticket holders seated in locations that were different from what they had been originally told and sold by the Whitecaps. Some tickets were designated for seats that did not exist. There were cases of two tickets assigned to the same seat.

All these problems point to what I predicted many months ago. That construction would be the be-all and end-all, causing customer service and operations to suffer. It was inevitable. B.C. Pavilion Corporation announced a Sept. 30 opening date, which was a full month sooner than anticipated. The installation of the steel and cables was behind schedule, delaying the February start of roof fabric installation. And so the domino effect began.

An open house was held July 31 while work was in progress, because a Sept. 25 pre-opening open house was nixed. The schedule was too tight. After doing a series of well-organized regular media tours to update construction progress, B.C. Place did no full-scale media preview in the week of the stadium opening. The B.C. Lions' Sept. 29 practice was the first and only opportunity and only offered access to field level. Even the much-ballyhooed stadium interior webcam was shut-off Sept. 20.

As if the rocky opening weekend of operations wasn't enough, B.C. Pavilion Corporation is girding for a possible strike by its B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union-represented workers. The strike vote is to be announced Oct. 3 and a source tells me turnout was both heavy and angry. Genesis Security and Panther Group contractors have taken over some of the jobs once performed by union members, who already know they're not getting a pay raise in the next contract.

Workers were especially peeved when they received a memo from stadium general manager Howard Crosley, which warns that it may harm the Grey Cup on Nov. 27. (See the full text below).

Are you a B.C. Place worker? Tell me about your experience. Email me at the link to the right, or enter comments below.

September 27, 2011

To all BC Place Employees,

BC PLACE OPENING NIGHT: FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Everyone has been working diligently to ensure the new Stadium is unveiled on Friday. As one of our team members, you are the key to delivering a brand new guest experience in our amazing new facility!

I know you share my enthusiasm for the many events in the weeks and months ahead from the BC Lions to the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and leading up to Canada’s largest event, the Grey Cup!

Unfortunately, all those events could be in jeopardy. The union that represents employees in the stadium has announced that it is conducting a strike vote that might result in a strike disrupting these events.

As one of our 600+ employees, you are entitled to participate in that vote and cast your ballot.

I encourage you to do so, and voice your opinion on your needs at BC Place.

Further, I respectfully encourage you to vote against a strike that could disrupt the scheduled events, tarnish all of our reputations as providers of the best entertainment experience, and interfere with your income and your enjoyment of your employment at these events.

I also want you to know how important your vote may be in determining our future.
Before the union can call a strike, it needs to have a majority of those who cast ballots vote in favour of a strike. So, if only 10 employees vote, but 6 vote in favour of a strike, a legal strike may follow. There need be no further votes.

I have listed the voting locations and times below. Please take the time from your busy life to cast your ballot. Ensure we get off to a great start!

If you have any questions regarding this vote or your participation in it, please give me a call at 604-661-3445.

I will see you on Opening Day for our inaugural event. And I thank you for joining me in making this a brand new era for us all at the stadium!

The times and locations of the vote are as follows:

September 27, 28, 30, 2011 BCGEU Lower Mainland Area Office 4925 Canada Way, Burnaby 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

AND

Thursday, September 29, 2011 The Hyatt Regency
655 Burrard Street, Vancouver “Kensington” Meeting Room 4th Floor 10:00 am – 8:00 pm

Yours truly,
Howard Crosley
General Manager

Big Wow or the New Big Owe?

2011-09-30T15:52:00.001-07:00

It is finally here. Sept. 30, 2011.

B.C. Place Stadium is reopening with a new retractable roof. The big top with the big cost. The first indoor Olympic stadium. The supporting cast includes a massive video screen that I call the “Titanic tube under the tarp.” Can’t forget the new Terry Fox Plaza with Doug Coupland’s simple, powerful four statues of the late, great Canadian crusader against cancer, forever heading west.

Those attending the B.C. Lions' Friday Night Football meeting with the Edmonton Eskimos or the Oct. 2 Vancouver Whitecaps’ Major League Soccer game against the Portland Timbers are advised to arrive early, with tickets in-hand. The stadium has new staff and systems that have not had a full-scale dress rehearsal. The margin of error is great, whether it’s toilets that haven’t been flushed since the Paralympics’ opening ceremony or the new 54,500 red and grey seats. Can’t forget the roof, which crews rushed to finish sealing amid this week’s early fall storms.

Executives of Stantec Architecture and Schlaich Bergermann and Partner engineering have told me that the stadium is safe for the public to enjoy, but it will not be 100 percent finished for several weeks. They believe the finer details of items not yet installed or functional will not be obvious to the untrained eye.

For more about the history of the stadium and its controversial rebirth, read my feature here from the Vancouver Courier.

The stadium is the source of great public discourse in British Columbia, especially because it's financed by taxpayers. Here are the five reasons for and against the $563 million investment.

Why B.C. Place Stadium is the Big Wow:

First of its kind. Never before has an air-supported dome been deflated, the structure been reinforced and a cable-stayed retractable fabric roof been built above. If it works, this could be touted worldwide as an engineering marvel.

Sustainability. Instead of demolishing and rebuilding elsewhere, the 1983-built shell was recycled and retrofitted. Air conditioning was not included in the original project, but the retractable roof and adjustable louvers will introduce fresh air and natural light.

Provincial playroom. No city that claims to be world class is without a sizable stadium. Vancouver is fortunate to have a stadium right smack-dab downtown, rather than the suburbs.

Urban flair/flare. When B.C. Place Stadium opened in 1983, it was the catalyst for the downtown Vancouver of today. Without it, the city would probably not have hosted Expo 86 or the 2010 Winter Olympics and neither would there be a forest of condominium and office towers downtown, connected to the suburbs via rapid transit. The province and the city are banking on the renovated stadium to spur local real estate tycoons, such as Francesco Aquilini and Terry Hui, to develop northeast False Creek.

Soccer magnet. The stadium was the leverage needed to get the Vancouver Whitecaps into Major League Soccer. It is a candidate to host the 2015 Women’s World Cup final and is big enough to compete with Seattle’s CenturyLink Field to host international matches, including visits by European giants like Manchester United and Barcelona. Canadians do not live on hockey alone and soccer is the most-played team sport in British Columbia.

Why B.C. Place Stadium is the New Big Owe:

First of its kind. Never before has an air-supported dome been deflated, the structure been reinforced and a cable-stayed retractable fabric roof been built above. If it doesn’t work, this could be touted worldwide as an engineering mistake, on-par with Montreal's 1976 Olympic Stadium.

Money pit. Even with the Whitecaps becoming the main tenant, with twice as many home dates as the B.C. Lions, B.C. Place will remain reliant on trade shows for revenue. Don’t be surprised if it keeps getting operational subsidies from government. The stadium has never been a money-maker on its own. As for the $563 million capital cost, the stadium opens without a naming rights sponsor (though Telus is still waiting in the wings) and without certainty of a commercial leaseholder (Edgewater Casino can move but city hall won’t let it expand, casting doubt over the deal).

No baseball. PavCo justified the retractable roof by encouraging summertime events. It also erected the second-largest videoboard in North America. The shoebox-style, centre-hung videoboard is so massive that it may fail a Major League Baseball inspection. That would mean no spring training visits from the boys of summer. PavCo opted for the massive screens because it felt the advertising generated year-round would far outweigh an annual weekend exhibition series.

Soccer knocker. B.C. Place’s renovation essentially killed the dream of Greg Kerfoot to build Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium north of Gastown on land coveted by the local real estate industry.

In the hole. The stadium itself is more transparent with bright new entries and of course with the new retractable roof. But there is no transparency for those who paid for it. The citizens of British Columbia. The business case was deemed a cabinet document when I requested it via Freedom of Information in 2009. The government pegged the budget at $365 million four months before the 2009 election campaign. Five months later, the price had ballooned to $563 million. We don’t know how much the Whitecaps and B.C. Lions are paying for rent or whether their wealthy owners were ever asked to invest in the project. Since 2001, the B.C. Liberal government has privatized BC Rail and certain functions of BC Hydro. Why does the government insist on holding onto a stadium that should instead be managed or owned by a private entity?

What do you think?

Comment below, Tweet @bobmackin or email me at the link in the right column.

Exclusive: B.C. Place Stadium's new logo

2011-09-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

Behold, the new logo for B.C. Place Stadium, which reopens Sept. 30 from a $563 million, taxpayer-funded renovation.

The two-tone blue design incorporates stylized versions of the new roof-support masts and cables that now figure prominently on the Vancouver skyline and will nicely complement Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps similar color scheme.

By virtue of playing at least 17 times a year in B.C. Place, the Whitecaps will be the 1983-built stadium's prime tenant. This logo replaces the 2006 design of the fabric domed roof that was deflated in May 2010 and removed.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show that Karacters Design was paid $23,030 on Feb. 25 for work on a logo.

The word "place" is a key word in the logo. Some or all of this insignia is a place-holder until the stadium's new corporate-sponsored name is revealed. Frontrunner Telus is the official telecommunications goods and services provider and plans to heavily market its Optik TV service on the giant, shoebox-style, centre-hung scoreboard. B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore did not deny Telus would be the naming rights purchaser when he was asked on July 31 and Sept. 7.

Beat the drum for accountability

2011-09-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Feeble, at best. Asinine, at worst.

I am talking about the Vancouver Police Department's baseless blame-the-media-for-the-Stanley Cup-riot response to the revelation that Liquor Control and Licensing Board general manager Karen Ayers warned the Deputy Solicitor General of "pre-riotous behaviour" during the Stanley Cup final.

"Most of the reporting on the riot and the aftermath has been accurate and insightful, but some has been misleading and inflammatory – suggestions that LCLB documents reveal prior knowledge of a riot falls squarely into the latter category.

"We are concerned about stories created that choose to inflame the rhetoric about the riot based on wrong information, as we were originally concerned by stories and reporters who beat the drum most loudly inciting crowds to gather in the first place. We would respectfully ask that facts be checked and confirmed."

To Chief Jim "No Clue" Chu, I dedicate the above "Beat the Drum" video by Great Big Sea.

I can't think of any of my colleagues or competitors in any part of the British Columbia media who "beat the drum" for unruly behaviour by any hockey fans in June 2011. On the contrary, the message given was to celebrate safely. No matter how important the series, no matter how much we'd all like to see a Stanley Cup parade in Vancouver someday, it is just a game.

Click here for my Tweet on June 13, when I was beating the drum for a civil celebration by offering a cautionary reminder of the ugly legacy of 1994's riot.

CKNW reporter James Lewis challenged Chu on Sept. 24 to clarify the clarification and to explain whether he agreed with the blame-the-media statement and whether he authorized it. Chu gave Lewis, who asked the right questions, the cold shoulder. Read the story and hear the clip here.

Ayers is the first-known public official to use a variation of the R-word. She did so in an email, three days before the Stanley Cup riot, to justify her decision to close downtown Vancouver liquor stores early on June 13 and June 15. Here are excerpts from her notes, obtained under Freedom of Information (see the full document below):

June 10

Vancouver Police Dep. Chief Doug Le Pard
"Not at tipping point… need to look at tonight and do hard level of enforce…"

Transit Police Mike Purdy
"Riot '94 t-shirts (observed)…"

June 12

D&B (Donna Lister and Bruce Edmundson of LCLB)
"Post-game went wild… by this point, police so overwhelmed… open consumption (of liquor)… demographics different than Olympics, majority 16-30… like a zombie movie…."

Le Pard
"biggest crowds ever… bigger than Olympics… scariest crush of people… way more itox (intoxication) than other nights… pretty rowdy later on, fights, violence… building to finale…"

Purdy
"Transit never seen so much liquor…

Mike (last name not legible), B.C. Ambulance Service
"Just shy of gold medal…. not family oriented like Olympics…"

Dave Nelms
"Lots more problems… off power poles, glass bus shelters… more broken glass… being more violent."

My Sept. 21 story in TheTyee.ca touched-off a firestorm of controversy and put the Vancouver Police into damage control. VPD is in full "protect the chief mode." Chief Jim Chu, you will remember, told Mike Howell of the Vancouver Courier before Game 7 that there would be no riot. Afterwards, he claimed there was no intelligence to suggest a riot was likely.

Ayers had consulted with various officials before making her decision, including Deputy Chief Doug Le Pard. Le Pard was on a conference call with Ayers, junior liquor control officials, Transit Police officers, St. Paul's Hospital representatives and B.C. Ambulance Service officials.

The question is this: if a bureaucrat could reasonably conclude that there was the potential for a booze-fuelled, Stanley Cup-related riot in Vancouver last June, why didn't the police?

I'm talking about the same police force that so concerned with the huge crowds and level of drunkenness and violence during the 2010 Winter Olympics that it asked the RCMP for urgent help.

I'm talking about the same police force in the city that had a riot on the night of Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup final.

B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Branch documents about the 2011 Stanley Cup riot

Breaking: B.C. Place workers schedule strike vote

2011-09-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

B.C. Place Stadium's unionized workers were told Sept. 23 in a members' only meeting at the YWCA Hotel that talks with B.C. Pavilion Corporation have reached an impasse.

Local 1703 of the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union has set Sept. 29 for a strike vote. If the membership agrees, then a strike would not happen for at least 72 hours.

The stadium's Sept. 30 reopening for the B.C. Lions vs. Edmonton Eskimos would not be affected. Could the Vancouver Whitecaps' first match in the Telus-sponsored downtown stadium on Oct. 2 against the Portland Timbers be disrupted by job action? If, in a worst-case scenario, Local 1703 gets an immediate mandate on Sept. 29 to exercise 72-hour strike notice, the countdown would end after the first Major League Soccer match at B.C. Place Stadium.

Empire Field would be a logical emergency backup for any Whitecaps or Lions games in October. BCGEU spokeswoman Karen Tankard said a strike is not desired. The union wants leverage to bring PavCo back to the bargaining table to achieve a new contract.

"There is no risk (of a strike on reopening night)," Tankard said. "We want B.C. to enjoy opening night, our members want to work and enjoy opening night.

"We don't want to go on strike, we want a fair collective bargaining agreement."

Sources tell me Local 1703 and PavCo have not held a scheduled bargaining session since breaking-off before dawn Sept. 8. Even then, mediator Mark Brown was shuttling back and forth between the bargaining teams in separate rooms. They weren't meeting face-to-face!

Brown has since met separately with the sides. No pay raise is being offered, as per the central government directive of pay freezes. Tankard said Local 1703 is willing to keep the same pay rates, but the dispute is about job security. She said Genesis Security now has 20 people doing jobs once done only by union members.

The union wants the new contract to contain anti-bullying language, but management is not budging. Premier Christy Clark, while a talkshow host at CKNW radio, led an annual province-wide anti-bullying campaign by selling pink T-shirts.

"(The Premier is) the Queen of Pink and her own Crown corporation is turning down anti-bullying language!" said one member who did not want to be identified.

The collective bargaining agreement expired May 31. The union includes 20 to 25 full-time staff, 30 part-timers and 300 event-specific staff.

In February 2005, BCGEU workers went on strike, delaying set-up for the annual boat show. Labour ministry intervention enabled settlement and prevented cancellation. Security guards, housekeepers, ushers and technicians approved a four-year deal in May 2007 with a 9.5 percent raise and signing bonus.

See the union members' update below.

More to come...

By the way... much confusion about the name of the new home of the Whitecaps and Lions. It will be sponsored by Telus. An announcement is expected before Sept. 30. But the only way the Whitecaps will play on a Bell Pitch again is if they're forced to return to Empire. Telus doesn't want its competitor to have a foothold in the stadium that it is both sponsoring and supplying.

BC Pavilion Corporation Bargainig Bulletin 23 Sept 11

Tweet the Chief = Ignore the Journalist

2011-09-23T12:52:00.001-07:00

I was interviewed on News1130 for my evaluation of the Vancouver Police Department's Tweet the Chief interactive, social media event on Sept. 22.

My grade? A "charitable B-minus."

It was the first time that VPD Chief Jim Chu took questions via Twitter and Facebook and offered answers in a Livestream webcast. I encourage the VPD to do a Tweet the Chief event every month. There should also be Tweet the Chief sessions in other languages and there should also be a regular Tweet the Chief event solely for the media.

I support any effort by politicians and public officials to face the public, because politicians and public officials are employed by the public. They are accountable to the public. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Mayor Gregor Robertson's only foray into a social media event (beyond a traditional radio call-in show) was actually a telephone town hall conference for Vision Vancouver members only.

There were technical difficulties. The session started late. There was also no explanation for who the people were in the "studio" audience at the VPD headquarters' media theatre or whether their questions were pre-screened and approved by the VPD.

Const. Jana McGuinness was the moderator. She has experience handling media scrums, but being a host of a live webcast was new to her. It was obvious that the strategy was also to put a kinder, gentler face on the police chief and the force. Chu talked about a favorite police movie and mentioned his love of hockey. He was asked why VPD uniforms are black and joked that it was the only color that would hide stains from spilled coffee and donut crumbs.

I offer all the above comments, despite the fact that all of my questions via Twitter and Facebook were ignored. There were fewer than 200 viewers of the Livestream, so it's not as if the quantity of questions was overwhelming. I think my questions were ones that the VPD didn't want to address. Or McGuinness didn't want to put her boss on the spot.

I have copied below verbatim the questions I posed during Tweet the Chief. I challenge Chu -- not the media relations department, but the Chief himself -- to respond. Or, better yet, sit down with me for a one-on-one interview, to answer all the questions.

I'll buy the coffee and donuts. I promise not to spill.

Twitter:

@bobmackin
Dear Chief: please comment on sentence of ex-Const. Hodson. What is VPD doing to prevent corruption in force? @VancouverPD #TweetTheChief

@bobmackin
Dear Chief: why were cars not towed away from post office parking lot before Game 7? @VancouverPD #TweetTheChief #riot2011

@bobmackin
Q: Who are the people in @VancouverPD #Tweetthechief "studio audience" and were their questions vetted by VPD?

@bobmackin
Dear Chief Chu, After #riot2011, why should citizens have faith in VPD to keep safe/secure people and property? @VancouverPD #Tweetthechief

@bobmackin
Dear Chief: Why did no one from VPD join city manager Ballem's fan zone conference call on morning of 6/15? #TweetheChief @VancouverPD

@bobmackin
Dear Chief: Please give 3 reasons why you and Dep. Le Pard should remain in office after #riot2011. @VancouverPD #TweettheChief

@bobmackin
My @VancouverPD #TweetTheChief stats: 1 hour watched, 6 Twitter questions asked, 3 Facebook questions asked. Answers? 0. #fail

Facebook:

Bob Mackin
Dear Chief Chu, After the VPD mis-handled the riot response, why should citizens have faith in the ability of VPD to keep safe and secure a scheduled public gathering or assist in a natural disaster?

Bob Mackin
Dear Chief Chu, high-ranking RCMP E Division officers Craig Callens and Norm Lipinski were embedded with the VPD command on June 15. FOI documents show Craig Callens reported to the Deputy Solicitor General that there were 700 police officers from all sources deployed for the riot. Can you explain the disparity between Callens's total of 700 and the 928 you have in the VPD internal review?

Bob Mackin
Dear Chief Chu: VPD Dep. Steve Sweeney appealed Feb. 22, 2010 to RCMP V2010 ISU for extra help to prevent an Olympic hockey riot. Crowds were larger than expected. There was widespread public drunkenness and fighting. A briefing note written by the RCMP says VPD claimed conditions were reminiscent of June 14, 1994. During the 2011 Stanley Cup, similar "pre-riotous" conditions were observed by LCLB, especially on the night of Game 5. Why did VPD not invoke its authority and shut down the fan zone before Game 7? Was there resistance from the Mayor and/or City Manager?

Someone used the R-word before June 15

2011-09-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

That is a photograph of a line-up of thirsty Vancouver Canucks' fans snaking along the sidewalk outside the Spirit of Howe private liquor store at 1275 Granville Street on June 10, the night the Canucks won Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final at Rogers Arena. The government-censored photo was included in documents released via Freedom of Information on Sept. 21 in response to a request I filed. (The people were on a public sidewalk, so why censor them?)

The photograph is the only one included in the 97 pages from the Solicitor General's ministry, which is responsible for the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch. These documents give a glimpse inside the planning for the early closure of liquor stores in downtown Vancouver on June 13 and June 15 during the Stanley Cup finals. For the first time, we find a public official using the R-word (or a variation thereof) before the Game 7 riot.

After a June 12 conference call that included Deputy Vancouver Police Chief Doug Le Pard, LCLB general manager Karen Ayers reported to Deputy Solicitor General Lori Wanamaker about Olympic-sized crowds, fights, violence and binge drinking in public during the June 10 Game 5.

"We are expecting record crowds (for Game 6 on June 13) as this may be the deciding game, and given the escalating problems, intoxication, violence and pre-riotous behaviour, I have made a decision under the Liquor Licensing and Control Act to close all liquor stores in the downtown Vancouver core at 4 p.m. tomorrow evening. ”

Chief Jim "No Clue" Chu famously proclaimed before Game 7 to Mike Howell of the Vancouver Courier: "There's not going to be a riot." The VPD internal report released Sept. 6 claimed: “Prior to Game 7, there was no substantiated intelligence that a riot would occur.”

Obviously the VPD's spin is wearing thin.

Read the full story in TheTyee.ca here.

Riot review was a VANOC reunion

2011-09-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Sept. 1-published "The Night the City Became a Stadium," the fancy title for the Stanley Cup riot review, has John Furlong and Doug Keefe's names on it. It was ghost-written by Stewart Muir, whose wife is Premier Christy Clark's deputy minister.

Now we know that there was another ex-VANOC executive involved. Terry Wright of IPS Consulting was the executive vice-president for the 2010 Winter Olympics whose portfolios included transportation, accommodation and security. He worked closely with VANOC CEO Furlong. Wright also relied heavily on Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson for the vital people-moving plan during the Games.

Wright was paid at least $24,000 for his work on the Riot Review, according to records released by the Public Safety and Solicitor General ministry after a Freedom of Information request by me. Not bad for a summer job. Not bad when there are no Olympic gigs happening for either of them.

Furlong and Wright were both in Durban in early July for the International Olympic Committee's annual meeting and left off the coordination commission for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. The IOC traditionally appoints a top executive from the most-recent completed Games to the panel that oversees planning and organization of the next. There are no Vancouver 2010 executives on the 2018 checkup group.

There is a perception by anyone who observed the 2010 Winter Olympics that both Furlong and Wright owe a debt of gratitude to Ballem and Robertson for handling the urban domain so well during the Games (not to mention, being responsible for the in-receivership Olympic Village). VANOC sources have told me how Vancouver city hall did yeoman's work before and during the Games. One can reasonably question the independence of their review. Why would Furlong and Wright want to stand back and criticize -- without fear or favour -- those who helped them in the defining moments of their careers?

If Premier Christy Clark really wanted an objective investigation of the public authorities' role in the June 15, 2011 Stanley Cup riot, she could have easily hired a retired judge.

Vancouver Riot Review was a VANOC reunion

Were there really 928 cops at the Stanley Cup riot?

2011-09-16T13:13:00.001-07:00

Documents released to me by the British Columbia Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General include an email on the morning after the Stanley Cup riot from a senior RCMP officer, claiming there were 700 police officers from various agencies in downtown Vancouver on June 15, 2011. Read the story here. The email was sent to the British Columbia government's deputy Solicitor General, to summarize the police operation on that horrible night.

This contradicts the official version contained in the provincial report by John Furlong and Doug Keefe (ghost-written by Stewart Muir), which said there were 446 police to start, but the numbers peaked at 928. The Vancouver Police review said 606 were VPD and 169 RCMP, most of the rest included 52 Abbotsford, 24 Delta, 20 each from New Westminster and the Transit Police, 16 Port Moody and 14 West Vancouver.

Asst. Comm. Craig Callens, author of the June 16, 2011 email to Clayton Pecknold, did not respond. Callens apparently forwarded my email query to communications officer Supt. Ray Bernoties, who distanced the RCMP from Callens's math by claiming Callens didn't include off-duty members or municipal cops. Bernoties also claimed Callens didn't intend to be exact and that the numbers in the VPD report should prevail.

But I never got answers to simple questions from Bernoties. Such as, did he actually read the Callens email that I obtained? As you can see below, Callens carefully accounted for the municipal officers (even though the individual force numbers were redacted). He even went so far as to show how suburban RCMP detachments sent reinforcements to the municipalities that were short their own members because officers had been dispatched to the riot. People in senior positions, such as Callens, don't make mistakes easily.

Other questions? What were the discrepancies (all figures, except for the total 700, were redacted)? How could a high ranking RCMP officer go wrong in such an important message to a top provincial official?

There is nothing in the Callens email to indicate his total of 700 officers was an estimate or inexact.

Is this a case of bad Mountie math or "move along, nothing to see here"?

I hope the Vancouver Police, RCMP and/or Solicitor General ministry will be transparent and publish a line-by-line list accounting for each and every set of "boots on the ground" to show exactly how many police were really on duty to quell the 2011 Stanley Cup riot.

Stanley Cup riot police numbers: the morning after

Let the costs continue

2011-09-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics ended more than 18 months ago, but one of the legacies includes costs to prop up the organization that is supposed to benefit from the $110 million, pre-funded Games Operating Trust. (There was no post-Games profit. VANOC claimed it broke-even, after a $187.8 million bailout from the B.C. and federal governments.)

The Pique Newsmagazine in Whistler revealed that the provincial government is spending another $6.2 million to help Whistler Sport Legacies, the society that operates the Whistler Sliding Centre and Whistler Olympic Park.

Those aren't the only dollars flowing to Olympic-related organizations after the Games. 2010 Legacies Now (rebranded "Lift Partners") got a whack of dough during the last fiscal year, which was the first fiscal year after the Games.

On page 137 of the Detailed Schedule of Payments for 2010-11 published July 18, it lists $10,581,300 in payments from the Community Sport and Cultural Development ministry to 2010 Legacies Now. When I asked, they told me it was for the following:

Participation ($5.4 million):

Supports programs that help train and certify community coaches and officials; that provide opportunities for individuals to learn sport skills (with particular attention to children and youth, individuals with a disability, First Nations, and lower income families); and that help to lower the cost of sport so that lower income families can participate (e.g contributions to KidSport and contributions that help keep sport membership dues as low as possible). Ideally, programming would ensure that the maximum level of any available federal matching funds is achieved. Much of this participation funding flows to Provincial Sport Organizations (PSOs – about 60 of them) so that they can provide support to community coaches, officials, and other volunteers.

High Performance ($4.1 million):

Supports programs that provide services and other support to BC’s high performance athletes and coaches; training support for upcoming competitions (e.g. 2011 Western Canada Summer Games, the 2011 Canada Winter Games; the 2011 North American Indigenous Games and other provincial or national competitions as required) and support the province’s high performance infrastructure such as the Canadian Sport Centre Pacific and the province’s regional centres. Programming ideally would maximize federal investment dollars including Own the Podium Funding. High Performance funding flows to PSOs to support the development of their athletes. Funding also flows to the Canadian Sport Centre Pacific and the regional sport centres.

Event Hosting ($1 million)

Supports the Hosting BC program that provides financial support to dozens of international, national and regional sport events held in communities large and small all across British Columbia thereby boosting economic activity, increasing the profile of sport and encouraging participation in sport. Funds also support larger international events (Whistler Bobsleigh/Skeleton World Cup, CONCACAF Olympic Women’s Soccer Qualifier).

Gordo goes to Great Britain

2011-09-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

By now you probably know that ex-British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell was appointed to the Order of British Columbia on Sept. 2. The deadline for nominations was March 12, two days before he handed the reins of power to Christy Clark and three days before he stepped down as MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey. The rules say sitting politicians are ineligible to receive the honour.

Campbell was announced in August as the new High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. His biography on the Canadian embassy's website, however, was prematurely uploaded (see below). Sept. 15 is the date of his ascension to the most sought-after appointment in the Canadian foreign service. Prime Minister Stephen Harper rewarded Campbell for his flag-waving and red mittens-wearing during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The next Games are in London in 2012 and Campbell will have a front-row seat.

So you'd think he'd be a happier lad than he was in January 2003 when he had his infamous post-mai tai drive in Maui and visit to the drunk tank for an involuntary photo op. Campbell's mugshot on the High Commission website appears to be his passport photo.

Why not a welcoming, Canadian smile? Or is our man in London town practising his stiff British upper lip?

Biography of Mr. Gordon Campbell, High Commissioner for Canada

City hall dithered about Canada Post pickets

2011-09-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

As tens of thousands of people were starting to slowly trickle into downtown Vancouver to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final on big screens, Vancouver city hall key officials were instead worried about Canada Post pickets encroaching on the fan zone... which was later ruined by a riot.

City hall goes postal on day of Stanley Cup riot

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry

2011-09-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Behold, the plans for the Vancouver Canucks 2011 Stanley Cup victory parade!

The Canucks were going to celebrate Vancouver's first Stanley Cup since 1915 with a parade on land in downtown Vancouver and through the waters of False Creek.

But, alas, plans went awry. The team lost three of the last four games, including Game 7 at home, and locals rioted.

Read the plans here:

2011 Stanley Cup Parade, Celebration Plans

Meanwhile, at the Olympic Village...

2011-09-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

What's the silver lining, if you can call it that, for Vancouver city hall after the Stanley Cup riot?

Well, none other than the Olympic Village! The billion dollar, in-receivership brat on Southeast False Creek has gone under the radar this summer.

Ernst and Young won't release the latest sales figures. At least not this week. But how good could they actually be? (Or, how bad?) I only ask that after the full-page advertisement I saw in the Sept. 3 edition of the Vancouver Sun.

The rebranded Village on False Creek is offering new buyers an offer they can't refuse: a free kayak, bicycle, barbecue, pots and pans, running shoes, one-zone transit pass for a year, coffee for a year, groceries for a year…

Or, instead of the lifestyle package, new buyers can take $5,000.

Ask yourself this: If the world-famous, world-class home of Olympic athletes in 2010 on the southeast corner of False Creek was a product that could stand on its own merits and people were beating a path to the sales centre door with cash-in-hand to get a suite while they last, would such a package be offered?

Have sales stalled, yet again?

Another question.

What happened to the Salt Building? It was supposed to be the site of Mark James's next brewpub.

James has been so successful in Yaletown, Whistler and Surrey, but walked away from the Olympic Village (which does have the top-notch Legacy Liquor Store, by the way).

A Sept. 7 listing on City of Vancouver's real estate website seeks a tenant for the Salt Building. Read it here.

Can't understand why the city hasn't been peppered with offers.

Riot report ghost writer reluctant to talk about BC Rail briber

2011-09-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

I got a call from Stewart Muir on Friday afternoon. Turns out he was the ghost writer for the report on the 2011 Stanley Cup riot that bears the names of John Furlong and Doug Keefe. Furlong, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics boss, hired him, he said.

The former Vancouver Sun deputy managing editor didn't seem very enthusiastic when I asked him about whether his wife, Athana Mentzelopoulos, influenced or was informed about the content of the report. His denial was emphatic, yet defensive.

It's not an unreasonable question. Muir is a veteran journalist who obviously knows our job is to watch those in power and keep an eye on those close to them. He has a family connection in the Office of the Premier. Mentzelopoulos was hired in August as Premier Christy Clark's deputy minister of corporate priorities. Mentzelopoulos was a deputy minister under ex-Premier Gordon Campbell and even served as a bridesmaid at Clark's wedding. Clark is a big Canucks' fan and enjoys the support of donors like Canucks and Rogers Arena owner Francesco Aquilini.

You can read my story on Muir here.

Before I finished the interview, I took the opportunity to ask about records mentioning Muir and Mentzelopoulos that are displayed on this blog entry by Alex Tsakumis.

Tsakumis managed to obtain expense reports filed by OmniTrax lobbyist Erik Bornmann that were collected by the RCMP in their investigation on the corrupt 2003 sale of BC Rail to CN Rail.

Bornmann was an admitted briber of public employees while he worked as a lobbyist for the BC Rail bidder. He was never charged in the BC Rail affair, but he agreed to become the star witness against ministerial aides David Basi and Bob Virk. Those two men accepted cash and gifts from Bornmann in exchange for information about the BC Rail sale.

Basi and Virk mysteriously copped a plea bargain in October 2010 just when the trial was about to get interesting. The B.C. Liberal government, under then-Premier Campbell, agreed to pay their $6 million legal bills, despite the fact they were guilty. Auditor General John Doyle is examining the highly unusual transaction.

Bornmann was admitted into the Law Society of Upper Canada, meaning he can practice law in Ontario, after this 2-1 decision. Read BC Railscam ace chronicler Bill Tieleman's blog here.

Bornmann's records on the Tsakumis blog show that Muir met with Bornmann on three occasions for what appear to be expensive meals, in the months before the BC Rail privatization was announced and the infamous raid on the B.C. Legislature happened:

July 8, 2003: "Entertainment Stewart Muir/Athana" $366.44
July 15, 2003: "Entertainment Stewart Muir and guests" $319.21
Oct. 7, 2003: "Entertainment - Business Editor - Vancouver Sun" $774.18

I sought Muir's comments on his infamous host and whether it was simply a traditional "reporter-source" relationship. (I was hoping he might have some insight about the scandal that dominated headlines in British Columbia for more than seven years.)

"I haven't seen the material," Muir said.

I offered to email him a link, but I told him I didn't have his email address. Could I have his email address? He didn't seem interested.

"You can Google it," he said.

I have no proof whatsoever of any wrongdoing by Muir or Mentzelopoulos. Just because they met with Bornmann does not mean you or I should think less of them.

I remain interested in what Muir might have to say about those meetings with someone who eventually became known as a central player in the BC Rail scandal.

If he wants to comment, he does not have to Google my contact information.

Fan zone? Secrecy zone!

2011-08-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

On Dec. 8, 2008, when Mayor Gregor Robertson was sworn-in, he promised the following to citizens of Vancouver.

"As your city government we will lead with a bold vision. We will set clear targets, measure success, and be accountable for our actions.

"That accountability must extend to every aspect of City Hall. When the city uses your money, you have a right to know where it’s being spent, and what it’s being used for. When leaders fall short of that standard, public confidence is shaken.

"Over the next three years, we will rebuild that confidence, and ensure transparency, accountability and public debate at City Hall.

"Politicians do not always live up to that responsibility, I know. But I also know that there were literally thousands of people voting last November for the very first time.

"My commitment to them, on behalf of every member of my team, is that I will not let you down on making City Hall more open and accountable."

That's right. Mayor Robertson promised more transparency, not less. No asterisks. No ifs, ands or buts.

So why all the secrecy about anything related to the 2011 Stanley Cup riot? Is it because of the Nov. 19 civic election and the fear that the ill-fated fan zone and his handling of the riot may cost him his $144,394-a-year job?

In the absence of a truly independent and transparent review of Vancouver city hall's planning for the fan zone and response to the riot, it is incumbent on us in the media to dig for the facts and show them to you. City hall has undergone an information clampdown and is delaying disclosure until at least mid-September. It has offered no assurance whatsoever that any information will actually be provided. It is a question of both if and when the information gets to daylight.

City of Vancouver's Freedom of Information office, which falls under the office of Robertson-hired city manager Penny Ballem, is making great efforts to delay requests for all manner of information about the fan zone and June 15 riot. The city is even hiding behind the FOI process (that it claims is over-burdened), instead of routinely releasing information to journalists -- even when confronted with facts verified by third-parties! Perhaps Robertson and Ballem are truly embarrassed that I found out they hired a company to manage the Stanley Cup fan zone just two days before the series started on June 1.

Here is the Contracts Awarded status report. The most recent update was June 8. None of the fan zone contractors appear here.

From my own photographs of the fan zone before June 15 and from talking to sources close to the situation, I was able to piece together a list of some of the contractors. A list that city hall doesn't want to confirm or deny.

Here is the Brand Live Group website. The company is known for staging high quality public and corporate events. Its credits include Vancouver House for the City of Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Celebration of Light fireworks festival, Canada Day at Canada Place, various events to "animate" the in-receivership Olympic Village and the Live at Squamish music festival. Brand Live was hired to oversee the fan zone. Was it in over its head with the Stanley Cup fan zone? Was it misled by Vancouver city hall? Was Brand Live doing a favour?

Paul Runnals of Brand Live said that Fresh Air Cinema was hired by the city to subcontract the truck-mounted big screens from Impact Video.

Pit Stop Portables was hired to provide the portable toilets. Its website even links to a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news story about the fan zone -- before the riot, of course.

Super Save Fence Rentals provided the barriers, which became projectiles on riot night.

On Aug. 23, I was advised that my requests for lists of payments made to the above companies would be released within 60 days of my Aug. 12 requests. The Freedom of Information Act counts business days, not calendar days. So I'm expecting such information could be released around Nov. 4. The election is Nov. 19.

Would they try to delay any or all information I seek until after the election?

Say it ain't so. Vision Vancouver's party leader promised better than that. Why would they stoop so low?

Our File No. 2011-156 - ack

Our File No. 2011-157 - ack

Our File No. 2011-158 - ack

Gmail - FOI Requests 2011-156, 157, And 158

What was Gregor Robertson doing during the Finals?

What was Penny Ballem doing during the Finals?

Riot review due Aug. 31, reviewers without contract

2011-08-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Back on July 15 -- the one-month anniversary of the 2011 Stanley Cup riot -- I told you on this blog that Premier Christy Clark did not have a briefing note about the Stanley Cup riot. She didn't order one, nor did her staff see fit to produce one proactively.

A briefing note is a standard, internal analysis of an issue relevant to government. They're dime a dozen. It's often the first step or last step in the journey of decision-making. If you don't believe me, read more about briefing notes on the B.C. government website.

In a Vancouver Courier story, I listed all the reasons why a briefing note should have been produced after the Stanley Cup riot. It wasn't just a problem for Mayor Gregor Robertson and the City of Vancouver. It was a problem for the British Columbia government, too.

Well, wonders never cease. On Aug. 25, I learned that there is another dearth of post-riot paperwork. This time, it has to do with the co-chairs of the Vancouver Riot Review, former Nova Scotia deputy minister Doug Keefe and VANOC chief executive John Furlong.

Their review of the events of June 15, ordered by Clark, is due Aug. 31. As of Aug. 24, they had no contract! It appears that they were simply handed a copy of the June 20 press release and told they'd be reimbursed for their time and costs later.

This is contrary to the way a sophisticated, business-like government normally works. Government normally "papers" everything, with agreements of all sorts. Signatures, witnesses, etc. Not so anymore?

Maybe this is simply the way the Christy Clark Show works.

Read more below.

PSS-2011-01129

Man of the people will be missed

2011-08-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

That's a screen grab from the most-watched TV program in Canadian history, the Feb. 28, 2010 gold medal hockey game between the United States and Canada at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. (If you didn't save it, you can get your own DVD copy of CTV Olympics' Hockey Gold 2010).

Look closely. That's NDP leader Jack Layton and his wife Olivia Chow. They're wearing red and singing "O Canada."

Instead of being inside Vancouver's Rogers Arena (which was originally General Motors Place, but known as Canada Hockey Place during the Games), Layton and Chow were with the people to witness Sidney Crosby's golden goal at the climax of the Vancouver Games. Layton and Chow were with the people, at Gretzky's in downtown Toronto.

When you watch the DVD of the historic hockey game, you'll see Sid the Kid's great goal and you'll see Layton and Chow singing the national anthem.

On Aug. 22, 2011 it is the people of all political stripes and ways of life across Canada that are mourning the cancer death of Layton. The 61-year-old New Democratic Party leader guided his party to Official Opposition status in the 2011 federal election. Quite a feat for a party that the pundits thought was destined for third place. Quite a feat for a man who had already suffered cancer once.

Why was Layton so popular? Easy. He seemed like a trustworthy uncle to a nation. He's been called the best Prime Minister Canada never had.

On February 28, 2010, Canadians, including Layton, put aside their differences and wore red and white.

Today, think of wearing some orange, to remember Jack.

HST referendum irregularities?

2011-08-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

If the B.C. Liberal-allied Harmonized Sales Tax fan club, otherwise known as the Smart Tax Alliance, celebrates a victory for the "No" side when all the HST referendum ballots are counted, you can bet your dime and two pennies (or three nickels) that the Fight HST "Yes" camp will contest the result over irregularities. Especially if it's a close call.

Maybe the pro-business lobby that trumpets the economic advantages of a single value-added tax (instead of two) will win fair and square?

But it could just end up being a victory for democracy, with a decisive "Yes" vote to tell the government that any major taxation changes should be mentioned to voters before or during an election, not imposed upon them afterward. Such is the reason why Gordon Campbell was forced to retire from the Premiership and British Columbians have been subject to the divisive pre- and post-Olympic value-added tax debate.

I experienced one of those irregularities when I went to the Elections BC temporary storefront at Capilano Mall on B.C. Day. The mall was open Aug. 1 and the Elections BC location was supposed to be. I arrived five minutes before the advertised 6 p.m. closing time to find the sliding door closed and lights off.

Strange. Elections BC is the same independent agency that so professionally conducts provincial elections. If a polling place closed five minutes before (or five minutes after) the advertised time on election day, there would be accusations of irregularities from all parties.

I asked deputy chief Elections BC officer Anton Boegman what happened. He replied on Aug. 2:

"The location was open on B.C. Day but the referendum official did close 5 minutes early that day because of a personal issue."

On Aug. 5, I returned to the same location and mentioned to the solo clerk that I had been there before 6 p.m. on B.C. Day and was wondering about the early closure. He admitted that he closed five minutes early because mall traffic was low and that he wanted to buy some groceries. He said I could have thrown my ballot envelope under the crack in the door, but I told him that was not satisfactory.

I questioned Boegman about whether this reason constituted a "personal issue" and why only one person normally staffed these storefront ballot collection centres.

"You are correct, collection centres should remain open for the hours that have been posted. Indeed all officials staffing these offices had been instructed to do so.

"Numbers of staff are determined based on the work requirements. During shift change-over times there are often two staff members present, as well as at other times when necessary. It was not considered a security risk to have solo staff.

"Please remember, these are not polling stations where voters go to receive and cast their ballot. The collection centres are locations that provide another option for voters to return their mail-in ballot package to Elections BC."

Of course, we may never truly learn why Premier Christy Clark and cabinet opted for the mail-in referendum over the election-style system. They are keeping secret whatever report that justified the mail-in referendum. If it really is saving $18 million, show us the report!

Tell me about your experience with Elections BC, ServiceBC or Canada Post. Were you able to get an HST referendum ballot (if you didn't automatically receive one)? What was your in-person ballot delivery experience like?

Canadian Olympic Committee: hacked?

2011-08-04T16:47:00.001-07:00

On Aug. 3, I posed the question: was the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency hacked during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver? Here is the post.

That was the same day McAfee published its Revealed: Operation Shady RAT white paper showing numerous governments, corporations and non-profit agencies had been hacked, including the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee and an unnamed "Olympic Committee of Western Country".

McAfee hasn't assigned blame, but the source of the hacker attacks is widely believed to be in China. The report is called Operation Shady RAT -- the Beijing Olympics happened during the Chinese zodiac's year of the rat -- and it included this veiled reference to the Middle Kingdom.

"The interest in the information held at the Asian and Western national Olympic Committees, as well as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency in the lead-up and immediate follow-up to the 2008 Olympics was particularly intriguing and potentially pointed a finger at a state actor behind the intrusions, because there is likely no commercial benefit to be earned from such hacks."

Two Canadian government agencies were hacked, one in October 2009 for six months, the other for one month in January 2010. On page 7 of the report, there is that reference to the unnamed "Olympic Committee of Western Country" being infiltrated in August 2007 for a seven-month period.

The victim appears to have been the Canadian Olympic Committee.

I asked spokesperson Riley Denver whether the COC was that mysterious "Olympic Committee of Western Country" and, if so, what was the nature of the attack and how did it impact operations?

The response from Denver? "The COC isn't going to comment on this issue."

On April 6, 2005, the Canadian Olympic Committee's executive director Chris Rudge was in Beijing and signed a "Sino-Canadian" memorandum of agreement with Chinese government and Olympic committee officials. You can still find that news release on the Chinese Olympic Committee website, but the parallel news release from the Canadian perspective no longer appears in the April 2005 section on the Canadian Olympic Committee website.

Draw your own conclusions.

I say, the Canadian Olympic Committee owes athletes, sponsors, media and sports fans in Canada an explanation.

Were its systems hacked and was any personal information stolen?

Offcial Website of the Chinese Olympic Committee

Canadian Olympic Committee - News April 2005

When open doesn't necessarily mean open

2011-08-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

If you read this blog after July 25, you'd know that A) the British Columbia government is heralding a new "open government" policy and B) it's just a superficial, smoke and mirrors public relations campaign. Premier Christy Clark's staff manipulated the release of records (and the records themselves) about the Harmonized Sales Tax referendum. See for yourself.

Clark is banging the open government drum because she wants you to vote for her B.C. Liberal Party in the next election. If Clark was serious about increasing transparency, her government would change the laws to put the power (and information) in the hands of the citizens. For inspiration, she need look no further than the State of Washington.

So here is the latest absurdity. The government is delaying disclosure of documents about the July 19 open government announcement. It invoked its power to delay disclosure from Aug. 31 to Oct. 14.

Is this another sign pointing to a late September or early October provincial election?

Open Government? Hahaha!

WADA surprise: McAfee claims sports watchdog hacked

2011-08-03T16:39:00.001-07:00

Was the World Anti-Doping Agency hacked during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver?

The Montreal-based, International Olympic Committee spinoff responsible for stamping out drug use and abuse in sports was involved in collecting urine and blood samples from athletes before and during the Games. WADA accredited a temporary laboratory at the Richmond Olympic Oval and its key executives and staff stayed at the Renaissance Pinnacle Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Here is the WADA independent observer report on the Vancouver Games.

On Aug. 3, McAfee published its Revealed: Operation Shady RAT white paper showing numerous governments, corporations and non-profit agencies had been hacked, including WADA and the IOC. In WADA's case, its systems were infiltrated for 14 months, beginning in August 2009. That period included WADA's Vancouver 2010 responsibilities.

McAfee hasn't assigned blame, but the source of the hacker attacks is widely believed to be in China.

In a statement provided 2010 Gold Rush from WADA Director General David Howman, the organization admitted it has been hacked before but claimed the system used to keep track of athlete records is safe and secure.

More from Howman:

"Following the release of the McAfee white paper on Operation Shady Rat, WADA can confirm that it has been in communication with McAfee and is investigating thoroughly the reported cyber intrusions.

"WADA has a highly-sophisticated security system in place which is managed by ISS (IBM), and with the information available to it ISS has to-date found no evidence of this corruption.

"In February 2008 WADA experienced a security breach of its email system and consequently filed a complaint with the Quebec State Police and co-operated with an FBI investigation.

"Nothing was compromised and following the intrusion WADA's security experts upgraded the Agency's firewalls.

"WADA's Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS), which is on a completely different server to WADA's emails, has never been compromised and remains a highly-secure system for the retention of athlete data.

"At this stage, WADA has no evidence from its security experts of the intrusions as listed by McAfee and the Agency has yet to be convinced that they took place."