History not on the Canucks' side

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"

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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