Pipelines of information, the real issue of election 2013

The Freedom of Information and Privacy Association of British Columbia's twin goals are "to empower citizens by promoting and defending the principle of universal and affordable access to the basic information channels of our time," and "to empower citizens by increasing their access to information and their control over their own personal information" and "to empower citizens by limiting the surveillance activities of the state, and by increasing our right to access our own personal information and our ability to control the collection, use and sharing of our personal information, wherever it is stored."

I was honoured to be asked to appear as the special guest speaker at the April 11, 2013 annual general meeting of the FIPA, which was established in 1991. Here are my remarks. 

April 11, 2013, People's Law School, Vancouver. 

Thank-you for coming tonight. Thank-you to Vince and Tyler from FIPA BC for the invitation. Fifty-nine years ago today -- the most boring day of the 20th century, according to Cambridge University researchers. No famous births or deaths or major events on April 11, 1954. I will try to help end the day on a high note. 

The election writ drops on April 16. Can you feel it? Silly season is already here. The Liberals are focussing on Bollywood. The NDP is focussing on Hollywood North. 

The election will be about oil, natural gas, tankers and pipelines. We need to get back to basics. We need to make this the election about information and privacy pipelines.

The privacy pipeline that flows from citizens to government should be as narrow as a straw, made of steel -- to prevent leaks -- and the contents should flow deliberately. Like the thickest milkshake youʼve ever had.

The information pipeline that flows the other way, from government to citizens, should be as big as a truck to drive through and made of plexiglas. Let it flow as fast as a waterfall.

The problem is, the governments we have, using the laws that exist, have engineered a straw-sized information pipeline that flows like molasses and a fat, leaky data pipe. The people in power control the flow of information as they seek to build mini-empires.

Denise Rudnicki wrote a Carleton University thesis in 2009 called “Information or Persuasion” about how the federal government pioneered the permanent campaign. (The next one begins May 15 here in B.C.) The roots are 1969ʼs Task Force on Government Information and its report, called “To Know and Be Known.”

The government realized it could use advertising and public relations to leapfrog the media, and go direct to citizens. Who needs reporters? They think and ask questions. Weʼre just a pain in the ass.

Rudnicki wrote on J-Source.ca:

“This goes way beyond spin. This involves a sophisticated, government-wide, coordinated communications apparatus, well- resourced and professionally staffed, and designed to persuade people of the rightness of the government's position by marginalizing the views of opponents and by using the media to shape and manage public discussion of policy. Calling this effort 'spin' is like calling a tsunami a wave.”
“This is a hugely uneven playing field. Groups that are opposed to any government initiative are under-resourced by comparison. They do not have 15-page communications plans, a communications branch to unify their message and media- train their spokespeople; they do not have the ability to conduct focus groups, do advertising, and rely on the advice of professional communicators to win the public relations war.
“Journalists are equally disadvantaged. Thousands of people work in government communications and millions of dollars are spent at the same time newsrooms are shrinking and fewer journalists are being asked to do more with less. Journalists will never be able to level the field but understanding the game will allow them to analyse it more effectively for the benefit of their readers, viewers and listeners.”

The federally mastered corporate communications model was adopted by the provincial government. It has infected Vancouver city hall -- under a mayor who came to power in 2008 promising transparency. 

Senior bureaucrats were once happy to connect with journalists and citizens, to explain how the city works and what they were doing to make it livable. Theyʼre not allowed anymore. All questions must go through the communications office. Good luck if you want an interview from an expert or decision-maker. Good luck if you want any useful information by deadline.

Now the Mayor, like the Premier, is using open data as a decoy. It is a ruse, to fool us into believing that theyʼre being open and transparent. When theyʼre not. Gee-whiz data sets with maps of fire hydrants and manhole covers are probably useful to someone.

But why were those locations chosen? Who was the supplier? How were they chosen? How much did they cost? Open data must come with open information to be useful. (I filed such requests yesterday, to test the city and its new digital strategy.)

How bad has it become? How many bureaucrats does it take to screw in a lightbulb? (With apologies to any bureaucrats here tonight.) Trick question -- none, because the job was privatized. In April 2012, the Ottawa Citizen revealed the story behind the story, when it asked the National Research Council about a study it did with NASA about falling snow. 

The feds sent an email with a non-answer. Seven sentences without mention of snow.

The Citizen called NASA and in one 15-minute phone call, the Citizen got the answer. NASA just wanted to advance the science of snowstorms. So the Citizen filed an Access to Information request.

How many bureaucrats did it take to handle the original reporter? The answer? Eleven. Enough for a soccer team. The National Research Council bureaucrats sent a dozen emails back and forth to formulate an answer. To manufacture their message.

When I got into the business as a wide-eyed Langara J-school kid in 1990, things were different. Fax machines and answering machines were high tech and politicians were reachable -- if they were at their desks.

Those days are gone. Bureaucrats canʼt say much and politicians donʼt want to say much. They can hide behind email.

So we use Freedom of Information. Even that is getting harder. 

For a variety of reasons, including transparency, Reporters Without Borders ranked Canada 20th on the press freedom index last year. We used to be 10th. 

The year before that, 2011, was the year of the protest. The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street. Average citizens were mad as hell and couldnʼt take it anymore with the lying, cheating corporate bigwigs and their friends in political office. Government workers on the take. Brutal cops, soldiers and spies. It started after the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi -- the most corrupt sporting event since the Montreal 1976 Olympics. Indians took to the streets by the thousands and some even did hunger strikes, to seek justice against the corrupt organizers.

The top two executives, Suresh Kalmadi and Lalit Bhanot, were charged with corruption. 

From India to North Africa to the Arab peninsula, people wanted corruption to stop. Because, without transparency and integrity in government, can we have a democracy or even freedom? 

This -- the smart phone -- is our greatest tool. We can tell our stories to the world, in words, pictures and sounds. Instantly through social media. Thatʼs what they were doing from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park. Dictators and their friends fear it. Or do they? 

While the media has become bigger and stronger and more relevant than ever, technology and the economy have made it smaller and weaker and less relevant. And so democracy is under attack.

The Pew Research Centreʼs State of the Media survey found one-third of respondents deserted a news outlet -- they werenʼt getting the news and information like they used to. Pew blamed “a news industry that is more undermanned and unprepared to uncover stories, dig deep into emerging ones or to question information put into its hands.”

“At the same time, newsmakers and others with information they want to put into the public arena have become more adept at using digital technology and social media to do so on their own, without any filter by the traditional media.” 

“They are also seeing more success in getting their message into the traditional media narrative.” In 2008 there was “Joe the Plumber.” In 2012, it was “Binders Full of Women.” What will be the meme for B.C. 2013?

The Pew report said campaign reporters were acting as “megaphones” for politicians and partisans, instead of filtering and putting in context the issues with a critical eye. Has the noble goal of objectivity gone awry? Or did it ever exist? Remember what Hunter S. Thompson said: “With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.”

Speaking of box scores and race results. My journey on the FOI trail began because of sport. Because of the Olympics. I entered B.C. Place Stadium on a September day in 1998. Ex- Canucks owner Arthur Griffiths had a new job, bidding for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Can you imagine? That was the slogan. Slowly, but surely, sport took a back seat. The $6 billion to $8 billion Olympics became a story of politics and economics. Security and insecurity. Poverty and wealth.

Sidney Crosbyʼs golden goal kept Gordon Campbell and John Furlong away from a Royal Commission. Auditors General in Ottawa and Victoria dropped their pencils and went onto other things.

I wrote an e-book about it all -- called Red Mittens & Red Ink: The Vancouver Olympics. The Vancouver 2010 Olympics were just a colder version of the Montreal 1976 Olympics. We also had Olympic Village and Olympic Stadium scandals.

VANOC convinced Vancouverʼs city manager, Penny Ballem, to hide the financial statements and board minutes from the public in the city archives until 2025.

There were victories along the way. In 2008, Sean Holman got his hands on documents from Washington State that showed how BC Liberal backroom boys Mark Jiles and Patrick Kinsella were hired by the State of Washington to lobby the B.C. government for Olympic-related contracts. Their resume revealed new information about their clients and it boasted that they were: “in the heart of downtown Vancouver, while at the same time... a presence in the provincial capital of Victoria and a foot into the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee.” They offered to set-up meetings with John Furlong, Jack Poole and cabinet ministers.

David Eby and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association gained documents that showed how the RCMP would turn downtown Vancouver into an armed fortress with street closures galore.

After the Games, CBCʼs Fifth Estate got the famous March 2009 email sent by John Furlong to senior VANOC executives. The International Luge Federation was worried that the Whistler Sliding Centre was too fast and someone could get hurt. “An athlete gets badly injured or worse and I think the case could be made we were warned and did nothing,” Furlong wrote. They were warned. An athlete died. The question remains: did they do anything? 

I had a few scores along the way. 

Remember how they called them the Green Games? David Suzuki -- “Professor Nature of Things” -- gave VANOC a bronze medal rating before the Games even began. The only thing at the Olympics truly green were the Olympic rings at the venues.

VANOC hired an American company called Gameday for more than $50 million to hire 1,000 diesel buses from as far away as Florida. An FOI to city hall showed that only 300 of the buses had permits by the first weekend of the Games.

Afterward, I did an FOI to the B.C. Passenger Transportation Branch for temporary licence records for all the companies and their buses. Using Google maps, I estimated they were driven 5.1 million kilometres to and from Vancouver. Thatʼs 127 times around the equator. In the end, the bus contract cost VANOC an extra $40 million. 

Then there was hickory, dickory, VANOC. Mice hitched a ride on straw imported from Oregon to Cypress Mountain. Biologists were hired to trap the mice and to get rid of invasive plants like Japanese knotweed and scentless chamomile. Itʼll cost $160,000 through 2015. 

The symbol of the Games, the Olympic cauldron at Jack Poole Plaza, was a gas guzzler. The VANOC communications machine didnʼt want to tell us how much natural gas it burned while trying to sell the notion that the Games were green. They turned it on again for Canada Day 2010 for 13 hours and, via FOI, I found it used 7.6 Gigajoules per hour. I did the math. Over 25 days of the Olympics and Paralympics, it burned more than 4,500 Gigajoules -- enough to power 56 houses for a year. 

Had the Olympic flame gone out of control at the opening ceremony, it could have been the biggest disaster in Olympic history. I found out through FOI that neither VANOC nor B.C. Place Stadium had conducted a fire drill for more than two years in the stadium. They tested the fire bells, but they did not do a mock evacuation. WorkSafeBC says you need to do it annually. The cauldron arm stuck below the stage on opening night. Can you imagine if it had been spewing flames?

B.C. Place Stadiumʼs slogan used to be Big Dreams Live Here. I became the biggest nightmare for management and B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the Crown corporation that runs it. I have reported stories that run the gamut, from the damage caused by grease leaking on the new roof to the increased costs of electricity since it reopened. I act without malice; I only want to help the people who fund the Crown corporation to know more about it, because PavCo seems unable or unwilling to do so on its own.  

It all began on January 5, 2007. A cold, stormy day. The first Friday of the new year. The world junior hockey championship was on TV. A friend called me. “The roof of B.C. Place Stadium has collapsed!”

I was working for 24 Hours Vancouver at the time. I had a source who gave me the phone number for the control room. Lo and behold, the PR agent was already there and she told me to come down for a news conference. PavCo had its spin, a euphemism called “controlled deflation.” The cousin of “wardrobe malfunction” and “incident of concern,” perhaps? Wind and the 24-year-old roof fabric were the villains. But were they really? It turned out they ignored five alarms, warning that snow was on the roof. All they had to do was heat the roof and it would melt. Out of desperation, the air pressure was spiked, causing an avalanche that cut a hole in the roof. Voila! B.C. Place was supposed to get only $3.8 million for Olympic fix-ups. Now the price was going through the roof.

In May 2006, Liberal minister Olga Ilich said the roof was in fine condition -- it could last 15 to 20 more years. But a month later, as we found out from a Vancouver Sun FOI, the tourism ministry was being asked for renovations because of “worn-out assets” mentioned in a 15-page report -- of which 14 pages were censored.

By the end of 2007, Gordon Campbell and Jack Pooleʼs buddy David Podmore was running PavCo again and he wanted to renovate. Podmore started small. Construction documents I got in 2010 showed it was going to cost $75 million, with a replaced roof. Then it crept up to $100 million. Ideas were flying fast and furiously. Letʼs replace it before the Olympics and make it retractable, like a stadium in Frankfurt, Germany, for $253 million!

It would have been done in time for the Olympics, but experts estimated it would be finished two weeks before opening ceremony. So it was delayed. The budget was going to be $365 million in January 2009. By October 2009, it was $563 million.

The government kept the renovation business plan secret, by calling it a cabinet document. Never approved by the Legislature or the voters. If a big earthquake hits tomorrow, St. Paulʼs Hospital could be a pile of bricks. But B.C. Place will be standing.

Itʼs too bad the stadium didnʼt have better walkie-talkies or first aid coverage after the B.C. Lions won the Western Final in 2006. Janitor Pritam Kaur Sandhu was cleaning menʼs washrooms at section 229. Sandhu was in her 60s and complained of a severe headache. She collapsed and was taken away by ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital, where she died. WorkSafeBC says serious injuries or deaths must be reported immediately. It wasnʼt. A worker finally blew the whistle 11 months later. Sandhuʼs employer was found in violation, but B.C. Place was not cited. By FOI, I found stadium security head Eric Borglund wrote a report a week after the death, but it was kept away from WorkSafeBC. The stadiumʼs Health and Safety Committee also kept quiet.

The same management team in charge when Sandhu died and when the roof ripped and collapsed still runs the stadium. Donʼt ask me how. But you can ask me how the government justified the renovation, which kept Liberal friendly construction companies busy when work was done on the main Olympics venues.

The B.C. Lions only 10 games a year at home. PavCo needed the Whitecaps, to justify the expenditure, with an additional 20 event dates. Whitecaps managing owner is Greg Kerfoot, a reclusive technology tycoon who saved the team in 2002 when it was about to fold. He has never done an interview.

This is a man who built a $14 million lakeside mansion in Whistler, including an NHL sized hockey rink with seats for 100. His son, Alexander, was drafted by the New Jersey Devils last year. In 2005, 

Kerfoot wanted to build a stadium over train tracks next to Gastown. City hall was lukewarm. Tower developers want that land. Gordon Campbell came to the rescue. He OKʼd the B.C. Place renovation and promised $17.5 million for the Whitecaps to build a training centre in Delta. That was announced during the 2009 election, but parachute candidate Wally Oppal lost to independent Vicki Huntingdon. Delta council eventually killed the proposal. 

Kerfootʼs friend Christy Clark came to power in 2011. His Bell sponsored Whitecaps moved into B.C. Place, which was supposed to be renamed for Telus.

Telus had already scored a $1 billion, 10-year telecommunications deal. Bell, Rogers and Shaw were furious, according to the FOIs. Later that year, PavCo released the Whitecaps and Lions contracts to me. But the dollar figures were censored. What are the teams paying to play in the False Creek palace? I'm led to believe it's a royalty on ticket sales, but is it fair market value? Iʼm trying to find out.

B.C. Place is a public monopoly -- there is no other stadium up to Major League Soccer or Canadian Football League standards in B.C. And they are the only franchises in B.C. Last September 6, the government gave the Whitecaps $14.5 million for a training centre at UBC -- plus another $3 million when they need it. It was the day after Rich Coleman became Deputy Premier. The Minister of Liquor, Gambling, BC Hydro, Natural Gas and was now B.C. Pavilion Corporationʼs minister. UBC is in the premierʼs riding. Itʼs called the National Soccer Development Centre, but no federal dollars.

So I started the FOI trail. What are the Lions and Whitecaps paying for at B.C. Place? Five months and a couple of PavCo third-party consultation delays later, PavCo gave me lists of transactions. But all the dollar figures were gone. So I made a supplemental FOI request.

Who was this third-party? Did the Whitecaps object? Did the Lions object? Did PavCo consult a lawyer? Did the PavCo board -- which meets in secret -- say no? Did a deputy minister or a certain minister get involved? The day after Valentineʼs Day, PavCo told me it was making a section 43 application to shut down my FOI requests.

They claimed I was being frivolous and vexatious. I wrote a letter immediately to PavCo, asking for it to reconsider and rescind. PavCo has still not replied. I asked PavCoʼs chairman Peter Fassbender and one of its directors, Suzanne Anton to help. Fassbender is the mayor of Langley city. Anton was a city councillor who wanted to be mayor of Vancouver. She often complained about city hall secrecy.

I even made a goodwill move to close two files -- I wanted to see every invoice connected to the line items in the list, but I appealed to OIPC instead. I wrote an urgent letter to Commissioner Elizabeth Denham.

It created a buzz in the mainstream media and on social media. The NDPʼs Spencer Chandra Herbert and Doug Routley challenged Rich Coleman in Question Period on Feb. 19. Coleman carefully did not speak my name. His staff gave him talking points, including statistics: I made 66 FOI requests since April 2012 -- 86% of the total received by PavCo.

Theyʼre mostly for board minutes, management minutes, worker safety committee minutes and lists of contracts. I also want to know whoʼs burning the Olympic cauldron and whether the new half-billion-dollar roof is working and whether itʼs paying off.

The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation publicly supported me.

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner scheduled an inquiry. The onus was on PavCo to prove I was what they said. Their deadline was March 19. Mine was March 26. The inquiry was to close April 8.

But PavCo had to make it interesting. At 5:38 P.M. on March 15 -- a Friday night, the Ides of March, two working days before its submission deadline -- it asked for an extension by 10 working days to April 4. It wanted to "ensure that proper review of the submission can be undertaken by the Head." The head of the Crown corporation, head of the board or head of ministry? I opposed, but OIPC granted the extension. April 4 it was. My reply was due April 11 -- today! Maybe, just maybe I might get something before the election.

Lo and behold -- on April 4 at 3:15 p.m. -- I got an email from PavCo. It withdrew the application, but tried to make it look like it was the victim of a technicality. PavCo wanted another extension to consult a  lawyer. OIPC refused. PavCo can dish it out. But it canʼt take it. On April 5, my FOI requests were reactivated. The original due date was March 22. The new due date is May 23 -- 9 days after the election. 

So I won the battle with PavCo. But we all lost a war. 

This week Julian Assangeʼs WikiLeaks began to leak again. But another set-back for us in British Columbia. We find out that Shom Sen, an assistant deputy minister of international trade and investment, ordered staff to delete emails and shred hard copies. Just call it transitory and keep it secret. Shades of Order of B.C. recipient Ken “I delete email all the time, as fast as I can” Dobell. But at least we know. Now we can do something about it. 

So much happened since February 27 -- when Pink Shirt Day became red-face day for the BC Liberals.

The NDP exposed the Multicultural Outreach Strategy election playbook, devised on government time for the Liberal party. Is this why Family Day happened on Chinese new year weekend? Is this why we got the Times of India Film Awards? Commissioner Denham found the Liberals were running an “oral government” and urged a “duty to document” law be enacted.

The in-house report on the Quick Wins scandal confirmed Liberals were using GMail to keep information away from us. And Commissioner Denham ruled that private email containing government communications is FOI-able.

The ruling party secretly thought it could have a quick win. A slow victory is better in the end. And we must keep fighting for it. 

Join me in challenging Jane Sterk, John Cummins, Adrian Dix and Christy Clark and all their candidates, to commit to changing the laws, to put the power in the peoplesʼ hands. Join me in demanding amendments. 

We need a new Act, designed to remind the politicians why we have it and whoʼs the boss.

In the State of Washington their FOI law is based on three principles: 1) the people do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them; 2) the people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know; 3) the people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created.

Americans have a “We the People,” bottom-up tradition, and in Canada, weʼre top-down, loyal to Her Majesty. But that doesnʼt mean public servants have the right to decide what you and I can know and when we can know.

So, go home, have a good night, wake up tomorrow and join me: make an FOI request. 

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! (& Monday update)

Three items, for your reading pleasure on Daytona 500 Sunday. 

First, the battle for control of Vancouver’s community centres continues. 

City manager Penny Ballem quashed Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr’s motion on notice for the Feb. 12 city council meeting. Carr wanted city hall to slow-down and think twice about seizing control from the 23 community associations and centralizing power with the Board of Parks and Recreation.  

Carr called the actions of the unelected Ballem undemocratic and “bullying.” Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs claimed Carr violated the code of conduct section that prohibits councillors from making public statements attacking staff or invoking staff matters for political purposes. The complaint was withdrawn after a meeting with Mayor Gregor Robertson. 

NPA Parks Board commissioner Melissa de Genova is asking Parks Board to conduct public meetings on the proposal. Her motion is on the agenda for the Feb. 25 meeting. 

At the Feb. 25 meeting, the new president of the Kensington Community Centre Association is registered to speak. But will he be allowed?  

Milan Kljajic, a parks board outside worker, member of CUPE Local 1004 and a disaffected Vancouver-Kingsway B.C. Conservative who endorsed NDP's Adrian Dix, replaced the resigned Stephen Elliott-Buckley. 

Kljajic claims he was called Feb. 22 by Parks Board Human Resources Consultant Vicki Gannon and advised not to speak at the meeting because he would violate the code of conduct. 

Kljajic refused to do an interview, but told me via email: 

“I feel that my rights have been violated and my employee future at COV has been threatened. I am a volunteer community leader that was elected President of Kensington to serve the best interest of the grassroots of my community. I am planning on finishing my term and reaching a fair joint operating agreement that I can bring to the membership.”

Section 5 allows staff members to be politically active, to support parties and candidates and even seek public office. 

“An employee may engage in any Political Activity so long as it does not impair, or is not perceived as impairing, the employee’s ability to perform his or her duties in a politically impartial manner. This precludes employees from displaying slogans or symbols supporting a particular party or candidate while at work where their duties may reasonably require them to interact in person with the public or where their duties require them to supervise, schedule or assign work to others.”

The Parks Board also falls under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which includes Section 2(b) that upholds freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression. 

Why -- if centralizing community centre operations is really a wise move, for the sake of efficiency -- doesn’t the ruling Vision Vancouver just submit to public hearings in the affected communities? These are, after all, public assets. As for that Feb. 4 "emergency" meeting that ended in a 5-2 vote for the centralization of power, that was really a box-ticking exercise. The board approved a vague "city-wide consultation," but that is not to be confused with public hearings. Informal public information meetings, where minutes are not kept, are the favoured tool for governments that want to impose a program or policy.    

UPDATE (Feb. 25): Kljajic did not speak to Parks Board, but Kensington's past-president Mary Sutherland delivered his remarks:

Good evening. I’m here tonight to speak on behalf of our current President Milan Kljajic. Milan sends his regrets as he is dealing with some issues with the City of Vancouver.  His statement is as follows: 

Our Association fully supports this motion. It is time for the Commissioners to take control of this situation and listen to the public. 

Commissioners, we are extremely disappointed by the continued lack of leadership you have demonstrated and the apparent lack of respect for public opinion. Until recently, our association had agreed to continue participating in ongoing JOA negotiations with the Park Board. As a centre that serves many people with lower incomes, we have always fully support programs that will allow greater access to community centres. 

Unfortunately, through your recent actions, it became clear that the Park Board is intent on implementing its plans and that negotiations will neither be transparent nor appropriate to the magnitude of the issue. It is for that reason that our board of directors met last week and decided that we could no longer participate in what we feel is a disrespectful process that doesn’t address the real issues. 

Despite modest revenues and years of financial and administrative neglect by the Park Board, our association has been able to retain a modest amount of revenue. We’ve been flexible with our money over the years, funding popular community programs and services and even investing $600,000 towards the capital cost of constructing the most recent addition to the Kensington Community Centre, which now houses a seniors’ lounge, dance studio and administrative space. That investment was nowhere to be seen on the report from staff that you accepted in the wee hours on February 5. As a ‘have not’ – or more appropriately Park Board neglected – centre, we did not ask for such radical changes to the financial arrangement between the CCAs and Park Board. 

We do not feel that the funding scheme that you support will benefit anything more than Park Board’s general revenues, which is a matter that commissioners should be taking up with the City Manager, Mayor and City Councilors. What is more distressing is that there has been no commitment by the Park Board to truly solicit public input on the matter. Your current approach is to make the decision and then attempt to bring the public onside when they do not have any say in the matter. 

As a result, you do not have the support of the people who voted for you. Public opposition to your current plan outweighs support 2:1. What is even more telling is that residents of the west and east sides of Vancouver have the same opinion. The public does not support your attempt to make radical, ill-informed changes without any public consultation. This is a matter of public policy and is your responsibility. It should not be delegated to staff. 

Commissioners, I strongly encourage you to step up and demonstrate leadership and support this motion. Introduce true public consultation into the process and re-instill faith in those people who you will be calling on to vote for you in the coming months. Thank you.

Meanwhile, from B.C.'s "second city," item number two. An update about Surrey Shirts' and its Chief Shirt Disturber, Don Pitcairn.

Business in Vancouver was first to tell you that the City of Surrey was threatening Pitcairn with a trademark violation lawsuit. City hall sent a cease and desist letter over the shirts that parody Surrey’s logo and slogan. Pitcairn was using his freedom of speech to comment on Surrey’s gangs and guns problem. In 2012, the federal Conservatives amended the Canada Copyright Act to protect parody in the Fair Dealing section. 

Pitcairn said he met Feb. 19 with city manager Murray Dinwoodie and city lawyer Craig MacFarlane for a "cordial" meeting.

“I informed them that Surrey Shirts had made changes to five of our shirt designs to further distance them from City of Surrey trademark logos, including removing the City Signature design completely from our anti-gun violence 'Better Safe Than Surrey' shirt that was never printed or released in its original form,” Pitcairn said.

Pitcairn, who flogs the shirts online, said Phat Fixx in Surrey Central City Mall pulled stock from the racks after only 10 days. Phat Fixx outfits the mixed martial arts and hip-hip crowds.

"We are hoping to locate a store where the landlord or management supports clothing tailored to the proud residents of Surrey and who will not be intimidated by those who appear to be more worried about Surrey's image on a simple T-shirt that doing something about the real problems that are giving the City of Surrey a bad reputation across Canada," Pitcairn said via email. 

Within the announcement on the Surrey Shirts website, Pitcairn gives a nod to the Feb. 27 Pink Shirt Day anti-bullying campaign. As for the lightning-bolt letter S font in the Surrey Shirts logo, Pitcairn denies he's a sympathizer of the Nazis' evil SchutzStaffel. 

“It’s a rock and roll kinda website. I do like KISS and most people that see it, get it right away,” Pitcairn said after the original story broke. “We won’t be selling Nazi paraphernalia on the Surrey Shirts website.”

Someone who knows Surrey very well, but lives many postal codes and tax brackets to the west, is the subject of item number three: Patrick Kinsella. 

Progressive Group lobbyist Kinsella is the province’s best-known political power broker. Nobody else comes close. His influence was felt in the headquarters of BC Rail, BC Hydro and VANOC. He was a key architect of Gordon Campbell’s hat-trick election victories and Christy Clark’s leadership win. (Kinsella's "midas touch" didn't work for Rita Johnston, Kim Campbell or Belinda Stronach.)

He was among Clark's guests in the deluxe B.C. Place Suite when B.C. Place Stadium reopened on Sept. 30, 2011 and he was registered as a lobbyist for Exel, the company that wanted to privatize liquor distribution. 

Since July 2011, he has sought to sell his Shaughnessy mansion. 

First listed for $7.28 million via Rennie Realty, the price for Kinsella's mansion at 3839 Selkirk in Vancouver was slashed to $6.75 million. 

Last fall, Kinsella switched to Macdonald Realty and the property was listed at $6.198 million. Still no takers. It was pulled from the market. 

Kinsella's real estate agent Monique Badun is trying again, with a lower asking price: $5.998 million.

Kinsella turns 72 on May 26. He has consistently declined my requests for interviews about his house, horse racing, his lobbying business and provincial politics.

Thoughts on Penny

Who really is running Vancouver city hall?

The twice-elected Mayor is Gregor Robertson, the tuba-playing, bike-riding, organic-farming former NDP MLA who finally sold his holdings in Happy Planet Juice Co. in late 2012. Skeptics wonder if one of his lieutenants, Coun. Geoff Meggs, is really shifting the gears on the 10-speed behind the scenes. 

Penny Ballem: unelected and uncompromising?

City manager Penny Ballem is the top-paid civic employee, at $334,002 for 2011. She was hired, without competition, to replace the fired Judy Rogers in December 2008. Rogers got a $572,000 golden parachute, because the Vision Vancouver administration felt she was an NPA-loyalist. 

It wasn’t the first time Ballem got a no-bid gig. She did 78 hours work for $30,000 from eHealth Ontario. 

Ballem’s claim to fame was as deputy minister of health for five years under then-Premier Gordon Campbell. Health is the biggest and most complex ministry in government. She quit in 2006, calling Campbell’s plans for the ministry “unsound.”

Not only did Ballem replace Rogers in the city manager’s office, but she also took her seat on the  board of directors for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee, better known as VANOC.

Ballem was involved in city hall's $2.3 million purchase of used furniture and computers from VANOC. VANOC also got free rent in the city-owned 3585 Graveley Street “Campus 2010” after the Games. Ballem also signed-off on the transfer of VANOC files to the City Archives, mandating they be kept secret from the public until 15 years after the Games! The International Olympic Committee required the City Archives take it over, as per the host city agreement. But I couldn’t find anything from the IOC requiring the documents be kept secret until 2025. But that’s what Ballem agreed to do. So none of us who paid for the Olympics can see the financial and legal records or board correspondence, reports, agendas and minutes until after the Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 and 2022 Winter Games have come and gone. 

In February 2011, Ballem excused Olympic Village developer Millennium from its mortgage, which once was worth $1 billion. She later admitted city taxpayers would lose $48 million on the Village, but downplayed the claims of those who said the loss was in the range of $200 million. 

Ballem has a reputation as an uncompromising micromanager and her influence has reached into every department at city hall. Those who have disagreed with her have retired, resigned or been fired. Ballem gagged city hall bureaucrats from talking to the media; they once were accessible and pleased to talk to reporters about the important work they do for citizens. Under her watch, it has become harder to receive records under Freedom of Information. 

Now comes the struggle over control of the city's community centres. Ballem is leading the charge to centralize control with the Park Board. The volunteer Vancouver Community Centre Associations are fighting back. Non-Partisan Association and Green Party politicians are opposed to the plan by the majority Vision Vancouver. 

Green Coun. Adriane Carr wanted to ask fellow councillors at the Feb. 12 city council meeting to order a staff report on the costs of centralizing the 23 community centres. As the Vancouver Courier’s Sandra Thomas reported, Ballem thwarted Carr’s motion. Now Carr has hired a lawyer.  

How can a public employee, no matter how senior, tell an elected official what can and cannot be debated in a democratic setting?

A source provided me a copy of the Feb. 5, 2013, 7:14 p.m. email by Ballem to Carr (copied to city clerk Janice MacKenzie and city lawyer Francie Connell), which said: 

"I apologize that I haven't had a chance to talk to you today about your motion - I just signed off the Council Agenda at about 6pm. Your motion presents a significant issue and given our last conversation about a motion which was a problem I thought I would send you a note. First, the GM of Park Board reports to the Park Board - if you wish to have a report to Council it should be directed to me to bring back.   

"The more important issue is that the Park Board instructed their GM to continue negotiations on a new contract with the CCAs. It would put both the Park Board and the City at risk if there was an airing of these issues in regard to impact  publicly. To reassure you there is work underway to ensure that the PB staff appropriately manage any risk in these negotiations. However for this reason the motion is out of order and I will not be allowing it to go out with the agenda. I have reviewed this with the City Solicitor and the Clerk. Please give me a call any time tonight if you get a break or first thing in the am. I am happy to discuss. Thanks so much pb"