Elimination is inevitable, commiserate responsibly

Vancouver Canucks: three-time Campbell Bowl winners. Two-time President’s Trophy winners.

Stanley Cups? Zero.

There is no doubt in my mind that fact will not change in 2012. The team is 0-3 and one loss away from the golf course. Regardless, if they steal a win at Staples Center, elimination remains inevitable. Stanley Park's Lord Stanley statue will not be getting a visit from a Cup-holding Canuck in 2012.

Just as it is hard to defend a Stanley Cup championship, it is equally difficult for a runner-up to return immediately for another challenge.

Losing in Game 7 on home ice, as the Canucks did in 2011, meant the players had the longest and shortest summers of their careers. It was a long summer of wondering why, how come and what could have been for the Canucks while members of the Boston Bruins enjoyed sharing the Cup with friends, families and communities.

Short, because (with the exception of the Bruins) the time to relax and recover before beginning the cycle anew at training camp was extremely limited. It was only 91 days since Game 7 and the players reporting for pre-training camp medical exams.

By virtue of geography and their playoff schedule, the Canucks are the most-played and most-traveled team in the NHL since September 2010. General manager Mike Gillis hired sleep consultants and other experts to mitigate the wear-and-tear, but that has only gone so far. The team exhibited weariness and unfocussed play since the so-called “Game 8” win over the Bruins in Boston. The team was 4-3 in tiebreakers before the Boston game, then went 11-6.

In March 2011, the Canucks went 13-2 (including 2 shutout wins and 1 overtime win) and outscored opponents 43-27. In March 2012, they went 9-6 (including 2-1 in overtime) and were 35-35 in the goals for/against columns. In 2011, the Canucks were hot, they were feared and they were dominant in regulation time down the stretch. In 2012, they were not. The final three regular season games in April were a preview of the 0-3 depression in the Kings’ series. The only regulation win, in which they clinched the President’s Trophy, was a game they struggled to win 3-0 over the lowly Edmonton Oilers.

Only twice since the NHL began expansion in 1968 has a runner-up rebounded. The Canucks will not be the third.

Why?

This is not a team like the 1984 Edmonton Oilers, who were led by young Wayne Gretzky, Jarri Kurri and Mark Messier. They lost in 1983 but stormed back the following year when Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier and Clark Gillies of the New York Islanders passed the torch.

This is not a team like the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins, who lost in 2008, had a mediocre start to the next season and fired coach Michel Therrien with a 27-25-5 record. They replaced him with Dan Bylsma, who guided the team to a hot 18-3-4 record down the stretch. Centres Evgeni Malkin (113 points) and Sidney Crosby (103) continued their dominance in the playoffs with 30-plus-points each. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was solid, from wire-to-wire.

To get to the Stanley Cup, a team needs to be a healthy team, working as one. It requires the right decisions by management and coaches. It also requires luck. The 2011 Canucks had all that, including the first round-winning overtime goal by Alexandre Burrows over Chicago and Kevin Bieksa’s bizarre Western conference-clinching ricochet goal against San Jose.)

In 2012, they were not dominant and decisive down the stretch. Gillis traded up-and-coming star Cody Hodgson for underperforming Zack Kassian. Daniel Sedin was injured with a concussion. Ryan Kesler and Mason Raymond are not the same players they were before 2011 playoff injuries. Gillis failed to find a grizzled vet to play a Mark Recchi-type role. Gillis couldn’t coax Mike Modano from retiring and Owen Nolan was a training camp cut.

The runner-up jinx remains. May the Canucks have better luck in 2013.

What wasn't included in the Furlong and Keefe report

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

Angus Reid: "Let's just enjoy it"

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."

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.)

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

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.

Were there really 928 cops at the Stanley Cup riot?

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

City hall dithered about Canada Post pickets

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

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

Riot report ghost writer reluctant to talk about BC Rail briber

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!

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?

Cup Crazy

Has the Stanley Cup been to Stanley Park?

Why, yes it has. And I was right there with it, at the foot of the statue of Lord Frederick Arthur Stanley of Preston: the former Conservative Member of the British Parliament, the Earl of Derby and Canada's Governor General from 1888-1893.

When Labatt was the official beer of the National Hockey League, it conducted its Cup Crazy promotional tour across Canada.

The tour came through North Vancouver in 1999 and made a stop at the North Vancouver city fire hall.

I was working for the North Shore News newspaper at the time and arranged for West Vancouver resident and Hockey Hall of Famer Clint Smith to show up for a photo with the grandest trophy in North American sport.

Smith was a member of the 1940 Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers.

Hold your booing, please.

Mr. Smith, who lived to be 95 before being called up to the Heavenly Hockey League in 2009, was a Saskatchewan native. Before becoming a Ranger in 1936, he spent three years as a Vancouver Lion in the North West Hockey League. In 1933-34 he scored 25 goals and assisted 14 in just 34 games.

By virtue of being a Hockey Hall of Famer and a member of a Cup-winning team, Mr. Smith, whose nickname was "Snuffy," got to hoist the Cup. Needless to say, it made his day.

It made my day when I continued on with the Labatt and Hockey Hall of Fame crew for lunch and a jaunt into Stanley Park where we posed with the Stanley Cup at the popular statue of the park's namesake.

Lord Stanley never witnessed a Stanley Cup game. But he did enjoy Vancouver's most famous park. It opened on Sept. 28, 1888, but Lord Stanley himself came for the official dedication on Oct. 29, 1889.

I predict the Stanley Cup will return to Stanley Park sometime during June 2011. And Vancouverites will be proud of calling the park -- and the trophy -- theirs.

Stanley Cup: the Battle of Whistler Blackcomb

A lot is being made of Cam Neely's return to Vancouver as president of the Boston Bruins, the last team standing in the way of the Vancouver Canucks' first Stanley Cup.

The right-winger was drafted ninth overall by the Canucks in 1983 but traded on his 29th birthday June 6, 1986 to the Bruins for Barry Pederson. When he retired in 1996, Neely had 395 goals and 299 assists in 726 regular season games and 57 goals and 32 assists in 93 playoff games. He was deservedly inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005. He also dabbled in the movies, as the notorious Sea Bass in Dumb and Dumber.

Neely was born in Comox, B.C. but raised in Maple Ridge, B.C. Though his executive post with the Bruins keeps him primarily in Boston, he retains Vancouver business ties as a member of the Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc. board of directors.

Who else might you know on the Whistler Blackcomb board? John Furlong, who was the CEO of the Vancouver Olympics.

Furlong showed his colours April 24 during game six of the Canucks' first round series against the Chicago Blackhawks. You might've caught a quick glimpse of VANOC boss Furlong on Hockey Night in Canada, wearing a number 10 Canucks' jersey and waving a Canadian flag after Alex Burrows' goal in game six at United Center in Chicago. Furlong, amid a sea of red-clad Blackhawks' fans, was treated to the trip by Canucks' owner and VANOC sponsor Francesco Aquilini. A source tells me Furlong was sprayed with a drink by an unruly Chicago fan.

Furlong was in friendlier territory five days later when he flogged his Patriot Hearts book in a lunchtime speech to the Canadian Community Newspapers Association Ink + Beyond conference at River Rock Show Theatre at the Richmond casino. The audience included his new female companion, Deborah Shaw.

When Whistler Blackcomb's board of directors meets after mid-June, either Neely or Furlong will be sporting a bigger smile.