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."

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

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

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.