The topic: City of Vancouver is looking for new location for Pacific Spirit Regional Park service yard.

What’s new:

Metro Vancouver has had a service yard for Pacific Spirit Regional Park on University Endowment Lands since 1990. The service yard consists of facilities and storage for equipment to service and maintain the regional park. The University Endowment Lands are owned and administered by the province of British Columbia, so the city has been leasing the land.

The current service yard is made up of repurposed trailers and outbuildings that are nearing the end of their life span and the city wants more permanent buildings. Metro Vancouver approached the province to seek a longer lease, however the province denied their request and advised Metro Vancouver that they would need to vacate the current site.

Why it’s important:

According to the Metro Parks Committee Report, of the 6 sites that were initially being considered only 4 remain: the Sedgewick Fill Site, 16th Ave Parking lot, 16th Ave Homestead North of Reservoir, and Chancellor Boulevard.

Building on these sites would mean taking land out of the Pacific Spirit Park which in turn could mean logging and clearing in Vancouver’s busiest regional park.

What the government says:

David Eby, is the NDP MLA representing Vancouver-Point Grey — the riding next to the University Endowment Lands. He’s been writing to both the Minister Steve Thomson of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations and the Minister Peter Fassbender of Community, Sport and Cultural Development since July 2016 to find out why the province will not extend Metro Vancouver’s lease.

In a response to Eby’s initial letter, received through Freedom of Information request, Minister Fassbender confirmed that the province will not be extending Metro Vancouver’s lease, he also pointed out that the city has had facilities in the regional park in the past – making it a viable option for future locations.

What others say:

While Eby is concerned that the locations being considered for a new service yard would take away public green space, he’s more concerned that the province won’t reveal the reason they won’t extend Metro Vancouver’s.

“More troubling to me is the province saying that there is some sort of alternative use for the site that’s under discussion internally that they refuse to disclose to the community,” said Eby.

In his letters with the province, Eby has been trying to get an answer from the province – a point that he wants addressed.

The province did not provide Eby with a direct response as to their intention for future of the current site, and according to Eby he’s filled freedom of information requests to find out that have come back heavily redacted.

“All they will say is that there is an alternative use for the site currently under discussion and that it’s not under discussion with the community,” said Eby. “It’s under discussion somewhere in the bowels of government.”

What’s next:

Eby plans to continue advocating for his constituents – especially with the upcoming election.

“We’re going into an election in May, so I’m certainly not hesitating to let everybody in the UEL know the high-handed manner with which the provincial government is treating their community assets — which is this park and this public asset — which is this works yard and their plans for it,” said Eby.

Metro Vancouver plans to review the remaining 4 sites. Once complete, they say they will engage the public, Musqueam First Nation, park partners and community groups.

The city plans on the implementing the new service yard next year.

The topic: Money going missing in the Prince George Government Agent’s Office

What’s new:
An undisclosed amount of money went missing from the Prince George Government Agent’s Office last year. After a thorough internal investigation, the fate of the money, which may have come from private citizens’ payments, is still unknown. Outside observers and government representatives say there was clearly a procedural breakdown.

Why it’s important:
Service B.C.’s Government Agent’s Office handles money coming in from the public. Any government service fees, such as B.C. Hydro bills or hunting licenses, can be processed through the office. This means that potentially large sums of money are coming and going from the Prince George location, the city being the largest urban centre in northern B.C.

An internal memo from the Ministry of Finance, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, released in February 2017, details the investigation into the missing money.

According to the memo, the money went missing between March 18 and March 23, 2016. The document is highly redacted, so the amount of money gone is unclear, but it was enough to prompt local policy changes as well as an investigation by the Ministry of Finance.

The investigation was co-run by the Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizen’s Services, under which the Government Agent’s Office operates, and Ministry of Finance, which investigates monetary issues.

According to the memo, the investigative team noted that initial response to the missing money was swift, they filed a report and contacted the local RCMP detachment immediately.

Investigators questioned ten people who were working in the department over the five-day period, the memo says. Over the course of the investigation no employees admitted to loosing or stealing the money, and none offered any insight into how it might have happened. The investigation therefore came up inconclusive.

What the government says:
The memo, as well as the Ministry of Finance website, note that there are strict guidelines set out for Government Agents handling money. The full extent of these guidelines, however, is not public.

Tasha Schollen, communications director for the B.C. Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizen’s Services, says that the investigation into the missing money concluded that staff had become lax in handling cash and revenue. They have since been reprimanded and reminded of proper procedure for dealing with money.

What others say:
Dan Simunic is a professor of accounting at University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. After analyzing the heavily redacted memo, Simunic says that the Government Agent’s Office was operating under a “non-system.”

“What’s really lacking,” says Simunic, “is internal control over how cash is handled.” He continues, “You should not have ten people with access to the cash. This is auditing 101.”

Simunic says that there are some fundamental auditing principles that should have been followed. Chief among them is limited access to the cash. He suggests that one have clear lines of responsibility and authority for the people who work there.

“Theres no excuse when you have an office of ten people that no one person is accountable,” says Simunic, “it’s egregious.”

Simunic says that with responsibility comes accountability for missing money.

What’s next:
According to Schollen, the Prince George government agent’s office has put into place new procedures, including ensuring that the deposits are secured at all times, and requiring employee signatures for access to the cash room and safe.

Schollen also said that there are more safeguards that have been put into place, but for security reasons, they will not release further details.

Supporting Documents:

1) This page of the memo shows that there was money missing, and that an investigation was launched. The FOI request was put in to the Ministry of Finance (not by me, I got this from the website). This information was helpful because it provides the story: the fact that there was money missing.

2) This page of the memo shows that there were ten people questioned in this investigation. Therefore the investigation did take some time and resources, so it was not a throw away amount of money. The expert, Dr. Simunic, highlighted that the number of people with access to the money was likely a factor in the inconclusive result.  The FOI request was put in to the Ministry of Finance (not by me, I got this from the website).

Access to information requests:

The topic: Need for legislation, national limit and roadside testing devices in face of national marijuana legalization

What’s new: Ministers from Newfoundland and Labrador addressed the need for improved road-side policing mechanisms in light of the pending national legalization of recreational marijuana, according to provincial briefing notes from the Department of Service Newfoundland.

Why it’s important: The provincial representatives agree that the legalization of marijuana will increase risk to public safety and road safety. This means an appropriate amount of time and new tools and regulations will be necessary to make changes and ensure the safety of its residents.

RCMP and Newfoundland Constabulary Officers currently only have Standard Field Sobriety Test and Drug Recognition Experts as their means of detecting and addressing inebriated driving, according to the document. Both of these methods were established in the 1970s and have since been only slightly changed.

Standard Field Sobriety Tests include exercises such as the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (where the subject visually follows the officer’s finger from left to right), the walk-and-turn test and the one-leg stand test, according to the RCMP website.

Drug Recognition Experts (DREs) are trained to detect inebriation in subjects through various tests in addition to the Standard Field Sobriety Test methods, according to the RCMP. These include the use of a breathalyzer (only appropriate for alcohol level detection), what the person looks like, what the person says and ultimately the opinion of the DRE. Some mildly invasive tests are recommended, such as a darkroom examination of pupil size, blood pressure, temperature and pulse reading, however these are now rarely used.

According to the Newfoundland Ministers, these testing methods are not sufficient for cannabis detection and there is a resulting need for the recognition and implementation of a legal limit as well as investment in research and development for a reliable tool for testing drug impairment by the side of the road.

In addition to new testing devices, there is a need for amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada, which currently has alcohol and cannabis under the same umbrella term “impaired driving”. Newfoundland recognizes the need for discrepancy between the two, as well as the cascading implications this will have for the police and public.

The document addresses the need for different policing tools and techniques for alcohol and cannabis impaired driving, while drawing parallels between the dangers of impaired driving.

It states that both alcohol and cannabis contribute to poorer lane tracking, greater variability in steering, an increased need for adjustments and slower reaction times. Divided attention and decision making abilities are also outlined as being negatively impacted by both substances.

In addition to increase police training, the provincial departments intend to adjust driver education programs and counselling programs to incorporate material that covers cannabis and its related risks and regulations.

What the government says: Paula Walsh, Newfoundland’s Assistant Deputy Minister for Public Safety and Enforcement declined to comment on new roadside education programs, but says she is not sure what kind of roadside testing device to expect. “In order to be able to determine a certain level of alcohol impairment, there’s a method of being able to use a breathalyzer to determine whether the individual is over the legal limit. It would be helpful to have a similar method for marijuana,” Walsh says.

The province has requested six to twelve months to make changes to provincial legislation to support anticipated amendments to the Criminal Code and to train more police officers to detect cannabis intoxication in drivers.

What others say: According to a study released by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Marijuana is primarily detected according to THC levels, which can be measured through blood, urine and oral fluid samples.

All three of these would be more invasive than any other road side sobriety test currently implemented in the country, however the oral fluid detection method would be the least invasive of the three and most similar to the existing breathalyzer which tests for blood-alcohol levels. The oral-fluid testing device involves the insertion of a device into the mouth which collects saliva. The saliva is then tested for THC presence and levels. Canadian police are currently testing these devices across the country.

What’s next: The Liberal Government recently announced that legislation will be released this month and national legalization of recreational marijuana will be in effect by July 2018. Newfoundland’s input was directed towards the federal Marijuana Task Force that has been in effect and collecting data since December of last year. The new marijuana legislation will stem primarily from the findings of this task force. Newfoundland ministers hope this will include guidelines for roadside safety regulations and accurate intoxication testing devices.

The topic: Veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces, or CAF, have difficulty accessing healthcare from Veterans Affairs Canada.

What’s new: In a document created by a third party consultation company, Hitachi Consulting Government Solutions, from March of 2015, entitled “Review Progress on Transitions from Military to Civilian Life: Transforming Veterans Affairs Canada” Hitachi Consulting reviewed the transition process from the CAF to VAC. This document was obtained by access to information laws.

The key finding of the report was that there is no one definition of “transition,” a testament to how complex the process of transferring healthcare from the CAF to VAC is. The report also found that that there has been little change in VAC with regards to veterans and their families, that veteran feedback was not observed and that there was no process to measure transition success. It also found that sharing Department of National Defence health records with VAC took too long. The system that the report describes is one that is ill designed, very slow and not effective.

What is really new about the findings in this report is that an independent third party has now confirmed findings from other government reports. There have been many reports calling for the transition process from military life to civilian life, and especially for the transfer of healthcare, to be reformed and streamlined. But many of these recommendations have not been enacted.
Why it’s important: The complexity of the transfer process can be overwhelming for veterans. The complicated process can result in delays and those delays result in ill and injured veterans not receiving the healthcare that they need. Provincial healthcare does not cover soldiers and veterans often rely on VAC for the specialized healthcare that they may require. The consequences of veterans not getting healthcare that they need can be dire. Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have committed suicide and murder-suicide because they didn’t have proper support.

What the government says: The current Liberal government and the previous Conservative government have been very quiet with regards to this issue. Despite numerous reports and campaign promises elected officials have done nothing. While on the campaign trail Justin Trudeau promised to reinstate lifelong pensions for injured and ill veterans. To date that promise has not been fulfilled.

When asked why nothing has changed, Gary Walbourne, Ombudsman for National Defence and the Canadian Forces, said that it was an issue of bureaucracy. “I’ve been dealing with the same people as when I started, ” he said at a town hall meeting for ill and injured veterans on March 22 in Ottawa. He went on to describe a system that was resistant to change despite the fact that many of the requested changes to support veterans would not require an Act of Parliament and that it would not require very much money.
What others say: Barry Westholm is a former Sergeant Major with the Joint Personnel Support Unit, the unit that the CAF has designated to help ill and injure veterans. In a written document, his response to the Hitachi Report, he wrote that “I can state from experience that the benefits afforded injured service-members and their families while still in the CAF can be difficult for a person to understand, and in fact can cause a great deal of frustration for a military family.”
What’s next: At the town hall meeting last week many veterans expressed their distrust and dislike of VAC and the transition process. There was a lot of discussion around how to organize in order to create a better venue for having their voices heard and how to have the transition process reformed. Many options were discussed. But what was agreed upon was that they wanted no more reports. They wanted action.

The topic: Managing and preventing concussions in British Columbia’s youth sports leagues.

Note: Please see the annotations made to the pages below on DocumentCloud

What’s new:

The Concussion Awareness Training Tool was introduced in late 2015 to help educate parents and young athletes about concussions, but doctors and officials suggest that gaps still exist in British Columbia’s approach to treating concussions.

Why it’s important:

The province’s ministry of health identified that between 2001 and 2010, 22.6 per cent of head injuries were suffered by kids ages one to 19. Moreover, 12.9 per cent of all head injury hospitalizations were concussions, according to briefing notes prepared for health minister Terry Lake.

The documents outline a recommended response by the minister in conjunction with the B.C. Injury Research and Prevention Unit (BCIRPU), who in fall 2015, introduced the final stage of the Concussion Awareness Training Tool (CATT).

The tool’s purpose is to serve as a resource that supports the “development of a free online concussion awareness training tool that provides toolkits to B.C. health professionals, educators, players, coaches and trainers,” the document said.

The Sept. 14, 2014, briefing notes were obtained under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Dr. Shelina Babul is the associate director of both the BCIRPU and the B.C. Children’s Hospital, specializing in concussion research as well as sports injury prevention and rehabilitation.

Babul helped develop the CATT and co-authored The Burden of Concussion Among Children & Youth in British Columbia—a report that according to the briefing notes, was co-funded by the province’s health ministry.

The tool has already been adopted by 15 sports associations and schools, and over 23,000 British Columbians have completed the online training, Babul said.

Babul said that reform was needed prior to the development of the website to address the lack of awareness among medical professionals, parents, coaches and young athletes about diagnosing concussions and preventing future head injuries.

“It was built on evidence based resources and developed through an environmental scan to see what existed at the time and what were gaps in those handful of resources,” Babul said in an email.

“We saw what the identified needs were and we developed a new resource.”

However, Babul said that a void still exists in the concussion education system. She isn’t alone.

Dr. Moira Stilwell is the former Minister of Social Development for B.C. The document details how Stilwell put forth a private legislation in 2012 known as the Return to Learn and Return to Play protocols that suggested guidelines for a student’s return to academics and athletics after a concussion.

The legislation was rejected, and according to Stilwell, has yet to be revisited by the provincial government.

What the government says:

Lake has said that that he wants to review how the programs like the CATT are progressing before pursuing legislature similar to Rowan’s Law—an Ontario bill that was passed in 2016 to manage and prevent concussions in youth sports.

The law prompted discussion surrounding whether other provinces should adopt a similar legislature.

Lori Cascaden, a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Health, said that “legislation of this nature is not currently being contemplated” and that the ministry “continues to review best practices regarding concussions” in an email statement.

What others say:

Dr. Ian Gillespie is a former president of the B.C. Medical Association. Gillespie said that the online tool is a strong step towards developing an educational protocol for medical professionals, sports leagues and athletes about concussion diagnosis and prevention.

But it’s just the start.

“Sometimes if a scan is done and nothing shows up they may be sent away,” Gillespie said.  “The assessment is still not standardized yet in emergency departments and there often isn’t attention to some of the cognitive consequences experienced by a person afterwards.”

What’s next:

The 2016 federal budget dedicated $1.4 billion towards the Pan-Canadian Concussion Strategy. B.C’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development are participating alongside the rest of Canada’s provinces and territories.

Cascaden referred to the strategy as a “national harmonized policy approach,” designed to research a method of implementing a Canada-wide plan for managing and preventing concussions.

Proof of Completed requests:

Federal previously released:

RCMP and Soccer Gambling Ring Investigation

Federal: 

Provincial (Newfoundland and Labrador):

Acknowledgment Letter EDU 015 2017 (provincial)

AtippRequest-2017-03-09 cap-and-trade

Municipal (City of St. John’s, Newfoundland:

MA 27 2017 – transfer to City of St. John’s (municipal request)

The Topic: Looting and the illegal sale of antiquities from Syria and Iraq to finance militant operations.

What’s New: The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) warned its officers that looted antiquities from Syria and Iraq are being trafficked worldwide. The officers were told that they have the authority to detain suspected cultural properties from Syria and Iraq.

Why It’s Important: According to an intelligence brief from the spring of 2015, militant organizations like the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL), the Free Syrian Army and al Qaeda are smuggling Syrian and Iraqi antiquities around the world—including to places in Europe and North America—and are selling them for profit.

The intelligence brief was obtained from the CBSA as a previously requested document under the federal Access to Information Act. It highlights the fact that profits from illegal antiquity sales could fund weapons and ammunitions for militant organizations.

While the smuggling and sale of antiquities has been happening for decades, the brief says that “the scale of the reported looting of antiquities from museums, libraries, archives and archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria has surpassed illicit operations in previous years.”

According to the document, smugglers often move the artifacts into Europe using routes from either Turkey, Lebanon, Israel or Gulf states. The artifacts typically have false accreditation papers stating they are from the Holy Land rather than Syria or Iraq.

When it comes to Canada, the brief sites the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, which prohibits illegally exported Syrian and Iraqi artifacts from entering the country.

The brief contains two links to lists of items at risk from Syria and Iraq. The lists come from the International Council of Museums (ICOM). They are detailed with photographs and descriptions of items that could be stolen and sold illegally, such as small sculptures, coins, jewellery and stone tablets with ancient writing on them.

What the government says: When asked if any artifacts have been seized recently in Canada, CBSA spokesperson, Nicholas Dorion, said in an e-mail response that the CBSA detains artifacts on behalf of Canadian Heritage. He said any information on artifacts that have been seized would be from them.

Canadian Heritage has yet to respond to questions about the matter.

“CBSA officers are skilled in examination techniques,” said Dorion. “And [they] use proven indicators such as advanced information, innovative technology, and training to prevent, intercept and apprehend individuals who attempt to smuggle cultural properties into Canada,”

What Others Say: John Osborne, a professor of art history at Carleton University says that it is normal for the CBSA to be alerting its officers about these stolen antiquities. Osborne has been asked by the CBSA to authenticate seized antiquities before.

“Anytime there’s a breakdown of civil order, you see an increase in looting activity,” says Osborne.

He says that individuals that are buying these antiquities are typically private collectors since Museums are very strict about accepting gifts or buying pieces if their origins cannot be explicitly traced.

Dr. Clemens Reichel, a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and specialist in Near Eastern archaeology says that currently, it is hard to tell what is missing from Syria since there aren’t any individuals on the ground there who can keep track of things.

“It’s a dark cess pool,” says Reichel about Syria and the black market. “You don’t know what’s being bought all over the world.”

However, Reichel does not think Canada has a major market for smugglers since many of them are going to places like Europe, Jordan and Israel instead.

What’s next: Reichel says that there have been discussions at the ROM and at a national level in regards to what would happen to any artifacts that are seized here.

“Customs would hold on to the piece,” says Reichel. “But if it becomes a storage issue, like for items that need temperature control, the option would be for national museums to become temporary custodians of the piece.”

Reichel says that ideally, the items will be sent back to their country of origin once it is safe for them to return.

Supplementary Documents:

Click here for documentation of my completed Access to Information and Freedom of Information requests.

Click here for the documentation used in this story.