Abbotsford police are investigating an off-road crash that killed one man and injured two others early Saturday morning.

Emergency services were called to a wooded area near Straiton and Willet roads at about 3:45 a.m. where they found a pickup truck that had gone down an embankment.

One man was pronounced dead at the scene, while a man and a woman in their 20s were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, said an Abbotsford Police Department press release.

Police are looking for witnesses as major crime and collision reconstructionists investigate the crash.

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A union representing logging workers says mechanical failure, not human error, is being blamed for the forestry train derailment in Woss on Vancouver Island, that killed three people and injured two.

The train, carrying a large load of logs, somehow rolled away from the reload yard and collided into a rubber-tired backhoe and railway maintenance car where the five men were working, said Brian Butler, president of United Steelworkers Local 1-1937.

“Members who were working in the reload area indicated there was a mechanical failure, but I can’t expand on that as to what exactly happened,” Butler said.

Roland Gaudet, who has been with Western Forest Products for 27 years, was one of the five men working on the tracks and was pronounced dead at the scene. Gaudet, 59, was planning on retiring in the next year, said his brother, Mike Gaudet.

“It’s really hard,” said Mike Gaudet, who has worked on the rail line for 32 years. “We’re looking for answers.”

The son of Woss’s fire chief, Brad Galeazzi, also died at the scene.

Clement Reti was airlifted to Victoria General Hospital but succumbed to his injuries.

Two other men remain in hospital.

One man was trapped under the logs and it took about 60 loggers, firefighters, police and paramedics just under five hours to free him.

Island district RCMP senior investigating officer Insp. Dave Hall said it’s too early to determine what caused the train to derail.

“In the case of a workplace fatality, the police are looking for obvious criminality or negligence. It’s too soon to say what we think the cause is. We haven’t ruled anything out at this stage.”

Gaudet has two grandchildren whom he adored, four-year-old Jacob and three-year-old Sylvia. The youngest was named after Gaudet’s wife, who died in 2013.

Gaudet met his wife, Sylvia, in 1999 in Alert Bay, where the two lived.

“He was just the love of her life,” said Svea Svanvik, Sylvia’s sister.

The two were married on Aug. 1, 2003, in a joint ceremony with Svanvik and her husband Mel Rocchio, the fisherman who died when a boat capsized off Comox on March 6.

Gaudet didn’t have children, but treated Sylvia’s three children, Cara Isaac, Leon Isaac and Vanessa Kaspar, as his own.

“From the moment he met my mom, he treated us like we were his,” Kaspar said.

The couple loved to travel, visiting the Yukon and Alaska and making trips to Nova Scotia, where Gaudet’s two sisters and mother live.

Kaspar said counsellors have provided support to the family.

Counsellors from Upper Island Counselling Services Society were in Woss on Friday offering support to family and friends of the victims.

Woss has a population of less than 200 people.

“It’s a small community and there are many generations of forest workers in that community, so it’s tough to deal with,” Butler said.

The Steelworkers Union and Western Forest Products will be investigating the cause of the derailment, but as of Friday, RCMP and WorkSafe B.C. still had control of the scene.

Western Forest Products closed all timberlands operations Friday out of respect for employees and their families. The company said critical-incident stress counsellors are on site and available to anyone who needs help.

Butler cannot recall any fatal accidents involving the Englewood Railway, a 90-kilometre logging line that runs from Vernon Lake, through Woss, past Nimpkish Lake Provincial Park to Beaver Cove. The railway is believed to be the last operating logging railway in North America.

“I think they have a stellar safety record on the rail operation, no history of safety issues and certainly nothing of this magnitude,” Butler said.

Related

• Investigation begins as third person dies in derailment on Vancouver Island
• Two dead, three injured in lumber train derailment on Vancouver Island

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QUESNEL — One person is dead and “numerous” others injured following a crash involving Greyhound bus and three other vehicles in B.C.’s Cariboo region, police said.

The crash happened late Friday afternoon on Highway 97 south of Kersley — about 30 kilometres outside of Quesnel, RCMP said in a release.

Four vehicles travelling north were involved — the bus, a car, a pickup truck and a tractor pulling a piece of farm equipment.

There was no immediate information on which vehicles the people killed and injured were travelling in. BC Emergency Health Services said one person was airlifted from the scene while seven others were taken to hospital by ground ambulance.

Service spokeswoman Cara Christopherson said of the seven people driven to hospital, five are in stable condition and two are in critical condition.

Greyhound Canada spokeswoman Allison Morrison said the bus was travelling from Clinton to Prince George.

There were seven passengers and the driver on the bus, and all taken to a local hopsital with unknown injuries, she said.

“Safety is the cornerstone of our business,” Morrison said. “We are fully co-operating with the local authorities as well as conducting an investigation of our own.”

RCMP said the cause of the crash has not been determined, but it’s believed that alcohol was not a factor.

Police said a collision reconstructionist from Williams Lake had been called to assist with the investigation.

Highway 97 was closed in both directions for several hours near Kersely as police investigated.

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Rapper T-Pain — of I’m On A Boat fame — has collaborated with a unique Vancouver clothing startup to launch his own special-edition Thuggie.

“He’s like the funniest dude,” said Thuggies co-founder and business director Brad Westerop of working with the rapper. “Totally down-to-earth, funniest guy ever — and he just comes up with crazy ideas.”

T-Pain is in good company then, since ‘crazy idea’ is probably the best way to describe Thuggies, the clothing brand Westerop, 32, founded alongside two friends in 2009 with $6,000. The idea was to create an extra-long hooded sweater that could be worn after snowboarding while driving down from the mountain (“A burn-your-pants kind of thing,” as Westerop describes it), instead of having to sit in wet gear and snowboard pants.

Since then, the sweaters have been found on extreme-sport athletes and comfort enthusiasts alike. In 2010, the company even made a hugely successful pitch on business reality-show Dragon’s Den, with two of the dragons offering to double Thuggies’ initial ask of $20,000 for 20 per cent.

In the end, the team went with Arlene Dickinson’s offer of $40,000 — but after a series of calls and emails over the course of a year seemed to go nowhere, Westerop called the deal off. It was only then that Dickinson came calling personally.

By then, the firm had gone from making between $30,000-$40,000 a year in sales to a couple hundred thousand dollars and didn’t want to entertain any backers. The company hadn’t put any money into advertising either at that point, but thanks to their appearance on Dragon’s Den and by pure word of mouth, sales for the colour-blocked sweaters grew steadily in Western Canada and the U.S.

Last year, the company made $500,000 in sales, but Westerop hopes the “hobby business” can finally notch their first million in 2017.

Most recently, the firm caught the eye of rapper T-Pain, who saw the sweaters featured in a newsletter spotlight and gave the company a shoutout on his Instagram account.

T-Pain shared a screen grab of the concern’s tongue-in-cheek sizing chart  and joked that his “clothes would fit a lot better if all size charts were like this.” Instead of small, medium, large and extra large, the company uses young thug, mini-thug, full thug and super thug.

“We were stoked. We were like, ‘Holy crap. This is so weird.’ We definitely listened to him all through university,” said Westerop. The company then got in touch with T-Pain’s people and sent over several Thuggies, which the rapper has been spotted wearing on stage during performances and in photos while celebrating the Super Bowl.

The rapper loves the sweaters so much that when Thuggies asked if he’d be interested in collaborating on a special-edition Thuggie, Westerop said there was no hesitation. And so in mid-2016 the two parties went back-and-forth for a month via conference calls, discussing possible designs before eventually deciding on a Thuggie printed with the image of an Olde English 800 malt-liquor bottle. The special-edition T-Pain 40 oz. Thuggie was released mid-March.

Rapper T-Pain wears his special-edition T-Pain Thuggie, which features a full-colour print of an Olde English 800 bottle label.

“I don’t think I’ve found a more comfortable feeling other than being butt-naked,” said the rapper in an emailed statement. “But you know, I got kids in the house now and I’ve been thrown out of Target enough times to know that going full hippie is out of the question. Well, guess what? Thuggies to the rescue!”

It’s the first time the company has taken on a unique collaboration, but certainly not the last. Set to release later this month is their next collaboration: the Sea-to-Sky Thuggie, which features a full, edge-to-edge, digital illustration of West Coast and B.C.-inspired imagery designed by local artist Nadine Nevitt. A portion of the proceeds from each sale will go directly to Nevitt to support her artistic endeavours.

“It sticks out, no matter what,” said Westerop of the hoodies. “I think that really piques interest and that’s ultimately how we got T-Pain into it. He loves it.”

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SkyTrains on the Expo line were delayed Saturday afternoon because of a signal failure between Stadium and Broadway/Commercial stations.

Trains were being driven manually between Granville and Nanaimo at a reduced speed, causing delays of 15 to 20 minutes at some stations.

TransLink added additional security and Transit police at the stations to ensure passenger safety and crowd control.

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B.C. farmers are reporting winter losses, swamped fields and planting delays after the one-two combination of a rainy spring and a harsh winter.

Rain has delayed field work — “we’re literally spinning our wheels in the mud” — while the cold weather has hampered some crops, said Amir Maan, operations manager at Abbotsford’s Maan Farms.

The farmer predicted the first strawberries by the end of May or early June, with raspberries to follow, along with blueberries.

“We’re dealing with Mother Nature, so we have no choice but to take what comes,” he said, adding the cold spring has had some benefits, including more time to prepare for summer and promote the farm.

Mike Lepp, manager of Lepp Farms in Abbotsford, said the weather has been “tough” on many of his crops.

Overwinter crops, such as strawberries, suffered during the cold winter, and it “looks like it’s December or January” in some parts of the farm’s fields. A late season could mean reduced strawberry revenue when other fruit and berry crops begin to fill stores.

Last year, the farm’s first rows of sweet corn were in the ground in mid-March. This year, the farm planted some corn in early April, but it’s unclear if the crop will come up. They’ll continue to plant as the spring continues, but the season could be short.

After a slow start, Friday was a busy day at Bloom, the Abbotsford Tulip Festival (ATF), as many people took advantage of the one forecast day of sunshine in an otherwise rainy weekend to view the tulip fields.

The flowers opened about five weeks later than last year and about two weeks later than a normal year, said ATF owner Alexis Warmerdam.

“At this time last year, I was cutting off the early varieties because they were finished,” she said.

On Friday, about a million tulips were in bloom with about two million still to come. The festival hopes to remain open until Mother’s Day and possibly beyond, but it all depends on the weather, said Warmerdam, adding “it’s still too early to tell.”

Meanwhile, snow in the Peace region over the Easter weekend means farmers couldn’t harvest overwinter crops, which will delay seeding.

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When Amir Hosh brought his father Ayoub’s tradition of roasting nuts and drying fruit to Vancouver in 2009 with Ayoub’s Dried Fruits and Nuts, he says he wanted to “marry east and west,” bringing an artisanal Persian tradition and revamping it for the city that had embraced his family as new immigrants.

As a new Canadian, he says he wanted to bring a craft and an industry to Canada — and to “enrich the culture.”

To celebrate the Persian New Year on March 21, Hosh did something he’d never done before. He quietly hung a poem in the window of three of his locations. The father of a five-month-old baby girl, Hosh said his family is facing a new reality. His wife, a landed immigrant in Canada, can’t travel to the U.S.

He wanted to make a statement.

“Let’s not sugarcoat it,” said Hosh. “Down south, the anti-immigrant sentiment for Middle-Easterners is at a high. Many people in my family have been affected by (Donald) Trump’s travel ban.”

Although Hosh’s family came to Canada as immigrants, he said he is also deeply affected by the negativity directed toward refugees: “It hurts when you hear some of the stuff. It’s emotional.”

The poem is part lyric ode, part protest and part celebration of Canadian culture. It begins with an expression of remembrance, celebrating his homeland, “the long, hot days of my childhood/sitting among the figs.”

The poem is also an ode to Canada, where on his first days here he experienced “fire-jumping and ice hockey/in the same day,” diversity, safety and connection.

The poem is also a protest against the sharp shift to the right south of the border, “where warm welcomes/are now replaced with shakedowns, shadowy fears and the promise of a wall.”

Hosh, who recently travelled to the U.S., isn’t afraid of the risk going public with his sentiments might bring. 

He said he’s had an outpouring of support from customers and the community. “I wanted to express my gratitude to say we really love being here and I will do my personal best to build an honest business, pay taxes, create full-time jobs and enrich the culture.”

The shops, filled with the aroma of nuts roasted on-site, are a far cry from the bulk-bin section of your local health-food store, with chandeliers and silver trays, and elevated experience. Hosh said he wanted to make the dried-fruit-and-nut experience something like visiting a bakery or a bread shop, where buying fresh, warm bread becomes part of a cherished daily ritual. 

The stores have been a success — and Hosh now has five locations across the Lower Mainland — and he’s grateful for the community support. “We love this country as well as the one we came from,” said Hosh. “It’s like having two mothers, a birthmother and an adopted mother.”

Hosh says he had a little help writing the poem, but the feelings behind it are all his: “Let’s continue to remind ourselves to be grateful — here/happy for what we have … a culture of caring and sharing.”

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Surrey’s Vaisakhi Day Parade has exploded into a massive celebration of diversity and inclusion that flies in the face of recent global displays of intolerance.

Despite poor weather, more than 400,000 people joined the city’s 19th annual Sikh New Year festival and commemoration of the foundation of the Khalsa panth of warriors, its largest turnout ever. B.C. Liberal Leader Christy Clark and B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan attended, two days after trading barbs during the provincial election’s first debate.

Spokesman Moninder Singh said the procession moved slower than usual as revellers packed the streets outside Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar on 128th Street and 85th Avenue, where it began.

He said the inclusive nature of the event held special meaning this year, after a recent wave of populist, anti-immigration sentiment swept through the U.S. and Europe. The founders of the Khalsa fought against persecution and to defend religious freedoms.

“Their primary purpose became to uphold values of inclusion, equality and tolerance,” Singh said. “And they were ready to risk their lives for it at the time.”

Nearly half of Canada’s growing population of Sikhs live in B.C. — about 201,110 in 2011, up from 135,300 a decade earlier, according to census data.

But a recent Insights West poll commissioned by Vancity found that South Asian respondents — which would include Sikhs — experience high levels of discrimination in B.C., with only nine per cent saying they had never felt discriminated against at all.

Singh said one way Vaisakhi helps cut through such intolerance is the many tonnes of food brought to sidewalks by local businesses and families. Like a langar in a gurdwara — a common kitchen in the Sikh place of worship — free food is served to all visitors, regardless of their faith or background.

“The idea behind it is that if you sit and eat with someone, you’ll talk,” Singh said. “You’ll break barriers if you’re face-to-face and you’ll learn about one another.”

As well, the parade brings people of all faiths together, including Hindus, who also celebrate Vaisakhi, Muslims and a sizable contingent of Christians — who sometimes hand-out written materials.

“That’s totally fine,” said Singh, explaining that while Vaisakhi is based on Punjabis resisting conversion to Islam centuries ago, today no one is ever viewed as pushing their beliefs on others at the event. “They’re seen with a smile and people just move on or just listen to them.”

Singh said he believes most Canadians outright condemn discriminatory behaviour and want to feel connected to their neighbours by attending such events.

“I feel that we have a much better grounding in Canada where we can approach one another,” he said.

With attendance rising every year, organizers are now mulling the idea of running Vaisakhi celebrations over a week and throughout the Lower Mainland, so that participants can support low-income communities in need of food while demonstrating its inclusive nature.

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U.S. athlete Joseph Gray crossed the finish line in 29 minutes and 38 seconds to win the Vancouver Sun Run 2017 on Sunday.

Vancouver runner Geoff Martinson ranked second, completing the race in 29 minutes and 46 seconds.

Alberta’s Daniel Kipkoech ranked third, clocking in 29 minutes and 54 seconds.

Karolina Jarzynska-Nadolska of Poland finished the race in 32 minutes and 39 seconds to top the women’s elite category.

Jarzynska-Nadolska was followed by Moscow, Idaho’s Kinsey Gomez who crossed the finish line in 33 minutes and 20 seconds and Vancouver’s Rachel Cliff in 33 minutes and 35 seconds.

LEADERBOARD

Overall Rank | Runner | City | Category | Time

1 | Joseph Gray |Colorado Springs | M30-34 |00:29:38.0
2 | Geoff Martinson | Vancouver | M30-34 | 00:29:46.0
3 | Daniel Kipkoech | Lethbridge | M30-34 | 00:29:54.0
4 | Tristan Woodfine | Guelph | M19-24 | 00:29:59.0
5 | Kevin Coffey | Vancouver | M30-34 | 00:30:20.0
6 | Kip Kangogo | Lethbridge | M35-39 | 00:30:27.0
7 | Kevin Tree | Tottenham | M19-24 | 00:30:29.0
8 | Paul Kimugul | Surrey | M35-39 | 00:30:30.0
9 | Caleb De Jong | Langley | M19-24 | 00:30:38.0
10|Willy Kimosop | Lethbridge | M30-34 | 00:30:46.0

Click here for the results

Kids begin the Shaw Mini Sun Run before 40,000 competitors competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Joseph Gray of Colorado Springs finishes first in men’s. About 40,000 runners competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

People watch for friends and family to cross the finish line as about 40,000 runners competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

People walk past the Percy Williams statue towards the 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

People make their way from the Sun Run as about 40,000 runners competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Kids compete in the Shaw Mini Sun Run before 40,000 competitors competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Lindsay Carson is helped up after crossing the finish line as about 40,000 runners competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Speed walker Benjamin Thorne crosses the finish line about 40,000 runners competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Karolina Jarzynska-Nadolska finished first in women’s as about 40,000 runners competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Jessica Frotten is first woman wheelchair athlete to cross finish line as about 40,000 runners competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Tristan Smyth finishes first in men’s wheel chair race as about 40,000 athletes competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Shauna Gersbach (left) and Katherine Moore hug as about 40,000 runners competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Parents and kids compete in the Shaw Mini Sun Run before 40,000 competitors competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Parents and kids compete in the Shaw Mini Sun Run before 40,000 competitors competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Parents and kids compete in the Shaw Mini Sun Run before 40,000 competitors competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Parents and kids compete in the Shaw Mini Sun Run before 40,000 competitors competed in 2017 Vancouver Sun Run in Vancouver, B.C., April 23, 2017.

Vancouver Sun Run participants at the beginning of the race on Sunday.

The Chen family: Ke, Jing, Summer, 2, and Hudson, 9 months. … Could Hudson be our youngest Sun Runner? #VanSunRun

Sun Runners are starting to gather at the Vancouver Sun Run starting line. Some 41,000+ are running this year.

Route: 
The 10K course starts at Georgia and Burrard streets and will be lined with water stations and live musical performers. For the safety of the 40,000+ participants, various road closures will be in effect between
5:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. These closures may restrict parking and access to and from your building. 

Road Closures:

DOWNTOWN CORE

Seymour to Bute (5:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.)
Bute to the Stanley Park Causeway (8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)
Lions Gate Bridge – access from Pender only (8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)
Howe to Burrard–  from Dunsmuir to Robson (5:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)
Denman – Georgia to Robson (8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)
Robson – west of Denman to Stanley Park (8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)

STANLEY PARK

Beach, Stanley Park to Hornby St (8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.)
Stanley Park Dr. at North Lagoon Dr. (6:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)
Ryan Rd at Park Lane/South Lagoon Dr. (6:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)

PACIFIC STREET

Burrard to Hornby – closed eastbound (6:00 a.m.- 12 p.m.)

CITY BRIDGES

Burrard Bridge – closed to all traffic (8:00 a.m.- 12 p.m.)
Cambie Bridge – closed northbound (7:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

KITSILANO

West 2nd Avenue – Burrard Street to Fir Street (8:30 a.m.- 12 p.m.)
Fir Street – West 2nd Avenue to West 4th Avenue (8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.)
W 4th Avenue/W 6th Avenue – Pine Street to Cambie Street (8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.)

CAMBIE STREET AT W. BROADWAY

Closed to all northbound traffic (7:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.)

PACIFIC BOULEVARD

East bound exit ramp from Cambie Bridge (5:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.)
Nelson Street to Abbott Street (5:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.)
Abbott Street to Quebec Street (7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.)

QUEBEC AND CARRALL STREET

Near Expo Blvd. and Pacific Blvd. – closed to all traffic (7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.) 

EXPO BLVD​.

Quebec Street to Terry Fox Way – closed to all traffic (7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.) 

NELSON STREET

Expo Blvd. to Pacific Blvd. (7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.)

This is the story of how a toilet ended up on a roof in Valleyview.

Said throne, complete with toilet paper holder, could be seen on Friday, hoisted in all its glory above 1653 Valleyview Dr., near McCracken Station Pub.

So, just how did the latrine manage to levitate?

This toilet is a travelin’ throne, a prank — and not the only one — between friends.

It first showed up on Mike O’Reilly’s balcony. Then, when Raymond and Nicole Forney returned from their honeymoon in the wee hours on April 20, it made its second mystery appearance.

“When we pulled up, Nicole’s like, ‘Something’s on our roof,’” Raymond said. “I didn’t even look. I was like, ‘I know what it is.’”

The Forney’s fourth bathroom came with a view and it must have taken work to get it up there.

O’Reilly and Chad McDonald were behind it, utilizing a ladder and rope to lift the porcelain bowl. They even built a platform to ensure it wouldn’t fall. It rings of engineering student antics and Raymond will be getting his buddies help to take it down, despite laughs it has elicited from the mechanic across the street.

The joke is typical of a group of friends who regift a breadmaker at weddings, going from couple to couple on their big day.

“We just got it delivered yesterday,” Raymond said.

He’s the last of the friends to get hitched, so it looks like he’ll be stuck making bread.

As for that toilet?

“Probably bring it to his house, drop it off in the middle of the night or something,” he said.
 

One of the B.C. NDP’s largest donors is also directly paying for the salary of the New Democrats’ election campaign director, raising questions about its influence within a party that could form the province’s next government.

The United Steelworkers confirmed that some recent union donations to the NDP are in-kind contributions for party staff, including NDP election campaign director Bob Dewar and deputy director Glen Sanford.

That means the Steelworkers hired Dewar, Sanford, and potentially others, as union employees on contracts, before immediately loaning them back to the NDP campaign to work the election while still being on the Steelworker payroll. It is a legal manoeuvre, and the value of the pay is recorded on the NDP’s financial forms as an in-kind contribution, with the figures generally released after the election.

“We are providing support to the B.C. NDP so they can run a successful campaign ­ which includes hiring staff, airing ads and supporting local candidates,” the United Steelworkers District 3 said in a statement.

“All of our donations, both direct and in-kind, are being recorded, reported and are following Elections B.C. rules. We’re doing so because working people, and Steelworkers specifically, cannot afford four more years of Christy Clark.”

The Liberals leaped to attack the NDP on the issue, with candidate Andrew Wilkinson saying voters should be concerned about the Steelworker influence over the NDP so close to an election. The union donated $672,576 to the NDP last year, which the Liberals claim is the largest contribution in a single year in B.C. history.

“What favours have the Steelworkers of America extracted from the NDP for all of this generous support?” said Wilkinson. The Steelworkers also paid the salary of NDP Surrey-Fleetwood candidate Jagrup Brar after the last election, while he worked as an organizer and was available to help the NDP if needed. 

The NDP shot back at the Liberal hypocrisy, noting that the Liberals take in millions in corporate donations annually, and hold exclusive cash-for-access fundraisers with the premier and her ministers, while claiming that doesn’t result in favours or influence within government.

“I think the Liberals are trying to completely muddy the waters,” said Sanford, the NDP’s deputy provincial director. “Christy Clark is the diva of distraction and she’s just trying to cover for her own party’s record.”

Sanford added that it’s common for political parties in B.C. and elsewhere to obtain staff on loan from unions and corporations, so that the party gets the benefit of their work without having to pay their salary.

“It’s all transparent and has to be reported properly to Elections B.C., and in our case we’re quite happy that organizations for working people support the NDP,” he said.

The Liberals say they have no in-kind party staffers this election. However, the Liberals also raised significantly more money for their campaign than the NDP.

The NDP would not disclose the value of the Steelworker salaries. It will report those figures, and updated 2017 Steelworker donation totals, as per the law after the election, said Sanford.

The NDP has had an, at times, rocky relationship with the Steelworkers. In 2016, an internal memo obtained by The Vancouver Sun showed the union felt it was treated like an ATM.

The union’s American arm is also a source of controversy. United Steelworkers International president Leo Gerard was at the White House beside U.S. President Donald Trump recently when Trump attacked Canada’s dairy industry as a disgrace and said its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada was a disaster.

The B.C. Liberals used that material to launch attack ads Sunday, questioning whether NDP Leader John Horgan will side with his big American union donors against Canada. Horgan had commented earlier in the week, calling it “scurrilous muckraking” to attack a Steelworker president for trying to protect local jobs.

“For the B.C. Liberals to denigrate Mr. Gerrard, when he’s participating in an event with the President of the United States, which is his obligation as the leader of an international union, I think that’s just scurrilous muckraking on the part of the Liberals,” said Horgan.

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Fresh off a seven-figure round of investor fundraising, a Vancouver tech startup hopes to unleash the business potential of furry friends.

Local company GoFetch.ca‘s stated aim is to “make dog ownership simple,” using technology to connect dog owners with registered service providers who can walk their pooches and provide overnight care.

Earlier this week, GoFetch closed a $1.4 million seed-funding round, raising money from a mix of institutional venture capitalists and high net-worth individuals, all based in B.C., the company confirmed Friday.

“It’s a very B.C.-bred story,” said Willson Cross, the company’s 24-year-old co-founder. “This injection of capital really validates the real-world problem GoFetch is solving for Canadian pet owners, in addition to the healthy growth of the pet category.”

GoFetch’s users currently include thousands of dog owners and thousands of service providers across Canada, with Vancouver and Toronto the “hottest markets,” Cross said. Plans are afoot to eventually expand into foreign markets like the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

In the last six months, GoFetch has grown from six full-time employees to 15, and expanded from a spot in a co-working space in Vancouver’s Chinatown to its own office in the downtown financial district.

It’s a pet-friendly workplace, Cross said, adding the company’s co-founder Paul Ratchford often brings his Australian shepherd to work.

“We have dogs in the office every day, all day,” Cross said.

More than once in GoFetch’s first year of operation, the startup was described in media reports as “the Uber of dog walking.” Cross said he understands the comparison, but doesn’t necessarily embrace it.

“You could call us Airbnb for this, or Uber for that,” he said. “But our mission is to build the largest, most trusted and most vibrant pet-related marketplace in the world.”

Pet care is a large and growing industry, accounting for more than $66 billion US in spending last year, according to market research from the American Pet Products Association.

And, just like most other industries, online commerce is an increasingly important part of the pet business. Just this week, industry giant Petsmart agreed to acquire fast-growing pet product site Chewy.com for $3.35 billion US, tech news source Recode reported, calling it “the largest ecommerce acquisition ever.”

The value of the deal, Recode reported, was larger than Walmart’s $3.3 billion deal for Jet.com last year.

Cross loves animals, but does not have a pet of his own. He’s registered as a GoFetch service provider, although he hasn’t had much extra time lately for dog-sitting and walking.

“As you can imagine, it’s been a busy time,” said the young entrepreneur.

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The NDP and the Green party have made some big promises when it comes to child care, a hot topic during the provincial election because of long wait-lists and high fees. 

As the Vancouver Sun reported in its series on the working poor last month, experts say cheaper child care could boost the economy by allowing more women to work. It would also reduce the cost of living for many families in Metro Vancouver, where the median cost of child care for a toddler is $1,325 a month.   

Child care will be top-of-mind when people vote in the election, said Sharon Gregson of the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C.

“The reality is that no matter what happens on May 9 … there will still be a child-care crisis on May 10,” Gregson said. “But we do have some things we can do immediately to lessen the crisis.”

The coalition’s plan calls for full-time child care for $10-a-day and part-time child care for $7 a day — families with annual incomes under $40,000 would get child care for free. The $1.5-billion-a-year plan would be overseen by the Education Ministry and would be phased-in over seven to 10 years. 

A study prepared for the group found that the $10-a-day child-care plan would pay for itself by generating government revenue, and would create 69,000 new jobs and add $5.8 billion to B.C.’s GDP by 2030. 

In Quebec, more than 70,000 mothers have entered the workforce since the province’s low-fee child-care system was introduced in 1997. 

“The labour force participation rate of mothers in Quebec is one of the highest world-wide,” said economist Pierre Fortin, a Université du Québec à Montréal professor emeritus.

Fortin told Postmedia earlier this year that Quebec’s low-fee child-care system, which costs parents between $7 and $20 a day, depending on their income, more than pays for itself through increased tax revenue.

But Quebec’s system isn’t an unqualified success. There aren’t enough spaces to accommodate everyone in the public, subsidized daycares, and there have been issues with the quality of care in some of the private and family-based centres that receive government subsidies. 

Gregson says B.C. can learn from the challenges in Quebec. 

“That’s why the $10-a-day plan is a made-in-B.C. model and why we’ll be focused not just on more spaces, not just on affordability, but on quality, too,” Gregson said in an email. 

A Mainstreet/Postmedia poll in early March found 46 per cent of respondents support a $10-a-day child-care program, despite the cost. Twenty-nine per cent were opposed and 25 per cent were unsure. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The Liberals say the $10-a-day plan is too expensive and that the problem is mainly supply. They promise to create 5,000 new child-care spaces this year, and another 3,700 by 2020. This is in addition to 4,300 new spaces since 2015.

The party’s election blueprint said it would work with the federal government to create more spaces, after Ottawa announced last month it would give $90 million annually to help B.C. address its child-care crisis. Despite the new federal funding, however, the platform doesn’t increase the Liberals’ original goal of 13,000 new spaces by 2020, first announced in February’s budget.

The NDP says childcare costs in B.C. have increased 37 per cent over the last decade, and plans to address that by introducing an affordable system: $10 for a full day, $7 for a half day, or free childcare for families making less than $40,000 annually. The plan would start by focusing on kids under the age of two, and would take 10 years to expand to include all pre-kindergarten kids. The party says the program will pay for itself in just a few years.

The Green party has pledged to provide free public preschool for three- and four-year-old children. For families with children younger than three, the Green party’s plan calls for free daycare for working parents or a $500-per-month credit when a parent stays home. Those changes, which would be phased in over four years, would cost about $4.239 billion over those four years, the party said. 

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Vancity credit union is betting that backing social enterprises in other provinces will be good business, as well as supporting good causes, with the re-launch of its Citizens Bank subsidiary.

Vancity has taken Citizens Bank — which it launched in 1997 to operate nationally and still uses for foreign exchange, Visa credit card and commercial real estate services — and turned it into a so-called “community investment bank,” which will operate under the name Vancity Community Investment Bank.

The idea is to offer financing and advice to social enterprises, not-for-profit groups and organizations trying to tackle “complex social, environmental and economic issues” that typically don’t attract financing, starting in the Greater Toronto Area.

And it will start by backing an affordable-housing deal with a Toronto agency named Options for Homes and partner with Toronto’s Alterna Savings and Credit Union on an innovation hub.

“It’s been very good business for us,” said Vancity CEO Tamara Vrooman, of its work with social enterprises, and she said the credit union hopes it will be able to extend its reach starting in Ontario, where they’ve canvassed an unmet demand.

Backing social enterprises or cause-conscious businesses is nothing new to Vancity. It has backed or invested in cause-based business ranging from affordable housing to local organic agriculture operations.

“One of the things people (ask) is ‘is this a business that can be financially sustainable?’ and we find it is actually very good business,” Vrooman said.

Vrooman said the money to back enterprises will come from Vancity and the community investment bank will be capitalized as business comes in.

The initiative is part of Vancity’s commitment to “values-based banking” as a member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, an international network of financial institutions that are devoted to sustainable operations.

Vrooman said the idea evolved from her staff’s travels where they’ve talked about Vancity’s experiences and offered advice to other institutions on so-called impact investing, which often led to the question “when is Vancity coming to our community.”

And it is a welcome idea in a sector where financing is hard to find and social enterprises are increasingly becoming important financial supplements to the causes that organizations serve, according to Kevin McCort, president of the Vancouver Foundation.

McCort said his foundation offers grants for other charities to start social enterprises, but those enterprises often need loans or the kind of due-diligence financial advice that they should be getting from banks rather than agencies like his.

Commercial financing is an important first step for social enterprises to start building a track record that puts them in line for better terms and more sophisticated services they can use as their enterprises grow, he said.

“So I think it’s great that a bank is willing to use their expertise (to do so),” McCort said.

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Betty Clements isn’t trying to teach her old dog new tricks, but she was happy to give him a new life.

If you break 14-year-old Tank’s age down in dog years, he’s about as old as 89-year-old Betty. The big Newfoundland-Chow cross showed up at the Comox Valley SPCA shelter two years ago, abandoned by a young man who couldn’t care for the dog anymore after he lost his own home.

“Tank was not in terribly good shape. He had a hot spot. He hadn’t been fed properly,” said Betty, whose previous dog, a Lab, had died a few months before.

Betty, who has been volunteering several times a week at the SPCA for the past 14 years, had hoped that a smaller dog would come along for her to adopt. But she fell for all 45 kilograms of Tank.

She said she adopted the dog after she heard another man checking Tank out, and saying that if he took him home, the dog would be sleeping outside all winter in a kennel. That would have been no life for an older dog, Betty thought.

“He sleeps most of the time, which pleases me,” said Betty, who lives in a rancher in Courtenay. “I don’t have to play ball with him. I’m just trying to keep him going as much as I can.”

A 20-minute walk every day is enough for Tank, although Betty can keep going longer than that.

Comox SPCA manager Emily Priestley said the organization tries to find and encourage people to adopt older dogs.

“It definitely takes longer,” Priestley said. “A lot of people are looking for the super-easy, young family-friendly dog, and sometimes the seniors come with extra costs.”

In response, the SPCA will sometimes cut the adoption fee for older dogs. They also highlight older dogs online and in newspaper ads, and they will take down names and contact numbers of people who express an interest in older dogs.

“It takes someone really special to want to take them on,” Priestley said. “You might only get six months with them, you might get a couple of years.”

As for Betty, her little house already had a ramp that her late husband used before he passed away 11 years ago. She got another ramp she uses to help Tank into her 11-year-old Toyota.

“The old back legs give way sometimes. But then, so do mine,” said Betty. “We take care of each other.”

Betty’s four children and their offspring are scattered across North America, but she keeps busy and social with volunteer work, friends, her church, Tank and two elderly cats.

Daily life revolves around Tank, she said.

“I don’t want a young dog because I haven’t got the energy,” she said. “This fellow needed me. And lo and behold, I needed him.”

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For B.C. companies eyeing for ways into difficult-but-lucrative high-growth markets like China and Southeast Asia, J. Todd Bonner advises finding an emerging market niche, then seeking the right strategic partnerships to get access to such a niche.

The formula may sound simple, but few companies have been able to execute it, said Bonner, chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Axion Ventures and founder of the firm’s main asset, China-based Axion Games.

Executing that advice, Bonner said, has allowed Axion Games to operate as a successful video-game developer in China for the past decade.

Now, Axion Ventures is trying the model in Thailand, hoping to repeat the company’s Chinese success in a region quickly modernizing its mobile infrastructure, which could catapult Southeast Asia’s 626 million people into the next boom market in digital interactive entertainment.

“It’s a huge opportunity,” Bonner said, noting Southeast Asia’s population is both a source of software development talent and a market to sell into. “This is a people’s business, and we are re-investing heavily in our people because that’s how you make it a long-term business.”

Last month, Axion Ventures entered into a joint venture with Thai telecom giant True Corporation to create True Axion Games, a development studio based in Bangkok. The deal also has the Vancouver parent firm, which owns 60 per cent of the new Thai company, setting up a game-development academy in the city, with plans to start accepting students later this year.

The school, Bonner said, may admit as many as 800 students, the best of which would then be hired by the studio itself to produce games. Those games — mostly mobile titles — will then be available to Thai and other southeast Asian consumers through True’s LTE cellular network.

Bonner’s goal for True Axion is aggressive — he wants the Thai-Canadian studio to generate US$1 billion in revenue a year, through various pay-to-play and in-game purchase opportunities linked to mobile gaming. Axion Games, the Chinese operation started in 2006, is forecasting US$38 million in revenue is the fiscal year just ending, but expects a major boost when Rising Fire, its first major PC game to be published by Chinese tech giant Tencent, is released later this year.

Axion’s Shanghai operation, originally called Epic Games China, is structurally almost identical to the Thai startup. In China, Bonner and his company partnered with North-Carolina-based Epic Games, one of the highest-profile game developers in the United States, to carry the Epic brand in China, to supply Chinese developers with Epic’s Unreal graphic engine, and to learn Epic’s game-development techniques while fostering Chinese developers through its academy.

Now independent from Epic and developing its own games, the Shanghai operation has some key partnerships that, Bonner said, will continue to let Axion grow in China’s video-game market, an estimated 560 million gamers and worth US$24.4 billion last year, the largest in the world.

The industry is expected to general US$106.7 billion in global revenue this year, and that figure is set to jump to US$200 billion by 2025 by industry estimates.

“When we decided to go to China, many people were asking why we would go there,” Bonner said. “There’s no development talent, and there was no broadband market. But we looked at China and realized that the future growth would be in broadband, and Epic was an opportunity to utilize gaming to get into that space. … The Southeast Asia strategy is similar; we saw a vacuum, and we are moving in.”

When Thailand sent a gaming industry delegation to Vancouver in March, Axion was one of the Canadian partners present.

But Axion Venture’s small group of seven in Vancouver remains under the radar, despite its publicly traded status. That is something, Bonner said, he would like to change.

“I haven’t intended to fly under the radar,” he said. “We just haven’t been very vocal about what we have been doing. We haven’t had our coming-out party, and we have been preparing to have our different businesses in place before letting investors and the public know.”

He added that he is still looking at options to give Axion Ventures more B.C. presence — whether through deals with Canadian publishers to publish games in Canada or starting an academy by partnering with a local tech school. But that may have to wait, given the interest in other high-growth southeast Asian markets generated by Axion’s Thailand opening.

“I think the Canadian market may offer some of the similar opportunities, especially with regards to our investment in people,” Bonner noted. “We’re still waiting to see if that’s the case; the jury is still out on that. … Since the Bangkok school’s announcement, we’ve been getting calls from not just the people who want to attend, but potential partners who want to learn more about what we are doing. And that is what we’ve been preparing for.”

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Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, a song written for jazz singer Nina Simone, perhaps sums up how a lot of people living with bipolar disorder feel.

Dr. Barry Rich, for one, thinks the time has come for understanding.

Rich, a retired physician, is putting the final stamp on what was a two-year manic binge in which he bought 300 guitars. He is auctioning them on Sunday, May 7, at Able Auctions in Surrey.

“I have a 1941 Harmony Gaylord. I figure it was one of the last guitars made before Pearl Harbor,” he said. “I have a Gretch acoustic made in 1963 that’s as rare as hen’s teeth.”

Another guitar, a Guild Artist Award, was once owned by North Vancouver jazz guitarist Henry Young, long the principal member of Simone’s jazz band.

“That’s probably the most-coveted guitar for a professional jazz musician,” Rich said.

Retired since his diagnosis of bipolar disorder in 2010, he had his manic episode begin three years ago.

It lasted two years and almost killed him.

He describes it as expansive thinking, feeling no need for sleep, being driven 24 hours a day, at times being aggressive.

“I was feeling good to the point of too good, making grandiose plans, thinking with the absence of judgment,” he said. “You think you’re the smartest person in the world, but truth be told you are the only one who thinks so.”

He spent a lot of money on other things, too, but it was the, so to speak, urge to splurge on guitars that was all-consuming.

To a posed guesstimate of having spent somewhere around $120,000, that being about $400 per guitar, Rich could only wish.

“I don’t even know, exactly,” he said. “But it was more than that.”

He knows he won’t come close to recouping the money, but still 10 per cent of the auction proceeds will go to a bipolar charity, likely CREST.BD, which carries out research for bipolar treatment and care.

There is a reissued, limited-edition Larrivee Parlor ISS, the guitar Chris Hadfield played Space Oddity on in the International Space Station and signed by the astronaut. Rich can’t remember what he paid, but the manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $1,549.

A Chinese erhu and a sitar were meant to be learned.

“I never got around to it, Rich said. “I was going to learn the erhu, I was going to learn the sitar, I was going to tour the world, I was going to make music and talk about bipolarity.”

There is a Sparrow, like Larrivee a fabled Vancouver-made guitar, autographed by Chilliwack’s Bill Henderson and other local artists, and a Tinker built by East Van’s Ed Bond.

“I became very good at convincing people I was just slightly manic, convinced them I knew guitars and they didn’t, but it was run amok,” he said. “Some of the people close to me gave up on me.

“I was falling asleep at the wheel. I had a number of fender benders,” he said. “It’s just lucky I never hurt myself or others.”

He is telling his story because the stigma of mania is strong. It has the same Greek root, as he points out, as another word that carries negative connotations — manikós, meaning madness.

“People living with bipolar disorder do spend the majority of the time in depression,” he said. “There is a lot less empathy and understanding for the manic phase.

“My kids tried their damnedest to get me help, but I was able to convince the professionals I was still in control.”

For Rich, the manic episode ended suddenly.

“It was a year ago, it was abrupt,” he said. “I got one more pleading email from one of my kids and it suddenly hit me: ‘You’re right, what am I doing?’”

And now he wants to get the message out.

“It is time bipolar comes out of the closet,” he said. “I think a lot of bipolars stay in the shadows.

“The point I’m trying to make, the reason I’m coming out — and I’d call it a coming out – is to encourage other bipolars to stand up and be counted, basically.

“That’s the only way we are ever going to be understood, I guess.”

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What happened: Highlighting a failed Liberal promise to find a family doctor for every British Columbian, the NDP on Monday issued a news release saying that 700,000 residents still don’t have one. Although not in the release, Horgan told reporters later that 200,000 of those residents were actively looking for a doctor.

Quote: “Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals are letting patients down. 700,000 people in B.C. don’t have a family doctor, forcing them to wait for hours in lines at walk-in clinics or hospital emergency rooms for care. … Horgan’s plan to build urgent care centres will … fill the gap for the 700,000 people in B.C. without a family doctor.” — NDP news release.

Reality Check: The NDP did not respond to a Postmedia request to explain the source of its numbers. However, Sharon Shore of Doctors of B.C. said Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey shows that, as of the end of 2014, there were 700,000 British Columbians without a family doctor. “And 200,000 of those are actively looking for a family doctor (so 500,000 are not),” Shore said in an email.

So, it is not entirely accurate to say that all 700,000 want to “fill the gap” to find a family doctor when the majority of those people are not looking for one. Plus, the 200,000 number is from 2014, and Shore could not provide a more recent estimate for how many British Columbians are still looking today.

But it would appear, based on information from Doctors of B.C.’s own website, that the 2014 numbers are likely out of date. That is because the doctors’ group partnered with the province in 2013 to launch A GP for Me, to help residents find a family physician. Between March 2014 and March 2016, the initiative helped 178,000 GP-less residents get a family doctor. So, shouldn’t the outdated 700,000 number be much lower now? 

Maybe, says Doctors of B.C., noting these stats depend on people moving into and out of the province, physicians retiring, and the opening of new family practices.

Have there been new family practices opening? Over the last five years, UBC has increased family physician training slots by 50 per cent. “We now have the largest family medicine training program in the country,” said department head Dr. Martin Dawes.

Horgan’s 2014 statistics, therefore, may not truly reflect the number of people today who are unsuccessfully searching for a family doctor.

His overall message, however, remains true: that after 16 years of Liberal rule, some people are still struggling to find a doctor. That is despite a failed Liberal promise from the last election that, by 2015, every B.C. resident would have a family physician. The Liberals have since abandoned that pledge, and cut funding last year to the doctor-finding website A GP for Me.

And, according to Health Match B.C., there are 485 vacancies for family doctor positions right now across B.C. Last year, the former Doctors of B.C. president, Dr. Charles Webb, blogged about the A GP for Me initiative, writing: “Did we find doctors for everyone who wanted one? No, we did not. The reality is there is no easy solution to this challenge.”

The Liberals’ platform promises to increase the number of graduating doctors, identify retention programs to keep doctors in rural communities, and expand a program that fast-tracks international physicians into rural practices.

Voters looking for a family doctor must decide whether the NDP’s new ideas can address the family doctor shortage or whether to give another chance to the Liberals.

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Constables with the B.C. SPCA seized two dozen dogs and a half dozen cats from a puppy breeder near Lillooet this month during an investigation that is ongoing.

The animals were being kept in squalid and unsafe conditions and they were all severely neglected, according to the SPCA. 

Kent Kokoska, a senior animal protection officer, said the dogs were found with serious dental disease and badly matted fur and some of the cats were being housed without proper ventilation or light. That was just the start.

B.C. SPCA constables have removed 24 small dogs and puppies and six cats from a puppy breeding operation near Lillooet, B.C. The animals were all suffering from severe neglect.

“Some of the dogs were being kept in a chicken coup filled with chicken and dog feces and one of the dogs and two puppies were being kept in a rodent cage,” he said in a news release.

Fifteen of the dogs are Havanese or Havanese cross, and there are eight Yorkie-crosses and an emaciated Husky cross.

The animals were seized during two visits to the remote operation this month. All are now being cared for in Kamloops and Kelowna. 

The SPCA is considering animal cruelty charges in the case.

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A former United Nations gang member said a cryptic comment accused killer Cory Vallee made after a Langley murder gave him the impression Vallee had committed the crime.

The man, who can only be identified as D, testified in B.C. Supreme Court Monday that Vallee disappeared immediately after rival gangster Kevin LeClair was fatally shot outside a Langley strip mall on Feb. 6, 2009.

When Vallee resurfaced a while later, D went out to a restaurant with him, he told Justice Janice Dillon.

As Vallee sipped his soup, D said: “I just looked at him and I said `Everything went OK?’” 

“And then he just kind of looked up at me and nodded and gave a smile, Yep, and he just went back to eating his soup.”

D said the cryptic reference was “significant to me.”

“I was making a reference to the LeClair shooting,” he said.

D has already testified that Vallee was brought into the UN fold as a hitman to kill the Bacon brothers and their associates, including LeClair who was formerly with the UN.

Vallee is charged with the first-degree murder of LeClair, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacons.

In the months before LeClair’s murder, D said he associated regularly with Vallee and another UN member named Jesse “Egon” Adkins. The two men showed D an AR-15 firearm they had been given for the Bacon hunt.

A short time before LeClair was killed D was driving in Abbotsford with Vallee and Adkins when they saw Jamie Bacon and LeClair on an isolated Abbotsford road, he testified.

D said he recognized Bacon and that Adkins said the other man was LeClair or “Traitor” as the UN called him.

Jamie Bacon (left) and Kevin LeClair in an undated photo.

“At the time I knew that he was an individual who had worked within the UN and then had jumped over to the Bacons and he was sought after as an associate of the Bacons,” D testified.

They discussed the possibility of running over the pair because they had no gun in the car. But D said he thought that would be stupid.

On the day LeClair was shot, D said he received an encrypted message on his BlackBerry from then UN leader Conor D’Monte, “asking me to go and act as eyes in that area.”

“I made up an excuse and said that I was busy and wouldn’t be able to do it,” D said.

“I really didn’t want to go.”

He later learned from the news that LeClair had been shot and immediately believed his own gang was behind the hit even though “no one was openly talking about it.”

“You didn’t do that,” D said. “You could tell just the atmosphere of the group had changed. It was seen as a big win.”

 After the LeClair murder, Vallee seemed to have a higher status in the UN, D said.

“People were more accepting of listening to him and showing him respect.”

And before long, Vallee was presented with UN gold rings at a special ceremony at a Vancouver Chinese food restaurant, D said.

Related

• Ex-gangster testifies he gave gun to 'hitman' Cory Vallee

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