Podcast for March 2018: The dark underbelly of B.C.
With dirty money pouring into Vancouver casinos, luxury car dealers and real estate market, Attorney General David Eby heads to Ottawa to ask for help. Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating Trump Tower Vancouver. And it turns out the worldwide Facebook data scandal got its start in B.C. Sure, we live in a beautiful province – but what lies beneath the surface?
This episode was recorded on Coast Salish territory.
Take action
Sign the petition: www.CorruptBC.ca
Send Attorney General David Eby a message: https://dogwoodbc.ca/petitions/corruption-email-eby/
What’s the connection between Trump Tower Vancouver developers and the BC Liberals?
Trump tower developers and owners Holborn Holdings aren’t just cozy with Donald Trump’s family, they know Christy Clark and the BC Liberals as well. Holborn Holdings and its parent company TA Management gave Clark’s party $228,000 while she was premier.
Deeper reading:
Lisa Sammartino, FBI investigates Vancouver Trump Tower money flow
What does the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal have to do with B.C.?
Aggregate IQ, a B.C.-based data company is under investigation for exploiting the personal information of millions of voters to help the Vote Leave side of the Brexit campaign. Aggregate IQ has been identified by whistleblower Chris Wylie as a Canadian “subsidiary” of the now infamous Cambridge Analytica. Aggregate IQ has worked on projects for the federal Liberal party, the BC Liberals and the BC Green Party.
Deeper reading:
Lisa Sammartino, The Facebook scandal comes home to B.C.
David P. Ball, Victoria Whistleblower Chris Wylie speaks out about B.C. firm’s ties to Brexit
Katie DeRosa, B.C. Green Party hired Aggregate IQ for election work; no data misuse found
What did Attorney General David Eby say in Ottawa?
International intelligence agents call it “the Vancouver model”. B.C.’s new Attorney General outlines how widespread the problem of money-laundering is in B.C. and provides a preview of the recommendations from Peter German’s upcoming reports. You can watch his testimony here.
How much money in donations have casinos, real estate or new car dealers given to the BC Liberals?
The original casino under investigation for money-laundering, River Rock Casino, has donated $3,800, while its parent company, Great Canadian Gaming has given $114,700 to the BC Liberals. The New Car Dealers Association of B.C. has donated $1.3 million to the BC Liberals. Real estate developers account for eight of the ten top donors to the BC Liberals in 2016, giving for $1.5 million in contributions in 2016 alone.
Deeper reading:
Gordon Hoekstra, Real estate developers topped B.C. Liberal donor list in the past year
Lisa Sammartino, BC Liberals rolled the dice with taxpayers’ trust
How many government contractors were also donors to B.C.’s governing party?
Between May 2013 and September 2016, 134 companies were awarded paving and road maintenance contracts. Of these contractor companies, 44 are donors to the BC Liberals’ campaign fund, while 90 companies did not donate. Yet donor companies received almost twice as many contracts on average than their non-donor counterparts.
And those 44 donors dwarfed all others when it comes to the value of the contracts awarded by the B.C. government. Their projects have totaled more than $758 million since May 2013 while non-donating competitors have only made about $539 million.
Deeper reading:
Carl Meyer, Donors to Christy Clark’s Liberals got $758 million in B.C. contracts
Lisa Sammartino, Bid rigging and political bribes: how Quebec taxpayers lost millions
Which politicians are benefitting from the housing market?
Take action
Sign the petition: www.CorruptBC.ca
Send Attorney General David Eby a message: https://dogwoodbc.ca/petitions/corruption-email-eby/
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Cambridge Analytica did work for Hillary’s and Obama’s campaigns as well as Trump’s. Pointing that out would give you a more nuanced, less one sided view of what that firm and its rivals are up to. They’ll work for anybody who has deep enough pockets.
Great work!!
Time to bring the dark underbelly into the light of day – for the ordinary people, and the next generations, time to stand up to this blatant corruption. Thanks for the podcast information and links.
Thank you so much for this information. Corruption of the magnitude that actually reveals itself to the average person as this has for me, has a very deleterious affect on social health. When Sweetnam, the disgraced executive was given leadership of the Victoria sewage treatment project I asked CRD how that happened and they said they didn’t hire him, he was given to them by the BC Liberals! Then there is Mr. Rich Coleman that is such an obviously crooked man (and his brother) that it is SO obvious! Thank you for your journalism.
Hot potato – the role of the BC College [P & S] in making room for Fentynal, by reducing the amount of prescribed morphine. Scary how so many deaths came from a policy change, and how little remorse is being shown by the rule-makers for their role.
FYI, Cambridge Analytica and their subsidiaries do not as a rule work for left-wing parties. The US Democrats may be left of the Republicans but they are far from being left-wing.
The BC Green Party attempted to gain an electoral advantage by hiring Aggregate IQ but the company stalled for so long that the Green Party cancelled the contract. Aggregate IQ was more than likely working in the BC Liberal’s interests but had to at least give the impression that they were helping the Greens. At the same time BC Liberal supporters were making political contributions to the Greens, and publicly supporting them, as giving more power to the environmental group split the left vote.