Sunday, June 04, 2023

Why — after a decade — the controversial tower proposed for 105 Keefer in Vancouver seems likely to move forward

It has been 2,028 days since the Vancouver Development Permit Board ruled against approving a tower at 105 Keefer Street.

And in 2 more days, they’ll have the debate all over again.

“Beedie Beedie, you can't hide. We can see your greedy eyes,” sang protesters at a rally of around 300 people on Thursday evening against the resubmitted proposal by the Beedie Group for the nine-storey tower, which the permit board will consider on Monday.Chinatown condo project is back on the table and dividing the neighbourhoodIn the decade since the proposal was first brought forward, dozens and dozens of news stories — and even a thesis or two — have been shared about 105 Keefer.

Admittedly, when you consider how many redevelopments happen across the province every month, those outside Vancouver could consider it overkill.

But it’s been a powerful debate because of the confluence of issues the parking lot represents: across the street from the Chinese Cultural Centre, two blocks from the Downtown Eastside, owned by one the city’s most prominent developers.

However, there are strong reasons to believe that this vote, unlike those in the past, will move the project forward.

First, all the people involved in rejecting the original tower — first at the council table, then at the permit board — are no longer with the city. The only person on the permit board who voted against killing the project in 2017 is now Vancouver’s city manager, Paul Mochrie. The city has already lost one lawsuit on the issue and has been ordered by a judge to give better reasons should it reject the project again.

Next, Vancouver’s election brought a new ruling party in ABC Vancouver that has talked consistently about building more housing and has explicitly talked about a change in focus for Chinatown, with one councillor alleging “misinformation” and “misleading renderings” by opponents of the proposal.

Third, while in 2017, there were very few Chinatown groups explicitly supporting the proposal, this time around, seven of them have jointly lobbied for its approval.

Beedie also commissioned polling on the proposal, and in a sample size of 330 Vancouver residents contacted my phone, 43 per cent said they supported the project, vs. 22 per cent who said they had mixed feelings, 17 per cent who opposed it, and 18 per cent who said they didn't know.

(The poll was done by Fairview Strategy and has a margin of error of 5.4 per cent 19 times out of 20)

And so the odds seem in favour of the tower being approved. But whatever way the vote goes, the fault lines will remain.

After all, next door to 105 Keefer, there’s a nine–metre-long neon sign saying “Let’s Heal the Divide.”

It was created by Toni Latour, who, on her website for the piece of art, says Chinatown is “a neighbourhood confronted with gentrification, class inversion, and the threat of cultural displacement from urban developers and city rezoning.”

If the tower is approved, the sign will be blocked out.

Crowd of 300 gathers to oppose contentious Vancouver Chinatown condo proposal

Meanwhile, business, cultural groups line up to support Beedie's 111-unit project for 105 Keefer St.

Mike Howell
May 26, 2023

keeferrallyfrontbright — Participants in a rally Thursday at Chinatown Memorial Plaza raise red cards as a sign of protest against developer Beedie’s proposal to build a 111-unit condo building adjacent to the plaza. Photo Mike Howell

Beedie (Keefer Street) Holdings Ltd. will go before the city’s development permit board May 29 to make another attempt to get its 111-unit condo development approved at 105 Keefer St., which currently serves as a parking lot and construction material storage area.

The message from speakers Thursday at the Chinatown Memorial Plaza and those interviewed during the rally was clear: they don’t want luxury condos, and the site should be 100 per cent social housing.

“We hope that the government will work with the developer to build luxury condos for low-income tenants,” Zhi Ping Zhang, 70, told the crowd in Cantonese to applause. “Even though we are low-income residents, we are the majority and we need to be united to fight for our rights.”

Zhang, who recently moved out of a single-room-occupancy hotel into social housing in Chinatown, was among a large group of seniors who attended the rally, with some arriving on a bus from a nearby seniors’ home.

keeferrallyping — Zhi Ping Zhang was one of the speakers at Thursday's rally at Chinatown Memorial Plaza. Photo Mike Howell

Housing that seniors can afford

Members of the Indigenous community and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users also spoke to the crowd, and emphasized the need for more low-income housing in a city where homelessness and poverty persists, particularly in the Downtown Eastside.

Former city councillor Jean Swanson said the Beedie proposal is opposite of what is needed in Chinatown, which has seen an increase in pricey restaurants and cafes near some of the newer condos built on Main Street.

“What we need is housing that lower-income folks and Chinese seniors can afford,” said Swanson, standing at a microphone in front of a monument in the plaza that honours Chinese-Canadian veterans and railway workers.

“What we get with this project is probably million-dollar condos with residents who can afford Virtuous Pie, but aren’t likely to be customers for Kent’s Kitchen or Gain Wah [on Keefer Street].”

keeferrallylot — Thursday's rally in Chinatown was held next to the site of Beedie's proposed condo development at 105 Keefer St. Photo Mike Howell

Higher building rejected in 2017

The fight to stop Beedie’s proposal has been a protracted one, with the city at one time discussing a land swap or purchase of the property for $22 million. In 2017, the council of the day opposed the developer’s original 12-storey, 118-foot project.

Reasons given by the Vision Vancouver-dominated council included the building’s design being too bulky and that it would block views and cast shadows on the neighbouring Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

They also said the building wouldn’t preserve the heritage and cultural character of Chinatown, and that there wasn’t enough social housing in the plan, although 25 units were included in the project.

Beedie revised its application and reduced the project to nine storeys and 90 feet tall, erasing the need for a rezoning or public hearing. The social housing component was also wiped from the new proposal.

That was the version rejected by the development permit board in a 2-1 vote in 2017.

Beedie refused to accept the decision and took legal action, which led to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling in December 2022 that has allowed the developer to make another pitch Monday to the development permit board.

That pitch will be for the identical proposal rejected in 2017.

keeferjadelight — Jade Ho of the Vancouver Tenants' Union with seniors Thursday in Chinatown. Mike Howell

'We've got to try again'

Jade Ho, one of the organizers of the rally and a member of the Vancouver Tenants’ Union, acknowledged the difficult task to convince three members of the development permit board to reject Beedie’s proposal for a second time.

“We have to try, right, because this is really important to the community,” Ho told Glacier Media. “And what we experienced in 2017 [with the development permit board’s rejection of the proposal] tells us that, yes, we can do it. So we’ve got to try again.”

Ho said the rally was organized to give people who wouldn’t otherwise go to city hall a venue to express their views, whether that be in English, Mandarin or Cantonese, which were all spoken and translated during the event.

“The processes of the city have been really inaccessible to the low-income residents in Chinatown and in the Downtown Eastside,” she said. “A decision that will make a such a big impact in the community should really be made by the residents here, by the people here.”

None of the development permit board members who voted in the 2017 decision will vote Monday, with Gil Kelley and Jerry Dobrovolny both having left their posts at city hall; city manager Paul Mochrie remains, but he will not cast a vote.

The voting members are expected to be the city’s director of planning, Theresa O’Donnell, head engineer Lon LaClaire and Andrea Law, general manager of development, buildings and licensing.

'Unprecedented, collective display of support'

The day before the rally, Chinatown Business Improvement Association Society president Jordan Eng circulated a news release saying the organization along with six others, including cultural associations, support Beedie’s proposal.

The others are the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver, Chinese Freemasons of Vancouver, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden Society, Chinese Cultural Center of Greater Vancouver, Vancouver Chinatown Merchants’ Association and Vancouver Chinatown Foundation

“This is an unprecedented, collective display of support for our community, when it comes to development,” Eng said.

“While our community was divided over this issue [with Beedie's original 12-storey proposal], much has changed since then and today. We stand united in support for this project, and for the continued renewal of Chinatown; this important, historic and cultural jewel in our city.”

In an accompanying letter to the development permit board, the seven organizations outlined reasons to support the project, saying that with the exception of a long-ago closed gas station, the site has been a vacant parking lot for more than 50 years “and exists as an eyesore in the heart of Chinatown.”

“The proposal will add 111 units of housing without displacing existing residents and businesses,” they said in their letter. “More feet on the street will help reverse the descent of the district into further street disorder.”

Eng has said previously that more affordable housing is needed in Chinatown for seniors, and that he and other leaders in the community are working with the city to ensure more gets built as part of the Northeast False Creek Plan, which requires the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts to first be demolished.

Glacier Media contacted Beedie this week for comment on the protest and the support of the Chinatown organizations, but had not received a response by the time this story was posted.

In a previous statement, Rob Fiorvento, managing partner at Beedie, said “we continue to believe the 105 Keefer project will provide many benefits for Vancouver’s Chinatown, especially given the focus on revitalizing the neighbourhood since the development permit board‘s decision in 2017.”

The development permit board hearing begins at 3 p.m. Monday.

Directors Guild of America Reaches Tentative Labor Settlement With Hollywood Studios

Terms of 'historic' deal to be put to DGA board.

A separate strike by Writers Guild of America members remains ongoing.

By Patrick Frater
VARIETY, June 4,2023

Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Directors Guild of America said Saturday night that it had reached a tentative three-year labor deal with the Hollywood studios and streamers after a bruising skirmish.

The DGA negotiating committee described the deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers as “a historic new three-year collective bargaining agreement.” It will put the deal to its board on Tuesday.

A separate strike by Writers Guild of America members over the terms of their relationship with studios and streamers remains ongoing.

“We have concluded a truly historic deal,” said Jon Avnet, chair of the DGA’s negotiations committee. “It provides significant improvements for every director, assistant director, unit production manager, associate director and stage manager in our guild. In these negotiations we made advances on wages, streaming residuals, safety, creative rights and diversity, as well as securing essential protections for our members on new key issues like artificial intelligence – ensuring DGA members will not be replaced by technological advances.

“This deal recognizes the future of our industry is global and respects the unique and essential role of directors and their teams as we move into that future,” said Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the DGA.

Highlights of the new agreement include “historic breakthroughs” for directors and their teams in the following areas.

Wages and benefits: Gains in wages and benefits including a 5% increase in the first year of the contract, 4% in the second year and 3.5% in the third year. Additional 0.5% to fund a new parental leave benefit.

Global streaming residuals: Substantial increase in the residuals for dramatic programs made for SVOD by securing a new residual structure to pay foreign residuals. The result is a 76% increase in foreign residuals for the largest platforms so that residuals for a one-hour episode will now be roughly $90,000 for the first three exhibition years.

Artificial Intelligence: Agreement confirming that AI is not a person and that generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members.

Non-dramatic programs: Established the industry’s first-ever terms and conditions for directors and their teams on non-dramatic (variety and reality) programs made for SVOD. Improved residuals and for the first time, associate directors and stage managers will now share in the residuals.

High–budget AVOD terms and conditions. The industry’s first terms, creative rights protections, working conditions and residuals for scripted dramatic projects made for free to the consumer streaming services such as Freevee, Tubi and Roku. Unit production managers and assistant directors will share in the residuals.

Feature directors: First-time compensation for the months of “soft prep” feature directors currently perform for free prior to the start of the director’s official prep period.

Episodic directors: For Pay TV and SVOD, episodic directors won expanded paid post-production creative rights; and gained an additional guaranteed shoot day for one-hour programs – the first additional day added in more than 40 years.

Reduction in Hours: Reduction in the length of the assistant director’s day by one hour.

Safety: Safety advancements including the first pilot program to require the employment of dedicated safety supervisors; expanded safety training programs for both directors and their teams, and the ban of live ammunition on set.

In addition to these historic breakthroughs – this agreement also achieved increased studio transparency in residuals reporting, improvements in diversity and inclusion, the addition of Juneteenth as a paid holiday and many other gains for all categories.

As Canmore, Alta., faces housing crisis, debate stirs over employee housing in industrial area

CBC
Sat, June 3, 2023

Tourists and locals mingle in Canmore, Alta., in a file photo from 2021. Earlier this week, Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert said the town was in a 'housing crisis.'

(Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press - image credit)

As the Town of Canmore deals with a severe housing shortage, there's debate underway about employee housing — hinging on whether businesses should be allowed to build in the town's light industrial areas.

The town's subdivision and development appeal board recently turned down a request to build second-floor employee housing in a light industrial area at 100 Alpine Meadows. That application was submitted by Sky McLean, Basecamp Resorts founder and CEO, who also owns development company Big Moose Realty.

McLean said housing in the area is desperately needed.

Ten written correspondences from local businesses were submitted along with the appeal, which would have created 12 employee housing units for the town on the upper level of the 13 industrial commercial bays.

Supplied by Basecamp Resorts

"I'm really disappointed and heartbroken about this because I personally know so many people whose lives have been positively changed from the ability to be able to start out in Canmore, in employee housing," McLean said.

"If businesses are continuing to want to come here and grow, we just need the housing."

She understands preserving industrial land, but said the units would be on the second floor, not taking up additional land.

She said hopefully Big Moose Realty will move forward with another application.

"Our businesses aren't going to be here to fill those industrial or light industrial spaces." - Ian O'Donnell, executive director of the Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association

Two applications for employee housing in the area had previously been approved, one by the Canmore Planning Commission and one by the development appeal board.

However town administration had recommended those applications be refused — and a staff report that goes to council next week recommends the town officially prohibits employee housing in industrial areas.

Whitney Smithers, general manager of municipal infrastructure at the Town of Canmore, said she is aware there are inconsistencies in the current policies related to employee housing in industrial areas.

She said one of the reasons employee housing in the area isn't recommended comes down to livability.

"Industrial areas really aren't designed with the level of infrastructure that is intended for residential use," she said, noting noise, truck traffic and a lack of sidewalks as downsides.

Residential areas have bylaws which would protect residents, but those same controls don't exist in industrial areas, Smithers said.

She added that light industrial areas don't have grocery stores, bike lanes and green spaces, and expanding real estate into the town's industrial areas could limit the town's ability to advance economic growth and diversification long term.

"Part of council's livability goal is really related to employment opportunities that provide residents with a dignified and reasonable standard of living," which could mean skilled labour jobs.

Earlier this week Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert said the town was in a "housing crisis."

"Left unattended, it will change our community character and we'll lose so many who make our community what it is," he said.

Developer says employers are making difficult decisions

Ian O'Donnell, executive director of the Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association, said there has been past success building in Canmore's light industrial area.

He added that private industry and businesses are saying there needs to be more employee housing options.

"Otherwise our businesses aren't going to be here to fill those industrial or light industrial spaces."

He hopes there will be more clarity going forward in Canmore's upcoming housing action plan.

Next week the Town of Canmore will be looking at a new housing action plan, which lists four main initiatives to combat its ongoing housing crisis — including phasing out tourist homes to open up vacancy for permanent and long-term residents.

"If we can't have clarity in what we're able to develop or where we can develop that, it really does slow down the housing and ultimately create a market that is less responsive to the need for delivery of housing and affordable options."

He said employers have had to make some difficult decisions, which includes pursuing less conventional approaches to housing, so that their business can function.

ALBERTA

Voices raised against plans to clear-cut popular recreation area near Bragg Creek

Author of the article:Bill Kaufmann
Published May 27, 2023 •

Fat biking in the West Bragg Creek and Kananaskis areas.

Courtesy Travel Alberta Kyle Hamilton

A proposal to clear-cut log two areas laced with popular hiking and cycling trails west of Bragg Creek should be axed or significantly altered, say critics.
Spray Lakes Sawmills (SLS) plans to begin logging areas amounting to 900 hectares in the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain areas in 2026, a prospect that would severely denigrate the popular recreational areas, said Shaun Peter, who promotes tourism in the Kananaskis playground.

“This is the most popular recreation area in Alberta,” said Peter, noting using its trails is subject to a $90 annual fee implemented by the UCP government.

“To take that fee, then to turn around and allow logging is disappointing.”

He acknowledged SLS has a right to log the area following the adoption of a Forest Management Plan (FMP) it signed with the province two years ago.

But given the impact it would have on outdoor recreation and the tourism industry, it’s economically short-sighted, said Peter, who operates Bragg Creek & Kananaskis Outdoor Recreation.

“It’s really asinine of the government to ignore that and the economic benefits that come with that, to allow that be decimated by industrial activity,” he said.

Peter said that, contrary to SLS’s claim the clear cut will reduce the potential for wildfires, the company plans a logging process that will leave debris and be re-planted in way conducive to feeding blazes.

An open house held May 3 in Cochrane by SLS, he said, only heightened his fears of the logging’s impact and that only public pressure on the provincial government led lawmakers to ensure the company cut more responsibly in West Bragg Creek a decade ago.

SLS’s logging plans in the area could change and will be subject to public consultation several times between now and 2026, said Ed Kulcsar, the company’s vice-president woodlands.

The FMP for the Rockies’ eastern slopes region was approved in 2021 with the understanding the Bragg Creek-area timber be harvested in the next 10 years, part of a two-decade agreement based on tree age, said Kulcsar.

“It’s tentative for 2026 … we’ll start to refine that area to allow the general public to be engaged,” he said.

“We’ve been in communication with active trail groups and we’ve demonstrated a good record in being able to integrate our harvests around trails.”

He said trail use actually increased in the areas harvested in West Bragg Creek a decade ago.

“People don’t recognize them as harvested,” he said of some of the zones clear cut in the region 30 years ago.

“SLS works with the government and we recognize it is Crown land — they approve of our operations.”

The company, he said, adheres to “the highest standards of forestry management as verified through our annual Sustainable Forestry Initiative audits.”

A map showing a logging footprint covering trails with names like Fullerton Loop, Race of Spades and Strange Brew “is part of the consultation process,” said Kulcsar.

At the time the agreement was signed, the province said it would ultimately bring $32 million into its coffers and add $225 million to Alberta’s GDP.

The provincial government has yet to sign off on the SLS plan to log the two timber blocks, said a spokesman in the premier’s office.

“It is important to note that timber disposition holders like Spray Lake Sawmills are required to submit annual operating plans to receive authority to harvest timber on Crown land,” Colin Aitchison said in an email.

“As the proposed harvesting in the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain areas would not occur for several years, an annual operating plan has not been received and permission to harvest has not been granted.”

That government approval is the problem, said Devon Earl, conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association.

The FMA and other logging regulations overly favour industry over the public and environmental good, partly by reducing the significance of public consultation, she said.

“There’s very little opportunity for input before the important decisions are made and there’s absolutely no requirement for (companies) to make any changes that have been requested,” said Earl.

“It becomes sort of a waste of time for people who care about these areas and want to see changes in logging plans.”

Too many logging practices in Alberta hide behind sustainable practices qualifications, she said, that are largely meaningless because outcomes aren’t measured.

Stands of timber left unharvested for environmental purposes in Alberta are often too puny to ensure biodiversity and environmental sustainability, said Earl.

“It really boils down to greenwashing,” she said.

Olymel cutting about 80 jobs as it reduces hog production in Alberta, Saskatchewan

By Staff The Canadian Press
Posted May 26, 2023

Food producer Olymel said Friday it is cutting about 80 jobs as it reduces its hog production in Western Canada.

The company said it is closing five sow units in Alberta and one sow unit in Saskatchewan in a move that will reduce its western sow herd to 40,000 from 57,000.

It said the barns will be wound down over the next several months and remain closed until market conditions improve.

The company says the closures will result in a net reduction of about 200,000 market hogs annually to its Red Deer, Alta., slaughter plant from company owned farms.

2:00Hog producers welcome government support following processing backlog in Alberta

Hog producers welcome government support following processing backlog in Alberta

However, it said the impact will not be felt until 2024 at the earliest and will be subject to independent hog supply availability.

The company said it will work with the affected staff to fill any vacant positions within its western hog operations or find work outside the company.

“Over the past two years it is well documented that Olymel has experienced significant losses in the processing of fresh pork as a result of limited market access globally,” Olymel CEO Yanick Gervais said in a statement.

“Now, coupled with stubbornly high feed costs resulting in unprecedent losses in the hog sector, we have little choice but to retract and position ourselves for success in the future when conditions improve.”

This is the latest move in Olymel’s restructuring in the face of tough market conditions.

The news comes five weeks after the Quebec-based pork producer said it was closing a major slaughterhouse south of Quebec City and laying off 994 workers.

At that time, CEO Yanick Gervais said the company’s fresh pork operations have lost $400 million in the last two years because of factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, labour shortages, rising inflation and the instability of export markets — especially China.

As a result, the company decided to reduce the total number of hogs slaughtered by about 1.5 million annually.

Earlier this year, it also announced it would shutter two plants, in Blainville, Que., and Laval, Que.Quebec is the biggest pork producer in the Canada, with 31 per cent of the country’s inventory as of 2021, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

A lawyer used ChatGPT and now has to answer for its ‘bogus’ citations

A filing in a case against Colombian airline Avianca cited six cases that don’t exist, but a lawyer working for the plaintiff told the court ChatGPT said they were real.

By Wes Davis, a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.
May 27, 2023,

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a lot of things, but a lawyer it is not. Illustration: The Verge

Lawyers suing the Colombian airline Avianca submitted a brief full of previous cases that were just made up by ChatGPT, The New York Times reported today. After opposing counsel pointed out the nonexistent cases, US District Judge Kevin Castel confirmed, “Six of the submitted cases appear to be bogus judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations,” and set up a hearing as he considers sanctions for the plaintiff’s lawyers.

Lawyer Steven A. Schwartz admitted in an affidavit that he had used OpenAI’s chatbot for his research. To verify the cases, he did the only reasonable thing: he asked the chatbot if it was lying.

This case isn’t going very well. Image: SDNY

When he asked for a source, ChatGPT went on to apologize for earlier confusion and insisted the case was real, saying it could be found on Westlaw and LexisNexis. Satisfied, he asked if the other cases were fake, and ChatGPT maintained they were all real.

The opposing counsel made the court aware of the issue in painful detail as it recounted how the Levidow, Levidow & Oberman lawyers’ submission was a brief full of lies. In one example, a nonexistent case called Varghese v. China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd., the chatbot appeared to reference another real case, Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd., but got the date (and other details) wrong, saying it was decided 12 years after its original 1996 decision.

Schwartz says he was “unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.” He now “greatly regrets having utilized generative artificial intelligence to supplement the legal research performed herein and will never do so in the future without absolute verification of its authenticity.”

Schwartz isn’t admitted to practice in the Southern District of New York but originally filed the lawsuit before it was moved to that court and says he continued to work on it. Another attorney at the same firm, Peter LoDuca, became the attorney of record on the case, and he will have to appear in front of the judge to explain just what happened.

This once again highlights the absurdity of using chatbots for research without double (or triple) checking their sources somewhere else. Microsoft’s Bing debut is now infamously associated with bald-faced lies, gaslighting, and emotional manipulation. Bard, Google’s AI chatbot, made up a fact about the James Webb Space Telescope in its first demo. Bing even lied about Bard being shut down in a hilariously catty example from this past March.

Being great at mimicking the patterns of written language to maintain an air of unwavering confidence isn’t worth much if you can’t even figure out how many times the letter ‘e’ shows up in ketchup.

Anyway, here’s the judge pointing out all the ways the lawyer’s brief was an absolute lie fest:

‘Somebody has to pay for it’: WestJet pilots deal could impact future travel costs

By Jasmine King & Victoria Femia

Global News
May 28, 2023

WestJet pilots are bound to receive a decent pay raise following a strike notice last week that led to the cancellation of more than 230 flights.

While this may prompt a sigh of relief from those flying with the airline in the near future, according to a travel expert, the deal could lead to some complications later on.

WestJet pilots will be receiving a 24 per cent pay bump over four years under an agreement in principle between the company and the union. Pilots will also receive a 15.5 per cent hourly pay raise this year retroactive to Jan. 1 upon ratification of the deal.

While this looks like an improvement for the pilots, Canadian consumers might want to fasten their seatbelts.

“Should we be expecting an even further increase in flights and costs and fares? Potentially and most likely,” said travel expert Omar Kaywan.

“At the end of the day, somebody has to pay for it and it’s going to be the passengers.”

Pilots from WestJet’s discount subsidiary Swoop are also included in this deal, which begs the question of how the new deal will affect prices on the budget-friendly airline.

According to Kaywan, that question is still up in the air.

“Will it continue to compete in the low-cost carrier category or will it just completely kind of merge into WestJet?”

Kaywan said that flights are significantly more expensive now than they were at this time last year and prices could continue to rise.

“We’re seeing about 15 to 20 per cent minimum across-the-board price difference in flight costs. We’ll see how much these fares are going to change,” he said.

Other pilots from budget-friendly airlines like Lynx or Flair could also be looking closely at this Westjet deal, and that could put these airlines in a tough spot when it comes to retaining or recruiting staff.

“There are some pros and cons because some of these pilots with these smaller carriers have higher seniority, better scheduling, better work hours. Some of that would have to be sacrificed to go to a larger carrier,” Kaywan said.

Staff at major airlines like Air Canada have also been paying attention to the deal as the Pilots Association said workers must decide by May 29 whether to stick with their 10-year collective agreement.

“You can bet that Air Canada’s pilot union will be looking at this very, very closely,” said Rick Erickson, managing director of consulting firm R.P. Erickson and Associates.

“’Does it make sense for me to stay here where I am? Or should I move over to one of the majors where I’ll get paid better for it but have completely different working circumstances?”’ observed Erickson, paraphrasing pilots who would have higher compensation but lower seniority — and thus worse scheduling options — on arrival at a large airline.

— with files from The Canadian Press

Arby’s manager froze to death in restaurant freezer, and son found her body, suit says

Despite the freezer door’s latch being broken, it was never fixed for nearly nine months, the lawsuit says.

Julia Marnin
May 26, 2023·

A woman working as a general manager at an Arby’s became trapped in the restaurant’s walk-in freezer while performing opening tasks, according to a new lawsuit.

As other employees had arrived for work, Nguyet Le “panicked once locked inside and beat her hands bloody trying to escape or get someone’s attention,” the lawsuit filed May 25 says.

Le, 63, froze to death at the restaurant in New Iberia, Louisiana, on May 11, according to the lawsuit, which says preliminary autopsy findings list hypothermia as the cause. Now, New Iberia police are investigating the incident after they were called to a report of a body found in a freezer at 6:19 p.m. that day, McClatchy News previously reported.

Her son Nguyen Le, another Arby’s employee, found her body after he arrived for his restaurant shift, the lawsuit says. She was found dead in the evening, according to KADN News 15.

Now, Nguyen Le and his three siblings are suing Arby’s over her death. Additionally, Turbo Restaurants and Sun Holdings, which are based in Texas and own several Arby’s restaurants, are named as defendants, an original petition filed in Harris County District Court in Texas shows.

An Arby’s spokesperson told McClatchy News in a statement on May 26 that the franchisee in New Iberia is “cooperating fully with local authorities as they conduct their investigation” over the “tragic incident.”

A regional director of operations for Turbo Restaurants referred a request for comment from McClatchy News to Sun Holdings. McClatchy News attempted to reach Sun Holdings for comment on May 26 and was awaiting a response.

Attorney Paul Skrabanek, of the Pierce Skrabanek law firm in Houston, is representing the family to “help investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the potential negligence that led to such a disturbing end for their loved one,” a May 17 news release said.

Manager was temporarily assigned to Arby’s in Louisiana

Le, a widow and mother of four who lived with her oldest child Nguyen Le, worked at an Arby’s restaurant in Houston, Texas, as a general manager, the lawsuit says.

In February, her supervisor asked her to take a temporary assignment and work at the Arby’s in New Iberia for what was supposed to last four weeks, according to the lawsuit. Nguyen Le joined his mother to temporarily work there, Skrabanek told McClatchy News.

At some point, that assignment was extended by her supervisor, the lawsuit says.

The freezer was supposed to be kept at -10 degrees, “if not colder,” according to the lawsuit.

The morning of May 11, Le got trapped in the freezer while on her extended assignment, and ultimately “collapsed into a fetal position face down on the frozen floor,” the lawsuit says.

An investigating police officer reported that he observed blood on the freezer’s inside door, leading him to believe Le was pounding on the door, according to the lawsuit.

In a May 12 news release, the New Iberia Police department wrote that no foul play was suspected.

A former New Iberia Arby’s employee told Nguyen Le and his siblings that the restaurant’s walk-in freezer latch had been broken since August 2022 and employees used a screwdriver to open and close the door, according to the lawsuit. Other times, a box of oil was used to keep the door open, the lawsuit says.

With the lawsuit, Le’s children assert their mother’s death was wrongful, and Arby’s, Turbo Restaurants and Sun Holdings are negligent.

Nguyet Le

Despite the freezer door’s latch being broken, it was never fixed for nearly nine months, the lawsuit says.

Le’s children demand a trial by jury and are suing to recover damages and relief over her death, past and future mental anguish, conscious pain and suffering, loss of support and loss of love and affection, the original petition shows.

B.C. LINK TO MAJOR U.S. FRAUD

B.C. bookkeeper used numbered company to assist major U.S. fraud, SEC finds

Graeme Wood / Glacier Media - May 27, 2023 /

A B.C. bookkeeper has been fined $25,000 and permanently barred from any business activity related to penny stocks after regulators determined he “willfully aided and abetted” in the fraud committed by his client Avtar Dhillon, a former prominent Vancouver stock promoter.

In an administrative settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Shrizali Jumani — who advertises accounting services in Burnaby — did not admit liability to the facts he and the commission agreed to on May 22.

Between at least March 2011 and February 2018, Jumani carried out a series of stock transactions of American-registered OncoSec Medical Inc., a company chaired by Dhillon, who faces prison time at a sentencing hearing this November after pleading guilty to three felonies last December.

Dhillon’s fraud relates to an alleged, multi-faceted illegal pump-and-dump trading scheme involving over a billion dollars’ worth of stock sales across over 100 companies. The trades were conducted, in part, by over a dozen British Columbians, via offshore shell companies, the commission alleges.

One of those offshore shell companies was 0903759 B.C. Ltd, controlled by Jumani but one whose assets were beneficially owned by Dhillon, according to the commission.

The numbered company bought close to 80,000 OncoSec predecessor shares, at one cent per share, which became over 2.5 million restricted shares following a stock split conducted under Dhillon’s watch.

Jumani knew the company acquired the shares for Dhillon but falsely represented them as company assets, according to the commission.

To lift the trade restrictions on the shares and thus sell them to the public, Jumani made false representations to the brokerage firm where they were held, in particular that the shares had no affiliation to OncoSec (including the company’s chairman, Dhillon).

Via 50 transactions, Jumani sold $783,500 worth of stock and disbursed it to One World Ranches LLC and One World Farms Inc., companies owned by Dhillon.

Jumani repeated this process in another round of share purchases and sales, for further gross proceeds of $257,000.

Jumani “knew or was reckless in not knowing that Dhillon was obligated, as Chairman of OncoSec, not to engage in any undisclosed holding of or trading in the securities of OncoSec,” stated the commission’s agreement.

In doing all this, the commission found Jumani “willfully violated” several aspects of the U.S. Securities Act.

Bookkeeper says he was victim of Dhillon's fraud

Reached by phone at his business, Jumani told Glacier Media that at the time of the deals he did not have any information from Dhillon on what the stocks were; he said he informed the commission he never profited from those sales.

“I did something for him I shouldn’t have done,” said Jumani, describing his services to Dhillon as basic bookkeeping.

Jumani “provided private accounting services that included tax preparation and bookkeeping, and served as Dhillon’s Canadian tax preparer. He has never been licensed as a Chartered Accountant or as a Certified Public Accountant,” noted the settlement.

“I think they (Dhillon) should have known better and informed me when I was selling those shares …I basically got caught into things,” said Jumani.

“I’m kind of a victim,” he said, describing the settlement as a “black mark” on his 40-year bookkeeping career.

Meanwhile, Dhillon has had his sentencing hearing delayed to November. Whereas he initially pleaded the Fifth Amendment in the SEC’s civil case against him, he wrote to the commission in April saying he was willing to testify following a declaration wherein he describes “aggressive promotions” of his companies while simultaneously selling restricted shares.

The commission alleged in September 2021 that Dhillon personally profited by $5 million across three of his American companies.

Dhillon has directed numerous Canadian public companies, including a once high-profile Richmond-based marijuana provider named Emerald Health Therapeutics.

Company stock records from court proceedings in B.C. of Therapeutics’ parent company Emerald Health Sciences show Jumani had 2.66 million founder shares distributed to him at 0.00001 cents per share, in 2013. Jumani allocated hundreds of thousands to holding companies the commission states are associated to former Vancouver lawyer and offshore shell facilitator Fred Sharp. Sharp is a co-defendant in Dhillon’s civil SEC case who has since been found guilty of fraud in a default judgment, after not responding to the charges.

“This case concerns a sophisticated, multiyear, multinational attack on the United States financial markets and retail United States investors by foreign and domestic actors. These actors schemed to sell fraudulently hundreds of millions of dollars in stocks in the United States markets,” stated the SEC complaint at the time.

Following more than three decades of business dealing in B.C., the B.C. Securities Commission recently banned Sharp from the province’s investment market; however, Dhillon remains unrestrained.

Dhillon, a resident of California, could receive a prison term of 63 to 78 months in a federal prison.

British Columbia

Lululemon promises 2,600 new jobs after exemption from some immigration rules

CEO says company has secured extra 125,000 square feet

of office space in downtown Vancouver

The Canadian Press · Posted: May 26, 2023

A tall man wearing glasses stands near a shorter man in a white shirt and blazer, both of them posing for the camera. — Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald, left, and Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne at a news conference at the company's headquarters in Vancouver on Thursday. (The Canadian Press)

Vancouver-based company Lululemon says it will expand its headquarters in the city and create 2,600 jobs over the next five years.

The announcement comes months after the federal government granted the company the ability to hire foreign workers for certain highly skilled positions, including management jobs, software engineers and computer technicians, without needing to apply for a labour market impact assessment.

Federal Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne says if Ottawa hadn't acted, the company's headquarters may have left Vancouver.

CEO Calvin McDonald says Lululemon has secured an additional 125,000 square feet of office space in downtown Vancouver because of the confidence it has in the agreement.

Nike sues Lululemon for infringement of footwear patents

"As a proudly Canadian brand, we are fortunate to be in partnership with the provincial and federal governments, who were able to move this forward for us," McDonald said in a government release Thursday.

Lululemon employed nearly 9,000 people in Canada in 2022, the release said.

Lack of Canadian workers

A labour market impact assessment is a process sometimes used to determine if a company needs a foreign worker to fill a position because of a lack of Canadian workers or permanent residents available to do the job.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says Canada won't be able to meet the domestic needs of the economy with an exclusively domestic labour force and the entire world is competing for talent.

Ottawa man who lost leg, fingers is new face of Lululemon campaign

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Crowd of 300 gathers to oppose contentious Vancouver Chinatown condo proposal