The Naked City

We told you so. Lies are in David McLellan's comfort zone. We warned you in January when McLellan, the City's General Manager of Community Services, was appointed by City Hall as media spokesperson on the departure of Deputy Chief License Inspector, Carlene Robbins. Robbins' exited City Hall shortly after a fire at a flophouse in East Van killed three men.

I can still see in my mind's eye, the clip of McLellan telling the media that Robbins' departure was not related to the flophouse fire. McLellan said he had been in a meeting with Robbins and she had suddenly up and left, turning in her building security pass before leaving the building.

Now Robbins has filed suit in BC Supreme court suggesting that McLellan knew more than he was admitting. Robbins claimed that after the flophouse fire at City Hall, she was removed from the job she had held for 12 years, that she was effectively fired and lost her $105,000 salary. That story was broken last night by CKNW, so it is old news.

What is also old news, at least to Downtown Eastsiders, is the environment Robbins described the City as being motivated to create for someone they viewed as a political liability. Robbins' claimed in her suit that under Mayor Robertson's regime, an environment of "hostility, embarrassment, and humiliation" was created for her.

Downtown Eastsiders have been using those exact words for years to describe the way they are treated when the City decides they are a political liability. A targeted individual is subjected on a regular basis to overt hostility, embarrassment, and humiliation, until they leave and don't come back. It's not only the big things that can drive a person out the door, like being verbally or physically abused in a highly public manner, chased around the building, libeled in secretive "security" reports; it's the small things too. Like if a targeted individual goes to the front reception desk where membership cards are sold and renewed annually, the receptionist, Kim, may huff and puff to express her exasperation at having to answer a mere question (for twenty something dollars an hour). The targeted individual then has a choice: absorb the abuse or risk having security called to write them up in the City's security database. Enough of these episodes and most people leave and don't come back. (A guy from Iran used to play chess at Carnegie and he told us that he was once in a cue at a government office in Iran and had an argument with another person in the cue. When it was his turn at the wicket, the government worker asked him his name and he realized that it would not be healthy to give his name as a security report would probably be written about the argument.)

One security guard, Ty, when angrily barring a woman who says she had never seen him before in her life, made comments revealing that he was being incited by Penny Ballem and Mayor Robertson to get dissidents out of the building.

T. Kwan is a Carnegie member who recently encountered an environment of hostility, embarrassment, and humiliation, after complaining to his MLA Jenny Kwan about unfair treatment by City management at Carnegie. Kwan, who is still dealing with the effects of a nervous breakdown he suffered at 9 years old when his mother died, told his MLA that he had been barred from City services at Carnegie for months on the basis, as told to him by security boss Skip Everall, that he had "a big mouth". When his MLA arranged for Carnegie management to allow him back into the building, he got the impression that Everall was gunning for him. Everall found an excuse to bar him a second time. Kwan has decided never to return.

There are eight million stories in the naked City. Robbins' is just one of them.

Judy Rogers still on City Payroll Despite Record of Fraud at Carnegie

Are you happy?  That's the question on promos in Vancouver stores where Mayor Gregor Robertson's Happy Planet Juice is sold.  

No, Gregor, I'm not happy.  In fact, I'm right pissed off that you still have on the payroll a woman who was in a supervisory role in relation to Carnegie Center fraud, disenfranchisement of voters -- Don't like who got elected to the Board? Bar him from the building -- and chronic civil liberties abuses including the City's own brand of sharia law for women.  

There is evidence at Carnegie that a woman can be barred from City facilities for showing confidence in relation to a man and that, in the Carnegie "court" in which the decision to bar her is made, a male's testimony is considered to carry much more weight than the female's, so much more in fact that it is not necessary to even speak to the female. Classic sharia. Sharia is so entrenched at Carnegie that even a man who has been accused of sexually harassing the female defendant in the past is allowed the privilege of advising Carnegie security on what punishment she should receive.

In one case that lacked witnesses, the claim that "15" anonymous witnesses existed was entered into the "security" report.  In another case, when the CBC asked Carnegie Director Ethel Whitty why an elected official was barred from Carnegie, Whitty concocted a story about him being a WorkSafe risk.  There had been no mention of a WorkSafe risk in the City letter barring him. Judy Rogers knew of these and other examples of fraud at Carnegie.    

But Judy Rogers, who we all thought had been fired, is still on the City payroll.  Judy Rogers is happy.

CKNW has learned the details of Rogers' severance package.  She got $572,000 and she will continue to get a car allowance, health and welfare benefits, and will remain on the City payroll until the end of May, unless she gets another job.

Who would give her another job?  

At least one of the victims' of the City's brand of sharia law practiced under Judy Rogers has now taken her case to the new City manager Penny Bellum. It is going to be interesting to see whether Bellum, a lesbian feminist-type with a boyish hair cut, is going to rubber stamp sharia at Carnegie the way Rogers did.  The impression I get from talking to this victim -- she started calling her treatment "sharia" after learning the term from bloggers -- is that she is going to consider her case outstanding until it is resolved, no matter how long it takes. Rogers may as well put this case on her resume because it's going to follow her around like Carnegie "security" reports follow Downtown Eastsiders.

 

What is it with the City's reward miles plan for abusers?  City managers or co-ordinators can be caught commiting fraud or grave breaches of public trust -- like Carnegie Security boss Skip Everall caught on tape barring a woman from an entire City building to teach her a lesson for daring to ask him his name so that she could appeal a barring -- and they keep on going and going and going on the City payroll.  They're a variation on Timex watch commericials: they give you a lickin' and they keep on tickin'.   

Bellum has specifically been asked not to renew Ethel Whitty's contract as Carnegie Director.  Once it is clear that you have been supervising fraud -- there is as much evidence against Whitty as there is against Rogers -- your career with the City should be over.  Over.

After covering these cases, I can no longer drink Gregor Robertson's Happy Planet juice.  Just seeing a bottle of it on a store shelf makes me gag.

Fired! Judy Rogers' Legacy of Corruption at Carnegie Center

Judy Rogers has been fired after ten years as Vancouver’s City Manager.Judy Rogers has been fired after ten years as Vancouver’s City Manager. While Rogers acknowledged to the media that it was not her choice to leave the job she "loved", Mayor Robertson was twisting his tongue into euphemisms: “Technically, it’s a cessation of her duties by mutual understanding.”

The firing has swept Rogers off the world stage as the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver approach. She had been a City appointee to the 2010 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee in Vancouver [VANOC]. Robertson told the media that he will announce her replacement soon. She will remain as Chairwoman of 2010 LegaciesNow.

A pattern of human rights abuses at Carnegie Center was ignored by Rogers

Rogers’ removal from VANOC has come as a relief to alleged victims of human rights abuses under her reign as City manager. VANOC Executive Director, John Furlong, was asked last month by an alleged victim of human rights abuses and fraud at the City’s Carnegie Center to remove Rogers as an Olympic organizer. For a decade, Rogers had knowingly allowed human rights abuses to occur at Carnegie Center in Vancouver’s low income Downtown Eastside. Downtown Eastside residents pressing to improve this situation under Rogers had as much chance of success as the Jamaican bob sled team in the Winter Olympics.

Rogers was at the $292,000 a year pinnacle of a triad of women earning six figure salaries under whose supervision the City’s Carnegie Center — the “livingroom” of the Downtown Eastside — has gained a reputation for being Vancouver’s Guantanamo Bay. One of these women, General Manager of Community Services Jacquie Forbes-Roberts, “retired” earlier this year after a lawyer informed the City in writing that her civil liberties abuses targeting a male Carnegie member (which had been widely publicized and were known to Rogers) were “contrary to the rule of law”. The last woman standing is Ethel Whitty, Director of the Carnegie Center.

Correspondence signed by Rogers as early as 2000 leaves no doubt that she was aware of a pattern of civil liberties abuses at Carnegie Center. Yet not one formal recommendation for change by residents has been implemented.

Here is Rogers' legacy: Low income people are routinely barred from City services at Carnegie Center and expected to serve their sentences, sometimes without being told what they are accused of, and virtually always without the right to appeal. In addition, there is evidence that the City Security database is being used to compile fraudulent information about Downtown Eastsiders, an issue that Mayor Sullivan was asked to ensure was criminally investigated. But the Rogers' administration may be most notorious for setting a precedent in allowing interference in election results; a homeless man who accomplished the feat of getting elected to the Carnegie Board was swiftly barred from the building and from Board meetings by City Hall. And let's not forget the atmosphere of blog-burning which emerged at the City under Rogers; a witch hunt for bloggers was carried out at Carnegie to expel those calling for a forensic audit and squealing to taxpayers when the poor found doors locked to richly-funded computer and educational services. And Rogers never stopped allowing the City's official website to provide a link to the Carnegie Newsletter which is subsidized by the City while giving a political opponent labels like “blog bozo”, “slimy”, a “blank”, a “four year old spoiled brat pissing his pants”, a “pest”, a “neighborhood snitch”, a “dismal excuse”.

Not only did Rogers do nothing to curb civil liberties abuses at Carnegie, she exacerbated the problem. She allowed Whitty and Forbes-Roberts to hire a new Security boss, Skip Everall, whose experience had reportedly been at a hospital mental ward. Now a Carnegie member targeted by Security for some real or imagined infraction, has about as much power as Jack Nicholson up against nurse Ratshit.

Rogers allowed confidentiality laws to be ignored when convenient

Not only did the poor who use Carnegie have little protection from civil liberties abuses, they also became accustomed under Judy Rogers to having little protection under British Columbia’s confidentiality laws.Take the case of the barred elected official, William Simpson. As part of a damage control strategy when news media began asking questions about the barring, Rogers apparently had no problem with Carnegie Director Ethel Whitty appearing on CBC Radio to announce that Simpson had been found guilty of posing a WorkSafe risk. Strange, there had been no mention of any WorkSafe risk in the official letter on City letterhead that Simpson had been delivered informing him that he was barred. A year has gone by and he still has not been informed that he posed a WorkSafe risk. But a hundred thousand radio listeners have been informed.

A woman who was barred from the Seniors Center for talking back to a notoriously abusive man has also had first hand experience with the approach under Rogers' reign that confidentiality could be disrespected when convenient. Everall avoided telling the woman that she was barred – even though she saw him at least twice on the date of the barring -- and she was instead informed by an alcoholic dumpster diver. When the woman complained, Whitty told her during a taped conversation that it was “not practical” for Everall to find her in the building to inform her himself. But it is apparently practical to break confidentiality laws.

Again, none of this is news to Rogers. Rewind to a 2000 case involving the mysterious barring that occurred a little too conveniently after a woman had spoken up about ongoing sexual harassment. Rogers personally handled that case and was aware that the barring had been executed on behalf of the City of Vancouver by a self-acknowledged ‘John’ who was vocal about his sex life with a prostitute when he volunteered once a week as a coffee seller at Carnegie.

Rogers lackadaisical attitude toward confidentiality in City institutions under her supervision may have caught up with her when it touched City councilors who have more power to create consequences than low income people with no money for lawyers at Carnegie Center. When City councilors attended an in-camera meeting about a $100 million loan guarantee to the developer of Vancouver’s Olympic Village, Rogers allowed an aide to breach confidentiality by telling the media that Council members had voted “unanimously” to support the loan guarantee.

When a confidential document was taken from that in-camera meeting and leaked to the media, an investigation was launched. Incomplete results of the investigation which was under the control of Rogers were leaked to the media, pointing to Vision Councillor Raymond Louie as the culprit. Louis was put in the position of insisting, ‘I am not a crook’, in the last week of an election campaign. He threatened to sue. Vision won the election. It was time to judge Judy.

It was not only City councilors who appeared ready to judge Judy, but ironically the union representing City staff whose backsides she had covered for years while they subjected the poor to civil liberties abuses. She had angered the Canadian Union of Public Employees during last summer’s strike when she distributed a confidential memo to City staff suggesting that rather than sincerely negotiating a new contract, CUPE was exploiting the strike so that the political left could win the next civic election. When the union-backed Vision-COPE party won the election, CUPE wanted Judy judged.

Rogers continued to cover backsides even when her own was being given the golden boot. The Vancouver Sun's Jeff Lee, who spoke to Rogers after she was fired, wrote, "And she made a plea for her professional staff and colleagues to keep their jobs, saying they were continuing to do good work in trying to wrestle down troublesome issues such as homelessness, poverty and the Downtown Eastside."

Good work? Too often there is no sign of work at all. David McLellan who took over as General Manager of Community Services after Forbes-Roberts got fired....typo, "retired", seems to have done nothing about fraud at Carnegie. Same goes for Deputy Manager Brenda Prosken. Evidence that the Security database to compile fraudulent information about Vancouver residents should have been pounced on instantly by these two. Mayor Sullivan was eventually asked to ensure a criminal investigation into one particular case involving the alleged retroactive entry into the database of 15 allegedly fabricated witnesses without names. A 16th witness -- the only one with a name -- who could contradict this claim of 15 witnesses predictably was not entered into the Security database.

Calls for a forensic audit of Carnegie during Rogers reign may have to be revived now that a taxpayer rip-off at Carnegie is re-emerging under McLellan and Prosken. The problem of Carnegie taking millions a year from the taxpayer but not consistently delivering educational and computer services was curbed to some extent when bloggers persistently exposed it -- but it was not curbed until after a coordinated effort by City staff to, as George Bush would say, "smoke 'em out", and bar bloggers from the building failed. This month and last month -- I've had several reports this week -- low income people have arrived at Carnegie on several occasions to find the computer room locked, even with the weather bitterly cold and people needing indoor activities. McLellan and Prosken have also not reinstated the homeless man who lost his right to enter the building after he got elected to the Board. At least one victim of human rights abuses at Carnegie would like to see McLellan and Prosken's heads roll along with Rogers'.

But that is unlikely to happen. Mayor Gregor Robertson, co-founder of Happy Planet Juice, who fired Rogers just four days after being sworn in as Mayor, says he will not be doing further house cleaning at City Hall. After sweeping Rogers out of the City Manager's office and off the Olympic Organizing Committee, Robertson says he's done.

Sweeping Rogers off the Olympic Committee will be easier than sweeping away the mess she leaves though. One alleged victim will be asking Olympic sponsors such as Coca Cola and RBC to ensure that complaints of human rights abuses at Carnegie are addressed before they lend their names to the Vancouver Olympics. The world is watching, and they may see a less than happy planet.

Firemen Douse Flames in Homeless Man's "Home"

A spot where a homeless man was living in an alley off Main St. between National and Prior Streets -- just north of the Pacific Central train and bus station -- went up in flames Thursday night around 10 p.m. "A homeless man and his girlfriend got into a fight and she came back and set his place on fire", explained a man standing behind the boarded up American Hotel next door watching the firemen.

Five fire trucks (one pictured above), a white van marked "Fire Investigation", an ambulance and at least three police cars arrived in the alley. A pedestrian said the smoke was about 50 feet in the air before the firemen hosed the site down. "The firemen had it out in no time", he said.

A dark-haired, forty-something, mustached man of Middle Eastern descent stood in front of the nearby T-Rex corner store on Main St. -- Muslims run that store -- talking to two other men as they looked in the direction of the smoke. "I hope some bums died," he said. "I hope all those bums died."


Remains of homeless man's place after firemen hosed it down.

Fire Inspector examines scene of fire. A charred post from the fire can be seen in foreground.

Firemen chat after Inspector finishes up.

Firemen chat in the alley.

Firemen Return on Saturday to Site of Fire

Did CFUN Host Shane Foxman Quit or Get Fired?

I fell asleep last night to the Coast to Coast show on CFUN radio and awoke this morning to the chatter of perma perky Shannon Nelson.

Shannon Nelson? I thought she left CFUN two years ago.




I noticed that after commercial breaks, the announcement was just plain: "You're listening to the CFUN Morning Show". Nobody was saying Shannon Nelson was "sitting in" for Shane Foxman. Then I knew.

Another one bites the dust.

I looked on the CFUN website and there was a short -- too short -- notice from CFUN management that Foxman had left to pursue "other interests". They also announced Shannon Nelson as the interim host. The chatter on the internet is that Foxman was fired. But some people are saying that he quit.

On Foxman's consulting firm website where he promises to teach you how to deal with reporters, Foxman's time at CFUN is conspicuously absent from his biography.

CFUN is being accused of lying to listeners by claiming on Friday that Foxman was off sick and would be back next week. He never came back.

I had wondered whether Foxman would last when he first took over the morning show about a year and a half ago. He replaced Pia Shandel. Pia's show was women-oriented, as are most shows on CFUN other than the late night Coast to Coast. So when Foxman, a sports junkie, made his debut, I thought, "This might not work." But I took a liking to him. I liked when he would invite a boy about 10 years old, a hockey prodigy and major Luongo fan, on the air to give the wrap up on the previous night's Canucks game.

Foxman was more daring than many CFUN hosts. Once, despite being half asleep, I was impressed when he took on Air Canada for absolutely shitty service. And to celebrate Hanukkah just after he started at CFUN, he aired a hilarious tape of a Jewish guy poking fun at Jews. I can't remember the content of the tape, just that it made me laugh and I told a friend later that it had made me laugh. Foxman could get away with that kind of humor because he's Jewish, I recall thinking at the time, but no other host would dare do that. He also had bumper music that made me laugh. Don't ask me what it was; it was early morning and I was often only half awake so I can't remember.

Foxman may have gotten tired of getting up at 4 a.m. to do a radio show at 6 a.m. I recall CFUN one morning this year announcing that he had slept in and would be arriving late. Pia Shandel told her audience that it was the early morning hour that made her quit the Morning Show. Shannon Nelson may be better suited to that early morning slot as she once said she is strict about her 10 o'clock bedtime. In fact, she once did a show about how to nudge out a dinner guest whom she anticipated would hang on well past her ten o'clock bedtime.

I know everything about Shannon Nelson from listening to her on CFUN, first her evening show and then her afternoon show when she switched time slots. She talked about her kids, Adam, Julian, and Tommy. She was honest about the fact that she never took to breastfeeding and didn't do it for too long, hating having "udders hanging off" her. She went back to work just weeks after her first kid was born, as staying home "bored the daylights out of me".

I know that Shannon has, as Oprah claims to have, "a forgivin' heart". Her previous husband, a stock broker, betrayed her by having an affair. I think his name was John or something, but his last name was Humphries because a caller who knew her slipped up and revealed it. You could hear Shannon getting stuffed up with tears on air when she would talk about how he broke up with her by saying, "Shanni, you're too much for me. You're too much for me." She admitted, "I was pretty busy", hinting that she had not given him much time (Dr. Laura, who is on CFUN at 1 p.m. is clucking in the background.) It bothered Shannon that she had been with a man who would "give up so easily." Her mother never forgave him and stopped speaking to him, but Shannon still gave him free haircuts. That's right. He would come over to her place and she would cut his hair and they would use the time to talk about their kids.

Shannon's listeners know quite a bit about her new husband too, George. She posted their wedding photos on the CFUN website. George, she once said, "has some money". He had better have some money, as she once said she would never consider going out with a man who "didn't have a job."

While engaged to George, Shannon moved into his house in West Vancouver, albeit with some resentment over his desire to stick her ugly piano in the basement. Before moving in with him, she sold her own house in Ambleside -- the one she moved into after her divorce -- for over $900,000. She was roughly 48 years old at the time and was taking trips with George to Mexico, New Zealand if I remember correctly, and other places, and seemed to be absent from CFUN for long stretches of time; I figured her days as a radio host there were numbered. Then she suddenly disappeared. Even though CFUN slogan is "Life happens; we talk about it," they tend to avoid talking about hosts that drop off the air.

Today, her fifth day back, Shannon Nelson was talking about how George had made the mistake of steaming brocolli, cauliflower, and peas together. The peas turned into mush. Shane Foxman could not compete with this.