 Vancouver councillor in the middle of foreign interference allegations speaks out | | |  | | | In November 2022, there was a protest outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in sympathy with protests that had broken out across China over its government's COVID policies.
Hundreds of people attended, with the Canadian Press reporting that “the crowd chanted slogans in English and Mandarin against the Chinese Communist Party and called on President Xi Jinping to step down.”
Among the people, there was new Vancouver Coun. Lenny Zhou, who tweeted his support of the event and pictures of signs that said, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” and “Stop Uyghur Genocide.”
Four months later, Zhou was frustrated by a Globe and Mail article where a person alleged he had supported the Chinese government as part of a broader article that said Canada’s spy agency believed China had been “grooming politicians” to run municipally and interfered in city politics.
(The person quoted in the Globe article making the allegations has since said he wasn't actually sure of the claim and apologized)
“I’ve been a big strong believer and supporter for democracy and free speech,” said Zhou.
You might argue it’s the response of someone who quickly wants to turn the page on what are explosive claims in a national newspaper.
Not so.
“I want to say something: this foreign interference, I think it’s real,” he said.
“All Canadians, we need to work together to define our democratic system.”
That will certainly be a national conversation in the weeks and months ahead as allegations of Chinese lobbying and influence in multiple levels of Canadian politics grow.
But on a local municipal level, it’s a conversation that has been going on for some time.
A debate over the Chinese government’s annual reception for municipal politicians was an ongoing source of controversy before it was cancelled. There are stories every election of lobbying efforts through WeChat and tallies of which politicians attend certain Chinese events or not. And the cold war between Kennedy Stewart and the Chinese consulate had been well documented throughout his term in office.
Predictions are a fool’s errand, but one can safely assume that in the weeks to come, all governments — local, provincial and federal — will face more questions about whether this dynamic should change and what tools governments should use in response.
One can also assume that Ken Sim, as mayor of Vancouver, will receive some of those questions.
But it’s also likely that some people will be caught in the middle in ways that may, on further inspection, not tell the full story.
“It’s not the first time I've received this allegation,” said Zhou.
“It won't be the last time either.” | | |  | | | 1. Homeless camps | | | Elsewhere, a big theme of the week was another continuing question in big B.C. cities — homeless encampments, what municipalities can do about them, and whether the province should be taking more action. Prince George city council voted to establish a centralized homeless camp, while in Nanaimo, Mayor Leonard Krog had some harsh words for his former NDP colleagues after a business owner was shot trying to recover stolen property from an encampment.
Read more | | |  | | | 2. Policing | A few years ago, Victoria voted against its police board's budget request, only for it to get shut down by the province. This year, they're trying again, with council voting to cut a couple of million dollars from a proposed $6 million increase proposed for next year — with the added complication of it involving a separate dispute with Esquimalt over jurisdiction. We'll see if this ends up in the hands of the province again.
Read more | | | |  | | | 3. Budgets | The season of property tax increases continues, with Cowichan Valley Regional District members looking at an 11.5 per cent hike, Oak Bay at 11.6 per cent and Campbell River at 10 per cent. One of the rare places keeping tax increases below five per cent was the District of North Vancouver — but council changed its mind after an outcry from residents over things the budget wouldn't fund, like soccer fields and a long-promised greenway spanning the entire municipality. Read more | | | | | |  | | | 4. Transit | The B.C. government found another beneficiary of its multi-billion dollar surplus they have to get rid of — TransLink — which was needing plenty of money to keep service levels up, with ridership levels still not back to 2019 levels. They got it — but outside of Metro Vancouver, there continue to be questions of the viability of region-to-region transportation options.
See the full dollar amounts here | | | |  | | | 5. Penticton | While a councillor raised eyebrows with his description of how much he thought his city's communication staff should make, a more lighthearted story from the municipality comes from a bike lane debate, where there will be a redo on the decision to cancel a project after a councillor confessed that he got confused on the wording and voted the wrong way. As one does! Read more in Castanet | | | | | |  | | | 6. Burnaby | Sometimes, a municipality goes full steam ahead with a controversial decision, and sometimes it backs down. And in the case of Burnaby seeking to build a waste facility on 21 acres of a current park, it certainly looks like the latter, as the city has issued a statement saying it is going to reconsider its vote to effectively approve it unless 16,250 people signed a form in opposition.
Read more in the Burnaby Beacon | | | |  | | | 7. Saanich | There are pushes in municipalities across the province for slower speed limits on neighbourhood roads, but Saanich has just gone further than most, voting unanimously to lower speed limits on nine separate stretches of road to mostly 40 kilometres an hour, with a few places where it will be 30. We'll see if (or when) other communities follow with their own action.
Read more in the Victoria News | | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you. | | | | That's it for this this week! In the meantime, check out the latest headlines at cbc.ca/bc and follow our municipal affairs reporter Justin McElroy on Twitter. And if you have any questions you might want answered in a future mailbag, drop Justin a line at metromatters@cbc.ca. | | | |
