A B.C. man convicted of sex offences involving a minor has won a new trial after the B.C. Court of Appeal concluded that the trial judge wrongly used questions about his sexual orientation to help assess his credibility.

In November 2014, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce found the accused, who can only be identified by the initials T.J.B. due to a publication ban, guilty of sexual assault, sexual interference and sexual touching of the male victim, only identified as S.S. due to the ban.

The judge found that T.J.B., a first-time offender and a close family friend of S.S., had actively groomed the complainant for sexual touching and made threats and promises designed to ensure the boy would not tell others about the misconduct.

S.S. was between the ages of nine and 10 years old at the time of the offences, between June 2011 and July 2012, while the accused was 20 and 21 years old at the time.

T.J.B. testified at trial and denied the allegations. The Crown’s case focused on the credibility of the complainant and the accused.

On appeal, T.J.B., who was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, argued that the judge had made a number of errors, including placing some weight on the manner in which he answered questions about his sexual orientation.

In a ruling released Monday, a three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal concluded that the questions about sexual orientation were unfair and irrelevant.

In her ruling, Bruce had said that T.J.B. appeared to be trying too hard to convince the court that he was heterosexual and found that his responses were disingenuous and contrived.

“By describing the appellant’s testimony with respect to his sexual orientation to be ‘disingenuous and contrived,’ I can only conclude she found it to be deliberately untruthful,” B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Peter Willcock said in his reasons for judgment.

“I do not know how she came to that conclusion, there being no evidence to contradict the appellant’s description of his sexual orientation other than the allegation that he engaged in homosexual acts with the complainant (which, being the allegation in question, cannot be assumed to be true for the purposes of weighing the appellant’s credibility).”

Willcock said that with certain limited exceptions, such as crimes involving deviant sexual behaviour, evidence of sexual orientation is not evidence of guilt and can’t be used to draw an inference that the accused is more likely to have committed the crime charged.

“There may be many reasons unrelated to guilt or innocence why a person may not wish to publicly assert their sexual orientation,” added Willcock. “Those reasons may be very strong in a small or religious community.”

Willock set aside T.J.B.’s convictions and ordered a new trial for him. His ruling was agreed to by Justices Richard Goepel and Gregory Fitch.

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An MLA has been ordered to hand over copies of communications, including e-mails, with her constituents in connection with a controversy over an organic composting facility near Lytton.

Northwest Organics, the company running the facility, is suing a number of individuals for defamation in relation to the Botanie Valley facility, which has generated some local opposition over concerns it has or will have odours and will encourage rats and pests.

The plaintiffs, dissatisfied with document disclosure by the defendants, applied for production of documents from “non-party” record holders, including Liberal MLA Jackie Tegart (Fraser-Nicola) and her constituency assistant, who are not named as defendants in the defamation suit.

They argued that Tegart’s documents were necessary to establish whether defamatory words were communicated to either Tegart, who represents the area in the B.C. legislature, or her assistant, what those words were, who communicated them and when the communications were made.

Jackie Tegart, Liberal MLA for Fraser-Nicola.

In response, Tegart argued that parliamentary privilege prevented release of the documents and that the demand was “overly broad.”

Her lawyer told the court that Tegart must be free to discuss matters of concern with her constituents and obtain their views and perspectives without fear of having those discussions exposed to public scrutiny.

But B.C. Supreme Court Master Douglas Baker found that communications flowing either way between constituent and legislator are not within a category protected by parliamentary privilege.

“It is obviously a typical activity of a legislator, wisely followed, to discuss issues with constituents and to seek their input and perspectives, but the courts have consistently concluded that such activities fall outside the ambit of parliamentary privilege.”

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Baker found there was no evidence that all of the communications were made with the expectation of confidentiality, particularly since some of the discussions or communications occurred in clearly public circumstances.

“In some instances, Ms. Tegart was part of an e-mail “loop” so that the communication was shared by others,” said Baker. “Moreover, when one either sends to an elected member publicly distributed flyers or documents, or communicates with the member respecting those documents, any expectation of confidence is unreasonable and inapplicable.”

Baker noted that while it was possible that a disclosure order would discourage constituents in the future from candidly expressing concerns to their elected representatives, such a concern was “speculative” and could not stand up to the benefit of a litigant obtaining full disclosure of relevant information.

“I understand Ms. Tegart’s wish for discretion in discussions with constituents and can respect her expectation that a degree of privacy will protect those discussions, but while that may prevent general or public disclosure, it cannot prevail against a legal obligation to disclose in proceedings such as these.”

But Baker also concluded that to grant the company’s application for all internal communications among Tegart, her assistant, her constituency staff and other elected officials would be a “document too far.”

“As any such communications would, obviously, be between non-parties and as no claims have been made against Ms. Tegart, (the assistant), or any of Ms. Tegart’s staff or representatives, I am not satisfied that the basis for such enlarged production is established.”

Baker also declined to order that the company be allowed to have its lawyers questions Tegart and her assistant as “non-party” witnesses, finding that they had taken a “principled” stand based on their responsibilities as they understood them.

The defamation trial is expected to get underway in August.

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Related

• Organics composter heads to court to force Lytton First Nation to allow road access
• Lytton-area compost operation generates odours and lawsuits

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A man has pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter in connection with a high-profile abduction and slaying in North Vancouver.

Tian Yi Eddie Zhang was initially charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping after the body of Chinese national Peng Sun, 22, was found in a quiet residential street in September 2015.

His trial had been scheduled to get underway later this month, but following discussions between the Crown and defence, he entered a plea Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver to the lesser and included offence of manslaughter.

Zhang, who has been in custody since his arrest, also pleaded guilty to the unlawful confinement of the victim and to the extortion of Cang Sun and Hau Li, the parents of Sun.

The accused’s pleas were entered before B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jim Williams, who verified that Zhang had made the pleas voluntarily and that he understood that the court was not bound by any agreement of the lawyers on sentencing.

Zhang, who was assisted in his pleas by a Mandarin interpreter, wore red prison clothing during the brief court appearance.

Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison but typically results in a shorter jail term. The length of the jail term depends upon a number of factors, including the circumstances of the offence and the offender.

Full details of the slaying will be outlined during a sentencing hearing expected Feb. 21.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team was called to the scene after Sun’s body was found in the 900-block Wellington Drive.

Three vehicles, a black BMW SUV, a white Bentley and a Chevrolet Malibu, were hauled from the crime scene on flatbed trucks. Only the Bentley had a tarp placed over it, prompting residents to suspect the victim was inside that vehicle.

Casey James Hiscoe, Zhang’s co-accused, is expected to make his next appearance in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Feb. 15. He was also charged with kidnapping.

Two other men who were arrested and charged with interfering with a dead body have had their charges stayed.

Zhang has also been charged with additional offences relating to a separate incident in Richmond two weeks before the slaying. He was accused of forcible confinement, assault and uttering threats.

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The case against a former Prince George schoolteacher charged with sex crimes against former students has been thrown out due to an unreasonable delay in getting the matter to trial.

In January 2011, a 66-year-old man, who is now being identified only by the initials J.H.T. due to a publication ban, was charged with six sex-related offences.

J.H.T, a former gym teacher and basketball coach at D.P. Todd secondary school, was alleged to have had inappropriate interactions with two female students during the 1980s.

The RCMP investigation, which was launched after the complainants came forward, resulted in J.H.T. being suspended with pay in September 2009 while he was employed as a teacher in the Surrey school district.

In May 2013, J.H.T. went on trial in B.C. Supreme Court, but several months later a mistrial was declared following the testimony of a Crown witness.

After a series of delays, including several change-of-venue applications, the date for the second trial was set for January 2017. 

Before the trial could begin, J.H.T. sought a stay of proceedings on the grounds that serious RCMP misconduct had caused him significant prejudice and that there had been a 73.4 month delay between the laying of the charges and the scheduled completion of the trial.

The accused argued that the delay was 43.4 months in excess of a 30-month trial-delay limit for such cases set by the Supreme Court of Canada in a ruling released last summer, and represented a violation of his right to a trial within a reasonable time.

He said that the mistrial declared in the case was not an exceptional circumstance that would warrant delay and argued that it was not a complex case.

In his ruling in the case, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ronald Tindale dismissed J.H.T.’s claim that a police error in saying the victims were 13 instead of 14 would leave the impression that he was a pedophile, since the age of consent at the time was 14 years.

“Quite frankly I cannot see how it would have made any difference whether the complainants were 13 or 14 years of age given that the allegations are of a teacher being charged with sexually related offences against former students.”

But while the judge dismissed the allegation of RCMP misconduct, he agreed that there had been an unreasonable delay.

Tindale noted that there was no evidence from the Crown that they had developed and followed a concrete plan to minimize the delay occasioned by any complexity.

“The Crown has failed to show that the complexity of the trial is an exceptional circumstance because they have not shown that the circumstances were outside of their control.”

The judge found that the mistrial in the case was attributable to the Crown, because the questioning of the prosecution witness revealed “inadmissible discreditable-conduct evidence,” namely that J.H.T beat up the witness when she attended a college.

In directing a stay of proceedings, Tindale concluded that there were 40-1/2 months of delay, far exceeding what was reasonable and that there were concrete examples of prejudice to J.H.T, including his suspension from his job. His ruling was given out orally in December and released online earlier this week.

The ruling is one of a series of trial-delay cases that have hit B.C. courts since the ruling by Canada’s highest court last July.

In December, the federal Public Prosecution Service of Canada told Postmedia News that it had had 17 applications to stay charges in B.C. owing to delays. B.C.’s Criminal Justice Branch said that it did not track such cases involving provincial prosecutions.

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A highly regarded, longtime piano teacher in Vancouver has been convicted of sex offences against five of his former female students.

On Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray found Yung Ping David Chen, 68, guilty of five counts of sexual assault, three counts of sexual interference and one count of sexual exploitation.

During or shortly after lessons in Chen’s piano studio in south Vancouver, the accused touched all of his victims on their breasts and kissed two of them as well.

The victims, two of whom are now piano teachers themselves, ranged in age from 10 years old to about 19 at the time of the offences, which occurred over a 20-year period.

She never told him to stop because she was scared he would hurt her

Police launched an investigation after one of the victims, who can only be identified by the initials M.Y. due to a publication ban, reported that Chen had stood behind her during a lesson, reached under her armpits and touched one of her breasts. She was 11 years old at the time.

Now 15, the girl — who testified by video link from outside the courtroom — told the judge that as he was molesting her, Chen would say he was counting the beat to the music.

M.Y. said that at first she thought it was an accident, but then he kept doing it. She didn’t tell her mother at first because she didn’t know how, and her mom kept saying how nice Chen was.

“She never told him to stop because she was scared he would hurt her,” Justice Murray said in her reasons for judgment. “On one occasion, he kissed her three times and said, ‘Good job.’ She testified this made her feel weird and awkward.”

After the kisses, M.Y. told her mother about what had happened and her mom contacted police, who started contacting other students of Chen.

The accused’s lawyer argued that M.Y. had an active imagination and had wrongly believed that Chen had a firearm and wanted to beat her up, but the judge noted the victim readily agreed she had no basis for thinking those things. Murray added that the girl had no motive to lie and was a credible and reliable witness.

Another victim, identified as R.C., testified that she called Chen, a family friend, “Uncle David” — a sign of respect in Chinese culture.

She said Chen started touching her breasts when she was about 16, doing it once or twice a lesson for a total of around 50 to 100 times. She started to wear a vest to lessen the impact of the fondling.

K.L., who began her lessons with Chen when she was in Grade 4 or 5, said that on one occasion while she was playing the piano, Chen came up behind her, unbuttoned her school uniform, reached in and squeezed her breasts. He did so in time with the musical beat so that it acted like a metronome.

Chen, who described himself as an old-school Chinese teacher who imposed his ideas on his students and sometimes yelled at them, testified in his own defence.

He admitted touching the students during the lessons to correct their posture but denied ever intentionally touching their breasts.

But the judge, noting that Chen was confrontational during cross-examination and made derogatory comments about the complainants, said Chen’s explanations did not make sense.

“Mr. Chen just changed and added to his story when he needed to. All in all, I find Mr. Chen’s evidence contrived and implausible and I don’t believe it.”

Chen, who shook his head several times in apparent disbelief as the verdict was read out, is to return to court Feb. 22 to fix a date for sentencing.

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A second man has pleaded guilty in connection with the abduction and slaying of a man in North Vancouver more than a year ago.

On Friday, Casey James Hiscoe made a brief appearance in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully confine and to accessory after the fact to murder.

The pleas were entered in connection tothe slaying of Peng Sun, 22, whose body was found in a quiet North Vancouver street in September 2015.

Details of Hiscoe’s involvement in the case are expected to be outlined during his sentencing hearing. The case has been put over to Feb. 22 to set a date for the sentencing.

Hiscoe’s pleas came just two days after Tian Yi Eddie Zhang, Hiscoe’s co-accused, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter and unlawful confinement of Sun, a Chinese man, and to the extortion of Cang Sun and Hau Li, the victim’s parents. Zhang’s sentencing hearing is expected Feb. 21.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team was called to the scene after Sun’s body was found in the 900-block of Wellington Drive.

Three vehicles, a black BMW SUV, a white Bentley and a Chevrolet Malibu, were takenfrom the crime scene on flatbed trucks. Only the Bentley had a tarp placed over it, prompting residents to suspect that the victim was inside that vehicle.

Two other men were also arrested and charged in the case but have had their charges stayed.

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A major dairy processor is suing the B.C. Milk Marketing Board and a dairy producer over the delivery of what it claims was more than 17,000 litres of contaminated milk.

Saputo Products Canada G.P, a Montreal-based dairy processor and cheese maker, says that on Aug. 12, 2013, the board provided 17,784 litres of raw milk to its Burnaby plant.

The next day, after Saputo had used the milk in its production process, the board and a lab determined that the milk was contaminated with an amount of bacteria in excess of the allowable limit, according to a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

“Prior to Saputo discovering this contamination, the contaminated milk had already been blended with uncontaminated milk in Saputo’s possession,” says the lawsuit.

“Consequently, a total of 223,230 litres of milk and cream was affected by the contamination which caused damages to Saputo related to 111,921 litres of packaged product. The board’s delivery of the contaminated milk to Saputo caused various damages to Saputo totalling $65,317.57.”

Saputo is required by law to buy milk from producers through the board and to make payment for that milk to the board, which receives that payment on behalf of the producers, says the suit.

Unless Saputo makes specific inquiries, it doesn’t know which producer produces the milk that it receives, says the notice of civil claim.

“In essence, the board is the monopolistic distributor of milk on behalf of all producers in the province of British Columbia. The board deprives Saputo of having any choice with respect to the producers from whom they buy.”

Saputo says that in April 2014, the board identified the producer of the contaminated milk as Chilliwack Cattle, which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

After the board declined to reimburse Saputo for the $65,000 costs, the company elected to deduct that amount from a payment Saputo owed the board for a subsequent shipment of milk, says the suit.

Saputo claims that the board breached its standard of care by failing to adequately test the milk it distributes and is seeking a court declaration that it was entitled to deduct the $65,000.

The company is also suing the board over the delivery in February 2015 of more than 120,000 litres of organic milk to Saputo’s Burnaby and Abbotsford plants.

It says that shortly after the delivery, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency advised Saputo that it was conducting an inspection of the milk to determine whether it was unfit for human consumption because it had been produced from cows whose feed had been contaminated by aflatoxin, a potent human carcinogen produced by moulds.

Nearly a week later, the agency notified Saputo that it had concluded its health risk assessment and determined milk co-mingled with the suspect milk would not pose a significant risk to human health, says the lawsuit.

But the delays in processing the suspect milk due to the agency’s investigation caused the company to suffer various damages totalling $26,303, says the suit.

The $26,000 was deducted from a payment subsequently made by Saputo to the board, says the writ.

Saputo says it was informed that the producer of the suspect milk was Cedar Valley Farms, owned by Cedarwal Farms Ltd., which is also named as a defendant in the company’s lawsuit.

No responses have been filed to the lawsuit, which contains allegations that have not been tested in court.

B.C. Milk Marketing Board spokesman Robert Delage said the board is seeking outstanding payments owed from Saputo to the board.

“We cannot get into the details at this time, but we look forward to the matter being resolved in the near future,” Delage said.

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A judge has declined to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Concord Pacific over an alleged agreement to develop some of the former Expo lands in Vancouver.

In 1989, Concord Pacific, one of the largest real estate developers in Canada and the owner of the site for the Expo 86 world fair, sold a portion of the site known as the Plaza of Nations for $40 million to Hong Leong Oei, a businessman from Singapore.

Court heard that over the past 25 years, Oei and Terry Hui, the president and CEO of Concord, had had discussions about the possibility of Oei either selling the Plaza land back to Concord or entering into a joint venture to develop the land on the north shore of False Creek.

Concord Pacific Acquisitions Inc., a member of the Concord Pacific Group, alleges in its lawsuit that it entered into one of three alternate but distinct contracts with the defendants, and it seeks to enforce the deal.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Oei, Hong Kong Expo Holdings Ltd., which has Oei as its sole shareholder, and Canadian Metropolitan Properties Corp., which has Expo as its sole shareholder.

The contracts allegedly had Concord acquiring a 50-per-cent interest in the Plaza land, which is currently valued at $500 million, with the parties jointly developing the property.

The defendants applied to dismiss the plaintiff’s claim, arguing that despite the fact that there were numerous conflicts in the evidence of the parties that were material, the court could take the plaintiff’s case “at its highest” in weighing that claim. They argued that plaintiff could not succeed on its claim.

The plaintiffs argued in response that it was not open to the court to decide the case on “assumed facts” and said that the defendant’s suggestion that the court decide the issue by taking the plaintiff’s evidence “at its highest” was the wrong approach.

In a ruling released Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Voith sided with Concord Pacific.

“I consider, based on the authorities that I have referred to, that it is not open to me to sidestep those conflicts by either relying on only a portion of the evidence in the record, or by assuming certain facts or by taking the plaintiff’s case at its highest.”

One of the conflicts was the question of who would pay the “land profit tax” that Oei or his companies would have to pay on account of the gain in the value of the lands from the time of purchase in 1989 to to value of the property at the time of the purported transaction.

In reaching his decision, the judge noted that there were a number of factors that went against him agreeing to the “summary trial” application of the defendants, including the amounts of money involved.

‘The Plaza land was valued by the parties at $500 million. The transaction between the parties was described by the defendants as ‘a billion-dollar deal.’ Concord asserts that the damages at issue, though not raised directly on this application, ‘will likely exceed a hundred million dollars.'”

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A prosecutor urged a judge Thursday to reject the denials of three teenagers accused in the fatal swarming attack of another teen in Whistler.

In final submissions, Crown counsel Hank Reiner told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Terence Schultes that three youths’ testimony that they were not to blame for the May 2015 stabbing of Luka Gordic, 19, of Burnaby was not credible. The youths cannot be identified due to a publication ban.

Court heard that all three teens had blood from the victim on their boots or clothing, with one of the teens being arrested with a knife with the victim’s DNA on it in his possession.

Each gave explanations — including that the blood was transferred by contact with another teen or that the evidence was contaminated by police handling — for the presence of Gordic’s blood on them.

But Reiner told the judge their explanations were “unworthy of belief” and asserted that the blood found on all three accused links them “incontrovertibly” to the attack.

“They looked for Luka Gordic together, they attacked together, they fled together, they were arrested together,” said Reiner.

Two of the teens have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. The third teen, the youth found with the knife in his possession, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Luka Gordic, shown in an undated photo, was 19 years old when he died in a stabbing in Whistler.

The prosecutor said there was “overwhelming” evidence that the attack had been planned by Arvin Golic, a fourth accused who is being tried separately, and that Golic had recruited the others to help him find and assault the victim.

He said Golic was motivated by a “misplaced” anger towards Gordic that was triggered by Gordic letting it be known that it was uncool of Golic to browbeat and bully his ex-girlfriend.

“The ineluctable conclusion is that Arvin Golic was the architect of the assault and that Arvin Golic put all the attackers up to it; he recruited that group to assault Luka Gordic.”

Prior to the attack, Golic and the three accused on trial were all staying in the same residence for a weekend of partying in Whistler and all three “shared bonds of friendship,” said Reiner.

The three accused claimed they didn’t know anything about Golic’s planned attack but the prosecutor said that the evidence proved those claims were “demonstrably untrue,” he said.

“In the Crown’s submission it is impossible to believe that anyone present with Arvin Golic would not have been aware of his activities and his mood.”

The teen arrested with the knife testified he was so intoxicated that he remembered nothing of the fatal attack.

But Reiner said the teen was a “very good” friend of Golic, was with Golic before and during a search by Golic for Gordic prior to the attack and is clearly identified by eyewitnesses and a video outside a Whistler restaurant as being one of the primary attackers.

“The evidence seems clear and compelling that (the teen) acted as he did because he completely identified with Arvin Golic’s misplaced grievance and the other two are part of a larger contingent recruited by Arvin Golic to attack Luka Gordic.”

Reiner told the judge it was “very much” a circumstantial case with much of the evidence being applicable to all three accused.

He said the case was both factually multi-faceted and legally complex and urged the judge to consider each piece of evidence in the context of all of the other pieces of evidence. Reiner’s submissions are expected to continue Friday.

A ban on the identity of Golic during the trial of the three other teens was lifted after Golic re-elected to be tried by judge alone instead of by a jury. The trial of Golic, who was 18 at the time of the slaying and is charged with second-degree murder, is expected to get underway in March.

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Related

• Accused teen did not participate in deadly swarming attack on Luka Gordic: defence lawyer
• Lawyer claims accused assaulted during break in Whistler murder trial
• Teen was threatened over phone before fatal Whistler stabbing, friend says
• Three teens go on trial in connection with Luka Gordic's swarming death in Whistler

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A bed-bound quadriplegic man who feared he might end up homeless after receiving an eviction notice is grateful that a judge has given him a reprieve.

In December, Guy Trevor Williamson, 54, received a “notice to end tenancy” from his landlord, Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation, for non-payment of rent.

Williamson, who relies on disability benefits from the B.C. government, and his mother had shared the rent for their east Vancouver townhouse on Corsica Way until she died in August.

The landlord, a non-profit organization that provides affordable housing for low- and middle-income people, attempted to deduct rent from Williamson’s mom’s bank account in December, but the payment was rejected because there were insufficient funds.

The housing corporation then issued the eviction notice to Williamson, whose benefits were only paying for $400 of the roughly $1,000 a month rent.

Williamson tried unsuccessfully to get a subsidy so that he could stay in the home, where he has lived since 2003.

With the help of an occupational therapist case manager with Vancouver Coastal Health, he went to the residential tenancy branch in a bid to cancel the eviction order.

But an arbitrator with the residential tenancy branch refused to grant him any relief after finding he had filed his challenge to the eviction order too late, a finding Williamson claims was in error. The arbitrator issued an “order of possession” for the housing corporation and he was ordered to move out by Feb. 15.

Guy Williamson gets the news on Friday from his lawyer, Joshua Prowse of the Community Legal Assistance Society, that he has won a reprieve from a B.C. Supreme Court judge regarding his eviction notice.

With the help of a lawyer with the Community Legal Assistance Society, Williamson filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court seeking to overturn the eviction order.

He also filed an application for a stay of the order until the matter could be addressed fully in court.

And on Thursday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Grauer, after weighing the “balance of convenience” and the potential prejudice to each party, put a temporary stop to the eviction order. Metro Vancouver, which was not represented at the hearing, is entitled to appeal the stay.

“I’m so thankful,” Williamson said Friday. “I don’t know whether it was on a compassionate basis or based on what he thought the facts were. I was just so grateful. The thought of having a bailiff or a sheriff come to your door, it’s intimidating but it also makes you feel shameful.”

Williamson, who has unsuccessfully tried to get wheelchair-accessible accommodations for several years, believes he has been targeted by one or two people in the landlord’s office.

“I’m hoping to get it to cooler heads to negotiate a settlement outside the courts. Not only is the rent issue my concern, but the living conditions as well as the accessible housing issue are also at stake.”

Williamson, a father of three, said he was “pretty high functioning” until around 2010 when one day he got up, went to the washroom and suddenly fell to the floor. He was in bed for a month and went to the hospital, and eventually it was determined he had broken several vertebrae in his back.

He lives at the townhouse with one of his sons, who has serious mental health issues.

Joshua Prowse, a lawyer with the society, a non-profit legal office that provides services to low- and moderate-income people, said he believes that Williamson has somehow fallen through the cracks in the system.

“We don’t want to be very litigious with this. We’re very hopeful that somebody will take another look at this and we can all come to some compromise. Nobody wants somebody in Guy’s position to be put out of their home.”

No response has been filed to the petition, which contains allegations that have not been tested in court.

“We can’t comment on the particulars due to confidentiality, other than to indicate the tenant is appealing an order that has been granted by the Residential Tenancy Branch which we believe is well supported,” Don Bradley of Metro Vancouver said in an e-mail. “As the matter is in litigation, we’re not able to comment further.”

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Related

• B.C. judge urged to reject denials of three teenagers accused in death of teen in Whistler
• Dairy company Saputo sues B.C. milk board over delivery of contaminated milk
• Vancouver piano teacher found guilty of sex offences against five young female students

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A Surrey man testified Monday that Vancouver police repeatedly punched and kicked him, then wrongfully arrested him in a case of mistaken identity.

Solomon Akintoye, 33, said he was walking down Richards Street in downtown Vancouver on his way to a job on April 18, 2011 when a police vehicle pulled up beside him, with one of the two officers telling him they were looking for someone who looked like him.

He told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Margot Fleming that Const. Jennifer White and another officer got out of the vehicle and White asked him for his identification and he complied, providing the officer with an Ontario health card since he had only recently moved to B.C.

Akintoye said that White went back to the police cruiser to check his ID and then came back and asked him for the spelling of his last name.

The other officer, Const. Jeremiah Birnbaum, told him to move closer and then told him to take his hand out of his pocket, Akintoye told the judge.

Birnbaum told him, ‘If you don’t want to be an a…..e, take your hand out of your pocket,’ ” said Akintoye.

The plaintiff said he was using his hand to keep his pants up because he had forgotten to wear a belt and didn’t want to remove his hand from the pocket.

Then Birnbaum grabbed his hand and pinned him against the police vehicle and used his other hand to use his cellphone to call for backup, said Akintoye.

When other officers arrived at the scene, Akintoye, who had been forced to the ground, said he was punched repeatedly and kicked by the police.

“I was punched from up and down. I was kicked with boots on my leg, my stomach. My head was smashed on the ground.”

Akintoye, who moved to Ontario from Nigeria in 2003 and is now a Canadian citizen, said that throughout the beating he remembered saying the word “pain” to the officers.

“I was saying it very loud. That pain was heavy. I don’t know what kind of sin I committed to face that kind of beating.”

Akintoye, who is being represented by lawyers with the Pivot Legal Society, said he was put in a police wagon, taken to jail and held overnight. He was released after it was determined that police had gotten the wrong man. He claims his mental health issues were worsened by the incident and he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia.

Neil Chantler, a lawyer for Akintoye, told the judge that the case would require a close examination of the law surrounding police powers on an investigative detention and when it is reasonable for police to perceive that officer safety is at risk.

“In particular, you will be called upon to determine whether it was reasonable for police officers to use any force at all against the plaintiff and, if it was, whether the force used was reasonable in the circumstances.”

Bronson Toy, a lawyer for the defendant City of Vancouver, questioned Akintoye about a prior decision by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal that dismissed his claims that he’d been attacked by police in a case of racial profiling.

Toy suggested that Akintoye had resisted arrest and had kicked out at the officers, a suggestion denied by the plaintiff. The trial is expected to continue Tuesday.

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Peng Sun thought he was going to a party and even brought a gift for the man who invited him to the North Vancouver home.

But when the young man arrived at the house, he was escorted to a basement room that had been covered in plastic.

He was grabbed and tied up and held captive while his parents in China were subjected to ransom demands.

The victim was put on the phone to his parents at one point, telling his father, “Dad, someone has a gun to my head, they want money.”

During another call, the dad was told that if he did not deliver on the $2.5 million ransom demand, his son’s fingers would be cut off one at a time.

The dramatic tale was outlined Tuesday during the sentencing of Tian Yi Eddie Zhang, 24, who pleaded guilty to the September 2015 manslaughter of Sun, 22.

Zhang also pleaded guilty to the extortion of Sun’s parents. He was initially charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder.

Court heard that while Zhang, who had no prior record, was at the heart of the scheme, he did not expect the victim to be killed and did not participate in the actual slaying.

In imposing sentence a 14-year jail term on the accused, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes called the offences “horrendous and very sad” and noted that they were planned and motivated by greed.

“The confinement involved horrifying conditions for Mr. Sun, who must have been terrified,” said the judge.

The judge accepted a joint submission on sentence from Crown and defence and noted that the jail term was at the high end of the range for manslaughter and reflected Zhang’s “high moral culpability” for the crime.

Zhang’s involvement began when his associate, Casey James Hiscoe, introduced him to a man only identified by the name Jay, who was looking to make money by undertaking a kidnapping by ransom.

The accused was to provide Jay with potential targets and Jay would select an individual to kidnap, according to an agreed statement of facts read into court by Crown counsel Jeremy Hermanson.

Peng Sun, 22, was kidnapped and killed in North Vancouver in 2015.

Jay chose Sun, whom Zhang had known since 2012, as their intended victim. Zhang knew Sun came from a family of some means and believed the family would be able to pay a significant ransom, said Hermanson.

The uninhabited North Vancouver home of Zhang’s uncle was chosen as the site where the group would hold Sun for ransom.

Following the series of ransom phone calls, the victim’s family transferred nearly $340,000 to a Chinese bank account specified by Zhang.

 Zhang returned to the basement at one point to find Sun lying face down on the ground, being tasered by one of his attackers.

The victim, whose hands and feet were bound and his face nearly covered in duct tape, was motionless and the group later ascertained he was in fact dead. He’d been strangled by a zap strap tightened around his neck.

Zhang was later arrested on a quiet street in North Vancouver after the victim’s body, wrapped in a tarp, was transferred from the trunk of Sun’s Bentley to the trunk of Zhang’s rental car.

One of the ransom calls referred to a gun, but no firearm was recovered.

Zhang, who also pleaded guilty to an unlawful confinement of a money exchange operator in Richmond, will have just under 12 years in jail to serve after receiving credit for pre-sentence custody. He is a permanent resident in Canada and will likely be deported after serving out his sentence.

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In a victim impact statement read out by Hermanson, Sun’s father, Cang Sun, said his son, who came to Canada to further his education, was “innocently killed” and would never have hurt anyone.

“Why are the criminals so cruel?” asked the dad.

In her victim impact statement, Hui Li, the mother of the victim, said her tears cannot stop flowing after the loss of her son.

“Although I am still alive, I have lost all of my hope,” she said. Sun’s wife, who has returned to China, also provided a victim impact statement saying she was devastated by the loss of her husband.

David Milburn, a lawyer for Zhang, said there was no doubt the crime was “callous and reprehensible” but emphasized that Zhang himself did not plan the crime and was not the “operating mind” behind it.

Zhang, who is married and has a 16-month old son, said he was full of shame and apologized to the victim’s family.

“I am sickened every time I reflect on my part in causing this tragedy.”

The victim’s family earlier criticized the plea deal, saying they feared that justice would not be served, but B.C. Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin said in an email that the deal was reached after a “full and careful” review of all of the facts.

“While we respect the views of the family, we hope that ultimately they will appreciate the considerations that went into the decision in this case,” said McLaughlin, who added that if police provide a further report implicating other potential accused, the Crown will conduct a further charge assessment.

Hiscoe, who has also entered guilty pleas, is to be sentenced at a later date.

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If CN Rail gets its way, one of the most popular seawalls in West Vancouver may be off limits to the public.

The District of West Vancouver says it is challenging a bid by the Canadian National Railway to shut down access to much of the Centennial Seawalk that runs along a railway corridor after CN sought to charge the district $3.7 million in rent per year for use of the waterfront attraction.

The Centennial Seawalk is of particular importance to local seniors, walkers with canes and the handicapped, said local walker Molly Culey. “This is the only part that no dogs are allowed on, so people who are handicapped can use it, no dogs, scooters, bicycles on this section. It’s the only section that is kept like this,” said Culey, who was alarmed by the news.

Negotiations between the district and CN over the future of the Seawalk broke down recently, resulting in CN terminating its leases with the district on Feb. 17 and filing a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

The district has responded to the lawsuit by filing an application at the Canadian Transportation Agency (the agency is a federal tribunal with jurisdiction to resolve issues related to public transportation) seeking the continued use of the 1.7 kilometre Seawalk, which was built nearly 50 years ago as part of the celebration of Canada’s centenary.

“CN has made it clear that it considers itself entitled to “market rents” for the land used by the Seawalk and has proposed an annual rent of $3.7 million,” says the district’s application filed Wednesday.

“West Vancouver has not been provided with support for the $3.7 million amount, but understands that most of the amount relates to the Seawalk and is based on the market value of nearby residential properties, which are premier waterfront properties in West Vancouver and happen to be among the most expensive real estate in Canada.”

A similar cash-grab by CP Rail in Vancouver brought about 15 years of bitter fighting between residents who were using the Arbutus corridor as a garden and walkway, CP and the City of Vancouver. The city eventually paid CP $55 million for the land.

The district says that even though West Vancouver proposed to CN an annual rent of $12,500 for the Seawalk crossing, indexed for inflation going forward, it believes that due to its long usage of the railway right-of-way and the absence of any real or appreciable injury or damage to CN or its property, no compensation is necessary.

“Further, West Vancouver believes that its expenditures on the Centennial Seawalk and in particular, the placement of protective rip-rap along the shoreline of the Burrard Inlet benefits CN by protecting its track and roadbed.”

At issue is about 1,100 metres of the Seawalk that was constructed in the late 1960s on the right-of-way owned at the time by the Pacific Great Eastern Railway Company.

PGE, owned by the province, eventually became B.C. Rail, also provincially-owned, and in 2004 the B.C. government sold the railway operation to CN but retained ownership of the railway right-of-way, which was leased to CN on a long-term basis.

The district’s application says that the Seawalk has coexisted with the railway and been in continuous use since it was built, with rents starting out at $25 a year and increasing to $300 a year in the early 1990s.

Although B.C. Rail sought a number of rent increases, up to $9,523 in 1999, no payment has been made since 1994 and B.C. Rail did not request payments at any time after 1999, says the application.

“Public use of the Seawalk has continued since that time, and West Vancouver has continued to maintain the Seawalk, the rip-rap and the shore protection beside it.”

In September 2015, CN representatives met with West Vancouver and advised that CN wanted to “regularize” the lack of a written agreement and deal with compensation and “risk allocation,” says the application.

CN’s lawsuit alleges that since the 1960s, the district has constructed other works in addition to the seawall that encroach on the railway corridor along the waterfront, including parking stalls, sidewalks, walking trails, a community gazebo and landscaping.

After terminating the district leases, CN demanded that the district remove from the leased lands all buildings, machinery and other materials not belonging to CN.

“The district, and its servants or agents, continue to trespass upon the railway corridor and intend to continue the trespass unless restrained from doing so,” says CN’s lawsuit.

CN is seeking a declaration that it has lawfully terminated the leases and that the district works, including the gazebo and trails, constitute a trespass upon the corridor.

It also wants a court injunction restraining the defendant district from going on the lands and damages for rental arrears.

“The lawsuit by CN seeks both an injunction to restrain further use of the Seawalk and financial compensation,” says the district in an email response to the lawsuit.

CN could not be reached to comment.

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Two police officers are defending their actions in the case of a man who claims he was brutally assaulted and wrongfully arrested in downtown Vancouver.

Const. Jennifer White and Const. Jeremiah Birnbaum approached Solomon Akintoye, 33, because White believed, wrongly as it turned out, that Akintoye was a man she’d earlier investigated for fraud and for whom there was a warrant for his arrest.

The April 2011 confrontation on Richards Street escalated to the point where the officers brought Akintoye to the ground and called for other officers to help them.

Akintoye, who said he was walking to a job when he was stopped, told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Margot Fleming that he was repeatedly kicked and punched and had his head smashed into the ground during the confrontation.

He said he was thrown into a police wagon, taken to jail, strip-searched and then held overnight before being released.

But White and Birnbaum told the judge on Thursday that they did not use excessive force and claimed Akintoye who was argumentative, confrontational and yelling at them.

White said Akintoye was angry when she requested that he provide ID, but that he did produce an Ontario health card.

After she went back to her vehicle to check the ID on the police computer, Akintoye started yelling at her that he shouldn’t have been stopped and that police couldn’t take his ID, she told the judge.

Akintoye started walking towards the police vehicle and was told by Birnbaum to get away from the door, White said.

When Akintoye refused Birnbaum’s commands to remove his left hand from his pocket, saying that to do so would make his pants fall down, Birnbaum grabbed him and pinned him against the vehicle, she said.

Akintoye resisted an attempt to put handcuffs on him and White responded by giving him two knee strikes, she said.

Unable to “outmuscle” Akintoye, who was by then kicking out with his right leg in a “mule kick,” White attempted to take him to the ground but ended up falling backwards, she said.

“I lost my balance and I took him down on top of me,” she added.

Asked by City of Vancouver lawyer Bronson Toy what she was concerned about at that point, White said: “He’s fighting me, on top of me. I don’t know why. It’s just a full-on panic.”

After other officers arrived at the scene and pulled Akintoye off White, she said she returned to her vehicle and finished running the ID through the police computer.

She said she was shocked to discover at that point that Akintoye was not the man she was looking for.

Birnbaum testified that Akintoye, who is seeking damages from the city, was argumentative right from the beginning and gradually became more confrontational.

Under questioning from Toy, Birnbaum said he did not punch or kick Akintoye and did not see any other officers do so either.

Akintoye’s lawyers are arguing that the whole incident could have been avoided had the officers done a simple pat-down search of Akintoye, but Birnbaum said they never had sufficient control of him to conduct such a search.

The trial continues Friday.

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A man who was caught with a loaded handgun in a vehicle that was being impounded has avoided jail time.

Riak Kachuol, 26, was convicted of possession of a loaded or restricted firearm after the weapon was seized by police from his Nissan Maxima on March 20, 2014.

The .357-calibre Ruger SP101 revolver, which had five cartridges inside, was found in the front console of the vehicle after Kachuol had been given a roadside suspension in downtown Vancouver.

Kachuol, who had earlier been attending a hip hop show at a downtown club, denied any knowledge of the gun, but the judge didn’t believe him and found him guilty.

The Crown, noting a number of aggravating circumstances including that the weapon possession was in public near the city’s entertainment district, called for a 40-month jail term, arguing that the offence fell at the “true crime” end of the spectrum.

Kachuol’s lawyer acknowledged the seriousness of the offence but said the accused was a young man with a limited criminal record and no history of violence, and his future was “salvageable.”

The defence lawyer called for a conditional sentence to be served in the community, with a period of house arrest.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elaine Adair said there was no doubt that deterrence and denunciation were important sentencing principles in relation to firearms offences.

But she said they were not the only relevant considerations and noted that rehabilitation for Kachuol, who had received a suspended sentence for a prior conviction of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, was also important.

“I am not prepared to find, on the basis of the evidence presented, that Mr. Kachuol’s possession of the revolver was in furtherance of drug trafficking or directly connected to other criminal activity,” Adair said in her reasons for judgment.

“In my opinion, the evidence is too thin to draw any conclusions. I am also not prepared to find that Mr. Kachuol’s conduct should be described as that of an outlaw or a true criminal, who was carrying the revolver as a tool of his trade.”

The judge handed Kachuol a conditional sentence of 23 months and 29 days, to be served in the community.

The conditions include that he be subjected to house arrest for the first 15 months and be under a curfew for the remaining eight months and 29 days.

He was also ordered to perform 50 hours of community work service, not be in the company or presence of any known criminal associates and not possess any weapons.

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A teen who shot and killed a man on a Burnaby Street also attempted to murder a second man at the scene, a prosecutor told a jury Monday.

The accused, who was 16 at the time of the September 2014 slaying of 20-year-old Aladdin Ramadan and cannot be identified due to a publication ban, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, attempted murder and pointing a firearm.

In her opening statement, Crown counsel Linda Ostry said that the prosecution case rests on a second teen who was present at the scene and knew the victim.

The second teen, who also cannot be identified due to a publication ban, was earlier in the day hanging out with an acquaintance named Samir Mokhtar and saw the victim with another young man in front of the victim’s home, said Ostry.

Mokhtar got mad as he and the teen continued to hang out and Mokhtar made a number of phone calls, arguing, she told the jury.

During the evening, Mokhtar and the teen drove to Surrey to pick up the accused, who got into the rear passenger seat of the vehicle, said the prosecutor.

The teen heard the accused say that he had a gun, scaring the teen, who asked Mokhtar to drop him off but Mokhtar reassured him and the teen remained in the vehicle, said Ostry.

When Mokhtar drove with the teen and the accused to Burnaby, they were travelling along the Lougheed Highway when another car driven by Ramadan pulled up beside their vehicle.

The two vehicles turned right onto Rosser Avenue and then pulled over to the curb, where the two groups of young men got out of the vehicles.

“We expect (the teen witness) will tell you that Aladdin Ramadan started speed-walking towards Samir Mokhtar and without warning, (the accused) pulled out his gun and shot Aladdin Ramadan towards the chest,” said Ostry.

“(The teen witness) saw the first shot hit Aladdin Ramadan and heard two more shots. He saw Aladdin Ramadan on the ground, not moving.”

The teen then saw a young man named Nicholas Andreatta, who was a passenger in Ramadan’s vehicle, approach the accused and try to kick the gun from his hands, said Ostry.

“The accused pointed the gun at Nick Andreatta and said, ‘Do you want some of this?”

The teen will testify that the accused pointed the firearm at Andreatta and tried to fire the gun but it looked like the gun didn’t work, said the prosecutor.

Mokhtar and the accused jumped into one of the vehicles and sped away, leaving the teen witness at the scene.

“(The teen) decided to remain behind. He was in shock at what had occurred. Nick Andreatta also stayed at the scene and the two of them remained with the body.”

Just by chance an RCMP officer on patrol happened by the scene shortly after the shooting and came upon the body and the two young men who had remained there.

Ostry said several neighbours in a nearby highrise will testify that they heard loud bangs or shots and looked out their windows to see the scene unfolding below them. 

The accused was arrested about a week after the shooting. He was carrying a loaded 9 mm calibre Beretta semi-automatic pistol in his waistband. The prosecution says the police determined the gun seized from the accused was the murder weapon. The trial continues.

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Victoria police Chief Frank Elsner says he was “shocked” at being suspended and devastated at the impact of a probe into allegations that he sent inappropriate Twitter messages to the wife of a subordinate officer and engaged in harassment against female employees.

In an affidavit filed in a new court action seeking to sideline the investigation, Elsner says that he is “deeply troubled” by delays in completing an external probe launched by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.

“I have experienced a great deal of stress and anxiety as a result of the various investigations which has worsened as they have dragged out,” said Elsner in the affidavit filed in B.C. Supreme Court. “I am under the care of a doctor, who I meet with once every few weeks. I have had to start taking an anti-depressant and my doctor is highly concerned about my blood pressure.”

Elsner, who is currently suspended after the allegations surfaced in 2015, said he would like to resign as chief constable, so that he can take care of his health and try to move on with his life.

“However, I am not a unionized employee and for reasons outside of my control, I am unable to negotiate the terms of my exit until these matters are resolved,” he said in the court document. “As a result, I am forced to wait for the conclusion of what seems like a never-ending investigation before I can resign.”

Elsner, who is awaiting a court decision in a similar application filed last year, complained about a fourth extension granted an investigator in January.

“What is particularly troubling about the delay is the fact that the investigation is only the first stage in the discipline process,” he said. “Once the investigation report has been submitted, the discipline authority will have to review the report and decide whether to substantiate the allegations.”

A series of news releases by the commissioner and the resultant publicity surrounding the case has had a “devastating” impact on his family, said Elsner.

“Out of respect for the process, I have not commented on the allegations since the external investigations were commenced. However, I find it extremely frustrating that I cannot defend myself in the face of these media reports. Even if the allegations are not substantiated, my reputation has been irreparably tarnished and I will never be able to return to work.”

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The chief, who was appointed to what he called his “dream job” in December 2013, said he was “outraged” that investigators failed to secure his notebooks, which he claimed contain “highly sensitive” information that could be damaging to the organization and people’s careers.

He said he believed his email account had been tampered with and questioned a decision by the investigation to order him not to have any contact with other members of the Victoria police, resulting in him becoming “increasingly isolated” from his support network.

In January, he was unable to watch his daughter participate in the Victoria city basketball finals because a police athletic fund sponsors the tournament every year and both on-duty and off-duty members of the department are encouraged to attend. In previous years he’d given out the trophy to the winner of the tournament, but felt with the no-contact order he could not attend.

“I was greatly disappointed that I could not attend her games.”

Elsner said he had concerns about an internal probe into the Twitter allegations, but accepted the findings as well as a discipline letter placed on his file. But he questioned the need for an external investigation and was “shocked” when he was eventually suspended.

Elsner’s petition in B.C. Supreme Court seeks a number of orders, including that the investigation be stayed. A decision by B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson in regards to the previous court action, a judicial review of the decision to launch an external investigation, has not yet been released.

Rollie Woods, the deputy police complaint commissioner, said that until the office receives some direction from the court, the matter is proceeding.

“The investigation by the police was completed on Friday, so the final investigation report was forwarded to the two retired judges who were going to review the final investigation reports and make their own decision based on the evidence, whether there’s sufficient evidence for anything to go forward to a disciplinary proceeding,” said Woods. “They’ve got 10 business days to make that decision. So we’re just continuing on with the process and if we receive some direction from the court to suspend the process, certainly we’ll follow the directions of the court.

“But at this time, the merits of the petition have not been argued, so we’re just going to continue on.”

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A Chinese woman has come forward to claim she was the common-law spouse of a millionaire who was allegedly murdered in West Vancouver and that he fathered her child.

The woman, who is only identified as “Mother 1” in a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, claims she is entitled to half of the estate of Gang Yuan, 42, whose body was found chopped up into 100 pieces in his home in May 2015.

Yuan died without a will, leaving behind an estate estimated to be worth at least $20 million.

Mother 1 says that she and Yuan first met in May 2004 in China and began dating and shortly afterwards she moved into his parents’ home and began cohabiting with him. After breaking up for a period, the two reconciled and began living with one another again in August 2007 until Yuan’s death, she says.

The mom says that she gave birth to the couple’s child in December 2008 and that while Yuan would often travel to Canada on business and she and the child did not accompany him on those trips, they would cohabit again when he returned to China.

In late 2008 or early 2009, Yuan told her that he was planning to move their family to Canada once his business became more stable, she says in her suit.

In August 2014, Yuan moved to Canada for an extended period of time to maintain his permanent-resident status and for business purposes, and the next month, the mom and the child, identified as Child 1 in the suit, obtained visitor visas to Canada.

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“Gang had advised the plaintiff that he intended to bring her, Child 1 and Gang’s mother to live with him in Canada in or about May 2015,” says the suit. “However, as a result of Gang’s death, this did not occur. After Gang’s death, the plaintiff and Child 1 went to Canada to attend Gang’s funeral. Since Gang’s death, the plaintiff has maintained a strong relationship with Gang’s family, often spending time with them during Chinese holidays.”

A lawyer for Mother 1 declined to comment on the case, saying in an email that he would be seeking a sealing order and a publication ban on the litigation this week.

A total of five women have claimed that Yuan fathered a child with them and that their kids are entitled to a share of the estate.

Two of the women, one of them Mother 1, are claiming to be Yuan’s common-law spouse and that he fathered a child with them. The five kids range in age between three and eight or nine years old.

Under estate law, if it can be determined that you’re the spouse of someone who died without a will, you’re entitled to half of that person’s estate. If one of the women succeeds in her claim to being the spouse of Yuan, she’ll get half of the estate and the rest will be split among the eligible kids.

All of the cases are being tried together as one case, but no date has been set for the court proceeding. Chris Johnson, a lawyer who is a co-administrator for the estate along with Solus Trust Company Ltd., declined to comment on the suit.

Li Zhao, the husband of a cousin of Yuan, was charged with second-degree murder after police were called to the scene at 963 King Georges Way in West Vancouver. His jury trial is scheduled to begin in May at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

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A B.C. man who fatally stabbed his mother’s husband has had his murder conviction reduced to a manslaughter conviction following an appeal.

In July 2015, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Robert Arthur Vernon Reeves guilty of the April 26, 2009, second-degree murder of Brian Baker, 61, in the family home in Granisle, a village on Babine Lake in northern B.C.

It was the second time Reeves had been convicted of the murder of Baker. The first conviction was overturned on appeal and a new trial ordered.

Court heard that on the day of the slaying, Reeves got into a quarrel with his mom, Vivienne Baker, over her cooking rice in a pot with a dirty lid. When Brian Baker, who was in the next room, told Reeves to leave his mother alone, Reeves grabbed a kitchen knife and repeatedly stabbed the victim, who bled to death.

The mom fled the scene and called police from a neighbour’s home. Cops surrounded the home and during negotiations seeking his surrender, Reeves talked about torture he’d suffered from chips implanted in his body by the CIA or a similar organization. He claimed the paranoid delusions had made him “snap” before stabbing the victim to death.

Reeves, who received the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility for 10 years, raised a number of grounds on his conviction appeal.

One of those grounds was that the trial judge, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lance Bernard, had erred in his instructions to the jury on the issue of whether he had sufficient intent to commit the murder.

The judge accepted the Crown’s submission that since there was no evidence linking his delusions to his ability to form the requisite intent, the jury should not be allowed to speculate on the matter.

In his ruling on the appeal that was heard before a three-judge panel, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Ian Donald said that the real issue in the trial was whether it was a murder or a manslaughter.

“The appellant’s telephone statement was to the effect that he lost control, ‘snapped’ because of the torture he was enduring, and he did not want to harm the victim,” said Donald in his reasons for judgment. “What was on his mind shortly after was clearly relevant to intent and had a direct bearing on the crucial issue of intent.”

The question before the jury was not whether the accused could form the necessary intent for murder, but whether he did in fact form the intent for murder, said Donald. “And for that, the jury should have been allowed to consider the appellant’s ‘troubling beliefs’ in association with his statement that he snapped.”

Noting that Reeves had already had two trials in the “tragic” case, Donald reduced the conviction to manslaughter and ordered that the case be returned to the B.C. Supreme Court for sentencing.

Justice Mary Saunders and Justice Pamela Kirkpatrick agreed with Donald’s ruling.

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A West Vancouver couple is going to court to get the district to cut down two large Douglas fir trees that they say pose a threat to their home.

Clare and Travis Ashclarke claim they were treated unfairly by district officials, who initially approved the removal of the trees — which sit on both the Ashclarkes’ property and a property owned by the district — and then withdrew that approval.

“The defendants withdrew approval for the cutting and removal of the fir trees in May 2015 in a high-handed and arrogant fashion,” says the couple’s lawsuit, filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

The suit says the “callous and vexatious” manner of the withdrawal and the subsequent “bad faith refusal” to personally attend the Ashclarke property, or properly consider any of the evidence of damage caused by the trees, warrants the imposition of punitive and exemplary damages.

Prior to their purchase of the property in January 2015 the couple obtained a property inspection report, which said the debris from the trees, which are more than 30 metres tall, was damaging the roof of the home and the limbs were providing a route to the roof for rodents, which could then cause damage to the interior of the home.

Several months after the purchase, the Ashclarkes say they contacted Krista Braathen, at the time an arborist employed by the district, to arrange for her to inspect the trees and to obtain a permit for the cutting and removal.

They say that Braathen came to their home and provided oral approval and permission for the work to be done and that in a phone call after the inspection, Braathen said she’d contact their preferred tree removal service to provide permission to cut and remove the trees.

But when Clare Ashclarke contacted the tree removal service several weeks later, she learned they had not been asked to cut down the trees.

When she called Braathen to find out what had happened, she was told that approval for cutting the trees had been withdrawn due to the width of the tree trunks, says the lawsuit.

The Ashclarkes were later told by a supervisor of Braathen that there was a moratorium on the cutting of all “high impact” trees on district property due to hot weather and the possibility of fires, they say.

In June 2016, the couple removed a rotting wooden patio deck that exposed the existence of a “significant network” of large roots emanating from the trees, says the suit.

“Upon discovering the fir trees’ root network, the plaintiffs became concerned about damage to their slab foundation and promptly contacted the district.”

The couple submitted a permit application to have the trees cut, providing information about the root network, but say they were again denied due to the moratorium.

In January, the Ashclarkes say they provided further evidence of the roots burrowing under the residence’s foundation but an official failed or refused to attend the property. 

An insurance adjuster retained by the district attended the property on Feb. 6, but has not provided any findings to the couple, says the lawsuit. In addition to damages, the couple are seeking an order requiring the district to remove the trees and their roots at the district’s sole expense.

A spokesman for the district said it had been served with and is reviewing the lawsuit, but has no further comment at this time.

kfraser@postmedia.com

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