The B.C. government is being sued over allegations that a girl was wrongfully apprehended from her parents and then abused after being placed in foster care.

The Public Guardian and Trustee of B.C. (PGT), an independent corporation that protects the legal and financial interests of children, alleges that on April 3, 2014, the girl was taken into custody despite there being no lawful reason for doing so, without the proper procedures being taken.

In a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the PGT claims that over a two-year period the girl was subjected to a series of acts of abuse while in foster care.

The allegations include that the girl was physically assaulted and abused by a foster parent and verbally and emotionally abused by a foster parent, including being the recipient of swearing and name calling. The foster parents are not identified in the lawsuit.

Instances of the abuse in foster care were brought to the attention of the director of child, family and community services or its agents, but no steps were taken to rectify or otherwise address them, says the suit.

During her stay in foster care the girl suffered abrasions, bruises and markings on her face, head and legs, permanent physical disfigurement, psychological and psychiatric injuries and conditions, stress and anxiety, sleep disruptions and nightmares and limitations in her emotional and intellectual development, it says.

The girl’s parents underwent a “long and complex scope of litigation” to have her returned to them and on April 25, 2016, the director released her back into the care of her parents, withdrawing all concerns and seeking no restrictions or ongoing obligations, says the suit.

The PGT claims that the government was negligent and breached its duty of care to the plaintiff by failing to provide adequate care for her.

It is seeking general damages for pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life and special damages for medical expenses. And it also wants damages for past and future wage loss and loss of earning capacity, and punitive and aggravated damages.

In addition to the director, the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

No response has yet been filed to the suit, which contains allegations that have not been tested in court. A ministry spokesperson said they are unable to comment on matters that are before the courts.

Responding to inquiries about the case, the PGT said that a parent usually takes legal steps to deal with an issue regarding a child but in some circumstances may not be able to do so for a variety of reasons, including being in a position of potential conflict of interest with the child.

“Under British Columbia law, the PGT may act as litigation guardian and the PGT determines that it is in the child’s best interest that the claim be brought,” said the PGT  in an email. “The facts and matters alleged in the notice of civil claim speak for themselves. We are unable to provide any further information about the circumstances of the child plaintiff in order to protect the child’s privacy.”

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A  young woman who was charged in connection with the fatal attack of another woman outside a downtown Vancouver nightclub last year has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

During a brief appearance in provincial court in Vancouver Wednesday, Samantha Nadine Doolan, 30, entered her plea in relation to the slaying of Lauren Lindsay McLellan, 28, near the Caprice Nightclub in the Granville entertainment district.

Doolan, who arrived at the courthouse pushing a baby stroller with a child in it, wept and was handed a box of tissue by her lawyer.

The plea came after a five-day preliminary hearing in June before provincial court Judge Frances Howard resulted in Doolan being committed for trial.

Samantha Nadine Doolan, now 30, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the fatal nightclub attack.

Crown counsel Geordie Proulx had called about 20 witnesses, including people who saw the attack and staff members at the club.

At Wednesday’s court appearance, defence lawyer Gail Barnes told provincial court Judge Harbans Dhillon that she wanted a pre-sentence report prepared for her client that included a psychiatric component. 

Barnes also asked that a report dealing with Doolan’s Aboriginal background be prepared for the sentencing hearing.  The judge ordered that the reports be prepared.

Burns McLellan, the victim’s father, and several other family members were in court Wednesday to witness the guilty plea.

“It was important for us to know that we were here at that moment, I guess, that she pleaded guilty,” the dad said outside court.

“This was a very big step for us because we really just haven’t been able to — it just brings everything back.”

The dad said that it had been a “particularly” difficult time dealing with the death of his daughter.

“It’s been virtually impossible for us to understand it. So we’ve been doing our best to stay together.”

McLellan said he also wished to show respect for what Crown counsel had done in the case and to other people who had offered the family help, including friends who attended the preliminary hearing.

“All of the friends who gave up time to be at (the preliminary hearing), I can only thank them for everything they did.”

He said that he and his family intended to be back in court for the sentencing, which is expected to take place sometime in the fall.

Full details of the circumstances surrounding the offence are expected to be outlined during the sentencing hearing, which is set to be heard before Judge Howard.

At the time of the slaying, Vancouver police said the senseless death had resulted from a “minor” altercation between the strangers inside the Granville Street club.

People inside the club were asked to leave by staff members and once outside, McLellan was physically assaulted, causing her to fall to the ground. The attack continued until the accused was pulled off of her by one of the club’s bouncers, said police.

The accused was arrested about 30 minutes after the attack as she was getting out of a taxi near Gastown. Doolan was charged with one count of manslaughter in October.

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ICBC has been ordered to pay special costs in a court case where a judge concluded the insurer had engaged in an abuse of process.

In August last year, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper found that the defendant ICBC had taken opposite positions in two lawsuits involving the same car crash.

Michael Yawney, the lawyer for the plaintiff, argued that the conduct was reprehensible and that special costs, awarded in rare cases where a judge deems the conduct is deserving of rebuke, should be ordered against the insurance company.

“Abuse of process can be a basis for special costs,” said the judge in a ruling on the costs issue released Wednesday. “I find that in this case, the conduct of the defendant is of the type from which the court wants to dissociate itself.”

The case related to an accident on Jan. 3, 2012, in which a Subaru driven by Kenneth Roger Leakey hit the back of a snowplow on Highway 97, about 70 kilometres north of Prince George.

Two passengers in the Subaru — Diana Glover, who is Leakey’s wife, and Penny Yeomans — were injured in the accident. They filed separate lawsuits against Leakey, who was represented by ICBC, his insurer.

In Yeoman’s lawsuit, ICBC admitted that Leakey was liable for the crash and settled before it went to a full trial.

Glover, the co-owner of the Subaru, was unaware that ICBC had taken that position and took her case to court. At her jury trial, ICBC denied that Leakey was liable for the crash.

The plaintiff’s lawyer discovered the inconsistency during the trial and brought it to the attention of the judge, who decided to await the outcome of the trial before ruling that ICBC had engaged in an abuse of process.

The judge concluded that legal principles including consistency, finality and the integrity of the administration of justice had all been violated. She granted judgment on the liability issue in favour of Glover.

ICBC opposed the order of special costs, arguing that a finding of abuse of process does not necessarily attract such an order.

But while agreeing that there was no improper motive on the part of the defendant, the judge rejected ICBC’s arguments.

“The repercussions of the abuse of process were widespread and of significant expense to the plaintiff, who had marshalled all of her evidence,” said the judge.

The assessment of the special costs however was postponed by the judge until the defendant had exhausted all avenues of appeal.

“We are reviewing the award of special costs and considering our next steps, which would include a possible appeal,” ICBC said in an email statement released Thursday. “The original decision on the abuse of process is under appeal.” The appeal is expected to be heard later this year.

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A man who pleaded guilty to crimes against two children, including an attempted abduction, has been sentenced to 40 months in prison.

On June 13, 2015, Nathaniel David Jessup, 28, entered the backyard of the home of a five-year-old boy in Surrey and while the boy’s father was distracted having a brief conversation with a neighbour, choked the boy to the point where he was rendered unconscious for a short time.

The dad found his son limp, his head flopping on his shoulder and his eyes partly open and rolling around in his head. He took the boy, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, inside where he was eventually revived.

A doctor determined the boy had lost consciousness for a few seconds to a minute, fortunately not long enough to leave him with brain damage.

On Sept. 4, 2016, Jessup grabbed an eight-year-old girl by the neck and lifted her from the ground as she was walking to her family’s car near Stanley Park in Vancouver.

Jessup started to walk away with the girl but had taken only a few steps before the girl’s dad intervened, forcing him to flee the scene.

Three days later, he sat down on a park bench near Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park and reached toward a two-year-old before the child’s dad intervened and called police. Jessup was arrested shortly thereafter.

The accused pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault in relation to the choking of the boy and one count of attempted abduction regarding the eight-year-old girl.

Jessup, who has a significant prior criminal record, also pleaded guilty to the assaults of three correctional officers, offences committed while he was in custody after his arrest.

The mother of the girl provided a victim impact statement saying that while the girl’s life hadn’t been changed dramatically, she was more scared to be alone and gets sad and cries when reminded about the offence.

In imposing sentence on Jessup Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Pearlman said he accepted the joint submission on sentence from Crown counsel Gail Banning and Jeremy Jensen, Jessup’s lawyer.

He said the fact that Jessup was on probation at the time of the offences against the children and on bail at the time of the attempted abduction was an aggravating factor.

“The fact that the two most significant offences involved children is also an aggravating factor,” said the judge.

Jessup, who has been behind bars since his arrest, was sentenced to 40 months in jail but will have only 254 days left to serve after receiving credit for pre-sentence custody.

He was also ordered to provide a DNA sample and to have no contact with the victims or their families.

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An insurance company has been ordered to pay more than US$180,000 in medical costs for a Victoria man who was denied insurance coverage after he had emergency heart surgery in the United States, on his return from a trip to Mexico.

In March 2011, Paul Fletcher, who was being treated for issues related to his heart, consulted with his doctors about his condition and was given approval for the Mexican trip.

Three days into his trip he began to experience chest pain which he felt was not subsiding even with the use of nitroglycerine tablets. He made arrangements for an early return to B.C.

During his return flight, his symptoms worsened and when the aircraft landed at a scheduled stop in Seattle, he left the plane and was taken by ambulance to a Seattle hospital.

A cardiologist diagnosed Fletcher with severe coronary artery disease and he was transferred to the intensive care unit at the Swedish Medical Centre in Seattle where he received emergency bypass surgery. 

The bill for his medical treatment came to US$181,140, which he sought to have paid through the travel insurance section of a group insurance plan provided by Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada.

When the insurance company’s agent denied his medical claim, Fletcher filed his lawsuit.

At trial, the defendant insurance company argued that Fletcher’s claim should be denied under an exclusionary clause in his insurance policy.

The clause stipulated that the policy did not cover losses for any medical condition for which before departure, evidence suggested a reasonable expectation that treatment or hospitalization could be required while travelling.

But in her ruling on the case, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Dorgan found that before departure, Fletcher had “prudently” consulted his doctors about his health and how his travels might impact his condition.

One of the doctors determined that a medical procedure known as an angiogram could be postponed until he returned from the trip, noted the judge.

“This action alone satisfies me that the plaintiff’s condition was considered to be stable and that his proposed travel would not pose any increased risks to his health.”

While a medical opinion by the insurance company found that Fletcher’s pre-travel condition was not stable, the doctor who provided the opinion was not the plaintiff’s treating physician, said the judge.

“I accept the plaintiff’s evidence that if he thought he was at risk of having a medical emergency while he was away, he would have cancelled his trip.”

The judge ruled that Fletcher was entitled to be indemnified for the medical expenses he incurred in Seattle.

Michael Velletta, Fletcher’s lawyer, said his client was “thrilled and pleased” that he can now settle his accounts and have the doctors and the hospital who saved Fletcher’s life paid for their efforts.

In an email, the insurance company said that due to privacy concerns it was not their policy to comment on any individual client claims.

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A lawsuit filed by Steve Nash against his former business partners over the continued use of the ex-NBA star’s name in connection with a chain of fitness facilities has been thrown out of court.

In his suit filed last October in B.C. Supreme Court, Nash alleged that there had been a breach of contract between his holding company, B & L Holding Inc., and SNFW Fitness B.C. Ltd, which runs the clubs.

He sought an injunction that would prevent SNFW from using his name or image in the future, as well as an award for damages.

But the defendants applied to have the case dismissed before it could go to trial, which was scheduled for Oct. 30 for 10 days.

And in a ruling released Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nitya Iyer agreed with the defendants that Nash’s notice of civil claim had failed to disclose a proper cause of action.

“I conclude that the plaintiff’s claim that the defendants’ continued use of the Nash endorsement is unlawful raises no genuine issue for trial,” said the judge.

Court heard that in November 2006 B & L entered into an agreement with Vancouver Bay Clubs Ltd. (VBCL), creating a licensing agreement allowing the use of Nash’s name on the clubs until March 2022.

In December 2009, VBCL and its shareholders, including B & L, entered into a deal with FWG Acquisition Ltd. (FWG). Under that agreement, VBCL sold some of its assets to FWG, one of the assets being the Nash licensing agreement.

In September 2014, CH Fitness Investors, one of the shareholders of FWG, gave notice that it intended to sell all of its shares in FWG to SNFW. Due to an earlier agreement among the shareholders, SNFW was able to acquire all of the shares of FWG.

The next month, B & L and Nash’s agent sold their shares in VBCL to Mark Mastrov, the owner of the NBA Sacramento Kings, and Montreal businessman Leonard Schlemm, both of whom were shareholders in FWG.

Nash signed the sales agreement and acknowledged that SNFW had acquired all rights to the license deal, noted the judge.

“The effect of these transactions was that SNFW acquired the Nash endorsement.”

In an amended notice of civil claim, Nash argued that once Nash was no longer involved in the ongoing business of SNFW, any continued use of his name was unlawful.

But the judge found that that argument, as well as several other arguments made by the plaintiff, all hinged on assertions unsupported by any evidence and rejected Nash’s case. SNFW, Mastrov and Schlemm were the defendants in the case.

There are 19 Steve Nash facilities in the Lower Mainland, one in Kelowna and one in Saanich.

Nash, who played for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles, was twice named as the league’s most valuable player, the only Canadian ever to have been so honoured. He is also an eight-time NBA All-Star and in 2007 was awarded the Order of Canada.

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A Courtenay man, convicted in a case in which more than 30 restricted firearms went missing, has had his sentenced reduced by 10 months to 30 months in jail following an appeal.

In November, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird sentenced Bryce Cameron Scott McDonald to 40 months in prison after he had been found guilty of 12 criminal counts.

Most of the offences dealt with the gun collector’s failure to properly secure seven registered firearms which were seized by police when they raided his home in December 2013.

One of the guns was loaded and found in his bedroom. For that offence he was sentenced to 40 months in jail, with the sentences on the other counts running concurrent to it.

Courtenay resident Bryce Cameron Scott McDonald, convicted on several firearms charges.

He was not charged in relation to the missing firearms, but in sentencing McDonald the judge called the uncharged conduct an aggravating factor that had to be taken into account.

McDonald, a Hells Angels associate, argued on appeal that the judge had erred in relying on the issue of the missing firearms as a factor on sentencing.

A three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal agreed with the defence and found the 40-month sentence was clearly unreasonable and excessive and represented a “substantial and marked departure” from the appropriate range of sentences.

In his reasons for judgment, Justice David Harris said it needed to be remembered that McDonald could not be punished for trafficking in firearms or for failing to report the missing guns which had resulted in some of them finding their way into criminal hands.

He said the offender could only be punished for improperly storing the seven guns seized by police.

“His attitude and conduct were relevant to his moral culpability for those offences, but only for those offences,” said Harris.

“Viewed in this way, and allowing for the proper use of the missing gun evidence on sentencing, it appears to me that the sentence of 40 months for the loaded gun is demonstrably unfit because, despite the judge’s stated intentions, Mr. McDonald was effectively punished for uncharged offences.”

Harris added he was aware of, and respected, the Appeal Court’s obligation to show deference to the decision of the sentencing judge.

“Indeed, I consider that everything the judge had to say about Mr. McDonald’s contemptuous attitude toward and flagrant disregard of the scheme regulation, his dishonesty, and the fact that these offences were committed by an utterly irresponsible gun owner were all amply supported by the record.

“Clearly, a severe sentence is warranted in all the circumstances.”

Justice Peter Willcock and Justice Gail Dickson agreed with Harris’s ruling.

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Former MP Blair Wilson has been awarded $125,000 in damages after a judge found that The Province newspaper defamed him in an article published nearly 10 years ago.

In a ruling released Thursday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jane Dardi cleared the paper of most of the allegations of defamation levelled against it by Wilson, but found it liable for one paragraph in the October 2007 story that alleged he sought a loan from his mother-in-law on her deathbed.

“Balancing the evidence as a whole, I accept that as a result of the publication of the deathbed-loan allegations Mr. Wilson suffered emotional distress, humiliation and the loss of his standing in the West Vancouver community and with his colleagues in Ottawa,” said the judge. “His tarnished reputation is a significant factor in the assessment of damages.”

Wilson, a Liberal candidate who was elected as an MP in the riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky in 2006, launched the lawsuit after several stories were written by reporter Elaine O’Connor.

The judge found O’Connor to be an “experienced and conscientious” investigative journalist who had spent significant time researching the story and had canvassed a broad range of sources.

“She approached her research diligently and with integrity. Her extensive notes also reflect the breadth of her investigative efforts.”

“The Province is gratified to have been vindicated in its overall handling of the articles,” Daniel Burnett, the paper’s lawyer, said in an email. “The court found the reporting was diligent and in good faith. The one paragraph in the article over which liability was found was corrected several years ago. They are disappointed in that part of the ruling and are considering their position.”

O’Connor’s stories detailed how Wilson had left a trail of debt that his critics claimed had left him unfit to hold office given his pronouncements that he was fiscally responsible. They also outlined allegations he’d violated election campaign finance laws.

At trial, the newspaper argued that the stories were substantially true and raised the relatively new defence of responsible communication to the allegation that Wilson’s reputation had been destroyed.

In her ruling, the judge found that everything complained about by Wilson was protected by responsible communication, but ruled that the deathbed-loan claim was false and defamatory.

The claim related to a $22,870 transaction in April 2007, described in the article as a loan from Norma Lougheed, Wilson’s mother-in-law, to Wilson just before her death the following month. In fact, the money was a repayment to Wilson of money he had loaned to his election campaign fund, and had nothing to do with Lougheed.

When the newspaper discovered the truth about the issue in January 2011 it published a correction.

The judge dismissed Wilson’s claims of defamation in the case against former MLA Judi Tyabji, who Wilson alleged had embarked on a campaign to discredit him.

She found that a former blogger named Steve Janke, who had published an anonymous letter that detailed allegations of election campaign irregularities against Wilson and which was forwarded to Elections Canada, had defamed the plaintiff and found him liable for $15,000 in damages.

After the stories came out, Wilson resigned from the Liberal caucus and from his position as National Revenue critic. He later ran as a Green party candidate in the 2008 federal election but lost. A lawyer for Wilson had no immediate comment.

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A North Vancouver man who was found guilty of sexually assaulting and assaulting his former girlfriend has had his conviction overturned on appeal.

In May 2015, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gail Dickson found Mohammadmahdy Hamzehali guilty of the offences against his ex-girlfriend, who can only be identified by the initials S.M. due to a publication ban.

The judge concluded that Hamzehali slapped S.M. over the face one day in May 2013, leading her to distance herself from him. She found that Hamzehali did not accept the decision and tried to continue their relationship, assaulting S.M. again and sexually assaulting her in an act of non-consensual intercourse.

Hamzehali, who came to Canada from Iran and has permanent-resident status, was sentenced to 23 months in jail followed by three years of probation.

On appeal, Hamzehali argued that there had been a miscarriage of justice primarily due to the “ineffective assistance” of his lawyer at the trial. A three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal has agreed that the cumulative effect of the lawyer’s conduct clearly fell below the standard of reasonable professional judgment.

The main issue on the appeal was lawyer Hubert Gawley’s handling of text messages between Hamzehali and the complainant and the decision not to cross-examine her on those messages.

Hamzehali’s lawyers on the appeal pointed out that Hawley provided the text messages to the Crown before they were officially translated and later informed the prosecution that he didn’t use the messages because he believed they had been manipulated.

The lawyers on the appeal also argued that Hamzehali was not properly informed that the Crown had offered a favourable plea resolution and of the potential consequences of convictions and a prison term on his immigration status. They also argued that the trial judge was wrong to later decline to reopen the trial on the basis of the failure of his counsel to cross-examine the complainant on the text messages.

In her reasons for judgment, Justice Elizabeth Bennett concluded that while some of the allegations against Gawley would not individually fall below reasonable professional judgment, the cumulative effect of them was to do so. She said that even if the outcome of the case was reliable, which she did not reach a conclusion on, the process through which the verdict was reached was unfair.

“In my view, Mr. Hamzehali did not receive a fair trial, and thereby a miscarriage of justice occurred,” said Bennett, who set aside the conviction and ordered a new trial.

The judge said it was not necessary to consider whether the trial judge, who is now sitting on the B.C. Court of Appeal, had erred on the application to reopen the trial.

Justice Mary Saunders and Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon agreed with Bennett.

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A Vernon man who was convicted in connection with an unprovoked attack on a man in a nightclub has had his sentence increased to 18 months in jail following an appeal by the Crown.

In March, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Crawford handed Lucas Allen Slizak a sentence of 90 days to be served on weekends after he pleaded guilty on the second day of trial to one count of aggravated assault.

On Sept. 21, 2014, Slizak sucker-punched Chad Westman at the nightclub, hitting him very hard with a closed fist.

Westman, who did not know Slizak, collapsed unconscious. Slizak then took several steps forward, raising his knee to hip level and stomping on the defenceless victim’s head. Slizak fled the scene as Westman lay on the ground in a pool of blood.

It was unclear why Slizak, who was not intoxicated, punched Westman. The assault occurred after a brief interaction between the two men.

Westman, who was hospitalized for two weeks, suffered a broken nose and a brain injury that left him with short-term memory loss. He also suffered depression and ongoing headaches as well as lost employment and employment income.

Court heard that Slizak, who had no prior criminal record, was a man of otherwise good character who was in a long-term, stable relationship and had a supportive family and a good employment history.

On the appeal of the sentence, the Crown argued that the judge did not address how the sentence, which fell “substantially” below the low end of the range for aggravated assault of 16 months to six years, adequately reflected the principles of denunciation and deterrence.

Related

• B.C. man receives six-month conditional sentence in human smuggling case
• 90 days in jail for dangerous driver who killed two people 'not enough,' says victim's mom
• Lethal drunk-driving accident nets three-year jail term for Vernon mother of four

The prosecution also argued that the judge wrongly characterized the offence as arising out of a fight that escalated out of control.

The defence argued that the judge made no such errors, but in a ruling released Tuesday a three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal found that the sentencing judge had failed properly to give effect to the gravity of the offence.

“The fact is that the attack on Mr. Westman was unprovoked,” B.C. Court of Appeal Justice David Harris said in his reasons for judgment.

Harris noted that Westman was a smaller man than Slizak and was hit so hard he was knocked out, after which Slizak stomped on his head.

“This latter part of the assault was a cold and calculated act. It was vicious. It is a serious aggravating factor of the offence. It led to serious injury, from which Mr. Westman has not fully recovered.”

Harris said that even though Slizak has nearly completed his 90-day sentence, it would not be unjust to impose more jail time.

“This is not a case of re-incarcerating someone who had completed a sentence or a case effectively requiring someone to serve a second sentence … The offence is a serious one and staying the sentence would be inconsistent with or potentially undermine the goals of denunciation and deterrence.”

Justice Peter Willcock and Justice Gail Dickson agreed with Harris’s ruling.

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Related

• B.C. man receives six-month conditional sentence in human smuggling case
• 90 days in jail for dangerous driver who killed two people 'not enough,' says victim's mom
• Lethal drunk-driving accident nets three-year jail term for Vernon mother of four

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A man who was arrested after Vancouver police seized four guns from him during a routine traffic stop should spend 45 months in jail, a prosecutor argued Wednesday.

Last November, Alexander Bell pleaded guilty to four firearms-related counts in connection with an incident in downtown Vancouver on April 5, 2014.

On that date, two police officers pulled over a black Cadillac being driven by Bell at the corner of Thurlow and West Hastings streets.

The cops intended to issue Bell tickets for two driving violations but when one of the officers approached the vehicle’s driver side door and asked for Bell’s driver’s licence, she noticed his hands were shaking as he struggled to remove his licence from his wallet.

Bell was also sweating profusely and had bloodshot eyes. As there was no smell of alcohol coming from him, the officer suspected that he was under the influence of drugs and asked him to get out of the vehicle.

While administering a test to determine his sobriety, the officer noticed Bell had black straps around his shoulder area, a sign he could be wearing a firearm holster.

While conducting a safety search of Bell, the officers zipped his sweater down, revealing a holster with two handguns.

One of the firearms was a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic pistol with one round in the chamber. The prohibited firearm, for which Bell had no licence, had been smuggled into Canada from the United States, where its last known purchaser was in Washington state.

The other weapon — another loaded 9 mm semi-automatic pistol — also had a cartridge in the chamber as well as a magazine with eight cartridges of ammunition.

That firearm was made in Canada but ended up in the United States and was likely smuggled back into Canada, Crown counsel Michelle Merry told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes during sentencing submissions.

Items seized on his person included two cellphones wrapped in tin foil, three key cards to two luxury hotels, a black knife and about $1,200 in various denominations.

When the vehicle was searched, police found a gym bag in the back seat. Inside the bag were a loaded sawed-off shotgun and a rifle as well as more than $32,000 in cash. 

“They’re designed to shoot people,” Merry said of the weapons seized by police. “They’re not for hunting. That’s not what this is. All of the firearms were concealed. They were all of course improperly stored.”

The holster made the guns concealed yet readily accessible, she said.

In a report prepared for the sentencing, Bell claimed that he’d purchased the guns off the street and at the time of the arrest he was transporting them to a different location so he could properly store them.

But Merry said it was “very difficult” to put much weight on those claims because he’d transported the weapons in “possibly the most dangerous manner conceivable. Namely, loaded with rounds in the chamber of two of them, two of them concealed on his person and two in the back seat.”

Terence LaLiberte, Bell’s lawyer, is expected to give his sentencing submissions Friday.

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The Crown is seeking a four-year jail term for a former manager of a Coquitlam poultry company who stole $1.9 million from his bosses.

In sentencing submissions Thursday, Crown counsel Kevin Marks noted that Bruce Steven Arabsky, 54, had committed his crime against Superior Poultry Processors Ltd. because he was financially over-extended.

“He was drowning in debt. It’s fair to say that at the end of the day, Mr. Arabsky was desperate and as a result he did what he did.”

Marks told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper that Arabsky’s moral culpability for the theft was high and argued the offender had showed a “wanton and reckless disregard” for the welfare of his employer.

In March 2016, a few days into his trial, the father of five pleaded guilty to one count of theft over $5,000 in relation to the offence, that took place between November 2009 and May 2010. He later tried unsuccessfully to withdraw the guilty plea.

Court heard that Arabsky made several dozen electronic transfers totalling nearly $2 million from Superior to a company in Saskatchewan controlled by him. He did not tell his employer he’d done so and the employer was unaware that the money was missing.

The theft was only discovered when the company was looking into another financial issue and stumbled upon the crime, Marks told the judge.

Marks filed victim impact statements from the owners of the company which said that they were devastated by the breach of trust of their employee.

He said the primary sentencing principles were denunciation and deterrence.

Arabsky was found liable to the company in a civil lawsuit heard earlier in B.C. Supreme Court and ordered to pay $1.9 million. He has paid $400,000 so far, leaving nearly $1.5 million owed to the company.

Arabsky has no prior criminal record but in December 2014 was convicted for mislabelling and selling chicken drumsticks as turkey drumsticks, an offence committed under the Food and Drugs Act.

He’d instructed the production supervisor at Superior to prepare chicken drumsticks for export to Afghanistan and place them in boxes labelled turkey drumsticks. In March 2016, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld his conviction for that offence.

Hollis Lucky, Arabsky’s lawyer, told the judge that considering the circumstances of the offence and his client and applying the sentencing principles, a more appropriate sentence for Arabsky for the theft was 30 months in jail.

He emphasized that his client, who at one time acted as an adviser to two provincial ministers of agriculture regarding the poultry industry, had remained employed throughout the civil and criminal proceedings and had a supportive family. 

Lucky said the impact on the family from Arabsky’s incarceration will be significant because there are two teens who remain at home and will be supported by their mother on a single income.

In a short statement, Arabsky said that he deeply regretted the actions that he’d taken.

“I stand here accountable for what I’ve done and seek your grace and will accept whatever judgment you deem appropriate,” he told the judge.

The judge said that she wanted to give the submissions of the lawyers due consideration and would impose sentence Sept. 1.

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A Vancouver man accused of murdering his brother died in prison a week before a judge was expected to give his verdict in the case.

On Aug. 14, Douglas Cameron Orr, who had pleaded not guilty to the November 2014 second-degree murder of his brother, Robert Brown Orr, 59, was found unresponsive in his cell at North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam and was declared dead.

Following a lengthy trial, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jim Williams was scheduled to render his verdict on Aug. 21, but during a brief court appearance that day ordered that the proceedings be brought to an end.

Martin Peters, a lawyer who represented Orr at trial, said Monday that he spoke to a family member of the 69-year-old accused who told him that an autopsy of the accused revealed he had a heart condition.

“Which is not surprising, because the autopsy of his brother, the deceased, he also had a heart condition,” said Peters.

Peters said, however, that he was not certain that the heart condition was the cause of death, as he has not seen an autopsy report. He said normally with an autopsy, toxicology results are submitted and it usually takes two to three weeks for those results to be available.

Corrections officials could not be reached. Orr had been in prison since his arrest in November 2014.

At the trial, Crown counsel Daniel Mulligan played a recording of a phone call that the accused placed from prison to a third brother in which he confessed to being in a “mad rage” when he killed his sibling.

The Crown’s theory was that the accused confronted his brother in the lobby of the victim’s Kerrisdale apartment and stabbed him to death due to long-standing anger and resentment over a decades-long stock market transaction.

Orr conceded at trial that he’d killed his brother, but Peters argued that his client’s delusional mental state was such that it interfered with his ability to form the necessary intention to commit murder. Peters argued that Orr was guilty instead of the lesser and included offence of manslaughter.

“It’s tragic that Mr. Orr was not able to get help for his condition or even admit that he had one,” said Peters. “And it was a tremendous tragedy for the remaining members of the Orr family. It was really quite devastating for them and continues to be for them.”

The trial began in 2015 but was adjourned soon after when a judge ordered the accused to undergo a psychiatric assessment after his then-lawyer said he couldn’t get proper instructions from him. The case resumed earlier this year.

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A Vancouver Island man whose marijuana grow-op was busted has had trafficking charges stayed because his case took too long to get to trial, the latest in a series of such cases in B.C.

Nicholas Christian Boehme, 51, was arrested on May 25, 2012 after police searched his home in Youbou and his office in Victoria.

The residence was the site of two valid licenses to grow medical marijuana issued by Health Canada, one of them issued to Boehme to grow 205 plants and store 9,225 grams of dried marijuana.

Police located three “grow rooms” in the house containing 217 plants and 153 grams of dried marijuana and another 19.9 kilograms of dried marijuana from the garage.

Earlier, police had seized 18 packages of marijuana that Boehme had mailed from a post office in Duncan with receipts indicating he had sold the drugs for $6,473. On another occasion, police seized 12 packages of marijuana mailed by Boehme with receipts indicating the drugs were sold for $5,109.

Court heard that Boehme had long acknowledged he was distributing marijuana illegally, but only to people authorized by federal law to have and use the drugs for medical purposes.

“He was operating in plain view and the government knew what he was up to,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird said in his ruling on the trial delay issue. “Prior to his arrest, in fact, he had been attempting to persuade Health Canada officials that the best way to remedy gaps in the supply of medical cannabis would be to license independent producers such as himself to distribute freely within this market.”

But police took a different view and in January 2013 he was charged with two counts of trafficking and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

After numerous delays, his jury trial was set for Oct. 2, meaning the total delay from the laying of charges to the expected end of the case was about 57 months.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada found that there was a “culture of complacency” in the court system and set deadlines for the completion of court cases of 18 months for matters tried in provincial court and 30 months for cases in superior courts.

In his ruling, Baird found that even accepting the Crown’s arguments for discounting some of the delay, there was an unreasonable delay of 36.5 months, substantially exceeding the limits set by Canada’s highest court.

“The meandering process of the matter has been the result of a failure by all participants to drive it to a conclusion within a reasonable time,” said the judge. “Criminal cases, if they are to be brought at all, must not be permitted to drift the way this one did.”

According to figures released by the B.C. Prosecution Service, to date this year there have been 21 criminal cases in the province in which stays of proceedings have been entered due to unreasonable trial delay. Of the 21 cases, 11 have been handled by the B.C. Prosecution Service.

Last year, there was a total of 19 stays of proceedings in B.C., seven of them provincially prosecuted and the rest federally prosecuted.

In an email, the provincial prosecution service noted that the numbers of annual stays of proceedings both provincial and federal has fluctuated over the past few years.

It said while the numbers are only a fraction of the more than 50,000 files the B.C. Prosecution Service approves to court each year, minimizing delays has been a key priority recently.

The service said it had implemented a number of reforms to improve efficiencies including on-line charge assessment processes and focusing on early resolution of cases.

“We are currently developing a comprehensive disclosure strategy and implementing a continuous improvement plan which should further reduce the time it takes to bring our files to trial.”

The Boehme drug case was prosecuted federally by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, which said in an email Tuesday that it had not yet decided whether to launch an appeal.

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The defiant leader of Surrey Creep Catcher is going to court in a bid to set aside an order that he destroy videos of confrontations with two men who complained they were ambushed by the vigilante group.

Ryan LaForge has filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court that challenges a finding by acting information and privacy commissioner Drew McArthur that the group violated the privacy of the complainants.

“The commissioner is an idiot,” LaForge said in an interview Wednesday. “That’s why I’m appealing it. When a real judge sees it, it’ll get overturned for sure.”

The two men complained that the group induced them to have online communications with a fictitious woman over the age of 18, subsequently conveyed that the decoy was under the age of 16 and then arranged a meeting to confront each man for attempting to lure a minor.

The confrontations were videotaped and then disseminated on social media, prompting the men to complain to the commissioner that they hadn’t consented to the videos and their private information was improperly collected, used and disclosed.

In a ruling released last month, McArthur found that the organization had not obtained the consent of the two men and had no authority to collect their personal information. The two men are not identified. 

McArthur dismissed the claim by Surrey Creep Catcher that they were acting as journalists and should be exempt from the applicable law and ordered that the videos and online communications be destroyed by Sept. 6.

In his petition, LaForge says that the commissioner was wrong to characterize Surrey Creep Catcher as an organization since it has no defined structure or internal rules.

He says the group is an “ad hoc movement” of like-minded citizens dedicated to ensuring that individuals who expressed an interest in luring girls and boys for sexual purposes are exposed and hopefully charged and convicted.

Regarding the claims by LaForge that the group was engaged in journalism, McArthur found that there was no fair attempt to describe or analyze the facts or to provide opinion or debate and that the purpose of the exercise was instead entrapment.

But LaForge insisted that the group was fulfilling an important public service and at no time was there any expectation of privacy for the complainants.

“In any way, shape or form you want to look at, it’s journalism,” he said Wednesday. “There’s an epidemic going around. Pedophilia has been going on since the beginning of time and we’re just shedding light on it.”

While he’s hopeful a judge will quash the order, he added that he would give a judge the same defiant message if the petition is turned down.

“There’s nothing physically, there’s nothing hypothetically to stop me. The only thing they can do to stop me is put me in jail for a while. And then when I get out, I’ll just do it again.”

A spokeswoman for the commissioner’s office said that there will be a response filed in court to the petition. She added that there would be no comment at this time because the matter is before the courts.

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A judge has certified a class-action lawsuit that alleges a Vancouver financial institution exposed its customers to the risk of identity theft after an online database was hacked.

The plaintiff in the case claims that Peoples Trust Company, a federally regulated trust with a head office in Vancouver, did not adequately secure personal information, putting customers at risk of identity theft and cybercrime.

Court heard that in September 2013, cybercriminals from China gained unauthorized access to the company’s computer database, and unsolicited text messages were sent to users of the company’s website purportedly from the company, asking them to call a telephone number in Utah.

These were attempts at “phishing” — soliciting money or information from people by individuals pretending to be from the company.

The trust company became aware of the possible breach of security during the week of Oct. 7, 2013 and initiated a forensic investigation that confirmed the database had been compromised.

The company notified Vancouver police, the RCMP and affected customers, and reported the matter to the federal privacy commissioner.

A letter was sent to customers, believed to number between 11,000 and 13,000, of steps the company had taken to mitigate the risk of fraud and theft.

The letter advised that the company had arranged to have flags placed on the customers’ credit files to alert companies that their data may have been compromised, with the flags to stay on the files for six years.

The privacy commissioner investigated the matter and issued a report in April 2015 that found the company had not implemented sufficiently strong safeguards in developing its online application web portal to protect sensitive information.

In addition, the report found that when the security breach occurred, the company lacked a comprehensive information security policy. The report added that the company was very cooperative and demonstrated a timely and comprehensive response to the breach.

In certifying the lawsuit, B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Masuhara found that it was not plain and obvious that there was no cause of action for breach of contract or for a negligence claim.

“The plaintiff has pleaded sufficient facts capable of establishing that harm was reasonably foreseeable,” said the judge in his ruling. “The information collected by Peoples Trust was sensitive and collected in the course of online applications for financial services.”

Ravi Hira, a lawyer for the company, said that nobody involved suffered any losses because the firm took immediate steps to address the problem. He pointed out that the RCMP and privacy commissioner were contacted.

“Nobody suffered any monetary loss or identity theft,” said Hira.

The Vancouver lawyer said that what was certified by the judge was the issue of “nominal” damages, which he said has sometimes been referred to as “moral” damages.

He said that the company is carefully considering whether to appeal the class-action certification.

In addition to an office in Vancouver, the company has offices in Toronto and Calgary and provides financial products and services, including savings accounts, mortgages and credit cards.

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The former general manager of a Coquitlam poultry plant who stole nearly $2 million from his employer has been sentenced to three years in prison.

In March 2016, Bruce Steven Arabsky, 54, pleaded guilty to the offence against Superior Poultry Processing Ltd. 

In imposing sentence on the accused Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper said denunciation and deterrence of the crime were the primary sentencing principles.

“Mr. Arabsky was a senior and trusted employee engaged in a sophisticated and ongoing theft of his employer,” said the judge. “The amount he stole was significant and the breach of his employer’s trust has had a long-lasting impact on the company and the owners personally.”

Court heard that between November 2009 and May 2010 the father of five made several dozen electronic transfers totalling $1.9 million from Superior to a company in Saskatchewan controlled by him. He did not tell his employer he’d done so and the employer was unaware the money was missing.

The theft was only discovered when the company was looking into another financial issue and stumbled upon the crime. In victim impact statements filed in court, the owners said that they were devastated by the betrayal of their former employee.

At the time he transferred the money, Arabsky was deeply in debt and desperate, the judge was told.

Gropper said the aggravating factors in the case included that the accused used his good character and reputation to pursue the unlawful endeavour, attempted to deceive the company when the theft was discovered and the unlawful conduct was only stopped when he was fired.

The mitigating factors included that he had no prior criminal record, had pleaded guilty and had found employment elsewhere from the time of the offence until the sentencing hearing.

In a separate civil action in B.C. Supreme Court, Arabsky was ordered by another judge to pay the company the $1.9 million he’d stolen. He has paid back $400,000 of that amount so far.

“While the amount is far from full restitution, partial restitution is a mitigating factor to be taken into account,” Justice Gropper said of the amount Arabsky has repaid.

The judge added that she accepted that Arabsky’s overall risk of reoffending is low.

The Crown had sought a sentence of four years in prison while Arabsky’s lawyer argued for a sentence of 30 months in jail.

The accused had little reaction to the sentence as he stood in the prisoner’s dock in the Vancouver courtroom.  Several of his family members sat in the public gallery behind him.

Though he had no prior criminal record, in December 2014 Arabsky was convicted of mislabelling and selling chicken drumsticks as turkey drumsticks, an offence committed under the Food and Drugs Act.

He had instructed the production supervisor at Superior to prepare chicken drumsticks for export to Afghanistan and place them in boxes labelled turkey drumsticks. In March 2016, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld his conviction for that offence.

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An Ontario man who was described by police as being an alleged hitman has pleaded guilty in connection with a murder plot in B.C.

During a brief appearance before B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman on Tuesday, Gino Gavin McCall of Hamilton pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit the murder of an “unknown” person between April 11, 2015 and June 15, 2015.

The indictment says that McCall conspired with a person or persons using the aliases “anytime@worldsecure.cc,” “TheRealBatman@viploc.cc,” and “SchittEater” along with other persons unknown to commit the murder.

Full details of McCall’s crime are expected to be provided during a sentencing hearing scheduled for Nov. 27.

McCall, a tall, muscular man wearing red prison clothing, sat quietly in the prisoner’s dock during the proceedings at the Vancouver Law Courts.

In January, B.C.’s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit announced that McCall was one of two men charged following a lengthy and complex investigation into the attempted murder of a man in Richmond in April 2015 and into the murder conspiracy to which McCall has now pleaded.

CFSEU said that it had been investigating the attempted murder of a man well-known for gang involvement and criminal connections since a failed attempt on his life in Richmond on April 10, 2015.

It said investigators believed that the attempted murder was a highly planned and targeted effort that saw alleged contracted hit men travel to B.C. from Ontario. The attempt was not successful and the intended target, not identified by CFSEU, was unhurt.

“Since the summer of 2015, investigators with the CFSEU-BC have been able to gather further evidence to support charges of conspiracy to commit murder of an unknown person in June 2015 against the two Ontario men,” says the unit’s press release.

The trial of McCall’s co-accused, Knowah Ferguson, also of Hamilton, Ont., is not expected until the spring of 2018. Ferguson is charged with both the attempted murder and with the conspiracy to commit murder. McCall was not charged with the attempted murder.

The CFSEU-BC said McCall has a criminal record that includes convictions for robbery, break and enter and other property-related offences.

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Former RCMP spokesman Tim Shields says he had a “very flirty” relationship with a former colleague who claims he sexually assaulted her in the workplace.

The colleague, a civilian RCMP employee who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, testified that Shields led her into a unisex washroom that she’d never seen before, locked the door, kissed her and said they had chemistry before he undid her bra, touched her breasts, unbuttoned her pants and put her hand on his genitals.

On Tuesday, Shields’ first day of testimony, he told Vancouver provincial court Judge Patrick Doherty that the sexual touching was consensual and that his colleague was an enthusiastic participant. While she claims the bathroom incident took place in September 2009, Shields testified it happened in April of that year.

Under cross-examination Wednesday, he was asked by the Crown what he meant by his relationship being flirty in March and April 2009.

“(She) was dropping by my office unannounced for no specific work-related purpose,” Shields told the judge. “They were social visits. They started with a hug. The hug evolved over time from friendly to more intimate.”

The accused said his colleague complimented him on his looks and they had conversations that started with work and led to more personal subjects and the flirting.

“There was the prolonged eye contact, the frequent smiles that she gave, the laughter where she would laugh out loud and tilt her head back when she laughed. It was a mutual exchange.”

“To be fair, Mr Shields, you can only testify as to how you understood the relationship, fair?” asked Crown counsel Michelle Booker.

“I can testify about what I saw and heard and experienced her doing which is why I believe what I said to be true,” said Shields.

The former Mountie, who served in the force for 18 years and was at one time the spokesman for the RCMP in B.C., said that the hugging evolved to become “more sensual.”

“The hugs started out as friendly, short, camaraderie-type of hugs. Over time they got longer. There was more body contact. The front of her body was pressed up against the front of my body for longer periods of time. I would feel her hands moving up and down my back, just a little bit.”

The accused admitted however he never met his colleague for drinks or went out for dinner with her and never went for walks in the park or on the beach.

When Booker suggested they never had lunch together, he said they may have had lunch in the work cafeteria.

Asked whether they shared any “sexting” which she defined as sharing of intimate sexual talk through messages, he said there was no such talk.

He conceded that he’d never bought her a gift — no chocolates, wine, jewelry or flowers.

Asked whether she ever invited him out, he said that while walking from the bathroom incident towards her car, she implied an invitation to her home.

“She said something to the effect of, ‘I know where we can meet next time.’ ”

“You assumed that she meant her home, correct?” said Booker.

“Yes,” said Shields.

“But she did not specifically invite you to her home,” said Booker.

“She didn’t use the word, ‘You can come to my home,’ said Shields.

Earlier Wednesday, Shields’ lawyer David Butcher took the accused through a series of emails exchanged between Shields and the colleague after the bathroom incident which indicated a friendly relationship between the two.

Shields told the judge he’d also met with the colleague in May 2011 after she invited him out to tea at a Cambie Street restaurant.

“We had a very friendly meeting, sitting across the table from each other. She bought me a London Fog (tea) drink. We chatted about work. We chatted about our personal lives. We laughed, we smiled. We were two friends enjoying each other.”

Butcher is alleging that the colleague and her now-common-law husband were motivated to fabricate the sexual assault allegations for financial gain. The colleague at one point had her sick benefits threatened to be cut off and the husband’s tech business had failed.

On Wednesday, Butcher applied to have the husband recalled for further cross-examination, alleging he had perjured himself during his testimony last Friday. The judge agreed to the application. The husband is expected to resume testimony Thursday. Shields will then continue his cross-examination.

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An Abbotsford cop who was charged following a lengthy investigation into corruption has pleaded guilty to breach of trust.

Christopher Nicholson, a constable who joined the Fraser Valley police force  in 2005 and was charged in 2013, entered his plea during a brief appearance Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Before accepting the plea from Nicholson, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown got him to agree that he had made his decision voluntarily and had admitted the essential elements of the offence.

The judge told the accused that on sentencing, she would make her own decision and would not be bound by any agreement he might reach with the Crown.

The plea came on the day that a jury was to be selected for and following a lengthy pre-trial proceeding that was subject to a publication ban. 

The offence relates to Nicholson having given false information to two other police officers and counselling a person to destroy evidence.

Related

• Corruption investigation against Abbotsford police officers dropped
• Abby cop facing charges he lied on search warrants, trafficked drugs

A number of other charges laid against Nicholson, including obstruction of justice, were stayed by the Crown Thursday.

The matter was then put over until  Sept. 20 to fix a date for sentencing. A lawyer for Nicholson declined to comment on his motivation for the plea.

Despite his plea, Nicholson remains employed with the Abbotsford police department. He will remain employed until the Police Act disciplinary process is concluded.

A spokesman for the Abbotsford police said that they were aware of the guilty plea but were not prepared to comment at this time.

In February 2015, nearly two years after the charges were laid against Nicholson, it was announced that the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner was looking into 148 misconduct allegations against 17 Abbotsford officers.

It was revealed that hundreds of drug search warrants dating from 2005 would be examined and there were fears that notorious gang cases would be reopened and convictions overturned.

On Thursday a spokesman for the B.C. Prosecution Service said that no further charges had been laid against any other officers.

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