Weaponizing the integrity commissioner? New insight into Vancouver political infighting
CTV
Vancouver city hall is at the centre of political infighting – again. This time, over text messages between current and former ABC party members and a non-profit organization.
Vancouver city hall is at the centre of political infighting – again. This time, over text messages between current and former ABC party members and a non-profit organization.
The texts viewed by CTV News – between PNE president and CEO Shelley Frost, Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung, city manager Paul Mochrie and the mayor's chief of staff Trevor Ford – outline how a complaint aimed at Vancouver Park Board commissioner and former ABC party member Brennan Bastyovanszky came to be.
In one of the messages dated Sept. 25, Ford texts Frost a link to the integrity commissioner’s website. In subsequent messages the following day, Frost then texts Kirby-Yung, Ford and Mochrie to let them know she’s submitted the complaint.
Bastyovanszky called the back-and-forth a betrayal.
“Sarah Kirby-Yung was a mentor of mine,” he said. “So I was very caught off guard by that.”
In September, the PNE accused Bastyovanszky of using his status as an elected official to insist on back-stage access to a performance last year.
Frost lodged a complaint with Lisa Southern, the city’s integrity commissioner, but no formal investigation was conducted. That complaint was referred to by Southern as the "PNE Complaint" in a report she published Aug. 2.
