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[troutbreath]

Don't bend over to pick up the soap 

Barry Penner next? Didn't these guys strongly endorse the gravel removal?



Ex-solicitor-general was always pro-development
As mayor of Chilliwack he helped kick-start city's economy
 
Lori Culbert
Vancouver Sun


Tuesday, April 01, 2008


 
CREDIT: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun Files
John Les in 1996 when he was mayor of Chilliwack. Les was one of the biggest supporters of the controversial Ryder Lake project. The development was ultimately shelved.
 
"Chilliwack -- Open for Business. Call the Mayor."

That billboard was posted along Highway 1 in the 1990s when John Les was mayor of the Fraser Valley city.

Dorothy Kostrzewa, a Chilliwack city councillor for 33 years who served with Les while he was mayor from 1987 to 1999, said he was "definitely" a pro-development mayor.

"Chilliwack has really grown a lot under him, because he was hell-bent to get industry here and to get the city to be sustainable," Kostrzewa said in an interview.

The veteran councillor, who is a supporter of Les's, said she could not think of any development issue at city hall during Les's tenure that would have sparked an RCMP investigation into the former mayor.

On Friday, Les resigned as B.C.'s solicitor-general amid news that the police and a special prosecutor are examining whether he "improperly benefited from any commercial transactions involving land developers" when he was mayor.

"The first time I heard it was Friday on the six o'clock news and I just about fell off of my chair. It's 10 years since John was the mayor, and for it to come up all of a sudden was a shock," Kostrzewa said.

A look back at stories in The Sun about Les when he was mayor reveals a man determined to bring jobs and growth to Chilliwack, which was hit hard by events such as the closing of its military base.

In an interview in 1990, Les said of his municipal billboard trying to lure business to Chilliwack: "We're not desperate, but we want to do business. We'll welcome them and we won't give them a hard time."

Under Les's reign, Chilliwack became the first municipality in Canada to introduce a system to speed up the process for approving building permits -- making them available in 48 hours, compared to weeks in other cities.

Les tried to remove property from the Agriculture Land Reserve to accommodate future industrial growth, but was often turned down by the agriculture land commission.

In 1998, Les said he would be willing to go to jail in protest against "harsh" new provincial laws to protect fish and streams, which municipal leaders then feared would cause turmoil and generate expense.
Chilliwack did kick-start its economy, and in 1998 "adapted a Texas model for revitalization and put together a community partnership on a scale unprecedented in B.C.," The Sun reported.

It was called the Chilliwack Economic Partners Corp., and involved the public and private sector in an effort to resurrect the local economy.

Development was then a key issue for debate among Chilliwack residents.

In 1997, it was reported that police removed an angry citizen from council chambers after he accused Les of a conflict of interest and demanded the mayor recuse himself from a bylaw debate.

The citizen, Gordon Curry, claimed the city business being discussed would have permitted rezoning for a seniors' home on property owned by Chilliwack developer Eldon Unger.

Curry alleged Unger had held a "Liberal campaign party" at his house that year, when Les unsuccessfully ran to be a Liberal MP.

In a brief phone interview Monday, Unger said he held a reception for then-Liberal finance minister Paul Martin and that Les also attended.

Unger, president of Brodel Development and a former Chilliwack councillor, said he knew nothing about the alleged conflict and that he didn't have business interactions with Les when Les was mayor.

"I never had business dealings with John Les," said Unger, a member of the Chilliwack Economic Partners Corp.

In the mid-1990s, the talk in Chilliwack was of the controversial Ryder Lake development. The original proposal was to create a new "sustainable community" of 80,000 people on a sparsely populated mountain plateau.

Les was one of its biggest supporters, but the plan was mainly panned by residents during 17 hours of public hearings and was ultimately shelved.

As chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District, Les grumbled in 1996 that the Greater Vancouver Regional District was trying to stunt future growth in Chilliwack and its neighbouring cities through initiatives aimed at limiting urban sprawl.

An outspoken Les complained the GVRD thought "the Fraser Valley should be left to stagnate."

Les was active in business and property development before becoming a city alderman in 1984.

It is unclear how much development work he did during his time on council or as mayor, but Les has stressed that he has always conducted his business openly and legitimately, and believes any investigation will end in him being exonerated.

lculbert@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

[troutbreath]

Story on his none conection, totaly hands off approach. I thought it was a April Fool joke his brothers name was Corney

Les was involved in Chilliwack land deals while mayor: records
 
Jonathan Fowlie, Larry Pynn and Chad Skelton
Vancouver Sun


Tuesday, April 01, 2008


VANCOUVER - John Les, who stepped down last Friday as solicitor-general, was involved in several real-estate developments in Chilliwack while and after he was mayor of the growing Fraser Valley city, property records and documents obtained from Chilliwack city hall indicate.

Police and government officials have not said exactly what is being investigated, and Les says he does not know.

Les maintained Tuesday he had "always done everything appropriately" during his time in municipal politics from 1984 to 1999, and since becoming a Liberal MLA in 2001.

As Chilliwack mayor, he said, he excused himself from deliberations that represented potential conflicts with his personal properties.

Les and his wife bought a property at 10115 Nelson Road in July 1991, documents show. Three months earlier, a city official had written to advise him that preliminary approval had been given for an application to subdivide the land.

In September that year, Les sold the land to a numbered company run by Walter, Jacob and Dave Esau. It was later subdivided. Walter Esau is a Chilliwack real estate agent.

Property records also show that in 1997, a numbered company connected to Les - 529495 B.C. Ltd. - subdivided a piece of property on Rosebank Place in Chilliwack.

Les's company then sold off three subdivided lots over the next two years for $175,000, $180,000 and $220,000.

Another numbered company owned by Les - 601721 B.C. Ltd. - bought about two acres of land on Bell Road in October 2000 for $355,000, subdivided it and sold it off as 11 smaller lots, some of them for around $85,000 each.

City records indicate that on May 1, 2000, Les - then no longer mayor - applied to the city to have 10542 Bell Road rezoned from agriculture to low-density residential.

A city staff report recommended council approve the rezoning, although a similar proposal by a previous owner was rejected in June 1997 after local residents opposed it.

The staff report said Les's proposal was "philosophically compatible" with the official community plan "which encourages additional densification in the urban corridor."

At a public hearing on May 29, 2000, several residents opposed to rezoning presented council with a petition.

The only people at the hearing speaking in favour of the proposal were Les himself and his brother, Larry Les, who was described as the developer of the property.

According to council minutes, Larry Les "advised that it is rare that property of this calibre becomes available for development."

Council approved the rezoning on June 12, 2000.

The Chilliwack Progress newspaper later published a front-page story in which residents accused city council of caving in to Les. Then-mayor Clint Hames denied that.

Hames was quoted as saying council "had the wisdom" to reject the earlier proposal because sewerage had not been installed yet.

Les on Tuesday denied having any business relationships with his brothers, developer Larry Les and realtor Corney Les.

"I have never been involved in any of those business arrangements with my brothers," he said. "They operate quite independently of me."

But a government official conceded later in the day that Les did recall selling three properties on Bell Road to one of his brothers, but did not recall ever being in business with either of them.

Les would not answer questions about specific deals.

"I'm not going to comment on any aspect of that at all," he said.

 "The best thing to do while there is an investigation going on is leave it alone and let the investigation take its course."

At least one resident of Bell Road is still upset about the

deal.

"All the neighbours were opposed to it," said Rudy Buchwitz, who has raised cattle on Bell Road since 1964.

"Once you get more houses, there is more traffic. More crime, too, I guess. . . . I'd like to see it an open field."

Buchwitz said he thought it was odd that the former mayor had won approval for the rezoning when the previous owner had not.

But Casey Langbroek, a former Chilliwack councillor who voted in favour of the rezoning and later bought one of the 11 lots on Bell Road, said Les followed proper procedures.

Also Tuesday, Premier Gordon Campbell named Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations John van Dongen as interim solicitor-general.

Campbell had named Attorney-General Wally Oppal to the post on Saturday, but said he went to van Dongen to keep the attorney-general and solicitor-general roles separate.

"I have no idea how long this investigation may or may not take and I thought it was important to stabilize the ministry," Campbell said.

The premier added he would like to see the RCMP investigation finish quickly, but stressed that should not come at the expense of a thorough probe.

Van Dongen said in a media scrum he had not yet met with ministry officials, but planned no drastic changes.

With files from Neal Hall and Lori Culbert

© Vancouver Sun

[troutbreath]

Mister Fish Farmer helps out Les in the latest twist to the " Can you remember who stepped down, did the soft shoe shuffle " out of harm's (court action) way. Dongen isn't that the guy who beat horses?


Special prosecutor's reasons no longer buried by justice bureaucrats
 
Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun


Friday, April 04, 2008


VICTORIA - On a Sunday evening five years ago, cabinet minister John van Dongen took a call from his boss, Premier Gordon Campbell.

Campbell had just gotten the news that a special prosecutor was appointed to oversee a police investigation of van Dongen, then his minister of agriculture and fisheries.

"I informed John of that," Campbell subsequently told reporters, "and John felt it was best for him to step aside. I agree with that."

Or as van Dongen put it: "Due to the nature of this investigation, which relates to my actions as a minister in the performance of my official duties, I have decided to immediately step aside."

Resign, actually, and he was right in thinking he had no choice.

The cops were looking into his actions as minister, which explains why the premier was informed straight away.

In the case of John Les -- whom van Dongen replaced as solicitor-general this week -- the cops beavered away for months before the appointment of a special prosecutor was made public.

But that investigation involved Les's actions as mayor of Chilliwack, before he became a minister. The overseer of prosecutions in B.C., assistant deputy attorney-general for criminal justice Robert Gillen, appointed the special prosecutor in the Les case last June.

He also, as required by law, advised deputy attorney-general Allan Seckel. Seckel did not pass the news any further up the line by advising the attorney-general who could, in turn, advise the premier.

Seckel would have known that once the word was out -- as it was, Friday, after the criminal justice branch responded to a well-informed query from the CBC -- the minister would have to resign.

Presumably he concluded there was no pressing need to advise higher-ups because the investigation did not touch on Les's current ministerial duties.

There may have been other reasons for holding back as well. Not knowing the scope of the investigation, one can't be sure.

It may be easier to figure out once the matter is concluded, thanks an improvement in the way special prosecutors' recommendations are handled publicly at the conclusion of an investigation.

Ironically, that change arose out of the van Dongen case.

To recap briefly, van Dongen had passed along a confidential ministry report to a fish-farming company at a time when the firm was being probed over the release of farmed salmon into the wild.
The contents of the report "substantially compromised" the ability to proceed with the investigation. Van Dongen said it was an honest mistake. He passed along the report on the spur of the moment, not having read it, not realizing it was confidential.

The special prosecutor seems to have agreed. He concluded the minister's action was devoid of criminal intent. Hence no basis for charges and van Dongen was back in cabinet in the same portfolio.

But that was not the end of the controversy. The criminal justice branch had released just a single sentence from the special prosecutor's reasoning for not proceeding to a charge.

"I do not see there being a probability of conviction," Richard Peck had concluded, "let alone a substantial likelihood of conviction."

Not enough of an explanation, complained Opposition leader Joy MacPhail. She rose in the legislature and demanded to know more.

Van Dongen, in contrast to his pose of openness on the ICBC scandal this week, refused to provide details. "The matter was fully investigated by the special prosecutor and that ends the matter."

Attorney-general Geoff Plant insisted the one-sentence rationale was "adequate" for public consumption.

Adequate? fumed MacPhail. Hardly. But she got nowhere. Or rather, she did connect, only it wasn't apparent at the time.

For while Plant was mounting his feeble defence of the information released in the van Dongen case, the head of criminal justice, Gillen, was sitting beside him in the legislature.

Listening attentively, too. Because in the wake of MacPhail's protest, the criminal justice branch quietly began providing more detail. Now, when a special prosecutor concludes there is no basis for laying charges, we're told something about his reasons.

For instance, when a special prosecutor recommended against charges in a case involving the attorney-general's brother recently, the summary from criminal justice included these details:

"Conviction is unlikely because the two primary witnesses for the prosecution . . . lack all credibility and would not believed.

"One witness admitted to forging several key documents. The same witness provided a number of conflicting statements. Both witnesses made material misrepresentations to a financial institution . . . ."

Enough there for the public to understand that the special prosecutor had sound reasons for not proceeding.

Whenever -- however -- the Les case concludes, the public has every reason to expect at least the same level of detail about the special prosecutor's recommendation.

vpalmer@direct.ca

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

[Every Day]

Im too lazy to read all of that  , can anyone that has read it give me a summary, lol?
 

[nosey]

   Naw it was VanDongen's daddy that beat the horses, but seriously how anyone can remain in business as a land developer while being the mayor and proclaim that he couldn't see any criminal conflict of interest is beyond me. He said he never took part when any of the land parcels he was involved in were being dealt with by council but c'mon these people were his council, his cronies and coworkers that he dealt with every day does anyone honestly believe that they're going to tell him y'know "sorry we couldn't pass that rezoning boss, we realise this decision will probably cost your numbered company hundreds of thousands of dollars but you understand, the proposal sucked, ok my turn to buy lunch". What I'd like to see is did John Les or any of his companies ever actually get a development or rezoning proposal actually turned down by the Chilliwack council while he was in power?
   As far as John Les sooner going to jail than protecting fish habitat, the Liberals ran their whole campaign on the premise of being business friendly that's what the people of Chilliwack vote for, that's what you get, all this business friendly crap has brought Chilliwack from being the church capital of Canada to being one of the ten most dangerous cities to live in in the country. Businesses don't give a damn about the poor or the fish or the wildlife or the environment or actually anything but making a profit. Right now there are thousands of Liberals around Chilliwack shaking their heads saying "John Les in trouble hmm. can't see anything wrong with what he did, he was just turning a profit, at least he didn't ride on them damn fast ferries"

[steelhead]

Dam ,,,,,,,,,,good question,,,,,,,,every day