Vision’s Vancouver Media ‘Hit List’: The Deniers Threaten While We Pull Back A Little More of the Curtain–More Questions and Answers
It’s been three days since I released a media ‘hit list, provided to me by a former supporter of Vision Vancouver–that continues to insist that it was crafted by Vision Vancouver organizers–with the knowledge of at least one of the Mayor’s inner circle.
I believe him. But a staffer? Let’s have a look.
Below, I’ll show you the first of several emails I have been provided.
It contains some very damning narrative by the author. It is obvious that someone not only wants to have the media in this city change to staunchly pro-Vision stories, but more so, it’s obvious they are having problems controlling their message (um, maybe because they’re doing such a pathetic job of governing the city?)
What I found most troubling, was that in the ‘cc’ address box is the name ‘Kevin Quinlan -Private’.
Now, before Kevin and his cohorts in the Mayor’s office have another collective coronary, read on.
When my source appeared at my office the other day, I spent a fair bit of time with this man. He is not a flake, fake, or fraud. He is a very mild-mannered, decent man, who worked for Vision during the mayoral nomination contest. I met him through a mutual friend, who is also no longer as close to Vision for similar reasons as my source: It’s NOT the party Larry Campbell envisioned. It’s being run into the ground by complete radicals and political thugs. After all Chief of Staff Mike Magee, in younger years, thought it was an intelligent proposition to protest violently enough to get arrested by Toronto Police (tells you something, no?)
More to the point, I got to know Kevin Quinlan through the campaign in 2008 and found him an affable, courteous, capable (enough) organizer. He believed in the product. But along with the other extremists that have hijacked Vision, he’s also established a long track record of immediately denying any story that unfavourably shows up the Mayor’s suite.
Some of the other recipients on this particular email are familiar to me and provided it doesn’t affect the life of my source, I will contact them as well. We’re working through that so those of you expecting all in, all now, can continue to complain.
But do I think Quinlan was directly involved (and my answer will surprise you, as it did my source).
No.
After viewing all the information, I’m satisfied Quinlan might very well have been a recipient–maybe he saw it and disregarded it, maybe it bounced back, but more material to my review, is that he’s not the kind of guy to start up a war with the media–notwithstanding his horrific messaging on the all sorts of stories or his knee-jerk shrillness to any kind of criticism. He’s very young in the political game, he’ll learn. But he’s just never struck me as someone who would commit to such insanity. He’s not that nasty. He couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paperbag.
Additionally, while there is lots of contribution to the back and forth between various emails regarding the list, with all sorts of invective in particular about Christy Clark, myself, and just the stunning targeting of Mike Klassen, it’s provided by others and Quinlan makes no acknowledgement of having received the email, nor does he appear to have contributed anywhere in the email stream. Not this one anyway.
HOWEVER…that doesn’t mean he didn’t receive it or that Vision Vancouver organizers close to Mike Magee were not responsible for compiling those names–the distribution list is loaded with hardknucklers like Magee and who I view as close to him. In fact, my source has agreed to sit for an interview next week and tell the whole story of the emails and he will explain what he was told was the thinking behind the entire exercise. And after having reviewed some of the names on the distribution list, THREE of them are very politically close to Mike Magee–I was personally introduced to two of them by Magee during the lead up to Robertson winning the nomination. Also, Magee’s legendary viciousness is exemplified in his ability to turn on you in a heartbeat. He could embrace a cactus and have IT complain–one mean customer–I’m satisfied this isn’t something a group of rogue organizers created simply for fun. It was more widespread and purposeful than that–someone near the top knows something. (I note for the record the Mayor’s weak, “To the best of my knowledge…” denial yesterday. You mean there are parts of your party you can’t control your Worship? Rogue organizers with Vision? Say it sin’t so…)
Additionally, the intimidation Magee’s been responsible for in the last three days is UNCONTAINABLE. Mind, the damaging intimidation he’s allowed Penny Ballem to employ as City Manager with employees and managers, is par for the course.
Calling newsrooms and threatening lawsuits is not only stupid, it’s going to get you nowhere. That’s what Magee has been doing since I broke this story (does that sound to anyone like a man confident this story is false?). And believe me, after having spoken to over a dozen VERY SUPPORTIVE reporters in the last few days (some for the first time), the adjectives about the incredible HEAT of Vision’s denials is telling to them as well. The only people in the media outrightly supporting these Vision venomistas are those who drink the far left wing bathwater after Meggs and Magee have left the tub and are toweling each other off.
In the interim, the naysayers in and out of the media can continue to attack me or anyone else all day long. What’s interesting is the weakness of the denials and the unending vitriol by others. Some critics, the very few and most partisan, are claiming the story is nothing because I didn’t publish the post you’re reading now, this morning. Very weak…
I promised this story for first thing this morning, on CKNW yesterday when I was on with Jon McComb, but since some of you must know, my 8 year-old son broke his nose and was having a bit of a go breathing properly the last couple of days. That’s why this is coming to you so late in the day. Okay?
But I digress…
Everyone knows that a media ‘hit list’ is absolutely nothing new in ham-fisted politics, and that Vision Vancouver, being the nastiest crew to ever infest City Hall, are perfectly capable of precisely this kind of evil.
Below–the first of the documents. I’ll be back through the weekend with more and then the sit down interview with my source next week. We’re still working out the logistics. And I’ll be back with more documents next week as well.
But please appreciate that this man, who has furnished this material to me is aware of the major vendetta he would face for trying to get Vision to fly straight–attacking people and trying to dig dirt on them, or just simply create it, is completely offside, and I agree with him–that’s not what Larry thought about when creating the party. Don’t like my opinion, great. Think I’ve written like an idiot, marvelous, say so based on what I’ve written and NOT because Vision’s blogosphere lapdog continues to mock my appearance. The reality is this thing is as real as the sun and I’m not going to push a decent man over the edge because some people want his head on a platter. Anonymous sources are used in the media all the time–funny too how the biggest complaints are coming from anonymous posters on other blogs!
NOTHING short of finding out this man’s identity and destroying his life would satisfy the Vision lapdogs.
Well, I won’t let that happen. But we will get to the bottom of this.
Tomorrow, I’ll give you a little insight on why so many in the media don’t believe Visions denials on ANY issue anymore. I’ll catalogue at least a half dozen key stories they treated the same way as this one–and why for that specific reason, this story is credible. I wouldn’t go with it if I thought it was a disgruntled loner or a trojan horse effort.
My friends, instead of Vision’s version of reality, EVERY ONE of those stories was proven to be TRUE.
Here’s the first of the emails (my source took several screenshots and copied all the emails on this original stream for obvious reasons)–please click on the email shot to see it in full size. Enjoy your long weekend. Be safe out there.
Alex,
You sir, have outdone yourself…. I think this may take the excitement out of Gregor’s trip to China, or perhaps he should consider staying there.
Great job my friend can’t wait for the sequel…your integrity in this has been outstanding.
Hope your son is feeling better, does this mean he won’t start school next week….
George tell your Dad that ice cream is really good for a broken nose:=)
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Kind of you my friend. I have some interesting info on his trip to China as well. But that will have to wait till next week.
And yes, lots of ice cream for Junior.
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Hey pig maybe you could stop making up stories and beating up your kid. gregor will get relected asshole and you will still be beating up your kid.
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Thank you so much for coming by. Great comment. One of the best.
Didn’t realize there was complimentary internet access at Insite…
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Alex,
I hope your little one gets better soon. Tell him this true story:
‘When Glissando was eight, he got his nose broken too. He got into a fight, by accident, and then he got butt headed by an older punk, right in the schoolyard in front of one of his teachers. Ah, the good old times! You should have seen the other guy, though, his parents came to the school to pick him up later that day! He never bothered anybody since. Other than that, Glissando recovered in no time. he got to sit in the back of the class, with a never ending choice of home made nutritious sandwiches, always dated older chicks for no more than two weeks at a time (depending on their choice of snacks to share) and always made sure…his five years older brother was around for protection! He is fine now, look he is writing funny stuff on my blog. So,one day, you’ll get to be a funny guy too!”
That’s the story I want you to tell him, Alex.
Take care.
GR
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Very kind. I just found it extraordinary that the harshest critics came from dimbells claiming, “oh, Tsakumis said he’d have the follow-up on Friday morning and it’s not there so the whole thing is a hoax…” Like I’m glued to this machine all day long. Sorry. This is my life: Before anything else I’m a Dad. I know in the pan-liberalism that has gripped a good portion of 21st century thought, having a family isn’t that big a deal anymore, but to me it is. I grew up in a home where if I wanted to talk to my Dad it was after seven, when the news was done, he’d had dinner and read the paper. I’m around for my kids ANY time of the day. I’ve dropped meetings just to be there. And I’m delighted I did.
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You must have not gotten the note that Vision has been holding policy conferences there and he’s one of their more distingushed members! After all, you’d think they’d have to be shooting up something to come up with some of the crap they’ve shovelled onto the citizens of Vancouver? It’s the only logical explanation, isn’t it?
Yet, Jim is probably slightly more on an even keel than his buddy, Johnny Ross and the other Visionistas …
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I’d agree with that…
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The Thought of The Day
“So is it Tim or is it Jim. It doesn’t matter. I will just update my little poem accordingly.’
There you are. Again. VV – Viciously Vitriolic. You are such a charming character. And your delusions seem to be stronger than ever. You are simply made to be portrayed in verse.
“I saw you in the City Park, the other day,
You’re sniffing butt; the Hall bitch, stood still.
‘Name, breed’ I asked the Mayor of the day,
‘We call him Jim and he’s a Vision Latanville!’”
We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.
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Too good.
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Alex, firstly best wishes to your son. My brother had the same thing happen to him when he was 12 yr.s old. It’s part of life’s growing pains unfortunately.
Back to the story, which I have been awaiting with extreme curiosity. Excellent post and I have no doubt that this matter is genuine.
Nevertheless, I wanna play devil’s advocate for a moment. Anyone who sent or received this e-mail likely is familiar with same and also has a back-up copy in their e-mail files. IOW, they know who they are. Why then blank out the sender and recipient e-mail addresses as well as a portion of the text?
Said ‘black-out’ deletions certainly would have no revelations about the identity of your source. My 2 cents.
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To protect parties who have either a) not yet been contacted for comment or b) are people known to the source. He feels only two of these people are really responsible for the leak. There is a narrow group of people from where the source could hail. Understand something: This man is scared out of his wits. He does not want publicity, like many confidential sources, but feels compelled by his sense of right and wrong. If he released those names, along with the narrative and uncorroborated claims about some of the backgrounds of the people on the ‘hit list’ then it, again, might either a) further narrow the list of possible sources and thus finger him, or b) expose information which would result in the same thing. Believe me, I’m not any less frustrated than you. but I have to respect this man’s insistence on privacy.
The people who believe this story will believe it and those that won’t, won’t. That’s the way it is with every contentious story that is leaked to the press. This is no different. Out of an abundance of caution, there is much that will be held back.
The reason it interested me was that many on that group have run with very hard stories on Vision incompetence and truthiness, so after the interview, I went with it. I’m glad I did. But there is much more information to further wad through. Stay tuned.
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I want to know why they are attacking you with harsh words if the story is untrue. I also want to know WTF Kevin Quinlan’s name was doing on this thing.
Vision lost my vote after they didn’t tell the truth about the bikes lanes. I won’t vote for them again not matter what but this seals it.
Good work Alex. Sorry about your boy’s nose.
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Your first question is key to this–if it was some story that they knew FOR CERTAIN was false, there would not be such protest. Me KNOWS they doth protest waaaaaaay too much.
As for Kevin, I meant what I said. If he participated, I’d bet it was minimal, if at all. No, this is the work of a much more sinister and nasty individual. It’s the way Magee practices politics. You should have heard what he had to say about other organizers like Neil Monckton, etc.
Believe me, there are so many silos inside Vision, it’s only a matter of time before one of them either explodes or starts shooting at the others. It’s coming apart on them.
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Alex…. an epilogue comment….
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You stated: “Also, Magee’s legendary viciousness is exemplified in his ability to turn on you in a heartbeat… Additionally, the intimidation Magee’s been responsible for in the last three days is UNCONTAINABLE. ”
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Magee is Mayor Monbeam’s chief of staff, strategist, and confident according to Fabula. I frankly don’t know any of these characters but even before you broke your story, what initially got rot into my gut was this comment by Magee (where I first really became aware of the guy) in his interview with Fabula:
” Even when he refers to one problem person as an “idiot” and “complete motherfucker,” his tone is gentle, reflective.”
I mean come on… no professional that I know uses that bar room brawl language to a reporter or anyone else… or is it just me? My intuition right there told me this Magee guy was an arsehole.
These cumulative matters have convinced that something proverbially smells rotten in Denmark. I’m certainly looking forward to your follow-ups!
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Interesting too that he would be sooooo comfy with Frances….
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Where there’s smoke, there’s fire &, that’s what VV is worried about.
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Precisely. They know they talked about it, now they’re wondering who actually got started…
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Just curious but did you actually look at the properties for the cc Quinlan “private” email address and confirm that it is in fact his private email address ?
I recall when that nonsense was going on in White Rock a few years back and someone went to a great deal of difficulty to create what appeared to be a large group email thus creating a more legitimate appearance to the only and only intended recipient of said email. Later of course it was revealed that all of the group names included on the recipient list were all bogus.
Maybe someone is simply cooking up a red herring to serve you up a bone with no prize attached.
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No. I have communicated with Kevin, some time ago, from his private email address. It’s authentic.
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(I) Sorry to hear about the family injury—the comment above by Jim Latanville is very out of line.
(II) Thank you for posting this.
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Most welcome.
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We already know who Kevin Quinlan is. I wanna know who Jim/Tim Latanville is.
Their name needs to go on this list; here’s one of other pseudonyms in case anyone wants to try some on for size:
Wilma Butterface
George Flagpoleski
Joey Calkring
Claire Flaggerbeans
See putting together a list of names is actually fun.
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Someone obviously trying to play off Vision Vancouver disciple who lathers Frances Bula’s site…
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A wee bit of a bend in the nose at a young age is the beginning of a road map of character later in life. A new story to regale the lassies with…
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I tried explaining to him that I’ve broken my nose twice and it doesn’t look so bad. He somehow felt better about that.
Then he looked up at me and said, “Dad is my nose gonna look like yours when all the swelling goes away? Oh no…”
From the mouths of babes…
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Oh yeah, a nameless e-mail with all the info blacked out. That’s proof all right. This sort of information wouldn’t even get you a warrent, let alone a conviction, in a court. Why is this sort of thing just accepted automatically as fact?
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Tess, darling, first of all, please wipe the froth from your mouth it almost made it to my screen.
1) This is not a court of law. The minimum bar requirement for relevancy on this blog is to compare apples with apples. Not apples with carburetors…Having every story in the media pass a legal test tacked to ‘reasonable doubt’ mean you want THAT for every story. Look att he context of what I’ve wrriten. Go back and re-read since you got as far as ‘Alex is criticizing Vision so I must leap to my horse godiva like, and try to slay the Tsakuminator…’ Good luck with that, sweetie.
2) The emails are not “nameless”. They are, until I am allowed otherwise, mostly confidential. Ever heard of ‘Watergate’. Probably not, so why don;t you run along and not miss the last episode of ‘Hannah Montana’. My daughters are riveted to the screen. Hannah might actually sing something I’m told…
3) No one is “automatically” accepting anything as fact. I took quite a few interviews with the source to arrive at that conclusion. And I’m still looking through emails and documents.
BTW, how was Amsterdam?
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“There are too many projects coming up that will give us more trouble if we can’t turn this around.”
Exactly what “projects” do VV and the Mayor have “coming up” that will give them more trouble? And why exactly does the “stream of bad press” matter in the context of these projects?”
Something tells me chicken coups, bee hives and bike lanes are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to discovering Vision’s secret agenda. I don’t recall any of these being part of the discussion during the last election.
So what else do they have planned – and just how much is this going to cost us? Is this why they’re cutting/freezing the budgets of the Fire Department and the VPD?
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The short answer: Yes. Correct again!
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why not offer Vision a deal. You will reveal your source when they are ready to fess up about who leaked the in camera report about the Olympic Village just in time for the last civic election. If there is no sense of obligation on their part to come clean, why the hell should you?
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Great comment! The difference of course is that I’m clean all the way through this process. I’ve run with dozens of great stories on them. Why throw up a blank?? And they continue to claim it’s a lie. It’s just extraordinary that they pull such stunts and then when they’re caught, deny, followed by the lie. It’s a pattern with them.
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It used to be that one could leave on their holidays and swear off newspapers, radio and TV news, and in more recent times the internet, only to return to the same ol’ same ol’.
That was before Alex Tsakumis took to blogging though.
I’ve been out of the country for a month, but thanks to Rebel With a Clause, the shade of brown on the fan blades is never quite the same hue from day to day.
Thanks Alex!
Wouldn’t surprise me if Magee or Ross reveal “Alex Tsakumis responsible for breaking son’s nose!” After all you did wake him up that fateful morning, and/or signed him up for soccer and took him to the pitch…
I didn’t think any political party could be worse than Gordon Campbell regime when it comes to honesty, integrity and morality, but Vision Impaired Vancouver is neck ‘n’ neck with the Campbell Liberals going into the club house turn.
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Very kind! Welcome home!! I trust you had a healthy respite. Yes, the Visionistas are hurting, but not because of me–they are doing it to themselves!!! Stay tuned for more in a few days. Lots more!
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Charlie Smith is tweeting that 24 hours editor Dean Broughton may be canned.
This is post retraction/clarification of Mackin hit list story.
Is Mike Magee’s first victim someone who’s not even on the list?
Related?
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Charlie Smith’s vendetta against 24 Hours is a long-standing joke–just like Charlies’s column. He works for a paper that takes ads from “Darla” who wants you to call her because she is “42-28-36…9″
As for Broughton, he remains a disgrace. He allowed stories about his girlfriend’s clients (he’s Pamela Groberman’s paramour) to be featured in the pages of 24 Hours while spiking legitimate stories. His “clarification” is a middle finger to Mr. Peladeau, Bob Mackin and myself. If the source came from anybody else, Broughton would have told Mike Magee to go pack sand. Mackin actually interviewed te source himself. And the story was APPROVED by Broughton. But the left wing brigade currently running 24 Hours couldn’t accept the story as it made their brethren at Silly Hall uncomfy.
Broughton’s lies about me and anyone that wouldn’t put up with his laziness and manipulation are now legend. After I left the paper took a significant dip. It’s run by a GM who doesn’t know the business and is clueless about how to keep things afloat, never mind expand them, and he should hang his head in shame. Considering Tan has no spine–no big surprise if he hangs too. Head office knows 24 Vancouver is a troubled property even though with leadership and a strong editor it could be HUGE.
In fact, I’m just thinking I’ll do a separate post on this when I post the interview with my source.
In the interim, Broughton is gone, I hear, to the Sun where he can hang out with Ian ‘Slugger’ Mulgrew. Apparently, they’re real pals. Lol!
24 Hours gained a little freedom today.
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