All posts by Raymond Tomlin

About Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

Kareem Allam on the Vancouver Park Board, Preserve the Elected Board

#VanElxn 2026, BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2026, , ,

The Association Presidents Group (APG) representing 17 community centre associations across the City of Vancouver, released a statement in 2024 strongly urging Premier David Eby to “reconsider his commitment to proceeding with the elimination of the Vancouver Park Board.”

The APG says Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s decision is “undemocratic.”

“We do not believe 8 City Councillors can decide to abolish the Park Board elected by thousands of Vancouver citizens in October 2022,” it said, in the press release, which may be found below.

“We believe the Park Board can only be removed after a civic election in October 2026, and only if Vancouver citizens have made that choice. Neither the City nor the Province have a mandate to remove the Park Board.”

The Association Presidents Group (APG) says ABC Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s motion to eliminate the Vancouver Park Board was announced and passed in a week without any engagement with the APG organization and other key stakeholders.

“There was no transition plan to demonstrate the alleged benefits of such a decision. The reasons announced have been questioned by many stakeholders including dozens of former Park Board Commissioners and Community Centre Associations,” said representatives with the Association Presidents Group.

Vancouver’s independent and elected Board of Parks and Recreation has served Vancouver for over 135 years. Vancouver is the only city in Canada with an elected Park Board and is the only city in North America other than Minneapolis to place its focus on growing a vibrant parks and recreation system as a constituent element to the citizens served by the municipal governments in both cities — up until the untoward December 13, 2023 decision by Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and his super majority team of ABC Vancouver City Councillors.

VanRamblings reader Mara writes to correct some of the information above …

MANY cities in the United States have elected park boards including: Tacoma (Washington State), Bainbridge Island (Washington state), Bend (Oregon), Willamalane (Oregon), Simi Valley (California), Three Rivers Park District (Minnesota), and over 350 cities in Illinois (Naperville, Joliet, Rockford, Springfield are the big ones, but there are 350 others), and nearly every city in North Dakota (Fargo, Bismarck, Minot, Williston, others). There are also elected park districts in northern California, Montana, Colorado, Florida, West Virginia, New York state, and Massachusetts.

In Canada, Cultus Lake in British Columbia has an elected park board.

I say this because Vancouver IS NOT an outlier. It needs to keep its independently-elected park board, but people need to realize it’s one of many. If you keep repeating Ken Sim’s lie about Vancouver being an oddity, it feeds into his narrative.”

Thank you, Mara. At the moment, for some, the Contact VanRamblings function on the site is not working. We are working on resolving that issue.

Preservation of an Elected, Independent, Responsive Vancouver Park Board 

Here’s the Association Presidents Group Press Release 

The Association Presidents Group (APG) believes Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s attempt to abolish the elected Vancouver Park Board is undemocratic.

We do not believe 8 City Councillors can decide to abolish the Park Board elected by thousands of Vancouver citizens in October 2022. We believe the Park Board can only be removed after a civic election in October 2026, and only if Vancouver citizens have made that choice.

Neither the City nor the Province have a mandate to remove the Park Board.

Mayor Sim’s motion was announced and then passed within one week without any engagement with the Community Centre Associations and other key stakeholders. There was no transition plan to demonstrate the alleged benefits of such a decision. The reasons announced have been questioned by many stakeholders, including dozens of former Park Board Commissioners and Community Centre Associations.

The elected Park Board has served Vancouver well for over 135 years.

Voters created an elected Park Board because they wanted parks and recreation to be a high-profile priority in Vancouver. Commissioners run for office because they are passionate about protecting and expanding our parks and recreation programmes. It is their priority concern and responsibility.

The Mayor’s proposal would have Commissioners replaced by City Councillors who have a multitude of responsibilities resulting in a less responsive and effective working relationship for community stakeholders. City parks and recreation will not be the first priority for City Councillors.

The APG rejects the Mayor’s claim that the Park Board is broken.

We believe it has been critically underfunded by City Council for several decades.

Many of the examples cited by the Mayor for the elimination of the Park Board are in fact already the City of Vancouver’s responsibility. They own and maintain the buildings and infrastructure in the Park Board system.

For example, Park Board frequently recommends renewal and expansion of Community Centres for additional space to accommodate children’s programmes but it is City Councillors who decide on the funding. Parents complain that programme spaces for their children are inadequate. Those concerns should be directed to City Hall.

A decision to eliminate the elected Park Board must be determined democratically in the next municipal election if it remains part of the ABC platform. Let the voters of Vancouver make such an important decision.

Sign the APG Petition asking the Premier not to eliminate Park Board.

For more information please contact either of the following APG members:

(copy and paste either or both of the following e-mail addresses into your e-mail programme)

Jerry Fast <jerryfast@shaw.ca>

Kathleen Bigsby <kmbigsby@gmail.com>

The Auditor General’s Report released yesterday on his audit of recreation facility asset management at the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation (Park Board) and City of Vancouver (City).

The Report, as submitted by Mike Macdonell, Auditor General reads in part …

“The Park Board manages 24 community centres, 14 pools and eight indoor rinks, which are owned by the City, with responsibility for maintenance shared between the Park Board and City departments. The audit determined that these facilities were not effectively managed to align with strategic goals, meet service level priorities and optimize asset lifecycles.

The 46 recreation facilities included in the audit have an estimated infrastructure funding deficit of $33 million per year, which is part of the City’s significant overall infrastructure deficit of $500 million per year.

Many of the Park Board facilities’ building systems have been extended well beyond their intended useful life. As of 2022, the City’s data showed that 72% of recreation facilities were in poor or very poor condition, from an asset management perspective, based on the cost of required repairs and maintenance relative to the facility’s replacement value. Although the lower rating does not mean that facilities are unsafe, these assets generally cost more to maintain, repair or improve and are closer to requiring renewal.

The Park Board and the City aimed to improve the condition of recreation facilities so that 70-80% were in good or fair condition by 2050. However, there were no agreed-upon facility asset management investment plans to fund such a significant increase in condition.

The audit found that the City did not have a Council-approved policy or strategy, or a formalized capital asset management framework, to guide asset management planning for recreation facilities and ensure consistent alignment between community expectations, service delivery targets, and the maintenance strategies needed to support them.

The City provided building maintenance services to the Park Board guided by an agreement created in 2014, but the audit found there was no operating level agreement that defined respective Park Board and City staff responsibilities.

The agreement also did not define accountability or reporting requirements from the City to the Park Board for its provision of asset management services. The audit found that Park Board Commissioners did not receive consolidated information on asset-related service levels, performance indicators and funding scenarios to support their responsibility to oversee recreation asset management.”

VanRamblings believes that preserving our elected Park Board is critical for the livability of our city, to continue to prioritize the high quality of service provided to us by our community centres, pools and hockey rinks, and the maintenance of Vancouver’s more than 400 parks for the ongoing enjoyment of Vancouver citizens.

Crypto, The Scam Currency Championed by Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim

#CdnPoli | Canadian Politics, #VanElxn 2026, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2026, , ,

Cryptocurrency promised a democratized financial future.

In practice, it functions like a casino wrapped in techno-mystique — ideal for laundering money and enriching insiders.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world’s Anti-Money Laundering standard-setter, warns that without strong rules, “virtual assets … risk becoming a safe haven for the financial transactions of criminals and terrorists.”

FATF Chainanalysis traces tens of billions in tainted money each year — its 2025 report estimates illicit crypto addresses received about $40.9 billion in 2024 (likely nearer $51 billion once all is identified). FATF Chainalysis has issued red-flag indicators and repeated calls for tougher global action precisely because criminals employ crypto to launder funds.

Crypto’s core economic claim — “value” — is equally shaky, fraudulent even.

The Bank for International Settlements writes bluntly that crypto assets “have no intrinsic value and lack a backing authority,” making prices prone to sudden swings. Bank for International Settlements reviewers have long argued they are “akin to a commodity money (although without any intrinsic value in use).” That hollowness fuels boom-and-bust cycles in which sophisticated players harvest gains while latecomers eat losses, the ultimate Ponzi scheme.

Who actually wins?

Not the many, but the whales (the very very wealthy, the 1%). Academic work and regulators document extreme concentration: the top 10,000 Bitcoin holders controlled a massive share of supply, revealing “participation … still very skewed toward a few top players, which is to say, the wealthy one per cent.” Such concentration means market moves are often dictated by a tiny cohort of the very wealthy, who can move liquidity and sentiment at will — hardly a people’s money.

Against this backdrop, Vancouver’s Mayor Ken Sim has championed making the city “Bitcoin-friendly,” even floating paying municipal property taxes and holding reserves in Bitcoin — “a hill I am willing to die on,” he told Business in Vancouver’s Mike Howell this spring while awaiting a staff report.

BIV reporting in December 2024 detailed his motion to explore accepting Bitcoin for taxes / fees and investing a portion of city reserves. Tying essential public revenues to an asset class that lacks any intrinsic value is fiscal brinkmanship, not innovation. (Bank for International Settlements)

Crypto currency certainly doesn’t serve the interests of the citizens of Vancouver.

The pattern is clear: a system tailor-made for obfuscation — bafflement, bewilderment, mystification, puzzlement — celebrated by a wealthy minority that profits from volatility, and promoted as “the future” despite watchdogs’ alarms.

When the smoke clears, crypto looks less like finance for the many and more like a high-risk conduit for the few — plus a convenient money laundering tool for the criminal underworld.

And this is the fraudulent “currency” Mayor Ken Sim champions?

VIFF 44’s Galas & Special Presentations Programme, Pt. 4

Cinema, Film Festivals, Pop Culture, Vancouver, VIFF 2025, , , , , ,

VanRamblings returns today with a continuing look at the Galas & Special Presentations programme at this year’s 44th annual Vancouver International Film Festival. Click on the underlined link for each film title below to be taken to the VIFF web page for the film, which will both provide you with more information on the film, and allow you the opportunity to purchase a ticket for each award winning film (pleasing the VIFF folks no end), if you are of a mind to do so.

Father Mother Sister Brother. Winner of the Golden Lion, the top prize, at the Venice Film Festival this past weekend. Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells in his review called the film inert and threadbare, also writing, “Jim Jarmusch’s new film is easily his weakest, least nourishing film ever, which is why Cannes Film Festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux declined to début the film four months ago.”

Clearly, American director Alexander Payne (Nebraska, The Descendants, Election, Sideways) who headed up the jury in Venice that chose Jarmusch’s film for the award had an entirely different take from Wells on the worthiness of the film.

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney writes of the film, “For a three-part piece, it gains a gorgeous fluidity from the gossamer ribbon of melancholy threaded through it. Like Paterson, it’s a film whose simplicity, sweetness and unvarnished ordinariness make it seem almost a miracle,” while Variety’s Jessica Kiang calls the film “consistently beautiful.’ The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw: “it is a film to savour.”

Are you are Jarmusch fan? Then Father, Mother, Sister Brother is a must-see.

Friday, October 3rd
5:45 pm
The Rio		 Sunday, October 12th
6:30 pm
Vancouver Playhouse

Rental Family. A smash hit at the Toronto International Film Festival, with critics suggesting that Rental Family is a lock for a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and Brendan Fraser a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and maybe even another win.

Writes The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck …

“Oscar winners, especially those coming from left field, don’t always find worthy successors to their award-winning roles. But Brendan Fraser has come up with a beaut in his first starring part since The Whale. Playing an American actor living in Tokyo who finds a unique way to practice his craft, the actor delivers a superlative performance in Rental Family, a dramedy that proves a charming surprise balancing poignancy and humour with rare delicacy.”

Want a good cry in a darkened movie theatre? Then Rental Family is for you.

Saturday, October 4th
6:00 pm
The Rio Theatre

The Secret Agent. When far right conspiracy theorist, Trump acolyte and danger to humanity Jair Bolsonaro was President of Brazil (more’s the pity), Kleber Mendonça Filho — Brazil’s most acclaimed film director ever, and one of VanRamblings’ favourite directors dating back to 2012’s Neighbouring Sounds (a film we absolutely loved), Kleber Mendonça Filho was persona non grata, having to leave the country for fear of arrest (that’s what fascists do to prominent members of the arts community), but now that Lula is President (again) Kleber Mendonça Filho is back in the good graces of Brazil’s federal government. Thank goodness.

Allow a few prestigious film critics to weigh in on The Secret Agent …

“Visually and dramatically superb in every way, moving with unhurried confidence across the screen, pausing to savour every bit of bizarre comedy or erotic byway, or note of pathos, on its circuitous path to the violent finale,” says The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw.

Says The Film Stages’ Leonardo Goi, “The Secret Agent doesn’t just exist in conversation with the genre films from the decade in which most of it unfurls; it also testifies, time and again, to the director’s unwavering belief in cinema’s capacity to disquiet and mesmerize.”

Time Out’s Dave Calhoun, “The Secret Agent is vicious and vivid in its sense of place and danger, but also has a streak of weirdness, as it offers a very human take on the political-crime thriller genre.”

Slant Magazine’s Mark Hanson writes: “More broadly appealing than Kleber Mendonça Filho’s past films, The Secret Agent is still unmistakably the work of an artist who’s deeply fascinated with the ways in which cinema, politics, and personal history co-mingle.”

Destined for a Best International Feature Film Oscar nomination. See it now.

Monday, October 6th
9:00 pm
Vancouver Playhouse		 Saturday, October 11th
2:00 pm
Vancouver Playhouse

For Part One of our VIFF Galas & Special Presentations columns click here.

For Part Two of our VIFF Galas & Special Presentations columns click here.

For Part Three of our VIFF Galas & Special Presentations columns click here.

VanRamblings Weighs In On Raymond’s Health. Pt. 3

fixin to die rag, Food & Health, Jude and Megan, Stories of a Life, Vancouver, VanRamblings, , , , , , , ,

To access Part One of my 2025 health update click here.

Part Two of my three-part health update may be found here.

I left you hanging yesterday. Sorry.

March and the early part of April this year proved to be the most painful period I have experienced in my life since October 2016, with my first cancer.

In early March, upon arriving home from a week’s vacation in Halifax visiting her mother, Kelly texted me from the airport to ask how I was doing. I told her I was in a great deal of pain, but I was going to tough it out. Despite having been up since 4:30am that morning, flying across the country, arriving back in Vancouver at 4pm, rather than drive home to be with her children, Kelly drove directly to my home, telling me, “Get in the car. I’m going to take you to UBC Hospital,” which she did.

UBC Hospital Admitting considered my situation to be an emergency, proceeding to immediately wheel me onto an emergency room bed, where I was seen by a doctor, who ordered the first of many CT scans, diagnosing me with a particularly severe case of diverticultis — which had hospitalized me in the autumn of 2023.

Diverticulitis can be, and proved to be in my case, a particularly painful gastrointestinal disorder characterized by inflammation of abnormal pouches — diverticula — that develops in the wall of the large intestine, causing severe lower abdominal pain, and could and would in my case worsen in intensity over the next week.

By the time I was diagnosed — with a distressingly painful catheter now inserted (which would remain in place for 6 weeks), I suggested to Kelly, as she sat by my side, that she must be beat, it was 1:30am Nova Scotia time, over the past 15 hours she’d flown across the country, and spent the last 5 hours by my side.

Given that I was now admitted to hospital, I assured Kelly that I’d be fine, and well cared by the attending physician, nurses, hospital staff and by my family doctor, who would visit me the next morning. As the hospital had provided with me with medication to lessen the pain, now was the time, I suggested to her, she return home to her family, and we’d talk the next morning.

Over the next two weeks, following a series of new CT scans, UBC Hospital changed its diagnosis to nephrolithiasis.

Nephrolithiasis specifically refers to calculi in the kidneys, commonly referred to as kidney stones. Renal calculi and ureteral calculi (ureterolithiasis) are often discussed in conjunction. Ureteral calculi originate in the kidneys, and as they grow can be lodged in the ureter. Genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors can contribute to stone formation. The majority of renal calculi contain calcium. The pain generated by renal colic is primarily caused by dilation, stretching, and spasm because of the acute ureteral obstruction.

I was told I would need surgery to remove a plethora of large kidney stones that were not only lodged in my intestines, but impacted and in my urethra, as well. That surgery occurred on April 9th at the Vancouver General Hospital. The attending surgeon removed a large kidney stone lodged in my uretha. Within the next hour, I passed 20 large kidney stones, and 20 somewhat smaller kidney stones.


Ocean Dental in Cancún, Mexico, providing high-quality dentistry (considered to be the best in North America) at a fraction of the cost, from 50% to 70% lower than in the United States and Canada.

The next day I got on a plane to fly to Cancún, Mexico for dental surgery, as I had arranged months earlier, that in Canada would cost me between seven and nine thousand dollars, but in Mexico — including air fare, accommodation, dental surgery preparation, X-Rays and examinations, extraction of an infected molar, periodontal surgery to repair infected gums, and the insertion of a state-of-the-art titanium tooth implant, the total came to $2700, while my companion, Nick Ellan and I, enjoyed wonderful four or five star Mexican cuisine each morning and evening. Although not particularly restful, I was grateful for the cost saving.

Note in passing: yes, I know many would consider it near insane for me to get on a plane, fly to another country for invasive dental surgery, following six weeks in bed / in hospital in Canada, and surgery to remove very painful kidney stones, that while still in pain, and very weak, nowhere near recovered, I would travel 6,333 kilometres away from home, from my doctors in Vancouver, and from safety.

I will write about my incredibly wonderful experience in Cancún, and a first rate relationship with Ocean Dental in another post. Suffice to say, I was very pleased.

In the months since mid-April, I have continued hormone treatment for my prostate cancer, with Jonathan Ma, and my uro-oncologist, Dr. Miles Mannas, had another biopsy (I’m still recovering), have worked with my skilled dentist / dental surgeon, Dr. Sandy Ko, who last month built a bone graft to facilitate the placement of another tooth implant this upcoming January — as a 31 year very appreciative patient of Dr. Ko, and given my impecunious circumstance, Dr. Ko is matching the price for the tooth implant charged by the UBC Dental Clinic. Next month, Dr. Ko will place a crown over the tooth implant I received in Mexico. Next June, I will have a crown placed over the tooth implant that will be inserted in January.

In addition to the above, I suffer from debilitating neuropathy, that makes it both difficult to walk, and to keep my balance (I have an almost complete loss of balance, standing in the shower is difficult, I am unsteady … no fun, let me tell you); have arthritis in my hands that makes it difficult to type; my Type 2 diabetes and once high A1C / blood sugar count is now pretty much under control; high blood pressure that is, for the most part, now under control; my two concerning heart conditions; and the ever concerning cancerous state of my prostate, with attendant constant fatigue and woeful lack of energy, intermittent pain — gastrointestinal distress (a near constant upset stomach leading to an utter lack of appetite, a concerning weight loss, a 60 pound weight loss in the past year) — such that I have to force myself to eat in order to remain healthy, headaches, hives, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), ever worsening atopic dermatitis, and more. 

Let me leave you with two thoughts, one quite bracing, the first one from my daughter Megan, the person who loves me most in this world.

“Any discussion of your health is nothing more than a morbid plea for undeserved sympathy.“

From my friend, Vancouver School Board trustee, Christopher Richardson …

“Raymond, you and I suffer from the same malady. On the surface, both of us look healthy, when that is far from the case. From my COPD — which often makes it hard for me to breathe, or catch my breath, and the lack of energy attendant to my health disorder — and your prostate cancer and heart conditions, the two of us couldn’t look more healthy, when both of us know that is not our reality.

Both of us are high energy men, we’re driven, in our daily lives we set about to accomplish much, to contribute. But we do that because that’s who we are, despite our various debilitating health issues that make our work in the community ever more difficult. Still, how spiritually satisfying it is for the both of us that we can, and feel we must continue in our work to make a difference for the better.”

This year I am seventy-five years of age. At one time that was considered old. But not any more. Dr. Brad Fritz tells me I’ve got another 15 good years in me, that I will make it through my current troubling health circumstances to live a long and productive life, I should not worry, that I am in good hands, receiving the best of care, whether it’s with him, Dr. Miles Mannas or Dr. Sandy Ko. Vivas tempore et bene sit.