removed from office
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8/12/2019 Removed From Office
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July 21, 2014
CEDAR ANNOUNCES: For Immediate Release
REMOVED FROM OFFICE
The City of Vancouver notified Mayoral candidate, Glen Chernen and The Cedar Party in
mid June to move out of sub-leased office / campaign headquarters immediately until
infractions repaired.The building has operated for many years as an office and in recent years
as a furniture store. A surprise inspection occurred a day after Chernen & 9 other petitionerslaunched a conflict of interest legal case against Vancouver Mayor, Gregor Robertson, whose
penalty would be his removal from office if found in violation.
In early 2014, soon after the petitioners filed their supreme court action against the Mayor, a City
inspector, responding to an anonymous tip showed up at Glen Chernen and Cedar Partys,
Dunbar Street political headquarters to discover the building was not up to code. A licensing
application made by Glen Chernen forced further inspections, and more infractions were found in
the old building. Most of the initial requests were taken care of quickly such as removal of a
storage loft but Chernen received a letter in mid June from the City of Vancouver indicating the
office may not be occupied until much more work was satisfactorily completed.
The current instructions from the City of Vancouver demand immediate vacancy until the leased
office is brought back to conditions of years prior to the present tenancy, effectively shutting
down the campaign office. These requests cant reasonably be accommodated while
campaigning in the remaining four months of the election so it has been decided to obtain a new
office instead while the landlord decides his next step.
Seven days prior to the anonymous tip Chernen accused the Mayor of voting on a business
venture in (June 2012) for the City to sell a three and a half (3.5) year option to purchase on
a former police station for one ($1) dollar that allows the purchaser the freedom to delay fullpayment and completion of the deal until March 2016 for the remaining discounted $9.3 million
dollars. The purchase option is assignable to any investor without penalty, and so far the
purchaser has made a one million dollar profit at the City of Vancouvers expense for his one
dollar investment. The purchaser can walk from the deal at any time up until 2016 without
completing the purchase for any reason.The City never offered this great deal to anyone
else and never advertised it.The option was sold in a quickly arranged, secret vote, to a
supporter of the Mayor, without disclosing the relationship.The option to delay payment 3.5 years
is worth as much as $1million dollars or more, which the City has not acknowledged, and has
been brought up in Court.
The City has vigorously fought Mr. Chernen in their attempt to hide these facts, blocking
Chernens bona fide request for the information under the FOI Act until the Provincial Privacy
Commissioners Office forced the City of Vancouver to finally provide theinformation to all those
who had requested it. It is still in court.
Glen Chernen and Cedar regret having to vacate and would like to thank members of the
community for the strong support they have provided and plan to announce a new office location
shortly for Vancouverites to continue getting to know the important work of Cedar.
CONTACT: David - 604 440 6593 at Cedar Party , [email protected] ,
[email protected] follow & contact Glen or Nicholas Chernen / Cedar via Twitter
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]