Burnaby’s NDP-affiliated mayor is taking shots at the Liberal Party of B.C. for ads he says are misleading people about council’s stance on marijuana sales – but the Liberals aren’t backing down.

In a press release issued Thursday morning, in the final days of the election campaign, Mayor Derek Corrigan criticized Chinese-language ads placed by the Liberals. The ads in question mention two Burnaby city councillors, Anne Kang and James Wang, who are both running for the NDP in this election – Kang in Burnaby-Deer Lake and Wang in Vancouver-Langara.

article continues below

“The Chinese-language ad says that Burnaby city councillors, James Wang and Anne Kang, ‘voted for distributing non-medical marijuana in liquor stores before the federal government has legalized marijuana’ and that this information is taken from Dec. 5, 2016 Burnaby city council meeting minutes,” Corrigan said in the release. “This is not true.”

The minutes read, in part, that “the City of Burnaby wants to ensure that should marijuana be legalized, it is distributed in a responsible manner and does not fall into the hands of minors.”

The council discussion arose in connection with a motion to support the Responsible Marijuana Retail Alliance of B.C. – a joint partnership of the B.C. Government Employees’ Union and the B.C. Private Liquor Store Association – which proposed retail sales of non-medical marijuana should be allowed only in licensed public and private liquor stores.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the motion.

Corrigan noted the minutes of the meeting very clearly indicated the discussion took place in anticipation of new legislation from the federal government in the spring of 2017.

“It is clear that there is no level to which the current provincial Liberal party will not stoop in its bid for re-election, but the City of Burnaby will not accept this misrepresentation of the facts about Burnaby city council decisions,” Corrigan said. “It would be a disservice to our citizens to do so.”

Corrigan called on the Liberal Party of B.C. to pull the ads and to apologize to Burnaby city council.

The Liberal Party of B.C., however, has no intention of doing so.

“We stand by our advertisement. The minutes show the motion to support the sale of non-medical marijuana in government liquor stores was unanimously approved,” says a statement emailed by the Liberal communications team.

Andrew Wilkinson, Liberal candidate in Vancouver-Quilchena, told the NOW in an interview that the issue is not about the wording of the ad but about the fact the NDP candidates did come out in support of marijuana sales in liquor stores – something he said Liberal leader Christy Clark has opposed but NDP leader John Horgan has supported.

“I think the key question is, are they prepared to disagree with their leader?” he said. “It’s incumbent upon the NDP candidates to make clear their position.”

He said the advertisement leads directly to the question of where the candidates stand on the issue.

Not mentioned in Corrigan’s press release – which was sent on letterhead from the City of Burnaby, Office of the Mayor – is the fact that Burnaby city council is entirely made up of members of the Burnaby Citizens Association, an NDP affiliate.

“Mayor Corrigan has a long history of disagreeing with the Liberals on just about anything,” Wilkinson said.

The NOW questioned Wilkinson on where the disputed ad had in fact run, but Wilkinson did not have that information. He said he would call back when he tracked it down but, as of deadline, had not returned the call.