Security issues existed long before immigration raid at Vancouver racetrack: Attorney General
Posted September 5, 2019 6:31 pm.
Last Updated September 5, 2019 7:16 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — B.C.’s Attorney General has quickly smacked down criticism from an Opposition MLA about suspicious behaviour at horse racing tracks in the greater Vancouver area, as a corruption investigation into a gaming employee continues.
Eby is sticking by his claims the previous government may have ignored evidence of criminal activity three years ago. The province is investigating an employee following the arrest of seven foreign workers in August at Hastings Racecourse.
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In a letter to Eby from then-Finance Minister Mike de Jong in November 2016, he says about the racecourse: “the unit applies horse racing industry best practices, and the unit has an established approach of regular review and improvement.”
Recommendations made by former Auditor General George Morfitt in 2016 to de Jong, however, indicate there were security issues at Fraser Downs and Hastings Racecourse.
.@Dave_Eby says report commissioned by @Mike_de_Jong DID find evidence of suspicious behaviour. #bcpoli @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/OfwtInPcA0
— Marcella Bernardo (@Bernardo1130) September 5, 2019
Eby says problems identified in that report were not addressed before the raid by border agents Aug. 19 when seven migrant workers, mainly from Mexico, were arrested at the Hastings track.
“Security at both the Hastings Park and Fraser Downs racetracks is not as rigorous as it needs to be, particularly on non-race days,” Eby said reading from Morfitt’s report.
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He points to the fact that Morfitt found unlicensed people could access the back-stretch, and that needed to be reviewed.
De Jong, however, says Eby’s letter three years ago made no mention of immigration fraud at either Fraser Downs or Hastings.
Eby says de Jong has “some defensiveness” about his history on the gaming file, but he doesn’t understand “why he would suggest that when he gets a report that says there’s an issue with security and access to the back stretch at Hastings and at Fraser Downs in a recommendation, and when it’s looked at by another government that comes in finds there is serious and systemic issue there, why he doesn’t feel some accountability and responsibility for that given his time on the gaming file.”
