By Andrew Macleod, Monday Magazine, 7 February 2007
Ben conducted a detailed investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bear Mountain's land assembly, exposing apparent political interference in the transfer of Crown and Forest Land Reserve lands
Western Forest Products Ltd. had 35 acres on Skirt Mountain removed from what was then the forest land reserve after a company official sent a pressuring e-mail to Stan Hagen, then the minister of sustainable resource management, asking to have it released.
“Western Forest Products Limited, a Doman company, has an urgent requirement to obtain a letter from the Forest Land Commission byDecember 28, 2001[saying the 35 acres will be released],” says a December 19, 2001 e-mail to Hagen from Bob Flitton, who then worked for Doman, “or we stand to jeopardize a $7.5 million business deal.”
He adds, “Bottom line is we need someone who is authorized to act and we need it quickly. That may have to be the Minister or the Deputy Minister.”
The e-mail is contained in hundreds of pages of documents activist and former Victoria mayoral candidate Ben Isitt obtained from the agricultural land commission.
Two days after Flitton sent his e-mail, the CEO of the Land Reserve Commission, Kirk Miller, replied to an agent working on behalf of Doman that it would be possible to remove the land, which is now part of the Bear Mountain resort.
