Author: Stan S.

This new cookbook by Victoria based Authors Tom Moore with Rebecca Wellman was published recently by Appetite by Random House. This exciting book features a selection of sweets and savouries from Victoria’s beloved bakery which I have visited a couple of times during my Victoria visits. The recipes in this cookbook are ones that any patron of the notable Victoria bakery would cherish and there are 85 of them in the book. Within the pages of this debut cookbook, Crust founding chef Tom Moore shares recipes for the bakery’s most popular menu items, breaking them down into manageable steps and peppering in hints and tips to help you achieve success  at home. You’ll have no trouble making the perfect baked good, whether you’re craving: Pies and Tarts: Impress with Crust’s famous Lemon Passion Fruit Slice, the genius Vanilla Crème Brûlée Tarts to go, or the breakfast/lunch barrier-breaking Bacon, Tomato, and Smoked Cheddar Quiche. Muffins, Scones, and Squares: Explore Tom’s Australian-inspired Banana and Macadamia Muffins, or the simple yet scrumptious treat from his daughter: Abby’s Favorite Chocolate Rice Krispie Squares. Cakes: Indulge in the multi-season celebration of Zucchini Marmalade Cake or the multi-tiered decadence of Mr. Rich Birthday Cake. Cookies: Share Tom’s cheeky take on a Down Under favorite with Tom Tams or the “little black dress of cookies,” the Pecan and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Breads: Nurture a surefire Sourdough Starter day by day (to use for a number of recipes) or enjoy Cinnamon Brioche Scrolls and Aussie Crunch Rolls. The books are now available in bookstores coast to coast as well as bookstores online. By: Richard Wolak

Sightline Properties has submitted the first rezoning application under the City of Vancouver’s TOA Rezoning Policy, adopted by City Council in June 2024 following the Provincial TOA legislation. The 50,013 SF site at 520-590 West 29th Avenue is a full city block land assembly between Cambie and Ash Street. The site was previously approved in 2022 as a 46-unit townhouse project under the RM-8A zoning under the Cambie Corridor Plan. As the site is located 500 metres from the King Edward Canada Line Station and under the TOA Rezoning Policy, will allow up to 3.0 FSR (80% market rental, 20% below market rental). The proposal envisions two 6-storey woodframe rental buildings, with townhouses on the lane. It includes: 230 rental units (20% below-market); a total density of 3.0 FSR; A building height of 69 ft.; an 1,800 SF gym on the parkade level with natural light from clerestory windows; a single level of underground parking. The massing and project setbacks are based off of the City’s existing RR-2C District Schedule. The application is being considered under the  Transit-Oriented Areas Rezoning Policy. The architect for the project is Yamamoto Architecture. The post First Application Under New TOA Rezoning Policy Seeks 6-Storey Rental In Place of Approved Townhouses appeared first on Vancouver Market.

This is the residential address for the apartments above the retail building at 2409 Main Street. Our 1937 image shows there was a different arrangement to the building in those days, with several main floor units that these days have become two more retail stores. We think they were offices – in 1932 City Electric Company operated from 154 East 8th, as well as BC Monumental who designed stone monuments. In 1936 both 152 and 154 were vacant (as they had been the year before). Upstairs, 156 East 8th had 10 apartments. The Main Street (left hand) part of the building was developed by J B Mathers in 1910, with A J Bird as architect. Two years later W P White was hired to design an addition on East 8th at a cost of $9,000, which would be the four upper windows on the western end of the building. Before the building was painted, it was possible to see a slight change in brick colour. In 1937 the building appears to have been given a makeover, with a name, ‘The Crosbie Block’, and 13 suites upstairs but the numbering started at ‘0’, presumably to avoid trying to lease ‘suite 13’. Stuart Thomson  photographed it that year, and that’s where our Archives image comes from. We have no idea where the Crosbie name came from; Charles Crosbie was the only wealthy resident in the city with that surname; the retired BC head of the Royal Bank, who lived on Angus Drive. In 1952 there was a newly completed retail store that became home to the Standard Sewing Machine Center. By 1985 it had become a cafe, offered for sale for $29,000. In 1990 156 East 8th was a 1,000 sq ft retail store that leased for $400 a month. The twelve remaining residential units now have ‘Crosby Building’ over the door in gilded lettering, and a 2-bed apartment rents for $2,990. Downstairs, Melo Patisserie have one retail unit, (replacing the Nice Cafe – ‘Mount Pleasant’s original greasy spoon cafe’ – that was here for many years) while the Express Rut Bar offers root touch-ups – ‘the missing link in the hair industry’, for $65. Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 99-5012 1418    

Who is the city for? Last week, a good friend of mine recently told me he and his family were leaving Vancouver. His words struck a chord: “Vancouver has broken us.” Both he and his wife are working professionals. They couldn’t face another winter crammed into a shoebox apartment with their young child. Years of searching for a space that could accommodate a small family without breaking the bank had finally worn them down. One disappointment after another led them to this decision, until leaving became the only choice they had left. This story would hardly be worth mentioning if it weren’t so painfully common. Each year, more friends and family members pack up and leave Vancouver behind. These aren’t just abstract statistics—they’re skilled professionals, hardworking families, and everyday people who contribute to the intricate fabric of our urban life. And these people are not even the most vulnerable people in our city. With each departure, a piece of Vancouver’s spirit disappears, leaving behind not vibrant communities but vacant investment properties and darkened condo windows. The city is losing its people, and with them, its soul. I know many readers have had similar experiences and can feel it getting worse with every passing year. Who is the city for? The Barcelona Chronicles were born out of this sense of loss and frustration. Too few of us think about cities as designed spaces, shaped not only by physical structures but by the values, policies, and decisions that inform their growth. What we experience daily—the places where we live, work, and gather—are a reflection of choices made far above our heads. And the consequences of these choices are anything but abstract; they touch every corner of our lives. Even those of us working in city-building disciplines often struggle to see the bigger picture. Our fields are guided by entrenched biases, drilled into us through education and professional practice, rarely questioned and barely examined. We carry these assumptions with us like heavy backpacks, often too self-assured to realize that we are part of a much larger historical process. The result is a kind of arrogance—an inability to see beyond the immediate goals of growth and development to the longer-term impacts on people’s lives. For most of human history, cities grew organically, shaped by the needs and experiences of their residents, without the interventions of urban planners, mayors, or city councils. The structured, top-down approach we now call “urban planning” is a relatively new experiment, and an honest reflection would acknowledge that the most profound mistakes of the past century have coincided with its rise. In 1965, Christopher Alexander wrote “The City is not a Tree” which argues that cities are complex, interconnected systems, not hierarchical tree structures. He argued rightly that a tree-like approach to urban planning oversimplifies the intricate, overlapping relationships within a city, leading to less vibrant and functional urban environments. The environmental and social crises we now face are tied to decisions made in boardrooms and council chambers, rooted in a belief that cities can be controlled and shaped like machines…or worse yet, treated like businesses.  But cities are not machines—they are living, breathing ecosystems, with people as their heartbeats. Cities are also not like businesses—they’re not about maximizing efficiency, profit margins, and heavy-handed hierarchical control that benefits the few at the expense of others. This misses the fundamental nature of urban life. C ities thrive on collaboration, cultural exchange, and organic growth. All metaphors oversimplify the complexity cities, leading to rigidity that ultimately fails to meet the diverse needs of its citizens.  We are living inside an ongoing experiment of our own making. The answers we thought certain have crumbled, and the stakes are higher than ever. Every misstep reverberates through people’s lives and echoes into the future. We must be willing to question everything. At a time when all that is solid melts into air, how do we find the right path forward? Who is the city for? I have had the privilege of visiting Barcelona many times over the past two decades, often as a teacher. There’s a kind of magic in the way the city evolved; no matter how short the time between visits, Barcelona always seemed to improve. This transformation sparked endless questions: Why? What’s different here? How does this city keep getting better? My questions grew more urgent as I compared Barcelona’s trajectory to my own city, Vancouver, which to my eyes, was heading in the opposite direction. Barcelona is not perfect—I’ve spoken to enough locals to know that. But, few would argue against the fact that the city’s transformation over the past decade has been largely positive, driven by an approach that places people at the forefront of planning. By focusing on livability, sustainability, and community—and seeing their interrelationship—Barcelona has embraced a model that seeks to enhance the quality of life rather than merely maximize profit. Initiatives like the Superilla—where communities reclaim streets from cars—are not just about traffic; they’re about creating spaces where life happens, where the city breathes and its people thrive. Their affordability policies and systems are born from the same spirit. In Vancouver, however, the story is different. The city that once led the way with community-driven planning and innovative policies has increasingly surrendered to the market. The shift toward a profit-driven approach is evident in the soaring real estate prices, growing economic divides, and shrinking spaces for ordinary

Furthering our work in uncovering what the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) is doing, I am sharing the draft Algorithmic Impact Assessment we have for their Security Screening Automation (“SSA”) project. Based on a recent information technology report (disclosing projects with a budget of more than $1 Million dollars), the following is summarized about this automation project: Security Screening Automation The security screening system will facilitate information sharing with screening partners and enhance security screening through a new case management system, integrated intelligence systems and tools, business intelligence and performance monitoring capabilities. We also learn from this document that completion is tabled for 2026. From CBSA’s 2024-2025 annual report, we also see there are five references to the SSA project suggesting it is a major departmental priority. The details are still quite mum about the project stating only, their goal to:  Enhance immigration security screening processes to identify inadmissible persons seeking entry into Canada, including efforts under the Security Screening Automation project Algorithmic Impact Assessment Much of this document (which I received last year in 2023) is redacted. We do not know when the draft was dated. The project description (Section 9 at page 1) describes that it will invovled modernized case management system, an automated triage function, integrated intelligence systems, and tools, business intellignce, and performance moniotring capabilities. In short, this looks much more advanced then a Chinook type IRCC model. It also re-affirms the use of htese tools to route screening for the easier cases and allot more time for review for complex cases – helping hte immigration client. The document reinforces again that no automated decision is made without human oversight. The actual explanation for “Human-in-the-loop for decisions” is redacted. I wonder how automation of straight forward cases for security will be received by the public in light of recent news around terrorist plots by individuals who apparently were not caught by our security screening apparatus. It also seems somewhat contradictory that CBSA appears (again: I acknowledge I’ve received this information only through hearsay) concerned about IRCC’s eligiblity screening processes being automated, while pursuing security screening automation on the other hand. Another question I have is whether and how facial recognition technology (“FRT”) being implemented. We know that FRT is implemented into a ReportIn tool being developed to facilitate the removals process for inadmissible individuals subject to removal. Presumably, in addition to the obvious analytics from the application materials an individual might have and require processing, there is also a photo as part of every application and biometric collection. I wonder if there is any role being played in analyzing this as part of a front-end screening. Anyways, I leave the document up for everyone’s review. Happy to have further discussion about this: Interim Release A-2023-18296 For those who cannot see the above document, you can access the document via Google Drive link here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OBBoWuYWysvdyD1b2dG4B6E3m7Z0hylq/view?usp=drive_link  The post CBSA Algorithmic Impact Assessment for Security Screening Automation (Draft) appeared first on Welcome to Vancouver’s Immigration Blog.

The formal rezoning application for PCI‘s Spring Street application has been released. The preliminary application for the 2.9 acre site was submitted in 2023 and has now been revised for full submission following the TOA legislation. The site is located east of the Moody Centre SkyTrain Station north of Spring Street and east of Williams Street and consists of four lots, three of which are owned by PCI and the fourth by the Ministry of the Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI). MoTI intends to retain ownership of this lot, with a long-term lease to PCI for use as a plaza along with four levels of below-grade parking connected to the below grade parking on the PCI owned properties. The overall plan for the site includes: 865 rental units including 44 below market units; 67,000 SF of commercial space including a 41,000 SF grocery store; a total density of 6.96 FSR; 4,000 SF as ground level ‘artist space’; a new pedestrian overpass; a minimum of 400 parking stalls. The architect for the project is Perkins + Will. The post Plans Unveiled for PCI’s Spring Street Development in Port Moody appeared first on Vancouver Market.

The City of Vancouver has released a report outlining the next phases of planning for the ‘Village’ areas identified in the adopted 2022 Vancouver Plan. The Vancouver Plan identified 25 Village areas, primarily centred on existing smaller commercial centres around arterial intersections throughout the City, for increased density and expanded commercial area. Geographic Scope Eight of the Village areas are now identified to be part of alternative or future planning work, including: Three full and two partial Villages will be reviewed in the Rupert and Renfrew Station Area planning program; Three Villages will be incorporated into a future area planning program for Main and Fraser Streets, including Punjabi Market; One Village (Yew Street / West 1st Avenue) will be incorporated into future planning for neighbourhood centres; and One Village (Knight Street / East 57th Avenue) is identified in the Vancouver Plan as a Special Study Area and will need to be considered through a future planning program. The remaining 17 villages are identified in blue on the map below: Rezoning Potential The planning focus is on enabling “missing middle” and housing “up to 6-storeys”, with a focus on rental and below-market rental housing where economically feasible. In addition, the program will maintain or enable expansion of zoning permitting mixed-use buildings that deliver additional commercial space in Villages. The City anticipates the majority of sites will be rezoned through city initiated rezonings, rather than on a site by site basis. Interim rezonings will generally not be considered unless it involves social housing or seniors housing. Timeline The planning work for the Villages is expected to take approximately 18 months, with a Final Land Use Plan presented to Council in Q1 or Q2 2026. The full report can be viewed here: https://council.vancouver.ca/20241022/documents/r1.pdf The post City of Vancouver to Advance ‘Villages’ Planning Program appeared first on Vancouver Market.

Cities host our lived experiences. They are more than mere words in reports or policy documents; they are tangible environments that shape our daily lives. These urban spaces consist of physical materials molded into structures and places that influence how we move, connect, and think.  Yet, it’s easy to lose sight of this reality, especially when cities are viewed as abstractions—defined by terms like “economies,” and “social networks,” rather than as physical entities with concrete impacts. City planning suffers from a disconnection between policy and physical reality. Politicians, municipal workers, and decision-makers frequently focus on metrics like unit counts, floor space ratios, and density figures without considering the real-world implications for communities. This tendency to reduce cities to numbers, graphs, and other abstractions can result in sweeping changes that ignore the day-to-day experiences of residents and are detrimental to how the city works and feels on the ground. In contrast to abstract planning, Barcelona’s Superilla initiative demonstrates a more grounded approach to urban transformation. The Superilla, a neighborhood-level project, reimagined public space by prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists over cars. While initial policies set targets, the real impact was seen in the physical changes experienced by residents. Within a decade, the initiative had transformed the city in meaningful ways. The Superilla‘s success was rooted in a clear strategy: Prioritize all citizens by ensuring that public space serves the community. Set cross-disciplinary targets to address social, environmental, and economic goals. Launch small, viable pilot projects that could be tested and refined. Use evidence collection and analysis to inform decisions and adjust strategies. Scale successful interventions incrementally while discarding ineffective models. Empower local decision-making to keep citizens engaged and involved. This approach allowed the city to evolve naturally, adapting to changing circumstances while avoiding the risks associated with drastic, large-scale reforms. The importance of incremental, evidence-based planning is not a new idea. It goes back to the earliest settlements and is found in Cerdà’s Eixample design in Barcelona, despite being a large-scale masterplan. As discussed in previous pieces in the Barcelona Chronicles, the 19th-century urban plan was based on rigorous analysis, including demographic studies, building assessments, and environmental factors such as sun and wind patterns. Cerdà’s plan laid a flexible framework for gradual implementation and ongoing refinements over decades. However, even Cerdà’s method had its flaws. As we’ve seen, the Superilla addressed the system-wide problems that developed from the initial plan. More recently, the failures of Modernist architecture and urban planning in the mid-20th century serve as a cautionary tale. These large-scale projects often imposed untested models on cities, leading to outcomes that will negatively impact urban life for generations to come. The lesson is clear: large-scale planning can succeed only with a solid foundation of data, flexibility to adapt, and meaningful citizen feedback. In Vancouver, recent initiatives like the Broadway Plan and Transit-Oriented Area regulations ignored these principles,  failing to prioritize neighborhoods and their residents . They involve broad, large-scale transformations that have not been sufficiently tested through evidence-based methods. Their reforms aim to radically reshape thousands of hectares of land and existing communities but overlook critical factors, including infrastructure impacts, park space provisions, and the specific needs of neighbourhoods, to name a few. The city’s Social Housing Initiative and Vancouver Plan also overlook these essential considerations, favouring developers’ interests over citizens’ quality of life. The demolition of community-oriented urban fabric is planned without proper assessment of those who will be affected or what is and isn’t working in these areas.  This is a recipe for disaster. The risks associated with these untested policies are significant; if they fail, the consequences will be severe and difficult to reverse. Longstanding, more affordable, housing in older buildings once lost can never be recaptured.  This is why incremental approaches are preferred. On a smaller scale, Vancouver’s parklet program exemplifies the value of community-focused, incremental urban design, but it also has many shortcomings in comparison to Barcelona’s counterparts. The initiative began as a pilot project from 2011 to 2013, replacing parking spaces with public areas where people could gather and socialize. The city officially adopted the program in 2016, and parklets can now be found across Vancouver, maintained in partnership with local businesses and organizations. Despite their popularity, the parklet program remains limited in scope. The interventions are still considered “temporary,” with little discussion about expanding the program or integrating it into a broader urban planning strategy for the city. Roughly half remain in downtown Vancouver, with few other neighbourhoods receiving the benefit. This reflects a larger pattern in the city’s urban design efforts, where successful initiatives are left in a state of stagnation rather than evolving into permanent solutions. Other recent projects, like separated bike lanes and community public plazas, share similar challenges. While they offer benefits, they lack a systematic approach that could help scale them up across the city and create a cohesive, long-term vision. An example of a more ambitious urban transformation is Vancouver’s Arbutus Walk , a mixed-use development that replaced a former industrial site over two decades ago. The project prioritized pedestrians and cyclists with a central greenway and converting existing roads into public spaces. Drawing of Arbutus Walk central greenway concept. Courtesy of Scot Hein & Sean McEwen. Community involvement played a significant role in shaping the project, leading to the choice of mid-rise housing over high-rise towers, which allowed for more sunlight, open spaces, and a diverse demographic

After a scenic ride through El Poblenou and along the Barcelona waterfront, we approached the Sant Antoni market from the south, via Carrer del Comte Borrell, stopping at the Superilla Peatonal Sant Antoni intersection. This spot mirrored Poblenou’s with its low-cost public interventions and small-scale changes. However, Sant Antoni Market played a more pivotal role, serving as both a conceptual and physical gateway. It marked where the Superilla experiment transitioned from its “tactical” phase to the more “structural” stage of its evolution. North of the beautiful building, the interventions along Carrer del Comte Borrell showed a greater degree of investment. Carrer de Tamarit, north of the Market was redesigned as a “car light” through with new paving and a pedestrian plaza at its intersection with Carrer del Comte Borrell . Street furniture and planting were carefully integrated as a part of the new design. As these changes unfolded, discussions arose about scaling the Superilla model to magnify its positive impacts. The nine-block cluster approach worked well as a pilot, but wasn’t practical on a city-wide scale—it would be impossible to transform streets in 3×3 clusters everywhere. In 2019, the visionary Eixample Green Axes map was introduced, shifting the focus from an “oasis” strategy to a city-wide network. This plan committed Barcelona to spread the benefits of the Superilla concept to all citizens by connecting the cities’ neighbourhoods with these new green axes. The “green axes” are streets redesigned to reduce or eliminate car traffic, replacing vehicle-heavy roads with green spaces, wider pedestrian paths, and bike lanes. These streets reconnect neighbourhoods by creating a network of pedestrian-friendly streets that encourage walking, cycling, and outdoor activities. Complementing the green axes are public squares at major intersections, providing residents with open spaces for leisure and socializing. Filled with trees, benches, playgrounds, and shaded areas, these squares are crucial for increasing green spaces and improving air quality. Given the people-first mentality, the social function of these intersections cannot be understated, transforming former car-dominated zones into vibrant community hubs. Together, the evolved Superilla expansion plans to create 21 green axes and 21 squares in the Eixample, greening over 33% of its streets and turning them into pedestrian corridors and green spaces. This new environmental infrastructure aims to ensure that every resident in the Eixample is within 200 meters of a green axis. Last year marked a key moment for the Superilla initiative, with the City defining new design criteria for the green axes and outlining five principles in their new guidelines, as shown within the cross-section in the headline image. This ambitious project is ongoing, with several sections already completed, the most notable being Carrer Consell de Cent. Spanning over three and a half kilometers, this street transformation covers nearly the full width of the Eixample. For context, the transformed section of Carrer Consell de Cent is about one-third longer than Vancouver’s downtown peninsula. It would be the local equivalent of converting a major thoroughfare like 12th Avenue from Main Street to Burrard Street. Since Barcelona’s Eixample has the same 66 ft. street widths as Vancouver, their template can easily be replicated locally.   The Carrer del Comte Borrell—the street that Honey-Roses , Martos, and Matilla guided us— holds special significance . Not only is it a green axis, but the stretch between Sant Antoni Market and Carrer Consell de Cent allowed us to experience the evolution of their urban transformation, step by step. As we walked, Matilla shared lessons learned from each iteration, block by block. For instance, the City experimented with various paving patterns to encourage people to walk in the middle of the street. Not all designs were successful—changing paving alone wasn’t enough. Subtle visual and texture cues were needed to subconsciously invite pedestrians to walk in the center of the street. Carrer del Comte Borrell demonstrated this clearly, allowing us to see behavioral shifts from one side of the street to the other. These detailed efforts were part of a broader evidence-based approach, where data was gathered and analyzed from both design-oriented observations and larger-scale metrics. For example, the City tracked the impact of street closures on city-wide traffic patterns. Initially, traffic on other streets increased, but after a year and a half, it declined, supporting the idea that pedestrian-focused interventions can change auto-based behaviours. Our journey through Barcelona’s street transformations culminated at Carrer Consell de Cent, where we walked its length, exploring several unique squares designed to foster community. Walking down the middle of the street, Matilla explained the decision-making process in detail. This included policies that might seem surprising, such as limiting the number of restaurants allowed on this pedestrian axis to preserve essential community services. People first. A Masterclass, indeed. The session concluded with a warm aperitif with our gracious hosts, where our local planners eagerly asked more questions. Looking ahead, Barcelona plans to complete the remaining green axes and squares, serving as a global model for cities aiming to prioritize people, community, and the environment over cars and congestion. At the core of this transformation is a simple yet powerful motive—one shared with affordability policies discussed earlier in the series and rooted in centuries of evolution: enhancing the quality of life for all residents. Throughout this process, citizens remain the focus, forming the foundation of every decision, from the abstract to the physical, from the small scale to the large. We have covered a lot of ground. Let’s

We looked at an image of the Empress, and her next-door neighbour, the Phoenix, in a post we wrote six years ago. Then we saw a horizontal slice of the buildings, but this Archives image from 50 years ago shows the full vertical extent of a tall building on a 25 foot lot. The $90,000 construction was developed by L L Mills, and designed by his brother-in-law who worked in Independence, Kansas, and who almost certainly got the job because he was married to Lyle’s sister, Emma. Lyle Le Roy Mills was born in the US, in Iowa, and in 1912 when he obtained the permit for the building he was 43. His wife Elsie was from originally from Sweden, shown in the 1911 census as three years younger, (although actually three years older). They had married in Seattle in 1904, and were living in the West End with an extended family; Lyle’s mother, Margaret who was 85 was living with them, and Elsie’s mother, Carrie Swensen, and her sister, Ellen. Lyle’s brother, Oscar and his wife Cora were also living at 1967 Barclay with their children, Oscar Le Roy, 13, and Earl Van, 11. Oscar worked as a barman at what was described as the ‘world’s narrowest tallest hotel’ when it was built. Lyle and Elsie had married in Washington state in 1904, and it wasn’t Elsie’s first marriage as she was recorded then as Elsie Anderson. After a few years Mr Mills ran into problems. In 1916 it was alleged that a young woman stayed at the hotel without registering. On the strength of the allegation (which was never tested in court), Mr Mills was threatened with the loss of his hotel licence. Mayor McBeath, and the City’s Licence Inspector held the view that the board could arbitarily cancel a licence. They suggested that if he wanted his day in court, Mr Mills could always appeal. Lawyers appearing for Mr Mills initially persuaded other board members that they could only cancel a licence after a conviction in police court, but a temporary suspension was agreed Unwilling to drop the case, the board launched its own inquiry, and called the girl to give evidence. She admitted staying with two men for two nights without having registered. Detectives said that they had seen the girl leaving the hotel, and the hotel clerks were called and confirmed she was not registered. But they also stated that they, and Mr Mills, did not know she was staying, and they were under instructions to not allow unaccompanied women to use the hotel rooms. The lawyer for Mr Mills throughout the proceeedings objected that they lay beyond the board’s powers, and that there was no proof (or accusation) that Mr Mills knew of the woman’s presence. Just as the board were about to debate suspending the licence, Frank Lyons, the lawyer, produced writs claiming damages against the board members for usurpation of powers, and an injunction preventing them from suspending the hotel licence. “Remember that I am telling you now that you have no power, no authority, no right; your action is unfair, improper, illegal, unjust.” The mayor wasn’t willing to back down, and by the summer of 1917 the case was in the Supreme Court, where Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper was representing Mr Mills. (He was a former conservative politician, Minister of Justice and Solicitor General for Canada). There had also been something of a PR disaster for the hotel, when a sensational case arose concerning the death of Mrs Nora Cowan. She fell – or jumped – from a fifth floor window, and died as a result. The circumstances filled the papers for days. A coroner’s jury handed down an open verdict after hearing that Mrs Cowan (married to a soldier serving in Europe) had met Vernon Cole (a married man with a wife and children) and after several drinks in the hotel had appeared to have had too much alcohol, and had been taken to a room usually occupied by one of the hotel barmen. A doctor (a friend of Mr Cole) had seen she was asleep, and she was left alone. Mr Mills had briefly interacted with the party, as he was a friend of Mr Cole, but there was no suggestion of any inpropriety on his part. Nevertheless the mayor used the episode as another reason for the removal of the licence, and this time the board agreed. Sir Charles Tupper declared the board’s actions to be illegal, as they had determined to remove the licence and then tried to find grounds to support that position. There was a week’s delay in the appeal to the Supreme Court while the mayor was unavailable, on a trip to Winnipeg, and a week later when the mayor was again unable to attend as he was on holiday in Calgary. Eventually Justice Murphy held the hearing, and having heard extensively from Sir Charles Tupper (who continued to denounce the board for depriving the hotelier of his $200,000 investment with no direct evidence of any wrongdoing), he nevertheless determined, a week later, that the board could suspend or cancel the licence as they saw fit, without having to follow the normal rules of evidence or procedures of a court. Six days later Walter J Robinson, a baliff, was offering the contents of the hotel to meet a debt of $1,450 against Lyle L