MISSION HASN'T BEEN SERVED LAWSUIT: GIPPS

District Reverses More Than a Dozen Inspection Fees

The District of Mission denies it has been served with a class-action
lawsuit for searches conducted by the Public Safety Inspection Team in
coordination with the district's Controlled Substance Bylaw.

The bylaw, commonly referred to as the marijuana bylaw, allowed the
district's PSIT to search properties that were drawing more than 93
kwh of electricity per day for possible marijuana grow ops.

A number of Mission residents who had their properties searched since
the bylaw was enacted in 2008 and were slapped with a $5,200
inspection fee - without evidence of a grow op - feel the searches
violate their human rights.

On Monday, Stacy Gowanlock, who has acted as the spokesman for angry
residents since his property was searched in 2009, told the
Abbotsford-Mission Times that the district had been served a
class-action lawsuit on this matter.

"To my knowledge, yes [it has been served]," he said.

However, district spokesman Paul Gipps said it hasn't been served
yet.

This latest development came just days after the District of Mission
announced it wrongly identified more than a dozen locations as
"controlled substance properties" and will be reversing those
decisions immediately.

A review of approximately 70 open PSIT files found that 15 did not
meet the "evidentiary test identified" and their "status as a
controlled substance property" under the controversial bylaw will be
changed.

The inspection fee those property owners were levied will be reversed
immediately, district spokesman Paul Gipps said last week.

"We're apologizing for the inconvenience," he said, adding there are
25 to 30 files still under review.

A moratorium has since been placed on the bylaw, but Gowanlock said
this announcement proves the district was wrong to implement the bylaw.

"It's definitely damage control," he said.

"I think the program has been exposed. I've said all along, the
evidence itself has been controversial, it's been circumstantial . . .
it shows to me that mistakes have obviously been made."

An RCMP investigation is also under way into a possible breach of
trust from within Mission council.

RCMP officers seized two computers belonging to Coun. Jenny Stevens
and three computers belonging to former councillor Ron Taylor on May 9
after allegations that information pertaining to the marijuana bylaw
and the hiring of a public relations firm, Laura Balance Media Group,
was leaked from an in-camera council meeting.

The confiscations led to a protest of up to 200 people outside
Mission's Municipal Hall on May 16, with some residents calling for
Mayor James Atebe's resignation.

The District of Mission unanimously voted the bylaw into affect in
April 2008.