Liberal Fentanyl Drug Dirt Smears Christy Clark Campaign [Who's Talking China Connections?]

Fentanyl victim's mother slams Chinese drug [Fentanyl] importer's B.C. Liberal connection

NICK EAGLAND
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Published on: May 3, 2017  

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The mother of a fentanyl victim is questioning why a B.C. politician brought a relative facing a serious fentanyl-related criminal charge onto the campaign trail.

Kasimir (Kaz) Tyabji-Sandana, of Calgary, was arrested and charged in 2015 with importing a controlled substance after police intercepted a package marked as a muffler from China at Vancouver’s International Mail Centre.

The parcel was addressed to someone in Calgary and contained 122 grams of pure fentanyl, the synthetic opioid detected in about 61 per cent of the 1,278 illicit-drug overdose deaths in B.C. between Jan. 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017.

Tyabji-Sandana has been free on bail since late 2015. The charge has yet to be proven in court and a five-day trial is set for Sept. 11.

In recent months, Mathew Wilson, the B.C. Liberal candidate for the Powell River-Sunshine Coast riding, has been spotted campaigning with Tyabji-Sandana, who is his stepbrother.

Tyabji-Sandana has been actively supporting Wilson’s campaign on his public Facebook page, encouraging people to post Wilson’s lawn signs and offering to sell tickets to one of his campaign events. Wilson’s campaign Facebook page shows photos of the two attending campaign events together since the Liberals announced his candidacy in November.

This does not sit well with Michelle Jansen, whose 20-year-old son Brandon died in March 2016 of a fentanyl overdose at the Sunshine Coast Health Centre, a private addiction-treatment centre in the riding.

“I think it’s a slap in the face,” Jansen said. “I think it demonstrates (B.C. Liberal leader) Christy Clark’s leadership. She speaks out of both sides of her mouth.”

Jansen said she felt Tyabji-Sandana’s involvement with Wilson’s campaign demonstrated the party’s “flagrant disregard for the importance of the fentanyl crisis.”

She then slammed the Liberals for their failure to deliver on a 2013 election promise to “create an additional 500 addictions spaces in the province by 2017,” which the party later delayed to the end of 2017 (the party announced all 500 were ready a week before the election launched.)

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Jansen said Tyabji-Sandana should not be connected to the campaign while facing fentanyl charges, which she believes is offensive to the grieving families of overdose victims.

“To know that this is going on right where my son died is hurtful,” Jansen said. “I think he should step back.”

Wilson’s campaign office provided an emailed statement in response to an interview request: “Our hearts go out to Ms. Jansen, who is dealing with a terrible loss. Of course, Kaz is supporting his stepbrother, as is the rest of Mathew Wilson’s family, and hundreds of other members of our community. We won’t be commenting further on a legal matter that’s before the courts.”

Asked whether it was appropriate for Wilson to have an accused fentanyl importer working on his campaign, B.C. NDP candidate Mike Farnworth, the former justice critic, said he was most concerned with how the B.C. government has handled the overdose crisis in general.

“These are obviously serious charges. They will be addressed in court. If he’s found guilty, then there’s serious consequences facing him,” Farnworth said.

“To me, the real issue is the fentanyl crisis itself in this campaign and the lack of response – the late response – by the government on too many occasions.”

Wilson is the son of Gordon Wilson, who was leader of the B.C. Liberals from 1987 to 1993 and currently has a $150,000 government gig as an advocate for B.C.’s liquefied natural gas industry.

Gordon Wilson’s wife and Tyabji-Sandana’s mother is Judi Tyabji, who was a Liberal and later independent MLA from 1991 to 1996 and recently wrote a biography of Christy Clark.

neagland@postmedia.com

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with file from Canadian Press