Is
This Good Journalism?
A
Ms. Jenny Konkin was featured in a full page story (The
Moral Question
written by Kent Spencer)
with a very large photo in The Province on 15 September 2013. The
story was about her time as a missionary and her plans in Vancouver.
The only parts relevant are: “He
(god)
was protecting little
old me. My purpose on this Earth isn't finished yet”
(Ms. Konkin): “... the
Avalon has always been operated in ways that are sensitive to
tenant's needs” (Mr.
Spencer): “... which is
dedicated to improving residents lives”
(Mr. Spencer): “People
should have
a place they feel safe to come home to.”
(Ms. Konkin)
The
facts tell a different story.
Ms.
Konkin, by making her statements, has made herself a public figure.
The Province was used as her vehicle to aggrandize herself, putting
her views, her hotel and her business practices into public record.
This means that she is open to public scrutiny. The job of the
media.
By noon
(15/09/13) I sent the facts, all on public record, to the news desk
at The Province. The Province and it's editorial team had been duped
and it was incumbent upon them to retract and publicly apologize. I
received no reply. The next day (16/09/13) I sent the same facts to
the attention of the Faith Editor. There was no answer. Later that
day I sent the same facts to the attention of the Editor-in-Chief and
the Faith Editor. I received no reply. The following day
(17/09/13)I sent the same facts to the attention of the Publisher,
the Editor-in-Chief and the Faith Editor. I received no reply.
The
silence was crushing. Did no one read the Letters to the Editor? I
began to wonder why there was no reply, to wonder how it came about
that the article was even written? Who made the initial contact, the
publication or Ms. Konkin? Was there no reply because the subject of
the article (Ms. Konkin) in some sway over a staff member to have
this written? Flatly, was it paid for? Has there been no reply
because it is political? Do any of these questions answer why no
background check was done? Does this mean that anyone can approach
The Province and have anything they say printed as if it is fact?
I was
being a gentleman. I discovered a gross error in the article and I
gave the publisher and his staff more than ample time, days, to check
the facts, respond and investigate. But news is timely. And so the
reputation of The Province is another Konkin victim. The Province
has chosen to remain silent but I have not.
Slumlord
“Dedicated to Improving Residents Lives”
The
Province
15
September 2013
Dear
Editor:
I read
the article on Ms. Jenny Konkin in your Faith section (15/09/13). As
this article appears to be self-aggrandizement the facts need to be
made known and as a respected member of the media community it should
have been incumbent upon the reporter and editor to have all of the
facts on hand before committing to publishing.
Let's
begin with the Silver and Avalon Hotel where I was unfortunately a
resident/victim from April 2011 to January 2012. The Silver and
Avalon Hotel is infested with rats, mice, cockroaches and bedbugs.
When a tenant discovers bedbugs the mattress is hauled out into the
hallways, usually crowded with broken furniture, televisions and
appliances; all of this blocking the very few emergency exits. These
infested mattresses, bedding, et al can be left there for weeks.
This, of course, allows the bugs to trundle off and re-infest any and
all rooms in the hotel. The call to pest control is at the whim of
Ms. Konkin. The garbage containers have no lids making them a
feeding ground for the rodents. The toilets and showers are not
clean.
September
to October 2011 was very cold with overnight temperatures from12
degrees C and dropping into single digits. As the 'management' team
(Ms. Konkin and Josh Konkin) is only there two or three days a week
over the lunch hour I had to wait days to request that the heat be
turned on and for my room to be fumigated for the against the bedbug
infestation and to have a bed frame provided because after the first,
not the second infestation, now the fourth (nb: correction), the
mattress did not fit the original frame and I was sleeping on the
floor and to replace missing windows in hopes of some heat being
retained. Ms. Konkin's response to my request to have the heat
turned on (for the benefit of the other 85 poor tenants/victims as
well) was: “I will turn the heat on when I think it is cold.”
Rather a cold and heartless response from the woman you describe in
your article. My response was to go to the Tenant Review Board for
satisfaction. Ms. Konkin did not deign to appear at the hearing.
In
November the Tenant Review Board ruled in my favour, File
# 782145. The court
determined that heat was being withheld from the the tenants and Ms.
Konkin was found guilty ordered to pay $200 for failing to provide
heat. Ms. Konkin was found guilty of failing to maintain her
building to provincial codes. Ms. Konkin was ordered to immediately
replace the nine missing windows at the rear of the building. Ms.
Konkin was found guilty of not ridding her building of vermin. Ms.
Konkin was ordered to pay $2.50 per day each for both the missing
windows and fumigation until completed. The fines were to be
withheld by Social Services as per the court order as this would be
the only way to collect. Ms Konkin was ordered to replace the bed
frame. Of all of these orders the only compliance was replacing the
bed frame (free). The room was never fumigated. The heat was not
turned on on a continual daily basis until the middle of December.
Today I went to check and the windows, ordered immediately
replaced
in November 2011are still plywood. Ms Konkin apparently has no
respect for the laws of the land nor the orders of the court.
The
Konkin response to this was to hand me an eviction notice. Reasons
stated: theft of hotel property and threatening tenants and Ms.
Konkin. This time she appeared for the hearing. The court
dismissed the statements of theft and threatening. In other words
the court deemed them: lies. The eviction notice carried no weight.
Ms Konkin was defeated again in a court of law.
There
is always more. After receiving the eviction notice I filed again
with the Tenant
Review Board File#784895.
Then I looked deeper. The first room I occupied at the Silver and
Avalon Hotel was: R2. R1-R4 have a separate entrance from the
Avalon. None of the four rooms had windows. There was neither a
functioning toilet or shower. For this 'room' Ms. Konkin charged
Social Services $375. After a discussion with City Inspector Becky
Innes I learned that Ms. Innes and Vancouver Fire Prevention
Inspector Chris Short deemed this area “not
acceptable for living accommodations”
on 3 October 2011. In other words the room I originally occupied
plus three others were illegal. How many months and years had Ms.
Konkin been charging Social Services for illegal rooms?
$375x4x12=$18,000
per annum. Has the provincial government recovered this money?
Does the provincial government know how it spent this money?
There
was also an illegal restaurant on site. I called Gurinder Saini to
have Coastal Health inspect it. Now if the restaurant was illegal the
question is: were taxes collected or paid? If not why?
The
floors were professionally cleaned once while I was there by order of
City Inspector Becky Innes.
In July (nb: correction) of 2011 many complaints were registered
with the front desk regarding a stench on the 3rd
floor. These complaints were ignored. Ignored until the police were
called by a tenant to have the door of the room 324 emanating the
smell broken into. A decomposing maggot infested corpse was found.
In Ms. Konkin's determination to do nothing about complaints this
tenant who died was treated extremely inhumanely. (Check with the
coroner for details.)
Ms.
Konkin then did not want to repay my damage deposit. She claimed I
left no forwarding address. This is another lie. I left the address
with a front desk employee, Mr. Ernie Humpfries. (All of the hotel
employees are on assistance, is this some kind of welfare scam?)
This began a third claim to the Tenant
Review Board File # 787554.
Ms. Konkin only capitulated when I sent the Review Board the evidence
from the City Inspector and Coastal Health. She paid the damage
deposit plus the daily fine for not complying with the original court
order. In order to suppress the facts of illegal rooms and an
illegal restaurant being placed into evidence with the court Ms
Konkin by paying the fine admitted non-compliance with the court
order and was defeated yet again in a court of law.
Did
Ms. Konkin inform you about any of the above facts? Did the reporter
look farther than Ms. Konkin's statements, make any background
checks?
In
hopes of bringing these facts to light in 2011-12 I contacted the
Premier, the Opposition Leader, the Housing Minister and local MLA.
I contacted Go Public at CBC, The Province, The Sun and The Courier.
The politicians sent me form letters. The media did not deem it
news. Now that your publication has aggrandized this woman is this
not now news? Are there not criminal acts listed above? How much of
what you published is negated by verifiable facts?
The
moral question.
Peter
Bracking
The
Silver and Avalon Hotel is located at 163 W. Pender Street in
Vancouver and is owned in sole proprietorship by Ms. Mina Angelicola.
The hotel is located next to an empty lot waiting for half an office
tower.
-30-
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