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“VibrantVictoria” claims it’s not media, is annoyed at being asked if it is connected to real estate – bans poster for questioning if that is really the case – then it turns out that it is run by Citified Media with ties to real estate sector.

By Sasha Izard
April 12, 2025

VibrantVictoria is a popular Facebook page with over 60,000 members, and they churn out a lot of articles. It would not be unusual for a dozen a week. Many of these articles appeared to me to have a bent for promoting a real estate agenda.

Today after reading a VibrantVictoria article referring to Sooke being a sleeping real estate giant, and thinking to myself about how fragile its nature is and vulnerable to development and ensuing natural habitat loss, it occurred to me that for VibrantVictoria to make such a statement seemed a bit reckless. I thought about it in the perspective of the general pattern of the articles and figured a question deserved to be asked:

After asking this question, I was immediately banned from VibrantVictoria’s Facebook page. Clearly, I had struck a nerve.

Not finding this to be particularly democratic, nor forthcoming, I decided to consult Google about Vibrant Victoria.

As Google’s AI Overview quickly informed me:

“VibrantVictoria is operated by Citified Media, a Victoria-based company founded by Mike Kozakowski. Citified Media is also responsible for the Citified platform, which includes VibrantVictoria. The platform focuses on real estate and civic issues, reflecting Kozakowski’s interest in these areas from his time at UVic.”

Well it didn’t take rocket science to figure out that if VibrantVictoria is operated by Citified Media, then their claim that they aren’t media, prior to banning me, was well bogus.

Clearly my question struck a nerve. It appears that VibrantVictoria would like to look more grassroots than it actually is.

So I quickly sought to learn more about Citified Media. This is what I found on their website:

“Mike Kozakowski founder of Victoria-based Citified Media, the company behind Citified and VibrantVictoria, and real estate industry consulting services.”

“In terms of your audience, how many people are exposed to Citified Media’s content?

Every month over half a million people will consume our content, whether through Citified’s breaking news articles, as visitors to VibrantVictoria’s online forum, and through our diverse network of social media channels. Chances are, by the time mainstream media picks up on a real-estate development story or a major retail story, it will have already been covered on our network, making Citified a must-follow resource among local real-estate professionals.

I am also honoured and grateful to have a weekly appearance on CFAX 1070, Victoria’s talk radio station, where morning host Adam Stirling and I discuss civic or political matters and development issues on Friday mornings at 9:30. CFAX’s Ryan Price, the afternoon host, is also a big supporter of Citified, and I am grateful for the opportunity join him on a regular basis to discuss the big development stories of the week, and to provide an industry context on development headlines to help fill in the gaps for CFAX listeners.”

https://victoria.citified.ca/news/q-a-citifieds-mike-kozakowski-bcs-new-housing-policies-overcoming-supply-roadblocks/#

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Yes, Citified is media, very powerful media it seems in Victoria, and very connected to real estate; and VibrantVictoria and its online forum are a key component of that network.

Is VibrantVictoria financed, if so by who and what entities?

Does VibrantVictoria receive ad revenue?

I can ask those questions here, but I cannot ask them on VibrantVictoria’s Facebook page.

If you’re on Facebook, feel free to ask them the same questions, but remember to screenshot them when you do it. Banning comes fast.

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Conclusion:

VibrantVictoria’s claim “we’re not “the media”. Bro.” doesn’t seem to hold a lot of water. The fact that as a poster I was banned after questioning that, speaks volumes.

This house of cards collapsed with a quick Google search that immediately pulled the curtain on it. VibrantVictoria is operated by CitifiedMedia, which is directly tied to real estate consulting, and makes money from the real estate sector and the development industry.

This isn’t the first media group that has close connections to real estate and development.

Likely the majority of them do, which breaks down another easily collapsible house of cards, the illusion of a free press in a democratic society.

The reality is that development and real estate have deep ties with what remains of the press in Canada, and as a result it is difficult to discern where real reporting (if any) begins, and where industry propaganda, public relations, native advertising, greenwashing, gaslighting, and astroturfing ends.

Welcome to the 21st century.

If one is reminded of 1984, don’t be too surprised:

“Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”

Who have influence over the media, have major influence over all of the above.