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Pullman-gate: Government employee Edward Pullman is behind a series of spoof sites of a concerned citizen’s group named Save Our Saanich.

These include a full copycat website, a copycat petition, and a copycat Facebook page, all purporting to “Save Our Saanich”.

Edward Pullman is listed at the time of writing on the Province of BC’s government directory.

The Province of BC has made moves on more than one occasion that seemingly undermine the resident’s group Save Our Saanich, something that will be discussed later in the article.

By Sasha Izard
Aug 10, 2025


In the fall of 2024 – Save Our Saanich, a group of concerned Saanich residents was formed. Their focus at the outset was the District’s Quadra/McKenzie Plan draft update which was taking place, and to which the group had objections to.

On November 18, 2024 – the internet domain name SaveOurSaanich.com was registered by the group.

Archived snapshot of the site a week after it was registered:
Save Our Saanich

Only a month later on 20 December 2024, a spoof/copycat site of Save Our Saanich was registered, as SaveOurSaanich.ca

The earliest archived snapshot of the spoof/copycat site is from Jan 16, 2025:
Save our Saanich

The petition and press release posted on the site were made by Edward Pullman.

Note: Pullman’s contact above in the spoof site SaveOurSaanich.ca’s original press release.

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The real Save Our Saanich petition in regard to the Quadra/McKenzie Plan existed at least a month before Pullman’s counter-petition that appropriated Save Our Saanich’s name.

This is the earliest archived version of the real Save Our Saanich petition dated to Dec 2, 2024.

Petition · Stop the Saanich Quadra McKenzie Plan.

The earliest archived version of Edward Pullman’s spoof Save Our Saanich petition is dated to Jan 20, 2025:

Petition · Save Our Saanich: Build the housing we desperately need

Pullman was listed on Change.org as the Petition starter (see screen capture above).

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In early February, when the Quadra McKenzie Plan draft was up for discussion at Saanich Council, Pullman’s spoof petition had earned less than a 10th that of Save Our Saanich’s petition, which was over 4000 signatures at the time.

A CHEK News segment the night of the meeting featured Save Our Saanich Spokesperson Nancy Di Castri facing off on television over the Quadra McKenzie Plan draft, with a parallel interview on it with Edward Pullman.

CHEK News did not refer to Edward Pullman as being associated with Save Our Saanich.

Quadra McKenzie Plan nears final phase in Saanich

Instead of noting that Pullman had made fake copycat sites of Save Our Saanich, or that he is an actual employee of the Province of BC, the news media which usually only takes surface level observations, instead of doing their jobs as press in a democratic society and digging further to enlighten the public, simply referred to him as a “cycling advocate”.

They didn’t mention that he is on the Board of Capital Bike, which among its activities has operated as a political pressure group pushing an agenda of bike lanes along traffic arterials and receives considerable funding from multiple levels of government.

Capital Bike has its own agenda for Saanich and the Quadra McKenzie Plan.

Capital Bike is similar to other outside political pressure groups which have sought to influence the plan and undermine residents voicing concerns with the plan.  These include Homes For Living and Better Transit YYJ.

See also: 2 Sentence Constitution of the Homes For Living Foundation removes any doubt that Homes For Living (HFL) is a purpose-built pressure group designed to influence municipal politicians. – CRD Watch Homepage

Winter Go By Bike Week | Capital Bike | Advocate. Educate. Celebrate. (Accessed: Aug 10, 2025)

Advocacy | Capital Bike | Advocate. Educate. Celebrate. (Accessed: Aug 10, 2025)

Excerpt from Capital Bike’s “Current Actions” on its website:

Pullman’s spoof site SaveOurSaanich.ca has a message that mirrors the political advocacy of Homes For Living, Better Transit YYJ, Capital Bike and the BC NDP, for which there are many overlaps.

The fake Save Our Saanich also has a Facebook page that directs people to SaveOurSaanich.ca, Pullman’s spoof site.

This is the link to it: Facebook

The real Save Our Saanich’s Facebook page can be found at the following link:

SOS – Save Our Saanich | Facebook

Pullman being a government employee (something that in addition to the government directory entry, has been confirmed to me by someone who knows him), also deserves attention in that the Province has been repeatedly intervening in municipal issues that Save Our Saanich has opposed.

At the time of writing on Pullman’s Facebook page is a picture of him standing next to the Premier David Eby, the two of them smiling in what looks to be an office building.

Edward Pullman left and David Eby right smile together in a photo taken in an office building, potentially a government office building. The photo was posted on Pullman’s Facebook page.

In June of 2025 as it became apparent that Save Our Saanich was succeeding in garnering enough AAP form signatures to potentially prevent a proposed borrowing of 150 million dollars to redevelop the Saanich Operations Centre, the Eby government stepped in and doubled the amount municipalities could borrow without triggering an AAP process, or a democratic referendum.

B.C. municipalities allowed to take on more debt for small projects, says province | CBC News

The following article was released the same day June 26, 2025 as the CBC article:

Saanich group says it may have the numbers to stall operations centre AAP – Capital Daily

Note the Capital Daily is part of the Overstory Media Group empire, which is currently run by former NDP Premier Glen Clark:

Ex-B.C. premier Glen Clark takes reins of Overstory Media Group – The Logic

https://thewalrus.ca/inside-the-tech-takeover-that-hollowed-out-a-beloved-halifax-alt-weekly/

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Save Our Saanich’s efforts facilitated a critical mass of residents in Saanich in rejecting the AAP process.

Although it took weeks after the June 25, 2025 deadline for submitting the AAP forms, for the results to be announced to the public – in the end Save Our Saanich had succeeded in its goals. Far more AAP rejections forms had been submitted to Saanich than were needed, the bulk of them submitted by Save Our Saanich on behalf of residents who had signed the forms.

The Province of BC has also intervened in another way to hamper Save Our Saanich’s actions.

Save Our Saanich applied for Society status under the Societies Act.  The Province without explanation of the reason, summarily denied the name Save Our Saanich to the organization. 

The Province also rejected some other variants of the name Save Our Saanich without explanation of the reasons behind the action. 

Finally, the Province accepted the name Save Our Saanich Neighbourhoods Society, which the organization is now registered under.  Why did the Province of BC deny the name Save Our Saanich as a registered society name?

With a Provincial employee close to the Premier undermining Save Our Saanich with copycat/spoof sites redirecting people to push his preferred agenda, and the Province repeatedly intervening in ways to undermine Save Our Saanich’s efforts, including that of the organization helping facilitate residents rejection of Saanich’s borrowing through the AAP process – the Province doubled the allowed municipal borrowing amount that could bypass an AAP process, mid-way through Saanich’s AAP process, thus allowing Saanich if it wanted, to go ahead with the plan, even if the AAP process had resulted in a rejection by the residents.  This should be kept in mind with the fact that the Province even denied Save Our Saanich the ability to register that name as a Society.

A pattern has appeared that deserves questioning. Has the Provincial Government led by the BC NDP been intentionally undermining this organization of concerned residents?

In the example of the government employee whose picture has been seen next to the Premier, it could take great bounds of imagination not to see that he has actively sought to undermine a resident’s organization in the District of Saanich using very questionable means (spoofing/copycat sites).

If these patterns are intentional, and it would take great difficulty not to see the latter action as so, how would it be democratic for a Provincial government and its employee to be working against and undermining an organization of concerned residents in a municipality through such means?

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Conclusion: A resident’s group has been effectively gaslighted by a government employee with connections to the Premier through the use of spoofing/copycat sites.

SaveOurSaanich.ca confuses, misleads, misdirects, and effectively gaslights concerned residents of Saanich, in regard to the real organization Save Our Saanich and its positions on the Quadra/McKenzie Plan. The real Save Our Saanich’s .com website and petition was made first. The real Save Our Saanich finally registered as a society, albeit as the Save Our Saanich Neighbourhoods Society – as they had been denied the name Save Our Saanich by the Province when they first attempted to register as a Society.

Save Our Saanich has been aware of the issue of Pullman and the SaveOurSaanich.ca spoof/copycat site since its inception, yet the group of concerned citizens have done nothing to expose this situation nor to have the copycat website pulled down.

Much of this is understandable, they have been very busy, especially in the herculean task of succeeding in gathering enough signatures for AAP rejection forms, something that previously was thought unthinkable and has served as an inspiration to residents of Saanich and elsewhere, something potentially alarming to a Provincial Government that has repeatedly undermined local democracy by denying vast amounts of public hearings across the Province, and through extensive pre-zoning, one of the key issues concerning the Quadra/McKenzie Corridor.

Index of articles regarding proposed plans for Quadra/McKenzie and transit-enabled development upzoning. – CRD Watch Homepage

Why has the media kept a closed lid on this situation of the SOS copy-cat sites, which is the giant elephant in the room looming over the name Save Our Saanich, an organization they otherwise have mentioned frequently?

Is SOS itself afraid to expose and make clear the situation of the fake copycat/spoofing sites publicly? Is it worried about publicly connecting dots that lead back to the Province? These are both possibilities. CRD Watch is not daunted by them.


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References:

ICANN registration lookup results for SaveOurSaanich.com:

ICANN registration lookup results for SaveOurSaanich.ca:

Screenshot of government directory listing of Edward Pullman taken on Aug 10, 2025:

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