Community Association event featuring Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Diana Gibson, screens questions in advance, as Gibson advances bill that would limit access to information, if passed.

Community Association event featuring Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Diana Gibson, screens questions in advance, as Gibson advances bill that would limit access to information, if passed.

Questions should be raised about controlled/stage-managed ‘community’ political events.

By Sasha Izard
April 19, 2026

Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Diana Gibson has been in the news lately.

As Minister of Citizens Services she has been advancing legislation that critics note appears to be an attempt to allow government to restrict access to information.

BC Government Accused of a Stealth Attack on Freedom of Information | The Tyee

2026 Bill 9 Weakens Access in BC

NDP MLA Gibson succeeded Murray Rankin, who also NDP and was the previous MLA for the riding Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

Rankin helped setup the freedom of information system in BC in the early 90s, which some have through experience come to refer to as freedom from information.

Rankin also came under criticism in 2021 for attempting to reduce access to information:

‘Who cares’ about access to information? Murray Rankin used to – Capital Daily

On March 12, 2024 I attended a highly stage-managed political event called:
“Housing in Oak Bay: Where do we go from here?”

The event was held at St. Phillip Anglican Church in Oak Bay. The event was hosted by the Community Association of Oak Bay. Questions were taken in advance via e-mail, whereby they could be screened. I asked a question, which was never asked regarding the UDI. I’m not surprised.

The event, which I attended, featured Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch, Saanich Councillor Zac De Vries, the NDP Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon, Virginia Holden of the Greater Victoria Housing Society and NDP MLA Murray Rankin.

Kahlon appeared to try to mitigate concerns about the recent housing bills including Bill 44, and the provincially mandated housing targets.

Mayor Kevin Murdoch announced at the event that he intends for the former UVic dog park, (which covers 40 so acres of greenspace) to have massive construction on it for housing, which would help the District achieve its provincially mandated housing targets.

Rankin didn’t say much, but I do recall him chanting “Build, build, build.” at the event, which reminded me eerily of Sarah Palin’s Drill baby drill! chant in the leadup to the US presidential election of 2008.

Just over half a year after the March 12, 2024 event, the Community Association of Oak Bay held an All-Candidates Meeting in the leadup to the 2024 British Columbia general election. The Association once again screened questions in advance. (See Appendix at the end of this article).

During the same election, the Cadboro Bay Community Association also held an all candidates meeting, in the St. George’s Anglican Church hall. While questions were not screened in advance, my question was screened on the spot. The moderator, which is the CBRA’s current Chair Colette Baty, would not allow me to ask a question, even at the point when I was in the only person in the room holding my hand up. I walked out after the questions were cut off, as some will recall.

See also: Cadboro Bay Residents Association (CBRA) doesn’t post any letter from residents on its website in almost 2 years. – CRD Watch Homepage

One of the candidates at that meeting was Diana Gibson, who was elected as MLA after.

Now in 2026, with another potential election not far off, MLA Gibson is a featured presenter at the Gordon Head Community Association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). Once again, the questions are being accepted, and hence can be screened in advance. I’ll wager a friendly bet, that no questions regarding Gibson’s Bill 9, which would allow the BC government to limit access to information, will be allowed.

—————————————————————————————————

Appendix: Emails regarding stage-managed event held by the Oak Bay Community Association in the leadup to the 2024 BC election.

On Sept 28, 2024 – I sent the following email to the Community Association of Oak Bay:

Hello Community Association of Oak Bay,

I have a question. How does the association choose which questions to ask at the town hall events that it hosts?

Thank you,
Sasha Izard

—————————————————————————————————

Hello Sasha,

Our moderator for the all-candidates forum, CHEK News anchor Paul Haysom, will be selecting the questions for this event. Please feel free to submit a question to this email address and we will forward it to Paul. Thank you!

Community Association of Oak Bay

—————————————————————————————————

Hi,

I’d like to ask the same question that I asked you to Paul, could you forward it to him?

Thank you,
Sasha

—————————————————————————————————

Hello Sasha,

We will forward your question to Paul and I believe he will answer it when he explains the format for the debate.

Thank you!

Community Association of Oak Bay

—————————————————————————————————

Thank you,

Sasha

—————————————————————————————————

On Oct 5, 2024 – I emailed Paul Haysom of CHEK News,

Hi Paul,

I’m wondering what your methodology was for choosing which questions would be asked at today’s All Candidate’s Meeting.

Thank you,
Sasha

—————————————————————————————————

Hi Sascha,

Thanks for reaching out – I based them off the questions I was provided by the community. I wanted to touch on as many topics as possible without repeating question or topics. It was tough because a lot of them were focused on one candidate in particular, but I thought we struck a good balance so we could hear from all candidates. Thanks again for reaching out!

Paul Haysom

—————————————————————————————————

Hi Paul,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

You didn’t answer though what system you used to choose the questions.

Thank you,
Sasha

—————————————————————————————————

Haha sorry about that – I was sent the questions from the community association.

PH

—————————————————————————————————

Ah OK,

So they gave you the questions to ask and you asked all of those questions, or did you choose between the questions that they provided which questions would be asked?

Thanks,
Sasha

—————————————————————————————————

It was a combination of both but they wanted to hit a number of topics – why do you ask?

PH

—————————————————————————————————

I asked:

Which topics did they want to hit?

—————————————————————————————————

Paul replied:

Oh they didn’t tell me to hit any specific topics, they just sent me the questions. I widdled them down into a number of topics to make sure a number of topics were covered. They just wanted to make sure we didn’t dwell on one topic in particular – thanks again for reaching out, have a great night!

—————————————————————————————————

Thanks for letting me know Paul,

Sasha

—————————————————————————————————

Share this:

Leave a comment Cancel reply