Nicholas Chernen. Photo via Twitter
Last week the Green Party of Vancouver held its nomination meeting at the Heritage Hall on Main Street, then announced its slate for the October 20, 2018 election.
It was a memorable day for candidates, including Nicholas Chernen who won the nomination to run for school board under the Greens banner.
And speaking of memories, Nicholas seems to have a bit of a problem with his.
While filing his papers applying to run as a candidate for the Greens he somehow forgot to include the fact that he had co-filed something else: a lawsuit that has yet to be heard in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. It's politically charged and it's all about me and this publication you're reading. Oops!
The lawsuit that Nicholas Chernen seems to have blocked from his memory
The lawsuit was filed by Nicholas, his brother Glen (who recently tried to get the NPA mayoral nomination), and a number of others who were involved in the fledgling Cedar Party they started. After being decimated in their first (and last) election Cedar closed up shop; some of its faithful have now slid their tentacles into established parties with promise.
The suit was the third in a string of them co-filed by brother Glen Chernen leading up to the 2014 election in Vancouver. The first two were deemed by judges to be "abuse of the Court’s process" and this one featuring V.I.A. has been withering on the vine for the last 4 years. Nicholas seems to have only co-signed this one.
It calls Vancouver Is Awesome a "front company" that I supposedly set up ten years ago to act as a conduit between real estate developers, their greasy cash, and city hall. It makes defamatory claims about not only our business but me personally, and I believe it was filed as an (unsuccessful) attempt to use the courts to sway an election result. Read more about it HERE.
Why hasn't it been heard after more than 4 years? Because the onus is on the petitioners of claims like this to book court dates. If they don't do that the case just sits there indefinitely. For years I've been working off of the assumption that since their first two got thrown out they didn't want to lose any more money by bringing their third suit to trial, but I have no idea; none of the people who put their names on it have ever contacted me, before or after filing it.
When I brought the case to the attention of the Vancouver Greens this week - after Chernen secured the nomination to run for school board - they brought it to him. A representative told me that he claimed to have "forgotten all about [the lawsuit]". This person also told me that they were concerned, and that they considered it to be a "real oversight" that he didn't disclose it during the vetting process.
Will the Green Party of Vancouver and its members stand behind this candidate, despite him "forgetting" about this case? Will it ever see its day in court, or perhaps be dropped? These things remains to be seen.
One thing is certain: the Chernen brothers have proven to be really good at getting press, even when they don't want it.
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This is Vancouver’s Stupidest Politics Column. Further reading:
- Meet the local politics blogger who might tell you to “F**k off” if you ask a question
– The latest mayoral candidate to declare [Wai Young] does most of her own stunts
– We just might see Ken Sim’s teeth before the October election
– With Vision Vancouver “in freefall”, other parties will handily fill the vacuum
– Vancouver election hopeful, Jean Swanson, launches campaign by vilifying “rich people”
– Here’s why we just launched “Vancouver’s Stupidest Politics Column”
