Brian Hutchinson
National Post
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Past articles by Brian:
Black market to grey: The illicit marijuana market is no longer dominated by gangs
VANCOUVER — Meet the boss of Canada’s illegal marijuana trade, Don Briere. To police and the criminal courts, he’s a familiar face, a maverick dealer and convicted grower who has served multiple prison sentences for refusing to obey the country’s long-standing prohibitions on pot.Briere has fought the law and lost, most of the time. Yet, even at the age when most Canadians are entering… → Read More
Inside the green rush: Figuring out the supply chain for a product made in secret is no easy task
DENVER, CO. — John Lord steps from his SUV and into his giant cannabis factory, near this city’s deserted stockyards. Cattle once dominated commerce in the Colorado capital, but marijuana is the prized commodity now. Before Colorado voters defied the U.S. government’s longstanding cannabis prohibition and amended their state’s constitution in 2012, making the drug accessible to any local… → Read More
Brian Hutchinson: Former UBC president breaks silence about mysterious resignation
Another month, another screw-up at the University of British Columbia, where internal investigations, apologies and loss of face now seem routine → Read More
Brian Hutchinson: The last stand of LaVoy Finicum, who said he’d rather die than to go jail
LaVoy Finicum seemed destined to die in a blaze of gunfire. He telegraphed his demise with defiant, anti-government rhetoric and an apocalyptic worldview → Read More
‘It looks likes a refugee camp’: Inside the Victoria park where about 100 homeless moved into huts and tents
Tents began appearing here in June; there are now about 100 homeless people living on the courthouse grounds. A 16-year-old girl recently showed up and planted roots → Read More
Brian Hutchinson: Last call at Victoria’s ‘imperialist’ Bengal Lounge
Its dark wood panelling, leather chairs, punkah ceiling fans, tiger skin and busts — will be no more, come May, to be replaced with something modern and bland, it is feared → Read More
Hutchinson: Group sex, illegal pot get OK in Vancouver, but wine in grocery stores? No way
City council decided not to temporarily allow wine sales in up to five city groceries. The reason? A health report saying it would cause serious problems. Including death → Read More
How terrorists killed 28 people in Burkina Faso: ‘You’d think it was over, then they’d come back and shoot’
When the killing finally ended, at least 28 people were dead, including six Canadian aid workers in Burkina Faso to help renovate schools, churches and an orphanage → Read More
B.C. couple found guilty of terrorism could be freed — if it’s proven RCMP facilitated bombing plan
Defence lawyers claim the pair was entrapped, that authorities seized on the couple unfairly, pulling them into a plot to detonate three homemade pressure cooker bombs → Read More
Manager of Vancouver gay nightclub admits he sent private investigators to rival’s city-licensed sex party
Ahmadian argued the ‘arts events licence’ program was being exploited by the ‘no-holes-barred’ parties and as a result, legitimate gay nightclubs were losing business → Read More
Clashes with China turn Miss World Canada into reluctant activist, Falun Gong spokesperson
Lin's struggles with Chinese authorities received international attention. A paper called her ‘a vocal human rights activist with prominent cheekbones.’ She wasn’t thrilled → Read More
Aboriginal students face ‘racism of low expectations’ in B.C. schools
Imagine a bright, capable high school student shunted into a non-graduation high school program meant for students with disabilities, all because she happens to be aboriginal → Read More
Brian Hutchinson: Adventure company walks out on bizarre human rights hearing brought by B.C. woman
Fragassi and Amaruk are accused of discriminating against a recent TWU graduate, by refusing to employ her ‘because she attended an Evangelical Christian University’ → Read More
Want to destroy ISIL? Hit them where it hurts: the pocketbook. Pulling terrorist financing’s plug
ISIL has manpower and money. It 'represents a new form of terrorist organization where funding is central and critical to its activities,' one task force says → Read More
UBC’s semester of troubles worsens as novelist Steven Galloway mysteriously suspended
The lack of information — beyond loaded references to student safety — from the school means assumptions will be made. Some will be false. This is how UBC seems to operate → Read More
How to clean Big Blue: Getting layer of dust off of UBC’s massive whale skeleton is no simple task
She is sometimes called Big Blue. Usually, just ‘the whale.’ They’re bland monikers for something that demands superlatives in every way: the world’s largest suspended whale skeleton → Read More
A distinguished prosecutor and First-Nations leader, Canada’s new Justice Minister is something new
A distinguished Crown Prosecutor, in her aboriginal communities, Wilson-Raybould is known also as Puglaas. In the Kwak'wala language, Puglaas means 'a woman born to noble people' → Read More
The courts say their son’s a cold-blooded killer. His parents — despite hard proof — believe he’s innocent
David and Elouise Lord have already spent $860,000 on legal fees and detective work, trying, without success, to prove their son Derik's innocence → Read More
When Leviathan II sank, local fishermen and boaters saved lives — as they’ve always done
They pulled tourists, dead and alive, from the sea. It’s what they do when there’s trouble at sea, they shrugged. Local natives came to the rescue, again → Read More
Leviathan II’s final, tragic voyage: A flare shot up as tour boat went down
As chatty tourists boarded the whale-watching boat, none would have guessed that four men and one women would be returned to Tofino with no vital signs → Read More