Cease & Desist Order To Target Jacquie Forbes-Roberts

A few members of the Board at Carnegie Centre discussed getting a Cease & Desist Order against Jacquie Forbes-Roberts, General Mgr. of Community Relations at the City of Vancouver, at a meeting on Thursday, July 26th at Carnegie.  They believe her barring of a Board member, Bill Simpson, from the entire building without due process, and in their view without evidence of wrongdoing, warrants legal action. 

"People are in an uproar about this," said Sophia Friegang, a Carnegie Board member. 

Forbes-Roberts stated in a letter to Simpson dated June 21, 2007 that he was barred from Carnegie for operating a website which features "links" to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog.  Forbes-Roberts claimed in the letter that the blog, which has criticized City management at Carnegie, contains "inaccuracies".  City management has evaded a request from Simpson to tell him, "What are the inaccuracies?" 

"They've got nothing," says Grant Chauncey, a Carnegie Board member.

After the barring drew media attention, Carnegie Director Ethel Whitty and her supervisor Forbes-Roberts implemented what appeared to be a damage control strategy, one that kept Simpson out of the loop.  Whitty twice stated at public meetings that the position of the City and Forbes-Roberts was that Simpson had been barred because a Carnegie staff person had lodged a Work Safe complaint against him, claiming that the blog to which he links creates an unsafe work environment.  Despite widely disseminating this information, neither Whitty or her boss Forbes-Roberts have ever notified Simpson in writing or verbally of any Work Safe basis for his barring.     

Chauncey called Forbes-Roberts' actions "bullying" and predicted it would get worse if legal restraints were not placed on her. 

Forbes-Roberts was recently appointed by Mayor Sullivan  to work with former BC Attorney General Geoff Plant on the initiative to make Vancouver a "Civil City" in preparation for the 2010 Olympics. 

To read the entire original story, go to Downtown Eastside Enquirer