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Mayor’s foster son finds himself in spotlight with a warrant out for his arrest

December 30th, 2011 · 14 Comments

The Richmond RCMP charges against five people accused of running a dial-a-dope-and-gun operation in Richmond, New West and Vancouver likely would have been a short story in the Richmond paper, except for one thing: the name of one of the accused, which rang a bell for Richmond Review reporter Martin van den Hemel.

It turned out that the bell that rang when he saw Jinagh Navas-Rivas led him to the news that this was Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s former foster son.

As a result, all media, including the Globe, quickly picked up on the story.

Robertson had told me about his foster son back in the spring of 2008, when he was preparing to run for mayor, as I was doing the standard checking on biographical information. It was clear to me that Robertson’s wife, Amy, had been the mover on that one — something that didn’t surprise me, as I ran into various people during that 2008 campaign who had been offered temporary accommodation or other help by Amy.

I was interested to note that in the subsequent years, the Robertsons always included Jinagh in their biographical information, never making any differentiation between him and their other three children. I know it must be saddening for all of them to hear the news about these charges.

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