The photo I shot yesterday represents the cruel irony in one of the lies behind the logging in Stanley Park: A wildfire warning sign washed away in the park's wetlands.

I am Michael Robert Caditz, educated in philosophy, environmental ethics, and engineering— and a software engineer by trade. I’m an avid cyclist and photographer with a deep understanding of ecology and social justice.

I came to Vancouver in 2018 with the hope that Vancouver was a progressive city free from the backroom deals and dirty politics so common in other big cities. To my dismay, out-of-integrity backroom deals have resulted in the massive devastation of our beloved Stanley Park National Historic Site, which was entrusted to the City of Vancouver to care for with respect for the Host Nations Peoples who have lived here for millennia, and on behalf of all Canadians.

Because of my hurt and outrage at the disingenuous process whereby our elected politicians have enabled vested financial interests to peddle bad science and gain lucrative government contracts, I stepped forward and founded the Stanley Park Preservation Society to oppose the continuing and tragic removal of the protective canopy in Stanley Park’s temperate rainforest. There is simply no credible evidence that tens of thousands of Stanley Park trees which were chopped down, in all their cycles of life—including as standing dead wildlife snags—represented a significant threat to human safety.

It’s time for a change in our municipal government. A unified opposition to the controlling ABC party can bring issues which have previously been hidden behind a veil of secrecy to public light. Most of the $19 million demanded by City staff to pay B.A. Blackwell to “assess” then log Stanley Park was secretly approved in-camera with no opposition and no debate. A strong opposition would force a debate and public scrutiny, the result of which might be refusal of Council to rubber stamp further raiding of taxpayer funds for massively consequential projects without peer-reviewed scientific justification.

After attending each of the all-candidates meetings in the past several weeks, my personal assessment is that TEAM for a Livable Vancouver candidates Theodore Abbott and Colleen Hardwick would together represent the strongest opposition to Mayor Sim, ABC, and their destructive policies. TEAM states in its platform:

Protect Stanley Park by halting the current logging operation until a full scientific review and independent risk assessments are conducted, including documented tree inspections with consideration for ecological, wildlife and recreational values.

TEAM has consistently stood by our anti-logging community since the first illegitimate contract was signed with Blackwell in 2023; is the only party that has explicitly opposed Stanley Park logging on its website; and is the only party running two candidates unequivocally opposed to logging. I believe that Colleen and Theodore working together would represent unified and formidable opposition to ABC and Sim.

I strongly urge all of those interested in a change for the better in our city and all of those committed to the preservation of our native coastal western hemlock forest, of which we have been entrusted, to cast your two votes for Theodore Abbott and Colleen Hardwick of TEAM.

Our Saturday, April 5th Vancouver municipal by-election can be the beginning of the end of the most disastrous and egregious onslaught to the intrinsically valuable ecosystem we call Stanley Park in history—as well as the dawn of a more democratic and responsive municipal government. Please vote, because this ecocide and evidence-free dictatorial governance must stop while there is something left—and never be tolerated again.