A group accused of raising money on behalf of North Shore Rescue (NSR) is speaking out after NSR commenced legal action against them.
NSR released a notice of civil claim on Tuesday saying the Search and Rescue Society of B.C. (SARBC) has been making “aggressive telephone solicitation calls” to collect donations for NSR and other search-and-rescue groups around the province.
NSR has “received complaints from members of the public who reside in Metro Vancouver, complaining about the manner in which the ‘aggressive’ telephone solicitation have occurred, wrongfully believing that these calls were made or authorized by NSR,” the notice said.
On Wednesday, SARBC vice-president Glen Redden told Global News he was “dumbfounded” by the allegations being leveled against them by NSR.
Redden said they have not solicited donations over the phone in eight years, but in February, a “mistake” was made when 141 people were called on the North Shore.
He said the group only raises funds in Victoria and Vancouver and as a courtesy to NSR, they don’t solicit donations from the donors on the North Shore, even though there is technically “nothing stopping them from doing that.”
Redden said his organization does not step in during active rescues, but when the official search is over and families are still looking for answers, they reach out as part of their “Candle in the Window” program.
“It can’t be admitted by certain people that we provide help,” Redden said. “It sticks in our hearts.”
The photo below was provided to Global News by Redden, showing him (second from left) with members of North Shore Rescue.
But NSR team leader Mike Danks told Global News they have “no affiliation or experience” with SARBC.
Danks said the alleged aggressive phone solicitation was an immediate red flag for them because they don’t solicit donations by phone and neither does any other search and rescue team in the province.
“There is a lot of confusion,” Danks said.
“We are getting a ton of emails this morning from people who think they have been donating to SARBC believing that money is going to their local search and rescue team in their community.”
So Danks and his team asked the donors for their tax receipts and that led them to SARBC.
He says they reached out to SARBC with questions about their phone solicitation and what search and rescue services they provide, but did not hear back.
“They are not willing to communicate with us to talk about what they do in the province of British Columbia,” Danks said. “The more people we talk to, the more grey areas there are and the more we are learning about potential misrepresentation.”
A letter to Search and Rescue Society of BC from North Shore Rescue legal council
Danks said NSR has heard similar concerns from other search and rescue teams in B.C.
“NSR and all the other 80 teams in the province rely on donations from the public to operate in their community,” Danks said. “We are really worried that we are being misrepresented here. If you want to donate to your local search and rescue team, please contact them directly.”
NSR has also posted Canada Revenue Agency documents showing that SARBC collected $167,847 in revenue last year and over $200,000 in each of the previous two years.
They believe SARBC has engaged in telephone solicitation campaigns for several years.
“We don’t know how much of this money was intended for search and rescue teams in the province, but that’s what we want to find out,” Danks said. “We want to clear up the confusion.”
NSR has received two donations from SARBC since complaints started pouring in in the last couple of weeks – one for $50 and one for $200.
He says they are now checking their records to see if there were any other donations to NSR from SARBC.
“We are putting a huge amount of time in to try to clear this up,” Danks said. “They need to speak about what they do in this province, where those funds are going and the phone solicitation has to stop.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
- With files from Jon Azpiri
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