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Sooke Harbour House is an inn and restaurant located in Sooke, British Columbia, Canada, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. [1] [2]
The establishment has been owned by Frederique and Sinclair Philip since 1979.[ citation needed ] Sinclair is the Canadian representative for Slow Food in Italy and some years ago was a Slow Food Vancouver Island Convivium leader.[ citation needed ] He has a doctorate in political economics from the University of Grenoble in France. [3] In 2000, a writer for The New York Times called Sooke Harbour House "one of Canada's half-dozen best restaurants". [3]
In May 2012, Sooke Harbour House was put up for sale, at $5.9 million. [4] The Philips cited financial pressure from a decline in the tourism industry, along with stress, as reasons for the decision. The establishment ultimately did not sell. [5] [6] In 2015, it was reported that the Business Development Bank of Canada initiated a foreclosure action against the inn for owing $2.9 million on a mortgage from 1997. [5] Denying that they were in foreclosure, [7] the Philips eventually agreed with new investors to sell the property, pay back the mortgage, and begin expanding the property. [5] [8] However, this led to protracted legal battles between the Philips and the investors. Timothy Durkin, the investor, sued Frederique and Sinclair for control of the business, which resulted in an interim order from a judge to the Philips to "immediately quit and leave the business premises". [9] Amidst the ongoing legal battle for ownership, Sooke Harbour House was put up for sale for $5.63 million in April 2020 as part of a foreclosure sale ordered by the courts. [10] [11]
In June 2020, it was announced that the real estate company IAG Enterprises would purchase the property for $5.6 million. IAG COO Alex Watson noted that the company wants to reopen Sooke Harbour House in 2021, after renovating different areas of the site. [12] [13]
In September 2020, after a 56-day trial, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Jasvinder Basrann awarded Frederique and Sinclair Philip "more than $4 million for the 'six-year odyssey of lies, excuses, threats, intimidation and bullying' they suffered at the hands of Timothy Durkin and his partner Rodger Gregory." In a 94-page ruling, Basran concluded the Philips' "reasonable expectation of a comfortable and well-deserved retirement has been effectively stolen from them because they unknowingly put their future in the hands of these two fundamentally dishonest individuals." [14] The Philip's attorney stated that his clients are unlikely to collect the $4 million in damages, because "Durkin has no assets listed in his name—no car, no property, no Canadian bank account". Durkin filed a notice of his intent to appeal Basran's decision. [15] After the Philips paid legal fees and lenders, and the federal, provincial, and municipal governments collected what was owed for late and unpaid taxes, the couple was left with nothing from the sale. [15]
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The city of Victoria is the seventh most densely populated city in Canada with 4,406 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,410/sq mi).
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km2 (12,400 sq mi) in total area, while 31,285 km2 (12,079 sq mi) are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas.
Greater Victoria is located in British Columbia, Canada, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It is usually defined as the thirteen municipalities of the Capital Regional District (CRD) on Vancouver Island as well as some adjacent areas and nearby islands.
The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC) is a not-for-profit, charitable land trust based in British Columbia, Canada.
Harbour Air Seaplanes is a scheduled floatplane service, tour and charter airline based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. The predominantly seaplane airline specializes in routes between Vancouver, Nanaimo, Victoria, Sechelt, Comox, Whistler and the Gulf Islands, primarily with de Havilland Canada floatplanes. Harbour Air operates de Havilland Beavers, Otters and Twin Otters.
CHEK-DT is an independent television station in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, serving Vancouver Island and Greater Vancouver. The station is owned by the CHEK Media Group, a consortium made up of station employees and local investors. CHEK-DT's studios are located on Kings Road in Victoria, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Warburton Pike on Saturna Island.
Odessa Piper is an American restaurateur and chef.
Delta Hotels by Marriott is a four-star brand of hotels and resorts located primarily in North America.
The T'sou-ke Nation of the Coast Salish peoples, is a band government whose reserve community is located on Vancouver Island, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. In February 2013, the T'sou-ke Nation had 251 registered members, with two reserves around the Sooke Basin on the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the southern end of Vancouver Island, with a total area of 67 hectares. The T'Souk-e people are the namesake of the town of Sooke, British Columbia and its surrounding harbour and basin.
The Fairmont Empress, formerly and commonly referred to as The Empress, is one of the oldest hotels in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Located on 721 Government Street, it is situated in Downtown Victoria, facing the city's Inner Harbour. The hotel was designed by Francis Rattenbury, and was built by Canadian Pacific Hotels, a division of the Canadian Pacific Railway company. The hotel is presently managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, part of AccorHotels since 2016. It is owned by Nat and Flora Bosa of Vancouver.
Holberg is a former ferry terminal about 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the northwest tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. This unincorporated community is at the head of Holberg Inlet, which forms the western arm of Quatsino Sound.
Sidney Arnold Barron was a Canadian editorial cartoonist and artist. During his career as a cartoonist, he drew for the Victoria Times, the Toronto Star, Maclean's, and The Albertan. His cartoons were satirical takes on social mores, and often contained a biplane towing a banner, and a bored-looking cat, holding a card bearing a wry comment. Later in life, Barron moved to Vancouver Island, where he and his wife opened an art studio and gallery.
John Joseph Horgan is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who has been the Canadian ambassador to Germany since 2023. Horgan served as the 36th premier of British Columbia from 2017 to 2022, and also as the leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party from 2014 to 2022. Horgan was the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the constituency of Langford-Juan de Fuca and its predecessors from 2005 to 2023.
Leechtown is at the confluence of the Leech River into the Sooke River in southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The ghost town, off BC Highway 1 is about 59 kilometres (37 mi) by road northwest of Victoria.
Randall C. Garrison is a Canadian politician. Elected to the House of Commons in the 2011 federal election, he represents the electoral district of Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke and is a member of the New Democratic Party. He serves as the party's critic for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, succeeding former MP Bill Siksay, and for National Defence. Since becoming an MP, he has introduced legislation to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code, return federal environmental protection to the Goldstream River, and lobbied the government to implement an action plan concerning the endangered Southern resident killer whales. A former criminology and political science instructor at Camosun College, Garrison is openly gay and lives in Esquimalt, British Columbia, with his partner, Teddy Pardede.
The water supply system for Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, now operated by the Capital Regional District (CRD), served in 2010 over 330,000 people with clean drinking water from a catchment area of 11,025 hectares centered on its main reservoir at Sooke Lake. The CRD's ownership and complete control of its entire watershed assures its customers of a supply that is secure in both quantity and quality. The main reservoir and its subsidiary reservoirs are estimated to contain 93 billion litres of water, enough to meet the needs of its customers for two years without any rainfall. The history of this remarkable system is sketched below.
The Sooke Region Museum is a museum in Sooke, British Columbia, Canada, which explores the human and natural heritage of the region from East Sooke to Port Renfrew on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Started in 1977, the museum is open year round.
The Pacific Marine Circle Route is a 263-kilometre (163 mi) marked scenic loop road through southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The route is composed of Highway 14, Pacific Marine Road, Shore Road, Highway 18, and a segment of the Trans-Canada Highway.
CBUVT was a proposed CBC Television station that would have operated in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The station was slated to operate on channel 10, the last VHF assignment in southwestern British Columbia, for which the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the provincial government, and commercial interests in Vancouver had all applied in the early 1970s. While a transmitter was built and construction on studios nearly completed, a series of federal budget cuts in 1978 prevented the CBC from putting the station into service months before it was set to begin operating, prompting it to surrender the licence the next year. The unfinished studio building and channel 10 assignment were later used for other television ventures in the region.
Richard Joseph Gagnon is a Canadian bishop of the Catholic Church. He is the Archbishop of Winnipeg, appointed to the position in 2014 after previously serving as the Bishop of Victoria. He has also served as President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) since September 2019. Gagnon attended high school and university in Greater Vancouver, before studying for the priesthood at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1983 and served in the Archdiocese of Vancouver as an assistant pastor and parish priest for two decades. He became vicar general of the archdiocese in 2002 and was consecrated as a bishop two years later. Gagnon has been noted for his work toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Victoria and Winnipeg. He is also noted for calling the first diocesan synod in the Archdiocese of Winnipeg.