Lawyer & strategist. Opinions expressed are mine.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Joined April 2025
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Vyas Saran retweeted
⚡️ Mayor Zohran Mamdani's NYPD is poised to sign a three-year, $750,500 no-bid contract with Israeli surveillance firm Cognyte for FalcoNet, an AI-driven device that mimics a cell tower to track phones and can be mounted on police cars and drones or hidden in a backpack, the New York Daily News reported.
Cognyte won a tender to sell intercept spyware to Myanmar's state telecom weeks before the 2021 military coup, Reuters previously reported. Meta banned the firm the same year, saying its customers used fake accounts to target journalists and politicians in Kenya, Mexico and Indonesia.
The firm is part of an Israeli surveillance industry that grew big as a result of the military's monitoring of Palestinians, whose phone calls Israel's Unit 8200 has intercepted and stored by the millions, including to carry out genocide in Gaza and enforce a brutal illegal occupation in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Vyas Saran retweeted
I asked Premier Kinew if he has concerns about Premier-designate Doerksen's promise to repeal DRIPA in BC:
"The election results in BC should concern every elected politician and every consultant out there... what we're doing is not a game."
#cdnpoli
If you are worried about the Greens splitting your vote you should try to court their voters. Unless it makes you feel good. Then go ahead, have at it.
Vyas Saran retweeted
The Conservatives didn’t win as much as the NDP lost. The Conservatives got 50,000 less votes than 2024. Both the Vancouver and provincial election show a rejection of neoliberalism and that people want bold system-change ideas, not milquetoast centrism.
Vyas Saran retweeted
The @Conservative_BC actually received 50,000 fewer votes than in 2024 (but won 20 more seats) because the @bcndp vote dropped by 275.000 (29%) while the @BCGreens got 23,000 more votes than last time (+13%) - still some ballots to be counted.
Vyas Saran retweeted
We're still counting up our receipts and building our reports for Elections BC.
But there's something we know for sure. We spent less than $400k to elect the whole COPE team.
Meanwhile, Ken Sim and ABC spent at least $2.5 million. They elected one.
ALT Black-and-white photo of COPE candidaets with fists and arms raised, celebrating. Below it, a bar chart compares campaign spending: a tall lavender bar labelled “Ken Sim & ABC, $2.5M~” next to a short red bar labelled “COPE, <$400K.” Beside the bars, red text reads “People power beat big money.”
Vyas Saran retweeted
Hi BC Conservative Candidate Margareta, here are screenshots of your financial agent saying that he is in favour of slavery, that eugenics is desirable, and homosexuality is a disease.
Another week, another violent attack in downtown Vancouver.
Last night, a man was attacked with a hammer at 2:00AM during a suspected robbery.
After 9 years of NDP disorder, headlines like this are the norm. They shouldn’t be.
Thank you @VancouverPD for the quick arrests.
The @Conservative_BC plan, Safe Streets for BC, will hire 250 more police officers for crime hotspots, add 50 Crown prosecutors, expand court capacity, and publicly track repeat offending & bail compliance – so our justice system is accountable for results.
When it comes to income taxes, we’re not remotely competitive with neighbouring provinces and states. #bcpoli #cdnpoli
Source: @BizCouncilBC
Vyas Saran retweeted
Ken Sim: ✅ Evicted
10,000 doors on E-Day: ✅ Knocked
Full @vote_palestine pledge signatories: ✅ Council Majority
True Vangcouver Patriots: ✅ In Control
COPE haters: ✅ Seething
Rent: ✅ Free
Red- Green: ✅ Alliance
Vyas Saran retweeted
"Vancouver is a progressive city. We’re not a city of Ken Sims and Dallas Brodies. We are a city of progressive values, and people in Vancouver showed up tonight in a big, big way, and I’m so proud of us."
- @seanorr
straight.com/city-culture/we…
Unless the pre-1990 archives show otherwise, COPE Councillor @seanorr broke the record for most votes for a Vancouver city councillor at 83,038. Only 3 mayors (Fry included) won more.
Kudos to Stephanie Allen @builtjustice for bravely stepping aside to make the progressive sweep possible, but also never quitting the COPE campaign. She kept knocking on doors, working the phones, and supporting candidates until polls closed. She never faded into the background.
Oh you’re soooo happy COPE and the Greens won, are you? Have you considered the fact that it means 11 AI agents are about to lose their jobs?
Hey @hasanthehun you still got that pin?
Congratulations to COPE Campaign Director @wrong_shon for a dominating victory and all the hard work that went into the unity deal that made yesterday possible.
83,000 Vancouverites saw Sean show up and do the work for 2 years and decided he needed a stronger mandate. City staff often reached out thanking him for taking the job seriously and meaningfully, and are now saying they’re more excited to go to work tmrw than ever before.
