The real estate company that hired the Vancouver man took “immediate action.”
A Vancouver real estate agent has lost his license to a brokerage firm and resigned from a local business board after being criticized for allegedly taking him to his upscale neighborhood to remove information posters on the sticks of Indigenous Chelsea woman Poorman, whose death in 2020 continues to raise questions for police investigators.
On May 28, dozens of people marched from the Shaughnessy neighborhood, where Poorman’s remains were discovered on April 22 in an empty multimillion-dollar house on Granville Street to downtown Vancouver, where 24 years old, was last seen in September. 8, 2020.
Randy Vogel, a real estate agent now formerly of Macdonald Realty, is allegedly seen in a video posted on social media removing posters from an area that appears to be near his Granville Street home.
In a statement referring to Vogel, Macdonald Real Estate Group President Dan Scarrow said: “As an organization, we are giving our full support to the family and friends of Chelsea Poorman as they seek answers and justice.
“We are not aware of any inappropriate action taken by any member of our community and in this case we took immediate action and are no longer with Macdonald Realty.”
Scarrow told Glacier Media that the company had informed Vogel that it was handing over its license and that Vogel “understood the decision.”
The company said it is also aware of complaints filed with the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA), which oversees real estate agents’ standards of conduct.
“We are aware of the post circulating on social media and we are currently studying it more,” said Shaheed Devji, a spokesman for BCREA.
Vogel may still have a license elsewhere if you wish.
Vogel has also resigned as director of Cloverdale Paints, which the Vogel family of Surrey co-founded.
“The Cloverdale Paint Board of Directors was aware that Mr Vogel demonstrated actions, as seen in a recent post on social media, that were inconsistent with the organisation’s core values.
“Cloverdale Paint promotes an inclusive and respectful workplace, and we do not tolerate actions that seek to exclude anyone from the rights, freedoms and equality they deserve and are entitled to,” the company said on June 1.
Vancouver’s Royal Yacht Club, meanwhile, says it has suspended Vogel as a fleet captain.
Glacier Media was unable to contact Vogel to comment on the phone or at home.
The shares angered the headlines
Lavita Trimble attended the event to support the family and witnessed the man tearing up the posters.
“I decided to run half a block again to watch it on video, take some pictures of it, and ask, ‘Why does this bother you? Why are you angry? Why are you reacting to this? “And his response was ‘it’s vandalism,'” Trimble said in an interview with Glacier Media.
Trimble challenged the man and said, “It’s not vandalism.”
A video of the meeting shows the man still walking on the sidewalk, ripping off signs.
“The way he broke it is just the way the world treats the natives, as if they were disposable. It really provoked me. It made me angry,” Trimble says.
Trimble describes the way the man acted in the video as terrible.
“I would like society to take it seriously because this is really happening. This is happening in your neighborhood, and if this is happening in your neighborhood, we need to be aware and have an open heart for others who are going through it because you you never know if it will happen to you, “says Trimble.
Vigilant headlines and protesters consider the posters to be critical in seeking more information about the circumstances of Poorman’s death.
The Vancouver Police Department issued a statement on May 6 alleging that Poorman’s death was not considered suspicious.
“Investigators believe Chelsea probably died on the property the night he disappeared or soon after, but it was not discovered because the house has been empty for years.”
But watchdogs disagree with the police department’s findings on the case. Thus, during the march of 40 blocks, they placed posters on the poles of the power grid looking for information about the disappearance of Poorman and his subsequent death.
The father is against the police investigation
Poorman’s father, Mike Kiernan, watched the video and says he saw it several times. After thinking about it, he has a message for the man in the video.
“If you get a chance to look at it and see that, I can tell you what kind of person Chelsea was,” he says. “She was about change and compassion. She was taking her shirt off her back.”
Kiernan asked what his daughter would say to the man.
“She was saying,‘ Dad, maybe we could connect with him and show him that he made a mistake, a very bad mistake, and maybe they can start helping with the missing people, ’” she said through tears.
“That was the kind of person Chelsea was. She said, ‘Let’s give him a chance to see if they can change that.’
Kiernan says he has given everything he has to find out what happened to his daughter.
“I don’t think for a second that he was behind this house,” he says. “They didn’t look for her; they didn’t find her. It was a contractor who found her.”
Kiernan believes her daughter was murdered and did not get a “proper investigation” because she is indigenous.
“The things that are coming out of this are horrible. As time goes on … it makes my mind fly. Am I satisfied with the investigation? No. Absolutely disappointed,” he says.
Looking to the future, he hopes that people will take the cases of missing persons very seriously.
Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Support Services for Abused Women, said she had never seen anyone tear up informative posters of dead women.
It’s a situation, he says, where there are serious questions about how Poorman died. Putting up posters in the same neighborhood where she was found dead is a “legitimate” thing, he adds.
“Here we have a man of great wealth and privilege. He ticks all the boxes of having the greatest positional power in Canada,” MacDougall said. “It’s literally disappearing from the pole, making it invisible.”