Burnaby set to probe biker group
City concerned club with firefighter members may have association with Hells Angels
Burnaby has started a formal investigation into a local firefighters motorcycle club linked to the Hells Angels, city manager Lambert Chu said Wednesday.
Chu said the investigation follows Postmedia revelations about the Florian’s Knights attending events with the notorious biker gang.
Postmedia also obtained a recent photo of one of the Knights’ founders, Burnaby firefighter Nick Elmes, posing with Kelowna Hells Angels president Damiano Dipopolo and two other full-patch HA members.
Elmes said he and other firefighters founded the Knights to go on charitable rides and raise funds for various causes. He said there should be no reason for the public to be concerned about his club.
But he also admitted he advised the Hells Angels before starting the Knights because his group is using the same style three-piece patch on their leather vests that the HA wears and exercises proprietorial rights over.
Earlier this year, Elmes and another man purchased a house in the 5400-block Parker Street in North Burnaby for $1.65 million to serve as the Knight’s clubhouse.
Chu said he has “put together an investigation team to look into this matter.”
While the city had some details about the formation of the Knights several months ago, Postmedia’s stories provided additional information of concern, Chu said.“The information you had in your two stories that you wrote shed additional light on this matter,” Chu said. “It is of tremendous concern to the city and to the city organization. That’s why we are undertaking a full investigation.”
He said a city lawyer is on the newly formed committee.
Burnaby fire chief Joe Robertson said earlier this week that he had raised concerns about some of the Knights wearing their biker vests known as “colours” as they rode to work. He said he got a legal opinion indicating there was nothing he could do about it at the time.
Chu said that city workers have “freedom of choice to wear certain clothing to work, so we have to make sure that we get all the legal grounds covered.”
“The fire chief at that time took it upon himself and spoke with the individual and he said this organization is doing all the charitable activities and doing a ride and doing good for the communities,” Chu said. “So there was no evidence whatever to suggest that there was even a loose connection between the Florian’s’ Knights with the Hells Angels.”
But biker experts with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit have been documenting the association between the Knights and the Hells Angels at various “rides” this spring.
CFSEU Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said those officers have “had direct conversations with members of the Florian’s Knights regarding their associations with the Hells Angels.”
Chu said the city’s investigation will involve interviewing people, obtaining information from the RCMP and doing “a little bit of fact-finding.”
They hope to conclude the investigation within a few days, he said.
Three of Florian’s Knights are Burnaby firefighters, two are with the New Westminster Fire Department and one is a retired Vancouver firefighter, Postmedia has learned.