JAPAN HONOURS LAWYER FOR COMPLEX EFFORT
HONOUR DUE: Consul General Asako Okai conferred Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, on Robert Tadashi Banno, QC, recently. That honour contrasted the first sunrise he witnessed. That was above mountains ringing the Second World War Japanese-Canadian internment camp at Tashme, B.C., where he was born. The award recognized Banno’s efforts to build the Nikkei Place complex that Okai called “one of the cornerstones of Japanese Canadian life and community.” Banno is the Nikkei Place Foundation’s 15-year president. Wife Cathy Makihara was executive director of related societies.
Among others, Banno acknowledged Henry Wakabayashi, Arthur Hara, Gordon Kadota, Frank Kamiya, Sam Yamamoto and the late Bob Nimi for their participation. The 46-year lawyer also thanked Davis and Co., now DLA Piper (Canada) LLP, “for letting me spend much billable time on Nikkei Place.” That amused Piper senior strategy adviser Donald Campbell, who occupies the adjacent office.
RICH LUNCH: David Zacks, the B.C. Cancer Foundation director and Hope Couture gala committee chair, attended when the latter lunchtime fashion show reportedly raised $900,000. Including $500,000 from Sam and Frances Belzberg’s foundation, that sum brought the three-year total close to $3 million. The latest amount will help fund a single-cell genomics suite to aid lymphoma patients, said Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP partner Zacks, whose own surgical attentions have been limited to his left hip. That didn’t stop him setting off on the right foot to recruit Sarah Roth, who signed on as foundation president and CEO recently. Earlier, she’d headed a $437.6-million campaign for the University of B.C.’s medical faculty.
SINGER ON THE LAWN: The crème-de-la-crème compound at Craig Stowe and Nadia Iadisernia’s recent Luxury + Supercar Weekend featured exotic models from Aston Martin, Bugatti, Pagani and suchlike. Also an incongruous-looking Porsche 911 Targa. Not what its seemed, the apparent 1970 model had been utterly reconstructed with carbon-fibre body panels and 390-horsepower engine by L.A.-based former British rocker-writer Rob Dickinson whose songs included Gasoline and Sparks Are Gonna Fly. For some $300,000 and an existing 911/964, he’ll build a Singer Porsche for you. The name echoes Dickinson’s musical past, not the defunct British make of which the twoseat roadster that was my first car cost $45. VIVA MEXICO: The words rang out three times when Consul General Berenice Diaz Ceballos fronted the Independence of Mexico’s 206th anniversary celebration. The event filled a VanDusen Botanical Garden hall with nationals and others greeting the newly arrived diplomat who hoped “to make our relationship (with Canada) deeper, broader and mutually more productive for the benefit of all our people.” Canada is Mexico’s fourth-largest source of foreign investment, she said, and “we are each other’s thirdlargest trading partner.”
EYES UP: As for closer ties, marketing manager Neil Prasad said Aeromexico will soon add a daily 6 a.m. departure to its present late-night flight to Mexico City. The all-inclusive flights include food, blankets, pillows and “all-you-can-drink tequila,” Prasad said, adding context to the existing “red-eye” schedule.
NO GRAIN, NO GAIN: Known globally for promoting wood construction, Michael Green addressed Vancouver magazine guests recently on the theme: “Why we should build wooden skyscrapers.” The architect likely won’t be satisfied until one surpasses the world’s highest-known tree, a 132.6 metre (435-foot) Australian mountain ash.
Green spoke in Brian Jessel’s BMW’s showroom. That auto dealer is building a pressed earth, concrete and glass house in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he is a partner in Sharky’s Mesquite Grill. To negotiate the rough road to it, you’d think a chap who sells 4,000 new and used BMWs annually would choose an allwheel-drive X5 model. Not so. His scrambler of choice is a Jeep Wrangler.
DRINK TO THAT: Jeff Curry and Kurtis Kolt’s Top Drop Vancouver event saw participants sample 144 local and international wines. Their circling between long, parallel tables resembled airport security lineups. How much more palatable the latter would be with jolly juice served along the way. WHEEL CUISINE: La Grotta Del Formaggio chef Alex Tung lined up eight food trucks on Hamilton Street recently, then recruited big-time restaurant chefs to conspire with the truck operators. They included Vikram Vij, who said of planning with Fliptop Filipino Fusion truck’s Jay Ocol: “We got so drunk, we didn’t know what the f--- we were going to make.” Still, their samosas with lamb, sweet potato, crispy vegetables, cilantro and green chilies chutney were a hit with those paying $69 to taste the special creations and beverages from Nichol Vineyard, Lock and Worth Winery and Brassneck Brewery. Staged by the Chef’s Table and Streetfood Vancouver societies, the event benefited student chefs and the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. DOWN PARRYSCOPE: As the 90-lawyer Bull Housser firm merges with London-based, international Norton Rose Fulbright, one wonders whether such broadly comparable local outfits as Clark Wilson and Lawson Lundell may be next in line.