Publication date: September 16, 2022 • 12 hours ago • 5 minutes read • 16 comments The exterior of the Tofino Resort and Marina, which is partially owned by former Vancouver Canucks Willie Mitchell and Dan Hamhuis, on September 15, 2022. A high-profile fishing The tournament series and concerts at the resort was canceled earlier this week. Photo by Patrick Johnston/PNG /jpg

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TOFINO — Walk down Campbell Street, the main drag in this small-town gem located at one end of the Earth, and you can spot three kinds of people.

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Tourists, here to fish or surf or just enjoy the beauty of the west coast, are obvious. Mostly middle-aged or retired. Good walking shoes. Fleece vest. Start your day with a roundup of BC-focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7am, Monday to Friday. By clicking the subscribe button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300

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There are the locals, who are not dressed like the tourists. And then there are the young people, almost exclusively here to surf and work. This is what attracted Miquel Recasens from Barcelona. A place where you can ride the waves and reel in some salmon, nothing like the beaches of Catalonia. Wearing a hat from a Squamish craft brewery, his shaggy hair tucked behind his ears and the long sleeves of his casual skateboard shirt rolled up to his elbows, he said Tofino has proven to be a great community to live in. “You just have to love surfing and love the outdoors,” he said with a smile as he stood outside the Long Beach Surf Shop, where he worked all summer.

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Miquel Recasens works at Long Beach Surf Shop in Tofino. He comes from Barcelona. Photo by Patrick Johnston/PNG /jpg Lately though, all he has been able to talk about is what happened next door. Tofino Resort and Marina, purchased in 2016 by a group that includes Mill Bay-based developer Andrew Purdey and former Vancouver Canucks Willie Mitchell and Dan Hamhuis, is one of the city’s major employers. It is beset by an apparent scandal, with staff walking out in protest and a sudden management reshuffle. On Wednesday, the resort announced a change in management following “grossly inappropriate behavior” at a weekend event on the premises. Exactly what caused the change remains difficult to determine. Recasens has friends who work at the resort. Like many other young people, he was at an event Sunday night at 1909 Kitchen and Bar, the resort’s upscale restaurant.

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The event, which featured a live band, was tied to the Race for the Blue fishing derby, an open-water tuna fishing event that attracts anglers with deep pockets. Entry fees run into the thousands of dollars and there are many side bets placed. The tournament is run by Mitchell, a longtime fishing enthusiast who worked the fishing docks in his youth at Port McNeill, near the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Sunday’s event was part of a busy evening, filled with much revelry. The next morning, it became apparent that something inappropriate had happened the night before. As a result, staff had threatened a collective walkout in solidarity with the treatment of a colleague. In response, resort management sent an email to staff saying 1909 Kitchen and Bar would be closed for the next week.

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Everyone would still get paid, they were told. And there was going to be a change in management. The boats were on the water for the third day of the fishing derby, but the rest of the derby had to be canceled and so did the bar’s concert series. Stories began to swirl around Tofino. Kady Savard, a veteran musician from Victoria, fronted the band on stage on a Sunday in 1909. The night, he said, was chaotic and fun at first, but by the end of the set the atmosphere had changed. He heard a lot after he left the stage that night and in the days that followed. “Everybody’s talking about it,” he told Postmedia on Thursday. After the show, he found some space outside to cool off and found himself chatting with a member of the restaurant staff. Another staff member approached, telling her colleague that one of their colleagues was going to resign due to an incident that had happened earlier.

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Savard’s band has been paid, but she’s worried bands scheduled for the rest of the week won’t be paid. “All these bands have money,” he said. “Will be hard to book again on short notice.” A closed sign on the door of 1909 Kitchen and Bar at Tofino Resort and Marina on September 15, 2022. Photo by Patrick Johnston/PNG /jpg By Wednesday morning, the resort acknowledged the incident on their website. An interim director had been brought on board, the website said in a statement. The statement was later updated to say that a consultant had been hired and that management would “continue to take steps to ensure the ultimate well-being of our team.” On Wednesday morning, Mitchell deleted his Instagram, which he had long used to share photos of his fishing adventures, conservation advocacy and family. By Thursday morning, he had also deleted his Twitter account.

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The Race for the Blue Instagram account has also been taken offline. Questions about the current ownership structure, who runs the resort and whether the police were contacted about the “inappropriate behavior” have all gone unanswered. Attempts to bring Mitchell, Hamhuis and Purdey were unsuccessful. RCMP declined to comment on whether the investigation is ongoing or if any arrests have been made. Asked for comment on the impact canceling such a high-profile event might have on Tofino, Tofino Borough Mayor Dan Law demurred. “I’m at UBCM with the Tofino Council. Other than what I read in the news, I don’t know the situation in TRM. Therefore, I cannot comment,” he said in an email. Shaun Snelling, formerly sous chef at 1909 and now executive chef at Long Beach Lodge, said he understood the change in management meant Mitchell was out.

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Mitchell, he said, had been involved in managing the business in recent months because the resort had been without a general manager. There has also been turnover in the kitchen, with Terry Somerville, who had only been taking over as executive chef until 2021, moving on at the start of the year due to personal health reasons. Snelling said he had met with Mitchell last month and the two ended up discussing the state of the resort’s operations. Snelling had helped reopen the restaurant after Mitchell and his partners bought the place in 2016. “It was all him. It was his vision,” he said of Mitchell. “The Race to the Blue, the whole event was Willie’s baby. No one else in Canada had done an open sea tuna fishing derby.”

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On Tuesday night, the Lonely Dougs, the band that was scheduled to play 1909 that night, played a road show at a longtime coffee shop called the Common Loaf. It was a show of solidarity, the band said, and to create a safe space for the rattled 1909 staff, their friends and loved ones. Proceeds from the special performance were to be donated to charity. “We thought it was the right thing to do,” band member Kieran Campbell said. “I think it’s really important, as a community, a city, we’re a really super community city … that they were still playing after everything that happened,” Recasens said. “We were very upset about (what happened). So let’s be part of the community and do something about it,” he said of the motivation behind the game. “Super awesome from the guys out there. Call them out.” [email protected] twitter.com/risingaction

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