Susan Heyes: No Retreat, No Regrets

Linda Solomon talked with Susan Heyes, owner of the Hazel and Co. maternity clothing shop, about how she was able to stand up against the government and builders and demand compensation when construction sent her business into decline. Heyes sued three levels of government, two government agencies and the company building the line, after construction work on Cambie Street crippled her life’s work. Heyes said she lost $900,000 and had to remortgage her home because construction discouraged people from shopping at her store.

VO: How did you find the internal strength to wage a confrontation with some of the biggest powers in Canada?

HEYES: I’ve thought about this time and time again. I think the core of who I am as a person is a result of my upbringing. My parents taught me that you have to play fair, treat people with respect and that when somebody hurts you, you go to someone and seek help. In this case, I was in despair because I’d go to the place where I thought I’d get help and that group or organization turned out to be working with the people who were doing this wrong. Many people just saw it as a losing battle to begin with, you can’t fight city hall. I also looked at my daughter’s beautiful face every day and thought how dare they take away what I’ve built up over 25 years and also my legacy to my girl. It’s so wrong on every level. The more they fought me, the more I stood my ground.

VO: So partially, you did it for your daughter?

HEYES: I’m still not used to the media spotlight. I find it really intrusive and feel like it’s been a total invasion of my privacy. I remember always telling my daughter that if you or any of your friends are being picked on at school, you go tell someone, come to me, work it out, and find a solution. If somebody’s being abusive, you have to stand up for yourself. I felt bullied and thought it was wrong on every level and the bullies shouldn’t away with it. I was trying to practice what I was preaching. I wanted her to be proud of me.

VO: Is it that those in power don’t always consider the rest of us as real people?

HEYES: Its mind boggling that the people in power couldn’t see the human tragedy that was the Canada Line. I sent out hundreds if not thousands of emails about it.

VO:To whom?

HEYES: First and foremost to government agencies, newspapers, business groups, citizens, environmental groups, you name it. Almost everybody in my life is sick to death about hearing me talk about the Canada Line. It hijacked my life to the degree that my enjoyment of simple things evaporated. On a daily basis I got calls from the other merchants on my street. The real tragedy is that many of them didn’t speak English. A large proportion of new immigrants are extremely unlikely to challenge the government on anything.

When you think about how difficult it would be if you’ve just come here and you’re trying to start a new life, you don’t even speak the language, don’t have the skills, don’t know the law, don’t have connections, you would back off a fight like that. It would seem like the odds were completely against you. If the government then came to you and said everything will be fine, don’t worry, you’d believe it. I think a lot of people just wanted to believe that it would be okay, because to accept the horror of what actually transpired was too much to bear. When one by one those shops went bankrupt they went with a whimper. This is the really sad part, they felt that even in their hardship suffered through no fault of their own, they couldn’t speak out, which is all the more reason that there is nothing to celebrate here, until everybody who has been wronged has been compensated for the harm that this project caused.

This brings us to the Olympics. Without the Olympic deadline, none of this would have happened.

VO: You think of that happening in the third world, and you think of development that has displaced and impoverished people. I was amazed because I really thought with all the tools we have in this society, nothing like this could happen. That was why I spent the time that I could researching what other cities had done. Seattle, for instance, had taken care of people through their projects by giving loans…

HEYES: They started by telling the truth. Don’t underestimate how important that was. They planned a project and presented what was actually going to be built to the residents and businesses, they held extensive consultations and took in concerns and comments and they changed it accordingly. They recognized the hardship that the business community would suffer and set up a fund to offer relocation money to any businesses that didn’t feel they could survive the construction. This was for surface light rail. This was for a project that was going to impact businesses for a few months. About 57 businesses took the relocation money, left for another area and were able to thrive in another place. Those that stayed were provided with grants to renovate and promote themselves. They were also provided with long term no-interest loans, and comprehensive community support.

VO: They [Canada Line] could have done better, obviously.

HEYES: At every turn they chose to do the wrong thing. Countless times, they could have rectified the situation. When we were blindsided by the news it was going to be a cut and cover instead of the bored tunnel that had been the subject of all the public announcements, it should have gone back for public review.

The province gave the project over 50 million dollars at one point, when Canada Line’s investment in asset backed commercial paper was frozen, and they needed operating funds. Just like that, but nothing to compensate for the financial jeopardy facing the crushed small business. Even the First Nations were compensated with millions of dollars for the perceived loss of fishing revenue due to the Canada Line bridge over the Fraser River.

The environmental impact of a cut and cover is much different than a bored tunnel. Hundreds of truckloads of excavated material were taken to False Creek, put on barges, and dumped at sea. It is questionable how much testing took place on the excavated materials.

VO: Do you think that earth could have been contaminated?

HEYES: Anything’s possible. The desire to get the project completed by the Olympics was the motivation for the cut and cover construction. That and all the land development deals along the route. I don’t think they’ve saved money, particularly when considering the terrible cost cut and cover had on the community. I wonder also what four years of litigation has cost, instead of doing the right thing from the beginning.

VO: What was the worst moment for you?

HEYES: I think it’s when I had to mortgage my home for the second time. I remember being curled up in a couple of rolls of fabric at my factory just sobbing. I did not have the support from the area business association, or from anyone in a position of authority with the project to make any meaningful financial contribution to our businesses. There was no effort made whatsoever and we were just dying a slow death.

VO: You’re not average anymore. You’re either a hero or a fool and I think it can be hard for yourself to be sure. What have you gone through with all this?

HEYES: I have learned a lot. It was my life’s work being challenged, the thing that I’ve spent twenty-five years building up, simply being flicked aside by this swaggering arrogance. If someone with integrity had taken a step back and said just hang on one minute here, we can’t do this. This is not the way a democracy should work. We have an alternative. Instead, they stubbornly went on with impunity, regardless of the consequences. Damn the torpedoes. They didn’t care. And then they couched it all in happy spin. Their Cambie’s Open campaign won an award for advertising for transportation projects – not for advertising small retail businesses. They held retail workshops implying that we were failing because we were bad managers – not because there was a 5 story deep canyon cutting off access for years. They put all their effort into promoting their own project, and down-playing any of the negative impacts on the community.

VO: How many times would you estimate they declared it finished?

HEYES: Every time they needed a press story. Every time they some happy spin. Every time there was a shopping initiative in any one of the areas, there was an announcement that something or other had been completed.
It will not be completed, until the last orange cone is gone.

VO: What would you tell other people who encounter injustices at the hands of government or corporations in this city, have you won more or lost more?

HEYES: Definitely won more. I could not have let this go. I’d tell people to steel themselves and have a thick skin because you will be personally attacked and criticized for taking such a bold stand, but be true to who you are and be true to your convictions and don’t be intimidated by the odds being against you. Everybody must remember that David won against Goliath. But don’t be cavalier about it either. If you want to take on a challenge like this, you have to know where your support is and where your strengths are.

If you’re going to mount a legal challenge, get yourself the right lawyer. Cameron Ward was the right lawyer. He’s a guy with tremendous integrity, extremely bright and he had the same conviction about justice being served that I did when we started this battle four years ago.

VO: Would you add something like, take good notes?

HEYES: Yes, definitely keep good business records. I wish I had documented the experience of this battle more. I didn’t have time. I have much to be grateful for with the determined people who have supported me and this fight since the beginning. I really could not have kept up this epic challenge without their help. There was also a huge amount of Monty Python type humor that sustained us.

VO: Where did you grow up?

HEYES: I was born here, moved to New Zealand for two years, then England for a couple of years, and came back to Vancouver for grade one. I grew up in Point Grey. Through high school I’d always made my own clothes and was working in my father’s mechanical engineering business, and in restaurants. I took a job at a local clothing store and met my future business partner Rosemary and we started designing women’s sportswear as Hazel Rose. Hazel Rose operated for three years until Rosie left the partnership and that’s when I created Hazel & Co and specialized in maternity clothes. I do the design and production work, and cutting, then distribute these kits to our home contractors who sew the garments. I wholesaled the collection for the North American market for about 12 years.

When I became pregnant with my daughter, I didn’t want to do all the necessary traveling. I wanted to find a way to stay in town so I opened my first retail store on Fourth Avenue in 1994 before moving to Cambie five years later.

We opened in February 1999. We were really optimistic. It was a great location. Business improved every year until the Canada Line project started to divert traffic away from the area in the fall of 2005. Things just continued to go from bad to worse. My store space on Cambie is still empty 8 months after my move to our big beautiful shop on Main Street.

VO: Did you have any idea when you designed your first dress that it would lead to battling the government someday?

HEYES: I don’t think I could have imagined being involved in something like this before this circumstance presented itself. I don’t think we ever really know what we’re made of until we’re faced with taking on a challenge like this. No retreat – no regrets.