A February advertorial in Vancouver Magazine<\/a> said Coolen and CEO Justin Smith launched The Key Collection last October with plans to open nine venues within a year.<\/p>\nOsetra Coastal Cuisine opened in November followed in February by Heist, the former Yaletown mainstay Bar None. Coolen told theBreaker.news that a fourth venue is scheduled to open by the end of April in the former Levels Nightclub on Seymour.<\/p>\n
Coolen said his wife, Anne Marie Corcuera, is the owner and Smith is not involved in The Key Collection operations, but books and promotes talent through Unlocked Entertainment.<\/p>\n
Coolen said The Key Collection, which hopes to benefit from the influx of FIFA World Cup tourists, is financed by a multibillion-dollar tech company based in Maryland \u201cthat I know that wouldn\u2019t want to be named.\u201d He said he has offered to show The Key Collection\u2019s corporate records to regulators and police.<\/p>\n
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Opening weekend headliners at The Key. (Instagram\/TheKeyVancouver)<\/p>\n
One group that remains skeptical about The Key Collection is BarWatch, the association of 45 bars, nightclubs and restaurants that works with the Vancouver Police Department to keep people with gang, narcotics and firearms records out of their establishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not a member of BarWatch,\u201d said BarWatch chair Curtis Robinson. \u201cThey don\u2019t meet the standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The retired VPD sergeant, who founded the program in 2007, said Smith\u2019s involvement is an issue.<\/p>\n
Court records from 2017 in Saskatchewan say Justin Murray Smith pleaded guilty to 2014 charges of trafficking cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and handguns and participating in a criminal organization, the Fallen Saints motorcycle gang.<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s 18-year jail sentence was reduced to 11 years upon appeal in 2019. Justice J.A. Jackson\u2019s verdict estimated Smith would become eligible for parole in almost four years.<\/p>\n
In 2023, the Parole Board of Canada granted full parole, with four conditions: no possessing drugs (other than prescriptions), no contact with anyone involved in criminal activity, disclosure of financial information to a parole supervisor and restrictions on and monitoring of telecommunications devices and accounts.<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s sentence expires in December 2027, according to the Correctional Service of Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve tried my best to leave things in the past,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThings from over a decade ago, that I\u2019ve moved on from.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Unlocked Entertainment\u2019s Justin Smith (left) with Whitecaps captain Thomas Muller (centre) and Denzel Curry (second from right) before his April 4 concert at The Key. (Whitecaps FC\/X.com)<\/p>\n
Coolen said Smith is \u201cso far-removed from that world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople change their lives,\u201d Coolen said. \u201cThe whole point of the rehabilitation program in this country is so people can, if they get in trouble, they go on the straight and narrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coolen also pointed to a favourable 2024 reference letter written by Robinson.<\/p>\n
That letter said that the Vancouver Police Gang Unit and BarWatch cleared Smith\u2019s Love of Live promotion company in 2023 to work in BarWatch venues.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeaking as a career operational police officer, it\u2019s rare to encounter a person who has the discipline, character and commitment to truly change their lives,\u201d Robinson wrote about Smith in 2024. \u201cSo when you do, I believe it\u2019s incumbent upon those in enforcement or authoritative positions to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson explained to theBreaker.news that he wrote the letter on request of a parole officer because he did not want to prevent Smith from making a living at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo with the Vancouver Police Department\u2019s endorsement, we let his company play music in our bars. The rider was Justin wasn\u2019t allowed to be in the bar,\u201d Robinson said on April 14. \u201cBut his company could play, so he had a partner or somebody that would go in and play the music. And the same thing happened when he went on to be a booking agent for certain acts.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2026, Robinson said Smith remains inadmissible to BarWatch establishments.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to\u00a0theBreaker.news\u00a0on Substack.\u00a0Find out how: Click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Mackin The Key at the Plaza of Nations, across from FIFA World Cup venue B.C. Place Stadium.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-619224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-vancouver"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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