SARBC 'extremely shocked' over North Shore Rescue fundraising lawsuit

A representative from the Search and Rescue Society of B.C. (SARBC)says he is "extremely shocked" his organization is being sued by North Shore Rescue (NSR) over alleged misrepresentations in a phone fundraising scheme.

In a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, NSR says phone solicitors from SARBChave been falsely claiming that money raisedwill either go to, or benefit, North Shore Rescue.

But SARBC vice president Glen Redden says the allegations are not true.

"To the best of my knowledge, that has never happened," saidRedden.

Redden says he "pulled the calls" of some of the individual complainants after receiving specific information from NSR but found "no misrepresentation on our behalf."

'Aggressively hounding'

NSR lawyer Greg Heywoodtold CBC News his organization receives complaints daily about phone calls "aggressively hounding" people for money on behalf of NSR.

"SARBChasbeenin the business for sometime and this is a recurring problem. But this year, given thevolume of complaints, we've decided to do something about it," said Heywood.

"They are calling people all over the province representing to be a bona fide SAR team which is a problem because it certainly damages the goodwill that we've generated over the years," saidHeywood.

Heywood says SARBC is not sharing the phone recordings in question.

NSR is a volunteer-based, registered charity and non-profit organization that is frequently in the news for its work savinglost skiers and hikerson the North Shore Mountains.

$160K raised, $1M in assets

SARBC is also a registered charity. According to CRA documents, it raised $159,021 through phone solicitation last year while paying $43,471 tothe company it hired to do the calling.

Older tax returns showthat in some years SARBChas raised $200,000 through phone solicitation. It alsoclaims over $1 million in assets.

TheSARBC website claims it assists "SAR groups, law enforcement agencies and families of missing subjects free of charge," but Heywood says no one at NSR has ever heardof SARBC.

"We're one of the busiest SAR teams in the province and we know nothing about these people," saidHeywood.

'We keep our searches private'

Redden says privacy concerns force SARBC to fly under the radar.

"We keep our searches very private," he said. "Wedon't let other people know what's going on because we have a responsibility to the people we're searching for their families to respect their privacy,"

Redden alsoclaims much of SARBC's work happens after another search and rescue organization has failed to find someone.

"After a search is wrapped up,when it doesn't look like there's a high likelihood of [the person] being found, they stop the search. Who fills in the gap after that?"

"We exist for the families of B.C.," he said."Families of B.C. can call us. We'll look into it and if we can, we'll provide assistance. We've done that in the last 33 years."

But Heywoodsays the lack of real informationaround SARBC is a problem. He plans to seek an injunction on behalf of NSR to stop the "misleading telephone campaign."

"Before we filed the lawsuit I wrote a letter asking; What search and rescue work have you done?What assistance have you provided to bona fide SAR teamsor municipal governments or police,fire or ambulance services? They refused to answer," said Heywood.

SARBC has yet to file a response in court to NSR's lawsuit.

With files from Farrah Merali