Mayor ensures "Koruption" stickers never seen again

Gary Korpan, the former mayor of Nanaimo, British Columbia, has declared victory over scurrilous stickers displayed by local residents.

"The third of three of the core group behind the spreading of the slanderous, malicious lies against me, my family, the Office of Mayor and the administration of the City of Nanaimo has, at long last, retracted and apologized," Korpan told The Nanaimo Daily News. "This matter is ended."

The ex-official had sued local activist Tony Parkin over a sticker attached to his car, upon which the phrase "Free Nanaimo from Koruption" was printed in Helvetica Condensed Black against a plain yellow background with a regionally-themed bastion logo. With the settlement, announced Wednesday, Korpan helps ensure that the image will be but a fading memory in a small Canadian town on Vancouver Island, accessible from the mainland only by ferry and air.

Korpan settles on final lawsuit [Nanaimo Daily News via Brenda Koerner. Photo: Puregin]

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OldBrownSquirrel

Koruption may be short-lived, but the Streisand Effect is longer-lasting.
- millie fink
  
  “Memmmmreez!”
dave3000

Not sure where you got your Nanaimo facts – almost 100,000 people is not a small town – and it also has a major highway running through it…
- Tribune
  
  I think it is kind of like Australia is only accessible by boat or plane…
- http://twitter.com/pointybrackets Ben Trafford
  
  Yeah, I love how it’s described like some remote location, not a thriving city on an island 2/3rds the size of, y’know, -England-.
  - http://jambeeno.com/ Jambe
    
    Is this a reference I don’t understand?
    
    Vancouver Island is less than one fourth the size of England (31,285 sq km vs 130,395). Also, England is just a part of the larger island of Great Britain, which is 229,848 sq km. In population it’s not even close, with GB having ~60 million and VI having not even one.But Vancouver Island is very lovely.
Laurie Corrin

I see what you did there.
Roose_Bolton

Some of the oddest people I know are from Nanaimo. Not odd in a “good” or “bad” way, mind you…more in a “to be determined” way.
- mikei
  
  You must know my family.
  - invictus
    
    Well, duh! They’re both from Canada, after all.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I have some third cousins in Nanaimo. I’d look them up. If I knew their names.
KBert

My visits to Nanaimo were accomplished via roadways; easily accessible.
Of course, you would have to fly or ferry to be on Vancouver Is., where these roads are located. Before the Chunnel, London was only accessible by ferry and air.
I love streaming CHLY, an amazingly diverse programming, also FM station.
Chris Vince

Accessible by direct ferry ferry service from Vancouver, air, and the major highway from the Provincial capital. It has limited access in much the same way as Rhode Island has limited access, except that Vancouver island is about 10 times the size.
- http://mattdm.org/ Matthew Miller
  
  I’m pretty sure the “island” that Rhode Island is on is larger than Vancouver Island, by something larger than 700x.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=596144248 Sean McKibbon
    
    The orb of knowledge (aka google) sez:
    Rhode Island, Area: 3,140 km² .
    
    Vancouver Island, Area: 32,130 km².
  - zuludaddy
    
    Rhode Island proper, also known as Aquidneck Island, is 98.9 km2 (37.8 square miles). It is the largest island in Narragansett Bay. The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is only 2,710 km2 (1045 square miles). So, no.
Nezrite

For a brief moment, I was afraid that something had fouled the production of Nanaimo bars. I’m relieved it was just standard Koruption that has been eradicated.
brontosaurus2

”…in a small Canadian town, accessible only by ferry and air.” Comedy gold Mr. Beschizza!

Not only do the Trans-Canada Highway and the E&N Railway pass through Nanaimo, it’s also reachable by bathtub (bathtubbing.com).
- mikei
  
  … and it’s former mayor was a pirate! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ney
- TombKing
  
  He is correct, Vancouver Island (while pretty big) is only accessible by ferry and air. There are no bridges to it. The 1 stops at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal just north of Vancouver and then continues at Departure Bay in Nanaimo.
  
  There is no way you can get to there from off island without a boat or plane.
  - brontosaurus2
    
    He’s wrong, unless you really want to argue that Jakarta, Dublin, etc are only accessible by ferry and air then too?
    - Tribune
      
      Well earth is only accessible by spaceship.
      - http://burntheflag.ca Jardine
        
        Are you some kind of anti-wormhole bigot?
megan leslie

that’s not a lighthouse. It’s a Bastion. the only remaining one in North america http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastion_%28Nanaimo%29
- t3kna2007
  
  So that would make it the proverbial Last Bastion …
- Philboyd Studge
  
  Neat. Do they have a Childlike Empress as well?
- Navin_Johnson
  
  There’s another one at Fort Vancouver, sadly just a replica, but I suppose it could be put to good use if somebody tries to disrupt the fur trade again..
ciacontra

So long as the Nanaimo Bars keep flowing, I am willing to support this banana republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanaimo_bars
http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

I’ve corrected the bastion error. Cheers!

“Accessible by road and rail” … from the one other town with a decent bar on Vancouver island? Whatever!
- mikei
  
  Well, obviously a lot of us Boing Boingers live on or around Vancouver Island, so we are rallying to the defence (note spelling) of our beloved region. And your “one other town with a decent bar on VI,” Victoria, might not be THE hippest city on the planet, but it isn’t exactly Hicksville either (Britsville, maybe), with plenty of decent bars, among other things. And it’s the only city on the planet Nomeansno is from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m01lPNVv90s
  - Navin_Johnson
    
    You guys need to build a monument to Nomeansno, seriously.
    - wysinwyg
      
      A monument to a punk band is so not punk that it wraps back around into being punk by transgressing the boundaries that define “punk”. Or, more briefly, metapunk.
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        Exactly.
- dragonfrog
  
  I don’t personally think nanaimo bars are all that good, but never mind that – what other town on Vancouver island has an eponymous bar?
  - Wingnut
    
    No, but I keep hearing about Victoria’s secret. whatever that is…
Chris Hogan

My knee-jerk reaction to the story was “typical South American banana republic bullyboy antics” (probably because of the sticker colour).

And then I noticed this was _British_ Columbia. WT-?
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  I thought it was a free Tibet sticker.
LordInsidious

This must be some new use of the word ‘victory’, I thought it meant ‘win’ not ‘look like a petty asshat because someone made a bad word play with my name and my actions.’ We should make the word Koruption mean that!
blearghhh

Interestingly, I did a little bit of searching and couldn’t really find anything concrete about what the Korruption referred to. Usually that kind of thing is pretty easy, but either it just isn’t out there, or there was an unusually successful whitewashing effort put out on it.
- mikei
  
  I think there would be several Wikipedias worth of material if the corrupt actions of every politician on the planet were correctly reported. And that would be before the lawsuits…
Mia Harlen

Wow, my hometown gets a shoutout on Boing Boing. A small tear has welled. For anyone who cares, local politics in Nanaimo is a total shitshow and always has been. Neither side (the extreme left wing loonies or the bumbling extreme rightwing nincompoops) has any understanding of the concept of ‘truth’ and both seem to genuinely believe that those on the oppsing side spend their days plotting evil and eating babies. And also, shirty Canadians? It really makes us look like chip-on-the-shoulder-having jackasses when we get all defensive about every fricken comment about Canada online. We happen to be a sparsely populated country with many areas people from other countries would consider remote and towns they would consider small. Just chill, OK?

That said, has there ever been any solid info on Korpan being corrupt or not? Genuinely asking as have no idea.

And hicktown or not, the Nanaimo River is a slice of pure heaven and I am homesick just thinking of it.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000266687773 Jim Wile

Does anyone else have this overwhelming urge to get a sticker for the next time that they visit the area? I’ll just work up a few in Corel Draw…..

I still remember visiting VI a few years back and the papers were filled with battles of this type. Kind of made me homesick for the insanity of Tucson….
- Aragosta
  
  I won’t be surprised if I start seeing Koruption stickers up on the chair lifts at Mount Washington
- princeminski
  
  I was wondering if *anybody* was going to mention that urge, particularly now that it has been established that Nanaimo is the hub of the Western cultural world. Surely this politician must realise that he’s really asking for it. Looks like a job for Banksy.
http://thedreamerskingdom.org/photoblog TK

Nanaimo Bars, Diana Krall…

Pretty much all you need to know about Nanaimo.
- Snuffy2
  
  Some of those Nanaimo bars are pretty tough, though (heh).
- http://www.facebook.com/mdwillington Matthew David Willington
  
  well that and a lot of Vietnamese coke dealers… but carry on… besides the “Big Hwy” that goes through the town I mean I always scratch my head and wonder, why the F did they not put an over pass by the mall when you head South towards Nanaimo… they have a half-assed clover leaf there that I guess some summer intern or a toddler designed…
brassrocket

Guessing these “Free Nanaimo from Koprophilia” stickers wouldn’t go over very well either…
WaylonWillie

The design is lifted from the iconic “Free Tibet” stickers that have been around for a decade: https://www.indiemerchstore.com/item/18097/
http://twitter.com/duncancreamer Duncan Creamer

For some reason, I’m more a fan of the town of Duncan, about 50k south of Naniamo.
Jonathan Colvin

Backstory is hard to find online, perhaps here:
http://midislandnews.com/inflated-project-costs-crush-city-of-nanaimo
Sean Breakey

Korpan is pretty much like what you would expect after reading this article. Too bad this is what we hear about my home town.
Ultraculture

Nice one!
Tomatoeqtip

Hahaaa.
So exiting!
I’m a avid boing boing reader and I am currently writing from my hometown of Nanaimo.
Wanna really know whats really in a nanaimo bar?
Mostly Rohypnol and Axe body spray!
elix

As a lifelong resident of Nanaimo, I can confirm that former Mayor Gary Korpan is a dick.