Mission grow-op forfeiture ends with $300,000 storage order
A Mission house alleged to have been a marijuana grow-op was forfeited to BC civil forfeiture office, and the former owner belongings were stored since 2012. In November 2026 a BC Supreme Court judge ordered John Krist to pay $299,850.16 in storage costs after his 2015 claim over missing gold and silver was thrown out for delay.
BC Supreme Court Justice John Bilawich ordered former owner John Krist to pay
$299,850.16 to the province for storage of belongings removed from his forfeited
Mission house.[1][2]The province had kept those belongings in three shipping
containers since 2012, building up the storage bill.[1][2]The forfeiture office
said it was required to keep the items in case they were needed as evidence in
the damages lawsuit.[1][3]
The dispute goes back to 2011, when the province brought a civil forfeiture case
over the Mission house against Krist’s former wife and others with an interest
in the property.[1]Police said the house had been used as a cannabis grow
operation as early as 2008.[1]Krist was charged in connection with the grow
operation, with court records showing a charge of excessive use of electricity
against him.[3]He was acquitted in 2023.[3]In his own 2015 lawsuit Krist
said belongings moved from the house by the government to three shipping
containers in 2012 included 1,620 ounces of gold and 2,500 ounces of silver.[3]He said the precious metals had disappeared.[3]He also said stamp and
coin collections and a Dodge Aries car were missing.[1][2]After 2015 he did
nothing to advance the case except one updated filing in 2018.[1]The lawsuit
was tossed out in 2024 for want of prosecution.[3][2]
In 2024 the court held Krist had abandoned the stored belongings and the
province could sell them to pay down his debt and court costs.[3]At the
recent costs hearing Krist accepted some costs but opposed the forfeiture office
storage estimate of 566,000 dollars.[1]After about 18,000 dollars recovered
from sales, the province demand fell to 548,000 dollars.[1][2]Bilawich found
3,000 dollars a month reasonable and, after deducting sale proceeds, ordered
Krist to pay $299,850.16.[1]
Krist said he had refused to take the belongings back or have them destroyed because he feared it would weaken his lawsuit over the gold and silver.[2]
The county began holding the items in three shipping containers from 2012.[1]
Photos and video
The entrance to the Mission property forfeited in 2011. Photo: Nick ProcayloPhoto details
The costs ruling is described only as this week; 7 November 2026 is the publication date and is used as the incident date.
No cannabis weight, plant count or cultivated area was published, so no cannabis quantity is recorded.
The court made no finding on whether the claimed gold and silver ever existed; their existence remains unproven.
Gold, silver, stamp, coin and car values are non-cannabis property and are excluded from cannabis figures.
The Sing Tao page image is captioned as file photo and is omitted; only the Vancouver Sun Mission-property photo is listed.
Criminal details are limited to a charge involving excessive use of electricity and a 2023 acquittal; no arrest date or case number was given.
The tracker tools were unavailable in this read-only harness, so current reports could not be opened; the York/Markham candidates relate to an embedded related-reading teaser about an Ontario lab, distinct by place, people and agency from this Mission case.
Only the Postmedia account via Vancouver Sun and Yahoo plus the Sing Tao summary could be opened; the Vancouver Sun original is paywalled but its full text was recovered.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Vancouver Sun: Krist had refused to take the belongings back or have them destroyed because he believed doing so would weaken his claim that the province lost or destroyed his gold and silver.
The 加西網 piece says the items were valued at about 2.3 million dollars when removed and more than 9 million dollars at market prices, but that is a claim by Krist about non-cannabis gold and silver and is not recorded as a cannabis figure.
Granby police raided an apartment on rue Neil on 10 November 2026 without making any arrests, following an investigation opened in August into suspected cannabis sales. Officers seized more than 100 grams of dried cannabis, THC concentrate and edibles alongside suspected methamphetamine, psilocybin, weapons and trafficking equipment, and said charges could follow.
The Federal Court upheld C$250,000 in penalties against cannabis marketing company Ghost Drops for unlawful promotion and event sponsorship. Health Canada had reduced the penalty from C$500,000 after reviewing two notices tied to an all-ages event in Pickering.
The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia quashed Darren Marshall's Cannabis Act and Excise Act convictions for the Flower Barn store in Millbrook First Nation and ordered a new trial before a different judge, because the trial judge ruled on guilt without hearing the defence's closing arguments. The ruling undoes his 2024 convictions and 2025 conditional sentence.
Manitoba won its first court order under the Criminal Property Forfeiture Act against a house at 8 Riviera Drive in Lake Riviera Estates, where RCMP had seized about 600 marijuana plants in July 2009. A Winnipeg couple arrested in the raid were released for an August court date; the province listed the house at $279,900.