About The Breaker

The Breaker

Overview

The Breaker, published online at thebreaker.news, is an independent investigative news outlet covering British Columbia. It is the work of Bob Mackin, a North Vancouver-based journalist who has reported on the province since 1990 and who serves as the outlet's publisher, reporter and podcast host. Mackin describes the publication in his own words as "your source for news, opinion, and analysis about British Columbia issues, institutions, and influencers" — and its distinguishing method is the freedom-of-information request. Again and again, theBreaker.news stories begin with records obtained, or refused, under access-to-information law: what governments spent, what they decided, and what they would rather not release.

The site publishes across sections for News, Opinion, Business, Miscellany, Sports and Entertainment, with a recurring column, Mackin's Midweek Musings, and a weekly podcast, theBreaker.news Podcast, that has run since 2020. It is reader-supported, funded through free and paid subscriptions to its Substack edition and through Patreon, and it remains active and publishing: its homepage in mid-October 2026 carried weekly podcast editions dated October 11 and October 4, 2026, and an exclusive story published around October 16, 2026, reporting that Vancouver city hall had told Mackin freedom of information does not apply to Mayor Ken Sim's taxpayer-funded X account.

History

The Breaker is best understood as the independent vehicle of a reporter whose speciality — holding British Columbia's governments and sports institutions to account — was formed over three decades. Mackin has been a journalist since 1990. From 1998 to 2008 he was the sports columnist for the Vancouver Courier, while also writing for Vancouver 24 Hours and The Tyee, and for five years he wrote a weekly column for Business in Vancouver about the business of the Olympic Games. He covered five Olympic Games, contributing to AroundTheRings.com and other outlets, and he is the author of Red Mittens & Red Ink, a critical account of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Biographical profiles record that he won the 2006 B.C. and Yukon Community Newspapers award for best sports writing, for an investigation into sports gambling in British Columbia published in the Courier.

His freedom-of-information battles predate theBreaker.news. In 2012 he led reporting on the B.C. government's plan to sell the Liquor Distribution Branch, and on BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), the Crown corporation behind BC Place Stadium. In February 2013 PavCo applied for a Section 43 authorization — a mechanism allowing a public body to stop answering a requester's access applications — directed at Mackin; the province's assistant information and privacy commissioner later observed that the only previous application against a journalist had come from a police force in 2003, and the Official Opposition raised his blocked requests in the legislature.

Mackin has not published a formal founding date for theBreaker.news, and none is asserted here; the site's archive reaches back to material dated 2016. The outlet was certainly operating by 2019: rulings issued by the Cullen Commission, the provincial inquiry into money laundering, on November 8, 2019, and January 28, 2020, dealt with Mackin's application for participant materials in his capacity as a theBreaker.news journalist. The weekly podcast followed — podcast directories date theBreaker.news Podcast to March 2020 — and by February 2026 Mackin's own numbering had carried it past its 436th edition.

Content and Coverage

The Breaker's reporting concentrates on the accountability beats its publisher has worked for years: provincial politics and public finance, Metro Vancouver municipal governance, Crown corporations, lobbying, and the business and security arrangements around major sporting events. Its coverage through 2026 illustrates the range: sustained reporting on the cost and security planning for the FIFA World Cup's 2026 stop in Vancouver, including a June–July 2026 story on the role of Qatar's Lekhwiya security force; scrutiny of B.C.'s deficits and of Metro Vancouver governance scandals; and reporting on insider lobbying, including the activities of Counsel Public Affairs.

Freedom-of-information work is the signature. Among the outlet's documented results is an adjudication by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner — adjudicator David Adams ruled for theBreaker.news in its pursuit of the cost of the government lawyers who defended the NDP's 2020 snap-election call — and, in October 2026, its exclusive on Vancouver city hall's position that freedom of information does not apply to Mayor Ken Sim's taxpayer-funded X account. Where full documents are obtained, the site has published them in full, a practice other writers have relied on: a 2026 investigation into World Cup stadium arrangements cited the Seattle stadium agreement "published in full at theBreaker.news by Bob Mackin."

The podcast extends the same brief into audio. theBreaker.news Podcast is weekly, distributed through TuneIn, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and its regular MMA Panel segment brings together pollster Mario Canseco of Research Co. and Andy Yan of Simon Fraser University's City Program to dissect B.C. politics and polling.

Audience and Reach

The Breaker publishes no audited audience figures, and none are claimed here. Its reach is that of a specialist accountability outlet whose material travels: documents it obtains and publishes are cited by other journalists, its reporting is followed by the political and media community it covers, and its proprietor's expertise is sought beyond his own site — Mackin is a North Vancouver-based multimedia journalist whose byline has also appeared, including in Local Journalism Initiative reporting carried by other British Columbia newspapers such as the Prince George Citizen in 2024, through his wider freelance work. Its podcast's longevity is its own measure: a weekly programme sustained from March 2020 past a 436th edition in February 2026, in Mackin's numbering, implies a settled audience of subscribers on the major platforms rather than casual traffic.

Supporters encounter the outlet primarily through its website and through its Substack edition, bobmackin.substack.com, where editions are offered free and to paid subscribers; the site also links a Patreon page for reader support.

Digital Presence

The Breaker is a digital-only publication. Its home is thebreaker.news, organised into News, Opinion, Business, Miscellany, Sports and Entertainment sections, with Mackin's Midweek Musings as a recurring feature. Its Substack edition carries articles and podcast editions to subscribers' inboxes — an edition built around the "B.C. Snap Election 26" podcast was published there on October 16, 2026 — and the podcast is carried by TuneIn, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The operation's currency is directly verifiable: podcast editions dated September 27, October 4 and October 11, 2026 appeared on the homepage in the run-up to British Columbia's October 2026 municipal elections, alongside the October 16, 2026 exclusive on the Ken Sim freedom-of-information refusal, and the site solicits reader support through its Substack tiers and Patreon.

Ownership and Organisation

The Breaker is an independent, single-journalist operation. Mackin introduces its podcast in his own voice as "Bob Mackin, publisher of theBreaker.news and host of the theBreaker.news podcast," and no parent company, chain or corporate owner stands behind the publication. Its base is North Vancouver, within the Vancouver metropolitan area it principally covers. Revenue is reader-derived: paid tiers of its Substack edition and contributions through Patreon, a model that leaves the outlet answerable to subscribers rather than advertisers. Mackin supplements the work with freelance and Local Journalism Initiative reporting published by other outlets, but theBreaker.news itself remains his own publication, and its editorial line — persistent, document-driven scrutiny of public institutions — is continuous with the beats he has worked since the 1990s.

Contact and Availability

The Breaker is published online at thebreaker.news and in a Substack edition at bobmackin.substack.com, where readers can subscribe free or on paid tiers; reader support is also invited through the Patreon link on its site, and theBreaker.news Podcast is available on TuneIn, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Mackin's published contact details, as they appear in City of Vancouver freedom-of-information releases identifying him as a theBreaker.news reporter, are the email address bob@thebreaker.news and the telephone number 604-982-9130. The outlet covers British Columbia issues, institutions and public figures, with a particular focus on the Vancouver metropolitan region.