Langley school board candidate says criminal conviction moved him to build up community he had ‘let down’

Langley school board candidate Blake Venechuk likes to focus on the positive things he has done in his community — how he raised money for charities, helped Ukrainian refugees and developed an agricultural program for students.

His drive to give back stems, in part, from a darker time 20 years ago when he got caught up in a firearms trafficking scheme.

Venechuk said he was “a naive 23-year-old farm boy from Alberta who had just moved to the big city” when some people he met at the gym convinced him he could make fast cash “by driving a package from one location to another.”

“I was buried in student loan debt from obtaining my commercial helicopter pilot’s licence at Chinook Helicopters in Abbotsford and made a terribly foolish, short-sighted decision,” Venechuk said in an emailed statement. “I was caught and honestly, I am grateful that I was. It stopped me in my tracks and forced me to look at the man I wanted to become.”

As part of an investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, Venechuk was one of several men under surveillance on April 25, 2006. Police followed him to Burnaby’s 8 Rinks (now Scotia Barn.) They watched him meet a co-accused who handed him a box. Less than an hour later in Langley he was arrested.

“In the box, police found three machine pistols, three stocks and magazines for the guns. None of the guns had a serial number or other identification,” a court ruling in the case said.

Venechuk pleaded guilty to a single count of possession for the purpose of weapons trafficking and was sentenced to three years. He told Postmedia News he served six months in a minimum-security jail on Vancouver Island.

“When I was released, I resolved to spend the rest of my life building up the community I had let down,” Venechuk said. “Over the last two decades, that is exactly what I have done.”

He built a career in the fitness industry and opened two gyms in Langley, he said.

“During the pandemic, I furthered my education online through the UBC Sauder School of Business.”

His family purchased their Langley farm where he “created a hydroponic farming program and piloted it within the Langley school district, where it still runs today,” Venechuk said.

“Over the last 15 years, I launched a youth mentorship program to give kids the life skills they need to thrive,” he added.

As someone of Ukrainian heritage, Venechuk jumped into action when the Ukraine-Russia war broke out, hosting hundreds of displaced families on his farm.

“Over decades, together with my family, friends and partners, we have donated close to a million dollars in food, time and resources to the Langley and surrounding communities,” he said.

He said he’s running as a school board trustee “because I know firsthand what happens to young people when proper support systems are missing.”

“Furthermore, through my years of running programs inside Langley schools, I have witnessed an alarming rise in teacher and support staff burnout, as well as rising school violence,” he said.

“My past taught me the value of accountability, resilience and true rehabilitation. My present is defined by 20 years of active, hands-on service to Langley’s kids and families.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Bluesky: @kimbolan.bsky.social