EXCLUSIVE — Months of research by the Nanaimo Beacon has uncovered that the City of Nanaimo is secretly governed by local fixture Brunie Brunie.

The 76-year-old activist has unprecedented and final control over a wide range of civic decisions, including the ability to single-handedly reverse Council votes at her whim.

This, of course, explains why she has been relatively silent since the municipal election, in which she received 1,774 votes.

A “green sustainability” advocate, Brunie quickly reversed Council’s recent decision to require all single-use products to be wrapped in package prior to retail sale.

The Beacon has learned how the governing process works: Ms. Brunie is kept in an unmarked room behind the Council chambers, and after each Council “vote,” an intern runs the result of the vote into her room, where she either agrees with it or overturns it.

Neither Ms. Brunie, City officials, nor Council members would confirm The Beacon‘s exclusive reporting.

“There is no truth to this whatsoever,” said Nanaimo legislative clerk Nathan Poe. “Brunie Brunie has nothing to do with governing the city,” he added, in a statement obviously prepared by Ms. Brunie.

Brunie ran for mayor in the 2014 municipal election but was defeated. It is now clear this run, as with the recent 2018 run, were both staged to throw reporters off the scent of her actual work.

Brunie has lived a varied life, spending time as a fashion designer, a Vancouver realtor, and a poet, songwriter, and playwright. Her great-grandmother was a First Nations elder from Nanaimo.

When asked for comment, Ms. Brunie simply laughed and directed her six-man security detail to remove The Beacon’s reporter.