News Release

Vancouver – A company president who failed to file insider trading reports in various companies, caused a misleading appearance of trading activity and failed to report the distribution of stock he held as a control person has been banned from the B.C. securities markets for 12 months by the B.C. Securities Commission.

Douglas Laurence Mason, the president of Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp., agreed to a settlement with the BCSC Executive Director that sees Mason paying $250,000 to the BCSC, of which $50,000 represents costs of the investigation.

Mason was an officer and director of Clearly Canadian, Consolidated Venturex Holdings Ltd., SWI Steelworks Inc. (formerly ESC Envirotech Systems Corp.), Waterfront Capital Corp., and Columbia Yukon Explorations Inc. The company shares were listed for trading on the Vancouver Stock Exchange (now the TSX Venture Exchange) during the relevant times. Mason was an insider of all of the companies.

Between December 1994 and 2000, Mason failed to file insider reports for 67 trades in securities of the companies. He had directed the Trustee of The Piper Trust, a Jersey, United Kingdom trust, to make all of the trades.

Most of the trades took place on the VSE and involved the Trustee in acquiring shares that Mason was, at the same time, selling into the market from his personal holdings. There is no evidence of any illicit purpose for the trading. However, the result was trades of securities that created a misleading appearance of trading activity on the stock exchange, contrary to the public interest.

The settlement agreement also reveals that on Oct. 31, 1996, Mason was a control person of ESC Envirotech, because he owned, controlled or directed close to 4.2-million shares of the company. From Nov. 1 to 19, 1996 Mason sold 631,500 shares of ESC Envirotech in 14 trades, but failed to file the notices and reports that control persons are required file under securities laws.

Under the settlement agreement, Mason can engage in some limited financing activities and carry out securities trading within certain conditions. Mason cannot serve as an officer or director of any issuer nor can he engage in investor relations activities for 12 months, except for in some non-public companies and two public companies in which he is already currently involved: Clearly Canadian and Columbia Yukon.

The B.C. Securities Commission is an independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities within the province. The settlement can be accessed through the commission’s website www.bcsc.bc.ca or by contacting Andrew Poon, Media Relations, 604-899-6880.