British Columbia
- B.C. government to launch website to combat 'bad faith' evictions
> Previous research has shown that no-fault evictions — which include landlords issuing eviction notices to renovate, demolish, sell or inhabit a unit — make up a large portion of evictions in B.C. and Canada.
- Suspect's pants caught fire during B.C. arson attempt
> Richmond RCMP shared a photo showing two men, one on the ground with a pained facial expression as he reaches for his blazing pants, while the other man apparently tries to put out the flames.
- Canada needs proportional representation federally
The seat make up would look more like the left if we had a more fair and accountable proportional representation over the obsolete first past the post.
- B.C. hen sets record as world's smartest chickenwww.pqbnews.com B.C. hen sets record as world's smartest chicken
Veterinarian Emily Carrington wanted to show just how smart chickens are
- Okanagan fruit farmers switch crops in attempt to salvage season - Cold snap in January decimated peach, apricot and cherry trees in the regionwww.cbc.ca /news/canada/british-columbia/okanagan-fruit-growers-cherries-peaches-apricots-climate-change-extreme-weather-1.7249339
> Extreme temperatures in early January severely damaged stone-fruit trees and grape vines up and down the Okanagan Valley, killing off the delicate buds on branches and vines that would have turned into this season's crops.
- B.C.'s drought: After a challenging two years, a close watch on Vancouver Islandwww.timescolonist.com B.C.'s drought: After a challenging two years, a close watch on Vancouver Island
Signs of drought the province is seeing started almost exactly two years ago in 2022, expert says.
- MAID lawsuit shines spotlight on faith-based health organizations - Under 1995 agreement, B.C. allows organizations to withhold services that conflict with beliefs, valueswww.cbc.ca /news/canada/british-columbia/maid-lawsuit-spotlights-religious-run-health-orgs-1.7248747
> "There's all kinds of care that they could be denied because governments are allowing faith-based institutions that are publicly funded… to deny care based on their religious beliefs and values."
- 'We should be in crisis mode': B.C. wildfire ecologistwww.nelsonstar.com 'We should be in crisis mode': B.C. wildfire ecologist
Bob Gray delivered a talk in Taghum on how we need to rethink wildfires
- Nelson Soccer says players were racially abused at Idaho tournamentwww.nelsonstar.com Nelson Soccer says players were racially abused at Idaho tournament
The incident allegedly occurred May 12 in Coeur d'Alene
Youth players on a Nelson soccer team were allegedly threatened with racial slurs during a May tournament in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Nelson Soccer Association (NSA) says a person in a truck shouted racist threats at a team with players of colour during a game May 12. Multiple Nelson teams were visiting Coeur d'Alene at the time for an annual tournament.
A detective with Coeur d'Alene Police Department told the Nelson Star that it had opened an investigation and has since sent the case to a local prosecutor for review, but did not offer any further details.
It's the second time this year athletes have faced racial abuse in Coeur d'Alene. In March, a Utah women's NCAA basketball team said its players were twice threatened by people in a vehicle who shouted racial epithets.
NSA board chair Goran Denkovski said NSA was not previously aware of the March incident involving the basketball team. The organization hasn't made a decision on its future participation in Idaho tournaments, but Denkovski said NSA will begin assessing regional safety prior to making tournament commitments.
“We do all recognize that Idaho specifically, that state is a state of concern that we should acknowledge.”
- More than 300 hectares of land secured to conserve old growthnews.gov.bc.ca More than 300 hectares of land secured to conserve old growth | BC Gov News
At-risk wildlife and critical old-growth habitat will be protected at eight different sites through the Old Growth Nature Fund.
> The B.C. government, the federal government and seven land trust and conservancy organizations have worked together to secure critical old growth and habitat for species at risk at eight different sites.
- B.C. travellers urged to prepare for busy Canada Day long weekend
> As British Columbians gear up to celebrate Canada Day, officials are urging the public to plan ahead and stay safe amid expected travel congestion on ferries, highways, and at airports.
- Saanich votes to allow secondary suites in rural areas - Saanich mayor says 'begrudging' decision made to prevent additional suites from being forced on them
> Coun. Colin Plant, who supported the legalization of rural secondary suites, said it's a much-needed step toward housing affordability — something residents have been asking for for years. He says he believes the province felt Saanich could be doing more to provide housing across the city and had a different view than the municipality on what that should look like.
- 'There is work to do': Minister Dix gives cancer care update in Kelownawww.pqbnews.com 'There is work to do': Minister Dix gives cancer care update in Kelowna
Judged against its own benchmarks, government's 1-year-progress report shows gaps and improvements
> Adrian Dix held a news conference at the BC Cancer Clinic - Kelowna on June 27, providing a one-year update on the NDP’s 10-Year Cancer Care Action Plan.
> Consider radiotherapy. Available figures show a nearly 25 per cent improvement in the treatment wait-list, a 7.5 per cent increase in treatment starts, and an increase of 6.4 per cent in patients treated thanks to the hiring of additional radiation oncologists and radiation therapists. But current figures still show that just under 71 per cent of patients receive treatment within four weeks. Within 13 weeks, that figure rises to 80.2 per cent.
- Man Killed in RCMP Arrest in Dawson Creek, BC (June 20-21, 2024)killercopscanada.wordpress.com Man Killed in RCMP Arrest in Dawson Creek, BC (June 20-21, 2024)
The Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia (IIO) has confirmed that the man who was arrested by RCMP officers near the 7-Eleven in Dawson Creek on June 20, was pronounced dead on Jun…
- BC gov to update code to allow single egress stair (SES) buildings
For more context on why this is such a positive change, this video from About Here / Uytae Lee serves as a great summary.
- The VSO’s Symphony at Sunset is returning to Sunset Beachwww.straight.com The VSO’s Symphony at Sunset is returning to Sunset Beach
What could be more idyllic?
What could be more idyllic than watching the sunset at the beach while being serenaded by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra? On July 6, grab your blankets and head to the beach for a performance that only comes once a year in Vancouver.
The VSO is taking to the shoreline at Sunset Beach for a special 90-minute sunset concert. Led by Maestro Otto Tausk, the Symphony at Sunset program will feature both classical and contemporary music.
The complete set list is:
- Coast Salish Anthem
- Star Wars: Suite for Orchestra I. Main Title
- Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, No. 1
- Élan: Sesquie for Canada’s 150th
- Concerto, Piccolo, C Major, RV443 III. Allegro molto
- Samson and Delila: Danse Bacchanle
- Lawerence of Arabia Overture
- Godfather: Love Theme
- Hook: The Flight to Neverland
- Star Trek
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- E.T.: Adventures on Earth
- Superman March
- Green MLA Olsen not running in fall B.C. election, cites mental and physical healthwww.timescolonist.com Green MLA Olsen not running in fall B.C. election, cites mental and physical health
VICTORIA — One of the two Green Party members in British Columbia's Legislature has announced he will not seek re-election in this fall's provincial vote.
- Former IT manager loses B.C. court battle over stolen files - Court finds Guy Gondor likely leaked stolen files to son, who was embroiled in property dispute
> The court heard how leaked district files were sent to Gondor's son, Darian, who has been fighting with neighbours and the district for years to turn his Meadowbrook Ridge property into a hobby farm.
- Warrant reveals details behind B.C. safe-supply pill seizure - Campbell River RCMP search warrant that led to alleged find of 3,500 pills highlights issue of drug diversion
According to a search warrant, Campbell River RCMP raided this property on the We Wai Kai First Nation in February as part of a drug-trafficking investigation. Police claim they seized 3,500 safe-supply hydromorphone pills, as well as fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine.
- B.C. man files lawsuit over B.C. Parks reservation fees
Lawsuit claims B.C. Parks is violating federal law by adding $6 fee at end of online checkout
- As population grows, B.C. premier wants feds to revise equalizationwww.pqbnews.com As population grows, B.C. premier wants feds to revise equalization
B.C. Premier David Eby calls for a review of equalization payments
> Eby paired this reminder with a critique of Ottawa's treatment of B.C. Eby specifically singled out Ontario's decision to spend $225 million toward the liberalization of liquor sales in that province for derision in questioning how Ontario is using B.C. tax money.
- First release of the season boosts Vancouver Island marmot numberswww.pqbnews.com First release of the season boosts Vancouver Island marmot numbers
Wild population expected to climb to more than 350 by the end of this summer
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/23848745
> The wild population of Canada's most endangered mammal, the Vancouver Island marmot, is anticipated to exceed 350 by the end of the summer thanks to the Marmot Recovery Foundation's captive-breeding efforts. > > It may not seem like many, but 21 years ago the wild population had dropped to a count of fewer than two dozen.
- First Nations, Ottawa, B.C., announce $335M for protection off Great Bear coastwww.timescolonist.com First Nations, Ottawa, B.C., announce $335M for protection off Great Bear coast
The initiative builds on the Great Bear Rainforest model, which has protected large swaths of old-growth forests while supporting job creation and economic diversification for communities along the coast.
- A mine proposed in B.C. would supply the fracking industry — by way of 55,000 truck trips per yearthenarwhal.ca As B.C.’s LNG industry heats up, a company proposes to mine frac sand | The Narwhal
Producing a key ingredient for B.C. fracking will mean 55,000 more trucks on the road. Here’s what you need to know
When you think of B.C.’s central interior forests, you probably picture swaths of trees stretching over hills and up mountains, punctuated by rivers and the occasional lake.
You probably don’t think of sand.
But if a proposal working its way through the B.C. environmental assessment process is approved, a special type of sand used in hydraulic fracturing for gas — commonly known as fracking — will be extracted from a forest near Bear Lake, north of Prince George. The sand would be trucked to B.C.’s northeast, where a fracking boom is poised to begin to supply the province’s new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry.
Vitreo Minerals, a sand and gravel supplier based in Golden, B.C., proposes to build an open-pit mine and two processing facilities that could produce two million tonnes of frac sand per year for up to 20 years. The Angus mine, which has the potential to supply up to 400 fracking wells per year, would be B.C.’s only operating frac sand mine.
The project will involve building new access roads through the forest, clearing land for the mine and its crushing and drying facilities and constructing a new transmission line and natural gas pipeline to power the operation, according to a project description submitted to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office.
“We propose to essentially mine — by drilling and blasting in a very conventional-looking quarry — a rock known as quartz arenite, a very high-purity silica-rich rock,” Vitreo Minerals CEO Scott Broughton explained during a recent project information session hosted by the assessment office. “It actually has the perfect-size sand grains that we’re looking for to produce proppant [frac sand] for the oil and gas industry.”
But environmental groups say the mine, which would be located in the Fraser River watershed, poses risks to nearby communities, water, local wildlife and the environment.
Sven Biggs, the Canadian oil and gas programs director for Stand.Earth, said the non-profit group will be keeping tabs on any long-term expansion plans for the frac sand industry in B.C. “If the plan really is to produce enough silica in British Columbia to support the LNG industry here in B.C. and Alberta, those would be very large operations and could have a much larger footprint than this initial project,” he told The Narwhal.
- B.C. trans teacher files human rights complaint over online hate campaignwww.nelsonstar.com B.C. trans teacher files human rights complaint over online hate campaign
Wilson Wilson has filed a complaint against Joanna Evenson, who goes by the name Blonde Bigot on X
A transgender teacher who taught at Pitt Meadows Secondary School has filed a human rights complaint against a woman whom they believe launched an online campaign of hatred against them.
Wilson Wilson filed the complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal on Friday, June 22, with support from Lawyers Against Transphobia.
"I'm standing up because as much as this has robbed me of my privacy and like my dignity as a person, I haven't been robbed of my power or responsibility," Wilson told Black Press Media.
Wilson is currently on leave from the school because of the incident and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The incident started in December of last year when Wilson became the target of online threats after a far-right social media account, called Libs of TikTok, shared photos of Wilson, an artist who identifies as trans non-binary, that were from an art portfolio.
One image showed Wilson topless and in the other in a netted shirt – both appearing to show a double mastectomy.
A person claiming to be a parent of at least one student at the school, who goes by the name Blonde Bigot on X, made allegations of student abuse and accused the school district as having child grooming and “pedophilic” activities and accused the teacher of glorifying their self-mutilation. The mother has since been identified as Joanna Evenson.
Thousands of people commented on X, a majority of them harassing Wilson and calling them names.
At the time Martin Dmitrieff, head of the Maple Ridge Teachers’ Association, said the images were in the public sphere because it was important for the teacher to interact as an artist through community art programs, where their work is being showcased.
"This could be anybody," said Wilson about the online harassment. "This could be any trans teacher. So, what I can do is stand up. And, if I don't stand up now the right has a successful strategy to silence trans teachers."
- BC Family Benefit boost needed now 'more than ever,' says Ebywww.nelsonstar.com BC Family Benefit boost needed now 'more than ever,' says Eby
'Life is expensive, especially for those of us raising a child with a disability,' says Chilliwack parent Katie Bartel at the press conference
B.C. Premier David Eby chose Jinkerson Park in the growing community of Chilliwack on Monday (June 24), to announce a sizable increase to the BC Family Benefit starting next month.
"With global inflation and high interest rates driving up daily costs, we know families are being hit hard right now," said Eby.
The boosted BC Family Benefit will be going to more low- and middle-income families, and on average they'll receive $445 more than last year.
Eby also used the press conference to announce he'll be stepping away for a few weeks from his duties as premier for family reasons.
"Getting a little extra money to families for the basics is one of the ways we're helping people who are feeling squeezed right now," Eby said.
Chilliwack parent Katie Bartel was on-hand with her niece Maggie, to attest to the struggle local families are facing with skyrocketing costs of food, clothes, gas, childcare and housing.
"Life is expensive, especially for those of us raising a child with a disability, and raising any family right now comes with unique challenges," Bartel said.
The extra money will help her family pay for a support worker for her daughter, as an example, and she said families like hers are increasingly looking to their communities and their government for help.
"We can't do this alone," Bartel said.
- Stepping into the Big, Weird ‘Anti-woke’ Tentthetyee.ca Stepping into the Big, Weird ‘Anti-woke’ Tent | The Tyee
To help us understand right-wing rhetoric, Francis Dupuis-Déri walks us through the ‘intersectionality of hate.’
The word “woke” — which has now lost any real or useful meaning since its origins in African American vernacular English — has become commonplace in right-wing campaigns and is being applied (seemingly quite effectively) to target anything and everything.
In B.C., the leader of the insurgent Conservative Party of BC, John Rustad, has raged against “woke ideology,” targeting trans people and sexuality and gender orientation education resources in schools (also known as SOGI 123).
When Rustad made comparisons between SOGI and residential schools last year, he was criticized and asked to apologize by politicians across the spectrum.
MLA Ravi Parmar, from the governing BC NDP, called Rustad’s comparisons “disgraceful” in a now-deleted tweet.
On a CBC Early Edition panel, Green MLA Adam Olsen denounced Rustad’s comments as “astonishing” and “inappropriate.”
And Elenore Sturko, then MLA for the Opposition party BC United who recently joined the B.C. Conservatives, called Rustad’s comments “incredibly insulting” at the time.
And then Bruce Banman, the B.C. Conservative MLA for Abbotsford South, summed up the criticism of Rustad’s comments as symptoms of a “hypersensitive, woke, far-left cancel culture” that he and his colleagues are trying to correct.
On a separate occasion, it appears that Paul Ratchford, a Conservative Party of BC candidate for Vancouver-Point Grey, referred to his now party member colleague Sturko as a “woke lesbian, social justice warrior.”
- Highway 97 closed after school bus crash near Lac La Hache; EHS says 11 ambulances and 7 air ambulances dispatched
> Van der Mark was unable to say how many children were on the bus. However, he said that all staff and students had been accounted for and were being checked out by first responders on the scene. He could not confirm whether there were injuries.
> He said the school district is working with police to ensure parents and guardians of the students on the bus are informed. Parents are being told to meet their kids at the South Cariboo Rec Centre in 100 Mile House, van der Mark said
- B.C. launches lawsuit against makers of 'forever chemicals' - The defendants are companies that have made perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl
> The British Columbia government has filed a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers of so-called "forever chemicals" it says are involved in the widespread contamination of drinking water systems.
- Rustad's message gaining traction with B.C. business leaderswww.nanaimobulletin.com Rustad's message gaining traction with B.C. business leaders
B.C. Conservative Leader gets positive reaction from two prominent business leaders in Victoria
- B.C.’s ‘war in the woods’ battlegrounds to be permanently protectedwww.aptnnews.ca Old-growth forests in B.C. are set for permanent protections
Old-growth forests in B.C. are set to receive permanent protections in a land and forest management agreement.
Old-growth forests that were environmental and Indigenous rights battlegrounds over clearcut logging in the 1980s and 1990s during British Columbia’s “war in the woods” are set to receive permanent protections in a land and forest management agreement.
The B.C. government says an agreement Tuesday with two Vancouver Island First Nations will protect about 760 square kilometres of Crown land in Clayoquot Sound by establishing 10 new conservancies in areas that include old-growth forests and unique ecosystems.
The partnership involves reconfiguring the tree farm licence in the Clayoquot Sound area to protect the old-growth zones while supporting other forest industry tenures held by area First Nations, said Forests Minister Bruce Ralston in a statement.
Statements from the Clayoquot Sound’s Ahoushat and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations say the conservancies will preserve old-growth forests on Meares Island and the Kennedy Lake area, sites of protests that led to hundreds of arrests.
“We have successfully reached a first phase implementation of the land-use vision,” Tyson Atleo, Ahousaht First Nation hereditary representative, said in an interview. “We will see (Tree Farm Licence 54) on Meares Island actively become real legislated protected areas for the first time in history.”
Plans for clearcut logging on Meares Island, about one kilometre northeast of Tofino and the site of some of the world’s largest western red cedars, touched off environmental and Indigenous protests in the 1980s. They eventually resulted in a court injunction that halted logging, saying Indigenous land claim issues should be resolved.
About a decade later, more than 800 people were arrested in the Clayoquot Sound area of Kennedy Lake near Ucluelet as protesters descended to demonstrate against more logging activities.
The forest company eventually left the area after losing an estimated $200 million in contracts related to timber sales.
- Large fire engulfs inactive rail bridge next to the Oak Street Bridgevancouver.citynews.ca Vancouver fire engulfs inactive rail bridge next to Oak Street Bridge
An inactive rail bridge connecting Richmond and Vancouver caught fire Thursday and forced the temporary closure of the Oak Street Bridge.