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The U-N Security Council is going to hold an emergency open meeting later today on the attack on Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant.  The U-S, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania asked for the meeting so they can get a briefing from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Russia’s shelling of Europe’s biggest nuclear plant in Ukraine has prompted widespread international concern and condemnation.

 

Russians captured the southern city of Kherson, a vital Black Sea port of 280-thousand Ukrainian officials confirmed the takeover of the government headquarters there, making it the first major city to fall since the invasion began.  With the invasion in its second week, another round of talks between Russia and Ukraine yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid to the country.  A handful cities are without heat and at least one is struggling to get food and water.

 

B-C’s premier says he supports the federal government’s decision to impose a 35 per cent tariff on exports from Russia and Belarus to Canada.  John Horgan says the Finance Ministry is looking into the potential consequences for the private sector, including for major construction projects that rely on Russian steel, to determine what the province can do to protect its economy while ensuring sanctions continue.  He says B-C is also ready to welcome Ukrainian immigrants and refugees but is unsure how many people the federal government will send to the province.

 

When it comes to skyrocketing gas prices, B.C.’s premier is defending fuel taxes in this province, pointing the finger at the federal government and global instability.  Prices across Metro Vancouver reached new heights overnight we are now at 2 dollars per litre.  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been pushing up the price of crude oil, affecting gas prices everywhere. However, people in B.C. — in particular, Metro Vancouver — pay some of the highest gas taxes in the country.  Anyone in B.C. who makes more than $44,842 a year also is no longer eligible for the province’s carbon tax rebate.  Premier John Horgan was asked yesterday about gas taxes in B.C. He said carbon pricing is a key part of the federal and provincial climate action plans and that taxation is “one part” of the increase.

 

B-C has recorded 13 more deaths related to COVID-19 bringing the fatalities to two-thousand-896.  Health officials have declared a COVID-19 outbreak at another health-care facility, bringing the total to 21.  The Health Ministry says there were 511 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and 79 were in intensive care.

 

White Rock RCMP are investigating after a cat was allegedly attacked with bleach and later died.  According to a GoFundMe page –, Bailey, a four-year-old cat, went outside “for about one hour” and then “stumbled in through the doggy door and collapsed.”  The cat was soaked in bleach and had chemical burns and wounds on her face, She had been fully submerged in bleach.  White Rock RCMP confirmed that the matter was being looked into.

 

British Columbia health officials announced today that there have been 340 new positive COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 349,944. In a written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that 484 (-27) COVID-positive people are currently hospitalized, and 69 (-10) are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

New cases are broken down by health region as follows:

  • Fraser Health: 71 new cases
  • Vancouver Coastal Health: 41 new cases
  • Interior Health: 113 new cases
  • Northern Health: 50 new cases
  • Island Health: 65 new cases
  • Outside of Canada: Zero new cases

There have been eight new COVID-19-related deaths in British Columbia, for a total of 2,903 deaths in the province

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading to several European capitals to strategize with allies as fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine intensifies. Trudeau will spend next week in meetings in London and Berlin as well as the capitals of Latvia and Poland. Meanwhile, Canada’s foreign affairs minister met with counterparts at NATO headquarters in Brussels today. Melanie Joly said before the meeting that the leaders would discuss a Russian attack on a major nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine.  

 

A senior convicted last August of manslaughter following an assault in early 2020 that led to the death of an elderly White Rock man was sentenced Thursday in Surrey Provincial Court. The penalty imposed on Ross Banner included a 15-month jail term and 18 months probation. He was also handed a 10-year firearms prohibition. Banner, 71 at the time of his arrest, was initially charged with aggravated assault following a Feb. 19, 2020 altercation in the 15200-block of Pacific Avenue that left an elderly victim with “visible injuries to his upper body.” The charge was upgraded after the victim later died in hospital. Banner’s trial was held over three days last June.

 

Gas prices have broken the two-dollar per litre mark at some stations around Metro Vancouver. The website GasBuddy says the price for a litre of regular gasoline at some Shell and Chevron stations was just under two-dollars and one cent this morning, while PetroCan prices were set at one-dollar and 99-point-nine cents per litre. That’s a jump of almost 20 cents per litre in barely one week and Dan McTeague with Canadians for Affordable Energy says the war in Ukraine is a key reason. He predicts prices will fall by one cent tomorrow and then climb by three or four cents a litre on Sunday or Monday _ saying “things are going to get really bad” very soon. 

 

Canada’s chief public health officer says as long as Omicron remains the dominant variant of COVID-19 in Canada — the risk of another massive wave of infections is pretty low. Dr. Theresa Tam says due to Canada’s high vaccination rate and boosters, there’s pretty good community-level protection against COVID-19 for now. But Tam warns that could change if another variant emerges that is significantly different from Omicron and able to evade current vaccines.