The mayor of Grand Forks, BC, says the community is hard at work preparing for potential flooding as rain is predicted to hit the central and south Interior this weekend. Mayor Everett Baker says the city is sandbagging and installing temporary dams to shore up defences against floodwaters reaching businesses and residential properties in the city’s downtown. He says he’s been watching what’s happening in other communities in the region and remains concerned about the weekend weather. Baker says the city hopes its flood mitigation efforts will be enough to avoid the damage seen in 2018, when the city lost nearly 100 homes to floodwaters.
A provincial forecaster says the rapid transition into spring caused by a week of record-setting temperatures has accelerated mountain snowmelt leading to flooding and mudslides throughout BC’s central and southern Interior. Dave Campbell, the head of BC’s River Forecast Centre, says the problems will be compounded by heavy rains and possible thunderstorms expected in the same area this weekend. This comes as flood warnings, lower-level flood watches or high streamflow advisories cover much of the province’s southern and central Interior. The province has said conditions in areas that are currently flooding, including Cache Creek and Okanagan Indian Band territory, were expected to deteriorate, while “moderate flooding” is likely in Grand Forks starting today.
BC United Leader Kevin Falcon says he’s appalled with the arrest of an alleged drug trafficker operating a mobile illegal narcotics dispensary in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Falcon called on Premier David Eby and members of his cabinet to denounce the alleged activity as completely unacceptable. Vancouver police arrested a 51-year-old man for selling cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin out of a trailer parked in one of the neighbourhood’s main intersections. Constable Tania Visintin says in a news release that the department supports measures that include harm reduction services and decriminalization, but drug trafficking is still subject to enforcement.
The BC government has announced its latest steps of protection against the unwanted sharing of intimate images. Attorney General Niki Sharma has written to major technology companies — including Twitter, Meta, OnlyFans and Pornhub — warning them of the province’s new law around intimate images shared online whereby they could be ordered to destroy images shared without someone’s consent or risk paying damages. The Intimate Images Protection Act will come into force in the coming months and create new legal mechanisms to stop the distribution of non-consensual images online. Cybertip.ca — a national hotline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children — says there’s been a 150-per-cent increase in reported threats to distribute young people’s intimate images online over the past six months.
Mounties in Nanaimo are asking for the public’s help in identifying two people accused of breaking into a local hair salon. They say police responded to a glass break alarm at Cosmo Prof on April 25th and found its door had been “smashed out.” Police say the salon’s owner later reported that high-end hair clippers and shears were stolen, and provided surveillance photos of the two masked suspects to police. The RCMP say they are hopeful the suspects may be identified from the clothing they were wearing in the photographs, noting that they believe at least one of the suspects is a woman.
The Vancouver Pride Society says it is expanding the Vancouver Pride Festival this year by adding an extra day to the event. The society also announced its new parade route will begin at Davie and Denman streets, proceeding down Beach Avenue and Pacific Street, and end at the new festival site at Concord Community Park. The changes bring the parade from 2.7 kilometres in length to 3.1 kilometres. Vancouver Pride Festival programming will last all weekend on August 5th and 6th, with the parade taking place on the Sunday.