The RCMP say five people have been arrested at two camps located near the disputed Coastal GasLink pipeline project in northwestern BC. Mounties say officers responded to a complaint Sunday night from Coastal GasLink security, who reported that a worker had been swarmed by a group of people wearing masks. TC Energy, the owner of the 670-kilometre pipeline project, says workers deserve a safe environment without fear of such dangerous acts. The Gidimt’en Checkpoint, whose members oppose the pipeline’s construction through Wet’suwet’en (Wet-SOO’-wet-en) territory, say the people arrested yesterday were mostly Indigenous women and the search warrant for theft had no clear relation to their villagesite. The elected council of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and others nearby have agreed to the pipeline project.
The fatal stabbing of a 37 year old father outside a downtown Vancouver Starbucks is casting a pall over the normally bustling block. People passing by have been paying their respects to Paul Schmidt at a makeshift memorial of flowers, pictures and notes. Guilherme Gomes, manager of the nearby bakery cafe, says patrons seem shaken by the stabbing witnessed by numerous bystanders. Police say 32 year old Inderdeep Singh Gosal has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
Police in Vancouver say a pedestrian has been hospitalized with life threatening injuries after being struck by a vehicle in East Vancouver. It happened around 9:30 Tuesday evening at the intersection of East 1st Avenue and Woodland Drive, where a Mercedes C300 struck the 40 year old woman as she was crossing the street. Police say they do not believe alcohol or speed played a role in the collision, and the driver remained at the scene.
The BC Wildfire Service says crews helped knock down a seven hectare blaze yesterday near Merritt. It was the latest of nearly two dozen fires sparked so far this month in the southern Interior. Fire information officer Taylor Wallace says conditions are dry. In the meantime, crews are conducting prescribed burns aimed at lessening the fuel load in the region’s forests.
First Nation leaders in Yukon are stepping up the fight against the opioid crisis that disproportionately affects Indigenous people. Council of Yukon First Nations executive director Shadelle Chambers says they’re in the final stages of readying a proposal for a Whitehorse healing centre. Meanwhile, the Carcross Tagish First Nation has launched an outreach van offering naloxone to reverse overdoses. Yukon chief coroner Heather Jones attributed 20 of the 25 toxic substances deaths in the territory last year to opioids.
First Nations health officials have launched a mobile primary care program for women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The program is spearheaded by the Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society and the First Nations Aboriginal Primary Care Network. Society executive director Rosemary Stager-Wallace says the mobile program will bring primary care to some of the community’s most vulnerable women. The program will offer services including general checkups, Pap smears, sexual health testing and birth control.