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Two Indigenous groups say Canadian banks are providing billions of dollars in support to fossil fuel projects instead of committing to upholding Indigenous rights and fighting climate change. The Union of BC Indian Chiefs and the Tsleil-Waututh (tuh-SLAY’-wah-tooth) Nation have sent letters to the CEOs of the country’s six largest banks this week over a 10-billion-dollar loan being hashed out for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. They say Trans Mountain needs a massive cash injection after its construction budget jumped to 31-billion-dollars back in March. The nation and union say the banks should stop funding the pipeline project, which they call “costly and harmful.”

Premier David Eby says he has concerns about the potential takeover of BC mining company Teck Resources by a foreign rival. Eby says Teck employs thousands of British Columbians in its mining and smelting operations and has projects awaiting permits. The premier says Glencore, the Swiss firm gunning for Teck, may have different corporate priorities and may not want to keep those projects on its books. Eby says he also worries about Glencore’s international reputation because it has paid large fines for corruption and bribery in the past, while also having a low ranking for its corporate environmental practices.

A coroner’s inquest into the death of Myles Gray after a beating by several Vancouver police officers in 2015 continues in Burnaby. Constable Kory Folkestad told the inquest yesterday that he punched Gray in the head as hard as he could several times, saying he didn’t think anything else would work to subdue the man, other than shooting him. Folkestad testified that he and his partner had responded to a call for backup by an officer dispatched to a disturbance about a man who was acting erratically and sprayed a woman with a garden hose. A fourth officer involved in the incident is set to testify this morning.

Delta police say several members of the force received service awards in a ceremony held yesterday evening in Victoria. The force says Constable Melissa Ker received an award after she went into the Fraser River to save the occupant of a vehicle that had become partially submerged in May 2022. Constables Chris Bond, Mixon Madland and Mason Woods were recognized after saving a knife-wielding person in a mental health crisis from a house fire. Constable Josh Harms, who worked for the Transit Police before joining the Delta P-D, was awarded after being shot twice at Scott Road SkyTrain Station in January 2019 while trying to make an arrest.

BC’s Ministry of Housing says the occupants of 25 new affordable rental homes in Vernon are settling in with the completion of two projects. The ministry says families, seniors and people with disabilities have moved into two new buildings, opened in partnership with the provincial government, B-C Housing and the Okanagan Village Housing Society. NDP MLA Harwinder Sandhu says the buildings help a wide range of Vernon residents and will benefit the community for years. One building has a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom dwellings while the other has 12 townhouse-style units.

A First Nation is suing the B-C and federal governments and the company behind a railway terminal port, saying expansion work has “desecrated” its ancestral land. The Bonaparte First Nation’s lawsuit says Ashcroft Terminal’s inland port development has destroyed and disturbed ancestral burial grounds. The nation also says it has been misled and shut out of the development process. The lawsuit alleges the terminal is on the site of Bonaparte’s historical village, which it says carries deep spiritual and cultural significance to the band.