The lawyer for Ibrahim Ali is scheduled to be back at the BC Supreme Court for a second day of submissions in his application to have the judge stay the jury’s guilty verdict over unreasonable delays in getting the man to trial. Kevin McCullough told the BC Supreme Court that most of the adjournments in the years after Ali was charged with first-degree murder of a 13-year-old Burnaby girl were due to case mismanagement by the court. He says the issue can be traced back to August 2020, when Ali’s previous lawyers had requested an adjournment for upcoming trial dates due to a scheduling conflict. McCullough says the judge rejected that request, so they stepped down, which set proceedings back.
Marine mammal experts are trying a different tactic in their attempts to rescue a young killer whale stranded in a lagoon off northern Vancouver Island. They’ve put out harbour seal remains to see if it will eat. Paul Cottrell with the Fisheries Department says it’s positive that the calf is active and searching for prey. However, he says convincing it out of the lagoon back to the open ocean will be difficult in such a high current area.
The BC Wildfire Service says it’s conducting a number of prescribed burns around the province starting this week, collaborating with First Nations in multiple locations to reduce fuel and help restore ecosystems. The service says it has identified the so-called burn window for controlled burns outside Cranbrook, Nelson, Hedley, Rock Creek and elsewhere, which happens when specific weather and fuel moisture conditions have been met. It says it is hoping there will be minimal smoke, which may be visible from communities surrounding the prescribed burn sites. The wildfire service says it successfully burned a 35-hectare site over the Easter long weekend with help from the Williams Lake First Nation, which reduced ground fuels but spared trees that were home to nesting birds.
The BC government is making changes to rental laws to stop property owners from raising rent when tenants bring a new baby or any child under the age of 19 into their home. If passed, the laws will prohibit landlords from increasing rent just because a child has been added to a household, even if the tenancy agreement says rent will increase when there’s a new occupant. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says people on fixed incomes, including seniors, can be at risk of homelessness if they are forced out of their low-rent units and have to search for a new place. Legislation tabled by the government yesterday would force the landlord to live in the unit for a year before listing it for rent again and also ban evictions for personal use in purpose-built rental buildings, like seniors buildings, that have five or more units.
Mounties in Chilliwack say a suspicious substance set off a call to the RCMP explosive disposal unit. Police say they went to a home Tuesday on a complaint of a theft from a local business and when they confronted the lone male inside, he threatened to harm police and damage local infrastructure. The man was taken into custody without incident, but police say they found a suspicious substance that might pose a risk to the public. The bomb disposal unit has since determined the substance wasn’t a risk, while charges of uttering threats and theft under five-thousand dollars have been laid against the man.
RCMP are investigating an assault that occurred at Kent Institution, a maximum-security federal institution near Agassiz, BC. Correctional Service Canada says the incident occurred on March 29th and sent one injured prisoner to an outside hospital for treatment. It says a number of suspects have been identified, and no staff members or other inmates were injured. Correctional Service of Canada says it will take appropriate measures to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.