Two people have died and one was hurt in an avalanche yesterday in the Purcell Mountains in southeastern BC. Avalanche Canada says a group of five snowboarders and one skier were caught in the slide in an area known as Terminator 2.5 outside of a ski area boundary near Golden. It says the avalanche was triggered by the group and three people were buried in the snow, one partly and two completely. Avalanche Canada says the two buried victims did not survive and the one person partly buried was rescued with injuries. It says a second group of snowboarders that was lower on the trail when the avalanche triggered was hit by the slide but no one was buried or hurt.
Mounties have charged a former elementary school teacher in North Vancouver with sex charges involving boys. RCMP say the suspect taught at Upper Lynn Elementary School from 1970 until 1982. Police say at least one of the allegations was after his tenure as a teacher. Brian Moore, who is 83, is charged with 10 counts of indecent assault, one count of sexual touching of a person under 14 years old and one count of sexual assault.
Victoria Police Chief Constable Del Manak says his office only learned last week that an officer’s notebook was lost for five days in December. Police are warning dozens of people that their names and other personal information contained in the lost notebook are now being circulated among criminals. Manak calls the privacy breach unacceptable and extremely disappointing. Police say the information from the breach was used in a crime.
RCMP in Richmond are asking for witnesses after two random assaults Tuesday in the downtown core. Police say they found one woman lying on a sidewalk. Later, a second woman reported she had been assaulted by an unknown male at the same location. Police say they believe the two assaults are related.
One of just four endangered spotted owls known to be in the wild in British Columbia is recovering from an injury after being found along some train tracks. The injured bird was released last August along with two others in forests near the Spuzzum First Nation, about 200 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. Staff at the Northern Spotted Owl Breeding Program believe the owl may have collided with a passing train. They say he could be re-released but only if his wing heals properly.
The BC government is handing out 30-million-dollars worth of grants to fairs, festivals and events struggling from a loss of staffing and volunteers, supply-chain issues, and a cautious return of audiences. Grant amounts will be as much as 20 per cent of the total event budget, to a maximum of 250-thousand dollars. The government says the amounts could grow depending on the number of applications received. The grant program originally launched in 2021 to support the safe return of events earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic.