Sentencing for breach of trust and fraud is expected today for the former clerk of the B-C legislature, Craig James. He was found guilty in May of the counts related to inappropriate personal expenses such as claiming a newly purchased suit and some shirts as work attire. But James was cleared on three other counts, including one related to a 258-thousand dollar retirement benefit.
James the senior administrative officer of the legislature was removed from his post and suspended with pay in November 2018, then resigned the following year while an investigation into his
conduct was still underway.
Saanich police have cleared and reopened the area around the scene of a deadly bank shooting in suburban Victoria. Six police officers were injured in last Tuesday’s shootout while the 22-year-old twin brothers suspected in the attack were killed. Victoria police spokesman Bowen Osoko says the three officers who needed surgery after the shooting all face long roads to recovery. One of the three remains in hospital.
Mounties have identified 22-year-old twins as the two suspects who were killed during a shootout with police outside a bank in Saanich. R-C-M-P spokesman Alex Berube has released the names of Duncan residents Mathew and Isaac Auchterlonie. Investigators are looking into their backgrounds, and Berube says neither man had a criminal record or was known to police. He says while the question of who carried out the shooting has been resolved, the motive behind the armed robbery and subsequent exchange of gunfire with police has not yet been determined.
Unsettled weather and severe thunderstorms are expected across parts of southern B-C bringing with them a potential for flooding. Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm warning with a possibility of strong wind gusts, large hail and heavy rain for the Boundary, Nicola, Shuswap and South Thompson regions, as well as part of the Fraser Canyon including Lillooet, and a large section of the Okanagan Valley from Penticton north to Kelowna and Vernon. The B-C River Forecast Centre has issued a high streamflow advisory for the south Interior and southeast areas, including the Similkameen River, and Mission Creek and its tributaries, as well as numerous waterways in the Boundary, West and East Kootenays. The centre says exact locations and intensity of rainfall are uncertain, but high flows are possible today and tomorrow in small and medium-sized watersheds in those areas. (The Canadian Press)
Police say a 34-year-old man has died in the crash of a utility terrain vehicle in the Okanagan Valley area. Lake Country R-C-M-P say they were called early Saturday after the vehicle rolled on Spion Kop Mountain in the area of Summit Trail. The victim was the passenger and police say the 34-year-old man who was driving was arrested for impaired operation causing death. Police say no other details are available and the investigation is ongoing.
A man who shot and killed another man on a busy stretch of the Vancouver seawall in Coal Harbour more than two years ago has been sentenced to life in prison. Francois Gauthier, who was 51 years old at the time of the April 2020 slaying, was sentenced last week to life behind bars with no parole eligibility for 20 years. Gauthier was originally charged with the first-degree murder of
31-year-old Harpreet Singh Dhaliwal of Abbotsford, but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Police called the targeted shooting “shocking and unnerving” because it happened in the early evening in front of a popular restaurant at a time when the seawall was busy with pedestrians.