The R-C-M-P say the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is awaiting the results of an autopsy for a woman found dead in the Lower Mainland on Sunday. I-HIT says the cause of the woman’s death was not immediately apparent after her body was found in a field just north of Pitt Meadows, but at this time, police don’t believe her death is related to ongoing gang conflict in the Lower Mainland. The Mounties say I-HIT is also working with B-C’s Conservation Officer Service because it appears the body may have been disturbed by an animal. They say the service has issued a warning for anyone walking or picking berries in the area out of an abundance of caution.
With the Coquihalla closed due to wildfires, anyone trying to get from B.C.’s Interior to the Lower Mainland will be detoured through the small town of Princeton — and the mayor is asking the province for more help dealing with the rush of cars clogging the routes into and out of his community. Highway 5 between Hope and Merritt was closed due to the July Mountain fire, which jumped the highway Sunday night around 7 p.m. and merged with a blaze burning on the other side. The fire is estimated at 20,860 hectares in size. According to DriveBC, the highway will remain closed until at least 9 a.m. Tuesday. Drivers are being detoured to Highway 5A, which runs between Merritt and Princeton, before driving through Princeton and getting onto Highway 3 Mayor Spencer Coyne says his town is struggling to handle the influx of cars, as evacuees from the Interior, vacationers heading home after the weekend, and others heeding the province’s advice try to leave the hard-hit southern Interior. The lineup of vehicles at what Coyne describes as a “pinch point” on the edge of the community where Highway 5a meets Old Hedley Road seemed endless Sunday night, and still snaked far into the distance Monday. The bottleneck created by single-lane access to the town is something Coyne says residents and local politicians have been trying to get the province to address for quite some time. the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has yet to comment
The hashtag #whereisHorgan is gaining steam online as many take to social media to speak out against the premier’s absence in recent days, with the opposition harshly criticizing the decision to leave the province as wildfires continue to force thousands to flee their homes. Sources confirmed to on Monday that he is on vacation in Atlantic Canada. His office says that he has been away but is in communication with his team. The timing of the trip is being questioned by many, as the province remains in a state of emergency as wildfires have forced thousands out of their homes. Liberal MLA Shirley Bond says it’s not enough that Horgan is getting briefed — he needs to be available and communicating directly with the people of B.C. On Twitter, many others echo Bond’s concerns, even going so far as to put out a fake missing persons report. The premier is set to be home thursday although many are calling for his resignation
Wildfire smoke is expected to start creeping back into the Lower Mainland on Tuesday. The latest forecast modelling from FireSmoke Canada shows smoke from the fires burning in B.C.’s southern Interior and elsewhere is expected to start permeating the Lower Mainland yet again. The smoke is expected to set in over the afternoon. The forecasts put out by FireSmoke Canada is produced by the Weather Forecast Research Team at UBC, with support from various other agencies. The return of smoke will come just days after a heavy haze from fires forced air quality advisories across the region. At one point last week, Vancouver recorded the worst air quality of any major city in the world, in large part due to the wildfires in this province and south of the border. B.C.’s deputy minister of forests said crews will likely be fighting some of the larger fires in the south-central Interior “right up until the snow falls, even though it will get cooler.”
New Democrat Leader Jagmeet (JUG’-meet) Singh is campaigning in Metro Vancouver today in advance of his nomination meeting this afternoon in his Burnaby South riding. Singh started the day with a policy announcement, pledging an N-D-P government would invest in small, community businesses, rather than allow what the party calls the Liberal’s “massive no-strings attached giveaways to multinational corporations.” Singh visited a Coquitlam bakery following the announcement. His nomination meeting — and expected acclamation as the party’s candidate — is set for 5 p.m.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole is promising a G-S-T holiday for the month of December if his party wins power next month. O’Toole says the measure will help brick-and-mortar retailers hanging on by a thread and put 1.5-billion-dollars into Canadians’ pockets. N-D-P Leader Jagmeet Singh was promoting vaccinations on the campaign trail today in B-C and says people who opt not to get vaccinated should not be able to work in places where they will put others at risk.
B-C’s police watchdog is investigating after police say a 25-year-old man was shot during an altercation with an officer in downtown Vancouver. Police say the officer also sustained serious injuries early yesterday morning after responding to a call about a man who was refusing to leave a building. They say the officer and the man got into a physical altercation, resulting in shots being fired, and the Independent Investigations Office has been called. The suspect was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while they say the senior officer also required Hospitalization.
BC health officials announced 501 new test-positive COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 157,014. In a written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that there are 5,296 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 111 individuals are currently hospitalized, 51 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. New and total active cases, broken down by health region, are as follows:
- Fraser Health: 139 new cases, 932 total active cases
- Vancouver Coastal Health: 92 new cases, 758 total active cases
- Interior Health: 205 new cases, 3,084 total active cases
- Northern Health: 35 new cases, 206 total active cases
- Island Health: 28 new cases, 307 total active cases
- Outside of Canada: Two new cases, nine total active cases
There has been one new COVID-19-related death over the past 24 hours in Island Health, for a total of 1,781 deaths in British Columbia. To date, 82.7% of all eligible people 12 and over have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In total, 7,240,524 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in BC. 149,847 people who tested positive have now recovered.
Airbnb is trying to prevent people from renting houses to throw large, unauthorized parties this Halloween weekend. Anyone who doesn’t have a history of good reviews won’t be able to rent an entire home in Canada for just one night. Airbnb did the same last year and says the policy barred more than 13-hundred people in Toronto alone from booking entire homes during Halloween.
The family of a 26-year-old man who was killed last weekend in Whistler Village says he was just trying to grab a taxi back to his hotel. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says Henry Stanley Garcia Molina was fatally stabbed early Saturday morning directly in front of the Bearfoot Bistro. I-HIT says investigators believe multiple people are involved in the murder and that several witnesses have yet to speak with police. Molina’s family is urging people with information to come forward, saying he was a kind-hearted young man who had a positive impact on anyone he met and did not deserve to be taken away so Brutally.