Surrey taxpayers will be footing Doug McCallum’s legal bills, as the mayor faces a charge of public mischief. A spokesperson for the City confirmed the City of Surrey will cover the costs, citing a bylaw that protects municipal officials from legal action, and provides for “payment of amounts required or incurred to defend any action, prosecution, or claim.” McCallum was charged on Friday after a special prosecutor was appointed to look into an incident from September where the mayor alleged an opponent of replacing the RCMP with a municipal police force ran over his foot with their car.
Nearly a year after a Surrey mother was killed saving her twin daughters by pushing them out of the path of a runaway delivery van, her family is still trying to piece together their lives. On Dec. 15th of last year, 48-year-old Parmjit Massuta was walking her 8-year-old twins from school when an unoccupied delivery van rushed towards them. To save her children, Parmjit pushed them out of the way. It was a heroic move that cost her life. She died at the scene, leaving behind her young children and a grieving husband, who says it’s been difficult navigating the last year without her. The investigation into the deadly crash is still ongoing. Surrey RCMP confirms a final report to Crown Counsel is almost complete, but these types of cases could take years to resolve.
Yesterday, B-C health officials reported one-thousand-129 new cases of COVID-19 for a three-day period. There had been five new deaths for a total of two-thousand-386 fatalities. An update on the number of COVID-19 cases related to the Omicron variant will be provided at a news briefing at 1:30 p-m today (see below). A news release from Island Health and the University of Victoria says they’ve identified four cases of the variant from a cluster of 124, associated with people who attended off-campus events.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth has announced that the province will be lifting a restriction today on the amount of fuel British Columbians can purchase. The order has been in effect since Nov. 19, It limited non-essential drivers to 30 litres of gas per visit…The provincial state of emergency, however, has been extended another two weeks. This includes restrictions on non-essential travel on Highway 3 between Hope and Princeton, and Highway 99 between Pemberton and Lillooet.
The discovery of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B-C is Canada’s news story of the year as chosen by editors in newsrooms across the country. It was the choice of 38 editors in the annual Canadian Press survey, compared with 31 votes for Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout and 13 for climate change and severe weather in B-C. The Ottawa Citizen’s editorial pages editor says the announcement of the unmarked children’s graves shook most Canadians to their core, even if the information was not new to many First Nations people. C-T-V Calgary managing news editor Dawn Walton says the initial discovery of the unmarked graves seemed to shake the Canadianness out of Canada.
British Columbia health officials announced on Tuesday that there have been 519 new test-positive COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 223,661. In a written statement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said that there are 3,171 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 191 individuals are currently hospitalized and 81 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. BC hasn’t seen a daily case count this high since November 13. New cases and total active cases are broken down by health region as follows:
- Fraser Health: 110 new cases, 872 total active cases
- Vancouver Coastal Health: 106 new cases, 669 total active cases
- Interior Health: 145 new cases, 612 total active cases
- Northern Health: 34 new cases, 213 total active cases
- Island Health: 123 new cases, 804 total active cases
- Outside of Canada: One new case, one total active case
There have been 44 cases of the Omicron variant identified in BC. There have been no new COVID-19-related deaths, leaving a total of 2,386 deaths in British Columbia. To date, 86.6% (4,316,478) of eligible people five and older in BC have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82.4% (4,105,425) have received their second dose.
Health officials say 44 cases of the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19 have now been confirmed in B-C with 20 linked to international travel. They also say 37 of the cases were among those who have been vaccinated but there have been no hospitalizations linked to the variant. The latest modelling data suggests a worst-case scenario involving Omicron would be two-thousand new cases per day by the end of the month — and a best-case scenario of one-thousand a day by mid-January. Health officials are recommending against large holiday parties but say the province won’t likely roll out free at-home rapid tests before January.
Today marks one year since the first COVID-19 vaccine arrived in B-C. Premier John Horgan says since then the province began the largest immunization program in its history and most people have stepped up and done their part. The government reports 91.5 per cent of eligible people 12 and older have received their first dose, 88.5 per cent have received their second shot and more than 589-thousand people have received a booster dose. The B-C Centre for Disease Control says residents who have not been vaccinated are 56 times more likely to end up in critical care due to COVID-19 than people who have received two vaccine doses.
Fraser Health has opened a new overdose prevention site at Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock. The health authority says the site will provide people with a safe environment monitored by trained medical staff to consume their own substances. It says it will also provide people with overdose prevention education, take-home naloxone training and facilitate referrals to health and substance use services. It is the first overdose prevention site in White Rock and the sixth in Fraser Health.
Snow or the possibility of it has prompted warnings from Environment Canada for parts of the province. A snowfall warning for the Southern Fraser Canyon, including Lytton and Boston Bar, says up to 15 centimetres is expected today. A special weather alert is up for Metro Vancouver, predicting up to five centimetres of wet snow is possible, which may affect road conditions and travel. An Arctic outflow warning is up for the inland North Coast, including Terrace, until tomorrow, generating wind chill temperatures of minus 20.