The BC Wildfire Service says the intensity and size of the Donnie Creek wildfire in northeastern BC is too dangerous to put firefighters in a position where they are attacking it directly Information officer Julia Caranci says that is why the service conducted two planned ignitions last week that burned a 55-kilometre portion along the southern flank in an effort to control the fire and create “confinement lines.’ The service says the Donnie Creek fire is now the second largest wildfire in the province’s recorded history and is currently estimated at more than 24-hundred square kilometres in size. It is one of 83 fires burning in British Columbia, and one of 413 active blazes across the country.
BC’s representative for children and youth says her office hasn’t seen any indication that youth are using drugs “diverted” from the safe supply program. Jennifer Charlesworth’s remarks come after Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre told the House of Commons that federal and B-C government policies are worsening the overdose crisis because prescription hydromorphone “gets sold to kids” by those taking part in the program, and that the profits are being used to buy fentanyl. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry says monitoring has not detected an increase in opioid overdoses involving children, although it may be time to re-evaluate the program to ensure safe supply is meeting people’s needs as the province emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. BC’s chief coroner Lisa Lapointe says toxicology tests show hydromorphone hasn’t been present in any significant number of deaths.
A Yukon First Nations community has begun its search for unmarked graves at a former residential school site. The territory’s Residential School Missing Children Project says ground-penetrating radar would be used to look for gravesites at the Chooutla Residential School in Carcross, about 70 kilometres south of Whitehorse. Carcross-Tagish First Nation Chief Maria Benoit says the search is important for the community in its bid to find answers and peace in the residential school tragedy, where countless children taken from their families did not return home. The Chooutla Residential school was one for four such facilities in the Yukon — the others were located in Whitehorse, Dawson City and Shingle Point.
Police say a crackdown on retail theft at a Surrey mall has led to 26 arrests. Surrey RCMP say they partnered with Metro Vancouver Transit Police and Delta Police for the co-ordinated operation on May 25. They say more than five-thousand dollars in stolen goods — including food, clothing, electronics and cosmetics — was recovered at the Guildford Town Centre that day. The Mounties say the people they arrested ranged from teenagers to people in their forties, and 15 charges were recommended to the prosecution service.
Mounties and firefighters in North Vancouver say one person died in a house fire in the city. The North Vancouver RCMP and the city’s fire department say they are investigating Friday’s blaze in the 400-block of Queensbury Avenue. They say firefighters quickly put out the fire, but the person who they’ve identified as a woman was later found dead inside the residence. The Mounties are asking anyone with information to contact police.
Mounties say a man has been found dead in Kelowna. They say officers responded to a report of the body in the area of McCulloch Road at Myra Forest Service Road around 8 a-m Sunday. Police say they are working alongside the BC coroner’s service to gather information, but did not identify the person. They say there is no ongoing concern for public safety in relation to the incident.