One person is in hospital following what Surrey police are calling a serious crash between two vehicles. It happened yesterday around 4:30 at the intersection of 24 Avenue and King George Boulevard. The crash involved two vehicles and a pedestrian. Police say the investigation is in its early stages and no other details were given.
A man was found dead in an overgrown area in Langley, yesterday afternoon. Police received reports of the body, On 208 Street near 72nd Avenue, at around noon. Investigators say it does not appear to be a random act. However, police did not say how the man died or the extent of the injuries he suffered.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made several stops in Vancouver yesterday where he visited a school and a Ukrainian bakery and a Liberal fundraiser. Today he is scheduled to be at Williams Lake First Nation, which is investigating possible unmarked graves. In January, the First Nation said a geophysical investigation found 93 “reflections” on the site of the former St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School. Trudeau says his government is committed to helping Indigenous People on a path to healing and reconciliation after the discoveries awakened deep wounds and trauma.
British Columbia recorded one more death due to COVID-19 yesterday. The province saw a slight drop in hospitalizations with 273 people in hospital compared with 288 on Monday. There was one new health-care facility outbreak for a total of seven in the province. The ministry says 91 per cent of residents aged 12 and over have received their second shot of a vaccine, while 57.5 per cent have had a third dose.
The World Health Organization reports the number of COVID-19 deaths worldwide surged by more than 40 per cent last week to more than 45-thousand, but the number of new cases fell to about 10-million. The W-H-O says the increased death count is likely due to changes in how COVID-19 deaths were reported across the Americas, and by newly adjusted figures from India. Despite the global decline in reported cases, China has locked down Shanghai to fight an Omicron outbreak that has caused the country’s biggest wave of disease since the start of the pandemic.
Former chief of the defence staff general Jonathan Vance has pleaded guilty to one charge of obstruction of justice. His lawyer is now seeking a discharge, arguing his client entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and has already suffered significant financial and reputational damage. Military police charged Vance in July, following a months-long investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. He wasn’t charged with that offence, but investigators found that Vance repeatedly contacted a woman and tried to persuade her to make false statements about their past relationship.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ottawa will provide nearly three-million dollars in additional funding for First Nations in British Columbia to support healing for communities whose children were taken from their families and sent to St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School. Trudeau visited the Williams Lake First Nation today where the former school is located. It comes after the community announced the discovery of 93 potential unmarked burial sites of children around St. Joseph’s. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller and Trudeau met with elders and residential school survivors individually, grasping their hands and offering braids of sweetgrass. (
B-C is ending a COVID-19 quarantine program for seasonal agriculture workers partly because of the easing of federal travel restrictions. The Agriculture Ministry says high vaccination rates among incoming temporary foreign workers will also allow them to go directly to their farms starting tomorrow. But it says in a statement that employers must ensure federal quarantine requirements are met for workers who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. It says a federal-provincial program providing up to three-thousand dollars per worker to cover costs linked to the 14-day self-isolation period will remain in place until next March.
An inmate serving an indeterminate sentence for first-degree murder has died at the Pacific Institution in Abbotsford. Correctional Service Canada says Roy Dalen died last Sunday but it has not provided the cause. The service says Dalen had begun serving his sentence in July 2006. He was convicted in the 2005 stabbing death of his 62-year-old former mental-health social worker in a Richmond parkade.
An investigation has found that actor Will Smith broke the film academy’s code of conduct when he was asked but refused to leave the Academy Awards Sunday night. That followed him walking on stage and slapping presenter Chris Rock. Smith later accepted an Oscar for best actor and made a tearful speech with no interference from Academy officials. He has since apologized to Rock who made a joke about Smith’s wife’s lack of hair. She had a medical condition.
R-C-M-P in Richmond confirm two people have been arrested and a stash of costume jewelry has been seized as they investigate reports of attempted frauds involving fake gold. Police say the suspects were picked up last week and search warrants led to evidence suggesting the two are part of what officers describe as a “sophisticated gold fraud operation.” Mounties were alerted on March 19th when a man reported a man and woman approached him in Richmond offering to sell him gold for cash. Corp. Ian Henderson says those involved in the fraud often tell stories of needing to sell heirlooms to get home, or they might use children as props to make their stories seem more dire — but he says all the gold offered for sale is fake and anyone approached should refuse, get to a safe place and call police.
Delta police say a charge of second-degree murder has been laid following the targeted shooting of a 54-year-old man in that community early last month. A statement from police says Crown counsel has approved charges against the 31-year-old Abbotsford man arrested about a week after the February 4th homicide of Dana Gilbertson. Court records show the suspect remains in custody and is scheduled to return to court on April 11th. Police say the shooting was targeted but is not related to the ongoing gang conflict in Metro Vancouver.
Last year was exceptional for athletic clothing company Lululemon Athletica. The Vancouver-based retailer surpassed six-billion dollars (U-S) in revenue for the first time and says net profits leaped 32 per cent in the fourth quarter. The 6.26 billion dollar revenue easily eclipsed the 4.4-billion Lululemon reported in 2020 — which was also a strong showing as the company pivoted during the pandemic to collect almost half its revenue from direct-to-consumer sales, rather than from retail stores. Lululemon C-E-O Calvin McDonald says 2021 was another successful year due to the “enduring strength of the brand” and the opening of 22 net new company-operated stores during the fourth quarter, alone.