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Cindy E. Harnett / Times Colonist – Apr 4, 2021 / 8:07 am | Story: 329978

A veteran Shawnigan Lake private school teacher has been ordered to pay $226,000 to a security guard he “sucker-punched” in a drunken assault more than 13 years ago, according to a Supreme Court ruling last week.

In the civil ruling, teacher Ralph Mackay Fraser was ordered to compensate Andrew Thompson for punching him in an unprovoked attack at a Vancouver hotel on Feb. 17, 2008, that sidelined the young man’s plans to become an RCMP officer.

Justice Robin Baird called it a “thoroughly disgraceful incident” in his March 26 judgment.

“If the defendant is a person of any conscience, he will be immobilised by shame every time he thinks of it,” Baird wrote. “I would emphasise that the plaintiff was barely older than the students, most of them full-time boarders, who are committed by their parents to the defendant’s care every day of the school year. I am amazed that he was not fired from his employment.”

Thirteen years ago, Thompson was a 21-year-old security guard at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, and Fraser was a 50-something teacher at Shawnigan Lake School, where he continues to work.

Fraser had been at a banquet where he had “too much to drink,” according to the judgment. Afterward, he and others, including the headmaster of the Shawnigan Lake School, went to the hotel’s lounge bar, where Fraser was involved in a “scuffle” with other bar patrons.

Thompson was escorting Fraser from the bar when Fraser “sucker-punched [him] in the face, badly and permanently damaging the bony structure around his left eye,” according to court documents. Fraser attempted to flee but was apprehended by hotel staff, who held him until police arrived.

Thompson required emergency facial surgery. Metallic gear was fused into his facial bones and there is a screw directly beneath his left eye “that he can feel with his finger and causes a great deal of pain on incidental contact,” Baird wrote in his judgment.

Fraser in 2008 pleaded guilty in criminal court to assault causing bodily harm — which is punishable by a maximum of 10 years imprisonment — and given a conditional discharge.

“He was dealt with extremely leniently,” Baird wrote. “Part of the reason for this, I have no doubt, was the understanding that eventually he would have to answer for his misconduct in a civil lawsuit and, in all likelihood, pay the plaintiff a sizeable sum in damages.”

In awarding the damages, Baird called Thompson highly intelligent, honest and hard-working and accepted his claim that this injury forced him to abandon his goal of becoming an RCMP constable, a goal the judge said was “eminently achievable” before the attack.

Thompson represented Canada at international karate competitions and his mother is a civilian member of the RCMP in Prince George. He attended RCMP youth academy camps, had corrective laser eye surgery to allow him to serve, and hoped to work as a patrol member and investigator on the way to serving on the Emergency Response Team. “He told me that his goal in life was to help people when they needed it most,” Baird wrote.

Instead, he attended a university in New York for specialized training in criminal justice issues and landed a high-paying job as an investigator with a New York law firm.

“He testified that, if his facial injury could be magically healed, and the hardware in his facial bones could be removed, he would submit another application for RCMP recruitment immediately,” Baird wrote. “His present employment is satisfactory, but it is not what he wanted to do with his life. To this day he feels a keen regret and even bitterness about this. I do not blame him.”

Thompson was awarded $60,000 for damages and $166,000 for loss of income earning capacity.

No punitive damages were ordered considering Fraser took responsibility for his behaviour by pleading guilty in criminal court and admitting liability in civil court.

The court document notes that no one involved in the brief trial March 1 and 2 was able to explain the “extraordinary” delay in the case.

Richard Lamont, head of school at Shawnigan Lake School, called the 2008 incident troubling.

“The school is deeply committed to the safety and well-being of its students, and we take any matter involving the conduct of a staff member extremely seriously,” he said, noting that the assault took place off school property and did not involve any students.

The former head of school and administration were aware of the incident, and reviewed it at the time, Lamont said. “There has been no repeat of incidents like this, to our knowledge,” he said. “However, we are reviewing the issue in the fresh light of [the] ruling.”

Fraser also shared a message last week with Shawnigan Lake School members.

“Some of you will know of the unfortunate event of 2008,” he wrote. “It was resolved by the courts, the Ministry for Public Safety, B.C. College of Teachers and the school administration at the time. Since the event, I have felt deep remorse and will continue to do so for the rest of my career.”

Stefan Labbé / Tri-City News – Apr 4, 2021 / 8:03 am | Story: 329976

Asaad Al-Jaboubi left Yemen for love.

That was more than 15 years ago, not long after he’d met his soon-to-be Canadian wife, whose father had moved to the country to run a local university.

Landing in Toronto near the end of 2006, the young couple was soon headed west, drawn to British Columbia by its dramatic landscape and eventually settling in Port Moody.

“The mountains reminded me a lot of Yemen,” he said.

Over the years, he’d try to return home during the end of Ramadan to see his mother, father and siblings as they broke their fast and came together in celebration.

“It was beautiful how the country was developing,” he said of his early visits back to Yemen. “They had built better connections, better roads.”

The 2011 Arab Spring uprising brought a renewed sense of hope. But protests against government corruption and unemployment led to a violent police backlash as the government and Houthi rebel group vied for power.

When in 2015, the rebels seized the capital, Sana’a, declaring a “glorious revolution,” everything changed. Six years ago last week, Saudi Arabia launched Operation Decisive Storm, triggering what Al-Jaboubi says has felt like an endless war.

An accountant who had once started a newspaper in a bid to promote his homeland’s fledgling democracy, Al-Jaboubi found himself on the outside looking into what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

Soon, he’d learn Canada, his new adopted country, was supplying weapons to the same military dropping bombs on his hometown.

From the beginning, the Saudi air campaign has blazed an indiscriminate path of civilian casualties.

In October 2015, one of Al-Jaboubi’s cousins was among upwards of 150 people killed in a horrific airstrike on a funeral that left more than 500 wounded.

“He was burned alive,” said the Port Moody man. “We couldn’t even recognize his body.”

Schools, hospitals and average peoples’ homes would soon fall in the line of fire as a sustained blockade on shipping led to widespread malnourishment. In December 2020, the United Nations estimated the conflict had led to 233,000 war dead, including 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure.

Still, Al-Jaboubi would return at least once a year, bringing needed supplies and cash to his family as his Port Moody neighbours supported his wife while he was away.

“It’s very risky for her,” he said, pointing to the arduous four days it would take transiting through Egypt into Oman and the long road to his parents’ home in Sana’a.

“This road is still an active war. There’s bombings all the time. Sometimes you can wait for 10 hours, 20 hours, two days,” he said.

Passing from town to city, Al-Jaboubi says he still can’t shake the sense of resignation he saw in people with nowhere to go and nothing to eat.

“It’s like a ghost city. Basic food has become a luxury for people… I see my friends, I see my neighbours in the street begging,” he said. “Imagine you’re in the Tri-Cities and the bomb lands in North Van. They keep going.”

During the six-year war, the community at the Al-Hidayah Mosque in Port Coquitlam and the Al-Ihsan Mosque in Port Moody have raised enough money to occasionally buy a few cows and feed up to 400 families at the end of Ramadan.

But as the war rages on the need has only grown, said Al-Jaboubi. A lack of clean water has sparked deadly cholera outbreaks, which combined with rampant malnutrition, has hit children the hardest.

When the COVID-19 outbreak arrived in the country, 80% of Yemen’s 30 million people were relying on food aid, many of whom already suffered from the pre-existing conditions that would make them vulnerable to the most severe cases of COVID-19.

Last summer, Al-Jaboubi said his friend, a doctor, worked through Ramadan only to catch the virus and slip into a coma. He died two months later, never waking up.

Caught between the risks of catching COVID-19 outside and the threat of airstrikes overhead, “People are scared,” he said.

As Saudi Arabia continued its bombing campaign in Yemen, Canada has ramped up military exports to the country.

In 2019, Canada exported $4-billion worth of weapons overseas, the largest sum in its recent history. Of those exports, $2.8-million in arms — 76% of the total — went to Saudi Arabia, unseating the U.S. as the number one recipient of Canadian weapons, according to the organization Project Ploughshares, which among other things, tracks weapon exports around the world.

Most of those weapons are part of a $14-billion contract supplying Canadian-built light armoured vehicles (LAVs) to the Saudi regime. In 2019, Canada also sold 635 rifles and carbines, 31 large-calibre artillery systems, and 152 heavy machine guns, according to Ploughshares.

Several reports have placed those weapons at the front of the Saudi-led war effort.

After the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, the Canadian government announced a freeze on exports to Saudi Arabia, but that did not apply to previously approved exports, and the ban was lifted in April 2020.

At the time, Canada’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne and Finance Minister Bill Morneau put out a statement saying that, as a party to the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, Canadian goods can’t be exported where there is a “substantial risk” they would be used violate international law or human rights.

After reviewing the $14-billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia, the ministers added, “we have now begun reviewing permit applications on a case-by-case basis.”

Five months later, a September 2020 United Nations report into the war in Yemen found Canadian weapons were fuelling the conflict in contravention of international law.

Last month, Canada said it would commit $69.9 million to help humanitarian efforts in Yemen, its biggest promise of aid to the country since the war began, though a fraction of the billions of dollars in weapons the country has exported to Saudi Arabia in recent years.

While groups like Ploughshares have been quick to call out the government’s “moral deficit,” Al-Jaboubi says local representatives have also done little to heed a call to speak up: A letter to Port Moody-Coquitlam Conservative MP Nelly Shin three months ago went unanswered, he said.

Still, Al-Jaboubi refuses to keep quiet. Every month, he leads rallies, debates and protest caravans throughout Metro Vancouver calling on Canada to stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.

“I’m contacting all the Imams in the mosques, contacting every Yemeni community in Canada,” he told the Tri-City News.

This week, Al-Jaboubi teamed up with Islamic Relief Canada to launch a fundraising campaign to raise $100,000 to back front line medical workers with equipment and supplies, distribute food aid and provide civilians with clean water, soap and education on how to stay safe during the pandemic.

“If Canadians knew what was happening in Yemen, they would be very angry,” said Al-Joubabi.

“Why do we have to gamble these people?”

Kirsten Clarke, Glacier Media – Apr 4, 2021 / 7:34 am | Story: 329969

Part of Highway 91 in Richmond was shut down for several hours Saturday morning after a car collided head-on with a semi-truck, sending one person to hospital with serious injuries.

“Alcohol is suspected as a factor in this collision,” said Richmond RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Adriana O’Malley, in a statement.

The crash occurred around 3:30 a.m. when a red Hyundai, driving the wrong way along Highway 91 westbound, collided head-on with a semi-truck near the Westminster Highway overpass.

The driver of the Hyundai sustained serious injuries and was taken to hospital, where he is now in stable condition, said O’Malley.

Anyone with information on the crash is asked to contact Richmond RCMP at 604-278-1212 or by email at [email protected], quoting file number 2021-8804.

To remain anonymous, contact Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

One person died and another was injured Saturday in a camper van fire in East Vancouver.

Fire crews were called to the blaze on Slocan Street near 12th Avenue at about 11:20 a.m., reports CTV News.

Vancouver Fire Rescue Service assistant chief Dan Stroup could only say one person died and another was hurt, deferring other questions to city spokespeople. The fire is still under investigation.

The Vancouver Police Department says the deceased victim was a man in his 50s, while the victim taken to hospital was a 29-year-old woman.

« Arson investigators are on scene to determine the origin of the fire, » she said, adding that preliminary evidence does not indicate that the man’s death is suspicious.

with files from CTV Vancouver

Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, National Observer – Apr 4, 2021 / 7:13 am | Story: 329963

Businesses react to the pause on indoor dining and group fitnesses classes, a shooting at a Kelowna gym, a big party at Big White leads to a big shut down, and more…

Castanet’s Amandalina Letterio takes a look at the top stories in the B.C. Interior this past week:

Sam Laskaris, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter – Apr 3, 2021 / 8:30 pm | Story: 329954

Sheryl Lightfoot has been named the North American member on the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The announcement was made March 24 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Lightfoot, 53, is the first Indigenous woman from Canada to be appointed to the UN’s prestigious position.

The UN Expert Mechanism consists of just seven people in the world. Members provide the UN’s Human Rights Council with their expertise and advise on the rights of Indigenous peoples as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Lightfoot will join representatives from the UN’s six other regions on the Expert Mechanism. Those individuals represent Africa, Asia, the Arctic, Europe, South American and the Pacific.

“I think it’s significant,” Lightfoot said, adding she is the first academic from Canada to hold the title.

Lightfoot is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia in First Nations and Indigenous Studies and the Department of Political Science.

In 2018 she was also chosen to serve a five-year term as the senior advisor to the university’s president on Indigenous Affairs.

Lightfoot is pleased that she will be able to bring her academic perspective to the UN’s Expert Mechanism.

“It does concentrate on understanding and translating high-level documents into policy and practice,” she said. “It’s a good fit.”

Lightfoot said she had been approached last fall to see if she would be interested in the position.

“My name had been put forward and I had agreed to let it stand,” she said.

Lightfoot believes there were as many as 10 nominees for the North American position. In January she found out she was one of four people shortlisted for the role.

After discovering she would indeed be offered the position, Lightfoot had to double check with her university to ensure she would be able to fulfill her duties.

“It is a voluntary role and they say it’s 25-30 per cent of one’s time every year,” Lightfoot said. “UBC has said I will get some release time.”

Lightfoot will be expected to attend an annual meeting in Geneva. She’s also expected to attend several other meetings that are typically staged throughout the year in various other countries, though it remains to be seen whether meetings will be held virtually in 2021 because of the pandemic.

Lightfoot, who is Anishinaabe, was born in Minnesota and is from the Lake Superior Band of Ojibwe. She is a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in northern Michigan.

Lightfoot, however, has been living in Vancouver since 2009. After years of being a permanent resident, she became a Canadian citizen last year and now has dual citizenship.

Lightfoot has been appointed for a three-year term to the UN’s Expert Mechanism. Her term is renewable once and just two others have held the position before.

She’s is replacing Kristen Carpenter, a law professor at the University of Colorado whose four-year term on the Expert Mechanism has now expired.

Lightfoot said she has been in touch with Carpenter and that she has offered to assist her with the transition to her new role.

Chief Wilton Littlechild, who is from Maskwacis in Alberta, is the only other North American rep that has served on the UN’s Expert Mechanism, which was established in 2007.

Littlechild served two terms before Carpenter took on the role.

As for Lightfoot, her initial responsibilities will be contacting various Indigenous leaders not only in Canada but the United States as well to determine that their priorities are in sync.

One of Lightfoot’s pressing concerns is the revitalization and preservation of Indigenous languages.

“What the pandemic has illustrated is keeping our languages alive is a top priority item,” she said.

Lightfoot said many Elders and language speakers were lost during the pandemic.

“That has pushed some of our languages to an even more dangerous brink,” she said.

Another 2,090 British Columbians have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past two days.

From April 1 to 2, 1,018 cases were reported, and in the last 24-hours, the province reported a further 1,072 cases. 149 cases are reported in the Interior.

The new cases bring the total positive tests since the beginning of the pandemic to 102,970 cases. Ninety British Columbians are currently in intensive care.

The update provided Saturday by the provincial government was only partial and lacked data on deaths, hospitalizations, active cases or variant cases.

To date, 856,801 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,455 of which are second doses.

« We are working hard to deliver an easy-to-use provincial booking system for all British Columbians and know everyone is eager to book their appointment, beginning next week, » said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix in a news release.

Vaccine bookings for people aged 72 and older, Indigenous peoples 18 and over, and individuals who are clinically extremely vulnerable continue throughout the long weekend.

The AstraZeneca/COVISHEILD vaccine is also available to people between the ages of 55 and 65 only in the Lower Mainland, but should be expanded to more communities throughout B.C. by the end of the week such as Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Parksville, Prince George, Quesnel, Terrace, Vernon and Victoria.

« An important reminder for everyone is that we should not be travelling outside our community or health authority for vacation or recreation right now. Consider day trips only or staying overnight in a local campground or hotel. We have seen too many cases of people travelling outside their health authority region and not using their layers of protection, leading to outbreaks and clusters in their home community, » the statement said.

« These outbreaks are avoidable, and right now we must stay within our local region – for the safety of your community and for others. »

The Canadian Press – Apr 3, 2021 / 1:30 pm | Story: 329938

Residents of North Vancouver are planning a candlelight vigil Saturday night to honour a young woman who was fatally stabbed at a local library along with six others who were injured there.

The drive-thru event a week after the stabbings is being held at a park in the tightly knit community of Lynn Valley and was organized by the local Lions Club.

Club President Eric Miura says it’s important for residents to heal and express their solidarity for the families of those who’ve been affected by the violence, especially while everyone is already dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

He says the District of North Vancouver approached the group to host the vigil that will feature 2,000 pieces of art by students at a high school and five elementary schools.

Miura says the response from residents, schools and businesses has been overwhelming as people hunger for love and kindness after what he called a tragic attack that traumatized witnesses, including young children.

He says residents can use flashlights and battery-powered candles while staying in their vehicles during a two-kilometre drive through a park that is a focal point in Lynn Valley.

« It’s just a story of a community pulling together under the most terrible circumstances, » Miura said.

The tribute will include entertainment from a violinist, a flutist and a guitarist who must abide by COVID-19 protocols such as physical distancing. The event will also involve the RCMP and firefighters.

A woman in her 20s was killed in the attack and six people, ranging in age from 22 to 78, were injured.

Yannick Bandaogo, 28, was arrested near the Lynn Vally library and faces a second-degree murder charge.

Police have said the man from Quebec did not know any of the victims.

Ben Bengtson / North Shore News – Apr 3, 2021 / 1:00 pm | Story: 329937

A four-legged friend who got a little too eager chasing a duck in North Vancouver ended up in a bad spot yesterday and needed to be rescued by firefighters.

District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services were called to the Seymour River area after receiving multiple reports around 11:30 a.m. of a dog in distress just upstream from the rapids adjacent to the landslide site near Fisherman’s Trail.

“There is a bit of a swimming spot there. The dog chased a duck, got caught in the rapids, and then extricated himself onto the little cliff band there by the rocks,” according to assistant fire chief David Dales. “The dog was in distress. The family was in distress.”

Emergency crews trained in swift water rescue zoomed up Fisherman’s Trail in their four-wheel-drive vehicles and two swimmers deployed into the icy waters upstream from the dog, said Dales.

The swimmers mobilized to the spot where the dog was stuck and after some much-needed coaxing they got the dog back into the water.

“They were able to swim back upstream to where the family was,” said Dales, adding that given the conditions, it was best the family didn’t try and get to the distressed pooch themselves. “We actually had multiple calls because there were other people out on the trail who were quite concerned that the family was going to make bad choices.”

The dog had gone through the rapids and was a little banged up, but otherwise was OK, said Dales.

“We spend hundreds of hours a year in our multiple canyons and waterways to have the skill to do swift water rescue. Traditionally, we train to rescue humans in distress,” said Dales, who noted the training comes in handy when rescuing four-legged adventurers as well. “We were able to get this dog rescued in under 20 minutes.”

The Canadian Press – Apr 3, 2021 / 12:19 pm | Story: 329936

British Columbia’s public safety minister is urging backcountry enthusiasts to take safety precautions before heading out after a record number of calls to ground search and rescue groups.

Mike Farnworth says volunteer personnel jump into action in dangerous circumstances and inclement weather to help those in trouble, adding their job has become harder over the past year as more people are exploring the outdoors due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The Public Safety Ministry and Emergency Management BC say in a joint release that the search and rescue groups have been deployed 1,959 times since last April and 10 people have died in avalanches.

They say search and rescue crews attended an average of about 1,500 callouts in previous years, more than the rest of Canada combined.

BC Search and Rescue Association president Chris Kelly says 79 groups that respond to calls have been pushed to the limit during the pandemic.

He says COVID-19 has made risky work even more dangerous and everyone venturing into the backcountry should do their part to plan ahead.

« Make sure you’re prepared for where you’re going. Have a plan, have the right gear, know how to use it and take the training, » he said.

Jennifer Rice, the parliamentary secretary for Emergency Preparedness, says even those taking what they think is a short trip should let someone know where they’re going and learn about the terrain and weather beforehand. She also suggests bringing supplies for an unexpected overnight stay.

The province is advising anyone who needs help to call for it immediately and to learn from the resources available on the Avalanche Canada website.

Cindy E. Harnett / Times Colonist – Apr 3, 2021 / 7:30 am | Story: 329924

The Spirit of Vancouver Island turned around and headed back to dock at Swartz Bay on Friday after a passenger refused to wear a mask and created a disturbance.

Several groups of people who are opposed to wearing masks during the pandemic and others sympathetic to them were on board. “At 2 o’clock in Vancouver there was a rally for anti-maskers. There were three or four different groups that wanted to showcase their political views,” said Kevin Lee, provincial first vice-president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union. Lee happened to be aboard the ferry.

Ferry crew members confronted the anti-maskers and tried to have them comply with COVID-19 safety provincial health orders. When that failed, the ferry crew decided to turn the ship around and head back to Swartz Bay.

Lee said about 20 minutes after the one man was escorted off the vessel and it was headed to Vancouver, another man made a scene.

A video of the confrontation, posted online anonymously, shows a ferry crew member asking a man to put on a mask, saying police will be called. The man loudly replies: “We need to get back to common sense and reality in this country. This is ridiculous. This is absolute insanity.”

Lee said ferry crew perform security duty and there’s also a contracted private firm. However, in instances such as Friday’s when people become angry about having to wear a mask or people refuse to exit vehicles on the lower decks — as required by Transport Canada — a police presence would help. It turned out that three off-duty plainclothes police officers were on board Friday and helped talk to one of the groups causing problems.

The incident happened on the 11 a.m. ferry, said B.C. RCMP spokesman Chris Manseau. A passenger became “belligerent” about wearing a non-medical mask correctly, he said.

B.C. Ferries phoned the North Saanich-Sidney RCMP who met the passenger when the ferry returned to dock. The passenger was served two COVID-19 related fines worth $230 each.

The passenger was flagged and banned from riding again on Friday.

Afterwards, the vessel was 44 minutes behind schedule.