Kathy Michaels

1 week ago | castanet.net | Kathy Michaels |Darren Handschuh |Graeme Wood |Jeremy Hainsworth

British Columbia's public safety minister says the provincial government is adding another $6 million to a policing initiative targeting repeat violent offenders. Gary Begg says the money for the Special Investigation and Targeted Enforcement program will build on the initiative's past successes in leading to more than 2,600 criminal charges since its launch in 2023.

1 week ago | castanet.net | Kathy Michaels |Darren Handschuh |Graeme Wood |Jeremy Hainsworth

Thunder and heavy rain are in the forecast for much of the Southern Interior. Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm watch Friday morning, covering the Central Okanagan, North Okanagan, South Okanagan, Shuswap, Similkameen, South Thompson, Nicola and Fraser Canyon. "An upper disturbance will settle over southern British Columbia where widespread showers and strong thunderstorms are expected to produce heavy precipitation this afternoon and evening," the national weather agency said.

1 week ago | castanet.net | Cindy White |Kathy Michaels |Jeremy Hainsworth |Jami Makan

A B.C. teacher has been suspended for spanking a First Nations child while she was a teacher at a band school. Pehgee Agnes Boholst Aranas was seen by another employee spanking a Grade 1 student in November 2023, said an undated notice from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation released June 17. “Her actions perpetuated the harmful legacy of physical abuse in Indian Residential Schools and reflected a belief in harmful stereotypes,” the commissioner said.

1 week ago | castanet.net | Cindy White |Kathy Michaels |Jeremy Hainsworth |Jami Makan

Wildfires are having a significant impact on water quality in British Columbia’s largest river, a new study has found. The research, published last month in the journal Science of the Total Environment, raises questions over when a confluence of heavy metals — including arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead and zinc — may start to negatively impact everything from spawning salmon to coastal oyster farms and the humans that consume them.

1 week ago | castanet.net | Cindy White |Kathy Michaels |Tara Deschamps |Nono Shen

The B.C. mall owner hoping to buy dozens of Hudson's Bay leases has offered $6 million to take over three locations in malls that she owns, describing it as just the beginning of a new department store empire. Ruby Liu's offer puts a $2 million price tag on each of the leases at Tsawwassen Mills, Mayfair Shopping Centre and Woodgrove Centre in B.C., malls she owns through her real estate business, Central Walk. The deal still needs court approval.