KASLO, B.C. — The threat of further mudslides has forced the evacuation of residents from 47 homes in the southeastern B.C., community of Kaslo.

A spokeswoman for the Regional District of Central Kootenay said no one has been hurt and the slide that came down on the hillside near the homes was small.

Emergency operations centre spokeswoman Brownwen Bird said the order was issued late Monday night following the mudslide on the west side of Kootenay Lake, about 720 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

“They were unable to get geotechnical staff up there before it got dark, so out of caution we decided to issue a state of local emergency and an evacuation order to get those residents out of there,” she said.

A reception centre has been set up for affected residents and Bird said it was too early to say when they might be allowed to return to their homes.

Bird said a fly over of the slide area was scheduled to take place Tuesday to assess the situation.

An unrelated mudslide also cut off access along Highway 1 between Salmon Arm and Sicamous in the Shuswap region during a heavy rainstorm Monday evening.

Several vehicles were caught when debris came down over the highway, but no one was hurt.

An advisory on the Drive BC website says there’s no indication when the section of Highway 1 will reopen but a detour is available via highways 97A and 97B. 

The Surrey Creep Catchers vigilante group was involved in two incidents Monday relating to allegations of child-luring.

The group posted online two videos of leader Ryan Laforge meeting with men who apparently expected to meet children they contacted online.

Surrey RCMP were called to the first incident, at about 2 p.m. Monday at the Central City Mall. RCMP spokesman Cpl. Scotty Schumann said a man was arrested and later released, and RCMP are investigating an allegation of child luring.

Vancouver police attended another incident near the Joyce Street Skytrain Station around 10 p.m. Monday, relating to a Creep Catchers video of an encounter with another man. No word yet on any charges or further police investigation relating to that incident.

Earlier this month, Surrey RCMP arrested and released Creep Catchers leader Laforge after a similar encounter led to a physical altercation.

VICTORIA — The B.C. Green party is promising better health care in British Columbia, while New Democrat Leader John Horgan pledges to create almost 100,000 more jobs to start the second week of the election campaign.

Green Leader Andrew Weaver says his health-care platform aims to promote wellness, emphasize prevention and primary care, create a mental health strategy, develop quality end-of-life care and protect children.

The plan would include $100 million for an integrated primary-care system using teams of health-care professionals such as nurse practitioners, physiotherapists and midwives to enhance access to family doctors.

Weaver says shifting B.C.’s health-care focus from acute care to wellness and preventative care, along with his party’s other measures, will make health services more accessible and affordable.

NDP Leader John Horgan picks up a safety cone he knocked over on his first attempt to land a tire on it while operating a boom truck, during a campaign stop at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 Training Centre in Maple Ridge, B.C., on Tuesday April 18, 2017. A provincial election will be held on May 9.

Horgan announced an expanded apprenticeship and trades training program under a New Democrat government.

By investing in tomorrow’s workforce, Horgan says they’ll fill the 96,000 jobs they’ll create with school, hospital, highway and home construction.

Related

• Full B.C. Election 2017 coverage

CRANBROOK – The former bishop of Bountiful, Winston Kaye Blackmore, refused to enter a plea on the opening day of his trial in B.C. Supreme Court.

Blackmore is charged with one count of polygamy along with his co-defendant James Marion Oler, another former bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint.

Both men follow the teachings of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, which includes polygamy or what the call “The Principle of Celestial Marriage.”

James Oler, who is accused of practising polygamy in a fundamentalist religious community, arrives for the start of his trial in Cranbrook on Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

It was left to Justice Sheri Donegan to enter a guilty plea on behalf of Blackmore.

“He doesn’t want to deny his faith,”  Blackmore’s lawyer Blair Suffredine said outside the court room. “He doesn’t feel guilty. So the way around it is to say nothing and they (the court) will enter the plea for you.”

Suffredine called it “a fluid problem” for his client who wishes to assert his right to practise his religion. The lawyer acknowledged that the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that the Criminal Code’s  prohibition on polygamy was constitutional. That ruling determined that the harms of polygamy override the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and the freedom of association and expression.

The analogy that Suffredine used is that while marijuana is illegal, there are exceptions made for people who are using it for medicinal purposes.

There are 24 women listed on Blackmore’s indictment and four on Oler’s.

Oler did enter a plea of not guilty. Because he is a self-represented defendant,  Justice Sheri Donegan spent most of the opening morning reading her notes explaining what he can and can’t do, including explaining legal concepts such as hearsay evidence.

In addition to providing Oler with detailed notes, the judge has appointed an amicus (or friend) to assist the court with legal interpretations, precedents and act as a balance to the case presented by special prosecutor Peter Wilson.

Related

• Daphne Bramham: Canadian polygamy law on trial for the first time in 127 years

An Armstrong man has been handed a nine-month jail sentence for breaching his sentencing conditions after being convicted of animal cruelty.

The sentence delivered by a judge in Vernon is the longest handed out in B.C. history, according to the B.C. SPCA.

Gary Roberts, 69, was found guilty of two counts of animal cruelty last December after SPCA animal-protection officers seized 16 emaciated horses from his property.

In March, he was prohibited from owning animals for 20 years, along with a sentence of four months’ house arrest and a nine-month conditional sentence.

“Roberts violated conditions of his sentence on March 23 and a warrant was issued for his arrest,” said B.C. SPCA senior animal protection officer Kathy Woodward. “On April 12 he was back in court and the judge handed down the strongest sentence possible, noting that Roberts had shown a blatant disregard for his court order.”

The horses taken from Roberts’s property north of Vernon were so badly emaciated that some “barely registered on the body conditioning scale used by veterinarians to determine normal body weight.

“Some of them were a 0.5 on the scale of one to nine, and three of the horses had to be humanely euthanized because they were in critical distress,” said Woodward.

The others were rehabilitated and have been given new homes, she said.

Despite the prohibition, Woodward said as many as 30 horses remained on Roberts’s property. Family and friends have been called in to care for or sell those animals.

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FORT ST. JOHN — Liberal Leader Christy Clark said Tuesday the Site C dam is about jobs and green energy, as she brushed aside criticism that the project is financially wasteful and unnecessary.

Speaking before about 40 supporters in hard hats at a concrete plant in Fort St. John, Clark said the project will employ thousands of workers and represents a clear divide between the policies of the Liberals and the NDP and Greens. 

She promised it would continue to keep hydro rates among the lowest in North America and follows in the forward-looking tradition of former premier WAC Bennett.

The NDP wants Site C referred to the B.C. Utilities Commission on the question of need. The Greens dismiss the project as a subsidy for the LNG export sector.

Outside the cement plant about a dozen Site C opponents carried placards.

Hydro spokesman Dave Conway said $4 billion is already committed to the project including $1.5 billion spent to the end of 2016.

Lpynn@postmedia.com

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Related

• For full election coverage, go to vancouversun.com/bcelection.

Liberal leader Christy Clark greets workers as she makes a campaign stop at Inland Concrete in Fort St. John, B.C., Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

VANCOUVER — Four men who orchestrated a dangerous voyage across the Pacific were out to make a profit, rather than help dozens of Tamil asylum seekers, the Crown prosecutor told their B.C. Supreme Court trial.

In her closing arguments at the human smuggling trial on Tuesday, Maggie Loda says the accused held a privileged position on board the MV Ocean Lady, taking part in operating the vessel, preparing the journey and helping migrants get aboard.

The rickety cargo vessel left Thailand and arrived off the coast of Vancouver with 76 Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Oct. 2009.

Francis Anthonimuthu Appulonappa, Hamalraj Handasamy, Jeyachandran Kanagarajah and Vignarajah Thevarajah are charged under a provision of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada determined part of the act was too broad and unconstitutional.

The high court ordered a new trial for the men, after ruling the federal government’s laws on human smuggling shouldn’t apply to those who help migrants on humanitarian grounds or aid between family members.

Loda told the court that those exemptions do not apply to the four accused.

People believed to be Tamil refugees on board the MV Ocean Lady being escorted into harbour in Victoria.

She said while there is no evidence the accused made money out of the scheme, they should be convicted for helping smuggle vulnerable migrants who paid thousands of dollars to agents to bring them to Canada.

“The fact that some people at the top of the hierarchy of a scheme benefit from a profit motive … does not eliminate the culpability of those lower in the scheme who don’t benefit the same from the profit,” she said.

Loda compared the profit-making scheme of smuggling asylum seekers to those trafficking drugs.

“Couriers are as integral to a drug importation scheme as are the producer and as are the drug traffickers at the street level, even if they are only paying for the rental car to cross the border.”

She said financial motivation leads to more dangerous actions by creating incentives to cut corners such as putting more people on a ship, or in the example of drug trafficking, hiding more fentanyl in a vehicle.

“The driver might not see more profit, but it’s a more dangerous outcome to society,” she said.

Loda described the ship that came to B.C.’s shore as extremely dangerous to those on board, saying the vessel would was not designed for such a long, open-water journey and if the ship sank, at least half of those on board would die.

She said there was just one lifeboat and one life-raft on board and migrants staying in the cargo hold would not have been able to reach the vessels if the ship began to sink.

Those living in the upper deck, specifically the accused, would have been more likely to access the lifeboats, Loda told the court.

The defence is expected to deliver closing arguments starting on Wednesday.

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WHERE THE B.C. LEADERS ARE ON DAY 8:

Greens reveal health care plan

B.C. Green party Leader Andrew Weaver released his party’s health platform policy in Victoria at the campaign office of Dr. Chris Maxwell, B.C. Green candidate for Victoria-Swan Lake. Weaver says his health-care platform aims to promote wellness, emphasize prevention and primary care, create a mental health strategy, develop quality end-of-life care and protect children.

Key components of the Green health care platform include: 

Green Party leader Andrew Weaver.

• Creation of a ministry responsible for health promotion, disease prevention and active lifestyles;

•  Allocate $100 million for the expansion of support for interprofessional, integrated primary care by healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists, nurse practitioners and midwives;

• Invest $40 million in new long term care facilities;

• Establish a Ministry responsible for mental health and addictions, and allocate $80 million to fund early intervention;

• Invest $35 million over four years in home care to enable seniors;

• Invest an additional $100 million over for years to enhance child protection services.

“B.C’s demographics are shifting. Already, many British Columbians are not getting the health care services they need in a timely fashion,” said Weaver.

“British Columbians need an integrated, fiscally sound plan that invests in their health at every stage of life.”

“Our healthcare strategy supports British Columbians to live healthier lives, and transitions B.C. towards preventive care. We will also make strategic investments to increase access to primary care and focus on addressing mental health and addictions.”

The B.C. Green party will host a rally at 6 p.m. with special guest David Suzuki at Douglas College’s Laura C. Muir Theatre in New Westminster.

Liberals tout Site C dam

Liberal Leader Christy Clark said Tuesday the Site C dam is about jobs and green energy, brushing aside criticism that the project is financially wasteful and unnecessary.

Speaking in Fort St. John before about 40 supporters in hard hats at a concrete plant, Clark said the project will employ thousands of workers and represents a clear divide between the policies of the Liberals and the NDP and Greens. 

Liberal leader Christy Clark sits in a concrete truck as she makes a campaign stop at Inland Concrete in Fort St. John, B.C., Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

She promised It would continue to keep hydro rates among the lowest in North America and follows in the forward looking tradition of former premier WAC Bennett.

The NDP wants Site C referred to the BC Utilities Commission on the question of need. The Greens dismiss the project as a subsidy for the LNG export sector.

Outside the cement plant about a dozen Site  C opponents carried placards.

Larry Pynn, Postmedia

NDP to expand trades training programs 

After a tour of the IUOE Local 115 Training Centre in Maple Ridge, B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan promised to expand B.C. apprenticeship and trades training programs.

“Apprenticeships are the best way to train the workforce of tomorrow. Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals gutted the system that helped workers get training, get a job, and get certified. Completion rates went down, and jobs that would have gone to British Columbians went to temporary foreign workers,” said Horgan.

“We’re going to fix that. We will invest in the workforce of tomorrow, and train British Columbians to fill the 96,000 jobs we are going to create. With every school, hospital, highway and home we build, we will make sure there are opportunities for apprenticeships and trades training.”

NDP Leader John Horgan picks up a safety cone he knocked over on his first attempt to land a tire on it while operating a boom truck, during a campaign stop at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 Training Centre in Maple Ridge.

The Liberal party noted in a press release that IUOE Local 115 are the same operating engineers who support Pacific Northwest LNG and the jobs it will create, while the NDP has “flat-out opposed it.”

Horgan has argued that the project’s proposed location on Lelu Island is the wrong site. He said the location, along with concerns about salmon, air, water and First Nations support would all have to be resolved before a future NDP government would support the project.

But Horgan has said he could eventually support Pacific Northwest LNG if the federal government attached conditions to the project that would satisfy environmental concerns.

“If we are going to proceed with it, we are going to have find other ways to reduce our emissions,” he told the Globe and Mail. “We’ll see what their conditions are and we’ll go from there.”

INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING

This afternoon at the home of Delta North NDP candidate Ravi Kahlon, Horgan announced he would spend $30 million over three years to create a Community Partnership Fund to upgrade and build community infrastructure projects. The investment in communities is part of Horgan’s $10 billion capital infrastructure plan that will create 96,000 jobs over five years.

SURREY – B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan attends a campaign event at Jinny Sims campaign office. (3:45 p.m. at 6289 King George Hwy.)

Coquitlam-Maillardville Green candidate Nicola Spurling was publicly outed as transgender on Global B.C. news.

Green candidate “outed” as transgender on Global news

The Green candidate for Coquitlam-Maillardville is hoping her identity won’t overshadow her campaign after she was accidently outed as transgender on Global news.

Nicola Spurling was caught off guard Monday night when Global B.C. included her name in a report on four transgender candidates runnings in the B.C. election.

In a Facebook post, Spurling, who is a director at large and outreach chair for the Vancouver Pride Society, said the incident should be used a learning experience.

“Trans people face discrimination in the form of bullying, violence, being denied employment and housing, being inappropriately questioned, and generally being made to feel unwelcome in society. This discrimination, at its worst, leads to death, in the form of murder or suicide. I did not publicly announce that I was trans, until now, because I did not want my identity to overshadow my campaign. Now that it is out, I will own this, and continue to advocate for trans people, as I have been doing,” Spurling wrote.

Spurling said the public outing was the result of miscommunication between Global and the B.C. Green party’s communications team.

“In discussions between our communications department and Global, with regard to this piece, my name came up (I was out as an LGBTQ2+ advocate, so perhaps that was why). I declined to be in this interview because I was not out, however, that was not relayed clearly. Unlike with other news outlets, and due to this miscommunication, I was not directly contacted, because an assumption was made that I was out. I only discovered that I was on TV when I began receiving texts, shortly after 6:30pm. I am not holding anyone personally responsible, but I have taken this opportunity to educate our communications department and Global on the sensitive nature of this subject matter and how proper research and communication should take place before going public with someone’s personal information,” Spurling said.

ON THE BUSES

We could have some dueling hard hats on the campaign trail today.

NDP Leader John Horgan, right, manoeuvers a tire while operating a boom truck as student Lee Taylor gives him guidance during a campaign stop at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 Training Centre in Maple Ridge on Tuesday.

NDP leader John Horgan donned some head protection — and a yellow reflective vest — during his visit to International Union of Operating Engineers Local 15 training centre in Maple Ridge. Liberal leader Christy Clark may pull out her famous pink hard hat at a Site C campaign event at a Fort St. John concrete plant. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Clark wore a blue hard hat.

Liberal leader Christy Clark shares a laugh as she makes a campaign stop at Inland Concrete in Fort St. John.

ATTACK TRUCK

The Liberal party has assigned a troll truck (they call it a “truth truck) to follow John Horgan’s bus to every campaign stop.

On both sides of the Dysco cube van hang billboards that attack Horgan’s policies.

The truck made an appearance today outside the home of Delta North NDP candidate Ravi Kahlon, where Horgan was making an announcement.  Columnist Mike Smyth reports that Shane Mills, who works in Premier Clark’s office as director of issues management, was riding shotgun.

Horgan told the CBC’s Farrah Merali that the attack truck doesn’t faze him.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS FROM DAY 7 ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

NDP

• Leader John Horgan promised at a campaign stop in Burnaby to build urgent-care centres to address the province’s family doctor shortage and ease pressure on walk-in clinics and emergency rooms.

• The centres would be open evenings and weekends and use a team-based approach, meaning patients would access the care provider that fits their needs, whether it’s a doctor, nurse practitioner, counsellor or dietician.

• But the promise didn’t include a proposed number of centres or a cost estimate. Horgan said an NDP government would shift priorities to make room in the existing health budget.

• He criticized the B.C. Liberals’ “GP for Me” program, saying party Leader Christy Clark promised more doctors, then “finally gave up two years ago when they knew they weren’t going to meet their targets.”

• Horgan later stopped in Coquitlam, where he reiterated pledges to re-open facilities at Riverview Hospital to provide residential care to those who need it, as well as create a Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions

LIBERALS:

• Clark campaigned in Campbell River, highlighting her government’s record in helping business and said the Liberals have a plan to phase out provincial sales tax on electricity, saving businesses $160 million a year.

• Clark said the Liberal government has a successful economic record on Vancouver Island, which is typically an NDP stronghold.

• She said the unemployment rate on the north island is half of what it was under the last NDP government before the Liberals came to power in 2001.

• Naomi Yamamoto, the Liberal candidate for North Vancouver-Lonsdale, posted on social media that one of her signs had been defaced with a spray-painted swastika. The NDP candidate in the riding has also posted a photo of her sign with a red swastika painted on it. Candidates on all sides condemned the graffiti.

Related

• Full B.C. Election 2017 Coverage

GREENS:

• Leader Andrew Weaver unveiled his party’s democratic reform platform, which includes switching to a proportional representation electoral system.

• Weaver promised to establish a public watchdog to oversee government advertising and communications; block cabinet ministers from engaging in partisan fundraising; ban corporate, union and out-of-province donations; and place limits on individual contributions.

Green leader Andrew Weaver is working hard to get voters to see more than just green in his party’s platform.

• He reminded voters that his party banned corporate and union donations in September, while the Liberals and NDP still allow them. The New Democrats have promised to ban them if elected while the Liberals would convene a panel to review campaign financing.

• Weaver said the Greens would also establish a provincial budget officer to provide independent analysis to the legislature on the state of the province’s finances, the government’s estimates and economic trends.

The Canadian Press

MORE TO COME

CRANBROOK – The names, dates and locations of marriages performed were read aloud Wednesday from church records during the second day of the polygamy trial of Winston Blackmore and James Oler.

The two former bishops of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are each charged with one count of polygamy. Plural or celestial marriages are held to be a principle tenet of the religion.

The records seized during a 2008 raid on the FLDS ranch in Texas were read aloud by Texas Ranger Nick Hanna, who had arrived at court wearing his force’s trademark white Stetson. Hanna helped RCMP in their investigation of documents that were discovered at the Yearning for Zion ranch.

In court (and hatless), Hanna identified page after page of marriage records with Blackmore listed as the groom. Later, he’s expected to also identify and read in the information from the marriage records naming Oler and four women.

During the morning session, Hanna only got through half of the 24 names of the women listed on Blackmore’s indictment.

Among the records were two marriages that occurred on the same day and records for marriages involving two sisters on the same day.

The records indicated that the marriages were performed in several different locations. Most were in the FLDS stronghold known as Short Creek or the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.

But several took place in Lister, B.C., in the community that’s come to be known as Bountiful. Others took place in Salt Lake City.

Most were described as “for time and all eternity,” while one was listed only “for time.”

Related

• Daphne Bramham: Blackmore refuses to enter plea as polygamy trial opens in Cranbrook
• Daphne Bramham: Canadian polygamy law on trial for the first time in 127 years
• Backgrounder: Who are the players in the B.C. polygamy trial?

In the FLDS, women and girls need to be guided by a priesthood head. As children, it’s their father. As adults, it’s their husband. But if they are widowed, they are married “for time” so that they will have a priesthood head on Earth before they are reunited with the husbands in the “celestial kingdom.”

The reason these records are key to the prosecution’s case is that the Criminal Code definition of polygamy is that the marriages were confirmed in a ceremony or that the conjugal relationships were sanctioned by some authority.

The importance of the records to the FLDS is clear from Hanna’s description of the security at the Yearning for Zion ranch. The ranch was enclosed by a perimeter fence and two sets of gates. There was a guard tower. The temple and the temple annex each had a fence. In the basement of the annex, they found the vault where the records were stored. But to get there, they had to break down solid oak doors. It took a locksmith 24 hours to “defeat the mechanism” on the vault itself and once inside there were locked cupboards as well as another locked, fireproof safe.

In all, the Texas Rangers collected 327 bankers’ boxes of documents and evidence that was used to convict FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs of child sexual assault. One of his victims was a girl from Bountiful.

It’s not clear what, if any, defence Blackmore and his lawyer will offer. Blackmore refused to enter a plea on the trial’s opening day. He stood mute, which by tradition means that a not-guilty plea is recorded on his behalf by the judge.

His lawyer Blair Suffredine later explained that his client doesn’t believe he is guilty. Suffredine refused to say whether he would be making a constitutional argument that Blackmore has a right to freely practice his religion.

Oler is not expected to mount any defence at all. He is unrepresented and has refused to participate in the trial beyond entering a plea of not guilty. In his previous trial in November, Oler was also unrepresented and silent. He was acquitted of a charge of removing a child from Canada for unlawful purposes. But that is under appeal.

dbramham@postmedia.com

twitter.com/daphnebramham

KASLO, B.C. — The threat of further slides is keeping six families out of their homes in southeastern B.C., but residents of 41 other properties were allowed to return Tuesday night.

The Regional District of Central Kootenay downgraded an evacuation order late Tuesday affecting nearly four dozen homes in the Kootenay Lake community of Kaslo, about 700 kilometres east of Vancouver.

A flight over the hillside above the area determined a 100 metre-long, 75 metre-wide slide had occurred Monday night and the edge of the debris had stopped just 300 metres above the nearest homes.

A post on the regional district’s web page also says engineers saw a small amount of earth movement on Tuesday and the ground remains unstable.

Although the evacuation order was lifted for most of the affected properties, the regional district says residents in those homes remain under evacuation alert and must be ready to leave on short notice.

Engineers blame the slide on recent heavy rains and the melting of an usually heavy snowpack.

One person is dead after a shooting at the Howard Johnson Hotel in Nanaimo early this morning.

One man has been arrested and Nanaimo RCMP are investigating what led to the shooting.

Police and B.C. Ambulance paramedics were called to the hotel at 1 Terminal Ave. where the person was found dead. The shooter had fled the scene.

Nanaimo RCMP spokesman Const. Gary O’Brien said the man was arrested at another location, but could not say if a firearm was recovered.

O’Brien didn’t say if the victim was a male or female or if the victim knew the attacker.

He said more details will be released later Wednesday.

— Victoria Times Colonist

VANCOUVER — Police are warning the public to expect traffic disruptions as thousands descend on the downtown peninsula for annual 4/20 marijuana celebrations.

VPD spokesman Const. Jason Doucette said disruptions are expected at Sunset Beach as well as around the Vancouver Art Gallery, which traditionally hosted the event before it moved to the larger beachfront location last year.

The city turned down a permit application for Sunset Beach last month but organizers have vowed to host the gathering there anyway.

Large crowds are expected at Sunset Beach, police said, likely disrupting traffic on Beach Avenue between Burrard and Broughton streets for most of the day.

Doucette said police officers will be joined by fire department, City of Vancouver, park board and B.C. Ambulance personnel to monitor the event.

He said another gathering is expected outside the art gallery, which could cause traffic disruptions on Robson Street between Hornby and Howe.

“Public safety remains our top priority,” said Doucette in a news release Wednesday. “We will continue to weigh the rights of individuals to have their voice heard, while working to minimize the impact that has on others.”

Officers will also be on the lookout for drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol, he said.

Last year’s April 20 (4/20) rally drew an estimated 25,000 to the beach and came with a price tag of $148,000, including policing costs of about $100,000. A similar tab is expected for the 2017 version.

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WILLIAMS LAKE — Two people have been found dead by police in a home in Williams Lake.

RCMP Cpl. Madonna Saunderson says officers discovered the bodies after being called to the home Tuesday night.

She said in a news release that the deaths appear suspicious but the public is not believed to be at risk.

No names have been released.

The RCMP has not released any information on how the two people died.

Four men accused of smuggling dozens of Tamil migrants into Canada were simply part of the effort to get themselves and the rest of the asylum seekers across the Pacific Ocean, their lawyers told a court on Wednesday.

Fiona Begg told the B.C. Supreme Court trial in her closing arguments that the all migrants on board the MV Ocean Lady were working together and shared a common goal to get to Canada.

Francis Anthonimuthu Appulonappa, Hamalraj Handasamy, Jeyachandran Kanagarajah, Vignarajah Thevarajah are accused under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of smuggling 76 migrants on board a cargo vessel from Thailand to the coast of British Columbia in October 2009.

Crown attorney Maggie Loda told the court on Tuesday the men were in control of the vessel and were out to make a profit on those who wanted asylum in Canada.

But defence lawyers Begg and Mark Jette, who represent two of the men, told the judge-alone trial that the evidence fails to prove the accused were in charge or profited in any way out of the voyage.

Begg said her client, Anthonimuthu Appulonappa, didn’t receive preferential treatment while aboard the dilapidated vessel and his living conditions were equal to the other migrants.

She said rooms in the upper deck, where the accused allegedly slept, were no better than the main cargo hold where the majority of migrants lived.

People believed to be Tamil refugees on board the MV Ocean Lady being escorted into harbour in Victoria.

“These were rooms the size of a cupboard,” she said. “They couldn’t have possibly been comfortable, nor were they private.”

She said her client also spent time in the hold with the other migrants, socializing and playing cards.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a new trial for the men after ruling portions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act were unconstitutional and shouldn’t automatically brand those who help migrants as people smugglers.

The high court determined that those providing humanitarian aid, including family members, would be exempt from the smuggling law.

The prosecution argued that the high court’s exemptions don’t apply to the accused because they had a role in organizing and executing the voyage, which aided in a money-making scheme where agents charged the migrants thousands of dollars for passage.

But Mark Jette, who represents Thevarajah, said the courts should not begin weighing how much aid is too much or not enough to determine if anyone was in charge.

“We can’t hive them off into categories,” he said. “This was clearly a collective effort, in my submissions, to get from there to somewhere better.”

Jette said his client also claims to have paid a $10,000 deposit to an agent for his passage on the voyage and promised to make a second $10,000 payment once in Canada.

Although the migrants claim to have paid varying fees to agents to take part in the journey, Jette said the evidence fails to prove that the voyage was not a humanitarian act.

He said the law is intended to prosecute transnational and organized crime.

The purpose of the migrants, he said, was to simply seek a better life after having endured conflict in Sri Lanka.

Lawyers representing Handasamy and Kanagarajah are expected to deliver their closing arguments Wednesday afternoon.

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Vancouver police are scouring the area around B.C. Children’s Hospital after receiving reports of a woman waving what was believed to be a gun at passing cars on Oak Street.

VPD spokesperson Cst. Jason Doucette says the calls started coming in at 1:30 p.m. The woman was spotted in the area of Oak and Devonshire Crescent.

Doucette said schools and hospitals in the area have been notified. 

MORE TO COME

The synthetic opioid fentanyl continues to drive an increase in overdose deaths in British Columbia that claimed four lives a day in March, according to a report from the B.C. Coroners Service.

The 120 deaths represent the third-highest death toll for a single month on record in the province.

The widespread use of fentanyl in street drugs appears to be responsible for the three-fold increase in overdose deaths recorded last year and during the first three months of 2017. Overdoses excluding fentanyl have been stable at about 293 a year since 2011.

There were 922 overdoses in B.C. in 2016, and 339 in the first three months of 2017.

Almost 83 per cent of the victims in the first three months of this year were men, and those between the ages of 30 and 49 accounted for the highest number of dead.

Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said that while harm reduction measures are reversing thousands of overdoses, long-term measures to stem the tide must include education at an early age and evidence-based treatment.

The coroner is part of the B.C. government’s joint task force on overdose response along with other health, community and law enforcement agencies formed after the declaration of a health emergency last year.

According to the report:

• About half of all overdose deaths occurred in private residences.

• There were no deaths at supervised consumption or drug overdose prevention sites.

• Drugs tested by Health Canada indicate that fentanyl and its analogues are being detected in samples of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.

With files from Canadian Press

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WHERE THE LEADERS ARE ON DAY 9

NDP

NDP Leader John Horgan campaigned at UBC on his promise to eliminate student loan interest fees and a $1,000 student completion grant.

Horgan says if his party is elected May 9, it will also eliminate fees for adult basic education and English as a second language programs while maintaining a cap on tuition fees at colleges and universities.

“I’m going to make sure that students don’t have crippling debt when they finish their education and that they can be full participants in the economy and make B.C. better,” he said.

Horgan later stopped in at Riverside Elementary in Surrey where he repeated his promise to boost education funding to remove all portables.

6 p.m – NDP Leader John Horgan makes a campaign announcement at Burnaby Heights Park (Corner of North Esmond and Eton streets)

Liberals:

At a rally in Surrey, Liberal Leader Christy Clark said the Site C dam is necessary for the province’s economic well being.

It was the second straight day that Clark highlighted the $8.8-billion hydroelectric project after she visited Fort St. John on Tuesday to tout construction jobs it has created.

“Today in British Columbia we are leading the country in job creation, we are leading the country in economic growth,” said Clark, who was wearing a blue hard hat.

Greens:

Green Leader Andrew Weaver is campaigning in Kamloops on Wednesday afternoon, a day after the party missed its mark of running a candidate in all 87 provincial ridings.

Party spokesman Stefan Jonsson says the Greens had 80 candidates officially approved by Elections BC ahead of a Tuesday afternoon registration deadline and were waiting to hear back on the eligibility of up to three more. A final list had not been published by Elections BC by late Wednesday morning.

Jonsson said the party is proud of the candidates who have put their names forward, and excited that most ridings across the province will include a Green candidate.

British Columbia Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver is in Kamloops today.

2 p.m. – B.C. Green party Leader Andrew Weaver makes an announcement. (2 p.m. at Thompson Rivers University)

Related

• Full B.C. Election 2017 coverage

NDP call Liberal attacks on platform economics ’fearmongering’

Christy Clark’s Liberals are ramping up attacks on the NDP’s ability to manage British Columbia’s economy, accusing the party of releasing a platform that will cost billions with no way to pay for it.

The New Democrats’ platform includes $10-a-day child care and eliminating tolls on two busy bridges in Metro Vancouver. But the party says a new tax on housing speculators and raising taxes on the top two per cent of earners and corporations will help it balance the budget. 

Mike de Jong

Carole James, the NDP’s finance critic, dismissed the Liberal accusations on Wednesday as “fearmongering.”

“Let’s remember that last election, Christy Clark literally put ’Debt-free B.C.’ on the side of her campaign bus,” said James, referring to Clark’s promise to eliminate the debt through a liquefied natural gas industry.

“In four years since then, she’s added $11 billion to B.C.’s debt. It’s really quite incredible to see Christy Clark making these claims after her own credibility has been shredded time after time.”

Michael de Jong, the finance minister in Clark’s government, held a news conference where he said the Liberals’ analysis of the NDP platform reveals $6.5 billion in costs that the party has not accounted for because of what he called costing errors and a failure to account for interest costs on increased spending.

The analysis does not include the NDP’s revenue assumptions or 40 additional uncosted promises, de Jong said in a statement.

Canadian Press

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 8 OF THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Liberals:

• Leader Christy Clark visited a concrete company in Fort St. John that is working on construction of the Site C dam and said the project is bringing thousands of stable jobs to northern B.C.

• Clark said the province needs affordable and clean power, and Site C is the only way to achieve that goal.

• Clark said more than 275 businesses from B.C. are involved in the dam’s construction.

• A new report by researchers at the University of British Columbia is calling for work on Site C to be suspended because of its cost compared to other energy sources, but Clark says for the $8.8-billion project to meet the province’s future energy needs construction has to take place now.

Liberal leader Christy Clark greets workers as she makes a campaign stop at Inland Concrete in Fort St. John, B.C., Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

Reporter Larry Pynn covered the Clark’s stop in Fort St. John:

Clark, speaking before about 40 supporters in hard hats at a concrete plant, said the project on the Peace River will employ thousands of workers and represents a clear divide between the Liberals and both the NDP and Greens. 

“This is the biggest clean energy project underway anywhere in North America,” she said. “The opposition wants to send every single one of those (workers) a pink slip, send them home empty-handed.” 

The NDP supports referring Site C to the B.C. Utilities Commission, while the Green party dismisses the project as a subsidy for the LNG export sector. Clark has consistently refused to refer Site C to the commission, the agency with the expertise to investigate whether the electricity from such a facility is needed.

Clark said Site C will help to keep electricity rates among the lowest in North America and follows in the forward-looking tradition of former Social Credit premier W.A.C. Bennett.

NDP:

• Leader John Horgan wants the B.C. Utilities Commission to review Site C and decide whether it should proceed, saying a business case needs to be made for the hydroelectric project.

• He also announced a community partnership fund that would upgrade and build community infrastructure projects, with an initial investment of $30 million over three years.

NDP Leader John Horgan walks past caution safety tape during a campaign stop at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 Training Centre in Maple Ridge, B.C., on Tuesday April 18, 2017. A provincial election will be held on May 9.

• The NDP is promising to expand apprenticeship and trades training to help fill the 96,000 jobs that would be created through new school, hospital, highway and home construction.

• Horgan campaign stop was once again crashed by the Liberals’ “truth truck.”

Columnist Mike Smyth wrote about the attack truck in his morning column:

The truck, which stalks Horgan’s campaign events, is draped with a huge banner featuring a scowling picture of the NDP leader and lots of inflammatory attacks.

On Tuesday, the banner slammed Horgan for soliciting big campaign donations at the same time he’s promising to ban big money from politics.

I spotted a familiar face riding shotgun in the truck: Shane Mills, Clark’s $134,000-a-year director of issues management.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” Mills told me when I asked him if it was work better suited to lower-paid Liberal minions.

“There’s no shame in driving a truck!” he said.

Horgan brushed off the continuing cat-and-mouse game with a well-timed shot of his own.

“If the B.C. Liberals want to hire people to drive around in a truck and follow me, at least they gave someone a job.”

Greens:

• Leader Andrew Weaver released the Greens’ health-care platform, which promotes wellness by emphasizing prevention and primary care.

• The party also wants to create a mental health strategy and develop quality end-of-life care.

• The plan would include $100 million for an integrated primary-care system using teams of health-care professionals, such as nurse practitioners, physiotherapists and midwives to enhance access to family doctors.

•  Green party missed its mark of running a candidate in all 87 provincial ridings. Party spokesman Stefan Jonsson says the Greens had 80 candidates officially approved by Elections BC ahead of the Tuesday afternoon registration deadline and were waiting to hear back on the eligibility of up to three more. Green Leader Andrew Weaver — the first member of his party to win a seat in the provincial legislature — previously said the party planned to run in each of the province’s ridings in the May 9 election.

Canadian Press files

Our political panel of Vaughn Palmer, Mike Smyth and Rob Shaw are discussing the issues of B.C. Election 2017 live on Facebook. Join us at http://www.facebook.com/VancouverSun with your questions and comments.

While Green Leader Andrew Weaver, Liberal Leader Christy Clark and NDP Leader John Horgan square off in a radio debate on News 1130, our team of reporters — Gordon Hoekstra, Lori Culbert and Derrick Penner —  fact-checked their statements. 

Culbert: In closing argument, Horgan says  NDP will make life more affordable, increase minimum wage and reduce part-time jobs.

Culbert: In closing argument, Weaver says Green party has candidates that are real, not career politicians.

Culbert: In closing argument, Clark says a plan is not a plan if you can’t afford it. “B.C. is just starting to get on a roll.”

Hoekstra: Clark keeps referring to 20 per cent NDP income tax increase. No such thing. NDP reversing tax cut to top tax bracket.

Penner: Weaver says rolling MSP into payroll deduction would eliminate payment bureaucracy and debt collection. 

Culbert: Seniors poverty?  Clark says Liberals are funding healthcare and giving tax credits. Doesn’t answer listener’s question about reducing fees.

Culbert: Weaver answers the listener’s question directly. Says Greens will take less money from seniors to stop rising poverty.

B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver.

Culbert: Horgan says 90 per cent of seniors homes in B.C. are not staffed properly. He’s right. Suggests NDP would boost funding.  

Penner: Clark says 222,000 new jobs and 90 per cent full time. Economists cite Stats Can tracking almost half part time. 

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark addresses the LNG in BC Conference in Vancouver on October 14, 2015.

Hoekstra: Horgan says Liberals have not delivered 100,000 jobs from LNG. That’s true. But poor markets have also played role.

Penner: Weaver declares no market for B.C. natural gas. Production and exports have increased, along with liquids production.  

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NDP leader John Horgan, her visiting a childcare centre, says education was one of the key issues the NDP would have raised had the Liberals allowed a fall session of the legislature.

Culbert: Weaver promises free child care for low-income earners, effective over four years. Horgan says $10/day plan would take 10 years to roll out. Horgan says $1.5 billion plan would get more women working and boost economy. Clark calls the $1.5-billion child care plan unaffordable.

Culbert: Clark says Quebec’s $10/day child care benefits the wealthy. But the rich now taxed higher in Quebec to subsidize low-income residents needing care.

Culbert: Clark says “child poverty has gone down by 50 per cent.” But Horgan correctly says “that’s cherry-picking data.” Many kids in B.C. need food banks.

Hoekstra: Clark says NDP cut social spending in the 90s. However, at the same time feds cut transfers to the provinces. 

Culbert: Clark asked how those on disability can afford rent with only $375/month. The honest answer is no one can afford rent with that income.

Medical marijuana, dried and ready for use

Culbert: On 4/20, Weaver says fed legal pot plan flawed. Says pot should not be grown by multi-nationals but local growers properly regulated

Penner: Weaver wants “craft cannabis” industry like craft brewing, not big multinationals taking over marijuana.

Hoekstra: Clark says NDP will make B.C. highest tax jurisdiction in country. No evidence of that. Tax increases modest.

Hoekstra: Clark says take home pay going up. Maybe in some jobs, but not in rural areas where jobs lost.

Culbert: Clark continues to accuse NDP budget of raiding our kids’ savings accounts. Horgan says parents know best how to save for their kids.

Roderick MacIsaac, a former researcher with the ministry of health, who was one of 8 employees fired in 2012 over allegations involving the mishandling of research into pharmaceutical drugs. MacIssac later killed himself.

Culbert: Clark says politicians not responsible for firings of wrongly accused health workers. But then-health minister defended it at the time.

Culbert: Horgan rightly accuses Clark of her government’s indifference to the wrongly fired health workers, including Roderick MacIsaac who killed himself. 

Culbert: Horgan says Clark wouldn’t agree with Metro Vancouver mayors’ universal plan on how to fund transit. But residents voted against plebiscite

Brown: Weaver calls the Massey bridge tunnel replacement a “make-work project.” Clark responds by saying “I’m all in favour of making work.”

Hoekstra:  Clark says $3.5 billion Massey bridge replacement is right project. NDP and Greens disagree. New arterials often don’t solve gridlock.

Culbert: Leaders say want to stop fentanyl crisis but the real solution isn’t popular with voters: government providing free, safe drugs to addicts.

Culbert: Weaver says addiction should be treated as a health issue, not criminal. But B.C. Liberals have supported Insite supervised injection site, other harm-reduction measures.

A woman, left, prepares to inject herself with an unknown substance as a man sits in a wheelchair outside Insite, the supervised consumption site, in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

Culbert: Horgan says B.C. should have more safe injection sites, treatment beds. Government should have a minister of mental health and addictions.

Penner:  Weaver questions why B.C. Liberals not talking about child poverty, homelessness crisis. Puts it down to 16 years of “mean spirited” government that benefited political donors, not public. 

Hoekstra: Weaver outlines in-depth housing platform – goes farther than NDP and Liberals.

Hoekstra: Clark says helping people who approved for bank loan, but can’t get down payment together. Hard to manage that.
 

Penner: Weaver wants to tamp down speculation with capital gains tax on property flippers.

Culbert:  Horgan says that Liberals’ temporary tax on top two per cent was a break for four years — it was actually two years. 

Hoekstra: Clark says B.C. on a roll in the last four years. B.C. does lead in unemployment and other areas, but some regions suffer.

Hoekstra: Clark claims NDP budget bad for B.C. Largely untrue. NDP budget will increase spending a little but is costed.

Culbert: Horgan accuses Clark of making stuff up. Clark: “Mr Horgan we didn’t make up 5 balanced budgets.”

The Vancouver School Board is tweaking its budget, allowing it to keep one additional adult education centre open for a year and eliminate cuts to aboriginal education that were in its original proposal. 

The Gathering Place, an adult education centre, will remain open for one year, but with reduced hours and administration. The youth program at the Gathering Place will be closed and the Main Street Education Centre will still be closed, if this proposal passes. 

The school board’s appointed official trustee is expected to pass the budget on April 26. 

tsherlock@postmedia.com

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