News/Canada/British Columbia

Shawn Richards died at the age of 37 after ingesting toxic drugs in the room of a supportive housing building where he was living in 2017. It took three days for staff to find his body.Shawn's mother, Cyndie Richards, was already haunted by the fact that her son's lifeless body lay behind a locked door for so long.But Richards says learning almost the same thing happened to Diane Chandler seven years later "chilled her to the bone."She says after Shawn's death, a manager at RainCity promised her that as a result of the mistake, wellness checks on tenants in the facility would be performed every eight to 12 hours, instead of every 24. "I just thought, 'Oh my god, you haven't done anything, and you promised me you would,'" she said.Richards and Chandler's two children say the delay in findin...

British ColumbiaA Federal Court judge has tossed out a challenge that would have stopped the killing of about 400 ostriches on a British Columbia farm that suffered an outbreak of avian flu.Farm suffered avian flu outbreak but owners have argued they did not pose wider riskThe Canadian Press · Posted: May 13, 2025 5:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 33 minutes agoA group of B.C. ostriches, some of whom tested positive for avian flu, will likely have to be killed following a federal court ruling. (Submitted by Katie Pasitney)A Federal Court judge has tossed out a challenge that would have stopped the killing of about 400 ostriches on a British Columbia farm that suffered an outbreak of avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered the cull late last year after the avian flu outbreak, but ...

The province is making it easier and faster for nurses from the U.S. to get registered in B.C., in an effort to bring more health-care workers north. During a news conference on Monday, Premier David Eby said "uncertainty" related to U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration creates an "opportunity" for the province to recruit much-needed doctors and nurses. Eby said American health workers thinking about coming to B.C. will be valued, respected and will have the opportunity to care for people based on what they need, not on their earnings. "You'll be part of building healthy communities in the best place on earth, and you are very welcome here," he said. "President Trump's loss is British Columbia's gain."American nurses can apply to the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives withou...

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for jumbo pumpkin seeds from the brand Organic Traditions due to possible salmonella contamination.The agency is warning the public not to eat, sell or serve the recalled products, according to a notice issued nationally.The affected products include: Organic Traditions brand Jumbo Pumpkin Seeds (227 g) Organic Traditions brand Jumbo Pumpkin Seeds (454 g) The agency said food contaminated with salmonella can still make you sick, even if it doesn't look or smell spoiled.The recall notice added salmonella can cause serious and sometimes deadly infections in young children, pregnant people, seniors and people with weakened immune systems.In healthy people, short-term salmonella symptoms can appear as fever, headache, vomiting, nause...

An expert in emergency medicine testified at the Sidney McIntyre-Starko coroner's inquest that software used by British Columbia 911 operators takes too long to recommend potentially life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Dr. Michael Kurz said the medical priority dispatch system (MPDS) that guides 911 call-takers in their over-the-phone response does not meet the "agreed-upon standard of care.""I am sure that if you make it down the protocols in MPDS, there are instructions for CPR," said Kurz, an emergency physician and professor of medicine at the University of Chicago."The concern I have — and why I'm testifying today —  is because I think the order in which they choose to do it is incorrect."MPDS is proprietary software made by a Salt Lake City company and licensed in B.C. T...

When Diane Chandler found a unit in Surrey's Foxglove supportive housing building in 2023, the main thing her children hoped for was safety.The 60-year-old had spent years battling depression and addiction, surviving on disability payments as she moved between temporary shelters and her car.And the Foxglove — a multi-use building designed to house people living with complex mental health and substance use problems — came praised by municipal, provincial and federal politicians, including former Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum and B.C. Premier David Eby.But none of those protections would save Chandler, who died from an overdose of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl in her room in the Foxglove almost a year ago.Adding to the pain of their mother's loss, Chandler's children say they discovered...

A drug squad investigator said it was "shocking" to learn how 18-year-old University of Victoria student Sidney McIntyre-Starko came to possess and then ingest the toxic drugs that killed her.Saanich Police Department Const. Ben Scoones made the comment while testifying on the seventh day of the B.C. Coroners Service inquest into the January 2024 death of McIntyre-Starko.Scoones was tasked with investigating potential drug trafficking on the UVic campus a few days after the first-year student died of a fatal fentanyl overdose in a UVic student dorm."It's such a shocking story that somebody found drugs and then decided to use these drugs as a group without knowing what these drugs were or where they came from," he told the coroner's court jury.  In testimony last week, a female UVic student...

In the wake of the Vancouver festival tragedy that left 11 dead, several injured, and people around the world grieving, B.C.'s premier said there will be a review of the province's mental health legislation to ensure it's working the way it's intended.The premier has also announced that Friday, May 2, will be a provincial day of mourning for the victims and their families.On Saturday night, a 30-year-old man drove an SUV into a crowd of people at a street festival, just as organizers were winding down activities. The festival, called the Lapu-Lapu Day Block Party, was being held to celebrate the contributions of the Filipino Canadian community. The man has since been identified as Kai-Ji Adam Lo. He has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder. People lay flowers at a memoria...

Filipino-Canadian nurse Glesy Banton-Victoria says she had planned to attend the Lapu-Lapu Day street festival in Vancouver on Saturday, but took a nap instead, exhausted by a funeral earlier in the day. When she learned that a vehicle sped into a crowd of festival-goers at the Filipino community event, she says she was stunned by the horrific details, thinking, "Is this real?"Banton-Victoria says she's seen many dead bodies in her job as a veteran emergency room nurse at a Surrey, B.C., hospital, but expects she would have frozen in place if she had witnessed Saturday's carnage."It hits home because it is home, the Filipino community," said Banton-Victoria, born in Legazpi, a city in the southeast Philippines.Police said Wednesday that 11 people had died, including three members of a fami...

B.C.'s privacy watchdog has taken the unusual step of issuing a court order compelling the province's Northern Health Authority to respond to freedom of information requests about the conditions at a long-term care facility it operates in Fort St. John, B.C.Caroline Alexander says she made the requests as a member of the resident and family council at the Peace Villa, the only long-term care facility in the city of approximately 21,000 people in northeastern B.C.Councils are meant to advocate for residents and families at care facilities and work with operators to make improvements.Over the years, the Peace Villa council says it has heard and observed issues that include rooms being too cold for residents and a lack of snacks between meals.But Alexander says they've largely been stonewalle...