The B-C Prosecution Service says a Vancouver jail guard has been charged with assault.
The service says Special Municipal Constable Omar Ahmed Flores faces one count of assault related to an incident at the Vancouver Police Department's jail last January.
Prosecutors say the charges were approved by Crown counsel with no connection to the special constable.
The service says Flores is due to make his first court appearance on January 24th.
B.C.'s Education and Child Care Ministry says the $2-per-hour raise and previous wage boosts totalling $4 an hour since 2018 will increase the hourly wage for early childhood educators to $28 per hour. The ministry says early childhood educators who hold specialized certificates for infant, toddler and special needs education are also eligible for up to $3,000 extra per year.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says time is running out to help people in Gaza. In a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto this afternoon, Joly is expected to plead for humanitarian pauses in the Israel-Hamas conflict to allow more aid to get into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which is home to more than two million Palestinians.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the Liberals to exempt all forms of home heating from the carbon price, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an exemption for three years that only applies to home heating oil. The federal government announced last week that it is increasing the carbon price rebate for rural Canadians and lifting the carbon price off home heating oil entirely for the next three years.
An unseasonable cold snap covering much of the province broke records over the weekend, including one that had been in place for more than a century. Environment Canada reports at least eight new lows for the record books, such as Nelson’s low of at minus 4.9 degrees, exceeding the 4.4 degrees set in 1905.
A new provincewide public safety coalition that includes community and business groups, citizens and well-known B-C retailers is set to launch today. A statement says the coalition wants governments to work together and act quickly on crime and violence issues in communities across B-C.
A second referendum on Khalistan — an independent state in India proposed by some Sikhs — was held today at the same Surrey gurdwara where activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in June. Sarbraj Kahlon, news director at Radio Punjab who was at the referendum site, called the latest vote a success after 65,700 people turned out in Surrey Sunday to cast ballots.