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As a result of evidence uncovered during the coroner’s inquest into the fatal explosion at the Lakeland sawmill in Prince George, the inquest has been adjourned until next week. Presiding coroner Lisa Lapointe has ruled that the evidence - the results of a post-blast investigation undertaken by a forensic engineering firm on behalf of lawyers for Lakeland - is relevant to the inquiry. However, she also ruled that it is protected by privilege recognized under the...

If you’ve been to any rallies opposing the Northern Gateway Pipeline over the past few years, you probably noticed the police presence. Yup, they’re always there. Granted, the anti-pipeline rallies in Prince George are large and police are often there to block traffic so protestors and cars don’t have to share the road. Public safety is a good thing. However, attendees at the rally will also often notice that the police are there videotaping the proceedings. And this was happening long...

  Mike Richard knew that dust accumulating in a sawmill was a fire hazard. The Lakeland Mills’ mill manager, however, was not aware it posed an explosive hazard prior to the April 23, 2012 explosion and fire that destroyed the mill and resulted in the deaths of Alan Little and Glenn Roche. “I felt too much dust was a fire hazard,” he told a six-man coroner’s jury Monday. “I saw a number of dust fires when I was a millwright.” He testified that even though the Babine Forest Products...

What a difference a year or so, and a new council, makes. In late 2013 the issue of downtown parking raised its head as the council of the day mulled bringing back parking meters and, in 2014 it drastically increased off-street parking rates only to scale back the increases after a public uproar. Now Mayor Lyn Hall, who was one of the councillors who sought to re-examine off-street parking rates last year, has floated out the idea of lowering them even further. “A number of months ago, we...

Could Stewart Phillip be a terrorist? The grand chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs feels that Bill C-51, the Conservative government’s anti-terrorism bill, could sweep him up in its wide net. “As an act of civil disobedience, I was arrested at Burnaby Mountain because I believe mega-projects, like Kinder Morgan and Enbridge pipelines, do not respect the indigenous laws and inherent authority of indigenous peoples to protect their territories, land and waters from the very...

You will likely hear that the media is over-blowing concerns about the Conservative government’s new anti-terror bill. Well, the media does have, to use a sports cliché, some skin in the game. If you are wondering why the media hate this bill (even Conservative apologist Nathan Geide has some concerns), it’s because history has shown that when police states emerge, the media is first to come under attack. No one is suggesting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to start rolling out...