Two former consultants helped advance B.C.’s massive KSM gold mine in the private sector.
Metadata shows they are now directly drafting its permit from inside the B.C. government.
See the details of my investigation here:
www.biv.com/news/economy...
BC’s gold standard for urban wildlife safety has fallen into a bureaucratic void, with lead roles unstaffed, applications piling up, and oversight quietly halted
The province’s absence comes as two Bear Smart communities that failed audits in 2024 face threats of expulsion in the coming months
In failing to disclose his role in the massacre, judge found Sosa obtained his Canadian citizenship by “false representation or fraud.”
The court declared him inadmissible to Canada on the basis he committed crimes against humanity.
“After the grenade exploded, the screams of the persons in the well went silent,” the judge wrote.
“I find that by this act, Mr Sosa committed the act of murder of those persons.”
When the well was almost full, people still alive tried to climb out.
At one point, Sosa fired his gun into the well. Later, the man, who was supervising the killings, threw a grenade into the well while people were still alive inside.
“What followed was the methodical and horrendous murder of civilians. The first victim was a two- or three-month-old baby who was thrown alive into the well. Young children were held by their feet and bashed against walls or trees,” wrote the judge.
Villagers were still sleeping when the soldiers kicked in their doors, dragging residents from their home. Children and women were first locked in a church. Men were interrogated and tortured. In the afternoon, orders came down for the unit to kill everyone in the village.
The decision cites “uncontradicted documentary and oral evidence” that Sosa was one of the officers in command the day his platoon of 40 soldiers came into the small village disguised as guerrilla fighters.
Sosa had been granted citizenship in 1992 after seeking asylum in Canada in the 1980s.
In a ruling released Feb. 5, Federal Justice Roger R. Lafrenière found the man had clearly lied about his role in the 1982 Las Dos Erres Massacre in Guetemala’s El Petén region.
Yesterday, a judge stripped Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes of Canadian citizenship after it was found the man had lied about his role in a high-profile massacre during the Guatemalan civil war.
This is not my currently beat but something from Federal court that needs to be part of the public record.
Be warned, it involves horrific details of a notorious case involving crimes against humanity.
Wow, bombshell report by @stefanlabbe.bsky.social about how the BC Ministry of Forests may be overestimating the annual harvest rates by more than double, using unscientific methods and extremely optimistic assumptions to set rates. People should lose their jobs for this.
www.biv.com/news/resourc...
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has approved Teal-Jones' interim sale of a Fraser Valley forest licence before the province could consult First Nations.
Some worry the deal leaves endangered spotted owl habitat open to logging.
Others claim the deal represents an “end run” around Indigenous rights.
B.C. and Alberta have shared a major electricity intertie for almost 40 years.
It has chronically failed to meet capacity — offering lessons on what stands in the way of the Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan for an east-to-west grid
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says it is in the early stages of a plan to dredge Burrard Inlet to allow more oil to be shipped through the harbour.
The project raises environmental concerns and questions over Indigenous rights
via @brentrichter.bsky.social
"The B.C. government-run corporation responsible for administering a fifth of the province’s annual logging quota says it will pause new operations that overlap with habitat of a threatened caribou herd north of Revelstoke" via @stefanlabbe.bsky.social #bcpoli
www.biv.com/news/bc-timb...
At least 260 ha. of tidal marsh that protect Metro Vancouver's dikes have disappeared in recent decades.
Some worry the 9 million tonnes of sand dredged out of the Fraser River annually is playing a role.
But unlike other jurisdictions, Canada stopped measuring the problem years ago.
A network of “bot-like” social media accounts targeted Liberal Leader Mark Carney in the lead-up to the federal election, a new analysis says
The accounts claimed Carney's old firm would benefit from the party’s “net zero agenda” in what experts say is a familiar climate disinformation tactic
Vancouver-based The Metals Company says it is now seeking U.S. approval for deep sea mining in international waters.
The head of the United Nations seabed authority warned the move would be “violation of international law” and undermine multilateral efforts to govern the world's oceans.
Nearly half of 1,300 landslides that occurred during B.C.'s November 2021 atmospheric river event started in areas burned by wildfire or disturbed by logging.
The study raises questions over the long-term safety of B.C.’s highways and communities downstream of disturbed hillsides.
B.C. company says its fusion reactor will produce more power than it consumes by 2027 — a breakthrough that could eventually help scale the technology into a power plant without risks of emissions, a runaway reaction, nuclear waste or weaponization.
I visited the new test reactor to learn more
Across Canada, more than 50 oil and gas companies and their industry groups have influenced K-12 education on climate change, a new report has found.
Among them is the FortisBC-funded “Energy Champions”program that sends BC Lions football players into schools
A new financing program will help protect communities from disaster, but it won't help those still vulnerable from the last strike
Merritt's Sean Strang said the city has been left behind
“It’s frankly a slap in the face.”
www.biv.com/news/economy...
Logging records show Drax still sources whole trees from primary forests felled by other companies in B.C. despite its own sustainability criteria saying the company will "avoid damage or disturbance to high carbon forests" including “primary forest"
www.bbc.com/news/article...
The B.C. government has sanctioned a Chilliwack slaughterhouse and is “re-focusing the role of inspectors” at all slaughter facilities across the province.
Their new mandate, said the ministry — focus on both food safety and the humane treatment of animals.
www.nsnews.com/resources-ag...
Big trees crucial to migrate B.C. forests under climate change, finds study
The goal of the experiment was:
- find out how Douglas fir trees handle human-assisted migration
- if they would do better in forests left partially intact after logging
www.nsnews.com/environment/...
A legal challenge claiming the planned expansion of Canada’s largest port would threaten the survival of endangered southern resident killer whales has been struck down by a federal judge.
