Nanaimo news

• Canada opens Olympic women’s hockey tourney with 4-0 win over Switzerland

  07-02-2026 23:45 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Canada’s women’s hockey squad got off to a winning start at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
  Canada, the defending Olympic champs, beat Switzerland 4-0 Saturday in a one-sided affair that saw them outshoot the Swiss side 55-6. The Canadians led just 1-0 after two periods.
  Natalie Spooner, Julia Gosling, Sarah Fillier and Daryl Watts scored for Canada. Emerance Maschmeyer picked up the shutout in goal.GOOOAL!Spooner scores the first Team Canada women’s hockey goal o
  
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• ‘Time for something new’: B.C. hockey player’s hometown exit cause for reflection

  07-02-2026 18:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  The meeting ended, the phone rang, and by five o’clock that night, Landon Mackie was already on a ferry.
  That is how fast life changed for the Langford-raised forward.
  On Jan. 22, the Victoria Grizzlies traded their captain to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks in exchange for 20-year-old forward Maddux Martin.
  Two weeks later, the move is working on the ice for both teams.
  Off it, Mackie is still processing what it meant to leave home for the first time.
  “I kind of had an idea a couple days
  
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• Speed skater Maltais wins Canada’s first medal at 2026 Milan Cortina Games

  07-02-2026 17:40 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Team Canada has its first medal of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
  Speed skater Valérie Maltais, whose hometown is La Baie, Que., won bronze in the women’s 3,000-metre long track event at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium. She finished with a time of 3:56.93. Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida won the gold in 3:54.28, with Norwegian Ragne Wiklund taking the silver.TEAM CANADA’S FIRST MEDAL ⁣
  Valérie Maltais claims bronzein the women’s 3000 m l
  
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• RALPH RAYMOND WOOD

  07-02-2026 15:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  March 13, 1939 – January 23, 2026
  We very sadly said goodbye to our dad on January 23, 2026. He passed peacefully with family at his side.
  Ralph’s eldest son, Doug, predeceased him in 2017. His surviving children Vernon (Connie), Lisa Makuk (John – deceased in 2022), and Deanna (Glen) will very much miss his life stories and great advice. Their children and grandchildren will also miss Grandpa Ralph.
  Ralph is further survived by his brother, Leroy, sister-in-law, Jean, and thei
  
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• Brenda B. Anderson

  07-02-2026 15:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  May 6, 1945 – January 6, 2026
  It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Brenda B. Anderson. Brenda passed away, age 80, on January 6th, 2026 in Nanaimo, B.C.
  She was born on May 6, 1945 in Trail, B.C., daughter of the late Henry Eslinger and Elma Heikkila Eslinger, and is also preceded in death by two sisters and two brothers.
  As a young girl she dreamed of being an astronaut, traveling the Universe and going on many adventures. Throughout her 80 years, Brenda lived many place
  
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• April Dawn Shade

  07-02-2026 15:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  In memory ~
  April 5, 1962 – November 29, 2025
  April Dawn Shade, has joined the spirit world, at the age of 63 years on November 29, 2025, in Nanaimo. She had a peaceful journey and was surrounded by her family.
  April was born on April 5, 1962 to Fredrick Valentine Shade and Mabel Shade, nee Quocksister.
  She is loved and deeply missed by many… April Dawn Shade is survived by her beautiful daughter Anastasia Shade-Thomas and Ralph Thomas (dedicated father of Anastasia); her three brot
  
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• Mild weather leads to record-breaking temperature in Nanaimo

  07-02-2026 14:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Unseasonably warm weather led to a record-breaking day in Nanaimo.
  The mercury hit 13 C at the Nanaimo Airport weather station on Thursday, Feb. 5 and Colin Fong, Environmental Canada meteorologist, said that surpassed a previous daily record of 12.4 C set in 2015.
  “There’s been a ridge of high pressure that took hold across a lot of B.C. and [it’s] associated with fair weather, sunny skies typically, and at the same time, it’s also pumping in some warmer air from the sou
  
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• FireSmart funding running dry has B.C. fire chiefs worried

  07-02-2026 14:15 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Surprised and devastated.
  That was West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund’s initial reaction to hearing about changes to the FireSmart program due to a lack of funding.
  The FireSmart Community Funding and Supports (FCFS) program closed its intake application on Jan. 30, according to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM).
  “To hear that the funding is abruptly not being replenished is really concerning for us,” said Brolund. “We know our community is no stranger to wildfire.
  
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• Courtenay-based author publishes first novel

  07-02-2026 10:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Michael Chouinard worked in newspapers for years generating thousands of stories on tight deadlines.
  When the Comox Valley resident started his first novel, he did not want to rush things, but it took longer than expected to publish The Thirty-Three and a Third Revolutions.
  The book was released just before Christmas. “I expected it might take me a decade,” he said. “It ended up taking 17 years, even longer if you consider the time spend making notes and devising an outline.&rd
  
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• Canadian authorities weighing extradition after Nathan Chasing Horse’s U.S. conviction

  07-02-2026 02:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  The Canadian charges against Dances With Wolves actor and self-described medicine man Nathan Chasing Horse remain unresolved despite his recent conviction in the United States.
  Chasing Horse, also known as Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, 49, was convicted by a jury in Nevada on Jan. 30 of 13 charges out of the 21 sworn against him in that state.
  The charges include multiple sexual assaults of multiple women, with some of the charges involving them when they were still minors.
  The conviction is not
  
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• Headline history: Biosolids from human waste never made it to Nanaimo area farm fields

  07-02-2026 02:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Twenty-five years ago Regional District of Nanaimo directors and staff were butting heads over what to do with biosolids produced at the RDN’s wastewater treatment plants.
  According to a News Bulletin article “Biosolids plan pooh-poohed by RDN committee,” published Jan. 29, 2001, at the time about 3,100 tonnes of biosolids waste was produced annually by the Greater Nanaimo Pollution Control Centre and French Creek Pollution Control Centre near Parksville.
  Biosolids are describe
  
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• B.C. mayor discusses extortion crisis during ‘productive week’ in Ottawa

  07-02-2026 01:16 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke met with federal leaders in Ottawa this week to ensure the federal government understood “the severity of the extortion crisis in Surrey” – but there’s no word on the declaration of a national state of emergency.
  There have been 46 reports of extortion, 11 extortion-related shootings and 29 victims (17 of whom are repeat) in 2026 alone, Surrey Police said Monday (Feb. 2).
  “I am encouraged by the level of engagement and commitment I heard in
  
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• Former B.C. man convicted for trafficking that led to OD deaths of U.S. navy officers

  07-02-2026 01:06 via nanaimobulletin.com
  A former Vancouver man could be facing a minimum of 20 years in a U.S. jail after he was convicted for trafficking opioids on a dark-web platform that led to the overdose deaths of two U.S. Navy members.
  Paul Anthony Nicholls, a British national, was convicted on Jan. 29 in Georgia for one count of conspiracy to import controlled substances resulting in death and one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances resulting in death after a four-day trial, according to a release from RCM
  
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