Nanaimo news

• THORPE REPORT: Local golfers hit long and straight

  21-09-2026 21:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  With summer officially ending next week, the golfing season has seen year-end tournaments at both the professional and local levels.
  For the pros, the PGA season officially ended with the recent Tour Championship tournament in Atlanta. There, Scottie Scheffler capped a successful season on tour with his second FedEx Cup title and the tournament’s $10 million first-place prize money.
  Not quite so lucrative, but arguably just as entertaining, were tournaments held at several local golf cours
  
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• Elections BC needs to hire 17K workers to run snap election

  23-09-2026 19:21 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Elections BC is gearing up for a snap provincial election and needs to hire 17,000 workers to run it.
  “The previous election, we had 17,000 people,” B.C. Chief Electoral Officer Shipra Verma said Wednesday. “We still need to hire the same amount of people to deliver the same level of service.”
  Verma would not say how many people Elections BC has hired so far.Elections BC may also have some challenges securing enough polling places. Advance voting will run for the provinci
  
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• BC RCMP should review vulnerable prisoner care after in-custody death: Inquest

  23-09-2026 19:19 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The jury in the BC Coroners Service inquest into the death of a woman in White Rock RCMP cells more than a decade ago has made eight recommendations — with several focusing on reviewing current practices and training — for the RCMP, city of White Rock, and BC Emergency Health Services.The inquest, which started on Sept. 15, was a non-fault-finding public inquiry that looked into how Patricia Ann Wilson, 58, died while in custody at the White Rock RCMP detachment on March 29, 2016.
  Af
  
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• Mount Jack wildfire near Sooke doubles in size to over 200 hectares

  23-09-2026 18:53 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The “out of control” wildfire burning in the Sooke Hills has doubled in size overnight.
  The Mount Jack wildfire now stands at 210.4 hectares, according to a Wednesday morning (Sept. 23) update from the BC Wildfire Service.
  First discovered Sept. 20, the fire has continued to grow, fuelled by warm, dry and windy conditions.
  “Initial growth was observed towards the northeast, up the rocky slope of Mount Jack,” said an update from BC Wildfire Service Wednesday. “Additi
  
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• ‘Gone far too soon’: Motorcyclist who died in Kelowna crash identified

  23-09-2026 16:38 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The individual who died in a fiery motorcycle crash in Kelowna has been identified.
  Stefan Vracarevic, a member of the Kelowna Crows rugby team, died after the motorbike he was riding crashed at the intersection of Harvey Avenue and Ethel Street on Thursday, Sept. 17 around 10 a.m.
  The Crows posted on social media, honouring Vracarevic.“Stefan was more than just a Crows player, he was a son, a brother, a cousin, a family member, a best friend, and a warm presence within every community he
  
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• Nanaimo area electorate encouraged to attend forums ahead of municipal vote

  23-09-2026 14:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Residents in the Nanaimo area will have opportunities to become better informed in the lead-up to the 2026 B.C. municipal election.
  A number of organizations are holding all-candidates forums prior to general voting day on Oct. 17, with the Fair Care Alliance inviting elected officials, candidates, as well as community leaders to a forum on health-care funding on Thursday, Sept. 24 at Vancouver Island Conference Centre (101 Gordon St.) from 5-7 p.m.
  The current health-care model and a proposal t
  
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• Chilliwack housing roundtable discusses Indigenous development hurdles

  23-09-2026 14:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A recent housing roundtable in Chilliwack addressed developments on First Nations land, how housing units are counted, and misconceptions about how some farm land is released to First Nations communities.
  The event was hosted by Á’a:líya Warbus, incumbent MLA for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake at The Grand Hall on Friday, Sept. 11.
  “In order to push forward on the things that are needed for both Chilliwack and the region, I think we can be leaders in having the conversations, o
  
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• VIJHL Week 3: Kraken blows past Storm in Lake Cowichan

  23-09-2026 14:01 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League Week 3 roundup:
  Campbell River 1 Lake Cowichan 5
  Lake Cowichan Kraken never trailed while earning a 5-1 win over the Campbell River Storm at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena in Friday night (September 18) VIJHL action.
  Thomas Harrow, Colby Jefferies, Matvei Lutoshkin, Blaine Wilson and first star Nikita Melnichenok, who also added two assists, dented the twine for the Kraken, which after a 1-1 first period tie, led 3-2 heading into the final stanza. Second sta
  
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• B.C.’s fire season moderated by recent weeks of cool weather

  23-09-2026 03:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  After an intense summer wildfire season, rain and cooler weather in late August and early September moderated fire behaviour across British Columbia, according to the BC Wildfire Service.
  Neal McLoughlin, superintendent of predictive services with BCWS, said fire activity in the B.C. Interior peaked in July and August.
  However, while precipitation has helped, fire activity continues and underlying drought concerns remain present.
  Dryer-than-normal conditions are expected during the fall, with th
  
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• Lightfoot’s music returns to Kelowna 12 years after singer’s last visit

  23-09-2026 02:38 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A local Kelowna band is honouring Canadian music legend Gordon Lightfoot with a tribute show on Oct. 4.John Paul Byrne, singer for the group, said the moment will be a special one as he saw Lightfoot’s last show in the city 12 years ago, on Oct. 29, 2014.“I was lucky to meet him that night and in the short chat we had, I suggested to him, that his huge 1970 hit, ‘If You Could Read My Mind’, might well be the best song ever written,” said Byrne. “He looked righ
  
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• Kelowna sees heroes fly in the Landmark District for Easter Seals

  23-09-2026 02:08 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  There were 38 brave souls who rappelled down 23 storeys in Kelowna to support people with disabilities.
  On Sept. 22, the Easter Seals Drop Zone was held in the Landmark District. People came out dressed in their superhero best to soar above the clouds, rappell down the tower, and raise funds for the organization.
  Could you rappel down 23 storeys? 38 brave souls in #Kelowna did today in support of @EasterSealsBCY Check it out! @KelownaCapNews pic.twitter.com/F7rEBCZ3rf
  — Brittany Webster (@
  
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• B.C. Conservative Leader Doerkson responds to election call

  23-09-2026 01:38 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson called the NDP’s decision to go to a snap election “cynical,” slamming NDP Leader David Eby for comparing wildfires to the trade dispute with the United States.
  Eby triggered a snap election earlier Tuesday, saying his party needs to gain a renewed mandate to deal with the economic impact of tariffs.
  Doerkson sought to put to rest any confusion about his “interim” leader tag. The party board appointed him to take over from Ker
  
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• Canucks, Kalamazoo Wings continuing partnership for 2026-27 season

  23-09-2026 01:32 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The affiliate arrangement between the Kalamazoo Wings and the Canucks organization will continue for this season.
  A Wings spokesperson confirmed to The News earlier this month that the partnership has been extended for the 2026-27 campaign.
  The two organizations began this current collaboration back in 2023 and it was originally a one-year deal. The following year saw the affiliation renewed for two seasons. That arrangement expired this summer, but the two sides agreed to continue at some point
  
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• Health Minister Ravi Kahlon says he does not plan to run in upcoming election

  23-09-2026 01:13 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Health Minister Ravi Kahlon is not running for re-election.
  “After three election cycles, I believe this is the right time for the next champion of North Delta to step forward and carry this work on,” Kahlon said in a social media post.
  B.C. NDP Leader David Eby called a snap election earlier Tuesday.
  Kahlon has served in several high-profile ministerial roles under Eby, holding the housing and jobs files before health, since taking office in 2017.
  He thanked the people of Delta for
  
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• Health Minister Ravi Kahlon say he does not plan to run in upcoming election

  23-09-2026 01:13 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Health Minister Ravi Kahlon is not running for re-election.
  “After three election cycles, I believe this is the right time for the next champion of North Delta to step forward and carry this work on,” Kahlon said in a social media post.
  B.C. NDP Leader David Eby called a snap election earlier Tuesday.
  More to come.
  
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• Surrey’s Elenore Sturko named leader of CentreBC as MLAs leave

  23-09-2026 01:08 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Elenore Sturko has been named leader of CentreBC, the party announced Tuesday afternoon.
  “I am proud to be a part of CentreBC and to continue to offer a choice for British Columbians,” Sturko, the incumbent MLA in Surrey-Cloverdale, said in a statement released by the party. “Like many people I have found a political home with CentreBC, and I am ready to fight for the people of this Province.”
  CentreBC’s president, Mike Wignall, embraced Sturko as the right choice.
  
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• Surrey’s Elenore Sturko is the sole incumbent MLA for CentreBC ahead of election

  22-09-2026 23:17 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Elenore Sturko is now the only incumbent MLA still with CentreBC heading into the provincial elections, less than a week after eight sitting MLAs announced they would be joining the centrist party.
  Sturko told Today In BC Tuesday (Sept. 22) that the seven others, including the party’s incoming leader Peter Milobar, had rejoined B.C. Conservatives under interim Leader Lorne Doerkson.
  CentreBC’s president Mike Wignall slammed that decision in a statement.
  “We are disappointed tha
  
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• Snap provincial election called in B.C. for Oct. 24

  22-09-2026 21:32 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  British Columbia is headed to the polls for snap election after NDP Leader David Eby dissolved the legislature on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
  He justified the move by saying the province faces an “existential moment” as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs damage B.C.’s economy.
  “Join me in saying, ‘Hell no!’ to Trump and to his politics for British Columbia,” Eby said during his Tuesday afternoon election announcement in Victoria.
  Speculation about an ele
  
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• BREAKING: Snap provincial election called in B.C. for Oct. 24

  22-09-2026 21:32 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  British Columbia is headed to the polls for a provincial snap election.
  Speculation about an election call percolated for about a week as the B.C. Conservative Party dissolved into chaos, and Kerry-Lynne Findlay quit as party leader.
  Election day will be Oct. 24.
  The election call will automatically cancel the Abbotsford-Mission byelection, which was set to conclude this Saturday. Reann Gasper had vacated that seat to give Findlay an opening to run.
  B.C. NDP Leader David Eby has tried to positio
  
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• Child taken to hospital after being struck by vehicle at busy Campbell River crosswalk

  22-09-2026 20:45 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A seven-year-old child was taken to hospital after being struck by a vehicle at a crosswalk adjacent to the Strathcona Gardens Recreation Complex late Monday afternoon, Sept. 21.
  A section of Dogwood Street was closed to traffic to allow paramedics, RCMP officers, and fire crews to respond to the scene at the crosswalk at Dogwood and Pinecrest Road.
  Const. Maury Tyre, media relations officer and spokesperson with the Campbell River RCMP, confirmed the driver involved is facing “a couple of
  
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• ‘Peril in the Alps’ brings mystery, laughs and an iconic detective to Chemainus


  22-09-2026 20:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Murder, mystery and plenty of laughs are headed to the Chemainus Theatre Festival stage this fall as Hercule Poirot takes on a new case in Peril in the Alps.
  The Agatha Christie-inspired mystery runs Sept. 25 to Oct. 25, combining the familiar world of the meticulous Belgian detective with fast paced comedy, inventive staging and a cast that transforms into nearly 30 different characters over the course of the show.
  Artistic director Mark DuMez, who is directing the production, said the play arr
  
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• Witness testifies she didn’t see accused ex-Nanaimo church official sexually touch minors

  22-09-2026 20:27 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Note: The following deals with charges of sexual interference and assault and may not be for all readers.
  A former worker at a Nanaimo church testified that she never saw an accused ex-youth pastor sexually touch minors.
  Ryan Richard James Morgan, 43, formerly of Generations Church, faces charges of sexual interference of a person under 16 years old and sexual assault for incidents that took place in Bella Bella, Nanaimo and Courtenay in 2017 and 2020. The trial, which began May 25 and adjourned
  
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• Guest column: I charged a bear

  22-09-2026 19:39 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  In August I met a bear.Here is exactly what happened.
  A mother bear with her cub and I with my pups, Skye and Jo, met in the forest in North Cowichan on a well-trodden path near a carcass that the bears had been eating.We didn’t see each other until the last moment. My Shetland sheepdogs were a few feet ahead of me. They trotted over the lift of the hill. The cub must have smelled us before we saw it. Suddenly, silently, Skye and Jo took off. I looked up in surprise and saw the cub climbin
  
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• Centenarian loving life in Vernon

  22-09-2026 19:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Like she doesn’t already have enough fun as one of the oldest living citizens in B.C.
  Now, Vernon’s Ethel Dover – 106 years young – has a new weapon in her amusement arsenal:
  A Nerf gun.
  “She’s quite the mean shot,” marvelled Kim Magarvey, general manager at Dover’s home, the Aspira Orchard Valley Retirement residence, in downtown Vernon.
  “She’s also an avid reader and funny as heck.”
  Born April 8, 1920 in Winnipeg, Dover is being
  
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• Terry Fox’s nurse, guest at a Surrey run, had to tell the world about his death in 1981

  22-09-2026 19:28 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Organizers of a Terry Fox Run in Surrey welcomed special guest Alison Ince on Sunday morning, Sept. 20.
  Ince, one of Fox’s nurses at Royal Columbian Hospital during his final days, was at the Fraser Heights Village site of the annual charity run hosted by Terry Fox Foundation.
  Ince became media liaison for Fox at the hospital in New Westminster, where he died in June 1981.She remembers having to tell waiting media representatives that the Marathon of Hope hero had lost his battle with canc
  
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• Eby visits SFU’s new medical school in Surrey

  22-09-2026 19:05 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  B.C. Premier David Eby got to take a look inside Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) new medical school in Surrey on Sept. 16.SFU’s Stephens Family School of Medicine invited Eby on a tour of the school’s temporary learning space and allowed him to meet the first cohort of medical students.The tour included demonstrations of several technology-based tools, including simulated patient-care rooms, medical mannequins, point-of-care ultrasound and virtual reality.
  One of the more inter
  
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• Eby visits SFU’s new medical school

  22-09-2026 19:05 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  B.C. Premier David Eby got to take a look inside Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) new medical school in Surrey on Sept. 16.SFU’s Stephens Family School of Medicine invited Eby on a tour of the school’s temporary learning space and allowed him to meet the first cohort of medical students.The tour included demonstrations of several technology-based tools, including simulated patient-care rooms, medical mannequins, point-of-care ultrasound and virtual reality.
  One of the more inter
  
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• Sow that walked into Hope pharmacy put down, confirms bear awareness volunteer

  22-09-2026 19:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A bear that wandered into a business in downtown Hope has been euthanized.The bear entered the Hope Pharmasave on Wallace Avenue at about 2 p.m. on Sept. 20. It was accompanied by a small cub.
  The streets and nearby park were busy with tourist activity at the time, and several videos and photos of the bears surfaced on Facebook groups, including videos of people following behind the bears. At one point in a video, the bears walk between a vehicle and a drive-thru window.In another video, the bea
  
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• Nanaimo RCMP asking for help locating stolen vintage bike

  22-09-2026 18:46 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Nanaimo RCMP is asking for the public’s assistance in locating a vintage bike that was stolen from outside a residence on Nanaimo Lakes Road.
  At approximately 10:20 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 21, the Nanaimo RCMP received a report that a 1954 JC Higgins Jetflow bicycle had been stolen from the home.
  At the time of the theft, the bike had been locked to a bicycle rack attached to a vehicle.
  The locks were defeated and the bicycle was taken.The bicycle is a very distinctive vintage model.
  It has
  
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• Premier David Eby expected to call provincial snap election today

  22-09-2026 17:49 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  After a week of speculation, Premier David Eby is expected to call a snap election Tuesday afternoon.
  He has called a news conference at 12:15 p.m. at Government House in Victoria. This is where he must go to meet with the Lieutenant Governor to “drop the writ” and dissolve the legislature.
  A provincial election called today could be as soon as Saturday, Oct. 24 – a week after the municipal elections.Eby has tried to position this as a necessary step to cement his mandate in re
  
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