Nanaimo news

• Vernon arson suspect to stand trial

  31-05-2023 18:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Matthew Eric Mason is the suspect tied to a fire that destroyed a Coldstream home in early 2022
  
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• Cowichan Tribes to take full ownership of Chances Cowichan casino

  30-12-2025 21:24 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Cowichan Tribes is set to take full ownership of Chances Cowichan casino in Duncan.
  The First Nation’s Khowutzun Gaming Corporation has entered into an agreement with its partner, the Duncan Dabber Bingo Society, for the acquisition of all of the society’s interests in the operations of the casino, located at 436 Cowichan Way.
  Cowichan Tribes Chief Cindy Daniels, who is also chair of KGC, said she raises her hands to the DDBS for working with KGC to ensure Chances Cowichan has been a
  
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• Minimum wage increasing by 2.6% for B.C. piece-rate farmworkers

  30-12-2025 20:45 via nanaimobulletin.com
  The minimum piece-rates for farm workers who hand pick crops is increasing.
  Based on last year’s annual inflation rate, the B.C. government is raising the minimum piece rate for hand-harvest crops by 2.6 per cent.
  The changes will apply to 15 agricultural crops that need to be hand-harvested. These include: peaches, apricots, brussels sprouts, daffodils, mushrooms, apples, beans, blueberries, cherries, grapes, pears, peas, prune plums, raspberries and strawberries.
  Rates for each crop vary
  
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• Ucluelet man missing in Nanaimo after being dropped off on Christmas Eve

  30-12-2025 20:35 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Nanaimo RCMP are asking for the public’s help to find a 56-year-old Ucluelet man who has not been seen nor heard from since Christmas Eve.
  According to police, Darryl Martin was dropped off at Port Place Shopping Centre to do some last-minute holiday shopping on Wednesday, Dec. 24. His disappearance is out of character, and his family is concerned for his safety and well-being.
  He is described as 165 pounds, with black-grey hair and brown eyes.
  Anyone who has information on the missing man
  
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• Sounds fishy: B.C. biologists use AI to identify and decipher fish sounds

  30-12-2025 19:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Biologists from the University of Victoria discovered that even closely related fish species make unique and distinctive sounds, and they determined that it’s possible to differentiate between the sounds of different species.
  Using passive acoustics, researchers identified unique sounds for eight Vancouver Island fish species. They then developed a machine learning model that can predict which sounds belong to which species with 88 per cent accuracy.
  “We knew previously that many fis
  
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• Nanaimo News Bulletin’s most-read sports stories of 2025

  30-12-2025 19:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  1. Nanaimo teen first Canadian to win U.S. horsemanship event, Aug. 1.
  A Nanaimo teen made history, becoming the first Canadian to take top spot at a horse-riding competition in California.
  Dane Anson, 15, won the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association Gladstone Cup Equitation Classic West in Del Mar, Calif. on July 25. He is the first Canadian to take the Gladstone trophy, the association told the News Bulletin in an e-mail.
  Anson rode Celestino, his seven-year-old gelding, and was ecstatic about the w
  
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• Godzilla in the grid: BC Hydro shares wild and wacky outage calls of 2025

  30-12-2025 19:20 via nanaimobulletin.com
  After responding to more than 61,000 calls in 2025, BC Hydro says some were anything but ordinary.
  On Tuesday (Dec. 30), BC Hydro released a list of its most memorable outages of the year, which included a rogue inflatable godzilla, a crow colliding with a transformer, noisy nature and two ospreys dropping fish onto power lines.
  Dubbed “Godzilla in the grid,” BC Hydro says that after three major storms swept across B.C. in late December, the last one sent an inflatable Godzilla fly i
  
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• Former Vancouver FC coach says he loaned team $500k and they have refused to repay him

  30-12-2025 19:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Former Vancouver FC coach Afshin Ghotbi is suing the team owners, Six-Five Sports & Entertainment LP, saying he loaned the Langley-based Canadian Premier League (CPL) team $500,000 and they have not repaid him.
  In a Dec. 4 statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Ghotbi says he made the loan in July of 2023 after Rob Friend, described as “one of Six-Five’s directors, the President and CEO of Vancouver FC and a friend of Mr. Ghotbi,” informed him Vancouver FC was &ldq
  
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• Emergency Island biathlete attracts attention, funding in Olympic talent search

  30-12-2025 19:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Gavin Johnston, a biathlete from Campbell River, has been awarded funding and an accelerated path to the Olympics after impressing scouts at the RBC Training Ground national final.
  Johnston was one of more than 2,500 athletes to participate in 10th annual RBC Training Ground this year, a cross-country talent search run in partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee and regional Canadian Sport Institutes.
  The event sees athletes from a wide range of sports perform core speed, strength, power
  
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• Sweeping work earns Island author 9 awards in first audiobook attempt

  30-12-2025 18:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Comox Valley author, songwriter and playwright James Allan Krause has been recognized for his recently published audiobook, Wetion which is a labour of love that took two decades to come to fruition.
  In December, Krause received nine awards for various categories from Outstanding Creator Book Awards.
  He received first place prize for Historical, second place finishes for Science Fiction and for Education and Reference Books. A third place honour for the Audiobooks category, five honorable mentio
  
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• Bad haircuts and dirty dishes: B.C. callers dialling 911 redefining ‘emergency’

  30-12-2025 17:57 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Most people understand that calling 911 is for emergency, life-or-death situations.
  But, unfortunately for some of British Columbia’s E-Comm operators, that wasn’t the case in 2025, with some people calling the emergency number to simply complain.
  E-Comm is reminding residents across the province that if a store refuses to return your air fryer, or if an airline fines your oversized carry-on, or your dishwasher breaks, 911 is not the appropriate number to call.
  The provincial dispatc
  
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• Bad haircuts and dirty dishes: B.C. 911 callers redefining ‘emergency’

  30-12-2025 17:57 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Most people understand that calling 911 is for emergency, life-or-death situations.
  But, unfortunately for some of British Columbia’s E-Comm operators, that wasn’t the case in 2025, with some people calling the emergency number to simply complain.
  E-Comm is reminding residents across the province that if a store refuses to return your air fryer, or if an airline fines your oversized carry-on, or your dishwasher breaks, 911 is not the appropriate number to call.
  The provincial dispatc
  
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• 2025 winding down with heavy rainfall on B.C.’s North Coast, Haida Gwaii

  30-12-2025 16:50 via nanaimobulletin.com
  After a flood watch was issued for the North Coast and Haida Gwaii last week, a rainfall warning has now been issued.
  On Dec. 27, B.C.’s River Forecast Centre issued the flood warning as heavy rain and rising temperatures were expected over the weekend. Additional rainfall warnings were issued Monday morning (Dec. 29) by Environment Canada for the same areas.
  A long episode of heavy rain is expected, with 160 to 200 millimetres of rain for the North Coast – coastal sections and 70 to
  
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• ‘Allegiance’ pledged: Lead actor previews 3rd season of B.C.-based CBC police drama

  30-12-2025 15:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Starting Wednesday, Jan. 7 on CBC platforms, Season 3 of the Surrey-set police drama Allegiance promises more ripped-from-the-headlines stories involving gangs and informants, hostage situations and a domestic assault case that hits close to home.
  Familiar locations continue to show up on the small screen, too, such as when the body of a blueberry farmer is discovered in Surrey’s Serpentine River. That’s where detective Sabrina Sohal (played by Supinder Wraich) and the Canadian Feder
  
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• Trail and Rossland gearing up to co-host the 2026 B.C. Winter Games

  30-12-2025 14:35 via nanaimobulletin.com
  With the 2026 B.C. Winter Games less than two months away, Trail and Rossland are entering the final stretch of preparations, and the call for volunteers is only growing louder.
  The Games will bring over 1,200 athletes and coaches to the region from Feb. 25 to March 1, 2026, competing in 15 different sports across multiple venues.
  Organizers say they’ll need close to 1,700 volunteers to help make it all happen.
  Games board president Brian Stefani stressed the scale of what’s ahead.
  &
  
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• Heavy snowfall blankets Whitehorse as city sets December precipitation record

  30-12-2025 14:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Whitehorse has been hit by a deluge of snow, with 52 centimetres on the ground as of Dec. 28, the fourth‑highest level on record. The highest was 65 centimetres in 1980, Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon said.
  The city has also set a new Whitehorse December precipitation record, with 64 millimetres this month, the highest since local records began in 1940 and far above the long‑term average of 16 millimetres, Sekhon told the News.
  He said recent snowfall in the city amoun
  
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• Christmas tree chip-ups planned in the new year in Nanaimo

  30-12-2025 14:05 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Christmas is over, but if we want to keep the tree up for a few more days, there’s still time before tree chipping happens this coming weekend.
  At least four chip-up fundraisers will be happening the weekend of Jan. 3-4 around the city:
  Nanaimo Lions Club will be offering a Christmas tree chip-up on Jan. 3-4 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the southwest parking lot at Nanaimo North Town Centre. By donation. All money raised will go to the club’s community programs.
  Nanaimo Search and Rescue h
  
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• ‘The best job no one wants’: early silence greets B.C. Conservative leadership void

  30-12-2025 14:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  It’s more than three weeks since former B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad resigned, and no major political figures have stepped up to run for his old job.
  This is despite the very real possibility that the next leader of the Official Opposition could one day be premier.
  “It’s the best job in B.C. politics that no one wants,” said David Black, a political communications professor at Royal Roads University.
  So far, several prominent conservative politicians have announce
  
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• 2025 IN REVIEW: Looking at some of the stories that dominated the sports scene in B.C.

  30-12-2025 13:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  2025 was a year that a world-class soccer star arrived and pushed the Whitecaps to new heights, even as the Canucks bid goodbye to perhaps the best defenceman the franchise has ever known.
  Here are the top British Columbia sports stories of 2025
  * Prince Harry was among the global star power that gathered in B.C. in February as we hosted an emotional and inspiring Invictus games.
  Retired air force officer bookends career with trip to Whistler for Invictus
  * Season-long controversy tied to allege
  
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• 2025 IN REVIEW: A look back at some of the stories that dominated the sports scene in B.C.

  30-12-2025 13:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  2025 was a year that a world-class soccer star arrived and pushed the Whitecaps to new heights, even as the Canucks bid goodbye to perhaps the best defenceman the franchise has ever known.
  Here are the top British Columbia sports stories of 2025
  * Prince Harry was among the global star power that gathered in B.C. in February as we hosted an emotional and inspiring Invictus games.
  Retired air force officer bookends career with trip to Whistler for Invictus
  * Season-long controversy tied to allege
  
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• Öhgren nets shootout winner as Canucks take down Seattle Kraken 3-2

  30-12-2025 07:05 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Liam Öhgren scored the game-winning goal in a shootout, lifting the visiting Vancouver Canucks to a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken Monday in NHL action at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
  Linus Karlsson and centre Elias Pettersson scored for the Canucks (16-19-3) in regulation time. Goalie Kevin Lankinen was outstanding, stopping 37 of 39 shots, plus three more in the shootout, to earn the netminding win. Lankinen has stopped all 17 shootout shots he has faced this year.
  Jared McCann a
  
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• PHOTOS: Nanaimo ice rink transformed into ‘Winter Wonderland’

  30-12-2025 02:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Nanaimo’s Frank Crane Arena has been transformed into a ‘Winter Wonderland.’
  Free public skating events have been happening since Wednesday, Dec. 24, at the arena at Beban Park, with more Winter Wonderland skates Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 30-31.
  The skating, including skate and helmet rentals, is free thanks to sponsorships from local businesses.
  This year the event also included free outdoor concerts in the breezeway between the arena and social centre.
  
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• VIDEO: Iconic B.C. farm sold for highest-ever MLS listing

  30-12-2025 01:20 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Langley’s iconic Driediger Farms has a new owner.
  An online statement posted by B.C. Farm & Ranch Realty Corp. on Saturday, Dec. 28 announced the sale of the third and final portion of the 160 acre property, a 78-acre site at 7361 240 St. that includes a frozen fruit processing facility and farm.
  At a $26 million asking price for the 78-acre section, it was the highest sold farm on MLS ever, B.C. Farm & Ranch estimated.
  Rhonda Driediger, president and owner of Driediger Farms Ltd.
  
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• Vernon festival makes debut as provincial member

  30-12-2025 00:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  With just one year under its belt, Vernon’s very first Performing Arts Festival has already reached a major milestone.
  The Vernon Performing Arts Festival (VPAF), which took place last year, has joined Performing Arts BC as an Official Member Festival.
  “This milestone gives local performers the opportunity to qualify for the Provincial Performing Arts Festival, showcasing Vernon’s artistic talent on a provincial stage,” said Becky Martselos, VPAF president.
  Performing Art
  
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• Alberni Valley Rescue Squad helps snowshoers stranded by snowy weather

  29-12-2025 23:58 via nanaimobulletin.com
  The Alberni Valley Rescue Squad was called out on two missions in late December helping stranded folks and BC Emergency Health Services.
  Trio of snowshoers
  On Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m. they received a call about stranded snowshoers who were unable to get their vehicle free after heavy snowfall overnight. The rescue squad did not elaborate where exactly the snowshoers were stuck.
  The snowshoers were well prepared with chains, extra layers, food and a satellite phone which let them call for help. They
  
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• Missing 21-year-old Vancouver Island man found dead: RCMP

  29-12-2025 23:22 via nanaimobulletin.com
  The 21-year-old man who was reported missing to the Campbell River RCMP on Dec. 20 has been found dead.
  Tanner Closs-Gillis was found deceased on Dec. 28, according to an RCMP media release. Police say they do not suspect criminality, and the investigation has been turned over to the BC Coroners Service.
  The Campbell River RCMP thanked the public for the help and extended condolences to the family during this difficult time.
  No further information will be released.
  
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• 21-year-old Vancouver Island man found dead: RCMP

  29-12-2025 23:22 via nanaimobulletin.com
  The 21-year-old man who was reported missing to the Campbell River RCMP on Dec. 20 has been found dead.
  Tanner Closs-Gillis was found on Dec. 28, according to an RCMP media release. Police say they do not suspect criminality, and the investigation has been turned over to the BC Coroners Service.
  The Campbell River RCMP thanked the public for the help and extended condolences to the family during this difficult time.
  No further information will be released.
  
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• World gold medal won by Vernon Vipers defenceman

  29-12-2025 22:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  Vernon Vipers defenceman Dome Szongoth will return to the North Okanagan with some pre-Christmas jewelry.
  Szongoth, who will turn 20 on Jan. 18, helped his native Hungary win the International Ice Hockey Federation’s 2026 World Men’s Division 1 Group B hockey championship gold medal in Milano, Italy, Dec. 8-14.
  As the winner of the six-team tournament, Hungary will jump into the Division 1 Group A tournament next year. Norway won the Group A tournament in Slovenia and will be promote
  
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• Apollo lands a home for the holidays and other BC SPCA top stories from 2025

  29-12-2025 21:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  A tiny survivor named Apollo, a pair of orphaned otters, an emaciated pup and the redemption of humans are among the stories being celebrated province-wide by the BC SPCA for 2025.Apollo was one day old when discovered with two siblings in a Kelowna scrap yard. Gathered up by their finder, one sibling was euthanized shortly after arrival at the animal hospital, with a second following suit shortly.Apollo not only pulled through, but thrived according to the foster that named him.
  “This sto
  
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• ‘It’s time to let the unicorn out of the closet’: Rebrand of LGBT2Q+ Kelowna lounge

  29-12-2025 20:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  An LGBT2Q+ lounge in Kelowna is changing hands and will be getting a re-brand.
  Last Friday, Dec. 26, the current owners of the Friends of Dorothy lounge in downtown Kelowna announced the establishment was being sold after six years of operation.
  On Dec. 29, the new owner was revealed to be Dustyn Baulkham, founder and CEO of events and media company Rebellious Unicorns, as well as a festival manager for Kelowna Pride.
  He also served as co-chair of the Central Okanagan Foundation from 2023 to 202
  
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