A young man who was swimming in the Kettle River near Cascade Falls is missing and presumed drowned. Nicholas Rypien, 19, of Fruitvale was swimming with a group of friends in the river near Christina Lake on July 31, when he got caught up in the rapids and was not seen again. The Grand Forks […]

With the devastatingly horrific accounts of John Fulton’s murder becoming public, I find myself taking a moment to look at depression and the varying degrees of severity manic depressives (technically bi-polar affective disorder) experience.   “What do you know?” you ask. Well, let me tell you before you embarrass yourself in the forum below. Though […]

The culmination of over 13 years of planning, proposals, grant writing, and construction will be coming to fruition next Friday as the Christina Living Arts Centre hosts it’s grand opening.   This official ceremony will mark the region’s first Leadership in Energy and Ecological Design (LEED) building which will house Canada’s first LEED artisan’s gallery.   […]

Governments love ‘sin’ taxes. They fill up the coffers while creating the illusion that government is the high-minded protector of society’s moral well-being. But should government be running ‘sin’ businesses? If the performance of the BC Lottery Corporation (BCLC) is any indication, the answer is no – it creates far too much risk for players […]

 It’s still impaired driving if you’re driving a boat. That’s a message local police are failing to get through to residents, as road stops continue to net inordinately high numbers of impaired drivers leaving local lakes, campgrounds and beaches.   This past weekend saw two impaired charges and four suspensions, while the weekend of July […]

A flood of community support and assistance has washed over the Community Harvest Food Bank, after manager Deb McIntosh told local media the resource was in jeopardy.   McIntosh announced last week that the food bank was seeing increased demand and only had weeks left before having to close its doors, if more donations didn’t […]

 This past weekend my wife and I had the opportunity to spend some time with friends of ours, and during the day the discussion turned to wrongful death laws in B.C. Terry Napora (Terry Napora Law Offices) and Derek Miura (Derek Miura Law Corporation) informed me of the gross injustice families face in B.C .when […]

 This week I spent a whole bunch of time trying to help someone whose hard drive had crashed.  Her laptop got dropped, after which she wasn’t able to turn it on.  When I plugged it into another machine, the computer couldn’t even see that there was a hard drive there.  I phoned her to let […]

Open Letter: To begin, our family would like to thank the community of Grand Forks, Constable Bell and our Victim Service Worker Catherine Riddle for their overwhelming support and kindness. Words cannot express the loss our family has suffered, nor the horror of having to do it in such a public way. We have heard repeatedly that the mental health […]

 Kimberly Ruth Noyes has been found ‘not criminally responsible for reason of mental disorder’ in the killing of 12-year-old John Fulton of Grand Forks.  Rossland B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan handed down his ruling on the case that wrapped up testimony on Wednesday. McEwan’s lengthy verdict recounted evidence from the trial and case law […]