Truck driver found alive 2 days after rig crashed

HOPE — A truck driver trapped for more than two days in an overturned rig on the side of a highway is recovering in hospital.

Doug Fraser of the Chilliwack Search and Rescue Team described how first responders spent nearly 12 hours cutting apart the cab of an overturned semitruck to extract the driver, who hasn’t been identified and was reported missing Wednesday morning.

The crash happened on Highway 3 in the area of Rhododendron Flats in Manning Park, about 36 kilometres east of Hope.

Steel cables stretching from tow trucks parked on the roadway above required constant retensioning to prevent the trailers from slipping further down a steep embankment.

“It was a long slow process,” said Fraser. “Every time a piece of the cab was cut away, the cables from the tow trucks would need to be retensioned in order to stabilize things to keep the driver safe and the emergency crews who were working down below.”

The man sustained potentially life-threatening injuries and the cause of crash remains under investigation.

13-year-old charged in blaze that destroyed Nunavut school

KUGAARUK, Nunavut — A youth has been charged in a fire that destroyed the only school in a remote Nunavut hamlet.

RCMP say a 13-year-old is accused of arson in the blaze at the Kugaaruk school on Tuesday night.

No one was hurt, but officials are trying to find classroom space for hundreds of children.

Officials have said the firefighting effort was hampered by temperatures that reached – 60 C.

Kugaaruk sits on the southeastern shore of Pelly Bay off the Gulf of Boothia and has a population of just under 1,000 people.

Police say the youth has been released from custody on conditions and is to appear in court in Kugaaruk on April 5.

“The loss of the school has caused, and will continue to cause, hardship for the community as the school was used and utilized in several different roles,” police said in a news release Friday.

Deputy director of police temporarily relieved of duties

Montreal police confirmed Friday that a deputy director of the force has been temporarily relieved of his duties.

Bernard Lamothe’s suspension comes a week after the Quebec government broadened its investigation into allegations of wrongdoing within the Montreal police force.

The probe was launched after two former organized crime investigators appeared on a TV show and accused the force of corruption and fabricating evidence against lower-ranking officers.

Police aren’t saying if Lamothe’s departure is related to the allegations.