Woman dies as group jumps from bridge
SICAMOUS — A 23-year-old New Zealand woman has died after she and three friends jumped from a bridge in Sicamous.
RCMP say it happened at around 2 a.m. Wednesday when all four people leaped from the bridge, 20 metres above the channel connecting Shuswap and Mara lakes, 75 kilometres north of Vernon.
When the woman didn’t resurface after the jump her friends found her and pulled her to shore where she was rushed to hospital, but was pronounced dead.
Police say there is nothing criminal about the death.
The BC Coroners Service is continuing an investigation and the woman’s name will not be released.
The death is the second water-related fatality in Sicamous this summer and the Lifesaving Society of BC and Yukon says 34 drowning deaths had been recorded in B.C. to August 1.
Endangered orca still pushing body of her calf
VANCOUVER — An endangered orca is not letting go of her newborn calf, whose body she has been pushing through the water for more than two weeks.
The whale known as J35 was spotted in coastal waters near the border between B.C. and Washington state Wednesday with the carcass of her calf that was born and died on July 24.
Sheila Thornton with Fisheries and Oceans Canada says scientists are becoming concerned that the whale’s behaviour will interfere with her ability to forage, but no intervention in planned.
They spotted J35 while searching for another of the 75 southern resident killer whales, labelled an endangered species in both Canada and the United States.
Scientists on both sides of the border have been working together on an emergency rescue plan for a young female orca known as J50, that appears emaciated but continues to swim alongside her mother.
Family of Colten Boushie file lawsuits
SASKATOON — The family of an Indigenous man shot to death on a Saskatchewan farm has filed lawsuits against the RCMP and the farmer who was acquitted in the killing.
Colten Boushie was killed after being shot in the head on a farm near the community of Biggar in August 2016.
Gerald Stanley, the landowner, was found not guilty of second-degree murder after testifying that his gun went off accidentally.
The claim against Stanley argues that he caused the death of Boushie through negligence, recklessness, or by an intentional act.
Boushie’s family is also suing the Attorney General of Canada and individual RCMP officers over the way they were treated on the night Boushie died.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Calgary could break temperature record
Calgary could reach an all-time high temperature on Friday as a heat wave sweeps across much of Western Canada.
The Weather Network’s all-time high for Calgary is 36.1 C, which was set in 1919 and matched again in 1933.
The network is forecasting 37 C on Friday, although it notes smoke from wildfires in the area could prevent the record from being broken.
Environment Canada is forecasting a temperature of 36 C on Friday in Calgary and says that’s 14 degrees warmer than normal.