Vancouver Police are investigating a “targeted shooting” at the spot where a teenager was killed in a sword attack in January.

Const. Brian Montague confirmed to The Vancouver Sun that police were called to the 6300-block of Elgin Street about 1:30 a.m. May 27th after getting several 911 calls about “shots fired.”

“Our officers attended and confirmed that shots had been fired at a home in the block. The attack was targeted and the investigation into who is responsible is on-going,” Montague said. “There were people in the home at the time of the incident, but no one was injured.”

Vancouver resident Manraj Akalirai, 19, was nearly beheaded on the street outside the house when he was attacked by a group of people late on Jan. 23.

Last month, Amritpal Dhillon, 20, was charged with second degree murder in Akalirai’s death, while Amritpaul Rakhra, 18, was charged with manslaughter. Both will be arraigned in Vancouver Provincial Court on June 4.

Montague said police are looking at a possible link to the earlier murder as part of their probe.

“We will of course look at other investigations as well as other leads and theories to determine who is responsible, but it is too early in this investigation to conclusively make any links to other incidents or specific groups,” Montague said.

When charges in Akalirai’s murder were laid last month, VPD Insp. Laurence Rankin said the motive is believed to have been “an on-going conflict between two groups.”

“There was an issue between them and as a result of that issue, a conflict unfolded which led to the death of Mr. Akalirai,” he said.

It seems only one in 10 Canadians believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he says he didn’t know his chief of staff wrote a $90,000 cheque to Senator Mike Duffy.

The secret bailout deal was intended to help Duffy repay housing expenses he improperly took from taxpayers, and since the news broke, the prime minister has denied previous knowledge of it.
Harper maintains he didn’t hear about the secret deal until May 15, the day after the news broke.

According to Ipsos Reid, only 13 per cent of Canadians actually think that Harper is telling the truth, while 44 per cent aren’t really sure and 42 per cent are convinced he knew about the deal the whole time.

“There’s blood in the water; this is a very serious circumstance,” says Darrell Bricker with Ipsos Reid. “It’s not something that’s going to be going away anytime soon, and the government has to come up with better answers.”

On top of the skepticism about Harper’s explanations, it’s clear Canadians want to see an independent body investigate the scandal.

Three quarters of us think this scandal needs to be investigated by the RCMP or a judicial inquiry. Only six per cent think the Senate can handle it on its own.

The province of BC says it cannot support the Northern Gateway pipeline project as it’s been presented to the review panel because it does not address British Columbians’ environmental concerns.

That conclusion comes in the BC government’s final written submission to the Joint Review Panel that has been holding hearings into the proposal.

“British Columbia thoroughly reviewed all of the evidence and submissions made to the panel and asked substantive questions about the project including its route, spill response capacity and financial structure to handle any incidents,” says Environment Minister Terry Lake. “Our questions were not satisfactorily answered during these hearings.”

“Northern Gateway has said that they would provide effective spill response in all cases. However, they have presented little evidence as to how they will respond,” says Lake. “For that reason, our government cannot support the issuance of a certificate for the pipeline as it was presented to the Joint Review Panel.”

The environment is among the five conditions Premier Christy Clark has given to pipeline proposals.

Ben West of Forest Ethics says it’s a critical moment. “There’s a lot of pressure now on the Joint Review Panel to outright reject the pipeline, and even if they do not do so, there’s a lot of things our premier can do to ensure the pipeline isn’t built.”

Another environmental group — the Wilderness Committee — says the news isn’t as significant as it might first appear, since the federal government still has final say.

“Resource development will not proceed unless it is safe for Canadians and safe for the environment. That is why, for our part, we are moving forward with our plans to further enhance marine and pipeline safety and to engage with First Nations on west coast energy infrastructure,” says federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.

“We are working hard to meet the conditions and earn the confidence of the government and the people of BC,” says Janet Holder, Executive Vice President of Western Access with Northern Gateway.

The same month B-C Ferries hiked its rates, ridership tumbled on the major routes.

On April 1st, the Ferry Corporation increased fares by an average of 4.1 per cent for all routes — by the end of the month, ridership was down…and in some cases way down.

Take the Gulf Islands run — it saw a 20 per cent decline in the number of passengers leaving Tsawwassen — compared to April of 2012.

Passenger traffic on the main route between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay dropped 10 per cent in April, the Duke Point route saw a similar decline.

And between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo, ridership declined more than 7 per cent last month.

Tony Law is the Chair of the Denman-Hornby Ferry Advisory Committee and he says it’s part of a steady decline. “the Ferry Commissioner did point out a couple years ago that fares had reached the tipping point of affordability, and with these continuing increases at more than twice the rate of inflation, the pain is getting worse and worse for our communities.”

In addition to the fare hikes reducing ridership, Law points out most of the easter long weekend was in March.

A Vancouver couple is on trial for allegedly bringing a Filipino servant from Hong Kong to Canada illegally and forcing her to work in domestic servitude for several years.

For most of her adult life Leticia Sarmiento has looked after other peoples’ children In Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Hong Kong. But she never thought her dream job in Canada would become a nightmare.

In a landmark case in B.C., her employers, Franco Orr and his wife Nicole Huen, are charged with human trafficking under the Immigration Act. The couple has pleaded not guilty, but if they are convicted they could face a maximum fine of $1 million, life in prison, or both.

The Filipino nanny openly sobbed while telling her story to a B.C. Supreme Court jury on Thursday, how she was tricked into coming to B.C. with the young family on the promise she’d work for two years, then become a permanent resident.

Sarmiento, who has three children of her own in the Philippines, alleges she was forced to work two years straight with no days-off, no overtime pay and no access to her passport.

The couple’s lawyer Nicholas Preovolus says they have been receiving hostile emails and telephone calls since they were charged last year.

“My clients are under enormous stress right now. This has been hanging around their necks like an albatross for the past two years,” said Preovolus.

Orr’s employer recently told him he won’t be called to work until after the trial.

Naomi Krueger, the manager of Deborah’s Gate Safe House, said the case illustrates how nannies can be exploited even in Canada.

Tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in Canada.

For the past 25 years, May 31 has been World No Tobacco Day, as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), with a different theme from year to year. This year’s theme is a ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

To mark the day, we’ve pulled together some numbers on tobacco use and its consequences in Canada and around the world.

Among Canadian provinces, smoking rates vary from a low of 15.8 per cent in B.C. to 23.8 per cent in Saskatchewan, according to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey for 2011. As the map above shows, the numbers for Canada’s North are significantly higher.

Smoking rates have been falling for the last quarter-century, but since 2009 the rate of decline has levelled off. In 2011, 5.8 million Canadians 12 years and older smoked, a rate of 19.9 per cent.

Worldwide, there are about 1.1 billion smokers, about 22 per cent of the adult population. About 80 per cent live in low- or middle-income countries.

Our graph showing the total percentage of smokers in Canada by year goes back to 2003, when the rate was 23 per cent, but smoking rates have declined considerably from nearly a half-century ago.
In 1966, 41 per cent of Canadians 15 years and older were smoking.

Significantly more men than women smoke in all age groups, 22.3 per cent compared to 17.5 per cent. However, in the youngest age group, the male and female rates are almost the same.

According to U.S. data, about 80 per cent of high school students who smoke will smoke into adulthood.

The smoking rate in Canada is highest in the 20-24 year age group, for both men and women.

Worldwide, the number of male smokers is about four times the number of female smokers.

Total cigarette sales in Canada numbered 31.1 billion in 2011. That’s down from the 31.7 billion cigarettes sold the year before but higher that the 30.2 billion sold in 2006.

Unlike Canada, worldwide cigarette consumption has been increasing. “Smokers consumed nearly 5.9 trillion cigarettes in 2009, representing a 13 per cent increase in cigarette consumption in the past decade,” according to the Tobacco Atlas, by the World Lung Foundation .

In Canada, three manufacturers control 99.5 per cent of the Canadian tobacco market:

The big three are all owned by multinational corporations. And those three multinationals are highly profitable. For example, British American Tobacco, which owns Imperial Tobacco, had profits totalling $8.3 billion US in 2012.

Canada’s three tobacco giants are currently defending themselves in a $27-billion class-action lawsuit in Montreal.

Harry Black, 66, has been playing the same lotto numbers for 35 years.

On April 13th, those numbers paid off: he won Lotto 649 — twice.

According to a press release, “The 66-year-old Surrey resident has a unique habit of purchasing not one, but two tickets with the exact same numbers. For the April 13 Lotto 6/49 draw, this habit really paid off as Black twice matched all six numbers to win half of the record-breaking $63 million jackpot.”

Because he won with two tickets, he gets a larger share of the winnings than if he had played with just one.

“If Black had bought just one ticket, the pot would have been split three ways and he would have won $21 million. But because he bought two tickets, he earned himself an extra $10 million. It’s a dream scenario and one that’s never happened in B.C.,” CTV News reported.

“This is a wonderful surprise to all of us,” said Kevin Gass of the British Columbia Lottery. “While it’s not known how many people buy identical tickets for a draw, it is the first time in the company’s recollection that we’ve had this unique sort of win.”

Black, who works part-time in the film industry, doesn’t plan on quitting his job. He does, however, plan to travel, invest and build his dream home with the winnings.

“After this is done, I’ve got to get out of Dodge and do something I’ve never done in my entire life: go on a holiday,” he said.

Saltspring Islanders have come to the aid of a local family who lost their three-year-old daughter following a tragic collision Tuesday.

Kilaya Singh was killed after the car her mother Naomi was driving lost control and spun out on a wet, windy Island road at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

They were rounding a corner in the 2300-block of Fulford-Ganges Road at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when their Volkswagen Jetta spun 180 degrees on the slick road and smashed into an oncoming GMC van.
The back seat where Kilaya and her five-year-old sister Nayoki were sitting suffered the most damage.

Kilaya had no vital signs at the scene but was briefly revived and airlifted to B.C. Children’s Hospital, where she died later that day.

Singh and her daughter Nayoki remain in hospital in Victoria with serious injuries, her partner Kreuger Singh by their side.

The driver of the van suffered minor injuries.

Police say heavy rains created extremely poor driving conditions.

More than 250 people have donated to an Island crowdfunding campaign on Sharespring.ca, raising $18,000 as of Friday morning, far exceeding the initial $15,000 goal.

“Our ability as a community to rally around each other in times of need may be our greatest strength,” Sharespring’s site stated.

The brand new website was supposed to launch this week with two other projects. Instead, its creators are focusing on sparing the Singhs from adding to their grief with financial hardship.

According to Sharespring, Naomi ran a small catering company, Omja. To make ends meet she also sold samosas at the Island’s Saturday market and worked at a local restaurant.

“This accident will put enormous strains on the family,” the website continued. “Sizable costs will be incurred with Kreuger needing to cover all the family’s bills here on the island, travel costs back and forth to the hospital in Victoria, food and accommodation expenses … to be near his family, and sadly … funeral costs.”

Local residents can also donate at the Island Trust to the Singh Family Fund. Learn more at Sharespring.ca.