Conservation officers in B.C. remove metal stove pipe stuck on bear’s head

Conservation officers in B.C. remove metal stove pipe stuck on bear’s head

OLIVER - A young bear in British Columbia's Okanagan had to endure several days with a stove pipe stuck over its head before conservation officers were able to remove it.

The Conservation Officer Service of B.C. says residents in the area near Oliver first reported the problem about two weeks ago, saying they spotted a bear with what appears to be a long metal pipe protruding several feet off its snout. 

The service says officers made several attempts to tranquilize the wily bear until they were successful on Saturday. 

Sgt. James Zucchelli with the service based in nearby Penticton says the bear did not suffer any injuries, and was tagged and released outside Oliver once the pipe was removed.

Mayoral candidate Vogiatzak criticized for living outside Winnipeg

A mayoral hopeful took heat from other candidates Friday for living outside Winnipeg while running in the civic election.

Mike Vogiatzakis’s primary residence is in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews, about 25 kilometres north of Winnipeg — a community with its own mayor and councillors.

But the funeral director said he owns a home in Winnipeg where he divides his time, and he would move to the city full-time if elected mayor.

“It doesn’t matter where a person lives. Why are we dividing St. Andrews and Manitoba and Winnipeg? I’ve met the criteria to run for mayor,” Vogiatzakis said Friday morning.

Premier League would be all too relieved if Blues simply went away for a while

Manchester City will face Liverpool in the Premier League next weekend.

That is a statement of fact. The match will kick off Sunday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m. CT, FuboTV) at Anfield, though the 90 minutes that follow will be more a spectacle than a game, if not a circus.

By now the football world — as well as the general news cycle and relevant authorities — has had more than a week to absorb the shock of the sport’s biggest tremor of recent times.

Man City, according to the findings of an independent commission, broke more than 100 of the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018. Its breaches, per the ruling, were deliberate, premeditated and at industrial scale.

Software glitch caused multi-provincial 911 outage: Bell

A 911 outage that affected Manitoba and four other provinces for about 90 minutes last month was caused by a software failure, according to Bell Canada’s report to a federal regulator.

An abridged version of the report, which was made public Friday, did not say how many callers were affected when Bell’s next-generation 911 platform stopped receiving new calls and transferring new calls to local 911 communications centres, putting backup systems into use.

The outage, which lasted from 2:13 a.m. to 3:40 a.m. central time on Sept. 17, was not caused by a cyberattack or any change activity, Bell said.

“Rather, the outage was caused by a latent software issue that triggered an unexpected condition in certain network components within the (next-generation 911) network,” Philippe Gauvin, Bell’s assistant general counsel, wrote in the report, which was published on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s website.

Safety upgrades completed at Whiteshell park falls where brothers drowned

Safety improvements have been completed at Sturgeon Falls in Whiteshell Provincial Park, where two brothers from Winnipeg drowned in July, the province announced Friday.

The Sturgeon Falls trail was closed for upgrades after Maximo Au Ramirez, 10, and Aaron Au Ramirez, 13, disappeared in the fast-moving rapids. Their bodies were recovered days later.

The trail and viewing areas have reopened. Viewing areas are now fenced to prevent people from walking onto hazardous slippery rocks. Signs were installed to warn visitors of drowning hazards.

A new portage gives canoeists and kayakers access to and from safe shoreline areas adjacent to the falls, the province said.

Man accused of killing five family members fires second legal team, but murder trial won’t be delayed, judge warns

A Manitoba man accused of killing five family members is once again looking for new lawyers to represent him at trial.