In The News

Questions raised after judge acquits driver in fatal crash.
​The family of a doctor killed by a speeding driver is demanding answers after the accused was acquitted. Rumina Daya talks to some experts about what it takes to lose a licence.

Fraser Valley – Have you ever had the experience of Jury duty?
For many, it’s tedious, boring, long hours and doesn’t pay well at all.
For others, it can be an emotional wrecking ball. Testimony that could break your heart, make you seethe with anger or disgust you with stomach churning details.
A former juror who suffered serious emotional trauma after serving on a jury, had requested a policy change which has led to a comprehensive study and report by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

Four young children were found left alone in a vehicle in a downtown Vancouver parkade on Wednesday afternoon.
Global BC reporter Rumina Daya was in a parkade beneath the law courts when she heard the muffled sound of a baby crying.

She followed the sound to an SUV and saw four young children — including a baby — inside the vehicle. All the kids appeared to be under the age of seven, Daya said.

There were no adults around and the door to the SUV was unlocked.​

Kyla Lee appeared on the Lynda Steele show with Mike Smyth to talk about increases to ICBC’s Driver Risk Premium for high risk offences. You can listen to the whole interview here.

The family of a motorcyclist killed in Delta are outraged that the driver behind the accident walked away with nothing more than a traffic ticket. Rumina Daya has more.

Carmen Smith had been married for just five days when her husband was killed in a crash.

“I had sympathy cards mixed with wedding cards on my mantel,” she said.

Brad Smith died when a car crossed the centre line and hit him as he was riding his motorcycle. The driver of the car was given a ticket of just over $100.

                                                                                                  ……

Kyla Lee spoke to Mark Brennae about proposed changes to drunk driving legislation.

The Provincial Government has included some changes to alcohol-impaired driving provisions in a new law addressing cannabis-impaired driving.

Ms. Lee described the alterations as “disturbing”.

In spite of trail-blazing by several U.S. states, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth seems intent on turning B.C.’s journey to cannabis legalization — a bright future of jobs, tax windfalls and the end of pernicious prosecutions — from a good trip into a bummer.
​
The sprawling omnibus legislation the top cop tabled Thursday in the legislature continued the mishandling by both senior levels of government of the transition from nearly a century of enforcing a criminal prohibition to a marijuana-friendly economy.

​A court ruling today could lead to the quashing of thousands of 24 hour drug impaired driving prohibitions. BC’s Supreme Court has ruled that police officers cannot introduce 24 hour prohibitions for drugs to drivers at police stations – or anywhere else that’s not at the roadside.

Kyla Lee said: “It’s a ruling related to 24 hour prohibitions for drugs which are often issued in the cases of cannabis impaired driving. It essentially limits the authority of police officers to issue them to only at the roadside. Typically what we’ve been seeing is that police officers will do their roadside investigation, arrest a person, take them back to the detachment for further testing and on completion of that testing, give them the prohibition. The court ruled today that that’s not lawful.”

Listen to the full interview here.

​