VANCOUVER
Vancouver

    • Evacuation order for Chilcotin River landslide area downgraded to alert

    A landslide along the Chilcotin River near Williams Lake, B.C. is shown in this Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024 handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout, Chief Willie Sellars) A landslide along the Chilcotin River near Williams Lake, B.C. is shown in this Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024 handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout, Chief Willie Sellars)
    Share

    Residents can return home now that an evacuation order following a landslide that blocked a British Columbia river for days has been downgraded.

    The Cariboo Regional District in B.C.'s central Interior issued an evacuation order on July 31 for 34 parcels of land along the Chilcotin River due to a landslide and declared a state of local emergency.

    The evaluation order covered a stretch of the river about 30 kilometres long and spanning nearly 73 square kilometres.

    The district says the evacuation order in the Chilcotin River landslide area has been downgraded to an evacuation alert.

    But it's warning residents not to interfere with any monitoring activity as landslide and river assessment is still ongoing in the area.

    The district is also asking people to be aware of additional slides or flooding.

    B.C.’s minister of emergency management and climate readiness said in a press conference on Tuesday that they are still concerned about the impacts following the Chilcotin River landslide.

    Bowinn Ma says the province is monitoring the salmon stocks as they come into the system, and they are also accessing the Chilcotin and Fraser River banks to ensure that any additional slumping doesn’t create new challenges to fish passage.

    This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2024.  

    CTVNews.ca Top Stories

    A man who has brain damage has a murder conviction reversed after a 34-year fight

    A man who has brain damage and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a shopkeeper in London had his decades-old conviction quashed Wednesday by an appeals court troubled by the possibility police elicited a false confession from a mentally vulnerable man. Oliver Campbell, who suffered cognitive impairment as a baby and struggles with his concentration and memory, was 21 when he was jailed in 1991 after being convicted based partly on admissions his lawyer said were coerced. “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years," Campbell said. “I can start my life an innocent man.” Campbell, now in his 50s, was convicted of the robbery and murder of Baldev Hoondle, who was shot in the head in his shop in the Hackney area of east London in July 1990. He had a previous appeal rejected in 1994 and was released from prison in 2002 on conditions that could have returned him to prison if he got into trouble. Defense lawyer Michael Birnbaum said police lied to Campbell and “badgered and bullied” him into giving a false confession by admitting he pulled the trigger in an accident. He was interviewed more than a dozen times, including sessions without either a lawyer or other adult present. His learning disability put him “out of his depth” and he was "simply unable to do justice to himself,” Birnbaum said. He said the admissions were nonsense riddled with inconsistencies that contradicted facts in the case. At trial, he testified that he was not involved in the robbery and had been somewhere else though he couldn't remember where. A co-defendant, Eric Samuels, who has since died, pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, he told his lawyer Campbell was not the gunman and later told others Campbell wasn’t with him during the robbery. Lawyers continued to advocate for Campbell that he wasn't the killer and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential injustices. The three judges on the Court of Appeal rejected most of Birnbaum's grounds for appeal but said they were troubled by the conviction in light of a new understanding of the reliability of admissions from someone with a mental disability. The panel quashed the conviction as 'unsafe,' and refused to order a retrial.

    Shopping Trends

    The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.

    Vancouver Island

    Kelowna

    Edmonton

    Calgary

    Lethbridge

    Winnipeg

    Regina

    Saskatoon

    Toronto

    Montreal

    Ottawa

    Atlantic

    London

    Kitchener

    Northern Ontario

    N.L.

    Stay Connected
    Follow CTV News