LIVE AT PDT | Sunrise ceremony opens daylong Kamloops, B.C., memorial to mark graves detection anniversary

Two more schools have declared functional closures in B.C. as illnesses and isolations due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 leave a handful of elementary and secondary schools without enough staff to operate safely.
Heritage Park Middle School in Mission is closed from today until next Thursday while Armstrong Elementary in Armstrong expects to reopen on Tuesday -- as those two schools join Hazelton Secondary in northwestern B.C. and an independent Christian school in Surrey that declared functional closures earlier this week.
B.C. School Trustees Association president Stephanie Higginson says, all things considered, schools have done very well dealing with the effect of the rapidly spreading COVID variant because just four out of roughly 1,600 have been hit so far.
Other services and businesses affected by illness include Whistler Transit which has cancelled several routes through the weekend because of a lack of drivers, while a number of BC Ferries sailings were also scrubbed this morning due to staffing issues.
Tens of thousands of people remain without power after Saturday's powerful storm that left at least nine dead and caused extensive damage throughout southern Ontario and Quebec.
The storm that moved across Ontario and Quebec Saturday is known as a 'derecho', a powerful kind of windstorm that is long lasting and far-reaching.
A new study that brought sniffer dogs to an airport to search for COVID-19 has found that dogs may be able to detect the virus with high accuracy just from smelling skin swabs.
A Ukrainian court sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison Monday for killing a civilian, sealing the first conviction for war crimes since Moscow's invasion three months ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for 'maximum' sanctions against Russia during a virtual speech Monday to corporate executives, government officials and other elites on the first day of the World Economic Economic gathering in Davos.
A memorial to mark the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the detection of an unmarked burial site at the former residential school at Kamloops, B.C. starts early Monday with a ceremony at sunrise and concludes with a closing evening prayer.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been good for the wallets of the wealthy. Some 573 people have joined the billionaire ranks since 2020, bringing the worldwide total to 2,668, according to an analysis released by Oxfam on Sunday. That means a new billionaire was minted about every 30 hours, on average, so far during the pandemic.
More than 1,000 lawyers in Ontario have signed a petition to make all court appearances 'presumptively virtual unless parties and their counsel agree otherwise.'
Hydro Ottawa says it will take several days to restore power and clean up after a severe storm damaged hydro poles and wires on Saturday.