In 2007, when Beth was six years old, the Kelowna office of British Columbia’s Ministry of Children and Family Development, or MCFD, placed her in foster care while her mother was in a treatment facility for alcoholism. Living in strangers’ homes, she faded into the background. She felt like she was no one’s priority. By […]
NEW LAWSUIT HITS MCFD The beleaguered Kelowna branch of the Ministry of Children and Family Development is the subject of another lawsuit. In a civil suit filed Friday, a West Kelowna couple claims local social worker Brandi Rollin shared false allegations of child abuse at their child’s school and in the community. Castanet is not […]
NO JAIL TIME FOR PAC THIEF UPDATE: 2 p.m. Belinda Yorke will not spend any time behind bars for stealing over $10,000 from the Oliver Elementary School PAC between 2016 and 2018. Yorke pleaded guilty to the theft in 2020, and heard her sentence in Penticton court Friday. She will serve a two-year conditional sentence, […]
‘BAFFLED’ BY LACK OF CHARGES Criminal charges have still yet to be laid against a former Kelowna social worker who’s been accused of stealing money from multiple vulnerable youth who were once in his care, more than two years after the allegations first came to light. Robert Riley Saunders was suspended from his social work […]
BRUTALITY SUIT PROCEEDS A B.C. man has won the right to proceed with a lawsuit against a police officer for a rough arrest in 2016 that the Mountie has already been criminally charged over. During the early morning hours of Feb. 18, 2016, Cuyler Richard Aubichon and Nathaniel Lazarus Basil were arrested in Prince George […]
ACCUSED MOUNTIES AT ARREST Two Kelowna RCMP officers who are under investigation for separate arrests were both involved in a 2019 arrest that’s now the subject of a civil lawsuit. Cole Vasko filed a lawsuit last year against Kelowna RCMP officer Const. Lacy Browning, who gained national attention, and a separate civil lawsuit, for her treatment of […]
JAKE VIRTANEN HIT WITH LAWSUIT A woman has filed a civil lawsuit against Vancouver Canucks forward Jacob “Jake” Virtanen. The Vancouver Canucks placed Virtanen on leave last month after a sexual misconduct allegation surfaced online. Lawyer Michael Patterson, who is representing the woman, confirms with Glacier Media a civil lawsuit was filed on Wednesday. “The […]
FOSTER PARENT ASSAULT LAWSUIT Warning: Details in this story may be disturbing to some readers. An Okanagan man has filed a lawsuit over alleged abuse while he was a child in the B.C. foster system in the 1980s. In a civil claim filed March 29 at the Penticton courthouse, complainant D.P. alleged through his lawyer […]
‘IT IS A SILENCING SYSTEM’ A former RCMP officer who is facing serious allegations of breach of trust and sexual harassment from multiple women has worked at six detachments across B.C. Glacier Media has confirmed with RCMP Headquarters the locations that Brian Burkett worked at during his time as an officer between 2007 and 2017. […]
COP RESPONDS TO CIVIL SUIT Four months after a Kelowna man filed a lawsuit against a local RCMP officer, alleging the officer broke his hand during an arrest, the RCMP has filed a formal response refuting the allegations. Dustin Blondin was pulled over and had his car impounded for excessive speeding in Lake Country on […]
