Residents of West Kelowna, B.C., offered bus visits to their homes destroyed by fire

People whose homes were destroyed by the wildfire in and around West Kelowna, B.C., are being contacted to schedule escorted bus visits to view the damage.

Only people whose properties are completely destroyed or damaged to the point they're uninhabitable will be invited to participate at this time, the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre said in a statement on Wednesday.

The process is aimed at ensuring people who have lost their homes "have the privacy, time and space to be the first to see their properties," it said.

N.W.T. extends state of emergency, premier tours Edmonton evacuation centre

A state of emergency in the Northwest Territories has been extended until Sept. 11 and its premier says she understands the frustration of those forced from their homes. 

"I want to go home, too. We all want to go home. It's hard being evacuated," Premier Caroline Cochrane said Wednesday following a visit to an Edmonton evacuation centre alongside federal ministers Randy Boissonnault and Dan Vandal, Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen and Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.

93 areas of interest found at site of former Saskatchewan residential school

A chief in Saskatchewan says her heart is broken after ground-penetrating radar located 93 areas of interest at the site of a former residential school.

English River First Nation Chief Jenny Wolverine said it’s believed 79 of the areas of interest at the Beauval Indian Residential School could be the size of possible children’s graves and 14 could be the size of ones for infants.

"It breaks my heart that there's likely more, or even that there's even one," Wolverine said Tuesday in Saskatoon. 

"The experience of residential school is horrific." 

Moscow helping cybercriminals operate with 'near impunity': Canadian Cyber Centre

Russian intelligence services and police will help cybercriminals operate with "near impunity" against their targets — including Canadians — in coming months, a new federal report predicts. 

The assessment released Monday says Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran, very likely act as cybercrime safe havens from which digital criminals within their borders can operate against western targets. 

Teachers turn to AI to make workload more manageable, chart lesson plans

Jessica Reid has thought about quitting the career she'd dreamed of since childhood hundreds of times.

Until recently, she was overwhelmed by her workload as an elementary school teacher— planning lessons for all subjects, creating behavioural support plans for students, grading, not to mention actual classroom time — while also raising three young kids of her own.

But then Reid turned to artificial intelligence, joining droves of other teachers who say the technology keeps their workload manageable, especially as they chart the course for a new school year.

Mental health advocates call on feds to end GST on counselling and psychotherapy services

A group representing providers of counselling services went to Parliament Hill this week to lobby the Trudeau government to drop GST/HST tax obligations on their services, "aiming to address Canada's escalating mental health crisis in the lead-up to the 2025 election."

Fear, falsehoods and conspiracy theories ignite amid Canada's wildfires

Canada's current wildfire season is devastating evidence of the effects of climate change, scientists say, but for some conspiracy theorists, the thousands of square kilometres of burnt ground isn't enough to convince them.

Instead, space lasers, arsonists and government plots to restrict people's movement are some of the causes of the fires, according to fringe online circles. But despite being fringe, these theories are widely circulated and boosted by social media algorithms.

Evacuation orders, final travel ban lifted for Kelowna area as wildfires diminish

The last travel restriction for the Okanagan region in British Columbia has been lifted alongside all previous evacuation orders within Kelowna's city limits, as wildfires there diminish after this week's rainfall.

Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said in a statement late yesterday that travel restrictions to West Kelowna — adjacent to the McDougall Creek wildfire — has been lifted as of midnight.

Protesters attempt to bypass RCMP wildfire blockade near Shuswap, B.C.

Protesters have tried to bypass an RCMP blockade on the Trans-Canada Highway in British Columbia's Shuswap region, amid tensions over the refusal of some residents to obey wildfire evacuation orders.

Live social media videos of the incident posted Wednesday evening show about 20 protesters confronting a blockade of police cars near the lakeside community of Sorrento.

They tell officers they do not believe politicians have the right to prevent them using the road, and that it is illegal for the RCMP to block it.