The attack took place Nov. 20 and left four people seriously injured — one adult and three children. The search for bears involved in the attack has been ongoing ever since.

Forensic evidence has ruled out the four grizzlies that have so far been captured by conservation officers, the COS said in a social media statement Friday evening, Nov. 28.

“The BCCOS received results today from a forensics lab, which analyzed evidence from the attack, including animal DNA. None of the captured bears were linked to the attack,” the COS said.

The bears will be relocated within their home range but far from the Bella Coola community in the coming days, with help from wildlife biologists and the provincial wildlife veterinarian.

Meanwhile, the search for any bears involved in the attack goes on.

“The BCCOS continues to support the Nuxalk Nation as the search for any bears involved and investigation continues,” the COS said.

The victims in the attack were among a group of students and teachers who had stopped along a trail near a river in the 4 Mile area when the attack took place. In all, 11 people were injured.

The COS said it had captured the two most recent grizzlies on Thursday, Nov. 27. The first two bears were captured Monday, Nov. 24.

Residents are asked to avoid the 4 Mile area, stay indoors, and refrain from searching for any bears themselves.

“Conservation Officers will continue to monitor bear activity in the Bella Coola area and respond as necessary to ensure public safety.”

Vitali Stefanski is accused of murdering his ex-wife, Lumby mother Tatjana Stefanski, in April 2024. He appeared in Vernon Supreme Court Wednesday, Nov. 26, for a hearing in which his lawyer requested the change in the location of his trial.

The judge presiding over the hearing granted the move to the Kamloops courthouse on the basis that Vitali would not be able to reasonably participate in his trial if the trial was held in Vernon, according to the BC Prosecution Service.

Vitali’s trial was scheduled to commence in May 2026, and the Prosecution Service says the original trial dates have been preserved. A three-week voir dire, or trial within a trial, will begin on April 13 — the two-year anniversary of Tatjana’s death. The trial proper is set to commence on May 25 and last for five weeks.

Jason Gaudreault, Tatjana’s partner, said he was blindsided by the decision to move the trial. He told The Morning Star he hadn’t been made aware that Wednesday’s court hearing was taking place until minutes before it began. He was even more surprised to learn the court had acquiesced to the demands of Stefanski’s lawyer, Tony Lagemaat.

Gaudreault said he was informed that the trial would be moved because Stefanski is unable to access files related to his trial in Vernon and would be able to do so at the correctional facility in Kamloops, where he is being held. That the trial would be unfair to Vitali if he were unable to take part in it by reviewing files with his lawyer was the reason behind the decision to move the trial, Gaudreault said.

The prevailing precendent in the B.C. court system is to hold trials in the community in which the offence took place.

The decision poses the question: if Vitali’s trial would be unfair because he couldn’t access documents while in Vernon, could any trial located in Vernon be deemed unfair on the same basis?

The relocation of the trial is a frustrating decision for Gaudreault, who said he and his family, as well as likely more than a dozen witnesses, will now have to commute to Kamloops for the lengthy trial.

Gaudreault has tirelessly attended most every hearing in the case to date. He’ll have to drive nearly two hours to Kamloops to do so now.

“I am outraged,” Gaudreault said, while wondering why the court wouldn’t commute Vitali to and from Vernon during the trial instead of having scores of witnesses and family members do the commuting.

He’s incensed by what he called a lack of communication from Crown counsel about the possibility that the trial location could be moved.

“This was a huge impact on Tatjana’s case and they never notified me at all what was happening,” he said.

By the time Vitali’s trial begins in May, it will be roughly two years since he was arrested on a charge of murder. Around that time, it came out that police had released Vitali from custody the day after Tatjana was killed, a decision that sparked fear and anger in the community.

Officers with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C.’s Uniform Gang Enforcement Team initiated the traffic stop on March 22, 2024, after observing an electric motorbike commit multiple traffic violations.

The driver did not stop for police and was arrested a short time later, according to a press release from the Special Enforcement Unit.

A search of the driver led to the seizure of illicit drugs, cash, a Girsan semi-automatic pistol, six rounds of ammunition and a pistol magazine and holster.

The driver was identified as 48-year-old Christopher Fillingham of Valemount.

Officers determined Fillingham was subject to a court-ordered weapons ban at the time of the incident.

The BC Prosecution Service approved two charges against Fillingham in October 2024: unauthorized possession of a loaded restricted firearm and possession of a restricted firearm while prohibited.

Fillingham entered a guilty plea to the unauthorized possession charge on Nov. 10, 2025. He was then sentenced to three years in jail in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.

The court added a lifetime firearms prohibition and a DNA order.

“Uniform Gang Enforcement Team officers work tirelessly across the province to investigate individuals who pose a risk to public safety through violence, weapons, and illicit drug activity,” said Sgt. Sarbjit K. Sangha, media relations officer for the Special Enforcement Unit. “This sentence reflects the seriousness of the offence and the ongoing work underway to disrupt violent criminal behaviour in our communities.”

Bonnie Milligan, born in 1952, was also sentenced to one year of probation. She pleaded down from two animal cruelty charges — causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal and failing to provide life necessities to an animal — after the BC SPCA seized 32 dogs from her property in February 2024.

The dogs that were seized were among 59 dogs that were found during a search of the Clearwater property, according to the BC SPCA. The seized dogs included dachshunds, poodles, miniature Schnauzers and various poodle-mix breeds, all of different ages.

“The dogs were owned by an irresponsible breeder who was keeping them in a dark building without adequate heating or bedding for the dogs. It was very unsanitary with an overwhelming ammonia smell,” said Eileen Drever, a senior BC SPCA officer, in a statement issued Feb. 20, 2024. “The owners were not providing them with the necessary veterinary care, enrichment or socialization they desperately needed.”

One of the dogs was a senior dachshund , which had an abdominal mass that was so large it was dragging on the ground, the BC SPCA said. Milligan hadn’t taken the dog to a veterinarian, and the dog had to be euthanized after it was determined the mass was a tumour that had metastasized.

“This is an incredibly sad situation all around,” Drever said at the time. “These dogs were treated as commodities and are not only dealing with physical health issues, but are suffering psychologically. The dogs are extremely fearful. Many couldn’t be touched at all , and the dogs cowered in fear when the owner came near.”

She added that BC SPCA staff had been noticing repetitive behaviours in the dogs, like pacing back and forth in their kennels, a sign of a lack of mental stimulation.

The offence was dated Feb. 15, 2024, and Milligan’s guilty plea and sentencing came roughly 21 months later.

In the February 2024 statement, Drever said the case is a reminder to people considering purchasing a dog from a breeder to do their homework.

“This breeder was meeting with potential buyers in parking lots, which is a red flag that the animals are not being adequately cared for,” she said. “If they won’t let you visit the dogs where they are being housed, don’t purchase a dog from them.”

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO) was tasked with deciding whether the RCMP could have done more to find the woman who went missing Oct. 11, 2023, more than three weeks before her body was found in thick bushes just 700 metres from where she was last seen. Foul play was not suspected, and hypothermia was deemed the cause of death.

A civilian witness had contacted the IIO to request the investigation into Vanderhoof RCMP’s response to a wellness check on the woman the day she went missing. The unnamed witness was concerned that efforts to locate the woman before her death were inadequate, according to a public notice issued by the IIO on Wednesday, Nov. 26.

Police officers had attended the woman’s residence and spoke with an occupant who had not seen the woman the previous day. Officers went to a second address where she might have been and unsuccessfully tried to examine the contents of a cell phone belonging to the woman, which had been found smashed outside her residence.

At the home where the woman had been staying, officers arrested a person for breaching their court conditions to not be there. They returned to the detachment and started a missing persons investigation.

Search and Rescue operations were called, and the RCMP also put out several notifications to other officers in B.C. to check places the woman frequented.

An RCMP helicopter was unable to be used due to mechanical issues.

Crucial to the case was that a canine unit was also not utilized. The police dog handler had told an officer that the dog would not be of use because of the number of people in the area of the search mission who would have thrown off any scent trail.

“It was reported that this conflicting human scent would have made any tracking by the dog impossible,” the IIO’s decision states.

A Prince George drone operator was contacted and helped with the search around the woman’s home, to no avail.

Throughout that same afternoon on Oct. 11, police officers in various parts of the province, including Prince George and Fraser Lake, knocked on doors and continued the search.

The search continued from Oct. 12 to 14 with a search and rescue helicopter, social media utilization and officers following up on tips.

Various other search activities took place until Nov. 5, when another civilian witness was searching an area and found some personal items with the missing woman’s name on them. He advised the RCMP , who attended with a police dog.

Within 15 minutes of searching the area, the woman’s body was found.

An autopsy report from June 2024 said the woman had a small amount of methamphetamine in her system, and a pathologist concluded the substance may have left her less able to get out of the cold, leading to death by hypothermia.

The IIO acknowledged the record of Indigenous women in B.C. whose deaths have been highlighted by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“When a vulnerable, Indigenous woman goes missing in this province, exceptional efforts are warranted,” the watchdog said.

The IIO also acknowledged that the RCMP could have used its police dog sooner, even if it had a very slim chance of proving successful.

However, it ultimately found a lack of “wanton or reckless disregard” for the missing woman’s life, which would need to be established in order for the RCMP to be criminally culpable.

“The RCMP followed the policing standards in the province, which apply to these types of investigations. The evidence shows both the community and police took many steps to find (the woman),” the IIO said.

The matter will not be referred to Crown counsel for consideration of charges.

Maternity Matters Kamloops is holding the rally on Saturday, Nov. 29, which is International Women Human Rights Defender Day.

The rally will take place at 1 p.m. outside the Kamloops hospital, where seven obstetrician-gynecologists (OB/GYNs) resigned last month, citing what they called unsafe working conditions and unmanageable workloads on their way out.

Maternity Matters Kamloops describes itself as a grassroots collective of local advocates, birth workers, parents and community members. It’s calling for progress from Interior Health and the Health Ministry in solving the ongoing maternity care situation in Kamloops.

“The situation has grown even more critical as the countdown to OB/GYN resignations and clinic closures moves forward,” the group said in a press release Tuesday, Nov. 25. “Birth workers warn that the current conditions place both pregnant patients and newborns at increased risk of harm.”

The group claims many frontline workers are restricted by Interior Health from speaking publicly.

“Some have turned to Maternity Matters Kamloops to share their concerns confidentially due to fear of professional consequences,” the group stated. “Their experiences underscore the urgent need for continued public outcry, as those working on the frontlines are reporting continued confusion and burnout, with no real solution in sight.”

Interior Health faced two waves of resignations last month, when on top of the Kamloops OB/GYN resignations, four psychiatrists tendered their resignations at Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

Dr. Peter Bosma, executive medical director for Interior Health North, told Black Press Media at the time that workloads are heavy for health care professionals in the region, as they are elsewhere, adding this owes to a short supply of health care specialists “everywhere.”

Bosma said a “significant” offer was made to the Kamloops OB/GYNs which was refused.

For their part, the outgoing Kamloops maternity specialists weren’t asking for better compensation, just better working conditions.

Maternity Matters Kamloops said it’s looking to amplify the voices of those affected by the state of Royal Inland’s maternity ward by demanding that Interior Health and the ministry take “concrete steps to stabilize and restore safe maternity care in Kamloops.”

The group is also calling for transparency and proactivity when it comes to the health authority’s communication of its efforts to improve the situation.

“To instill public confidence and reduce community confusion, health administrators must provide meaningful updates about their progress,” the group said.

For more information, visit maternitymatterskamloops.com.

Black Press has reached out to Interior Health for comment.

As was the case with the first captured bear, it’s unclear if this second bear was involved in the attack.

The second bear was safely captured in Bella Coola Monday, Nov. 24, the COS confirmed in a social media update Tuesday afternoon.

“The male bear is currently being assessed. Preliminary evidence is not conclusive that the captured bear was involved in the attack,” the COS said.

Just like the first captured bear, this bear will be fitted with a tracking collar and relocated within its home range, far from the Bella Coola community, in coordination with Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship wildfire biologists and the provincial wildlife veterinarian, the COS said.

The bear attack occurred on Nov. 20 and lefty four people seriously injured — one adult and three children. The victims were among a group of students and teachers who had stopped along a trail near a river in the 4 Mile area when the attack took place. In all, 11 people were injured.

The COS has been endeavouring to locate and capture multiple grizzly bears since the attack.

The B.C. Wildlife Federation said a day after the attack that human-bear conflicts are worsening following the B.C. government’s decision to end the grizzly bear hunt. Since the ban in 2017, calls about grizzly bears doubled to nearly 1,000 a year.

The grizzly hunt ended in B.C. largely due to popular opinion, with no scientific rationale, according to the BC Wildlife Federation, which called the decision “a shortsighted move.”

Bella Coola residents are urged to report any bear sightings or information to the Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP) line at 1-877-952-7277.

— With files from Laisa Condé and Trevor Crawley

Rye Harwood, director at large with the Vernon Pride Society, presented a fact about the world’s largest animal to a crowd of nearly 100 people who gathered in solemn observance Thursday evening, Nov. 20.

“They have a heart that is surprisingly similar in structure to our own,” Harwood said. “It beats in similar rhythms inside of their massive careening bodies under the ocean. Every time it beats, which is about once every eight minutes, the heartbeat resonates throughout the ocean for up to eight kilometres in all directions.”

Harwood said when he learned that fact, it sounded stranger than fiction. And yet marine biologists don’t question the fact at all. They understand the reality that swims beneath the surface of the ocean, out of sight but no less real.

“It seems like it should be just as easy to acknowledge the existence of trans people,” Harwood said.

Beneath the surface of heteronormative society is a subset of the population that just wants their everyday reality to be better understood.

Like the heartbeat of the blue whale that pulsates through the waters far and wide, Harwood feels the presence of trans people in the community, people whose hearts beat just like anyone else’s.

“When I see another trans person in the community, when I’m just out and about grabbing groceries and we do that thing where our eyes meet, it feels like I’m running into another blue whale,” he said.

Trans Day of Remembrance is far from a holiday. Rather, it is a memorial, said Dawn Tucker, president of the Pride Society. It is a day to mourn the trans lives lost, here and everywhere. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, 81 per cent of transgender adults in the U.S. have thought about suicide, and 42 per cent have attempted it. According to a 2024 Statistics Canada report, 25 per cent of people aged 15 to 24 who are 2SLGBTQ+ reported thoughts of suicide compared to five per cent among heterosexual people the same age.

Trans Day of Remembrance is “a day that exists because too many two-spirit, non-binary and transgender people —especially trans women of colour — have lost their lives to violence, hatred, and neglect,” Tucker said.

Candlelight vigils in past years have been held in Spirit Square, but this year’s vigil took place on the steps of the Vernon courthouse, signalling that a call to justice was intrinsic to this observance of Trans Day of Remembrance.

“Across North America, we are seeing a rise in anti-trans rhetoric and political hostility. In the United States, lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills designed specifically to target transgender people — many of them attacking youth access to healthcare, school participation, and even the ability to simply be themselves in public,” Tucker said.

“Here in Canada, we are not insulated from that climate. We’re seeing troubling shifts — policies in Alberta that restrict pronoun use in schools, proposals to block gender-affirming care for minors, and ongoing attempts to politicize the lives of trans youth. Even here in B.C. we’ve seen misinformation campaigns aimed at rolling back inclusive education and undermining SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) resources,” Tucker continued.

“We feel it here in the Okanagan. Trans people in our own community are facing more hostility, more verbal harassment, more fear around accessing services or simply being visible in public. This is not just a national issue, it’s a Vernon issue.”

At the end of the vigil a moment of silence was observed and people were invited to speak about someone they’ve lost, or someone they care about.

The crowd then walked from the courthouse to the nearby library, where more speeches were given.

If you are a trans person in distress, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-330-6366.

An accident took place at the mine Friday resulting in the death of one worker, with no further injuries reported, Taseko Mines confirmed in a press release.

The incident occurred in an active mining area and was discovered around 5 p.m. Taseko said the accident site has been secured and mining activity has been halted while an investigation is underway.

RCMP and the BC Coroners Service are currently on-site. The BC Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals has also been notified.

“We are saddened to report the loss of a valued colleague at Gibraltar, and offer our deepest condolences to affected family, co-workers and friends,” Taseko vice-president of corporate affairs Sean Magee said.

“Our primary concern is the health, safety and well-being of our employees. Accordingly, we have halted all activity at Gibraltar until the accident can be fully investigated, and will make counselling and support services available to Gibraltar employees affected by this tragic event.”

Gibraltar personnel are cooperating fully with the investigation, Taseko said.

This is the second death at a B.C. mine in as many days. A 39-year-old Hosmer, B.C. resident was confirmed dead by RCMP following an indicent at the Elkview Operations mine in Sparwood early Thursday morning, Nov. 20.

Conservative MLAs Sheldon Clare (Prince George-North Cariboo), Lorne Doerkson (Cariboo-Chilcotin) and Pete Davis (Kootenay-Rockies) issued a statement about the fatal incident Saturday.

“We are saddened to hear the news today from Taseko Mines Limited of the death of a contract worker at Gibraltar copper mine north of Williams Lake. Our deepest condolences go out to the worker’s family, friends, and colleagues as they grieve this devastating loss,” the MLAs said.

“Workplace fatalities are preventable. The priority now must be a thorough and transparent investigation by Taseko Mines Limited, WorkSafeBC, the RCMP, BC Coroners Service, and the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals to learn exactly what happened, and to minimize future risk,” the MLAs added. “Workers in the Cariboo and across the province deserve to know that when they go to work, they will return home safely.”

B.C.’s primary resource sector saw 50 deaths in oil, gas and mineral extraction in the decade spanning 2014 to 2023, according to WorkSafeBC data. There were six deaths in this subsector in 2023, the most recent year with data available, compared to three deaths in the previous year.

In the manufacturing sector there have been 134 deaths related to mineral products from 2014 to 2023. The high was in 2023, when 22 deaths were recorded in that subsector.

Virginia Dansereau and Harold Rhenisch both went home with wins in the poetry category at the Book Awards on Aug. 23. Dansereau’s award was for her latest book of poems, called I Know That Woman, while Rhenisch was awarded for his book titled The Salmon Shanties, his 34th book.

Dansereau went to the Awards not knowing her book was on the winner’s list, and was pleasantly surprised when her name was called.

She said it was the third year of the awards and the first time self-published works like hers were made eligible.

I Know That Woman is, as the title suggests, all about women, from ages three to 93, Dansereau said.

She has a bevy of poems she’s written over the years. She used to journal every morning and at the end of each entry she would write a poem — usually something that came out of the journaling, she said.

“And that’s where a lot of these poems come from.”

Winning the award was a chance for Dansereau to view her book again with a renewed sense of appreciation for what it offers.

“To pick it up again and read it again, it’s quite fun actually,” she said. “I’ve noticed that from my own writing, just reading old stuff, you rediscover it.”

Asked what inspires her to write, Dansereau said “mostly people. They’re so changeable, and the behaviour is so different in each person.”

She likes to work a healthy dose of nature into her writing as well.

Dansereau has lived in Vernon for more than 40 years and has been a writer for most of that time.

She is friends with Rhenisch, who said it was a “thrill” that The Salmon Shanties was deemed worth honouring at the Awards.

Out of 14 of his poetry books it’s the first that has earned royalties.

“Being a poet requires hope and patience,” he said. “Kind of like farming.”

Rhenisch went on tour last year and read from The Salmon Shanties 25 times. He launched the book in Tofino at the 2024 Salmon Festival.

“The final reading was in Cumberland this August, exactly a year after the first launch, on the same night as the awards ceremony in Sechelt. That night I talked about how the sound of the sea created the shape of the book,” he said.

In a humorous twist, songwriters have come to several readings expecting sea shanties. One friend thought the shanties were little shacks for salmon.

“I kind of love that,” Rhenisch said.

The form of the poems comes from listening to Chinook tribal drum songs on a trip up the Columbia in 2009.

“The intent is to include settler and Indigenous experience together, as one historical and cultural continuum,” Rhenisch said.

Rhenisch had words of appreciation for Dansereau upon her Book Awards win.

“She went way out on a limb, self-published her book, and won book of the year for it. What an achievement,” he said. “She has been a literary anchor in Vernon for so long, she really deserves this.”

The chance to hear from both poets in person is fast approaching. Both Dansereau and Rhenisch will be reading poems at Gallery Vertigo’s Poetry Parade on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. Rhenisch is the judge for the contest that will take place that night.

The BC Book Awards were sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society.