Former International Drug Kingpin Now A Painter, Parole Documents Say

When Yong Long Ye was arrested almost 11 years ago, police described him as the “head of the snake” of an international trafficking gang who owned luxury properties and moved tens of millions in drugs and cash.

Since getting day parole earlier this year, he has been living a less glamorous life, staying in a halfway house and working as a painter, parole documents state.

The Parole Board of Canada ruled Oct. 15 that Ye, now 51, could remain on day parole because he no longer presents “an undue risk to society.”

“Your release will contribute to the protection of society by facilitating your reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen,” board members Mike Sanford and Christopher Sullivan said in their written ruling.

Ye was sentenced to 18 years in jail in 2008 after pleading guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to conspiracy to import and traffic cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as laundering the proceeds of crime.

bit.ly/2TqAQuD via @VancouverSun

VPL Receives $5M In Largest Donation To Public Library In Canada - BC

The Vancouver Public Library (VPL) has received a historic $5-million donation from the Dilawri Foundation.

The donation allows the library to implement the second phase of its revitalization plan for Vancouver Central Library, which includes additional activity space for the children’s library, a new literacy playground and the addition of new sensory learning elements for children, including those with developmental disabilities.

WATCH: Sneak peek inside Vancouver Public Library’s central library expansion and rooftop garden

bit.ly/2rUXf7A via @globalnews

Localized Flooding In Parts Of Metro Vancouver After Sunday Night Rainstorm – BC

A torrential downpour on Sunday night turned Vancouver streets into lakes and kept city crews busy throughout the night.

READ MORE: Flooding concerns as snow melts in Calgary

Environment Canada says up to 25 millimetres fell over a couple of hours.

The city responded to 128 calls, 49 of which were for property damage including water entering homes and underground parkades.

Video sent to the CKNW newsroom shows cars submerged, and neighbours taking it upon themselves to unclog drains covered in leaves.

bit.ly/2Ntc2Aw via @globalnews

Homeless Campers On The Rise Amidst Housing Crisis

They come in all shapes, models, and sizes.

They’re meant as a form of transportation, but vehicles also offer refuge for those on the brink of homelessness in Vancouver.

Darryl, who only wanted to share his first name, said he was forced out of his basement suite of 10 years and had to choose between living in a tent city or living in his 1990s Ford Winstar.

“I can barely afford [the van] let alone pay another $400 or $500 of rent,” he said. “With the cost of moving, I had to rent a container to try and save my belongings.”

Darryl’s situation is not unique, according to newly elected city councilor Pete Fry.

Fry claims this is a growing phenomenon along West Coast cities, adding he’s seen similar situations in Seattle, Portland and San Diego. He said in those cities, there are safe and secure lots for the vulnerable.

“People that have no place else to go can park there and can have access to toilets, running water, showers and outreach services,” Fry said.

He thinks this could be a temporary measure to address the housing crisis in Vancouver with winter approaching.

Another councilor said the city is working to help those in need.

“Some of these people go to work, and are trying very hard to be able to sustain themselves and their lives,” said Coun. Melissa De Genova. “I understand that our staff has a lot of compassion for them."

“When our engineering team comes across a person or family in this situation they work closely with our housing team to make sure these individuals get all the resources and help that they need.”

Meanwhile on the street, Darryl’s plan is to save up enough money to fix his van and drive it out of Vancouver entirely, and head to Ontario.

“You can get houses down there cheaper than you can get up here,” he explained. “For $700 you can get a nice two-bedroom house on its own property.”

Having lost his job with the collapse of Greyhound, he doesn’t know how long that could take.

bit.ly/2GGxpOa via @CTVVancouver

This Week In History 1889 — A Classic Victorian Hotel Goes Up Downtown

There was boundless optimism in Vancouver in 1889, when the city was only three years old and was expanding at an explosive rate. So Joseph Couture thought it was a good time to build a new, “first-class” hotel at Howe and Dunsmuir streets.

It was called Manor House, probably to try to give the impression that it was the kind of place blue bloods would stay.

“It is a large, commodious and fashionably built house, with all the most modern conveniences, specially adapted for the use of families and those desiring homelike accommodation,” said an ad in the Oct. 27, 1889, Vancouver News-Advertiser. “The house is supplied throughout with electrical bell service, speaking tubes, fire escapes, hot air, bathrooms, closets, electric and gas lights, and the best of ventilation.”

Manor House featured a posh dining room, a billiard room and a “double” parlour. There were also sitting rooms in the “tower” and a “pavilion” on the roof, which featured a “walking terrace.”

Translation: It was totally Victorian and over the top.

bit.ly/2GGSSaj via @VancouverSun

Fentanyl Leads B.C. To Record Decline In Life Expectancy, Defying Positive Trends Recorded By Most Of The Species

Average life expectancy is about the broadest indicator of a population's health that we have. In the simplest terms, it tells us if a given generation is doing better than the one that came before it.

In modern history, average life expectancies for most nations on Earth as well as for the human species as a whole have consistently trended up.

Thanks to improved hygiene, education, technology, and medical care, among other factors, each generation of humans lives longer than the previous.

And so, in the developed world, something has to be very wrong in a given region for its population's average life expectancy to begin to decline.


British Columbia is one area where that is happening, according to an October 23 report by Canada's chief public-health officer.

"On the whole, life expectancy has been steadily increasing in Canada over many years and it is comparable to other high income countries," the document reads. "Alarmingly, this is expected to change. For the first time in recent decades, life expectancy in British Columbia is decreasing, due to harms associated with opioid overdoses."

B.C.'s epidemic of drug-overdose deaths is now so severe that illicit narcotics are single-handedly responsible for dragging down the average life expectancy for the population of the entire province.

"Recent data from B.C. show that life expectancy dropped by 0.12 year from 2014 to 2016 due to deaths involving substances, with over 90% of these related to opioids," the report continues. "This dip in life expectancy was more pronounced in men and in poorer neighbourhoods."

bit.ly/2SqQmqp via @georgiastraight

East Hastings Vancouver (BMX In The Hood)

Today I was riding my BMX in the hood through east Vancouver a dangerous neighborhood! The BMX in East Hastings Vancouver in the hood videos will keep coming if you subscribe like and comment. East Vancouver Down Town East Side. This was filmed in Vancouver, Canada from POV GoPro set up. They call this place Skid Row on the DTES *Down Town East Side*.

bit.ly/2sRePK8 via @YouTube

This Week In History, 1920 The Masses Reject Prohibition

Ninety-eight years ago, British Columbians rejected Prohibition.

“Moderates Sweep Province; City and Country Alike Ask For Government Control,” said the front-page headline in the Vancouver World on Oct. 21, 1920. “Almost Two to One Majority (Against) Prohibition Act Recorded.”

The vote was recorded in a referendum on alcohol, four years after a previous referendum had approved Prohibition, albeit in a controversial vote.

In 1920, there was no controversy — 76,165 people voted “wet,” while 45,478 voted to keep B.C. dry.

The anti-alcohol forces were shocked.

“Unexpected as was this development in many quarters, still more unexpected was the universality of the demand for a change of law,” the World reported.

bit.ly/2AfnCK7 via @VancouverSun

Downtown Eastside Alcohol-Replacement Program Faces Closure

Outside the PHS managed alcohol program‘s lounge in Vancouver, a passed-out woman lies on a patch of grass while others nearby keep an eye on her to make sure the situation doesn’t deteriorate.

Inside, another woman hurls obscenities and accusations at a man while members continue sanitizing bottles and stirring homemade wine as though they’ve heard it all before.

There are days when fights break out and when people are asked to go cool off elsewhere, but the little program on Princess Avenue beats the other options that usually include jail, the emergency room or, in recent years, fentanyl poisoning, according to those who run and use it.

Tyler Bigchild, 38, was part of a small group of drinkers involved in the program’s earliest days, before it became official in 2013. Back then, they called it the Drinker’s Lounge and it was part of Portland Hotel Society’s defunct Drug Users Resource Centre.

“My alcohol use was hardcore, I’d be drinking anything I could,” said Bigchild, listing rubbing alcohol, mouthwash, gel hand sanitizer and bottles he stole from liquor stores.

bit.ly/2DNAhGg via @VancouverSun

Here's The Audio Of Kennedy Stewart's Campaign Manager Threatening A Man On The Phone This Week

Mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart’s campaign manager, Neil Monckton, is attempting to scrub the internet of mentions of union support for his guy. And it seems to be working.

Founder and president of the Vancouver company Provident Security, Mike Jagger – who just happens to be a close friend of and a volunteer for the NPA’s candidate Ken Sim – posted the audio clip below of an interesting phone conversation he recently had with Monckton.

bit.ly/2FQ7Dqa via @VIAwesome

Sons Of Former East End Hell's Angel Linked To Assault Of Vancouver Cop

Two of three men charged with assaulting a Vancouver police officer Tuesday are sons of an original member of the East End Hells Angels, Postmedia has learned.

A Vancouver police officer was taken to hospital Tuesday night after he was beaten during a routine traffic stop in downtown Vancouver.

It happened at around 10 p.m. when two plainclothes officers pulled over a Dodge Durango on Robson Street after they spotted travelling through an area of Granville Street closed to private vehicles.

The VPD says the three men in the vehicle, all in their early 20s and well-known to the police, were confrontational and verbally abusive during the traffic stop.

bit.ly/2T5P8jW via @VancouverSun

Daphne Bramham Back In The Studio, Kennedy Stewart Looks To His Past And Vancouver’s Future

Back in 1991, a local band called State of Mind won CFOX’s ‘demo-listen derby,’ which gave it the chance to record at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Sound Studio.

AC/DC band members were walking out of there along with renowned Canadian producer Bob Rock when the State of Mind guys walked in.

Poison, a glam metal band, was recording there as well, which is how lead guitarist C.C. Deville ended up playing on State of Mind’s tracks.

“Imagine being from nowhere Nova Scotia and AC/DC is right beside you and so is Poison,” said Kennedy Stewart, who at the time was State of Mind’s 24-year-old bass player.

bit.ly/2SjojsL via @VancouverSun

Here Is Just A Partial List Of The Brutal Murderers That Canada Has Set Free

Canadian public opinion has been galvanized this week by the news that Terri-Lynne McClintic, one of the murderers of eight-year-old Tori Stafford, has been transferred to a low-security “healing lodge” after only eight years in federal prison.

Canadians would be right to suspect that this is something that happens relatively often. A Canadian given a “life sentence” for first-degree murder can expect to get out of jail in only 22.4 years, according to 2002 numbers from Corrections Service Canada. The Canadian justice system has freed serial killers, child murderers, mass shooters, cop killers, cannibals and even terrorists. Just as in the case of the transfer of McClintic, these releases have almost always occurred despite the fervent appeals of victims’ families.

Below, a not-at-all comprehensive list of notorious Canadian killers who were released early, got parole or escaped from minimum security or prison leaves.

bit.ly/2LTwQQx via @nationalpost