By Canadian Press

In the news today, Aug. 27

Aug 27, 2019 | 2:16 AM

Four stories in the news for Tuesday, Aug. 27

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MIDDLE-CLASS B.C. GANGS BREAK FROM HISTORY

A former member of the Hells Angels says the young men joining gangs today are facing much higher stakes than he did. Joe Calendino began turning his life around after being busted selling $10 worth of crack cocaine to an undercover cop. But he says the gang landscape has shifted so dramatically in the decade since that today’s youth won’t have the same second chance. He says he and his friends got in fights when he was growing up and started getting involved with drugs, but guns were never involved. When Canada’s homicide rate reached 660 in 2017 — the highest in almost a decade — Statistics Canada attributed part of the spike to gang-related violence and shootings, singling out British Columbia as a hot spot.

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B.C. PLEASED WITH OKLAHOMA RULING IN OPIOIDS CASE

British Columbia’s attorney general says he is pleased with the findings of a court in Oklahoma that found Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries helped fuel the state’s opioid crisis as it ordered the company to pay US $572 million, more than twice the amount another drug manufacturer agreed to pay in a settlement. The province filed a proposed class-action lawsuit a year ago against dozens of pharmaceutical companies in a bid to recoup the health-care costs associated with opioid addiction. The untested suit alleges the companies falsely marketed opioids as less addictive than other pain drugs and helped trigger an overdose crisis that has killed thousands since OxyContin was introduced to the Canadian market in 1996.

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WASTEWATER TESTS REVEAL CANADIANS’ DRUG USE

A pilot project that analyzed wastewater in five major urban centres suggests Canadians’ may use drugs differently depending on which city they call home. For example, the analysis by Statistics Canada showed cannabis levels are much higher in Montreal and Halifax than in Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton. But the findings reported Monday showed methamphetamine levels were significantly higher in the latter two cities. Cocaine use, on the other hand, appeared more evenly distributed across the cities, averaging 340 grams per million people per week. To get results, the agency collected wastewater samples from treatment plants in each of the five major cities between March 2018 and February 2019 and tested them for traces of cannabis and a dozen other drugs. 

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SOME FISH PASSING RIVER BLOCKAGE: FISHERIES DEPARTMENT

Authorities dealing with a massive landslide in British Columbia’s Fraser River say they’ve successfully helped thousands of salmon migrate north of the site, but millions of fish remain threatened by the obstruction. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the provincial government and local First Nations set up a team to lead the response to the slide near Big Bar, north of Lillooet, after it was discovered in late June. The team says fish counting data shows some chinook salmon have been able to swim past the slide using the channels the team has created with large rock manipulation and blasting. It says as of last Tuesday, a rough estimate of 6,700 salmon have passed through the slide on their own.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS:

— Environment Minister Catherine McKenna will make an announcement today on the federal government’s plan to support climate action in Ontario.

— Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett will make an announcement on a new collaborative fiscal policy and self-governing Indigenous governments.

— The trial continues today for Alberta couple David and Collet Stephan, who are charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life in the death of their son, Ezekiel, from meningitis.

— The trial continues today in Vancouver for Andrew Berry, who faces second-degree murder charges in the death of his two young daughters.

The Canadian Press