Here鈥檚 what you need to know this morning in the Lower Mainland.
1. Former Cloverdale church elder charged with sexual assault
Brian Batke, 72, has been charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation. The alleged incidents occured in 2005, and were reported to police in 2017. At the time of the incidents, the victim was a youth.
2. IHIT probes death of known gangster in Mission
Varinderpal Gill, 19, was shot in a vehicle in a crowded parking lot at the Junction Mall in Mission Wednesday night. Police were on scene most of Thursday.
3. Nearly 700 homeless youth in Metro Vancouver: report
Findings from Metro Vancouver鈥檚 first-ever count of homeless teens and young adults have advocates sounding the alarm for action on youth-based housing for the regions most vulnerable.
681 homeless youth were identified. 349 were in Vancouver, 106 in Surrey, 64 in North Shore. I imagine as numbers are less in other cities privacy concerns are an issue.
鈥� Ashley Wadhwani (@ashwadhwani)
4. Should dogs be allowed on public transit?
That鈥檚 what one New Westminster woman is asking TransLink to consider for its buses across Metro Vancouver.
5. Pay drug users for expertise, insight to deal with overdose crisis
Drug users are often the first responders to an overdose and should be paid fairly for their contributions to research, service delivery and overdose prevention activities, says a report by the BC Centre for Disease Control.
