Police on Vancouver Island say a youth who lives in Sooke, B.C., has been charged after allegedly making threats about a school shooting in online chats with a 15-year-old in the United States.

Sooke RCMP said in a statement Monday that the investigation was spurred after police in Louisville, Ky., made contact earlier this month about a 15-year-old there who had been communicating with “someone from Canada” over the gaming platform Discord.

Mounties said the B.C. youth is a student at Edward Milne Community School, and the arrest was made on Saturday.

Police said they searched the youth’s home and seized electronic devices and the investigation is ongoing.

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They said the homeland security unit of the Louisville Metro Police Department started investigating the alleged threats in July 2025.

RCMP said the Canadian youth is in custody before a bail hearing, and the case is subject to court-ordered publication bans.

The charges come after a spate of threats against schools in B.C. this year and the deadly school shooting in Tumbler Ridge last month.

Burnaby RCMP said this month that two threats were made against  Burnaby North Secondary School within a week, prompting lockdowns.

Campbell River RCMP said this month that “a series of online threats” escalated between a group of youths, and rumours “took off like wildfire” on social media about shootings at two schools in the city, but there was “no credible threat” to staff or students at the schools.

Elk Valley RCMP in southeastern B.C. also responded to online threats against a school in February, but they were found to have been made by a man well known to police there who was more than 1,000 kilometres away at the time.

Coquitlam RCMP also reported a series of threats against schools in February, but they found no evidence that the threats were credible.

“We understand the frustration and concern that the public may feel in response to these incidents,” Coquitlam RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Adriana O’Malley said at the time. “However, we want to remind the public that these incidents are designed to create fear and gain publicity. Publicly circulating or amplifying unverified information can contribute to further disruptions.”

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The B.C. Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the family of a man murdered in a “contract killing” in 2017 in China, against the family of the killer who they say used the victim’s funds to buy homes in Metro Vancouver.

Justice Gordon Funt’s ruling says the case was both “extraordinary,” involving a lead defendant who was executed in China in 2020, and “ordinary,” for hinging on the burden of proof.

The lawsuit was filed in 2018 by the family of Changbin Yang against Long Ni, who was in Vancouver at the time of the killing but would later be arrested and executed in China for having ordered the murder.

The lawsuit named Ni, his wife and daughter as defendants, alleging he borrowed the equivalent of $113 million from Yang to invest in the Chinese mining industry, but instead used it to buy several B.C. properties.

Wednesday’s court decision says the plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient evidence the properties were bought with the loan funds, or that Ni “fraudulently misrepresented” how he intended to use the money.

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The judge also found the plaintiffs misled multiple judges in China that had dealt with the division of Yang’s estate, while also finding Ni’s wife had misled a judge in B.C. about her own financial position.

“This action is ordinary in that its resolution turns primarily on a plaintiff’s burden of proof, which is based on a balance of probabilities,” the ruling says.

The plaintiffs had sought a total of $168 million in the lawsuit for family compensation after the murder, claiming Yang “was the wealthiest businessman in Yichang City” with interests in coal mine and a hotel.

“However, the plaintiffs did not provide any financial information, such as financial statements, for either the hotel, the coal mine, or any other business undertaken by Mr. Yang. There was no explanation for the plaintiffs’ failure to present such evidence,” Funt’s ruling says.

The ruling details various debt claims that were ultimately dismissed, and also Chinese court proceedings involving the division of the estate of Yang, who died without a will.

The judge found that “any estate division agreement served to mislead the Chinese courts.”

“As may be seen, the plaintiffs may have misled at least six Chinese judges in a multimillion RMB enforcement proceeding (approximately $74 million),” the ruling says. “I am left with the disquiet that there are undisclosed material facts. Am I the seventh judge the plaintiffs wish to mislead?”

The ruling says the plaintiffs also wanted a Chinese court judgment enforced in Canada against Ni’s estate, but the judge refused to recognize it because China lacks “judicial independence.”

“I can take judicial notice that China is a large, vibrant country with a long, well-documented history that is now and has been governed under a one-party system for over 70 years by the Communist Party of China,” Funt wrote.

“Conceptually, I have difficulty comprehending the existence of an independent judiciary where there is one-party rule.”

Funt dismissed the case, finding the plaintiffs hadn’t met their burden of proof on the various debt claims, which lacked documentation of loans involving Ni and Yang, who were once friends and were both “seasoned” businessmen.

“As a seasoned businessman, it is highly improbable that Mr. Yang was nonchalant with respect to an unsecured personal loan of approximately $105 million,” the judge wrote.

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An affidavit filed by Rosita Fatemi said her meeting with Arezou Soltani and Mehdi Ahmadzadeh Razavi took place in a parking lot in the Park Royal mall in West Vancouver, the heart of British Columbia’s Iranian community.

The document said she and her two fellow founding directors of a B.C. non-profit society opposed to the Iranian regime were there to discuss a lawsuit filed by another activist, Masood Masjoody, who had accused Soltani and Razavi of being aligned with the dictatorship.

Razavi had accused her at the meeting of communicating with Masjoody, and took her phone without her consent when she tried to refute the accusation, her affidavit says.
During the same meeting, Fatemi alleges that Soltani wanted to know how to “silence” someone, in a way that would “look natural.”

“She also asked me for a drug substance to ‘get rid of him.’ Based on the context of the discussion, I understood her to be referring to the plaintiff (Masjoody) and causing him to be murdered,” she said.

The affidavit was filed in Masjoody’s lawsuit against Soltani, Razavi, the foundation and others on Jan. 28.

Five days later, Masjoody was reported missing by his neighbours in Burnaby, B.C., and on March 6, his remains were discovered in Mission, B.C.

Razavi and Soltani have now been charged with first-degree murder in his death, although police have not said how he died.

Homicide investigators said when contacted days after the announcement of murder charges that police were initially unaware of the allegations contained in Fatemi’s affidavit.

The circumstances preceding the mathematician’s death play out in a sprawling legal record that is a result of Masjoody’s many lawsuits, that kept the courts so occupied that he was branded a “vexatious litigant” by a judge, castigated for wasting precious court resources.

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Masjoody was an outspoken critic of both Iran’s Islamic regime and the royalist faction of the diaspora community, which supports the exiled former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, who is now jockeying to lead the country should the Iranian administration topple as a result of U.S. and Israeli bombing campaigns.

Pahlavi too was a target of legal action by Masjoody, who accused him of defamation. In an affidavit, Pahlavi denied even knowing Masjoody, and denied involvement in any harassment, defamation or “conspiracy” against him.

Masjoody had launched several lawsuits in recent years, alleging he was the victim of harassment and defamation, and his eccentric legal antics saw him clash with former colleagues at Simon Fraser University, judges, lawyers, media and others in the anti-Iranian regime activist community, including Razavi and Soltani.

The non-profit society, the Canadian Iranian Wakuppers Foundation, is registered to Soltani’s home address in North Vancouver, a short drive from Park Royal just over the boundary with West Vancouver.

A white Mercedes sedan sat parked outside the home during a recent visit, where no one answered the door.

Uncollected mail protruded from the mailbox and a small, festive gift bag had been left outside the front door.

Fatemi, a naturopathic doctor, also lives in North Vancouver high in the hills of the upper Lonsdale area, where a pre-revolution lion and sun flag drooped in the rain on a flagpole affixed to her home’s garage.

A man who answered the door said she wasn’t home and that she did not want to speak about her affidavit.

The foundation’s constitution says it was incorporated for the purposes of “identifying and exposing the individuals, organizations and activities affiliated with the Islamic regime of Iran; who not only undermine democracy and violate human rights in Iran but also invade Canadian borders.”

“Supporting people affected by the Islamic regime of Iran in Canada. Raising awareness about the influence and activities of individuals and organizations affiliated with the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which promotes radical Islamic theocracy and endangers democracy and human rights in Canada.”

The foundation’s documents, obtained by The Canadian Press, show it was formed in June 2023, but Fatemi’s affidavit says she hasn’t been involved in its day-to-day operations since late 2023.

Masjoody had filed several lawsuits in B.C. prior to his death, and the foundation, Soltani and Razavi were among numerous defendants named in his multiple legal actions in recent years.

Sgt. Freda Fong, spokeswoman for B.C.’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said police were aware of Masjoody’s disputes with the suspects.

“It’s on the public record that there are ongoing civil disputes as well as exchanges on social media platform involving the victim as well as the accused,” Fong said on March 14 at a Surrey, B.C., news conference. “Whether or not that forms a motive of the homicide, it is still under investigation.”

Fong said in an emailed statement that homicide investigators only became involved after he went missing, and before that “had no knowledge of Mr. Masjoody or any alleged plot against him.”

“Once we took over the case, over the course of our investigation, we came across an abundance of disputes including those over social media as well as the material in the civil claims,” Fong said.

Masjoody alleged in court documents that he had called police and opened multiple files with Burnaby and North Vancouver RCMP in connection with his lawsuits.

Burnaby RCMP and North Vancouver RCMP did not respond to a request for comment.

Soltani and Razavi made a brief court appearance by video in Vancouver on March 16, and they’re due back in court on March 25.

A psychiatrist with British Columbia’s Northern Health authority has called for a new mental health hospital in B.C. in her testimony to an inquest into the deaths of a Prince Rupert family.

The coroner’s inquest has heard that Christopher Duong was suspected by police to have killed his wife Janet Nguyen, their two young sons and then himself on June 13, 2023, three days after he was detained under the Mental Health Act but then released a few hours later.

Dr. Barbara Kane was asked on Friday if resources at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital, where Duong was assessed, could have influenced the decision to release him, with inquest counsel Steven Liu saying the hearing had heard that the locked detention room at the hospital was “akin to torture.”

Liu questioned whether keeping someone under such conditions could damage a doctor-patient relationship, noting that the doctor who released Duong was also his long-term family physician. Kane said that was a judgment call and was “not easy.”

She said there was nowhere for general purpose hospitals in the north to send potentially “dangerous” people with severe, ongoing mental illness.

“They used to go to Riverview,” she said, referring to the psychiatric hospital in Coquitlam. B.C., that was closed in 2012. “We don’t have that anymore. So, they stay with us and it backs up the whole system.”

She said the difficulty transferring people meant she was “pretty sure that there are people who get discharged before they should. Because we don’t have the right services.“

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The hearing in Burnaby, B.C., has heard that Duong was released after an assessment by a doctor at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital who was also his longtime family physician, and who found him to be “friendly and calm” at the time.

James Wale, a deputy director of child welfare with the Ministry for Children and Family Development, testified later Friday that given the information available to the ministry at the time, “there is nothing that we saw that we would have done differently.”

A social worker previously told the hearing that he did not narrow a five-day window to contact the family to 24 hours after Duong’s apprehension, because of his belief that Duong was still in hospital, calling it a “big determinant.” Instead, the inquest heard, a social worker tried to call Nguyen on the day the family died at her parents’ home and was told they were napping.

Kane had said at the start of her testimony that safety plans for patients detained under the Mental Health Act normally aren’t done if they are subsequently released.

Asked for recommendations about psychiatric care, Kane said doctors “need a psychiatric hospital in B.C., a real psychiatric hospital,” adding that maybe the province needed “a couple of them.”

She also said there should be someone with psychiatric training in all or almost all emergency rooms.

Police apprehended Duong after he was found driving around Prince Rupert at 2 a.m., with Nguyen and their boys aged two and four, saying they had to keep driving or they would be killed in a “hit.”

Duong was known to police and rumoured to be involved in the drug trade, while a notice of civil claim filed by B.C.’s director of civil forfeiture in 2015 describes him as a “violent gang member and drug trafficker.”

But an RCMP officer told the inquest on Thursday there was no evidence that anyone else was involved in the deaths of the family, who were all found in bed together, with an electrical cord around Nguyen’s neck, cuts to Duong’s arms and legs, and the two boys arranged with teddy bears at their feet.

The officer said a video “last will and testament” was found on the couple’s phones.

A forensic pathologist said the boys had died of asphyxiation.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, support is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988, Canada’s national suicide prevention helpline.

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