Wednesday May 5, 2021 | VIEW ROYAL, BC [Updated 4:10 pm]
by Island Social Trends | Editor Mary P Brooke, with notes by Jalen C Codrington
Yesterday afternoon the Westshore RCMP advised out to media (and on Twitter) that they were dealing with a suspicious package discovered at Victoria General Hospital. They said the area was secure, advising people to use the north entrance near the Emergency entrance, but to avoid the south side of the hospital.
Hospital operations were not suspended.
A specialized police unit that deals with explosives — the Explosives Disposal Unit based in Vancouver — arrived on scene by around 1:30 pm to deal with dismantling the package. An explosives-trained service dog was also at the scene.
Around 3 pm, Westshore RCMP announced that the package had been dismantled. They had determined that it was not an explosive. The scene was cleared and hospital operations were back to normal.
How fast this news travelled around the region is a testament to mainstream media and the local RCMP’s use of Twitter.
