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It's a mild, mostly cloudy Friday in Langley, with temperatures around 16°C and warmer skies coming this weekend.
Today's roundup runs heavy and light: a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls memorial and march moved through Downtown Langley City this week, and we look at the network of retired academics and conservative think tanks pushing residential school denialism in Canada.
Closer to home, Township council signed off on design guidelines for small multiplexes, both Langley SkyTrain stations are now under construction, and the Outdoor Experience waterpark prepares to open May 15 with a resident-first booking window.
We also mark good news from the Langley Hospice Society, which replaced 14 aging beds a year ahead of schedule, and a KPU pilot helping LPNs fast-track to registered nurse.
Langley Township Approves Design Guidelines for Small Multiplexes
Langley Township council has approved design guidelines for three-, four-, and sixplexes, moving the municipality one step closer to making small-scale multi-unit housing a reality in more neighbourhoods.
Under the new framework, staff will be able to approve development permits for these smaller multiplexes without requiring each one to go back to council. That should speed up the process considerably.
The guidelines are a response to provincial legislation requiring municipalities to allow more housing density on single-family lots. For a region where rents keep climbing and vacancy rates remain painfully low, more homes of this type are a basic necessity.
The real test will be whether the guidelines are flexible enough to actually encourage construction, or whether design requirements quietly add costs that keep these units out of reach for working-class renters and families.
Outdoor Experience Opens May 15, Township Residents Get Registration Priority
The Township of Langley's Outdoor Experience waterpark opens for the 2026 season on Friday, May 15 at Aldergrove Community Centre.
Township residents can book sessions 10 days in advance, while everyone else has to wait until seven days out.
Residents whose addresses aren't verified should update their Recreation Account now, since verification takes about five business days.
The booking gap fits a familiar pattern at Township facilities, which sort users into residents and outsiders.
Langley City takes a different approach at places like Al Anderson Memorial Pool, where a large share of users live in the Township and get a warm welcome instead of a tiered booking window.
Both Langley SkyTrain Stations Now Under Construction
Both of Langley's future SkyTrain stations are now under construction, the Province confirmed on May 8. Crews have started vertical work at Willowbrook Station, near the shopping centre in the Township, and at the line's terminus at 203 Street in Langley City Centre.
Together they make up the eastern terminus of the eight-station, $6-billion extension that will run the Expo Line down Fraser Highway from Surrey's King George Station.
For Langley riders, the line will cut the trip to King George Station to about 22 minutes, more than 25 minutes faster than the current bus, with downtown Vancouver reachable in just over an hour.
Langley City Mayor Nathan Pachal said the Province's coordination is helping deliver the investment quickly, while Langley Township Mayor Eric Woodward called the project a vital connection to jobs, education, and services across the region.
The project also includes 14 kilometres of new, fully separated multi-use pathways tying into the regional active transportation network.
The eight stations are expected to anchor transit-oriented communities with denser housing, employment, and services within walking distance, the kind of neighbourhood pattern that makes daily life less dependent on driving.
Service is expected to begin in late 2029.
MMIWG Memorial and March Draws Witnesses to Downtown Langley City
A Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Memorial and March took place in Downtown Langley City this week, with community members called to witness and carry forward the stories of those lost to ongoing colonial violence.
The memorial opened with drumming, song, and ceremony, followed by testimony from survivors of violence and family members who have lost sisters, aunts, and nieces. Participants then marched along Douglas Crescent and Fraser Highway before hearing teachings from Kwantlen First Nation Elders.
Thousands of Indigenous women across Canada have been murdered or gone missing, a crisis rooted in systemic racism and government inaction.
In B.C., the Highway of Tears corridor and the Pickton farm murders remain stark reminders of how the justice system has failed Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
Red dresses, part of Métis artist Jaime Black's REDress Project, were visible throughout downtown Langley in the days leading up to the march. Black has said the colour red is the only colour spirits can see, making the dresses a way of calling back those who have been taken.
Government officials in attendance were challenged directly: this violence continues, and visibility alone is not enough without concrete action.
Donations Bring New Beds to Langley Hospice Early
The Langley Hospice Society has replaced 14 aging beds a full year ahead of schedule.
The $250,000 purchase at the Fran MacDonald Langley Hospice Residence came together thanks to bequests, a gift from the Township of Langley Firefighters Charitable Society, and a large anonymous donation that arrived just before Christmas.
Executive director Shannon Todd Booth said the new beds are fully adjustable, and four of them can expand into "cuddle beds" with room for a partner or grandchild.
For many residents in end-of-life care, the beds are their main mobility device, and the larger mattresses let long-time couples keep sleeping side by side.
KPU Pilot Helps LPNs Fast-Track to Registered Nurse
A new pilot program through Fraser Health is giving Licensed Practical Nurses the opportunity to upgrade their credentials at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, creating a pathway to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
The initiative is designed to address chronic staffing shortages across the healthcare system by investing in workers who are already on the front lines. Rather than recruiting from scratch, the program builds on the skills LPNs already have.
Healthcare workers, particularly nurses, have shouldered enormous pressure since the pandemic, often in understaffed facilities with inadequate support. Programs like this one are a step toward treating healthcare as the essential public infrastructure it is.
For LPNs in the Fraser Valley, many of whom are women and newcomers to Canada, this is also a meaningful opportunity for career advancement and better wages.
Inside the Network Behind Residential School Denialism
A small network of about 20 retired academics, lawyers, and writers is driving a coordinated effort to discredit the documented harms of Canada's residential school system.
The group, organized through an email list and amplified by conservative think tanks like the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the True North Centre, has published more than 500 articles and three books in the last five years, with two of those books topping Amazon Canada's bestseller list.
Their work dismisses the unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School as a "hoax" and recasts the school system as benign, even as survivors and historical records continue to confirm widespread abuse, neglect, and death.
The fallout is felt in places like Kamloops, where Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc artist Shay Paul watched her local Facebook groups fill up with denialist attacks after a campus demonstration last November.
NDP MP Leah Gazan has tabled a bill to criminalize residential school denialism, arguing it incites hate against Indigenous people.
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