The provincial government is more than doubling the number of specialty nurse training opportunities in the province by funding 1,000 seats each year at the British Columbia School of Technology (BCIT). This increase will help meet growing demand for care throughout British Columbia. Specialty nurses work in high-skill areas ranging from emergency settings to intensive care units for high-risk cardiac care patients, to delivering babies and providing newborn care, to working with complex patients with multiple health challenges. "Specialty nurses help us when we need emergency care; they help

Frigid temperatures have prompted Environment Canada to issue weather warnings for many parts of British Columbia and Alberta, while snow snarled the morning commute in Metro Vancouver. The foul weather even pinned down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who intended to travel from Vancouver to Victoria for a meeting with B.C. Premier John Horgan but the premier's office says the two leaders will speak by video conference, instead. Sunday's snow across the inner south coast caused dozens of crashes, delays or closures on several highways and bridges, while as much as 25 centimetres of snow forc

Police are investigating what they describe as a suspicious death in Maple Ridge, B.C. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says a body was found in a rural area of the city on Saturday. A statement from the team says it was called when suspicions were raised about the circumstances surrounding the body and the area it was found. Detective Lara Jansen says the victim remains unidentified. She says the homicide team is working with Maple Ridge RCMP, forensic experts and the BC Coroners Service to gather more details. Officers want to speak to anyone who hiked though the area just east of

Ontario's solicitor general says she wants the investigation into a mistaken alert about an incident at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station to be completed fairly quickly.Sylvia Jones says it's very important that the people of Ontario know exactly what happened, and she doesn't expect there to be a long, drawn-out investigation.The province announced the investigation on Sunday, hours after an alert was pushed to cellphones, radios and TVs across the province at about 7:30 a.m.Jones says initial observations suggest it was human error during a routine test of the emergency alert system t

Haitian Canadians are marking the 10-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake that devastated Haiti on this day in 2010. A ceremony will be held in Montreal this afternoon to commemorate the more than 200,000 people who died and 300,000 who were injured in the magnitude 7.0 quake. The Maison d’Haiti community organization, which is leading the ceremony, has been holding a weekend of discussions, presentations and artistic performances to mark the anniversary of the tragedy. Director Marjorie Villefranche says its important to remember the dead but also the living, who continue to live

Police say a 17-year-old driver is dead following a crash in West Vancouver. It happened around 4 a.m. Saturday on Marine Drive. Police say the teenage driver from North Vancouver lost control of his BMW and slid into a power pole. They say a 19-year-old girl, who was a passenger in the car, was taken to hospital in unknown condition. Investigators say they believe speed was a factor in the crash.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it accidentally shot down the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed earlier this week, killing all 176 aboard. The government had repeatedly denied Western accusations that it was responsible for the crash. The plane was hit hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq, in retaliation for the killing of its top general. The acknowledgement is an embarrassment for Iran's armed forces and is likely to anger the Iranian public. It also raises new questions about who ordered the strike and why Iran had not shut dow

British Columbia's Appeal Court has reaffirmed a teenager's decision to have gender transition treatment and urged the boy's father to try to understand his son's gender dysphoria. The father, whose identity is under a publication ban along with his son's, went to court when he learned his female-born child was undergoing hormone therapy because he perceived himself to be a male. The B.C. Supreme Court sided with the boy in an earlier decision, saying he didn't need his father's consent for treatment, and an injunction was later issued against the dad ordering that any attempt to persuade the

Former SNC-Lavalin executive Sami Bebawi has been sentenced to eight years and six months in prison on fraud and corruption charges stemming from construction deals in Libya. Bebawi was impassive as he was sentenced today by Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer. A jury last month found the former head of SNC-Lavalin's construction division guilty of paying off foreign officials and pocketing millions as he worked to secure contracts for the company in Libya. The case centred on several major infrastructure projects and dealings with Saadi Gadhafi, a son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi