A former Liberal cabinet minister who has been sitting in British Columbia's legislature as an Independent is the new leader of the provincial Conservatives.John Rustad, the member of the legislature for Nechako Lakes, was acclaimed leader of the Conservative Party of B.C. as the only candidate who entered the race.Rustad, who is 60 years old, replaces former leader Trevor Bolin, who was serving as interim leader.Opposition Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon said he dumped Rustad from the party caucus last August for his public statements and social media posts suggesting climate change is not caused

The search is expected to continue today after six bodies (including a child under age of three) were discovered Thursday in the St. Lawrence River near Akwesasne, Quebec.The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service says the first body was located around 5:00 p.m. in a marsh area, which searched later Thursday evening by a police marine unit with the help of the Canadian Coast Guard and the Hogansburg Akwesasne Volunteer Fire Department.Air support units with the Quebec provincial police and Ontario Provincial Police are expected to assist with further investigation of the area.Post-mortem and toxicolo

Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole says he will not seek re-election and plans to resign his seat this spring.The Ontario MP led the Conservatives and served as official Opposition leader from August 2020 until February 2022, when a majority of his caucus voted to remove him from the post.That followed months of tensions over O'Toole's management of caucus and attempts to moderate the party's image.Those efforts led to concerns that he flip-flopped on key policy positions, including on carbon pricing and gun control.O'Toole has kept a low profile on Parliament Hill since his ousting and

The fatal stabbing of a 37-year-old father outside a downtown Vancouver Starbucks is casting a pall over the normally bustling block.Passersby have been pausing to pay their respects to Paul Stanley Schmidt at a makeshift memorial of flowers, pictures and notes outside the café.Police say Schmidt was stabbed after a brief altercation shortly after 5:30 p.m. Sunday.They say Inderdeep Singh Gosal was arrested at the scene moments later when bystanders flagged down a constable patrolling the area.The 32-year-old has been charged with second-degree murder and a hearing has been scheduled in Vanco

The B.C. government is taking aim at organized crime through its members unexplained wealth, such as luxury homes or vehicles.Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced the government is changing the Civil Forfeiture Act to include unexplained wealth orders, requiring people to tell a court how they got the assets if there is suspicion of crime.It means the Civil Forfeiture Office would be able to ask a B.C. Supreme Court for an order against people or companies to explain where they got their wealth and if a three-part test is satisfied, that property can be seized.The changes are based

The inquiry into a mass shooting that left 22 people dead in Nova Scotia in 2020 is calling on the federal government to ban all semi-automatic handguns and many types of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.The Mass Casualty Commission released its final report today, making a series of recommendations aimed at tightening gun laws.That includes developing a "standardized schedule and definitions" of 206 prohibited firearms in the Criminal Code.Parliament is still debating gun-control legislation introduced last May by the Liberals, which included a proposed amendment to enshrine a definition of

The Quebec government has tabled a bill that would prevent children under the age of 14 from working most jobs.Labour Minister Jean Boulet says Bill 19 is the result of a recommendation from a legislature committee and on recent reports noting a rise in workplace injuries involving children.Bill 19 would ban people under the age of 14 from the workforce except for certain jobs, including newspaper delivery, babysitting, day camp monitoring or tutoring.The legislation would also prohibit youth between the ages of 14 and 16 from working more than 17 hours a week during the school year, including

A Quebec man accused of killing a provincial police officer had a history of mental health issues and had been found not criminally responsible at least five times for past offences.Isaac Brouillard Lessard, 35, was shot dead by police after he allegedly fatally attacked Sgt. Maureen Breau on Monday evening and left her partner injured in Louiseville, Que., about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal.Brouillard Lessard's lawyer, Yanick Péloquin, says his client was due to appear in May before Quebec's mental health review board Commission d'examen des troubles mentaux du Québec.The review boa

The Archdiocese of Vancouver and a private Catholic school have denied wrongdoing over claims of sexual abuse from former students and have filed their own lawsuits against the alleged abusers.The archdiocese and St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby filed separate lawsuits last week against the men who belonged to a Catholic order and transferred to B.C. from Mount Cashel, the Newfoundland orphanage notorious for the sexual abuse that took place there.The claims come soon after a court certified a class-action lawsuit by students, naming the archdiocese, St. Thomas More Collegiate and others