The head of the Public Health Agency of Canada says several Canadians are in serious condition with the new coronavirus in Japan, and one is also in serious clinical shape in Canada. Doctor Theresa Tam says all the other 32 cases in Canada are mildly ill, and several have recovered completely. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland chaired the first meeting of the Trudeau government's new committee on the coronavirus outbreak. She says the panel takes its cue from science on managing the virus known as COVID-19. Health Minister Patty Hajdu (HY-doo) says if there ever is an outbreak in commun

Canadian military personnel in Iraq are on high alert following reports the novel coronavirus is spreading within the country. Chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance says troops have been ordered to protect themselves, including through proper hygiene and keeping their distance from Iraqi forces who may be infected with the virus, which can cause a respiratory illness known as COVID-19. Two people are believed to have died from the disease in Iraq, one in Baghdad and the other in the northern Kurdistan region where Canadian special forces have been operating for several years. The rep

Vancouver police say a man has been charged in the homicide of a 62 year old man at a homeless camp in the Downtown Eastside. Police say 50-year-old Glen Martin has been charged with manslaughter in the death of Jesus Cristobal-Esteban. Const. Tania Visintin says in a news release that Cristobal-Esteban suffered a serious head injury in an altercation on Jan. 1 and was taken to hospital where he died the next day. The death was Vancouver's first homicide of 2020 and the police department has expressed concerns about the level of violence at the camp in Oppenheimer Park. Last week the police s

Workers have served strike notice at the Fairmont Empress, a well known landmark hotel in Victoria. A statement from Unifor Local 4276 says it represents almost 500 workers in several departments from housekeeping to groundskeeping. The strike notice expires at 8 a.m. Saturday. The union says it is seeking modest gains in wages, benefits, and workload and blames concession demands from the company for the impasse. Tracey Drake, the hotel's director of marketing and public relations, says in an email the ``main goal'' is to continue negotiations and she is optimistic that the remaining issues

University students from Halifax to Victoria and many places in between are holding marches and rallies to show support for Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs. The group Indigenous Youth for Wet'suwet'en whose members have been camped on the steps of the BC legislature since last month released a statement saying students at more than 32 universities and many high schools have pledged to take part in today's rallies. Posts on social media show groups of students marching at universities in Halifax, Kingston and London, while students at Simon Fraser University plan a demonstration at 2:30 this af

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says undetected cracks were responsible for an Enbridge natural gas pipeline rupture that resulted in an explosion and fire northeast of Prince George, B.C. in October 2018. No one was injured in the incident but 125 people had to be evacuated and the outage led to province wide natural gas shortages. Safety board lead investigator Jennifer Philopoulos says Enbridge subsidiary Westcoast Energy, the pipeline operator, was aware of the risk but its plan to manage that risk turned out to be insufficient.

Police in New Westminster have released new video surveillance footage of a woman who has been missing for more than a week.A news release says 44 year old Nirla Sharma was recorded in the Queensborough Landing business area in the early hours of February 24th, the morning of her disappearance.Police say images circulated widely last week were actually of a different person, not Sharma.They are asking anyone with dash cam footage who was driving in the area to come forward.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has created a new cabinet committee to deal with the novel coronavirus outbreak, which began in China but now has spread around the world.The COVID-19 cabinet committee will complement the work being done by the government's incident response group.Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland will chair the group, while Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos will be vice-chair.The other members will include Industry Minister Navdeep Bains, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly, Finance Minister Bi

Three more cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in British Columbia, bringing the total of people infected to 12 in the province. Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, says the two women and one man are linked to travel to Iran. She says one of the women is in her 30s and was infected in a household linked to the eighth case in BC, which involved travel to Iran. Henry says the most important advice she can offer is for people to wash their hands to prevent infection as COVID-19 spreads around the world. Health Minister Adrian Dix says the first five cases in BC were l