Reduced crowd scenes. Fewer people on set. COVID-19 testing. Handwashing stations. Canadian film and TV producers are grappling with some of those health and safety protocols as provinces including BC, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec ease pandemic restrictions that shut down the industry in mid-March. But despite such measures, many independent producers can't set a date to roll cameras yet because of a key issue: insurance. The Canadian Media Producers Association says on a go-forward basis, insurance companies that service the film and TV industry are excluding any coverage for COVID-19 fro

British Columbia is marking the sixth day in a row with no additional deaths due to COVID-19. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the death toll is still 167 and there have been no new community or health-care outbreaks identified since Wednesday. She says 14 more people have tested positive for the disease, bringing the total to 2,694. There are 183 active cases, including 13 people in hospital with five in intensive care. Henry says 2,344 people have recovered so far. Health Minister Adrian Dix says the situation in B.C. is not necessarily typical, since cases of COVID-19 a

Family and friends said goodbye to Regis Korchinski-Paquet at her funeral today. Her family says the 29 year old Toronto woman was an avid gymnast as a child and loved dancing, music and singing. She fell to her death from a balcony on May 27th while police were in her home. Her family has questioned the role of officers in her death.

RCMP are investigating the deaths of two children and their mother in west-central Saskatchewan as a murder-suicide. Police say Mounties responded to a house fire call on June 4 in a residential neighbourhood in North Battleford. First responders found the body of Tammy Fiddler, who was 39, outside the home. Witnesses say she had been removed from the home by her common-law partner just before police arrived. Firefighters found the bodies of 7 year old Tessa and 11 year old Wesley Bryant inside. RCMP say experts have examined the fire, forensic autopsies are complete and Mounties have co

RCMP in southern Alberta say two teenage girls have died and one is missing after they went swimming and canoeing with seven other people in a river. Cpl. Tammy Keibel, a spokeswoman with the Alberta RCMP, says the two victims are 16 and 17 years old. She could not give the exact age of the missing girl, but says she is about the same age as the other two. Police say officers responded to a call of a drowning on Wednesday night on the St. Mary River in the area of Spring Coulee, about halfway between Lethbridge, Alta., and the United States border. They say the three girls had trouble try

British Columbia has recorded the highest number of illicit drug overdose deaths in a single month. The coroner's service says 170 people died in May, as concentrations of the deadly opioid fentanyl have increased. It says the number of deaths last month were 93 per cent higher than a year earlier. Nearly 45-hundred people have fatally overdosed on fentanyl in B.C. since 2016, when the province declared a public heath emergency.

Vancouver's mayor wants the B.C. government to conduct a review of policing across the province.Kennedy Stewart says city council can do little to change policing in Vancouver and the provincial government could override any potential decision.The comments come after the Vancouver Police Board asked council to rescind a one per cent budget cut last week.The board says George Floyd's death in Minneapolis has led to large scale protests that will affect the police department's budget.The mayor's announcement comes after the organizers of the Vancouver Pride Parade said all police and corrections

A complete overhaul of how Canada processes immigration applications is in the works as the federal government braces for a post-COVID-19 surge in demand for migration to Canada. The federal Immigration Department says the "new normal" that will emerge after the pandemic requires a revamp of the technology used to handle millions of applications a year. It says new strategies for managing those applications are also needed to limit the amount of in-person contact within the bureaucracy and between officials and potential newcomers. The department included its plan in an "urgent request" issued

Ottawa will spend a further $133 million on helping Indigenous businesses suffering the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government has heard from First Nations, Inuit and Metis business owners who have said the last few months have been extremely difficult. Of the total amount announced today, $117 million is to help small and community-owned Indigenous businesses. The remaining $16 million is to support Indigenous businesses in the tourism sector, which supports thousands of jobs across the country. This money adds to $306 million in f