COVID-19 has changed a lot of things this holiday season but it hasn't changed the need to keep drinking drivers off the road. The Insurance Corporation of BC, RCMP detachments and municipal police forces around the province launch annual CounterAttack holiday road checks tomorrow night, continuing through December and into the new year. ICBC says an average of 67 people die in BC annually because of impaired driving, with the highest number in the southern Interior where an average of 23 people are killed by drunk drivers. Statistics from ICBC show an average of 17 people are involved in fat

Four men are facing charges after police say they broke up a gambling ring in Metro Vancouver. The illegal gambling team linked to B.C.'s specialized anti-gang unit says it investigated a suspected gaming house earlier this year and served a search warrant in July at Big Shots Cafe in Burnaby. A statement from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit says several people were taking part in what appeared to be illegal gaming. Items such as poker tables, slot machines, cash, poker chips and playing cards were seized during the raid on July 4. Two Burnaby residents, a Delta man and one from

Federal health officials say Canada now has purchase agreements with seven COVID-19 vaccine producers. Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Doctor Howard Njoo says most are in the final stages of testing before they can go to Health Canada for approval. Officials say they expect the first doses of vaccines to be delivered in the first three months of the new year. The Trudeau government has been in the hot seat this week, after the prime minister acknowledged that some countries will get COVID-19 vaccines before Canada does, because Canada doesn't have the capacity to make them.

Julian Assange's partner, Stella Moris, has tweeted President Donald Trump on Thanksgiving, appealing to him to pardon the WikiLeaks founder. Moris posted a photo of their two young children on Twitter Thursday and wrote: "These are Julian's sons Max and Gabriel. They need their father. Our family needs to be whole again." She added: "I beg you, please bring him home for Christmas." Assange, 49, remains in a British prison cell as he awaits a judge's decision about whether he can be sent to the U.S. to face espionage charges. He attended four weeks of an extradition hearing at London's Centra

Quebec's highest court has declared unconstitutional a provision of the Criminal Code that allows for life sentences to be served consecutively. The move reduces the sentence given to the man who killed six people in a Quebec City mosque in 2017. Alexandre Bissonnette, 30, was sentenced in February 2019 to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years. With today's decision from the Quebec Court of Appeal, he will be eligible to apply for parole after serving 25 years.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says she doesn't have any time for those who think wearing a mask makes them ill, or is a limitation of their personal freedom. Dr. Henry told a news conference yesterday that she objects to people who don't want to follow the province's mandatory mask requirements. BC made masks mandatory in indoor public spaces last week. People who refuse to wear a mask face a 230-dollar fine. On Tuesday, BC's solicitor general announced new fines for those who refuse to follow provincial orders on wearing masks in public spaces.

A former BC premier says he expects the provincial cabinet being sworn in later today will be larger than the 22 members before the NDP won re-election. Mike Harcourt says Premier John Horgan has some challenging choices to make in a cabinet that will be focused in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven ministers didn't seek re-election, including finance minister and deputy premier Carole James. Harcourt says James is going to be impossible to replace but Horgan has lots of flexibility and lots of talent to choose from.

Councillors in Vancouver have voted unanimously to ask the federal government to decriminalize possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. Mayor Kennedy Stewart put forward the motion earlier this month saying it is time to develop a ``health-focused'' approach to substance use and end the stigma against drug users. In a statement issued late Wednesday after the vote, Stewart thanked groups such as the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, which he says have pursued decriminalization for years. In the same process used to create its first supervised injection clinic almost two decades ago,

Provincial health officials say they are working on British Columbia's plan to handle COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, says Dr. Ross Brown of Vancouver Coastal Health will join the group working to organize the logistics around the distribution of vaccines. B.C. recorded another 13 deaths and 738 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 29,086. The province also issued a correction for nine days of case totals in the Fraser Health region, revising Tuesday's COVID-19 case count to 706 instead of 941. Dr. Henry says front-line workers as well