BC Hydro says all but a handful of customers on the south coast were able to have a warm breakfast this morning after a powerful windstorm blacked out large areas of the region yesterday and overnight. Hydro says 192-thousand customers lost power at some point during the storm that began yesterday morning, hammering parts of Vancouver Island and the eastern Fraser Valley. Its website shows about 3,000 customers, mostly in Chilliwack or the Duncan area are still in the dark. The rest had power restored before sunrise this morning.

BC's three main political parties are being criticized for failing to include the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women in their election platforms. A coalition of 18 groups, including the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, has sent a letter to the New Democrat, Liberal and Green leaders expressing ``grave concern and disappointment'' about the lack of any policies to implement the findings of a national inquiry into murdered and missing women. The coalition says the COVID-19 pandemic proves governments can move quickly when lives are at risk, yet the failure to act on missing and murdered w

A 69 year old Penticton man has pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder for the shooting deaths of four Okanagan residents in April 2019. John Brittain entered the pleas in BC Supreme Court in Kelowna this morning, after his lawyer told the judge last week that Brittain intended to admit to the slayings. Rudi Winter, Barry and Susan Wonch and Darlene Knippelberg died, and court documents show Brittain's sentencing for the attacks is also set to be held today. The murders all happened on the same day and the victims were all neighbours that B

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced regulatory approval for a second coronavirus vaccine after early-stage studies. The peptide-based, two-shot vaccine was developed by the Vector Institute in Siberia and tested among 100 volunteers in early-stage human trials. An advanced study involving tens of thousands of volunteers that is necessary to establish safety and effectiveness of the vaccine were scheduled to start in November or December. It remained unclear whether the vaccine would be offered for a wider use while the trials still ongoing. Russia licensed another vaccine on Aug. 1

WestJet's CEO says the lack of travel demand combined with domestic quarantines means the airline can no longer maintain its full Canadian network. In a video post, Ed Sims says WestJet is, ``out of runway,'' and is suspending operations to four cities in Atlantic Canada and slashing service to others in the region.WestJet says it will indefinitely halt routes to Fredericton and Moncton, New Brunswick, Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Charlottetown, while dramatically paring down service to Halifax and St. John's, Newfoundland. PEI Premier Dennis King is expressing ``deep disappointment'' that WestJe

Statistics Canada says vehicular traffic coming into Canada from the U.S. remains low as travel restrictions remain in place. The agency says the number of U.S. travellers who crossed into Canada by car in September is down 94 per cent, to a total of 64,700 trips, compared to the same time last year. Last month, it said U.S. residents made 72, 800 trips across the border.Statistics Canada also says the number of Canadians returning to the country in September was down 93 per cent, to 151,900, compared to the 2.2 million recorded in September 2019. Restrictions on non-essential travel due to CO

New Democrat Leader John Horgan was in New Westminster this morning, attacking the former Liberal government's record on care for seniors and repeating the N-D-P pledge to improve conditions he says left care homes vulnerable when the pandemic hit. Horgan says New Democrats will to hire seven-thousand new health care workers and end practices by care home operators that affect wages and force staff to work at multiple facilities to make ends meet. NDP Leader John Horgan is trying to clarify an answer he gave on white privilege during Tuesday night's leaders debate in the B.C. election. In a st

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc says there is no magic legislative bullet to control objectionable content on social media.LeBlanc told a virtual conference on democracy today if there were a simple answer, many other western democracies would have already passed such laws. He says the internet and social-media platforms must be a home for free speech, a critical element of any democracy. However, LeBlanc adds, they should not be forums for hate speech, racism and disinformation. But he says citizens do not want governments to regulate content on the internet. LeBlanc prefe

The party leaders in British Columbia's provincial election return to the campaign trail today after going head-to-head Tuesday night in a televised debate.The debate featured the three party leaders keeping their distance because of the COVID-19 pandemic.They also dispensed with the usual handshakes in a largely civil debate, with some of the most pointed disagreements emerging on the best approach for economic recovery after the pandemic and energy policy.The post-pandemic recovery featured heavily in Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson's attacks on Horgan as he accused the New Democrats of bri