Leaders of British Columbia's main political parties have converged on Vancouver Island in the final stage of campaigning before the provincial election on Saturday, with record numbers of voters already casting their ballots in advance polling. Elections BC says more than 181,000 people voted on Tuesday, breaking a record set on the first day of voting last week. The election office says 778,000 people have already voted ahead of today's final day of advance voting. NDP Leader David Eby and B.C. Conservative counterpart John Rustad both have announcements scheduled in Nanaimo, while Green Par

The founders of a Vancouver "compassion club" that sold heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine bought on the dark web and tested for contaminants, have filed a court challenge arguing their Charter rights and the rights of users were violated when the club was shut and they were arrested. Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, the co-founders of the Drug User Liberation Front, say denying compassion club members access to a predictable supply of drugs they depend on, while exposing them to the severe risks of the street supply is "grossly disproportionate" to any benefits of shutting down the club. They sa

It's the last week of the British Columbia election campaign after a busy long weekend of promises for the B.C. Conservatives, including a new Children's Hospital for Surrey. B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad is expected to explain how he's going to pay for all his promises, from the so-called Rustad rebate to exempt up to $3,000 a month of rent or mortgage payments from taxes, to the plan to eliminate the carbon tax. Rustad also said the Conservatives would eliminate the provincial deficit of nearly $9 billion within two terms of government. In the battle to win the 10 Surrey ridings, the

Seven Vancouver police officers involved in the beating death of Myles Gray nine years ago have been cleared of wrongdoing by a police discipline authority. The Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner says it's reviewing the decision over the 2015 death of Gray, which was classified as a homicide by a coroner's inquest last year. A pathologist told the inquest Gray died of cardiopulmonary arrest, complicated by police actions including "neck compression," blunt force injuries, the use of pepper spray and holding Gray on his stomach while his arms were handcuffed behind his back. The commi

Keen voters in British Columbia's provincial election can start casting ballots at hundreds of advance voting locations today. Elections BC says there are 343 advance voting places, although not all will open every day for the two advance voting periods, which run from today until Oct. 13, then on Oct. 15 and 16. Polls suggest a tight race between David Eby's NDP and John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives, and advance voting has played an increasing role in previous elections. Numbers provided by Elections BC show that 35 per cent of ballots cast in the 2020 pandemic election came from advance votin

Political leaders are condemning what they describe as "hateful rhetoric" from a speaker at a pro-Palestinian rally in Vancouver who told the crowd that "we are Hezbollah and we are Hamas." Both groups are listed by Public Safety Canada as terrorist entities. In videos circulated online, the unidentified masked woman led a crowd of hundreds at the Vancouver Art Gallery Monday night in chants of "death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel," while some in the group burned Canadian flags. The protest was organized by the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun and held on the annivers

A man from Vancouver Island is facing a criminal charge in connection to a fatal hit-and-run that killed a teenager earlier this year. The North Cowichan-Duncan RCMP says a 28-year-old man from the Cowichan Valley is accused of failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing death. Police were called to the crash site on April 18 along the Trans-Canada Highway in Duncan where they found a 17-year-old girl dead but no suspect vehicle. RCMP say their investigation was long and complex. The Crown prosecution service has approved the charge against the man. The man is due to appear in court on

A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada. A statement from the United States Attorney's Office in Montana says Haptei John Kozak pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of making false statements during a firearms transaction. Judge Donald Molloy also imposed a $10,000 fine and three years of supervised release, along with ordering that Kozak forfeit 12 firearms. U.S. attorney Jesse Laslovich says in the statement that black-market firearm smu

Canadian border officers in British Columbia made 60 seizures of methamphetamine destined for export to Australia between March and August. The Canadian Border Services Agency says the seizures totalled nearly 400 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and close to 1,300 litres of a liquid form of the drug. The agency says the liquid was seized in June in a single-day operation at the Fraser Surrey Dock, southeast of Vancouver. The crystal meth was found in separate seizures at the Tsawwassen container examination facility, the international mail centre and international cargo operations, and at