The B.C. government has announced five days of paid leave for workers fleeing domestic and sexual violence. The ministries of labour, finance and the gender equity office made the announcement this morning in Victoria. The new legislation also covers parents of a child or dependent impacted by domestic or sexual violence. Tracy Porteous, the executive director of the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia says survivors of such violence face many difficulties but having informed and respectful people and processes in place to offer assistance will give them time to heal.

Another case of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, has been identified in British Columbia. B.C.'s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, says the man, in his 50's, returned from Iran last week and began to feel ill. He is in isolation at home in the Fraser Health region and Henry says he, his family and close contacts are all being monitored. Ontario reported two more cases of the virus this morning and those, along with the latest B.C. case, have pushed the total number of COVID-19 illnesses in Canada to 30.

Police say one man suffered minor injuries when his car and several police cruisers collided numerous times at the end of a brief pursuit in Vancouver.It happened just after 2 a.m. when Const. Tania Visintin says officers tried to pull over a suspicious vehicle believed to be linked to break-ins on the city's west side. Visintin says in an email that the driver sped away, ignoring the lights and sirens.The 38 year old Vancouver man was stopped a short distance away after what Visintin describes as "a number of collisions" with the cruisers.The car and cruisers were badly damaged but Visintin s

A landlord who accused his former tenant of smoking pot when she was actually burning sage has been ordered to pay her more than $23,000.Crystal Smith filed a discrimination complaint against Parminder Mohan after he tried to evict her in 2017 and made derogatory comments about her Indigenous background.The BC Human Rights Tribunal has determined the mother of two never should have been harassed for performing smudging ceremonies in her Burnaby home.The spiritual cleansing is a cultural tradition.

The RCMP says a teenage male was arrested and released with a future court date after a suspected arson at a Canadian National Railway building in northwest British Columbia. Cpl. Devon Gerrits of the Prince Rupert RCMP says the investigation is ongoing and charges haven't been laid yet against the youth, who is under 18. Gerrits says the incident is not associated with protests in support of Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs who oppose a pipeline in northern B.C. He says the Prince Rupert Fire Department called the RCMP around 4:45 p.m. Sunday about a structure fire on Bill Murray Drive close t

B.C.'s privacy commissioner has been notified of a data breach recorded at Simon Fraser University last Thursday. Administrators say the problem was identified and corrected the following day but students and staff are being asked to change their passwords because their privacy may have been breached. Chief information officer Mark Roman sent out an email this morning saying the ransomware attack involved data collected before June 20th of last year, but no current systems have been exposed. The cause of the breach is still under investigation.

Attorney General David Eby says B.C.'s New Democrat government is taking steps to ensure profits made by the Insurance Corporation of B.C. stay with the public insurer. Eby says he is preparing to bring in legislation that would prevent government's from skimming I.C.B.C. surpluses away from the corporation to use for other government initiatives. In an announcement this morning Eby says I.C.B.C. profits should be used to offset premium costs. He says previous Liberal governments stripped 1.2-billion dollars from I.C.B.C. between 2009 and 2016, eroding the financial stability of the Crown cor

The company behind the natural gas pipeline through traditional Wet'suwet'en territories says work on the Coastal GasLink project resumed today after a pause while hereditary chiefs, federal and provincial politicians discussed the disputed link. All sides say an agreement on rights and title lands was reached during talks that began Thursday and ended early yesterday. Hereditary Chief Woos (wahs') has called the pact a milestone. Wet'suwet'en approval is expected to take about two weeks, and details won't be released in the meantime.

A long time member of British Columbia's legislative assembly and former cabinet minister, Rich Coleman, has announced he will not seek re-election.Coleman was first elected as the B.C. Liberal MLA for Fort Langley-Aldergrove in 1996 and was re-elected five more times, most recently as the MLA for the newly created Langley East riding in 2017.Coleman wrote on Facebook that he chose Feb. 29 to announce the decision because it's the 24th anniversary of his original nomination as a candidate.Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson thanked Coleman, saying he was ``instrumental'' in the accomplishments of