British Columbia's premier says calls for defunding police are a simplistic approach to a complex problem. John Horgan says police are increasingly burdened with a range of challenges in areas including homelessness, mental health and addiction which need more funding. He says it's inappropriate to expect law enforcement to take on those issues as they deal with public safety concerns. Horgan says he envisions expanding the capacity for communities to ensure they're not asking police for more than they're capable of delivering. He says defunding issues arising from George Floyd's police-involv

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer wants Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne to explain how his holding two mortgages with a Chinese bank doesn't compromise his ability to deal with the People's Republic. Scheer wants Champagne to appear before the special House of Commons committee on Canada-China relations and he says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to justify the cabinet appointment there too. Scheer says Champagne is Canada's top diplomat and China's communist leaders can use the $1.2 million he owes on two London properties to the Bank of China as leverage at a time of

New video has emerged of the violent arrest of a prominent chief of a northern Alberta First Nation. The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation says the RCMP dash-camera video was released publicly as part of a court application to get criminal charges against Chief Allan Adam stayed. The 12-minute video, posted by several media outlets, shows an officer approaching Adam's truck outside a casino in Fort McMurray, Alta., early in the morning of March 10. The RCMP have said Adam's truck had expired plates and the video shows Adam getting in and out of the vehicle, aggressively removing his coat and us

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

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

Opposition parties have refused to give unanimous consent to speedily pass the Trudeau government's latest emergency legislation.They have also rejected the government's bid to split the bill in two, to allow promised benefits for Canadians with disabilities to go ahead.Those benefits are now in limbo, along with other measures in the bill.The bill includes a proposed expansion of the wage subsidy program to include seasonal workers and some additional businesses, as well as proposed penalties for fraudulently claiming the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.It also proposes changes to the CERB

BC has had no COVID-19 deaths for the fourth day in a row. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says she's grateful that the number of infections is trending downward. However, she says the COVID-19 pandemic is still a major problem and will be in communities for some time. She says many regions are seeing a resurgence in cases and yesterday was the highest single day for new cases around the world with 136,000 people newly diagnosed. Ten more people were diagnosed with the virus in BC for a total of 2,669. The death toll in BC remains at 167 people.

One man is recovering from a gunshot wound in Surrey after what police believe was an early morning dispute between several people who know each other. Surrey RCMP say officers were called to a disturbance in a home in the Whalley neighbourhood at about 8:30 a.m., and found two men, one with a non-life-threatening bullet wound, trying to leave the area. The victim was hospitalized and police have since determined a third man left before they arrived, but where he went, what caused the dispute and where, or when, the injured man was shot are all unknown. Police say they don't believe there's a

Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says police officers who use excessive force or appear to be discriminating on the basis of race need to be held to account.Blair says he is concerned about a number of instances in recent days in which Indigenous Peoples have had violent runs-in with the RCMP and local police.He says while there is a policy designed to ensure bias-free policing by the RCMP, there needs to be more work done on its relationship with Indigenous communities.Demands have increased in recent days for a complete overhaul to the way policing works in Canada, alongside a simil