BC is making it easier for victims to obtain disaster financial assistance. Emergency Management BC and the Public Safety Ministry say the limitations of the old system were highlighted by last November's catastrophic floods that tore up highways and washed away homes and farms in many parts of southern BC. Changes will make more farmers, businesses and rental unit owners eligible for relief and the application period has been reopened until the end of July to allow new claimants to submit their paperwork. Local governments and First Nations also won't have to wait to receive funds until afte

Protesters chained or glued themselves to the doors of a downtown Vancouver hotel this morning as the final day of the Council of Forest Industries Convention was getting underway. Members of Save Old Growth are demanding a legislated end to logging in BC's old growth forests and want a meeting with Forests Minister Katrine Conroy. Premier John Horgan is addressing the convention (at 12:45) this afternoon. The demonstrators say they are disrupting the event because the government is ``so out of touch'' that it won't meet with them and will only ``interact with itself and industry lobbyists.''

The Department of National Defence says four cadets at the Royal Military College are dead after what it calls a ``fatal incident'' at the institution's campus in Kingston, Ontario. They say it occurred early this morning at Point Frederick. Officials say the loss is being felt across the Royal Military College community, while next-of-kin notifications are still ongoing. The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service is investigating.

On April 11, 2022, an art owner contacted the Saanich Police to report that in March of this year they had entrusted a local art dealer with four pieces of fine art for consignment and potential sale at an art gallery in Oak Bay. The pieces were three original Emily Carr paintings and one David Blackwood watercolour, both of whom are renowned Canadian artists. The owner became suspicious when the gallery recently closed and attempts to contact the art dealer had gone unanswered.The police investigation uncovered that there were several other victims that had consigned art to this dealer and th

A man has been fatally shot in a confrontation with Vancouver police and the office that handles all cases of police-involved deaths in British Columbia is now investigating. A statement from the Independent Investigations Office says police report officers were called to an east Vancouver neighbourhood Wednesday night. Vancouver police say they were responding to an alleged assault inside an apartment near Commercial Drive and Fifth Avenue. There was an exchange of gunfire with a man in his 40s and Const. Tania Visintin says the man died. Visintin says an officer was slightly hurt and has be

Police say they have arrested an 18-year-old suspect after a student was assaulted in front of New Westminster Secondary School. Police say the 16-year-old victim suffered a significant laceration to his head, a suspected concussion and a broken arm when he was attacked with a blunt force weapon early yesterday afternoon. They say investigators are trying to determine what led to the assault, but the victim and suspect are known to each other, and it's not believed to be random. Police also say it's believed to be related to an incident about a half-hour earlier where police intervened when t

Health Canada is going to end a ban on gay men donating blood. Canadian Blood Services says the ban will be replaced by new screening criteria based on sexual history and behaviour. Starting no later than September 30th, potential donors will be asked if they have had new or multiple sexual partners in the last three months, no matter their gender or sexual orientation. The agency says questions about sexual behaviour will allow more reliable risk assessments.

Police in Abbotsford say they're investigating a hit-and-run that left a 38-year-old man with life-threatening injuries.Officers responded to the crash between a pedestrian and vehicle whose driver fled the scene just before midnight on Tuesday.Police say they're working with the R-C-M-P's Integrated Collision Analysis Reconstruction Service as they try to identify the suspect vehicle.Anyone who was in the area of Clearbook Road and Hillcrest Avenue around the time of the incident is asked to contact police.

Opposition Conservatives are asking the RCMP to pursue a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's trip to the Aga Khan's private island six years ago, saying there's new evidence. The Bahamian vacation Trudeau and his family embarked on in 2016 has re-emerged as an issue after the Conservative party received internal documents through an access-to-information request showing the force contemplated investigating him for fraud. The federal ethics commissioner investigated the trips and in 2017 ruled his acceptance of gifts breached conflict of interest rules because the Aga K