RCMP on Vancouver Island say will increase their presence around the Cowichan District Hospital as they investigate reports of multiple sexual assaults outside the building. North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP say were made aware of sexual assaults believed to have taken placed between Nov. 2 and Nov. 17 near the grounds of the hospital. Mounties say they're looking to speak to any potential victims. In the meantime, police say uniformed officers in marked police vehicles will increase their patrols of the property.

Canada's chief public health officer says there's "urgency" to bring infections down as officials released dire new forecasts indicating that COVID-19 case counts have far surpassed levels seen during the first wave. Dr. Theresa Tam says COVID-19 cases could skyrocket to 60,000 per day by the end of the year if Canadians increase their contact rates. The modelling predicts that at current rates of contact, Canada is careening towards a surge of more than 20,000 cases per day by the end of December. But if socialization increases, the projections indicate that as 2020 draws to a close, Canada

BC is reporting 538 new cases of COVID-19 with most still coming from the Fraser and Vancouver health regions. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the province now has 6,929 active cases. 217 people are in hospital, including 59 in intensive care. Dr. Henry says there is also one addition death, bringing the total to 321. Details of COVID-19 restrictions in B.C. B.C. is introducing new far-reaching limits on social gatherings, travel and mandatory masks in response to surging COVID-19 case numbers and record hospitalizations. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said today t

A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at the LNG Canada Project work site in Kitimat. Northern Health says it declared the outbreak after officials found evidence of COVID-19 transmission among staff at the site. It says 14 employees have tested positive so far and all cases occurred in the same general work location. It says those workers and close contacts have been told to self-isolate, with 32 in quarantine at the work site and the rest isolating in their home community.

President-elect Joe Biden is set to meet in Delaware with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. A Biden transition official confirms that Pelosi and Schumer are travelling to Wilmington to meet with the president-elect in person on Friday. The official wasn't authorized to share internal planning and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday. Biden spoke with the pair by phone last week about the intensifying pandemic and prospects for passage of a COVID-19 relief bill in the lame duck session of Congress. Biden has made addressing the v

An Ontario Provincial Police officer died Thursday after being shot in the line of duty on Manitoulin Island in an incident that left a second officer injured. Const. Marc Hovingh had been a member of the service for 28 years, OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said in a tweet. "Our hearts are with his family, friends and colleagues at this tragic time," Carrique wrote. Hovingh was shot and killed while conducting a wellness check on Thursday, a spokesman for the Ontario Provincial Police Association said. Scott Mills said the officer worked out of the force's Little Current detachment. Premier

The border officer who led the examination of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport before her arrest two years ago says he can't recall whose idea it was to collect the passcodes to her phones. Sowmith Katragadda told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing he asked another officer to collect the codes from Meng but can't remember if the order came from one of his supervisors or if it was his own idea. Katragadda is testifying as part of an evidence-gathering hearing in Meng's extradition case. Her lawyers are collecting information to support an abuse of process argument in court next y

President Donald Trump has summoned Michigan's Republican legislative leaders to the White House for a meeting Friday. The meeting comes amid a longshot GOP push to overturn the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the battleground state. Two people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press that Trump invited Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield. They agreed to go, according to a state official aware of the leaders' plans. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. It was not immediately clear wha

An independent report on harassment of women in the RCMP says fundamental change is needed to rid the national police force of a toxic culture that tolerates hateful and homophobic attitudes. And RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says, as she has said previously, that such harassment must stop. A report on harassment of women in the RCMP says fundamental change is needed to rid the national police force of a toxic culture. Former Supreme Court of Canada justice Michel Bastarache says the national police force's culture is toxic and tolerates hateful and homophobic attitudes. He has drafted 52 re