A handful of homeless people set up tents overnight along a stretch of Vancouver's Hastings Street that was cleared Wednesday in a co-ordinated effort by city officials and Vancouver police.Mayor Ken Sim ordered the long-standing encampment removed after the city's police and fire chiefs warned of escalating crime and an unacceptable fire risk.At the camp's peak, about 180 structures covered the sidewalk along the busy street.Now there are questions about where the displaced residents will go, and many have vowed to return to the only place they feel safe as soon as enforcement lifts.Vancouver

The federal government says today it is bringing home four Canadian women and 10 children from prison camps in northeastern Syria.The Canadians are among the many foreign nationals in Syrian camps run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the war-torn region from the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.The long-anticipated flight to Canada had been expected to bring more people home.Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon reached an agreement with the federal government in January to repatriate six Canadian women and 13 children who had been part of a court action.Greenspon says today that two mothers

The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a challenge of a British Columbia law intended to preserve public health care through measures against extra-billing and certain private insurance.Two Vancouver private health facilities and four patients argued that provisions of the Medicare Protection Act violate constitutional rights due to long waits for care in B.C.'s publicly funded system.They said this amounted to a breach of the patients' life, liberty and security of the person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.Three years ago, the Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed the const

Akwesasne Mohawk police say are suspending the organized search of local waterways for a man linked to the eight migrants whose bodies were pulled from the St. Lawrence River last week.Police say they believe they have exhausted search efforts on the water for 30-year-old Casey Oakes and are set to resume normal patrol operations, unless they receive "actionable intelligence".Oakes was last seen on the night of March 29 operating a boat found next to the bodies of two migrant families, one from Romania and the other from India.Police say the families were trying to cross into the United States

A former Liberal cabinet minister who has been sitting in British Columbia's legislature as an Independent is the new leader of the provincial Conservatives.John Rustad, the member of the legislature for Nechako Lakes, was acclaimed leader of the Conservative Party of B.C. as the only candidate who entered the race.Rustad, who is 60 years old, replaces former leader Trevor Bolin, who was serving as interim leader.Opposition Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon said he dumped Rustad from the party caucus last August for his public statements and social media posts suggesting climate change is not caused

The search is expected to continue today after six bodies (including a child under age of three) were discovered Thursday in the St. Lawrence River near Akwesasne, Quebec.The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service says the first body was located around 5:00 p.m. in a marsh area, which searched later Thursday evening by a police marine unit with the help of the Canadian Coast Guard and the Hogansburg Akwesasne Volunteer Fire Department.Air support units with the Quebec provincial police and Ontario Provincial Police are expected to assist with further investigation of the area.Post-mortem and toxicolo

Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole says he will not seek re-election and plans to resign his seat this spring.The Ontario MP led the Conservatives and served as official Opposition leader from August 2020 until February 2022, when a majority of his caucus voted to remove him from the post.That followed months of tensions over O'Toole's management of caucus and attempts to moderate the party's image.Those efforts led to concerns that he flip-flopped on key policy positions, including on carbon pricing and gun control.O'Toole has kept a low profile on Parliament Hill since his ousting and

The fatal stabbing of a 37-year-old father outside a downtown Vancouver Starbucks is casting a pall over the normally bustling block.Passersby have been pausing to pay their respects to Paul Stanley Schmidt at a makeshift memorial of flowers, pictures and notes outside the café.Police say Schmidt was stabbed after a brief altercation shortly after 5:30 p.m. Sunday.They say Inderdeep Singh Gosal was arrested at the scene moments later when bystanders flagged down a constable patrolling the area.The 32-year-old has been charged with second-degree murder and a hearing has been scheduled in Vanco

The B.C. government is taking aim at organized crime through its members unexplained wealth, such as luxury homes or vehicles.Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced the government is changing the Civil Forfeiture Act to include unexplained wealth orders, requiring people to tell a court how they got the assets if there is suspicion of crime.It means the Civil Forfeiture Office would be able to ask a B.C. Supreme Court for an order against people or companies to explain where they got their wealth and if a three-part test is satisfied, that property can be seized.The changes are based