Party leaders prep for only televised debate of B.C.'s election campaign

Dozens of firefighters in Surrey, B.C., spent hours fighting a large blaze at a store selling e-bikes, where smoke was so thick that crews had to battle the flames from outside. Mike McNamara, assistant chief of operations with the Surrey Fire Department, says its part of a growing number of difficult-to-extinguish fires that erupt when e-bike batteries burn. McNamara says 36 firefighters and 12 trucks spent six hours Saturday night fighting the fire that destroyed the business and appears to have damaged others nearby. He says crews were initially able to enter the building but th

Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a byelection for the riding of Battle River — Crowfoot in Alberta for Aug. 18. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is expected to run in the riding after losing his Ottawa-area seat in the April to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy. Former Conservative MP Damien Kurek resigned the seat earlier this month to clear the way for Poilievre to run after winning the seat with 82 per cent of the vote.

A 15-year-old boy in Winnipeg is accused of attacking a 68-year-old man with a machete. Police say the assault on Friday night was random and happened while the man was walking past a Salvation Army on Henry Avenue. He was taken to hospital and police say he will require surgery. They say witnesses detained the boy until police arrived, and that officers recovered two machetes during the arrest.

An Alberta judge has put on hold a provincial law that bans doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth. Justice Allison Kuntz, in a written judgment, has issued a temporary injunction against the law, saying it raises serious issues that need to be hashed out in court. Kuntz says a temporary stop to the law is needed to prevent what she calls ``irreparable harm'' coming to young patients while the issue is debated. The law, passed late last year but not fully in effect, would have prevented doctors from providing treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to th

British Columbia's Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma says there was a "frightening" security incident at her constituency office in North Vancouver early Friday. Ma says in a statement that all meetings and appointments at the office have been cancelled for the day. Her statement says that thankfully, nobody was injured, and she appreciates the concern expressed by community members. Ma doesn't describe the incident and says due to an active police investigation, she won't be able to provide more details about what happened. She says she wants to thank the officers who responded to the inciden