The accused in Sunday's deadly attack on a Muslim family in London, Ontario made his first court appearance today. Nathaniel Veltman made a brief virtual appearance to face four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder before his case was adjourned until Monday. Veltman says he's still in the process of retaining a lawyer. Relatives have identified the dead as 46 year old Salman Afzaal, his 44 year old wife Madiha Salman, their 15 year old daughter Yumna Salman and her 74 year old grandmother, Talat Afzaal. The couple's nine year old son, Fayez, was seriously wounded bu

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, have issued a joint statement regarding updates on the COVID-19 response in British Columbia. "Today, we are reporting that 74.5% of all adults in B.C. and 72.4% of those 12 and older have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. In total, 3,749,758 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 390,264 of which are second doses."We have had 148 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 145,843 cases in British Columbia."Of the new cases, 23 are in

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says she is looking at ensuring Canada gets close to 75 per cent of eligible people vaccinated with both doses before she would be comfortable advising that border restrictions can be loosened for tourists and business travellers who aren't Canadians or permanent residents. Dr. Tam says that is the level where modelling shows Canada's hospitals won't be overwhelmed by COVID-19. Dr. Tam says she expects Canada to hit its first goalpost of having 75 per cent of eligible people with one dose, and 20 per cent with two, by the beginning of July, but getti

A man who admitting to killing and dismembering a Nebraska hardware store clerk in 2017 has been sentenced to death. Aubrey Trail was convicted in 2019 of first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of Sydney Loofe. A three-judge panel sentenced Trail on Wednesday. Loofe's family left the Saline County Courthouse after sentencing without taking questions. Prosecutors say Trail and his girlfriend, Bailey Boswell, planned to kill someone before Boswell met the 24 year old Loofe on the dating app Tinder and lured her to them. Loofe's body parts were found in garba

Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Canada will have enough vaccine delivered for 80 per cent of eligible Canadians to be fully vaccinated by the end of July. Only people over the age of 12 are able to get vaccinated currently, with Pfizer and Moderna hoping to submit data from trials on younger children in the fall. Anand says there are now confirmed deliveries of 55 million doses by July 31, about 70 per cent of it from Pfizer-BioNTech. That is enough to give two doses to more than 27 million people. Currently, Canada has given one dose to 23.8 million people and both doses to 3.3 million

BC's independent police watchdog says an investigation has determined the death of a man after his release from RCMP cells in Mission had no connection to his involvement with police. The Independent Investigations Office says the man was arrested in the early hours of March 21st last year and released from cells about nine hours later. The office says the man was reported missing six days later and a review of available evidence confirms a thorough search was done, including canvassing of the area, patrols and missing-person bulletins. Human remains found this past April in a forested area a

The chief medical officer of health for the southern interior of British Columbia has been arrested on sex charges. Alberta RCMP say Albert de Villiers, who is 52, faces one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference. Cpl. Curtis Peters says de Villiers was arrested in Kelowna Tuesday based on a warrant issued in Grande Prairie, Alta. Grande Prairie RCMP say in a release that the charges follow allegations that occurred between 2018 and 2020 involving a child that were investigated by its Special Investigative Unit. Police say he remains in custody awaiting a judicial hearin

The federal government is set to announce today that fully vaccinated Canadian travellers will no longer need to spend 14 days in quarantine upon arriving home. A federal source familiar with the policy says the change will go into effect in early July. The source spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a policy decision that has yet to be made public. It will apply to Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have had a full course of a COVID-19 vaccine. Affected travellers will be required to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival in Canada, and remain in isolation until the test

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is suggesting a probable link between Sunday's deadly attack on a Muslim family in London, Ont., and online hate. ``We just had a terrible tragedy a couple of nights ago, where a Muslim family three generations out for a walk on the side of the road, and they were viciously and inexplicably rundown deliberately,'' Trudeau said this morning during an online conference on government and the internet. ``And we don't yet know all the causes or reasons, but there is probably an element of online invitation to violence or access to things that we have to think about.''