Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it's inappropriate to draw a link between government actions and the death of a British Columbia boy who killed himself last month after falling prey to online sextortion.NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh referred to the death of the 12-year-old in Prince George, B.C., during question period today as he asked Trudeau when the Liberal government will table long-promised legislation designed to mitigate online harms.Trudeau first promised to introduce legislation tackling hate speech, terrorist content and sexual abuse material in the 2019 federal election campaign.He m

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said little Wednesday about the unfolding murder-for-hire plot and its echoes of a similar investigation in Canada.When it comes to what’s happening in the U.S., I won’t comment directly because of course, I respect the work that the American law enforcement agencies are doing and I respect also the independence of their legal system," she said.We stand by our own credible allegations that there was the killing of a Canadian, on Canadian soil, linking to Indian agents."Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc deflected a barrage of questions about the

American prosecutors say a man allegedly involved in a murder plot against a Sikh activist on U.S. soil also discussed the killing of Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar, just hours after Nijjar was gunned down outside a British Columbia temple.The murder-for-hire indictment against Nikhil Gupta, 52, says he told an undercover officer who he thought was a hit man that Nijjar "was also the target," and because he was dead, there was "no need to wait" on the next killing.The indictment says Gupta was recruited by an Indian government employee to orchestrate the killing of the activist, who isn't name

Chilly nights and snow-covered slopes may not be easy to come by in much of Canada during the first part of the winter season, according to the winter outlook from one of Canada's prominent forecasters. The Weather Network predicts El Niño conditions will lead to above-average temperatures and lower-than-normal precipitation levels in much of the country, particularly in Western and Central Canada. While that trend is expected to hold throughout the winter in British Columbia and the Prairie provinces, the network said areas further east may see more variable conditions as the season progres

Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, asbestos abatement employers must be licensed to operate in B.C. This means homeowners, business owners, and contractors must ensure their asbestos abatement contractor holds a valid licence before allowing them to carry out work. To enable British Columbians to verify that a contractor is licensed, WorkSafeBC has developed an Asbestos Abatement License (AAL) Registry. In B.C., asbestos is prevalent in residential and commercial buildings, posing serious health and safety risks when disturbed. Asbestos is a mineral that was used in more than 3,000 building materials f

The leader of the BC Conservatives is rejecting accusations that he's stoking hateful politics with his opposition to school programs about sexual orientation and gender identity, known as SOGI. John Rustad was responding to comments Monday by Attorney General Niki Sharma about a highway chase on the weekend that ended when a tractor flying an anti-SOGI protest flag crashed with a police car and flipped over. Sharma said it was a concerning incident and Rustad's party is to blame for ``dangerous protests'' about the issue. Rustad says parents are right to raise concerns about SOGI, saying t

BC's attorney general says the province is taking the next step in its plan to tackle online sextortion. Niki Sharma says the province intends to launch an online platform in January that will allow people to report if their intimate images are being distributed without their consent, and provide an order telling the perpetrator to stop distributing images and for online platforms to take it down. Her comments come after Mounties in Prince George, BC, said a 12-year-old boy had died by suicide after being targeted in an online sextortion scheme. Sharma called the boy's death ``terrible'' an

The British Columbia government goes up against dozens of health care and pharmaceutical companies in court today in a bid to get certification for a class-action lawsuit over the costs of the opioid crisis. It comes even after the Supreme Court of Canada agreed this month to hear a constitutional challenge by four of the companies who say a law allowing B.C. to recover costs on behalf of other governments is an overreach. Those companies then went back to the Supreme Court of B.C. to seek a delay of the certification hearing while the high court rules, but the judge said an adjournment wasn't

A high-risk sex offender arrested by Vancouver police after a 10-day manhunt earlier this month remains in custody awaiting his next court date. Randall Hopley was to appear in court on Friday, but his case was put off until Dec 8 in British Columbia provincial court. Police say Hopley cut off his electronic monitoring device after he walked away from a halfway house in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside on Nov 4. Hopley had been on a 10-year supervision order after serving a six-year prison term for abducting a three-year-old boy in southeastern B.C., but he was charged last January for allegedly