RCMP in Kelowna, B.C., confirm the BC Hate Crimes Team has joined an investigation into an attack on an international student in the city.A statement from the Kelowna detachment says its general investigations team is leading the file and is seeking video from the area around a bus stop where the assault happened on March 17.Police say a suspect group has been identified, but no arrests have been made. The reason for the attack and the details linked to it are still being determined and the 21-year-old student is being supported by the Mounties' victim services unit.RCMP have released few deta

Approximately 75% of B.C. families with children will see more money in their bank accounts from the third enhanced BC Family Benefit payment.The monthly benefit was temporarily increased for families in B.C. for the first three months of 2023. From January through March 2023 combined, the extra BC Family Benefit payments have provided as much as an additional $350 for a family with two children."While global inflation is stretching most household budgets, it can be really tough for those already struggling to make ends meet," said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Finance. "Supporting people contin

The federal government is doling out more cash in B.C. this time to help the growth and innovation of 10 Vancouver-based companies.Harjit Sajjan, the minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, announced eight companies will receive just over $16 million from a federal scale-up and productivity fund.Nearly $10 million from a jobs and growth fund will be split by two other companies and the government says businesses benefiting from the cash include one using bioprinting technology to find treatments for incurable diseases.The statement from Sajjan's office says

A Vancouver parent has launched a proposed class-action lawsuit against the makers of Fortnite, saying the popular video game is designed to be "as addictive as possible" for children.In the lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday, the plaintiff identified only as A.B. says her son downloaded Fortnite in 2018 and "developed an adverse dependence on the game."The statement of claim says the game incorporates a number of intentional design choices such as offering rewards for completing challenges and making frequent updates, which encourages players to return repeatedly.The statement say

Bus service across most of B.C.'s Fraser Valley, from Abbotsford to Hope, has been halted by a strike.More than 200 members of CUPE Local 561 walked off the job, affecting all bus service in Abbotsford, Mission, Agassiz-Harrison, Chilliwack and Hope, although essential HandiDart trips can still be booked. The union says its members, who work for a company that contracts service to BC Transit, have no pension and make 32 per cent less than bus drivers and other staff elsewhere in Metro Vancouver's transit system.Talks between the two sides collapsed last week and the union says BC Transit and i

Police say they have arrested a man in Nanaimo, B.C., who was allegedly threatening people with a toy bow and arrow that had a syringe with a needle attached to the arrow's tip.Mounties say they were called to the parking lot of the Port Place Mall in the Vancouver Island city on Monday after the man was reportedly threatening people with a stick and the toy bow and arrow.Police say the arrow "appeared to have" a hypodermic needle attached to the end, and the man was taken into custody after a brief foot chase and struggle with officers.RCMP say the 32-year-old man now faces charges of assault

A pigeon wearing a tiny empty backpack has been captured inside a federal prison in British Columbia, in what a union official says was likely another plan by inmates to smuggle drugs.The discovery at the Matsqui prison in the Fraser Valley comes just a few months after another pigeon was captured carrying a bird-size backpack full of crystal methamphetamine at the Pacific Institution right next door.John Randle, the Pacific regional president at the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says the latest pigeon's pack was made of blue jeans and bedsheets, materials easily available to inmate

RCMP in British Columbia say they've disrupted major organized crime groups that are flooding the streets with toxic drugs in two separate investigations involving transnational drug production and distribution operations.Police in Surrey, B.C., announced the seizure of a massive cache of precursor chemicals used to make the powerful opioid fentanyl and MDMA, also known as ecstasy.Police say they executed several search warrants in late February across Metro Vancouver, leading to the arrests of a man and woman and the seizure of the chemicals in addition to luxury cars, electronics, watches an

Authorities in British Columbia are investigating after 17 wild horses were shot in what Mounties are calling a "disheartening act."The RCMP say in a news release that Tk’emlups Rural RCMP received a report of several dead horses found about 65 kilometres west of Kamloops, near Walhachin, B.C., on Friday.Police say the RCMP’s Forensic Identification Section carefully examined the scene, along with a veterinarian and a livestock investigator.They say the animals appear to have been from a herd of feral horses that frequent that area.RCMP say the motive has not yet been confirmed and the inv