BC is repealing its indoor mask order as well as capacity limits on faith gatherings tomorrow and will end its COVID-19 vaccine card system on April 8th. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says restrictions on visitors to long-term care facilities will also be lifted by March 18th as long as visitors are fully vaccinated and screened. Dr. Henry says high levels of vaccination and decreasing transmission of the coronavirus are allowing the province to switch to what she describes as an ``empowered self-management approach.'' She is calling on people to support those who wish to continu

An unlicensed massage practitioner has been arrested and charged following a VPD investigation, after two women came forward with allegations they were sexually assaulted while receiving treatments last month.VPD launched an investigation in February after the women, aged 34 and 44, reported being sexually assaulted while receiving treatments at two Happy Feet Massage locations in East Vancouver. Investigators worked with the owners, who were cooperative throughout the investigation, and arrested 46-year old Jun Dong Gao on February 10, 2022.BC Prosecution Service has approved two counts of se

Following a 2 year long investigation into the disappearance of 33-year-old Sidney Mantee, charges have been approved against 26-year-old Paris Laroche.On March 9, 2022, the BC Prosecution Service approved charges of First degree murder and Indignity to Human Remains, both in relation to the murder and disappearance of Mantee.Laroche was arrested on Wednesday March 9, 2022 and remains in police custody. She will appear later today in Nanaimo Provincial Court.The investigation required significant time and police resources. In the weeks and months following Mantee’s disappearance, investigato

A woman is in custody after an altercation resulting in a Surrey police officer being stabbed. Surrey police and Surrey RCMP were called to a home Wednesday evening for reports of a woman screaming and throwing things inside. Police say the suspect attempted to run from officers, prompting a brief foot chase. Authorities say an officer was stabbed during the arrest and was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The officer was released Thursday and is recovering at home. The Surrey RCMP Serious Crime Unit is investigating and police say the suspect is in hospital being assessed

RCMP say a couple in Nanaimo, B.C., who thought they had won more than $18 million and a luxury vehicle in a lottery were instead scammed out of almost $400,000. A statement from police says the couple, who are both in their late 80s, were contacted by phone early last year. They were told they had won $18.5 million and a Mercedes-Benz but would have to pay administrative fees in order to collect. Over the year, police say the couple received official-looking documents and weekly calls from the scammers directing them to pay taxes and other fees through bank drafts sent to various addresses.

The Surrey Board of Trade is the latest to call for an immediate halt to provincial fuel taxes as gas prices surge toward the two-dollar-and-17 cent per litre mark in some parts of BC. A statement from the board calls on John Horgan's NDP government to follow Alberta's lead and pause the carbon and other taxes that add as much as 73 cents to the cost of each litre of gas pumped in Metro Vancouver. Board president Anita Huberman says B-C's gas levies, in addition to complications from the pandemic and hikes in the cost of living and price of goods, are further burdens on the business community

A four-year Vancouver Police investigation has led to charges in the 2018 double murder that took the life of 15-year-old Alfred Wong, Vancouver Police Chief Constable Adam Palmer announced today."This was a long and complex investigation, which took some of VPD’s most experienced homicide investigators across the country to secure and gather evidence," Chief Palmer said, in announcing charges against Kane Carter for the January 2018 deaths of Wong and 23-year-old Kevin Whiteside. "Investigators interviewed hundreds of witnesses and processed thousands of exhibits. And while it has taken mor

A report examining thousands of deaths linked to illicit drugs in BC says the province must act over the next 90 days to develop a policy that delivers a safer supply of drugs. The death review panel report released by chief coroner Lisa Lapointe calls on the government, the BC Centre for Disease Control and the BC Centre on Substance Use to find a way toward a safer supply, with measurable action taken over the next 30, 60 and 90 days. The report looked at 6,000 deaths between August 2017 and July 2021 and found increasingly toxic drugs, coupled with a policy of prohibition, forces reliance

B.C. is reporting 254 new cases of COVID-19, including one epi-linked case, for a total of 351,141 cases in the province. There are 419 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 63 are in intensive care.In the past 24 hours, one new death (Fraser Health) has been reported, for an overall total of 2,915.There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks. The outbreaks at Three Links Manor (Interior Health), Amica on the Gorge and Nanaimo Seniors Village (Island Health) are over, for a total of 14 facilities with ongoing outbreaks. Since December 2020, the Province has administered 11,382,63