Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon says he's ready to hold the NDP government to account after returning to the BC legislature for the first time in about a decade. Falcon was sworn in today after easily winning a byelection in the Liberal stronghold of Vancouver-Quilchena on April 30th. The 59 year old won the party leadership last February after Andrew Wilkinson stepped down as Liberal leader following the NDP's majority win in last year's provincial election. Falcon says affordability will be a key issue for his party and repeated Liberal calls today for the NDP government to temporarily suspend a

Vancouver police say they believe speed was a factor in a four-car collision that killed one person and sent two others to hospital on Monday. Police say in a news release that a Toyota Corolla had topped the speed limit when it crossed into oncoming traffic on Granville Street at West 46th Avenue. They say the vehicle side-swiped a taxi, struck a Porsche, and went airborne over a truck before landing on top of a Hyundai Elantra and coming to rest on the pavement. Police say the driver of the Corolla was trapped in the vehicle and died at the scene. They say the drivers of the Porsche and Hyu

Vancouver Police are appealing for witnesses to a seemingly random assault that is alleged to have been committed on a 15-year-boy, and have released video of the incident with hopes that people will come forward. "Although we have arrested a suspect in this case, we are still gathering evidence," says Constable Tania Visintin. "We are particularly interested in speaking to people who saw the suspect immediately before or after the alleged assault, or overheard any interaction the suspect had with the victim or other people."The 15-year-old victim was walking in Pacific Centre Mall around 11:4

A Kamloops woman has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of arson following a joint investigation between the BC RCMP and BC Wildfire Service. On April 30, 2022, a resident in the Monte Lake area encountered a suspicious vehicle on a forestry road while investigating some smoke in the hills. The resident took note of the license plate and reported it to the RCMP.The community was alerted to this suspicious vehicle through a news release issued on May 3, 2022, which prompted other local residents to report their own encounters with the vehicle, driven by a woman.An investigation was

A BC man convicted of importing 2 kg of opium was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment last month. In February 2017, a BC RCMP Federal Serious and Organized Crime (FSOC) - Major Projects team initiated a transnational drug importation investigation stemming from Germany. Shortly after arresting Hamid Nemati Shirazi for drug trafficking, German Federal Police authorities (Bundespolizei or BPOL) discovered shipment details for a package suspected of containing opium and alerted the RCMP International Liaison Officer to the Canada-bound package. Acting on this intelligence, the RCMP Liaison Offic

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair says extreme weather events are increasing across Canada and everyone must be prepared for disasters. Blair says Public Safety Canada has responded to 14 requests for community assistance related to wildfires over the last two years, but received just four such requests in the five years before that. He says the increasing frequency of fires mean it's critically important that the federal and provincial governments learn from the blaze that destroyed Lytton last year. Blair made the comments in Vancouver flanked by several other federal and provincia

British Columbia is seeing an increase in the number of hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19. Weekly numbers released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control show 596 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday compared with 331 last week. The centre says 54 patients were in intensive care. It says 59 people who had COVID-19 died in the week that ended May 7, bringing the total number of deaths in B.C. to 3,307 since the start of the pandemic. It says 1,987 COVID-19 cases were detected in the first week of this month, although health officials and experts have said the actual number of

Surrey RCMP’s Community Response Unit seized a firearm, ammunition, cash and a large amount of drugs in Newton. On April 27, 2022 at approximately 3:00 pm, Surrey RCMP’s Community Response Unit were conducting proactive patrols and located a man who had fled from police the previous day when they attempted to conduct a traffic stop. Officers arrested the 35-year-old man in the 13100-block of 61 Avenue and transported him to Surrey RCMP cells.The investigation remains ongoing and charges have not yet been laid in relation to the items seized, as further analysis is required on the drugs and

Democracy Watch says its legal challenge of the validity of Premier John Horgan's snap election call in late 2020, as the COVID 19 pandemic was nearing its height, begins today and continues tomorrow in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver. Democracy Watch says the goal of the court challenge is not to overturn the election. Instead, it wants the court to rule that the election call violated the sovereignty of Parliament because it happened one year before the fixed election date which had been approved by the legislature. Democracy Watch advocates for democratic reform and government accountability