A public mischief charge has been approved by a special prosecutor against the mayor of Surrey, B.C. The BC Prosecution Service says the charge comes after Mayor Doug McCallum complained to the RCMP that he was verbally assaulted and hit by a car. There were public discussions at the time about Surrey replacing the RCMP with a municipal police force and McCallum said he was attacked during a ``Keep the RCMP in Surrey'' gathering at a grocery store. McCallum was elected on a promise to replace the RCMP with a local force and some Surrey Police members are already on the job. Vancouver lawyer R

The federal and provincial agriculture ministers will be touring a poultry farm today that was affected by last month's devastating floods. Ministers Marie-Claude Bibeau and Lana Popham are expected to address recovery and rebuilding efforts for farmers during the visit to Abbotsford. Popham has said 628-thousand chickens, 420 dairy cattle and roughly 12-thousand hogs died in the region's Sumas Prairie. Historic flooding resulting from a series of so-called ``atmospheric rivers'' triggered widespread evacuation orders in the area and submerged many properties.

Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for a critical highway linking B-C's Interior and the Lower Mainland.It says up to 30 centimetres is expected on Highway 3 between Hope and Princeton and blowing snow will add to the hazard with strong winds gusting up to 60 kilometres per hour.Environment Canada says the winter storm will gradually intensify with the heaviest snowfall and strongest winds expected tonight and Saturday afternoon.It warns visibility may be reduced at times and road surfaces may be difficult to navigate due to accumulated snow.

B.C. is reporting 341 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 221,576 cases in the province.Note: The numbers of total and new cases are provisional due to a delayed data refresh and will be verified once confirmed.There are currently 2,915 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 216,185 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 220 individuals are currently in hospital and 73 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.In the past 24 hours, nine new deaths have been reported, for an overall total of 2,378.The new deaths includ

With the holiday season approaching, Burnaby RCMP has released dash-cam video of a recently-convicted impaired driver to illustrate the dangers of drinking and driving.The video was taken on January 8, 2021 and was captured by the impaired driver’s own dash cam as he travelled from Richmond, to Vancouver, and into Burnaby. The video was later seized by police after a search warrant was executed. The video shows the driver crossing the centre line towards oncoming traffic multiple times, narrowly missing other vehicles. The video also shows the driver blowing through a stop sign and driving t

The B.C. government is warning of ``severe winter weather'' involving significant snowfall, avalanche risks and heavy water flow in many parts of the province this weekend. The government says in an advisory that heavy rain on the coast, snow in parts of the Interior and mountain passes, and high winds across much of the province may pose further challenges from Friday through Sunday in areas recovering from November's storms. Of particular concern is Highway 3, which remains closed to non-essential travel but is the main link between the Lower Mainland and the Interior while repairs continue

The RCMP in Surrey say they're investigating after a 26 year old man who is known to police sustained non-life-threatening injuries in a shooting. They say officers responded to a report of shots being fired around 1:15 am this morning and found the man injured inside a home. The Mounties say the man who was not co-operating with the police investigation was taken to hospital and has since been released. Constable Sarbjit Sangha says in a statement that no links to gang conflict in the Lower Mainland have been identified so far.

Police are investigating an assault near the British Columbia legislature where a cabinet minister was knocked to the ground by a person. Victoria police say they are looking for witnesses and information following a report that Katrine Conroy was injured Tuesday night around 8 p.m. while walking near the legislature. Conroy is B.C.'s minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development. Police didn't say how badly hurt she was, but say she went to hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Police say they would like to speak with a Good Samarit

British Columbia has recorded its highest-ever monthly number of suspected overdose deaths from toxic illicit drugs. A statement from the coroners' service says there were 201 fatalities in October from illicit drug toxicity, an average of about 6.5 people per day.It says the 1,782 overdose deaths recorded between January and October are already the highest ever recorded in a calendar year in B.C. Almost 80 per cent of those who died were male, and about 71 per cent of the fatalities were people between 30 and 59 years of age.The service says the powerful opioid fentanyl has been linked to 84