An alert nephew and the co-ordinated efforts of police departments in Vancouver and England have saved an elderly woman from falling victim to an expensive scam. Vancouver police Const. Tania Visintin says the nephew of a 96-year-old woman called police April 7 to report someone had convinced his aunt to send $20,000 in small bills to an address in England. The fraudsters had contacted the woman by phone and convinced her to hide the money in the pages of two books. Visintin says the books were already in the mail when the nephew called, but Vancouver's financial crime unit worked with law en

To help keep communities safe and protect British Columbia's health-care system from COVID-19, the Province has authorized site-specific road checks on travel corridors between regions to help enforce the non-essential travel restrictions that were announced on April 23, 2021.On the advice of B.C.'s provincial health officer (PHO), Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, issued an Emergency Program Act order to prohibit non-essential travel between three regional zones in the province. The regional zones are:1. Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley (Fraser Health and Coasta

A former cabinet minister denies telling a gaming investigator that members of the B.C. Liberal government knew about illegal activities at casinos and were doing little to prevent the crimes. Kash Heed told a public inquiry into money laundering that he recalls a lunch in Victoria in 2009 with former gaming investigator Fred Pinnock, but his recollection of the meeting differs from Pinnock's. Pinnock testified last fall that he met with Heed in November 2009 shortly after he was appointed solicitor general to raise concerns about large amounts of suspicious cash that were likely linked to org

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says hospitals in hard-hit regions are feeling the strain from COVID-19 infections with a record number of people in intensive care. There are 853 more cases of COVID-19 today and one new death, bringing the total in the province to 1,577. Dr. Henry also announced that 508 people are in hospital, including 178 people in an ICU. She says the province is expecting increased vaccine shipments in the coming weeks, but BC is in a tug-of-war with COVID-19, and people need to hold the line by following public health orders. Fraser Health says it is no long

Police in Nanaimo say a woman has given up hope over recovering 27,000 dollars lost in a lottery scam where she was tricked into believing she'd won 750 million dollars. Police say the unnamed senior received several calls last month from the same man who told her she had won the grand prize and all she needed to do to claim the winnings was pay some taxes up front. Over the next three weeks she was told to send cash to various addresses along with prepaid gift cards totaling more than 27,000 dollars. Police say when the money didn't show up, she spoke with a relative who convinced her she'd

An Alberta man has lost his vehicle for a week and been handed nearly 800 dollars in tickets for a stunt pulled at a Victoria park just 30 metres from an occupied playground. Police say they were called yesterday afternoon when witnesses reported a Chevy Camaro burning circles, also known as doing donuts, in the grass at Irving Park. When officers spoke with the driver they learned he drove to Victoria from Alberta, in the unregistered and uninsured vehicle, in order to camp in a city park. Traffic officers impounded the vehicle for seven days for the donuts and handed the driver 794 dollars

Surrey RCMP has arrested a man for breaching conditions thanks to a call from the public, and help from bystanders during a foot pursuit in Whalley.On April 27, 2021 at approximately 02:00 am, Surrey RCMP responded to a call reporting a vehicle alleged to have a its rear plate covered in the 9500-block of 132 Street. Police attended the area and spoke to a man and woman associated to the vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store. During the interaction with police, the man suddenly ran.Bystanders who witnessed the incident intervened, stopping the man, which allowed the officer to catc

Toxic drug deaths killed 158 people in British Columbia last month, pushing the total number of deaths linked in the province's overdose crisis to 498 since the start of the year. A statement releasing the figures from the BC Coroners Service and the Public Safety Ministry says the deaths in March are a 41 per cent increase over the 112 fatalities recorded in the same period last year. The deaths also mark the third consecutive month that more than five people died every day from illicit drug use in the province. The coroners service says carfentanil, which is 100 times stronger than the opio

Thomas Berger, a British Columbia politician, lawyer, judge and commissioner whose work led Canada to recognize Aboriginal title to land, has died at the age of 88. In confirming the death, B.C. Premier John Horgan says Berger was a "giant," who "spent a lifetime working to address injustice." Berger was a former leader of B.C.'s New Democratic Party, and a B.C. Supreme Court justice, but it was his belief in Indigenous rights and his compassionate management of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry that confirmed his place as an icon of legal and social justice. Berger acted for Nisga'a elder