Vancouver police say they are disappointed after social media posts showed downtown streets crowded with party-goers on Halloween night, apparently flouting COVID-19 safety protocols.Spokesman Const. Jason Doucette says it wasn't possible to try to disperse the alcohol-fuelled crowd or issue tickets due to a number of factors.He says the number of people in downtown grew larger than expected and additional resources were brought in from around the city.Doucette says police made a number of arrests for minor offences, such as causing a disturbance, but there were no reported injuries.He says p

The B.C. government says it will increase surveillance this weekend as an order limiting the number of people who can visit a home is in effect because of COVID-19. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced this week that gatherings are now limited to people in an immediate household, plus their so-called ``safe six''' guests. In a joint statement, Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix are reminding people to make the Halloween weekend safe for everyone by maintaining safe physical distances from one another. They say this is also not the time for large gatherings in homes as the nu

A seven-day search for two mushroom pickers in British Columbia has ended with both found dead. RCMP Sgt. Sascha Banks says the body of 48 year old Peter Oleski was found Thursday by a volunteer search group from the Lil'wat Nation. Search and rescue teams found the body of 21 year old River Leo a short time later. The father and son had set out for a day of mushroom picking last Thursday in the mountains overlooking the community of Pemberton, 150 kilometres north of Vancouver. Members of the Lil'wat Nation, Stl'atl'imx Tribal Police, RCMP, Comox 442 Squadron and dozens of search teams from

A man convicted of first-degree murder has walked away from a prison in British Columbia. The Correctional Service of Canada says Roderick Muchikekwanape was confirmed missing at 10 p.m., Thursday. He was serving a life sentence in the minimum security unit of the Mission Institution, east of Vancouver. A statement from the correctional service says RCMP has issued a warrant for his arrest. Muchikekwanape is 41 years old, six feet tall and 217 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He was convicted of the sexual assault and slaying of a 36 year old mother of three in Winnipeg in 1998.

On May 22, 2020, Surrey RCMP issued a public warning advising that high-risk sex offender, Kristjon Olson, was released from custody and would be residing in Surrey. Olson was subject to a court order that required him to follow a number of strict conditions.On September 4, 2020 at approximately 6:30 a.m., the Surrey RCMP Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) team, with the assistance of the Surrey RCMP High Risk Target Team (HRTT) and the Vancouver Police Department, arrested Kristjon Olson for breaching a court ordered condition. Surrey RCMP ICE also launched an investigation into additional chi

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the latest death from COVID-19 shows even small social gatherings can be dangerous. Dr. Henry says an 80 year old woman in the Fraser Health region has died after contracting the virus at a small birthday party where a guest did not know they had the virus. She is also reporting 234 new cases of COVID-19 today, pushing the total past 14,000. The province's active caseload also reached a new record high of 2,344. The number of people in hospital decreased by one, to 84, with 24 patients in intensive care or critical care units. Dr. Henry says

A man is dead and a woman is injured after what homicide detectives say was a family dispute that ended in a stabbing in Maple Ridge, east of Vancouver. Ridge Meadows RCMP say the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team was called after officers arrived at the home in the Silver Valley neighbourhood at about 11 last night. An injured woman was rushed to hospital and is expected to survive but police say an unnamed man in his mid-20s was pronounced dead at the scene. A suspect in his early 20s was arrested in the home and remains in custody and Mounties say all three are from the same family an

Detectives are making slim progress in a three-year-old cold case in Squamish. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the body found inside a burned vehicle in 2017 has now been identified as US resident Davis Wolfgang Hawke, also known in the local climbing community as Jesse James. I-HIT Sergeant Frank Jang says the 38 year old died of a gunshot wound before being left in the burning truck, which was found on a forest road just north of Squamish on June 14, 2017. Few other details, such as when Hawke came to Canada or what he was doing in Squamish, are still under investigation and

Vancouver Police are looking for more victims of sexual assault to come forward involving a man posing as an Uber driver. On October 22, 24 year old Langley resident, Hirdeypal Batth was charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement in relation to a file this past August. Batth allegedly forcibly confined the victim and sexually assaulted her near Oak Street and King Edward Avenue on August 26. It is believed Batth had posed as the victim’s Uber driver with his white 2020 Land Rover. "We believe that Batth may have targeted other victims" says Constable Tania Visintin, VPD. "Investiga