More than 16,000 cases of online child sextortion have been reported in BC this year. In the wake of the recent suicide of a 12-year-old boy in Prince George, police and children's advocates are urging parents and caregivers to talk to their children. Carson Cleland's parents say he was a victim of sextortion, and according to police, such cases are on the rise. The BC RCMP's Integrated Child Exploitation, or ICE, unit says more than 8,000 cases were referred to them by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2022. In 2023 this number has doubled to 16000 cases. Signy Arnas

BC has seen a 21% increase in homicides over the past year. These figures were released yesterday by Statistics Canada . The latest statistics indicate that there were 155 homicides in the province in 2022, 30 more than the previous year and 55 more than 2020.. These murder cases represent a 21% year-on-year increase. The homicide rate across Canada increased by 8% last year. Last year, Manitoba had the highest increase of all provinces at 40%. Homicides in that state increased from 4.45% per 100,000 population in 2021 to 6.24% in 2022. New Brunswick was second with a 33% increase followed b

Following an extension for a seventh day in the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, gunmen opened fire on people waiting for buses along a main highway entering Jerusalem. The armed wing of Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack that left at least three dead and several others wounded. The attack does not appear to have threatened the truce, which involves a cease-fire and the exchange of Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel .Both attackers were members of the Hamas group and were brothers. According to the Israel Security Agency, 38-year-old Mu

Canada's major banks RBC, CIBC and Toronto-Dominion Bank released their financial results on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada has reported a fourth-quarter profit of 4.13-billion dollars up from 3.88-billion dollars a year earlier. Revenue totaled a bit more than 13-billion dollars in Q-4, up from 12.6-billion dollars in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, the bank's provision for credit losses jumped to 720-million dollars, up from 381-million dollars a year earlier. CIBC has reported a 1.48-billion dollar profit for its fourth quarter ended October 31st.That's compared with a profit of ne

Canadian Security Intelligence Service employees who say the agency’s British Columbia office is a toxic workplace have faced a series of hurdles in speaking out, including a law against identifying themselves or colleagues. The Canadian Press has published an investigation into claims by the covert officers, including two who say they were sexually assaulted by the same senior colleague while on duty. A rookie surveillance officer with Canada’s spy agency and another officer decades her senior were tracking a person in British Columbia in the summer of 2019 when they lost sight of their

Statistics Canada says the economy shrank 1.1 per cent on an annualized basis in the third quarter. A decrease in international exports and slower inventory accumulation by businesses were partially offset by increases in government spending and housing investment. StatCan also revised up its reading for real gross domestic product in the second quarter. It says the economy didn't shrink, but instead grew by 1.4 per cent on an annualized basis.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it's inappropriate to draw a link between government actions and the death of a British Columbia boy who killed himself last month after falling prey to online sextortion.NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh referred to the death of the 12-year-old in Prince George, B.C., during question period today as he asked Trudeau when the Liberal government will table long-promised legislation designed to mitigate online harms.Trudeau first promised to introduce legislation tackling hate speech, terrorist content and sexual abuse material in the 2019 federal election campaign.He m

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said little Wednesday about the unfolding murder-for-hire plot and its echoes of a similar investigation in Canada.When it comes to what’s happening in the U.S., I won’t comment directly because of course, I respect the work that the American law enforcement agencies are doing and I respect also the independence of their legal system," she said.We stand by our own credible allegations that there was the killing of a Canadian, on Canadian soil, linking to Indian agents."Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc deflected a barrage of questions about the

American prosecutors say a man allegedly involved in a murder plot against a Sikh activist on U.S. soil also discussed the killing of Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar, just hours after Nijjar was gunned down outside a British Columbia temple.The murder-for-hire indictment against Nikhil Gupta, 52, says he told an undercover officer who he thought was a hit man that Nijjar "was also the target," and because he was dead, there was "no need to wait" on the next killing.The indictment says Gupta was recruited by an Indian government employee to orchestrate the killing of the activist, who isn't name