Premier John Horgan is expected to announce the next phase of B-C's COVID-19 re-opening plan today alongside provincial health officer Doctor Bonnie Henry and Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon.The third part of the four-pronged plan is set to start on Thursday, when several restrictions will be lifted as indoor and outdoor dining will be allowed without a cap on numbers and residents can travel elsewhere in Canada.Henry says vaccination rates continue rising, with some exceptions in small communities in the northern and interior health regions where drive-thru and mobile clinics are expected to make i

Over the last three reporting periods, BC had a total of 145 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 147,549 cases in the province. This includes: 57 new cases from June 25 to 26, 50 new cases from June 26 to 27 and 38 new cases in the last 24 hours. There are currently 930 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Of the active cases, 107 individuals are currently hospitalized, 37 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. There has been one new health-care outbreak at Surrey Memorial Hospital. There have been five new COVID-19 related deaths,

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna has decided not to seek re-election. Her surprise decision could become a launching pad for former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney should he decide to run for the Liberals in the next election.McKenna has held Ottawa Centre, a riding that encompasses Parliament Hill, since 2015, when she won it away from the New Democrats.She says over the weekend, she informed the prime minister and the president of the Liberal party of her intention not to run again.McKenna -- the minister of Infrastructure and Communities -- says living through COVID-19 through

Environment Canada warns the torrid heat wave that has settled over much of Western Canada won't lift for days, although parts of British Columbia and Yukon could see some relief sooner. Heat warnings remain posted across B.C. and Alberta, large parts of Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories and a section of Yukon as the weather office forecasts temperatures reaching 40 C in some areas.Sixty temperature records fell Sunday in B.C., including in the Village of Lytton, where the mercury reached 46.6 C -- breaking the all-time Canadian high of 45 C, set in Saskatchewan in 1937.Environment Canada w

British Columbia health officials are urging residents to prepare for high temperatures if they attend vaccination clinics this weekend. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say in a joint statement that many pop-up vaccination sites have moved indoors to cooler locations in preparation for the extreme heat expected this weekend. B.C. reported 72 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, for a total of 147,418 since the pandemic began. The province is also reporting two new deaths along with 1,096 active cases. The statement says 76.2 per cent of all residents 12 and

Judge Peter Cahill told George Floyd's family members that ``I acknowledge and hear the pain that you're feeling,'' before sentencing a former Minneapolis police officer to 22 1/2 years in prison for murder. Cahill said he would issue a 22-page memorandum explaining his rationale for the sentence, saying it's ``not the appropriate time'' to be ``profound or clever.'' His sentence went 10 years beyond what was called for in sentencing guidelines. Cahill said that was ``based on your abuse of a position of trust and authority and also the particular cruelty shown to George Floyd.'' Former Minn

The Catholic religious community that operated residential schools in Saskatchewan and British Columbia where hundreds of unmarked graves have been found says it will disclose all historical documents it has.The Missionary of Oblates of Mary Immaculate operated 48 schools, including the Marieval Indian Residential School at on the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan and the Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C.In a statement, the Oblates say they have worked to make historical documents available through universities, archives and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.They say the w

The Trudeau government is adding two more extreme right-wing groups and an American neo-Nazi to its list of terrorist entities as it tries to counter the rise white nationalist violence.Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced today that the Three Percenters and Aryan Strikeforce will join the list alongside the Proud Boys, who were added in February after the storming of Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 6.Members of the Three Percenters have been linked to a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, and senior intelligence officials say Canadian chapters have carried out training activit

Saskatchewan's Cowessess First Nation says ground-penetrating radar has located 751 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School. The chief of a Saskatchewan First Nation says it will take years to identify the bodies that could lay in 751 unmarked graves found at the site of a former residential school in the province. But Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme says his community is commited to the task so it can heal.Chief Cadmus Delorme says the community always knew the graves were there. He showed a photo of a grassy field with coloured markers sticki