British Columbia has launched the country's first provincewide lung cancer screening program. Health Minister Adrian Dix says the innovative program will both save lives and improve their quality. Screening will be available at 36 centres across all health authorities using existing CT scans for those who are between 55 and 74, currently smoking or have previously smoked, and have a smoking history of 20 years or more. Adrian Dix says the program is the first of its kind in Canada and an estimated 10,000 patients are expected to be screened in the first year. The medical director of the prog

Metro Vancouver's transportation authority says its recovery of ridership that plummeted during the pandemic has been stronger than many other North American transit networks, but still hasn't rebounded entirely. A statement from TransLink says ridership across its system has rebounded to 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels after reaching 59 per cent last year. The 2021 transit service performance review released Wednesday says Metro Vancouver's recovery rates exceeded those of transit systems in Toronto, Montreal, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco. It says bus ridership led the way at 62

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the safety of Canadians participating in democracy should never be jeopardized by the kinds of racist insults and threats of violence lobbed at people attending a Liberal fundraiser in British Columbia on Tuesday. Trudeau says all governments should be seized with the issue amid a rise in the presence of aggressive or hateful protesters appearing at political events. Trudeau did not say why specifically he chose to appear at the Surrey, B.C., fundraiser virtually rather than in person but it is at least the second time in less than 10 months that he changed

Police say the man who was carrying luggage with suspicious contents that led to the closure of Victoria International Airport has been released from custody with an upcoming court date, although details on any charges haven't been provided. RCMP say members of their explosives disposal unit were called to examine items flagged by airport security yesterday and shut down the airport after determining two bags contained ``inert military surplus explosives.'' A statement from Corporal Andy Sanchez says the Mounties were called by a security employee who spotted what appeared to be ``incendiary

An official says an 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school barricaded himself inside a classroom, ``shooting anyone that was in his way.'' Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told NBC's ``Today'' that police and others responding to Tuesday's attack broke windows at the school in an effort to allow students and teachers inside to escape. Olivarez told CNN that all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School. Eventually law enforcement officers broke into the classroom and killed him.

A series of explosions shook Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Taliban said, including a blast inside a mosque in the capital of Kabul that killed at least five worshippers and three bombings of minivans in the country's north that killed nine passengers. The Kabul Emergency Hospital said it received 22 victims of the mosque bombing, including five dead. There were no further details on the blast that struck the Hazrat Zakaria Mosque in the city’s central Police District 4, according to Khalid Zadran, a Taliban police spokesman in Kabul. “The blast took place while people were inside the mosqu

An Ontario judge has ruled that an Alberta woman who helped organize protests that gridlocked Ottawa streets for weeks can remain on bail until her trial. The judge says Tamara Lich (LEECH) of Medicine Hat has followed her bail conditions and has had a ``taste of jail'' which has lowered her risk of reoffending. The judge says Lich did not breach her bail conditions when she agreed to receive an award. Lich faces charges of mischief, obstructing police, intimidation and counselling others to commit mischief. She was released in March with a long list of conditions, including a ban from all so

A southern Alberta town has endorsed a community-developed policy that bans new coal exploration and coal mines in the Rocky Mountains. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society says in a news release that High River has joined 30 organizations to endorse the document called ``A Coal Policy for Alberta _ 2022 and Beyond.' The society says the document provides details on how to address concerns Albertans have related to coal development. Two years ago, the provincial government revoked a policy that had protected areas from coal mining, but a public outcry forced the government to reverse cour

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday took responsibility for drinking parties at Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown. Earlier in the day, the prime minister's office released a new report on the results of an internal investigation into lockdown parties, led cabinet official Sue Gray. The document confirmed the findings of the January 31 report, in particular, that some of the gatherings in Downing Street violated the lockdown rules and should not have been held. "I want to begin today by renewing my apology to the House [the parliament], to the whole country, for the short lu