A key highway linking BC's Lower Mainland to the southern Interior has reopened after heavy snow and numerous crashes closed it for hours overnight. DriveBC, the province's online site for traffic and road conditions, says the route reopened just after 7 this morning. The nearly 12 hour closure came as Environment Canada warned an estimated 30 centimetres of snow had accumulated during a two-day storm that began Sunday, blanketing most of BC's southern mountain passes. The weather office says a further 10 to 15 centimetres have fallen today on the Hope to Merritt section of the Coquihalla but

The Liberals have introduced a bill to support Canadian media outlets. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says the legislation is designed to make digital giants like Google and Meta compensate the outlets for reusing their news content. The law will set up a process for digital platforms to privately negotiate deals with newspapers, magazines, digital news groups and broadcasters that publish news online. If the parties can't reach a deal, they would move to a mediation and arbitration process.

Burnaby RCMP is looking to identify a suspect and notify the public after three women were sexually assaulted near Metrotown.The first victim was inside the Metrotown Superstore around 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 31 when she was slapped on the buttocks by an unknown male who fled the area.The incident was reported to police and RCMP were actively investigating when RCMP received two additional reports of similar assaults on women in the Metrotown area. The second and third incidents happened around 9 a.m. on Friday, April 1.Suspect description:Caucasian manIn late twenties to early thirtiesWeari

Over a three-day period, B.C. is reporting 728 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 357,500 cases in the province:April 1-2: 274 new casesApril 2-3: 199 new casesApril 3-4: 255 new casesThere are 321 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 and 36 are in intensive care.Note: An update on number of deaths related to COVID-19 will be provided on Thursday, April 7, 2022.There has been one new health-care facility outbreak at Burnaby Hospital (Fraser Health), for a total of 10 facilities with ongoing outbreaks. From March 25-31, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 18.6% of cases. From March 1

The Metis Nation of Alberta says the arrival of 20 wood bison at a site northeast of Edmonton was a historic moment. The bison, which came from Elk Island National Park last month, are part of an education and experience program led by the Metis Nation in partnership with the park. President Audrey Poitras says in a news release that bison are native to the Metis Crossing area, but were driven to near-extinction by settlers in the 19th century and ended Metis bison hunts. She says the return of bison marks a milestone in reconciliation. The bison will be released into the Metis Crossing Wildl

The archbishop of Edmonton says the apology from Pope Francis for the role the Roman Catholic Church played in the residential school system is just the first step on the road to healing. Archbishop Richard Smith, who was part of a delegation to the Vatican that included several Indigenous leaders, says the apology was a milestone and historic and is part of a springboard for reconciliation. The Indigenous groups involved in the delegation also requested the church provide reparations, return artifacts and share any documents about residential schools. Smith says although the pontiff has indi

A member of the BC Liberal caucus is resigning her Surrey-area seat after 13 years in order to become Canada's first Chief Accessibility Officer. Stephanie Cadieux is the first woman with a disability to serve in the legislature and in cabinet, where she held a number of portfolios including children and family development, social development and labour. The 49 year old has used a wheelchair since she suffered spinal injuries in a car accident when she was 18 years old. A document from Employment and Social Development Canada announcing Cadieux as the first Chief Accessibility Officer says sh

The BC government says it's taking steps to help alleviate a shortage of veterinarians by doubling the number of seats it subsidizes at veterinary college. Advanced Education Minister Anne Kang says the province will provide nearly 10.7-million dollars to support 40 students entering the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatchewan this fall, up from 20. Kang says BC is also considering how to improve the recognition of foreign credentials and looking at opportunities for veterinarians who would like to move to BC to help shorten wait times for the care of pets and livestock. Victor

A 17-year-old boy has been sentenced to a year in an open-custody facility and six months of community supervision in a crash that killed two children in Vaughan, Ont., north of Toronto. York Regional Police say the teen, who was 16 at the time of the crash, also faces a six-year driving ban. They say he pleaded guilty in December to two counts of dangerous driving causing death and one of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. Police say the boy, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, was at the wheel of a Mercedes that went off the road and struck three people in a residential driv