At least three motorcycles, excessively speeding and weaving in and out of traffic on Highway 17, prompted over a dozen 9-1-1 calls to police Monday evening. On Monday, June 6 at 7 p.m. witnesses reported to police that the motorcycles were racing up and down Highway 17 in Saanich and then into neighbouring Central Saanich, North Saanich and Sidney. There are reports they were in the West Shore area as well.Traffic Safety Officers with the Saanich Police Department attended to the highway, observed the racing motorcycles and attempted to stop them. The riders failed to pull over and they conti

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says the federal government is working on new measures to help ease delays at major airports, adding that a ``similar phenomenon'' is happening worldwide. Speaking with reporters on his way to a weekly Liberal caucus meeting, the minister says working groups that include airports, airlines, public health and federal officials are meeting up to three times a week to try and find solutions. But when pressed for details about when changes are expected, Alghabra says he's not yet ready to announce new measures. People travelling through Canadian airports have been

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is reporting more outbreaks of avian flu in British Columbia and Alberta. After a succession of outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus in both provinces during April and May, the agency website shows a reprieve of about 10 days at the end of last month.But the agency now confirms outbreaks in early June in small flocks in three widely separated B.C. farms in Peace River, Sechelt and Summerland, bringing the total number of infected farms in the province to 15.Outbreaks on June 2 have also been confirmed in two small flocks in Alberta,

British Columbia's health and safety agency for workers has imposed a hefty fine on BC Ferry Services Inc., over the death of one of its workers in June 2020. A statement on the WorkSafeBC site says a fine of $674,445 was imposed last month. It says one of the firm's employees was doing work on a ferry that was docked for maintenance in Richmond. The worker leaned onto a fabric webbing panel that broke away when he was trying to retrieve an item floating in the water, and he drowned. The agency says the worker wasn't wearing a life-jacket and the fabric panels were insufficient at stopping hi

Firefighters and number crunchers are joining forces in a bid to prevent house fires, reduce injuries and save lives. BC's fire commissioner, Brian Godlonton, says his office and Statistics Canada will work together to create a dashboard that identifies areas in communities that are at greatest risk of house fires. Godlonton says an increasing number of fire deaths is a ``concerning trend'' across BC and Canada and the dashboard will help fire officials know where to focus their prevention and safety programs. The fire commissioner's annual report shows a 119 per cent increase in fire-related

The former director of strategic communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP now says communications procedures need to change. Lia Scanlan broke down in tears as she told a public inquiry into the deaths of 22 people in April of 2020 the procedures she used to alert residents about an active shooter led to a crucial delay. That's not what she told inquiry investigators last September, when she insisted she would not have done anything differently. It took more than three hours for the R-C-M-P to warn people that the killer was driving a car that looked exactly like an RCMP cruiser.

Alberta's energy minister says anything resembling the U.K.'s so-called ``windfall tax'' on the profits of oil and gas companies must not be implemented in Canada. The U.K. recently imposed additional taxes on oil and gas firms, who are reaping record profits in 2022 due to sky-high commodity prices. The windfall tax is meant to help fund cash payments to help millions of British citizens cope with rapidly rising energy bills. Similar programs are being considered in other countries. Recent news reports quoted a senior White House advisor as saying the Biden administration is actively looking

Gearing up for the forthcoming Sangrur bypoll, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab in-charge Jarnail Singh on Wednesday held a meeting with the MLAs and local party workers to chalk out strategies here in Sangrur. Sangrur is known as the stronghold of AAP incumbent Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from where he had won the parliamentary seat in 2014 and 2019. The seat fell vacant after Mann resigned as MP following his victory from the Dhuri constituency in the state assembly polls. Asking AAP workers to work diligently to ensure the victory of Gurmail Singh, Punjab-in-charge said that he is confid

Russia and Turkey say they support a safecorridor in the Black Sea to export Ukrainian grain to global markets. Turkey's foreign minister hosted his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Ankara on Wednesday. A Turkish minister also said that Western sanctions should be lifted against Russia for allowing the grain to be exported. Ukraine was not invited to the talks, and has expressed concern that acceding to Russia's request to remove mines from its ports could allow Moscow to attack its southern coast. The European Union accused Moscow of ``weaponizing'' food supplies to gain an advantage i