The chief medical officer of British Columbia's First Nations Health Authority says the toxic drug crisis in 2022 was the most devastating year so far for Indigenous people, their families, and communities.Dr. Nel Wieman says First Nations people are disproportionately dying from illicit drugs in B.C. and the gap continues to widen.First Nations people represent 3.3 per cent of B.C.'s population, but the health authority says 16.4 per cent of those who died from overdoses last year were Indigenous.Wieman says First Nations woman were particularly affected, with a death rate that was double tha

Former Liberal industry minister Navdeep Bains is joining Rogers as the company's new chief corporate affairs officer.Rogers announced several new appointments to its executive leadership team on Thursday, including Bains and a former Shaw executive.Bains served in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet as industry minister from 2015 until early 2021, and chose to not run for re-election that year.The industry minister is responsible for overseeing the country's national industrial strategy, including regulating national sectors such as telecommunications.Bains joined CIBC as a vice chair of

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to head to New York next week for an international summit championing sustainable development and human rights.Summit host Global Citizen bills the event as a forum to address some of the most urgent challenges facing humanity and the planet.The Prime Minister's Office says Trudeau will champion women's rights when he joins other world leaders, artists and musicians at the event April 27-28.Other scheduled attendees include French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados.Tr

Privacy commissioner Michael McEvoy says 12 Canadian Tire stores around B.C. used facial recognition without telling customers, and violating the province's Personal Information Protection Act.The information is contained in McEvoy's latest report which shows the stores used facial recognition technology between 2018 and 2021 but removed the systems as soon as they learned four of the outlets were under investigation. Facial recognition technology captures highly sensitive biometric information that maps the precise and unique mathematical rendering of a human face and McEvoy finds the stores

The sister-in-law of a Liberal cabinet minister has stepped down as the interim ethics commissioner a day after a House of Commons committee agreed to investigate her appointment.Martine Richard, who has worked in the commissioner's office as a lawyer since 2013, took over the top job last month for a six-month stint.Richard is the sister-in-law of Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was found to have breached conflict-of-interest rules in 2018 for approving a lucrative fishing licence for a family member while he was fisheries minister.A statement from the office of the co

British Columbia is bringing in a new regulation immediately to ensure diabetes patients don't face a shortage of the drug Ozempic, touted by celebrities for its weight loss side effects.Health Minister Adrian Dix says the change will ensure patients in B.C. and Canada needing Ozempic to treat their Type 2 diabetes will continue to have access to that drug and others that may require it in the future.Dix says the regulation will help prevent online or mail-order sales of Ozempic to people who do not live in Canada and who are not in B.C. to make a purchase.The new regulation comes after the di

Over 155,000 public service workers are going on strike, the Public Service Agency of Canada (PSAC) announced Tuesday night, after the union failed to reach an agreement with the federal government.With 39,000 Canada Revenue Agency employees, other 120,000 PSAC members include cleaners and cooks on military bases, clerks and maintenance workers, tradespeople, Coast Guard search and rescue teams, teachers, firefighters and workers who process employment insurance, passport applications and immigration documents.Canada Revenue Agency says the strike will mean certain services will be delayed or

Statistics Canada figures show inflation in B.C. dipped sharply last month, falling to 4.7 per cent from its 6.2 per cent setting in February.Cost of living in Vancouver and Victoria was also down roughly one per cent in March compared with the month earlier as Stats Can says lower energy prices offset expenses such as higher mortgage rates.Despite the decline which was mirrored nationally as Canada's inflation rate fell to 4.3 per cent from 5.2 per cent in February economists say grocery prices and mortgage interest costs continue to climb.Groceries were 9.7 per cent more expensive in March t

Numbers released by the BC Coroners Service show deaths from toxic, unregulated drugs have nudged record levels across the province for the second year in a row.The coroners service says 596 lives were lost between January and March.It says that's the second highest total ever recorded over the first three months of a calendar year, behind only 2022 when 599 people died.The figures also show 2,314 deaths due to toxic drugs occurred last year, making the annual toll the deadliest on record since a public health emergency was declared in 2016.The statement from the coroners service says just und