VANCOUVER - Poland's president says members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including Canada, must raise defence spending to three per cent of GDP to deter Russia's war in Ukraine from spreading. Andrzej Duda made the comments at a speech in Vancouver on Friday, a day ahead of his meeting with Prime Ministe...

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - The British Columbia Coroners Service says it will hold an inquest into the death of a man who died in a hail of police gunfire after starting a shootout with RCMP officers in Kamloops. The service says the inquest will begin on May 6 at the Kamloops law courts to determine the facts related to the de...

The union representing striking airline catering workers says Ontario mediators have called them back to the table for talks with employer Gate Gourmet. About 800 food service staff at Toronto's Pearson airport went on strike Tuesday, leaving thousands of passengers without meals this week. The workers cook, package an...

ZEBALLOS, B.C. - A large seine fishing vessel capable of casting a net strong enough to hold a nearly 700-kilogram killer whale calf has arrived in Zeballos, B.C., to participate in the latest attempt to rescue the young orca stranded in a remote tidal lagoon. The flat-bottom aluminum vessel has a built-in crane-like d...

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - Three men from British Columbia's Lower Mainland have been fined and banned from hunting for 10 years each for "unlawfully killing wildlife," including a deer pregnant with two fawns. On Thursday, a Kamloops provincial court judge fined one man $8,000 and his rifle and spotlights were seized...

BURNABY, B.C. - The first police officer to enter a room where a woman was being held hostage in 2019 has told a B.C. coroner's inquest that he saw her lying on a bed on top of her captor, who was holding a knife to her throat with a gun in his other hand. Cpl. Chris Dibblee told the inquest jury that he almost immedia...

QUESNEL, B.C. - British Columbia's Environment Ministry says a 2.5-million-litre effluent spill from a fibreboard factory in Quesnel doesn't pose any immediate risk to public safety. It says in a statement that Monday's spill from the WestPine Medium-Density Fibreboard plant into a gravel pit has been assessed and no w...

LANGLEY, B.C. - British Columbia Premier David Eby says his government is tilting the rules towards families who need a home, and speculators should invest in that instead of short-term rentals and houses to flip. Eby made his comments today in advance of the rule changes on May 1 that limit short-term rental units to...

BURNABY, B.C. - An initiative led by the B.C. General Employees' Union that includes pension funds, asset managers and socially responsible investors is raising concerns about the use of virtual-only shareholder meetings and an erosion of shareholder democracy. In an open letter, the group says that in theory virtual-...

ZEBALLOS, B.C. - A Nanaimo, B.C., woman says she is serenading a killer whale calf with her violin, hoping to entice the orca to leave the remote lagoon where she has been trapped alone for almost four weeks. Carol Love says she is watching the tides at the Vancouver Island lagoon and will be playing the violin at ever...

OTTAWA - Foreign aid groups are hailing the federal Liberal government's return to a policy of increasing humanitarian and development spending each year, while asking for a plan to push allies to reverse a global decline in aid. "It was a good moment for Canada to step up and show global leadership by making this...

COQUITLAM, B.C. - A hearing for AllanSchoenborn, who killed his three children in 2008, has ended with an abrupt adjournment after his lawyer told the British Columbia Review Board he would no longer appear in front of its current panel. Lawyer Rishi Gill says he continues to represent Schoenborn, who was found not cri...

VANCOUVER - British Columbia is paying up to $300 million in new capital funding to help TransLink, Metro Vancouver's transit provider, add more buses to its fleet. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming says the additional buses will reduce overcrowding and wait times throughout the region. A statement from the province...

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers says prisons have become "overwhelmed" by a surge in drone drops of weapons and drugs, driving a wave of violence in correctional facilities. Union members plan to protest outside the regional headquarters of the Correctional Service of Canada in ...

CHILLIWACK, B.C. - Mounties in B.C.'s Lower Mainland say a months-long trafficking investigation spanned multiple cities and led to the seizure of significant quantities of illicit drugs, along with guns and $500,000 in cash. A statement from Chilliwack RCMP says police searched locations including an apartment in down...

VICTORIA - Emerson the elephant seal is back in Victoria after defying attempts to relocate him and swimming more than 200 kilometres to return to his preferred urban habitat to moult. The Fisheries Department says the 225-kilogram seal swam an "astonishing" average of 34 kilometres a day during a six-day jou...

BURNABY, B.C. - The officer in charge when police in Surrey, B.C., killed a hostage taker and the woman he was holding says he believes he did everything possible to save her. RCMP Insp. Blair White told a coroner's inquest the suspect, Randy Crosson, gave officers a deadline on when he would kill Nona McEwan, and a me...

VANCOUVER - A defence lawyer for Ibrahim Ali, who was convicted of first-degree murder of a 13-year-old girl in Burnaby, B.C., says the man wants to appear at his sentencing hearing by video over fear for his safety. Kevin McCollough told a B.C. Supreme Court judge that Ali's attendance in person poses "real safe...

VANCOUVER - Western Forest Products Inc. says it's indefinitely curtailing operations at its Alberni Pacific Division facility. The Vancouver-based company says the facility has been temporarily curtailed since the fall of 2022. In January 2023, Western Forest Products confirmed the mill would not restart "in its ...

VANCOUVER - Unifor says it's temporarily withdrawing its applications to represent workers at two Vancouver-area Amazon facilities, accusing the e-commerce giant of providing a "suspiciously high" employee count. The union announced last week it had filed two applications with the B.C. Labour Relations Board...

BURNABY, B.C. - The son of a woman killed in a hostage standoff in Surrey, B.C., in 2019 says he stood a block away watching as a "tank" was brought in, and heard multiple flashbangs going off on the night his mother was accidentally shot by police. Brandon McEwen told the jury on the first day of a coroners ...

VICTORIA - British Columbia's construction industry says its workforce numbers have improved in recent years, but labour shortages persist and are putting "extreme pressures" on employers. The BC Construction Association says the shortage of qualified workers has pushed the average annual wage in the sector t...

ZEBALLOS, B.C. - The Department of Fisheries says planning for a new attempt to rescue an orca calf trapped in a Vancouver Island lagoon will be finalized in the next few days but no date has been set. It says in a news release that any new attempt to capture and release the young whale will depend on weather and the a...

SURREY, B.C. - British Columbia officials are celebrating the planting of 10 billion seedlings since reforestation efforts began nearly a century ago. A statement from the Forests Ministry says two billion of those seedlings have been planted in the last seven years. It says the 10-billionth seedling was among 305 mill...

ZEBALLOS, B.C. - A Vancouver Aquarium expert who's been involved in attempts to rescue an orphaned orca says the calf may be feeding on fish in the B.C. lagoon where she's been trapped for more than three weeks. Veterinarian Martin Haulena says he got a good look at the calf during Friday's failed attempt to corral the...

LUMBY, B.C. - An RCMP investigation into the alleged abduction of a woman from Lumby, B.C., has turned into a probe of a suspicious death. Mounties say in a statement that officers with the North Okanagan detachment found the woman's body in a rural area on Sunday, and a man believed to have been involved was arrested...

KELOWNA, B.C. - British Columbia is planning to add 240 new units to its complex-care housing program, providing homes for people with mental-health and addictions challenges that overlap with other serious conditions. The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions says in a statement 200 of the units will be located in ...

DELTA, B.C. - Pro-Palestinian protesters have blocked access to a major container port terminal in Metro Vancouver. Terminal operator GCT Canada says "illegal protesters' actions are causing an unsafe situation" as truckers that try to access the Deltaport facility are being held on the Roberts Bank causeway....