Vancouver Rundown

A small group of only about a hundred people gathered at Vancouver’s Jack Poole Plaza Saturday afternoon as part of anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ protests being held in cities around the world. Those braving the heavy rain denounced Donald Trump saying he’s an authoritarian would-be dictator. The Vancouver rally comes as Premier David Eby continues his anti-Donald Trump comments while B.C.’s resource sect...

.BC.’s public service strike continues to escalate despite a meeting between government negotiators and leaders of the BCGEU. Union president Paul Finch says the government refuses to come close to demands of an eight per cent increase over two years - right now the NDP’s offer stands at between four and five percent over the same period. Meanwhile, about 370 more BCGEU members have joined the str...

Airports in Victoria and Kelowna are among the five around North America that had their flight information systems hacked on Wednesday with pro-Hamas information. The screens, along with some public address systems, spewed anti-Jewish messages while slamming leaders of the U.S. and Israel. Transport Canada says it’s working with police to ensure there are no safety and security risks. Canada is ro...

SFU’s new medical school is now accepting students. The announcement is a major step forward with the first group of students expected at the Surrey campus next August. The medical school will start with temporary facilities - permanent ones are expected to be in place by 2030. The government expects the school to add an extra 48 students to the region. There’s no word on what - if anything - is b...

A suspect has now been arrested in those random stabbing attacks in Yaletown. Four strangers received non-life threatening injuries after being knifed along the seawall in David Lam Park early Friday morning. On Monday afternoon, Vancouver Police arrested a 35-year-old woman on the Downtown Eastside. It’s not clear if the suspect is being connected to other attacks that happened in the same area.

Vancouverites will get to vote on whether to get rid of the Park Board. The provincial government has introduced legislation to change the Vancouver Charter and allow the city to axe its unique park board if voters approve. Mayor Ken Sim, who has been pushing for its demise, says he welcomes the province’s move but would have preferred it happened two years ago. Sim says Vancouverites deserve worl...

All government liquor and cannabis stores are now behind BCGEU pickets. The move marks a major escalation in the public service strike after last week’s brief meeting between union and government negotiators. It also comes as the province’s bars and restaurants start running out of stock which would normally come through the government liquor distribution system. Right now, there are still no plan...

Those on 14 properties north of Kamloops are on evacuation alert following fears an unauthorized dam may fail. The Thompson-Nicola Regional District fears the Fadear Lake Dam could give way, releasing a large flow of water into a creek below it. The Regional District is telling people below the dam to be ready to leave on short notice.

“We won’t stop until we win a fair deal.” That’s what BCGEU president Paul Finch says as members of his union enter the sixth week of their public sector strike. Thousands of striking members and supporters marched from Victoria City Hall to the BC Legislature on Monday. The union says 22,000 of its 34,000 members are involved in job action now. The provincial government is not returning to the ba...

“We won’t stop until we win a fair deal.” That’s what BCGEU president Paul Finch says as members of his union enter the sixth week of their public sector strike. Thousands of striking members and supporters marched from Victoria City Hall to the BC Legislature on Monday. The union says 22,000 of its 34,000 members are involved in job action now. The provincial government is not returning to the ba...

“We won’t stop until we win a fair deal.” That’s what BCGEU president Paul Finch says as members of his union enter the sixth week of their public sector strike. Thousands of striking members and supporters marched from Victoria City Hall to the BC Legislature on Monday. The union says 22,000 of its 34,000 members are involved in job action now. The provincial government is not returning to the ba...

‘It’s a public health emergency’ - that’s what Delta Councillor Dylan Kruger calls a 12 hours shutdown of his community’s only ER. A doctor staffing shortage is being touted as the cause of the fourth emergency room closure at Delta Hospital this year. It happened Saturday night, forcing emergency patients to be redirected to Surrey or hospitals on the other side of the Fraser River. Kruger says H...

Strike action will vastly increase in the next week - that’s the warning from the BCGEU as the province’s public sector strike continues into a fifth week. Union members rallied outside the B.C. Legislature Thursday in an effort to get the government to move beyond its latest wage offer. The union continues to demand an eight per cent wage hike over two years. The government is offering five per c...

A few hundred striking public sector workers marched through downtown Vancouver Wednesday to draw attention to their push for much higher wages. The BCGEU members were joined by those from other unions for a noon hour walk from the Vancouver Art Gallery to Jack Poole Plaza. The union says it’s prepared to escalate the strike action after rejecting the Eby government’s five per cent wage increase o...

B.C.’s new Extortion Taskforce is taking the lead, investigating shots fired at South Asian radio station Swift 1200 AM. Staff at the station, located in Surrey’s Newton neighbourhood, called police Tuesday morning after discovering an exterior door shot-up. There are no reports of injuries. Radio Swift recently aired an interview with Surrey’s Police Chief, focusing on extortion and violence in t...

Canada’s postal workers have started strike action after the federal government announced plans to end door-to-door delivery. Ottawa’s move is an attempt to end huge and growing losses at Canada Post. The government’s plan also includes the closure of post offices in areas that were once rural but are now suburban. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says the changes are drastic. CUPW is not sayi...

Close to 600 workers at 25 government liquor stores have now walked-off the job as the BCGEU strike continues to ramp up. The move comes only two days after the Liquor Distribution Branch’s main warehouse and head office ended up behind pickets. Most of those 25 stores are in the Lower Mainland or Victoria and are considered the most profitable of the 200 outlets around the province. The BCGEU is...

Two people have been arrested and released as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency gets set to move in and cull close to 400 ostriches from a farm in the Kootenays. The CFIA now has control of the property where inspectors had previously found infected birds. The farm’s managers and their supporters say all the birds are healthy now - having fully recovered. The CFIA’s cull order has been backed up...

Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko has been kicked out of the BC Conservative caucus while party leader John Rustad holds on to his leadership. Sturko says Rustad accused her of plotting against him during the party’s leadership review - Rustad has survived that review with 71 per cent of members endorsing his leadership. Sturko has used a Monday evening news conference to call on her former col...

Wildfires in Washington state are responsible for the smoky air around the Lower Mainland over the weekend. Fire departments across the region received a number of calls from those concerned about the smell of smoke. The air quality index remains at medium. Most of the wildfire smoke can be blamed on the huge Bear Gulch wildfire in Olympic National Park.

B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad says his party’s database has been breached and that’s what’s lead to emails and texts attacking him. That position stands as concerns and public comments over his leadership continue to grow. An internal party audit also finds there have been over two thousand bogus membership signups and subsequent cancellations. Results of a leadership vote, following a four...

A new extortion task force is being set up in B.C. with one goal - targeting threats and violence in the South Asian business community. The RCMP-led task force will include 40 members from various agencies. Police say 45 extortion attempts and 27 shootings are under investigation in Surrey from this year alone. The Surrey Police Service says it’s very close to making arrests in this year’s shooti...

Public sector workers who support the B.C. mining sector are the latest to walk off the job as the BCGEU strike expands. Many of the workers are involved in safety and environmental regulation. The move comes as the two sides appear entrenched in their positions with the union pushing for a large wage increase and the government facing a huge budget deficit. In addition to the strike action, an ov...

B.C.’s provincial deficit is now pegged at $11.6B and expected to grow to $12.6B next year. That record high has been laid out by Finance Minister Brenda Bailey in her first quarter report. In addition to a loss in carbon tax revenue, Bailey says the province has seen decreases in revenue sources from natural gas, mining and forestry. The government continues to lay much of the blame on the Trump...

Surrey Police have not yet commented on whether a suspect has been identified in a shooting in a parking lot at Bear Creek Park. It happened just after 9:00 Saturday evening following a confrontation between two groups of people. The victim’s injuries are serious but a recovery is expected. Investigators are now seeking more witnesses and dashcam footage.