The Province
WAITING GAME
A Kelowna woman with end-stage liver failure is drawing attention to her challenges in navigating B.C.'s transplant system, which has kept her waiting for over a year to get life-saving surgery. Lyndsay Richholt said her doctors told her she had six...
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COMMENT PULL BACK
Premier David Eby, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and Surrey Coun. Mandeep Nagra expressed alarm Wednesday after B.C. RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Brewer labelled the city's recent extortion-related shootings “not a crisis,” warning the comment...
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TRAGIC JOURNEY
The parents of a B.C. teenager found dead on an Australian beach say Piper James loved life and planned to return home after her trip to train to become a pilot. But James's decision to take a morning swim on a beach on K'gari, formerly known as...
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Heavy fog to blanket parts of Metro through Tuesday
The heavy fog that has blanketed much of the Lower Mainland since the weekend is expected to continue until at least Tuesday afternoon. Environment Canada has issued a yellow warning for fog in most parts of Metro including Vancouver, Burnaby, New...
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MIRACLE CURES
This past spring, a biotech company announced the first use of a new gene-editing technology in people to fix an errant gene that causes a severe immune disorder. In June, a baby born with a life-threatening metabolic disorder was allowed to leave the...
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PEAK SURVIVAL
Four hikers were rescued Tuesday after spending three nights atop a mountain in Golden Ears Provincial Park in blizzard-like conditions. Brent Boulet, president of Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue, said the outcome could have been much worse had the...
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HARD DAY IN COURT
An Abbotsford couple were tied up in their beds, murdered and had their Visa card, cheques and a pressure washer stolen, the prosecution said Monday as a trial for three men charged in the May 2022 killings got underway. Prosecutor Dorothy Tsui said...
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CHINA BIRTHRATE SPUTTERS
BEIJING — Twenty-five-year-old Grace and her husband are set on staying child-free, resisting pressure from their parents and society to produce offspring, even as China strives to boost its flagging birthrate. A decade since China scrapped its...
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VSO WALKS BACK THREAT TO ARTIST
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has reversed course after earlier threatening legal action against a young violinist who signed a confidentiality agreement, then spoke out against the organization. On Tuesday, the VSO issued a public statement...
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EBY ASIA BOUND
Premier David Eby said Tuesday he is hopeful a trade mission to India next week will further diversify a provincial economy being battered by U.S. tariffs, even as a new report from consulting firm Deloitte projects B.C. will see minimal growth in...
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HISTORIC SLUMP
Metro Vancouver's tepid housing market recorded its lowest number of home sales in two decades, according to the board that represents the region's real estate agents. Economic uncertainty, combined with a market with ultraexpensive homes that are no...
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WHAT'S NEXT FOR TRADE UNDER TRUMP?
WASHINGTON — Tis the season for renaming — everything from a cultural hub dedicated to a beloved slain president to new destroyers to 2025 itself. No, U.S. President Donald Trump hasn't labelled the year with his name, but his trade representative, in...
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MADURO BAGGED IN U.S. RAID
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would run Venezuela until a leadership transition could be organized, hours after a US operation captured leader Nicolás Maduro, ousting the strongman from power and delivering him to U.S. soil late...
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COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
A reluctance by authorities and a provincial watchdog to release basic details about two fatal collisions involving Surrey police vehicles and pedestrians shows a lack of transparency when police are being investigated, observers say. “There's a...
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Top 10 absurd, batty, time-wasting calls to 911
A bad haircut, a broken dishwasher or a hornet buzzing around the house may feel like a crisis at the time — but they are not reasons to call 911. These woes are among B.C. E-Comm's 2025 list of top 10 “unusual” calls, which call takers receive more...
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LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY
Every day, Surrey's AJ Sico sits in a wheelchair inside a South Vancouver care facility, his body still bearing the marks of a spring evening that has forever altered his family. “I never expected to see my adult son like this,” says his mother,...
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SILENCING HONG KONG
HONG KONG — After four months of restless waiting, filmmaker Kiwi Chow received a dreaded, but not altogether unexpected, message: Hong Kong censors had banned his new movie from reaching the big screen. The 46-year-old's career, which took off in...
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PAYING AND PLAYING IT FORWARD
Emerson Murray's professional basketball career took him around the world, but it is in a noisy gymnasium in Surrey filled with teenagers working to refine their skills where he now finds his greatest sense of pride. On a recent weekday morning, music...
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STOCKINGS FILLED!
The Christmas spirit arrived just in time for a mom and her two young children living in a transition home for families fleeing domestic violence in Richmond. Angela Toussaint, program manager at Atira Women's Resource Society's Cadence Second Stage...
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TWO DEAD IN RV FIRE
Two people are dead following a fire inside a recreational vehicle Sunday night in Surrey, despite a neighbour jumping into action to help. Sukhwinder Saroya lives next door to the home where the RV fire happened around 9 p.m. Sunday in the 12200...
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UKRAINE'S LOST GENERATION
KHARKIV, Ukraine — With his shadow of a moustache and baseball cap, Bohdan Levchykov would be your typical teenager anywhere if he didn't embody the tragedy of what has happened to a generation of young Ukrainians after nearly four years of war. His...
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JUSTICE DELIVERED
George David's half-finished carvings don't tell the story they were meant to. The Indigenous artist, a member of the Tofino-area Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation on Vancouver Island, was murdered in Washington state in 2016. On Dec. 15, an Arkansas woman...
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DOUBLE WHAMMY
A grim cleanup effort is underway in Abbotsford, where an estimated 175,000 birds died in last week's flooding — the latest crisis to hit B.C.'s poultry farms. While the emergency is not expected to affect chicken or egg prices or the availability of...
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`HE'S A PART OF THIS COMMUNITY'
Mike Pearson knew something was wrong when he didn't see a man he knew as Tom where he normally hung out in Vancouver's West End neighbourhood, not far from all his worldly possessions. “Number 1, he didn't like leaving his stash of gear at all,” said...
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SNOW STARVED
It's mid-December, and it's unseasonably warm in parts of B.C. “Today, I'm at the Kelowna campus at UBC, and the temperature is plus 10 Celsius,” UBC earth and environmental sciences professor Michael Pidwirny said on Monday. “Well, that's 11 degrees...
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VANCOUVER VILLAGES
The city envisions a future of village hubs that will feature a variety of small shops, services and amenities within a five-minute walk of lowrise buildings up to six storeys.
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BACK IN TIME
BEIJING — Women wearing long wigs and ornate traditional dresses milled around a pebbled courtyard, stopping to snap photos under a pavilion, as the melodious strumming of the Chinese zither played in the background. These customers have paid to “time...
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ON THE MOVE
As she put her five-year-old to bed, Patti Gerbrand got this question: “What if our house floats away while we're sleeping?” The Abbotsford mother said Thursday she was trying to keep calm for her kids while preparing to evacuate to higher...
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PROCEEDS OF CRIME SEIZED
The province is seeking forfeiture of a Richmond condo, a BMW sedan and cash worth more than $1 million, allegedly linked to drug labs in the Lower Mainland. A special federal RCMP unit raided the Richmond condo and a Surrey property in September...
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HITMAN ATTEMPTS ESCAPE DAY AFTER SENTENCING
A day after a B.C. Supreme Court judge wished Wolfpack hitman Dean Wiwchar well in changing his life for the better, the killer allegedly attempted to escape from Surrey jail, Postmedia has learned. Justice Kathleen Ker sentenced Wiwchar Friday to 20...
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DEEP DISS PIZZA
As the pizza warms, the scent of dough and cheese fills the shop. Less than $4 and one-minute later, a glistening slice is packaged in a white bag and ready to eat. Freshslice founder Ray Russell opened his first pizza shop in Vancouver in 1999....
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SHADOW FLEET
Dozens of oil tankers suspected of smuggling contraband crude for Russia and Iran have been using a beachside office in the tropical South Pacific to cover their tracks, an AFP analysis of sanctions data has revealed. Nestled next to a pizza shop in...
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MESSI CAPS OFF ANOTHER TITLE
Even after losing in heartbreaking fashion in the MLS Cup final on Saturday — 3-1 to Inter Miami at Chase Stadium in Florida — we must not lose sight of what a truly remarkable season this has been for the Vancouver Whitecaps. The year began full of...
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RUSTAD RESIGNS TO AVOID `CIVIL WAR'
The interim leader of the B.C. Conservative Party, Trevor Halford, is being called a calm and articulate progressive Conservative, who is well-liked by his colleagues. That description comes from former MP and Surrey mayor Dianne Watts. “He really...
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IS HE PARTY LEADER OR NOT?
John Rustad says he's still the leader of the B.C. Conservative Party, despite his own party's board giving him the boot. In a statement on Wednesday, the Conservative party said Rustad has been removed as leader because he had lost the confidence of...
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FIRE IN THE SKY
Surrey city council is asking the provincial government to restrict how fireworks are used and obtained across B.C. due to safety concerns. Coun. Rob Stutt put forward a notice of motion at the regular Nov. 17 meeting for the city to ask the B.C....
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OVERDOSE BURNOUT
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services is limiting the number of shifts firefighters work at its Downtown Eastside firehall due to the overwhelming number of overdose calls personnel must attend. According to a recent agency post on social media, there...
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DARK AND COLD
KYIV, Ukraine — Wartime Kyiv after sunset now means dark streets and passing silhouettes, with the only light from the occasional faint glow of luminous dog collars. As Ukraine reels from being presented with a U.S. plan that may force it to...
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FROM GAME DAYS TO HOLIDAYS
Winter warmth and styles to celebrate. The Canucks Signature Collection blends timeless athletic design with refined contemporary looks for every member of your team.
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PIPELINE A PIPE DREAM
B.C.'s governing party and coastal First Nations have come out firing against the new agreement between Ottawa and Alberta that paves the way for one or more bitumen pipelines from the oilsands to B.C.'s north coast. Premier David Eby has spent the...
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`HEADING TO EXTINCTION'
A record-low Interior Fraser steelhead return is a conservation crisis that must be addressed before the species of trout is wiped out, the B.C. Wildlife Federation said Thursday. “Steelhead are heading to extinction faster than all the other fish,...
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LIGHTS OUT
After more than three decades, Vancouver's Celebration of Light fireworks, one of the city's highest-profile and most popular public events, has fizzled out due to escalating costs and dwindling government and private funding. Vancouver's Honda...
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$46M BUDGET BOOST
The budget for the PNE's new amphitheatre, which is under construction and set to host Vancouver's official FIFA World Cup watching parties next summer, has been increased again to a new total of $183 million, almost triple the original estimate. City...
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CHINA'S NUCLEAR PLAN
U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement this month that the United States would restart nuclear weapons testing on an “equal basis” with other countries — alluding to unverified claims that Moscow and Beijing are conducting secret tests and...
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SALUTE TO SERVICE
The last surviving Chinese Canadian soldier from the Second World War died in B.C. last month, just shy of his 100th birthday, but there were still surviving Chinese Canadian veterans to honour at the Remembrance Day service in Vancouver's...
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WHO IS SETTING FIRE TO THE AMAZON?
SAO FELIX DO XINGU, Brazil — “Red John” is an old acquaintance of landowners and ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon. He helps clear pastures cheaply, but also leaves blackened earth and charred trees in his wake — threatening the planet's largest...
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WORDS ON THE STREET HONOUR VETS
This year, Nov. 11 comes 80 years and a month after the Second World War ended with the formal surrender of Japan, a moment among many that will be honoured at the dozens of Remembrance Day ceremonies across the Lower Mainland this year. Here is a...
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TEEN SHOT DEAD
A 19-year-old man killed in a targeted shooting in Burnaby on Wednesday night was suspected of having ties to the drug trade, homicide investigators have confirmed. Connor Sheriff was gunned down just after 6:30 p.m. in a parking lot outside the...
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SCHOOL DAZE
A 65 per cent cut to international student targets, announced in Tuesday's federal budget, could impact class sizes, program availability and graduation timelines for post-secondary students across B.C., said experts. With many colleges and...
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ROCK 'N' ROLL FIND
Rob Frith recently garnered international attention when he discovered an unreleased demo recording the Beatles had made for Decca records in 1962. His latest discovery is closer to home — the first rock 'n' roll recordings made in Vancouver. The...
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HIGH-COST SERVICE
While other city departments are making millions in cuts, Vancouver's police and fire services expect to be over budget this year by a combined $21 million. City staff are seeking council's approval this week to cover the Vancouver Police Department's...
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LOCKED ON BOARD
KALININGRAD, RUSSIA — As the Moscow-Kaliningrad train approached Lithuania, the car attendant beckoned to passengers in Russian: “I'm closing the entire carriage, the toilets are out of action.” The 19-hour, 1,000-kilometre journey is the only land...
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CHEMICAL TRAILS
Huge flames and thick smoke shot into the air from the five-tonne rental truck that blocked Highway 97C outside of West Kelowna for 18 hours. The fire spread to toxic chemicals inside the truck, intensifying the burn. The RCMP joined firefighters at...
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AS GOURD AS IT GETS
After pumpkin season wraps up each year at Taves Family Farm in Abbotsford, owner Loren Taves faces a dilemma — what to do with all the leftover gourds from a 500,000pound harvest. Even after local grocers and gun clubs take their share at wholesale...
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LANDOWNERS EXPRESS FEARS
Tensions were high Tuesday night inside a Richmond hotel ballroom packed with hundreds of citizens concerned about the potential impact of a recent court ruling granting Aboriginal title to the Cowichan Tribes over a portion of land along the Fraser...
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BUSINESS OWNER KILLED IN TARGETED SHOOTING
Punjabi journalist Gurpreet Singh Sahota was shocked when he got a call Monday morning about the fatal shooting in Abbotsford of businessman Darshan Singh Sahsi, whom he had known for years. Sahota, editor of the Charhdi Kala newspaper, said whenever...
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BACK ON THE JOB
B.C.'s government liquor stores reopened Monday, a day after the B.C. General Employees' Union reached a tentative deal with the government, but it'll take much longer to restore the system after the eight-week strike, the longest public service strike...
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POINTING FINGERS
KABUL — As fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan escalated into rare, bloody combat this month, Islamabad pointed fingers at another adversary, accusing India of fuelling the conflict. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that New Delhi...
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HISTORY STILL IN THE MAKING
Viraj Opananda wasn't aware of the province's plans to create a museum representing and celebrating South Asian heritage. But the Surrey resident, who is a native of Sri Lanka and serves as president of the Sri Lankan Friendship Society of B.C.,...
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CARE CRUNCH
B.C.'s health minister acknowledged Thursday that efforts to design a new payment model for employees of long-term care facilities has stalled — and operators warn they may have to close if cuts are made to pandemic-era funding programs. In December...
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`I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE'
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad says he won't step down, even after the party's executive management committee sent him a letter saying the party is in “a state of chaos,” and that he should immediately resign. “I've received the letter. I...
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GANGSTER PLEADS GUILTY TO MURDER PLOT
A longtime member of the UN gang pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to kill his Red Scorpion rivals — Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon — more than 15 years ago. Conor D'Monte, who hid overseas for 11 years, entered the plea to a single count before...
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PROPERTY RIGHTS
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie has sent a letter to residents affected by a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision regarding Cowichan Nation land title, warning that their property ownership could be compromised. Brodie's letter announced that a public...
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NOT FORGOTTEN
GYODONG, South Korea — After bowing and making an offering of fruit and a dried fish, Ryh Jae-hong tosses a cup of alcohol toward the thick barbed-wire fence that protects South Korea's Gyodong Island from North Korea. South Koreans perform this...
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NEEDED: A SHOT IN THE ARM
B.C. childhood vaccination rates remain stubbornly stuck in a slump that began during COVID-19, according to data collected by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. But experts say the lingering effects of the pandemic, when some vaccines were hard to...
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`NATIONAL CRISIS'
Surrey business leaders say an increasing wave of extortion and gun violence has reached a crisis — and they're frustrated by what they see as a slow police response. Kap's Cafe, owned by Bollywood actor Kapil Sharma, was targeted by gunfire early...
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RETIREMENT BECKONS
In the 1930s, a couple of Danish carvers were broke. The owners of the Capilano Suspension Bridge offered them a deal: If they carved them some statues, they would give them free room and board. It was the Great Depression, so Aage Madsen and Karl...
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PUBLIC FACE OF STRIKE IMPACT
Former youth-in-care Jade Ryan was hoping to get some tuition support from the province to help cover her classes at Douglas College this fall on her road to a nursing degree. Instead, the 26-year-old is struggling to make ends meet and has taken up...
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SHOTS FIRED
A woman was critically injured when shots were fired into a home in Surrey early Sunday morning. According to Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of Surrey Police Service, the shooting happened at about 2:45 a.m. at a home in the 13000-block of 103A...
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ACROSS THE FINISH LINE
Anticipation is building for the opening of one of the most significant infrastructure projects in B.C. — the replacement for the Pattullo Bridge. The province recently announced that the four-lane replacement bridge connecting Surrey and New...
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PATIENT DIVERSION
When Delta's emergency room closed Saturday night due to a doctor shortage, the impact rippled through neighbouring Surrey, said Mayor Brenda Locke. Patients and ambulances were diverted to Surrey Memorial Hospital, which already has the busiest ER in...
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FACES OF MOST WANTED
A Toronto gangster charged with murder could be hiding out in Metro Vancouver, B.C.'s top Mountie said Wednesday as Canada's most wanted fugitives list was revealed. Bryan Fuentes Gramajo is No. 1 on the BOLO program list after being charged with...
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EBY FIGHTS, CAN'T STOP OIL PIPELINE
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's dream of a pipeline from the oilsands around Fort McMurray to B.C.'s northwest coast faces opposition from both the B.C. NDP and coastal First Nations, but experts say there is little that Premier David Eby can do to...
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ARRESTS MADE
Five men have been charged in two extortion-related cases in Surrey, police announced Monday, just hours after another business was targeted in a shooting. And two other men are charged in an arson that is now being investigated for potential links to...
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