The Province

HISTORY MADE

The eyes of Canada were all on Vancouver, and then they were on the leg of Ismael Kone. As Canada made history with a dominant 6-0 win over Qatar on Thursday afternoon, recording their first World Cup victory, the mood was both joyous and sombre as...

ATTUNED TO THE GAME

The workday is looking a little different across Metro this week. With Canada set to play its biggest World Cup match in decades at B.C. Place on Thursday afternoon, some employers are swapping conference rooms for viewing parties, streaming games...

TUNNEL TIMELINE

It has been almost 15 years since a B.C. Liberal government announced it would replace the Massey Tunnel and yet the province is little closer to getting a replacement built. Another setback came Tuesday when the NDP announced it had failed to reach a...

PHONZIE ONE STEP CLOSER TO RETURN

Captain Canada is getting closer to a return. Alphonso Davies once again ran with his Canada teammates on Monday in Vancouver. He was a full participant in the warm-up, which was all the media was allowed to see during the 15-minute window that...

CHINA JOBS ALERT

LONDON — The United States and other nations in the Five Eyes intelligence partnership recently took the unusual step of issuing a joint warning that China is using LinkedIn and other job platforms to pry secret information from security professionals...

FEVER PITCH

There were stars and celebrities, there were fans decked out in red and flags, there were doting family members holding signs of adoration. If ever proof of home field advantage needs to be cited, the thundering red wave that engulfed BMO Field in...

GAME ON!

A string of international flags fluttered outside Oppenheimer Park Thursday as city workers transformed a municipal building into a World Cup viewing space for residents experiencing homelessness. At the Downtown Eastside field house — normally a...

SIGNS OF THE TIME

Large new signage guiding World Cup visitors through Vancouver have triggered a debate over how the Downtown Eastside is being presented to an international audience. The signs encourage visitors to “Explore Vancouver” and feature maps that divide...

First Nation reaches $12M settlement on diesel spill

The Heiltsuk Nation has reached a $12.2 million settlement with the U.S. company whose tug ran aground in 2016 on B.C.'s central coast and spilled 110,000 litres of diesel, closing an important clam fishery and important cultural area. The settlement...

BOOM TIME?

Silicon Valley tech founders are setting up shop in the glitzy hotels of Caracas, looking for investment opportunities. American Airlines has resumed direct flights from Miami to the Venezuelan capital. In oil country, sales of pickup trucks are...

HIGH HOPES

There is hope, there is reality, and for the vast majority of the 48 teams in the World Cup this summer, never the twain shall meet. There are some passionate sports fans who can willingly suspend their disbelief, fervently convinced their team can...

B.C. Hydro cancels plan to phase out gas-powered generation

B.C. Hydro says it needs to keep two natural-gas-powered generating stations operational to meet a looming electricity shortfall, pushing back provincial goals to phase out fossil-fuel generation by the end of the decade. Hydro, in a filing to the...

`WRECKING BALL' OF A STORM

Over decades spent at sea, 73-year-old John Campbell has swum alongside whale sharks off Baja Mexico, sailed through a lightning storm near Hawaii and toasted a solo crossing of the Equator with a bottle of Champagne. But last week, trapped in a...

LIPINSKI OUSTED

The City of Surrey found itself in a deepening crisis Tuesday following the abrupt ouster of its chief of police and the resignation of the chair of the police board who alleged “political tentacles” were reaching far too deep into police...

LABOURING MARKET

The labour market for young workers in B.C. has cratered in the past seven years, a new report from the Business Council of B.C. says. Since 2019, B.C.'s youth labour market — 15 to 24 year olds — has deteriorated to the point where fewer young people...

EBOLA RUMOURS STIFLE CARE

NAIROBI — As a deadly outbreak of Ebola spreads through the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, one conspiracy theory is that non-profit workers brought the disease to get more money. Another is that the outbreak has been fabricated to frighten the...

FOOD SCENE BETS BIG ON WORLD CUP SURGE

As Vancouver prepares to host the World Cup, restaurants, cafés and social clubs across the city are racing to get ready for an expected wave of international fans — adjusting menus, staffing and spaces to capture the business of match-day crowds...

MONSTERS: `THEY ARE CLOSER THAN WE THINK'

What Raymond Hoogland saw when he entered his in-laws' home the morning after Mother's Day four years ago left him “broken beyond repair” — but worse was still to come. In a victim impact statement delivered to a packed courtroom Thursday in...

HIGH SEAS RESCUE

Passengers on the cruise ship Silver Whisper had a front-row seat for some high seas drama when their vessel was diverted to rescue a sailboat adrift in the Pacific Ocean about 1,600 kilometres southwest of Vancouver. The Silversea Cruises ship —...

AUTO CRIME FALLS

New data released by ICBC shows a “sharp decline” in both auto theft and reported crashes across the province in recent years. The analysis of Insurance Corp. of B.C. data from the past 10 years also confirms that hybrids are rising in popularity...

CANUCKS GETTING THEIR MANNY

Nobody understands the grind better than Manny Malhotra. When the Vancouver Canucks confirm the former NHL centre as 23rd head coach in franchise history — negotiations continued Monday regarding salary and term — it will be a testament to the player...

FIGHTING FOR PEACE

URUAPAN, Mexico — The brazen homicide of a small-city mayor shocked Mexico and forced President Claudia Sheinbaum to step up an offensive against all-powerful drug cartels. But even after a deployment totalling thousands of troops and the killing of a...

Vancouver plays host to international dance competition

Humuza Bazira started dancing when he was 13 years old. He auditioned for the Brotherhood varsity dance team a year later, in Grade 8, but didn't make it. In Grade 9, he did. This week, the 23-year-old will be one of the 20 Brotherhood adult team...

LONG-TERM WAIT FOR LONG-TERM CARE BED

Teri MacKay says that when she first moved her 87-year-old mother into a private pay long-term care home in October at the cost of thousands of dollars per month, Fraser Health told her it would be a twoyear wait for a publicly subsidized bed. Now,...

RESPONSE REDUCTION

At 7 a.m. Tuesday, Firehall 2 on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside responded to a fire on Gore Avenue. Fifteen pieces of firefighting equipment from two halls were required to douse the flames. “It was a working fire, with heavy black smoke coming out of...

FOOTE HANDED WALKING PAPERS

Will management familiarity breed coaching contentment? That was the pressing question this week for the Vancouver Canucks' new hockey operations department. It's aligned in history, admiration, support, friendship and belief in Manny Malhotra. And a...

HOTEL FACING TROUBLED WATERS

A legal challenge asks the B.C. Supreme Court to quash the City of Vancouver's approval to allow a 250room floating hotel in front of the Vancouver Convention Centre. The petition alleges the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre...

INTO THE WATER, EVERYONE

Mayor Ken Sim is calling for free swimming lessons for every non-swimmer in the city of Vancouver, a review of aquatic infrastructure, and a return to “pre-COVID-19 operational hours” and drop-in access to Kits pool. Sim has introduced a motion...

KEEPING IT IN-HOUSE

The questions in the grocery line are only going to get more in depth and more intense for Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Get ready, cashiers at the Dunbar location of Stong's Market, you're going to see and hear a lot more hockey. The Vancouver Canucks...

EX-MOUNTIE FOUND NOT GUILTY

After living for three years under suspicion of aiding a foreign government and harming Canada's interests, former RCMP Insp. William (Bill) Majcher was found not guilty of the charge laid against him by RCMP and a federal prosecutor. “On the single...

`LIPSTICK ON A PIG'

For decades, Vancouver's Blood Alley carried the weight of its name. The historic lane between Abbott and Carrall streets — also known as Trounce Alley and tucked behind the tourist crowds of Gastown's Water Street — was long viewed by locals as one...

GANG WAR SHOCK

After the gang-related murder of two Surrey teenagers on Sunday, Mayor Brenda Locke is calling for the Surrey police board to review a decision to disband the gang crime unit earlier this year. Locke said she was “outraged by the recent shootings that...

RISING FROM THE ASHES

The fiery “Beast” that razed so much of the northern city of Fort McMurray, Alta., 10 years ago has made a lasting impact on Alberta's wildfire landscape. The 2016 wildfire that consumed more than a half-million hectares and spread to the heart of...

WORLD CUP BUZZ, WORRIES GROWING

Residents, businesses near B.C. Place steeling for onslaught of fans.

SURREY SHOOTINGS SPIKE

Shootings in Surrey have increased significantly so far this year in comparison to the same period in 2025. And so have most violent crimes, including extortions that are continuing to impact Punjabi-Canadian business owners, according to data from...

B.C. Hydro sets record for peak May demand

This week's early season hot spell pushed electricity demand to a new record for the month of May, says B.C. Hydro. Customers across B.C. used 7,600 megawatts, “the highest level ever seen in May, especially this early in the month,” the Crown utility...

WHALE HIT BY SEA-DOO

Katrina Love Prescott was enjoying the weather in the West End on Monday evening and had seen a whale earlier in the area, surfacing and feeding just off English Bay before making its way over to Stanley Park. The grey whale had been wowing...

83-YEAR-OLD BRINGS DOWN THE CURTAIN ON CAREER WITH OPERA

When the longest-serving (and singing) member of the Vancouver Opera Chorus, 83-year-old Don Wright, looks back on his career, he' would like to be remembered for more than just the timbre of his vocals after 51 years onstage. When Wright joined the...

TRACKING TERRO

1986: THE START OF A NEW ERA

40 years ago, Expo 86 brought the world to Vancouver ... and put the city on the map

CONTRACTS CANCELLED

The B.C. government says several construction contracts for long-term care homes that were delayed as part of February's budget have now been cancelled, as has the contract for Phase 2 of the Burnaby Hospital redevelopment. Mayors, hospital...

GANGSTER KILLED

The killing Tuesday in Surrey of a Brothers Keepers gangster may have been retaliation for the slaying last month of a trafficker linked to the UN gang. And both likely stemmed from the continuing dispute that led to January's homicide of high-profile...

`NATURAL' PEOPLE PERSON

Had John Garrett not become a hockey player, he still would have been an entertainer. The always-at-ease, always-readyto-laugh persona he presented on television was his true self. He was kind and generous. He cared for the people around him. Those...

AVALANCHE CREATOR

It started with a menacing “whoosh” and a “Watch it!” before a slab of mountainside broke loose under the skis of Montgomery (Monty) Atwater, swallowing him in its crushing embrace. Atwater was in Alta, Utah, purposefully triggering avalanches by...

MARRIED AND UNDER FIRE

UNDISCLOSED, Ukraine — While Ukrainian combat medic Anastasia Podobailo cleaned blood from a wounded soldier's arm and called him “little bun,” her colleague and husband Mykola Yasinenko checked the patient's intravenous drip was flowing. The couple...

A HOST OF PROBLEMS

Independence, Mo., and Guttenberg, N.J., are among several U.S. cities that have temporarily relaxed short-term rental restrictions to help meet demand for accommodations during this summer's World Cup soccer tournament. But in Vancouver, where hotel...

AIRPORT LOOKING TO LAND SOME BUSINESS

The number of private jets expected to descend on Vancouver for World Cup soccer games this summer is enough for the operator of the executive air terminal at suburban Pitt Meadows Regional Airport to sense a unique business opportunity. Most traffic...

CAUGHT ON CAMERA

More than 128,000 B.C. drivers were ticketed for speeding or running red lights last year under a traffic camera program that a local medical health officer says should be expanded because it saves lives. Research from Canada, the U.S., Australia and...

SURREY SIX MASTERMIND SET FREE

Notorious gangster Jamie Bacon, the mastermind behind the deadly 2007 Surrey Six slayings, has been released from prison, less than six years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill. Bacon, now 40, completed the full five-year, seven-month...

HEIGHTENED SECURITY

When the World Cup comes to Vancouver in June and July, there will be thousands of fans sporting soccer jerseys and their national pride. There will also be an unprecedented number of people wearing badges. “On a match day, there will be the largest...

`DYSTOPIAN' COMMERCE LANDSCAPE

OTTAWA — Newly minted NDP leader Avi Lewis is sounding the alarm on what he calls a “creepy new tactic” corporations are using to rip off consumers. Lewis is calling on the Liberals to prohibit businesses from using personal data to charge customers...

Patrick Johnston goes deep on the Canucks' third-worst season ever

When you look back and try to answer the question of “what the heck just happened?,” Vancouver Canuck Teddy Blueger figures you actually have to start with the end, because it underscores what had been missing. The Canucks' 2025-26 season is one of...

ASSESSING THE THREAT

Beneath the spring snow currently melting in the B.C. mountains, the conditions for a catastrophic wildfire could already exist. A B.C. company is hoping to help communities understand that risk months before fire season starts using an artificial...

DRUG BUST TALLY

Police have now processed a vast cache of illicit drugs, including nearly 40 kilograms of fentanyl, that were seized late last year during the bust of a clandestine drug lab in Chilliwack. Chilliwack RCMP gave an update on the investigation Wednesday...

Accused dark-web trafficker returned from Germany

A Victoria man who allegedly sold fentanyl pills on the dark web has been returned from Germany where he fled after his initial arrest. Isaac Oliveira-Scott, 29, was arrested in Europe in February and escorted back to B.C. this week, according to a...

10-YEAR EMERGENCY

On April 14, 2016, B.C. declared a public health emergency after a surge in overdose deaths, primarily caused by synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. The province said it would work with health authorities, emergency room doctors, first responders and...

BRAZIL'S MISOGYNY WOES

Alana Anisio Rosa, 20, politely turned down the man from her gym who kept sending her flowers and chocolates. A month later, he burst into her home and stabbed her around 50 times with a pocket knife. Her mother, Jaderluce Anisio de Oliveira, 53, was...

AIRPORT IDEA TAKING OFF

When Scott Wheatley raised the idea of an airport for Surrey at a recent business lunch where Mike Farnworth, B.C.'s transportation minister, was guest speaker, it wasn't some airy notion. The head of the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce had...

GANG COPS MOVED

Surrey's specialized gang officers who collected intelligence and patrolled bars, restaurants and major events attended by gangsters have all been reassigned. Postmedia has learned the move took place in January, before the high-profile slaying Jan....

WEST VAN TAKEN TO TASK

After almost two years of back and forth with West Vancouver over its lack of progress on housing targets, the B.C. government has overridden the municipality and amended parts of its Official Community Plan to allow for greater density along Marine...

BATTLE FOR SPACE SUPREMACY

BEIJING — Walking on the moon by 2030, building a lunar base, and then perhaps on to Mars: after 30 years of honing its expertise, China is challenging the United States' supremacy in space flight. As NASA prepares for its crewed lunar flyby mission,...

WORLD CUP WELCOME KIT

World Cup soccer fans who descend on Vancouver and party it up need to be aware of the potential danger from the province's toxic and unregulated drug supply, a local doctor is warning. Dr. Paxton Bach, a specialist in addiction medicine at St. Paul's...

HOUSE ALMOST AS OLD AS CITY RAVAGED

An Italian restaurant in an old house in east Vancouver has been severely damaged after fire broke out in the residence above the business Wednesday night, Vancouver Fire Rescue Services said. The fire broke out at about 8 p.m., near the intersection...

BAY BUILDS INTEREST

Almost four months after the former Hudson's Bay Company flagship building in downtown Vancouver was put on the market, multiple groups have expressed interest in buying the property, industry sources say. While details are scant, some observers say...

SAFETY GEAR BUILT WITH WOMEN IN MIND

From seatbelts to bike helmets, much of the safety equipment people rely on every day was designed with men in mind. A new undergraduate course at the University of B.C. aims to change that — by teaching students to recognize and address gender gaps...

FAMILY SELLS CENTURY-OLD BUSINESS

MIDWAY — Village Mayor Doug McMynn sits in his office at the family hardware store, poring over a large ancestral tree to make sure he gets the names of his great-granddad James Graham McMynn and his three brothers right. The record starts in 1635 and...

POLICING WITH AI

SAO PAULO, Brazil — In the heart of Sao Paulo, a “prisonometer” keeps a live tally of people jailed due to Latin America's largest AI facial-recognition system, but its successes have been marred by mistaken arrests. The digital counter stands outside...

LOST IN THE MUSEUM

For years, more than two dozen items from Walter (Wee Hong) Louie's military service in the First World War sat tucked away in a drawer at his home in Orillia, Ont. They included a black-leather diary from 1919, a photograph of him in uniform, a bronze...

AERIAL RESCUE

As the B.C. coast continues to be hammered by torrential rains from an atmospheric river, several people were evacuated Thursday by helicopter from their homes in the north end of Coquitlam after a mudslide hit the area. Two people at a property hit...