The Province

WHAT'S NEXT?

Jessie Adcock went to bed on June 10, a tense, restless night ahead of her. Years of work were going to be unveiled and judged in the morning, and small splinters of doubt still pierced her confidence. As the head of the Vancouver FIFA Host Committee...

PARK'S TREES UNDER THREAT

At a park in Vancouver's West End, small handwritten signs have been tied around dozens of tree trunks with ribbon. “On death row,” they say. The display is the latest effort by a group of residents to draw attention to B.C. Hydro's proposed...

DRUG OVERDOSE DEATHS IN DECLINE

After years of an ever-worsening toxic drug crisis, B.C.'s overdose death rate is dropping, with experts saying the reasons for the downturn are complicated. While the government and some other politicians are touting the government's shift away from...

CARE CRISIS

Loretta Toneatto, 86, is in hospice care in Delta, weeks after a routine operation went wrong. Her daughter Carmen, a B.C.-trained nurse with decades of experience working in the U.S., came home to care for her and says she's found B.C. nurses to be...

LIVES UPROOTED

Nebyou Getahun came back to his New Westminster apartment on Monday hoping to retrieve the documents that prove he's allowed to be in Canada. Nothing seems intact of the corner unit he was renting, except the balcony railing. The building at 905...

TAIWAN ON ALERT

HONG KONG — Taiwanese social media is awash with baseless claims that China meddled in recent elections in South Korea, warning of potential interference to come in the self-ruled island's own polls later this year. AFP fact-checkers have debunked a...

ROCKY ROADS

Hikers trying to climb Chilliwack's most iconic mountain peak in recent years have first had to endure a bruising ride up to the trailhead. On Mt. Cheam Road Updates, a Facebook page dedicated to the access road, hikers post photographs of feats of...

HOUSE ARREST

Three properties owned by an accused drug smuggler, including the one above in West Vancouver, are subject to civil forfeiture lawsuit.

SUNKEN FISHING BOAT LOCATED

The company that operated the vessel that sunk off the B.C. coast on June 28 actually had two boats on the water that day, according to the distraught mother of the missing captain who is searching for answers. Richmond resident Ashley Lin, whose son...

BISHNOI CHARGED IN SURREY KILLING

Several B.C. gangsters are among 24 arrested and charged with acts of violence and drug trafficking after a sweeping U.S. investigation targeting India's Bishnoi gang and two other transnational crime groups. The U.S. Department of Justice announced...

TOP OF THE WORLD

A Surrey man elevated to a new level in May when he successfully scaled to the highest point of Mount Everest, becoming the first Sikh Canadian to do so. Ajaypal Singh Dhaliwal was recognized by Surrey council June 29 for his “remarkable demonstration...

15 YEARS AND FEW ANSWERS

SAINT JOHN, N.B. — For those who were in the packed, fifth-floor courtroom of the Saint John Law Courts on Dec. 19, 2015, it was a scene that cannot be forgotten. Dennis Oland, on trial for the second-degree murder of his dad, Richard, stood next to...

PROUD IN DEFEAT

Soccer fans who gathered downtown in Jack Poole Plaza for Saturday's game left disappointed in the result but appreciative of Canada's effort.

GIANT COMMITMENT

The City of Surrey has announced new details for its plan to build a 10,000-seat sports and entertainment arena, including a partnership with the Vancouver Giants hockey team. Mayor Brenda Locke says the new City Centre Arena and Cultural Event Centre...

6 FEARED DROWNED IN FISHING DISASTER

A desperate rescue mission shifted to a recovery operation Monday, after a capsized boat sent 10 people into frigid waters off the coast of Richmond a day earlier. Despite an immediate co-ordinated response from several agencies and the help of...

CRANKING UP THE AC

PARIS, France — As Europe's heat wave leaves millions sweltering in poorly insulated apartments, schools and retirement homes, more French people are breaking with tradition to turn to air conditioning. Many in France believe cooling systems are bad...

Things go south

Loss against Switzerland sends Team Canada to Los Angeles in a very typically Vancouver story that's about so much more than just soccer.

COACH PLAYING HEAD GAMES

The man who helped transform Morocco's soccer team into a serious World Cup contender is being urged to focus on a new goal: prime minister. Fouzi Lekjaa, chairman of the national soccer association for more than a decade and budget minister since...

SWISS MISS

Longtime soccer fan Michael Emmott says that despite Wednesday's 2-1 loss to Switzerland, he's proud of how far Canada's men's national team has come, and finishing second in the group is a real accomplishment. “We've seen them not even be anything on...

SURREY DEFIES WATER ORDER

When Metro Vancouver went into Stage 3 water restrictions June 8 — far earlier than in past years as concerns mounted about drought conditions and a vanishing snowpack — the City of Surrey had other ideas. City council passed a bylaw in late May...

Officer killed during drug raid had not fired his gun: prosecutor

The RCMP officer leading the drug raid at a Coquitlam highrise in 2023 was also hurt as a colleague in front of her was shot dead without warning, the prosecutor said Monday in the murder trial of Nicholas Bellemare. Bellemare is on trial for shooting...

OPIOID DEATHS DROP

Opioid deaths in Canada fell 26 per cent between October 2024 and September 2025 compared with the previous 12-month period, according to new data from the federal government. A total of 5,724 opioid-related deaths were recorded during that time...

FAN FAVOURITE

Vancouver versus Toronto is one of Canada's oldest debates. From the Vancouver Canucks versus the Toronto Maple Leafs to which city has the better skyline, nightlife or sports scene, fans on both sides rarely agree. Now the World Cup has added a new...

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...