Vancouver police say a man considered a high risk and violent sex offender is missing after he failed to check in to his halfway house yesterday.
They say 36-year-old Johnny Walkus is wanted Canada-wide.
Walkus is serving a sentence for two counts of sexual assault, and one count each of break and enter with intent and uttering threats.
Police say Walkus is five-foot, eight inches tall with a heavy build, short black hair, and the name Johnny Cash tattooed on his right forearm.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced new limits to the international student program Monday, including a 35 per cent reduction in the number of study permits it issues this year. The cap comes in response to a recent surge in international students and concerns that some institutions are relying on international enrolments to boost revenues, without offering necessary housing or a quality education.
Metro Vancouver says an acrid odour that blanketed parts of the region on Sunday contained elevated contaminant levels, but didn't breach pollution standards. The regional federation of municipalities says it monitors emissions of particulates, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide from Burnaby's Parkland fuel refinery, and air quality objectives for the contaminants weren't exceeded.
A heli-skiing company says three people have died after one of its helicopters crashed in west-central British Columbia. Northern Escape Heli-Skiing, which is based in Terrace, B.C., confirmed the deaths in a news release but did not say how many people were involved in the crash near the city.
Hundreds of thousands of Metro Vancouver residents are without a bus ride again today as striking transit supervisors carry on with their 48-hour strike. The dispute between more than 180 members of CUPE Local 4500 and Coast Mountain Bus Company has stopped 96 per cent of the region's buses as well as the SeaBus across Burrard Inlet.
A coroner's inquest has been told that a Vancouver rooming house where a fire killed two people in 2022 had a chained door, as relatives testified about the devastating impact of the blaze. The inquest into the deaths of Mary Ann Garlow and Dennis Guay began Monday with family members describing their loss in the fire that gutted the Winters Hotel in Vancouver.
West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. says it's permanently closing its sawmill in Fraser Lake, B.C., after an orderly wind-down. The Vancouver-based company says it's unable to access economically viable fibre in the region.