Vancouver news

• B.C. records second-highest monthly fatal overdoses so far in 2018

  22-08-2018 23:58 via vancouversun.com
  VICTORIA — British Columbia’s coroners service says 134 people died of illicit-drug overdoses in July, a 25 per cent increase from June.
  The latest fatalities are the second-highest figures of any month so far this year, after an all-time monthly high of 162 deaths in March.
  The service says about four people fatally overdose every day in the province, which leads the country in illicit-drug deaths.
  Vancouver, Surrey, and Victoria experienced the highest number of overdoses last mont
  
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• Two birds test positive for West Nile virus in B.C.

  22-08-2018 23:54 via vancouversun.com
  KIMBERLEY — Two dead ravens in Kimberley have tested positive for West Nile virus.
  Interior Health says it’s the first evidence of West Nile virus activity in British Columbia this year.
  The health authority says no human cases have been reported and no positive mosquito pools have been identified.
  It’s working with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and Canadian Blood Services to monitor virus activity, including screening the blood supply and reporting human and animal cases
  
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• Serial bank robber gets two years in prison

  22-08-2018 23:51 via vancouversun.com
  A man who committed seven bank robberies in the span of three weeks in Vancouver and Burnaby has been sentenced to two years in prison.
  Eranga De Silva, who was 24 at the time of the robberies in January and February 2016, typically handed the bank teller a note that said he had a gun. In one case the note said he also had a grenade.
  He never showed a weapon of any kind and when he was apprehended in a taxi soon after the last robbery, he was unarmed.
  Most of the notes demanded a specified amoun
  
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• Canadian man sentenced to 42 months in prison for illegally exporting military tech to Iran

  22-08-2018 23:40 via theprovince.com
  A Canadian national has been sentenced in the United States to three-and-a-half years in prison for conspiracy to export military goods to Iran.
  Ghobad Ghasempour, a 38-year-old Canadian, was arrested March 2017 when he left B.C. through the Peace Arch crossing at Blaine, Wash.
  A Homeland Security Investigations probe found that Ghasempour had been using front companies in China and working with co-conspirators in Iran, Turkey and Portugal to illegally export restricted tech products and militar
  
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• Canada mixes experience, youth for women’s soccer friendly with Brazil

  22-08-2018 23:37 via theprovince.com
  Canadian coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller has summoned a blend of experience and youth for a Sept. 2 soccer friendly with Brazil in Ottawa in advance of the October CONCACAF Women’s Championship.
  Captain Christine Sinclair is set to win her 269th cap at TD Place in a rematch of the 2016 Olympic bronze-medal game won 2-1 by Canada.
  The 35-year-old Sinclair joins 30-plus Stephanie Labbe, Erin McLeod, Diana Matheson, Sophie Schmidt and Desiree Scott on the 23-woman roster. The six veterans have 93
  
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• Little League World Series: Canada eliminated by Puerto Rico

  22-08-2018 23:33 via theprovince.com
  Canada’s run at the Little League World Series came to an end Wednesday with a 9-4 loss to Puerto Rico.
  The Whalley Major Allstars from Surrey entered the game with confidence after a 6-4 win over favoured Mexico on Monday.
  But they missed a chance to take control of Wednesday’s game when they managed just one run with two on and one out in the bottom of the second inning.
  The lack of run production came back to haunt Canada. The Puerto Ricans broke the game open with four runs in th
  
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• Malahat Highway closed after fatal collision involving SUV, sewage truck

  22-08-2018 23:20 via globalnews.ca
  One person was killed in a two-vehicle crash on Vancouver Island’s Malahat Highway on Wednesday. The collision forced the closure of the route just north of Goldstream Provincial Park.
  
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• Ben Kuzma: It will take more than Karlsson rumour to fix Canucks’ pop-gun defence

  22-08-2018 23:14 via theprovince.com
  This is the state of the Vancouver Canucks.
  The initial off-season buzz was that the NHL club should consider dealing a defenceman and landing a forward to help prop up the 26th-ranked offence. That has been trumped by a bigger buzz that the Canucks should or could make a play for a blue-liner to bolster a back end that combined for just 21 goals last season.
  It’s why Noah Hanifin’s name was linked to the Canucks before the Carolina defender was moved to Calgary at the 2018 draft in
  
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• Ben Kuzma: Canucks believe injection of new talent will add more back-end scoring

  22-08-2018 23:11 via theprovince.com
  General manager Jim Benning and coach Travis Green have a plan to bolster back-end scoring if the Vancouver Canucks don’t travel the trade route.
  It involves their three free-agent acquisitions on Canada Day. It involves plenty of speed, tact and testosterone. And it involves something positive occurring when pucks get back to the point.
  “Travis and I have talked about playing a more aggressive system with our defence — where they’re pinching down on the walls and trying
  
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• Ed Willes: Lulay just enjoying the ride after coming back from knee surgery

  22-08-2018 23:04 via theprovince.com
  When he signed up for yet another rehab and another nine months in the hotel hell, Travis Lulay knew there were no guarantees at the end of his journey.
  Oh, he knew there would be a lot of pain. And frustration. And uncertainty. And if he had any doubts about that, they were dispelled five weeks after the operation when an infection set in to his surgically repaired right knee. The subsequent scope was performed on Halloween when his wife Kim and three daughters were out trick-or-treating. Jonat
  
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• Belcarra park has turned into a parking "zoo" on hot summer weekends, mayor says

  22-08-2018 23:03
  
  "People flock to these facilities, and rightly so. But the reality is we're so highly constrained by geography [and] the areas can't handle it any more."
  
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• How to prepare for Vancouver's Diner en Blanc in a day

  22-08-2018 22:46
  
  Here's some tips and tricks on how to get those last-minute items for the fanciest dinner of the year
  
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• B.C. Wildfires: Owner of ‘rescued’ puppies say dogs weren’t lost

  22-08-2018 22:45 via globalnews.ca
  It had the potential to be one of those heart warming tales of animals being rescued from a fire zone. But that’s not the way the story is unfolding. Klaudia Van Emmerik explains what happened when B.C. firefighters found some puppies found wandering in a rural area.
  
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• Two dead ravens test positive for West Nile virus

  22-08-2018 22:38 via globalnews.ca
  British Columbia has its first confirmed case of West Nile virus for 2018, Interior Health said on Wednesday.
  
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• Premier Horgan adresses federal cabinet in Nanaimo

  22-08-2018 22:32 via globalnews.ca
  B.C. Premier John Horgan met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet on Wednesday. Global BC chief legislative reporter Keith Baldrey explains what was — and wasn’t — talked about.
  
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• Firefighters urge vigilance amid string of urban wildfires

  22-08-2018 22:29 via globalnews.ca
  A string of recent human-caused brush and grass fires in the Lower Mainland is causing growing concern among firefighters. Tanya Beja has more on this latest development in the B.C. wildfire season.
  
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• B.C. wildfire update, Wednesday Aug. 22

  22-08-2018 22:29 via globalnews.ca
  An out of control wildfire at the B.C.-Yukon border has forced the closure of the Alaska Highway, and B.C.’s premier says it may be time to change the way the province budgets for wildfire seasons.
  
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• Malahat truck crash kills driver, spills sewage onto highway

  22-08-2018 22:23 via vancouversun.com
  VICTORIA — Police on Vancouver Island say the driver of a sewage truck that overturned on the Malahat Wednesday morning has died.
  The highway was closed in both directions after the 8:10 a.m. incident, which led to a sewage spill. The truck had been southbound, just north of Goldstream Provincial Park.
  West Shore RCMP said the crash involved the truck and an SUV, and happened near the Goldstream Boathouse. The SUV driver was assessed for injuries by paramedics. The driver was operating a t
  
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• B.C. Wildfires 2018: Air quality in Vanderhoof double hazardous levels

  22-08-2018 22:16 via vancouversun.com
  The air quality in Vanderhoof from B.C. wildfire smoke is more than double the level considered hazardous to health, according to the World Air Quality Index.
  According to Air Visual, which tracks the global levels with an interactive map, a hazard level of air pollution is an AQI level of 301. Vanderhoof, in central B.C., had an AQI rating of 619. Other B.C. communities with ratings far exceeding levels considered hazardous were Houston at 410 AQI and Burns Lake at 408 AQI.
  Vanderhoof Mayor Ger
  
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• Doing play-by-play his way is part of why Fai wants to stay with C’s

  22-08-2018 22:07 via theprovince.com
  Rob Fai tried to jump to the Toronto Blue Jays from the Vancouver Canadians in spring training.
  Fai, who’s been the C’s radio play-by-play man since 2007, got a tryout calling Jays exhibition games in early March.
  He was one of several candidates to take over from Jerry Howarth, who retired in February after 36 seasons as the radio voice of the team. Ben Wagner eventually won the job, moving up from calling the action for the Buffalo Bisons, Toronto’s triple-A affiliate.
  The C&
  
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• J.J. Adams: New Whitecaps centre-back brings depth to a threadbare cupboard

  22-08-2018 22:01 via theprovince.com
  Carl Robinson hasn’t gone off the deep end. The crafty coach just wanted some depth.
  The Vancouver Whitecaps’ acquisition of centre-back Roberto Domínguez last week initially seemed to be a head-scratching transaction, considering the Caps ran deep with four bonafide starters and a capable fill-in at the position, and there were other areas of need that seemed to be higher priority.
  But Robinson’s pursuit of the El Salvadoran player turned out to be prophetic, as th
  
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• Whalley Allstars take on Puerto Rico in rain-delayed game Wednesday

  22-08-2018 21:58 via theprovince.com
  UPDATE: The Little League quarterfinal between Whalley Allstars and Puerto Rico is available in Canada on TSN.ca as a live stream. You must be signed up to TSN Direct or a TSN subscriber through your cable service.Canada’s team at the Little League World Series wasn’t worried about a rain-cancelled game halting its momentum.
  That’s because head coach Mike Marino doesn’t consider the Canadians’ dramatic run at the tournament as anything out of the ordinary for his te
  
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• Airbnb asking B.C. hosts to help those displaced by wildfires

  22-08-2018 21:57 via globalnews.ca
  Airbnb Canada says it wants to help British Columbians displaced by the wildfires.
  
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• Stats show declining bike thefts in Vancouver

  22-08-2018 21:49 via vancouversun.com
  Initiatives such as Project 529 have led to what looks like the fourth year in a row of declining bike thefts in Vancouver, according to statistics from the Vancouver Police Department.
  Data compiled by police show that there were 3,131 thefts city-wide in 2015. That dropped to 2,655 in 2016, and 2,199 in 2017.
  This year, there have been 1,200 bike thefts between Jan. 1 and July 31. That is a drop of six thefts from the same period last year.
  Project 529 is a bike registration and recovery progr
  
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• B.C. Premier John Horgan meets federal cabinet in Nanaimo, no movement on Trans Mountain

  22-08-2018 21:44 via globalnews.ca
  "Our position remains the same."
  
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• A hint of smoke: B.C. wineries look for ways to cut wildfire risks

  22-08-2018 21:22 via globalnews.ca
  Winemakers can only hope the scent of smoke that's in the air across British Columbia from wildfires won't swirl in the glass once this year's vintages have been bottled.
  
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• Two birds from B.C.’s Kootenay region test positive for West Nile virus

  22-08-2018 21:18 via globalnews.ca
  Interior Health says two birds from the Kimberley, B.C., area tested positive for West Nile virus.
  
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• Tech Talk: 2018 Dorm essentials

  22-08-2018 21:02 via globalnews.ca
  With the new school year just around the corner, tech expert Mike Agerbo from Get Connected Media shows off high-tech devices that will help students living in dormitories.
  
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• Surrey firefighters clean up after grass fire singes brush near Langley border

  22-08-2018 20:58 via globalnews.ca
  Raw video captures Surrey firefighters mopping up after a grass fire near the Surrey/Langley border. Firefighters are increasingly concerned about the threat of urban wildfires.
  
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• Canadian researchers find a way to turn Type A and B blood into Type O

  22-08-2018 20:54 via globalnews.ca
  Researchers at UBC have used enzymes from the human gut to change Type A and B blood into the more sought-after Type O.
  
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• Home grown on Maui now has new meaning

  22-08-2018 20:46 via theprovince.com
  From the verdant slopes below dormant Haleakala (House of the Sun) volcano, to the lush Iao Valley with its mystical “needle” in the centre of the island, there’s a lot more than just spectacular shoreline on Maui.
  Upcountry on Hawaii’s second largest island you’ll find a commercial winery, a lavender farm producing culinary lavender, honey and bath products and the state’s only commercially-grown mokka (not mocha) coffee beans.
  Guests are greeted with freshly
  
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• Overdose deaths in B.C. rise in July

  22-08-2018 20:38 via globalnews.ca
  A total of 134 people died in July, a 25 per cent increase from June.
  
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• Five reasons to check out The Cultch's street party — and bring the kids

  22-08-2018 20:38 via vancouversun.com
  Brasstronaut, Peach Pyramid and Mark Mills
  When: Aug 26, 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
  Where: The Cultch
  Tickets: From $10, at thecultch.com
  1. It’s all-ages. According to organizer Meghan Robinson, “As friends grew older and started having kids I started hearing about how it was increasingly difficult to get out to see live music. So we started asking how we could present an uncompromised live music experience without any barriers for people who have kids at home.” The result: an all-ages str
  
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• Seven things to do in the Lower Mainland, Aug. 24-30: Jpegmafia, Durrah Alsaif: Jawahir Jewels, and more

  22-08-2018 20:37 via vancouversun.com
  Jpegmafia
  When: Aug. 29, 9 p.m.
  Where: Fortune Sound Club
  Tickets and info: $20.23, at ticketweb.ca
  Baltimore rapper and producer Jpegmafia (a.k.a. Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks) is a Jamaican-American who did a tour in Iraq with the U.S. air force, and that experience informs his fierce 2018 second album. Titled Veteran, the recording is a twitchy, glitchy, noisy and intense look at race and gender politics in the armed forces and society as a whole. With his MA in journalism put to use as it w
  
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• Classical music: Opera and Arias at Bard on the Beach marks end of summer

  22-08-2018 20:35 via vancouversun.com
  Operas and Arias: Bold and Beautiful
  Where: Bard on the Beach (Vanier Park)
  When: Aug. 27 & Sept. 3, 2. pm and 7:30 p.m.
  Tickets and info: From $24, bardonthebeach.orgIt’s been a remarkable summer but, as the back-to-school ads tell us, the end is in sight. For classical music fans nothing signals the end of our lazy (and, alas, increasingly hazy) summer than the annual Operas and Arias productions at Bard on the Beach.
  There is no complete show in 2018; rather, an evening of exce
  
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• Wine Guy: Summer refreshment, shandy vs. radler

  22-08-2018 20:00 via theprovince.com
  So, here we are; we’ve hit peak summer. However, this is not the cue to transition to back-to-school and the fall to come (that’s likely coming next week!).
  No, this is a call to embrace the summer that remains and to ensure that refreshment continues unabated. For there are camping trips still to take place, and there is a proliferation of beer-slash-fruit juice beverages waiting to take up cooler space. Leinenkugel’s Lemon Shandy, Wisconsin($2.59 for 473mL limited time o
  
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• TaiwanFest 2018 celebrates Aboriginal connections and ancestry

  22-08-2018 20:00 via vancouversun.com
  TaiwanFest Canada: Fete with the Philippines
  When: Sept. 1, 2, 11 a.m. — 10 p.m.; Sept. 3, 11 a.m. — 6 p.m.
  Where: Granville St. (W. Pender to Robson); Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza, The Annex at Orpheum
  Tickets and info: Taiwanfest.ca
  When TaiwanFest began its “dialogues with Asia” series in 2016 the five year plan was to focus on a different city or country’s connection to Taiwan each year.
  By digging deeper into the historic and cultural dimensions of these relatio
  
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• Side dishes: Drags Benny brunch to raise money for LGBT support

  22-08-2018 20:00 via vancouversun.com
  Everyone’s welcome and it’s gonna be fun, fun, fun. A pop-up brunch, started in Calgary, Drags Benny, comes to Vancouver on Sept. 1. It’ll be at Waterview, off False Creek, and headlined by New Yorker Yuhua Hamasaki, a star on the Emmy Award-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race earlier this year.
  “I am super, duper excited to be coming to Canada,” says Hamasaki. “I love being a part of events like this that support local LGBT communities and I love to eat. Let&rsq
  
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• Restaurant review: Upscale fast food comes with a view at Popina Canteen

  22-08-2018 20:00 via vancouversun.com
  Popina Canteen
  Where: Parking lot, west of Granville Island Public Market | 604-428-7518
  Open: Daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. popinacanteen.comWere Popina Canteen to live up to its name, it would be a scene. In ancient Rome, popinas were dens of iniquity with patrons behaving badly — drinking, eating, debauching — the whole darn mess. About 120 of these joints remain preserved for posterity in Pompeii should you care to visit.
  The Popina I speak of is on Granville Island, and the
  
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• No Home Land takes gig economy to its logical conclusion

  22-08-2018 20:00 via vancouversun.com
  Movin’ On Up
  When: Aug. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
  Where: CBC Studio 700 theatre
  Tickets: $7/$17/$27 at staircasetheatre.com
  In the dystopian Vancouver of No Home Land, people don’t get out much.
  “Everything has gotten so expensive that people live where they work,” says writer Sabrina Auclair.
  Her play, which premieres in a staged reading at this year’s Movin’ On Up showcase, is about three employees of a bagel restaurant who live in that restaurant, and their stru
  
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• Kasey Wilson: A menu to help say goodbye to summer

  22-08-2018 20:00 via vancouversun.com
  It’s always bittersweet to see summer coming to an end, but my consolation is the alfresco gathering my friends Bob and Chela host each August at their oceanfront cottage in Point Roberts, Washington, the 1,200-hectare U.S. community accessible only through Canada.
  Passports in hand, carloads of guests converge on the gorgeous spot for the party of the season. (Some of us leave early to pick up wine at half the price we would pay in Canada.)
  As Bob slowly barbecues whole salmon fillets on
  
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• Downed power line causing traffic delays on Highway 1 near Three Valley Gap

  22-08-2018 20:00 via globalnews.ca
  Police in Revelstoke, B.C., are searching for a semi-trailer truck that allegedly brought down a power line across Highway 1 on Tuesday.
  
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• Beauty Bar: Nest Cocoa Woods eau de parfum

  22-08-2018 20:00 via vancouversun.com
  What it is: An eau de parfum from the brand Nest that features “warm and spicy” notes.
  The fragrance, which is said to be inspired by the works of 18th Century British artist Mary Delany, hits high notes with key elements such as bittersweet cocoa, Sequoia wood, white sandalwood, Tiare blossom and Thai ginger.
  Boasting a heady mixture that’s best described as “warm and sweet gorumands,” according to brand materials, the luxurious fragrance is moody and &ld
  
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• Surrey councillor quits ruling party over issue of gun bans

  22-08-2018 19:52 via globalnews.ca
  Woods says a handgun ban would affect law-abiding gun owners.
  
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• Margaret Atwood woos and wows scientists at ornithological congress in Vancouver

  22-08-2018 19:40
  
  Noted author inspires hundreds of delegates, all while wearing an Angel Catbird superhero cape.
  
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• Commercial Real Estate: Metro Vancouver office vacancy rate nears record low

  22-08-2018 19:12 via vancouversun.com
  Metro Vancouver’s office market appears headed for a record-low vacancy rate, possibly dropping below figures not seen since 2007-2008, a new report says.
  Office vacancy has tightened to its lowest point since 2012 and is expected to approach the record-low vacancies of a decade ago within the next 18 months, according to Avison Young’s 2018 mid-year office market report.
  Overall vacancy for the region fell to 7.2 per cent at mid-year, down from 9.1 per cent a year earlier, and 10.4
  
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• Residents of Lower Post, B.C., told to take refuge in Yukon as wildfire rages

  22-08-2018 18:59 via globalnews.ca
  DriveBC, the B.C. government's online service for travellers, says nearby wildfires have closed Highway 97, the Alaska Highway, from the Yukon boundary to Coal River, southeast of Lower Post.
  
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• Cats killing birds: Margaret Atwood and Angel Catbird to the rescue

  22-08-2018 18:59
  
  "It’s natural that cats like to stalk things and jump on them but there’s no reason they can’t do that indoors," author says during Vancouver visit to ornithological congress
  
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• WestJet offers seat sale for B.C. travellers escaping wildfire smoke

  22-08-2018 18:28 via vancouversun.com
  WestJet is having a seat sale for those who want to get out of town because of the wildfire smoke.
  The company says it will take 25 per cent off flights between B.C. and anywhere in Canada, but only if travellers book before Thursday.
  The offer applies to all fare classes.
  Air Canada is also offering a 25 per cent discount, but only if passengers are seeking to leave Castlegar, Cranbrook, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Penticton, Prince George or Terrace because of the state of emergency. The disco
  
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• Richmond hip hop crew dances its way to bronze at world championships

  22-08-2018 18:26
  
  Freshh 2.0 will dance its final performance for the year at the Richmond World Festival on Sept. 1.
  
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