British Columbia news stories on Newser

Hang-Gliding Pilot Eats Evidence After Fatal Accident

Rob Quinn — Thu, 03 May 2012 02:41:17 CDT

Police probing a tragic hang-gliding death in Canada say the pilot involved swallowed key evidence after his passenger's death. William Orders, owner-operator of a hang-gliding company in Vancouver, was on a tandem flight with a 27-year-old woman when she became detached and fell a thousand feet to her death. Her...

Tsunami 'Ghost Ship' Spotted Off Coast

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:47:40 CDT

Canadian air patrol has spotted an empty Japanese squid-fishing boat drifting across the Pacific and heading for land. Beat-up and likely worthless, the 150-foot ship is part of 20 million tons of tsunami debris floating toward US and Canadian shores—so Canadian authorities may just leave it alone, the Vancouver...

Accused LA Arsonist Eyed in Vancouver Fires

Rob Quinn — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:50:53 CST

Cops in Vancouver are wondering whether accused Los Angeles firebug Harry Burkhart hates Canadians as much as he hates Americans . Burkhart and his mother lived in the city before moving to LA, and Canadian police now suspect him of involvement in at least a dozen unsolved property arsons in Vancouver,...

Man Drives With Dead Wife for 225 Miles

Neal Colgrass — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:38:44 CST

In a sad story from Oregon, a 71-year-old man had his wife die in the car beside him as they were driving home to Canada. Unsure what to do, he drove for 225 miles until he was close to the Canadian border, then got out and made a phone call...

9th Foot Washes Up in BC

Rob Quinn — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:22:18 CST

Another foot missing its owner has washed ashore in southwestern British Columbia—the ninth such grim discovery in the last four years. Unlike the others, this one, found by a group of teens, was in freshwater and was in a hiking boot, not a running shoe, CBC reports. Investigators believe...

Boy Scouts Refused to Report Serial Rapist

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:29:00 CDT

Boy Scout officials in Southern California failed to report a child-molesting Scout leader who went on to rape children in Canada, the Los Angeles Times reports. Former Scout leader Rick Turley starting molesting Scouts in British Columbia in the 1970s. He even kidnapped one, served time, and re-enlisted as a...

6.4 Quake Hits Off Vancouver

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:00:26 CDT

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck today off the coast of British Colombia, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck at 12:41pm PDT about 173 miles west of Vancouver. No immediate reports have damage have surfaced. "It's been felt pretty widely—we have reports of it being felt in...

'Dozens' of Women Vanish From Canadian Wilderness

Mark Russell — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 06:48:08 CDT

So many women have disappeared along the 837-mile stretch of Highway 16 that cuts through the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia that people have started calling it "The Highway of Tears," reports the Daily Beast . The latest victim, 20-year-old Madison Scott, disappeared in May from a popular camping spot on...

Threatened Spirit Bear's Best Hope: Photographers

Rob Quinn — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:32:00 CDT

Never heard of "Canada's panda?" Naturalists fighting to preserve the very rare bear's rainforest habitat in British Columbia want that to change. Only about 500 of the bears—a subspecies of black bear that has white fur—exist, and activists fear that a proposed pipeline through the Great Bear rainforest...