B.C. begins voting without Conservatives' costed platform, Doerkson calls it imminent
British Columbians have started voting without the release of a costed platform from the B.C. Conservatives, whose leader says it will be announced "imminently."
Interim leader Lorne Doerkson says he has seen the platform but wants to make sure they're aren't going to promise anything the party "can't make happen."
He said earlier this week that British Columbians would see a "fulsome plan" from the party before voters go to the polls, although advance polls are open today through to next Wednesday before election day on Oct. 24.
The provincial New Democrats and Green Party both released their costed platforms earlier this week.
Doerkson, who was at a campaign stop in Port Moody, reiterated his party's plans to build a women's and children's hospital in Surrey, along with scrapping the Massey Tunnel replacement in favour of a bridge and cutting income taxes by up to $1,000 a year "for nearly every working British Columbian."
NDP Leader David Eby says the lack of a costed platform on an estimated $5 billion worth of promises shows the Conservatives don't want to share their plans for cuts.
"He is going to pay for it the same way that Conservative parties in B.C. have always paid for these promises, by cutting the services that you and your family depend on," Eby said Friday during a campaign stop in Coquitlam, B.C.
Doerkson said he wants to avoid what Eby's New Democrats did by breaking promises such as a doctor for every resident who wants one and giving people a $1,000 rebate.
"None of those things happened, and our deficit is now $14 billion," he said in explaining the delay for putting together a costed platform.
"We're working on it, but I want it to be right. I want the numbers to be right and I want to know with an absolute clear conscience that the things that we are promising British Columbians in that platform, we will be able to achieve."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Two Montreal police officers suspended over new allegations of misconduct
Montreal police say they have suspended two officers from a station downtown and opened a misconduct investigation.
However, police said they could not provide further details due to their legal responsibilities to protect personal information about their employees and to avoid compromising the professional standards unit's ongoing investigation.
Police say they take the allegations seriously.
According to a report by the daily newspaper La Presse, one of the officers allegedly urinated on an unhoused person while on duty.
The newspaper, which said it relied on several police sources, reported that fellow officers denounced their colleague.
The other suspended officer allegedly posed for photos in which he appears to mock a suspect placed in a humiliating position during an arrest.
The Canadian Press has not independently verified the allegations.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada reacted to the allegations online, saying that the alleged acts are "very serious" and "violate the dignity to which everyone is entitled."
She also commended the officers who came forward.
In a statement, the police brotherhood described the allegations as "shocking" but did not comment further.
These allegations have surfaced hours before the “homeless night,” march in Montreal. The annual event is aimed at raising public awareness about the reality of homelessness.
The suspensions also come at a time when Montreal police and the city are trying to rebuild trust with the public.
In June, police dismantled a 16-member patrol unit at another station in a multicultural neighbourhood of Montreal due to separate allegations of racism and misconduct.
Four officers from the police's Station 39 in the Montréal-Nord borough have been suspended and Crown prosecutors are reviewing the evidence to determine whether to pursue criminal charges.
Police have confirmed they reviewed a number of allegations of misconduct, including allegations that some officers kept locks of hair from racialized people as trophies.
In internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press in September, police described a "radicalization" among some of its officers as the force attempts to change its culture of impunity.
Alain Babineau, a former RCMP officer now working with a civil-rights group, said he was not surprised to read about the new allegations against the officers working downtown.
"We all knew Station 39 was not an anomaly," Babineau said over the phone, referring to the allegations out of Montréal-Nord. "How do you rebuild trust when your officers are rogue?"
Babineau's group, the Red Coalition, is calling for a public inquiry into Montreal police misconduct.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Vancouver officer tells Myles Gray hearing of 'unnerving' call for help
A Vancouver police officer has told a public hearing into the fatal arrest in 2015 of Myles Gray about an "unnerving" call for assistance from a colleague who had encountered the man.
Const. Beau Spencer says he knew Const. Hardeep Sahota and her tone of voice on the radio call raised immediate concern, while an "animalistic roar" he later heard as he and his partner headed to the scene was like nothing he had ever heard on a police radio.
Spencer is among seven Vancouver officers facing a public hearing set off by B.C.'s Police Complaint Commissioner into whether they committed misconduct during the confrontation.
He says in his second day of testimony that he and his partner were "quite anxious" to get to the scene, as radio calls from there "continued to escalate."
He says another call came in when three officers were on the scene, and it did not sound like the person they were dealing with was "under control" and this was "very concerning."
No charges have been laid over Gray's death, which a 2023 coroner's inquest ruled was a homicide, a term that does not assign legal blame.
The commissioner's notice of public hearing said an earlier disciplinary process had dismissed misconduct allegations, but the discipline authority found the process "strangely lopsided" and had to decide the case despite "discrepancies and inconsistencies in statements made by (Vancouver Police Department) members."
The earlier inquest heard Gray was left with injuries that included a fractured eye socket, crushed voice box and ruptured testicles, while a paramedic said Gray's bruising was so severe, he initially thought Gray was not a white man.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Ces navettes t'emmènent dans des parcs au Québec et il y a même des trajets gratuits
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Navette Nature
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Adresse : Gare d'autocars de Berri-UQAM, Montréal, QC
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