The award of a weapons contract to one of the world’s largest arms makers has emboldened two Canadians charged by the federal government for refusing to complete the 2006 census.

The United Native Nations has dropped out of a human-rights complaint filed in July against the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and Project Civil City commissioner Geoff Plant.

The Coast Mountain Bus Company recorded fewer passenger pass-ups between May 1, 2007, and July 8, 2008, compared with figures from the previous year, according to an executive of the TransLink subsidiary.

On the 67th day of the Native women’s cross-country trek that started in Vancouver on June 21, organizer Gladys Radek told the Straight that more than 5,000 people have signed a petition calling for a public inquiry into Canada’s missing women.

A 15-year-old, city-owned child-care centre will finally open its doors next year—if Vancouver’s social-development department can find an operator willing to take it on. The centre—located in the CityGate complex near the Main Street SkyTrain station—has 24 planned spaces for infants and toddlers. It was built in 1993, and has sat empty ever since.

B.C. Transit has started clearing a forested wetland in Whistler in order to build a depot and fuelling station for hydrogen fuel cell–powered buses, much to the dismay of environmentally minded residents of the resort municipality.

Robin Long, a U.S. army deserter who was deported from B.C. earlier this summer, has been sentenced to 15 months in a military prison. He will also be dishonourably discharged.

Word on the street—and in various media reports—is that the RCMP paid money to secure the return of last two missing Bill Reid pieces, a gold eagle brooch and a carved argilite pipe, that were swiped from the Museum of Anthropology in an overnight heist on May 24.

Human-rights activist Mati Bernabei is more than a little worried about what could happen in Chinese-occupied Tibet once the Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted by Beijing are over.

The provincial government’s claim that the Port Mann Bridge–Highway 1 corridor is congested for more than half the day—a major justification for the Gateway highway-expansion program—is way over the top, according to one Surrey resident.

The president of a new civic party in New Westminster may pull off what second-term Mayor Wayne Wright accomplished two previous municipal elections ago: unseating an incumbent.

Former New Westminster city councillor Casey Cook, who lost the 2005 mayoral race, will not be seeking a fifth term on council.

The federal Conservative government didn’t consult the film and arts communities before it decided to slash funding for various cultural programs, according to a Vancouver-based executive of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association.

The SFU Pipe Band has won the world championship for the fifth time.

B.C. premier Gordon Campbell’s deputy minister, Jessica McDonald, made news lately for receiving the heftiest pay raise when the province announced salary increases for top bureaucrats. Retroactive to August 1, McDonald’s annual pay will increase by almost $105,000, bringing her pay from $243,936 to $348,600.