Police are appealing for witnesses after a shooting injured three people in Vancouver Saturday night, including a 15-year-old male bystander.

Vancouver police responded to a report of several shots fired in the area of East Broadway and Ontario Street. The three victims were immediately treated by paramedics.

The 15-year-old victim was seriously injured and taken to hospital. The Coquitlam teen was in a vehicle that was driving by at the time of the shooting.

According to police, evidence suggests the teenager was an innocent bystander and no one in the vehicle he was travelling in is of interest to the police at this time.

A Vancouver man in his early 20s was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. The man is known to police and investigators believe this man was targeted.

There is an indication that there was an exchange of gunfire between the targeted victim and the shooter, said VPD spokesperson Sgt. Jason Robillard.

The third victim, a Vancouver man in his 30s, sustained minor injuries. Police believe he was not targeted and he was treated at the scene and released.

Officers interviewed witnesses at a nearby restaurant on Broadway. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)

"This is bad and we are concerned about how brazen this was," said Robillard in a news conference.

"This is rare that these things happen...and we are going to work as hard as we have to to solve this."

No arrests have been made and the area around East Broadway and Ontario Street was blocked for several hours.

More than 30 VPD officers are investigating. They are still determining if the shooter was on vehicle or foot.

Investigators with the VPD's Major Crime Section are asking anyone who witnessed the shooting, or who may have dash-cam footage and was driving in the area between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday night, to call 604-717-2500.

With files from GP Mendoza and Bridgette Watson.</s>15-year-old bystander in serious condition after shooting in Vancouver</s>Police say a Vancouver man and a Coquitlam teenager are in hospital with serious injuries after an alleged shooting in Mount Pleasant Saturday night.

Vancouver police responded to reports of gunfire near East Broadway and Ontario street just after 9:15 p.m. Saturday, according to a release. Officers found three injured people and believe one out of the three was targeted in the attack.

Police believe the shooter or shooters – they have not said how many suspects there are – were targeting a Vancouver man in his early 20s. He suffered life-threatening injuries and is in hospital.

A Coquitlam teenager, 15, was seriously injured and was taken to hospital. Police say the teenager was in a vehicle that happened to be driving by during the shooting.

Another Vancouver man, in his 30s, had minor injuries and was treated at the scene.

The area around East Broadway and Ontario Street will remained blocked off for several more hours, Vancouver police said Sunday morning.

Police have not made any arrests in connection with this shooting and the investigation is ongoing.

Investigators appealing to anyone who may have witnessed this shooting or who may have dash-cam footage and driving in the area between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday night, to call (604) 717- 2500.</s>VANCOUVER — A targeted shooting on a major Vancouver street has left three people injured, including bystanders.

Vancouver police say several shots were fired in a busy commercial and residential area on Saturday evening.

Police say a man in his early 20s, who is believed to be the target of the attack, was taken to hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries.

A man in his 30s, who police say was not a target, suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene.

A 15-year-old from Coquitlam, B.C., who was driving through the area when shots were fired, was seriously injured and taken to hospital.

Police are asking witnesses or anyone with dash-cam footage of the scene to come forward as the investigation continues.</s>Police are investigating a shooting that injured three people in Vancouver Saturday night, including a 15-year-old male bystander.

Vancouver police responded to a report of several shots fired in the area of East Broadway and Ontario Street. The three victims were immediately treated by paramedics.

The 15-year-old victim was seriously injured and taken to hospital. The Coquitlam teen was in a vehicle that was driving by at the time of the shooting.

A Vancouver man in his early 20s was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Investigators believe this man was targeted.

The third victim, a Vancouver man in his 30s, sustained minor injuries. Police believe he was not targeted and he was treated at the scene and released.

No arrests have been made and the area around East Broadway and Ontario Street is expected to remain blocked for several more hours.

Investigators with the VPD's Major Crime Section are asking anyone who witnessed the shooting, or who may have dash-cam footage and was driving in the area between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday night, to call 604-717-2500.

More to come.</s>Police believe a man in his 20s was the target of the shooting

Three people have been sent to hospital following a shooting in Vancouver Saturday night.

In a news release, Vancouver Police said they responded to a reports of shots fired near East Broadway and Ontario Street shortly after 9 p.m.

A 15-year-old Coquitlam teenager driving by the area was sent to hospital with serious injuries.

Police believe that a man in his 20s, who received life-threatening injuries, was the target of the shooting.

Another man in his 30s was treated for minor injuries and then released.

No one has been arrested and the area is expected to remain blocked off for several hours.

Investigators are asking anyone who may have seen the shooting or have dash cam footage of the area between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday night to call 604-717-2500.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.</s>Environment Canada issued a fog advisory for Metro Vancouver early Sunday morning, warning of “near zero visibility.”

“The fog is forecast to become patchy late Sunday morning,” read the warning.

The advisory covered all of Metro Vancouver, extending to West and North Vancouver, southwest and east to Richmond, Delta, Surrey and Langley, and northeast to Coquitlam and Maple Ridge.

More to come.</s>China and Russia are denouncing an international summit on North Korea in Vancouver next week, saying the event co-hosted by Canada and the United States is “a relapse of the Cold War mentality.”

Washington and Ottawa have called the meeting to demonstrate international commitment to diplomatic solutions to the escalating threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Brian Hook, Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department, told reporters Thursday.

“The ministerial – the goal of the ministerial is to provide a practical mechanism – mechanisms to exert continued pressure on the Kim regime while demonstrating that diplomatic options remain open and viable,” Hood said.

The so-called Vancouver Group meeting on Jan. 16 will include the original states that sent troops to fight in the 1950-53 Korean War under the United Nations Command, as well as representatives from the Republic of Korea, Japan, India and Sweden.
• Canada, U.S. to co-host meeting on North Korea in Vancouver

But while countries like Ethiopia, Greece and Colombia are expected to be at the summit – they had each dispatched over 1,000 soldiers to fight under the UN banner in 1950 – neither China nor Russia, two of North Korea’s immediate and influential neighbours, will be in Vancouver when summit co-hosts Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson sit down with other foreign ministers.

“We know about the plans to hold a meeting of Korean War allies in Vancouver. We regard this as a relapse of the Cold War mentality that is unacceptable in light of the nascent dialogue between North Korea and South Korea,” Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova tweeted.

“We consider it impossible to support an event that may lead to the escalation of an already tense situation on the Korean Peninsula.”

Her comments echoed a statement by her Chinese counterpart.

“It will only create divisions within the international community and harm joint efforts to appropriately resolve the Korean peninsula nuclear issue,” spokesman Lu Kang was quoted as telling reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

U.S. and Canadian officials couldn’t offer a convincing explanation when asked about the motives for not inviting the two countries that have the most influence with Pyongyang and have a huge stake in a peaceful resolution of the crisis given that they both share a land border with North Korea.

“With respect to China and the Vancouver ministerial, we will give them a readout of this ministerial after it’s over, and we have been in discussions with the Chinese and the Russians leading up to this Vancouver ministerial,” Hook said. “This is based on sending states. China and Russia were not sending states.”

One of the reasons of not including Beijing and Moscow in the Vancouver summit probably has to do with the fact that the participants will likely focus on coming up with measures to tighten the screws on Pyongyang even further, including significantly tightening the maritime surveillance of the Hermit Kingdom’s imports.

“We continue to explore all options to enhance maritime security and the ability to interdict maritime traffic, those transporting goods to and from the DPRK that support the nuclear and missile program,” Hood said, referring to the North by its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“And we will be discussing with our partners and allies the kind of steps that we can take on maritime interdiction and also to be cutting – disrupting funding and disrupting resources. And maritime interdiction helps us to disrupt resources, and then the financial side helps us to disrupt the financing of their nuclear and missile program.”

While both Russia and China have supported the recent UN Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang, the two countries, particularly China, worry that instead of making Pyongyang more compliant, tightening of the sanctions could drive the North Koreans over the edge.

Both countries also want to limit U.S. and allied military presence in the region and the potential of having dozens of additional navy warships from various U.S.-allied nations trying to interdict North Korean vessels so close to the main Russian and Chinese ports in the Pacific is not an idea that either Moscow or Beijing cherish.</s>Looking for something to do in Metro Vancouver? Here are three suggestions for the weekend of Jan. 13 – 14.

Don’t get too excited. Lift Cannabis Expo is hardly 4/20 at Sunset Beach, so don’t attend expecting a big-time toke party (although there is a vape lounge). Rather, this cannabis career fair of sorts features nearly 200 exhibitors from across North America and Europe, as well as main stage talks by cannabis “thought leaders”, and cooking and growing demos. This is definitely an expo for people that call it “cannabis” rather than “pot”. But if that’s you, I recommend it, as it’s sure to be informative and interesting. Plus I’ll bet someone, somewhere, is giving out samples.

Where: Vancouver Convention Centre, 1055 Canada Place, Vancouver

 When: Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

 Cost: $20 for both days

An Evening With Greg Sestero: Vancouver Sneak Peek of Best F(r)iends, The Room

By now you’ve probably heard of The Room, the Tommy Wiseau-directed cult film that’s become a staple of the midnight indie cinema circuit at places like The Rio. This event will screen the so-bad-it’s-good film, as usual, but with a twist: Greg Sestero, who acts in the film and is the target of its infamous “Hi Mark” will be on hand to talk about the movie, and screen a brand-new Wiseau/Sestero film, Best F(r)iends.

Or if you want to see a good film, I can’t recommend The Big Heat highly enough. Directed by Austrian-German auteur Fritz Lang, this 1953 noir classic was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011. For good reason, too: it’s excellent, and like the best film noirs, still holds up over a century later. You get great performances from Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin, not to mention Marlon Brandon’s older sister Jocelyn Brando is in it. It’s an excellent picture, and a great way to spend what’s sure to be a rainy Sunday afternoon.

See more events around Vancouver on our weekly calendar.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.</s>A day after Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson announced he won't seek re-election in October, there are few answers to the inevitable question: Who will take on the city's top job?

"It's interesting for a job that pays $160,000 a year plus Metro Vancouver meeting fees and so on—it's interesting how there's a certain hesitation about taking it on.”

Coun. Andrea Reimer was among the favourites within Robertson's Vision Vancouver party, Bula said. Reimer, however, announced before Christmas she would not seek re-election as a councillor.

So far, only Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie, who rivalled Robertson for the nomination in 2008, has said that he is thinking about running for mayor, touting his "breadth of experience" in an interview with CTV News Thursday.

"My supporters have already been contacting me and asking whether or not I'd be willing to do it again," he said. "I'll have to spend some time to think about that, but I think what's most important is how I best might serve the residents of Vancouver."

Members of Vancouver's Non-Partisan Association, meanwhile, say Robertson's departure is the first step in a dramatic shift in the city's leadership.

"There's going to be a new mayor and a lot of new councillors and I think that will change the direction of the city," Coun. George Affleck said Wednesday.

"I'm confident that the NPA will win council and will win the mayor's chair. I think people are not only tired of Gregor, they're tired of Vision Vancouver and the obvious choice to me…is the NPA."

Bula said the NPA has an "interesting mixed bag" of potential candidates.

These include Business in Vancouver editor-in-chief Kirk LaPointe, who said in a tweet Wednesday that he will "continue to reflect on encouragement about my political future."

Other potential candidates within the NPA include Coun. Hector Bremner and former Conservative MP Wai Young.

Robertson announced his "bittersweet" decision to step away from municipal politics in a lengthy social media post Wednesday.

"Ten years is a long time in politics and an important part of leadership is to know when it's time to make space for new leaders and new voices, so I'm looking forward to seeing that happen," he told reporters later that day.

And while the mayor maintained the choice was strictly personal, Bula says it was likely politically motived as well, citing internal polling that suggested Vision Vancouver would be unlikely to hold its council majority after the election.

"I'm sure that there were people in the party who were saying things don't look good," she said.

"Mr. Robertson is somebody who likes to make a list and get everything on it done…The idea of being with a council that would be more like herding cats than being able to direct a battleship in a particular direction—that probably played into it, for sure."

Vancouver's next municipal election is set for Oct. 20.
Two people are killed and another is injured in a mass shooting in Vancouver, Canada.