'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
A group of Swiss retirees took their government to a top European court Wednesday over what they claim is its failure to take sufficient action on climate change.
Lawyers and members of the group Senior Women for Climate Protection appeared before the European Court of Human Rights for a rare public hearing that activists say could mark a legal milestone in efforts to force governments to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The group, which counts around 2,000 members across Switzerland with an average age of 73, argues that older women's rights are especially infringed on because they are most affected by the extreme heat that will become more frequent due to global warming, which current Swiss climate policy contributes to.
"It's been proved that we older women are particularly sensitive (to climate change)," said plaintiff Rosmarie Wydler-Waelti, 73, from Basel. "We get sick a little bit faster due to heat waves than older men or other groups."
After exhausting domestic legal avenues, the group has taken its case to the Strasbourg, France-based tribunal in the hope of winning a ruling that applies to all signatories of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"We are suing for our human right to life," said Lore Zablonier, a 78-year-old from Zurich who stood outside the court. "With this case, we want to help spur politicians into action a little bit."
Lawyers for the Swiss government said they want the court to dismiss the case.
"The plaintiffs are not sufficiently affected with the required intensity in their right to life for the application to be admissible," said Alain Chablais, who represented the Swiss government at the hearing.
"Switzerland is not alone (in being affected by global warming) and this problem cannot be solved by Switzerland alone," he told The Associated Press.
Georg Klingler, a climate campaigner with the environmental group Greenpeace that supports the case, said seeing the Swiss government having to defend its climate efforts before the court "is a very exciting moment."
Klingler noted that the complaint brought by the Swiss seniors is one of three related cases being heard by the court over the coming months and could set a legal precedent.
"Those three cases will define how this very important court will get involved in the biggest threat to human rights that we see nowadays," he said.
A verdict is expected next year.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.