B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The "partygate" scandal that threatens to derail U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's administration deepened Tuesday as police opened an investigation into gatherings at government offices that allegedly violated COVID-19 lockdown rules.
London's Metropolitan Police Service has launched an inquiry into "a number of events" at Johnson's Downing Street office and other government buildings because they met the force's criteria for investigating the "most serious and flagrant" breaches of coronavirus rules, Commissioner Cressida Dick told a committee of the London Assembly, the capital's local government council.
Johnson is facing calls to resign amid revelations that he or his staff attended a series of social events during periods of lockdown when most social gatherings were banned in England, forcing average citizens to miss weddings, funerals and birthdays as friends and relatives died alone in hospitals. The gatherings are already being investigated by a senior civil servant whose report has been anxiously awaited by lawmakers and the public.
"As a result, firstly, of the information provided by the Cabinet Office inquiry team and, secondly, my officers' own assessment, I can confirm that the Met is now investigating a number of events that took place at Downing Street and Whitehall in the last two years in relation to potential breaches of COVID-19 regulations," Dick told the committee.
Police have already assessed several other events and determined that they do not meet the threshold for further investigation, the commissioner said. She declined to provide specifics about the gatherings.
The announcement throws into doubt the timetable for when Sue Gray, the civil servant leading the Cabinet Office inquiry, will release her report. Gray had been expected to finish this week, but rules governing the investigation allow the inquiry to be paused if she turns over evidence of potential criminal offenses to the police.
The prime minister's spokesman, Max Blain, said the investigations team and the police were talking.
"That still needs to be worked through, both in relation to what may or may not be published and the ongoing work of both the police and the (Gray) investigation," he said.
Even before the police investigation was announced, Johnson was fighting off new allegations of rule breaking aimed directly at him.
ITV News reported late Monday that Johnson's then-fiancee threw a birthday party for him -- complete with cake -- inside his Downing Street offices on June 19, 2020, followed by another gathering for family and friends in his official residence.
The prime minister's office confirmed that the events took place, but denied that they violated lockdown regulations. The first was a brief gathering with colleagues who Johnson was already in close contact with and the second involved a small number of family members who met outside in a garden, in line with coronavirus rules.
Such careful parsing of the rules fuelled a debate in the House of Commons, where opposition lawmakers once again called on the prime minister to resign.
Martin Docherty-Hughes of the Scottish National Party argued that the latest gatherings were indeed parties by quoting the late celebrity chef Julia Child, who once said "a party without cake is just a meeting."
"Johnson's staffers supplied a cake," he said. "Ergo, it was a party."
But Paymaster General Michael Ellis, who represented the government, said cake did not a party make.
"If while at work someone eats cake for 10 minutes, I do not think that conclusions can be drawn from that," Ellis responded.
The fact that politicians are relying on such technicalities to justify for their actions is "farcical," said Catherine Haddon, an expert on the constitution at the Institute for Government in London.
"It's not just about sort of the technicalities of the law, whether there is a sufficient defence or not. It's about public perception because people were losing their loved ones at this time, you know, unable to to say goodbye to them in person," she told The Associated Press.
The police investigation is just the latest episode in the "partygate" scandal that has destabilized Johnson's conservative government for the past six weeks. Johnson initially denied that any rules had been broken, but he was forced to order an investigation after video emerged of a senior staff member making jokes about a wine-and-cheese party in the prime minister's press office.
Johnson later apologized for attending a party in the garden outside his Downing Street offices in May 2020, saying he initially thought it was a work gathering allowed by the rules but recognized on hindsight that it wasn't appropriate.
Police have previously faced criticism for suggesting they wouldn't investigate the Downing Street parties because officers don't routinely investigate historical breaches of coronavirus regulations, where the only penalty available is a fine. Fines of up to 10,000 pounds (US$13,490) were imposed for breaching lockdown rules.
But Dick said Tuesday that police were prepared to conduct retrospective investigations where there were "really flagrant breaches" of the rules. Before such investigations are carried out, she said, three criteria must be met: there is evidence that those involved knew or should have known they were breaking the law, not investigating would "significantly undermine" the law, and there seems to be no reasonable defence for the conduct.
"So in those cases, where those criteria were met, the guidelines suggested that we should potentially investigate further and end up giving people tickets," she said.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
The Canadian Transportation Agency has hit a record high of more than 71,000 complaints in a backlog. The quasi-judicial regulator and tribunal tasked with settling disputes between customers and the airlines says the backlog is growing because the number of incoming complaints keeps increasing.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Philadelphia 76ers All-Star centre Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis he says has affected him since before the play-in tournament.
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.