'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.
The British government has refused an order to hand over a sheaf of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's personal messages to the country's COVID-19 pandemic inquiry. It said Thursday it would try to challenge the order in court, setting up an extraordinary legal battle with an inquiry that Johnson himself set up.
The notebooks, diaries and WhatsApp messages between Johnson and other officials form key evidence that the head of the probe, retired judge Heather Hallett, wants to see. The government has handed over incomplete versions, saying it cut personal and private information that is "unambiguously irrelevant" to the investigation.
Hallett -- who has the power to summon evidence and question witnesses under oath -- wants to judge for herself, and set a deadline of 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) Thursday for the government to hand over the unredacted documents, covering a two-year period from early 2020.
Soon after the deadline passed, the government said it would seek to challenge the order in court.
"The Cabinet Office has today sought leave to bring a judicial review" of the decision, it said. "We do so with regret and with an assurance that we will continue to cooperate fully with the inquiry."
Just before the deadline expired, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his government would "comply, of course, with the law and cooperate with the inquiry."
"We are confident in our position but are carefully considering next steps," he said.
WhatsApp is a favored way for British politicians, officials and journalists to converse. The tone is often candid or casual, and potentially embarrassing. The government is worried about the precedent that disclosing Johnson's full, unredacted conversations might set.
Hallett, however, said "the entire contents of the specified documents are of potential relevance to the lines of investigation being pursued by the inquiry."
The issue has caused tension between Johnson and Sunak's administration, which claimed this week that it did not have the material Hallett wanted. Both are Conservatives, but Sunak has tried to distance himself from the chaos that engulfed the government during Johnson's scandal-plagued three-year term in office.
On Wednesday, Johnson's office said the former prime minister had given the government all the material and urged authorities to hand it to the inquiry.
The U.K. has recorded more than 200,000 deaths among people testing positive for COVID-19, one of the highest tolls in Europe, and the decisions of Johnson's government have been endlessly debated. Johnson agreed in late 2021 to hold an inquiry after pressure from bereaved families.
Hallett's inquiry is due to investigate the U.K.'s preparedness for a pandemic, how the government responded and whether the "level of loss was inevitable or whether things could have been done better."
Public hearings are scheduled to start June 13, and to last until 2026. U.K. public inquiries are often thorough, but rarely quick. An inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war and its aftermath began in 2009 and issued its 2.6-million word report in 2016.
Johnson is among the senior officials due to give evidence.
The inquiry has already landed Johnson in hot water. He was one of dozens of people fined last year for breaking his own government's pandemic lockdown rules in the so-called partygate scandal. Earlier this month, government-appointed lawyers helping Johnson prepare his submissions and testimony came across evidence of more potential breaches of COVID-19 restrictions. Civil servants reported the information to police, who say they are assessing the new evidence. Johnson denies wrongdoing.
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.