'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.
China is limiting the torch relay for the Winter Olympics to only three days amid coronavirus worries, organizers said Friday.
The flame will be displayed only in enclosed venues that are deemed "safe and controllable," according to officials.
No public transit routes would be disturbed and normal life would continue for the 20 million residents of the capital, where a handful of new COVID-19 cases have been recorded over recent days.
Beijing's deputy sports director, Yang Haibin, said safety was the "top priority," with the pandemic, venue preparations and the possibility of forest fires in Beijing's cold, dry climate all factored in.
The relay will run from Feb. 2-4, taking in the three competition areas of downtown Beijing, the suburb of Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou in the neighbouring province of Hebei.
The Games have already been impacted on a scale similar to that experienced by Tokyo during last year's Summer Olympics.
China says only selected spectators will be allowed to attend the events, and Olympic athletes, officials, staff and journalists are required to stay within a bubble that keeps them from contact with the general public.
The opening of the Games comes just days after the start of the Lunar New Year holiday, China's biggest annual celebration when millions traditionally travel to their hometowns for family reunions. For the second year, the government has advised those living away from home to stay put, and train and plane travel has been curtailed.
Participants in the torch rally will undergo health screens and be carefully monitored, starting from two weeks before the event begins, said Xu Zhijun, deputy head of the organizing committee.
Beijing reported its first local omicron infection on Jan. 15, and 11 cases had been confirmed in the capital as of Thursday afternoon, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Outside of Beijing, several million people remain under lockdown as part of China's "zero-tolerance" approach to dealing with the pandemic that has been credited with preventing outbreaks on the scale of the U.S. and other countries.
Numbers of new cases have dropped substantially in recent days amid strict adherence to masking, travel restrictions and school closures, along with a vaccination rate that now tops 85%. Some medical experts worry a lack of exposure to the virus could harm the Chinese population's ability to deal with future waves of infection.
The scaled-down torch relay is a far cry from 2008, when Beijing sent the Olympic icon on a global journey ahead of its hosting of that year's Summer Games. The relay drew protesters against China's human rights violations and policies in Tibet, Xinjiang and elsewhere, leading to violent confrontations and the cancellation of some overseas stages.
The Winter Games have been beset by similar political controversies, alongside medical considerations.
Six weeks ago, the United States, Britain and several allies said they would not send dignitaries to attend the Games as a protest against human rights abuses by the Communist Party regime.
Athletes have been threatened by the organizing committee with "certain punishments" for saying or doing anything that would offend their Chinese hosts, while several delegations urged anyone headed to Beijing to take "burner" phones instead of their personal devices because of concerns their personal information could be compromised.
The National Hockey League cited uncertainty caused by the pandemic to hold back all of its players from the Olympic tournament.
And earlier this week, American broadcaster NBC said it won't be sending announcing teams to China, citing the same virus concerns raised when the network pulled most of its broadcasters from the Tokyo Games.
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.