Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A culture of alleged corruption among international weightlifting officials was detailed Thursday in an investigative report of covered-up doping cases for athletes who won Olympic and world championship medals.
Three of the sport's longtime leaders - former International Weightlifting Federation president Tamas Ajan, vice president Nicolae Vlad and executive board member Hasan Akkus - were charged with a range of complicity and tampering offenses under the World Anti-Doping Code.
Alleged misconduct for a decade up to 2019, including 146 unresolved doping cases, was laid out in a 50-page document. The investigation was run by the International Testing Agency, which manages anti-doping programs for Olympic sports.
Reasons for the failures to prosecute some doping cases ranged from “chaotic organizational processes” and errors to “outright negligence, complicity, or - at worst - blatant and intentional cover-ups,” ITA investigators wrote. A total of 29 cases cannot be prosecuted due to destroyed evidence or expiring statute of limitations.
Ajan and Vlad were implicated in allowing a woman from Vlad's home country, Romania, whom they knew was implicated in doping offenses, to compete and win a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. The lifter, Roxana Cocos, was stripped of her medal years later when retests revealed her steroid use.
The ITA has proposed lifetime bans for Ajan and Vlad, while Akkus has been offered a four-year ban. If they don't accept the bans, the ITA will prosecute the charges at the Court of Arbitration for Sport's anti-doping tribunal.
Vlad was a gold medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and longtime ally of Ajan at the IWF.
Ajan was ousted after 20 years as IWF president in the fallout of the allegations first aired by German broadcaster ARD in January 2020.
The ITA report gave “significant credit” to the German program for its “robust investigative journalism.”
The documentary “The Lord of the Lifters” alleged financial and anti-doping misconduct and led to an initial IWF-appointed investigation last year by Richard McLaren, the Canadian law professor who uncovered much of the Russian state doping scandal.
Now 82, Ajan also resigned his honorary membership of the International Olympic Committee last year. He had been a full member for 10 years until 2010 and took part in choosing Olympic host cities, including Beijing, Sochi and Rio de Janeiro.
Vlad continues to be an IWF vice president and an influential figure as the governing body prepares to elect Ajan's successor. Akkus heads weightlifting's European governing body.
Weightlifting's place at the 2024 Paris Olympics is at risk with the IOC warning it wants to see reforms and the sport cleaned up.
IWF interim president Michael Irani said in a statement that the investigation showed “just how dark the dark days of our sport were.”
“To all those athletes who were cheated of the opportunity to compete fairly, I would like to offer the IWF's unreserved apology,” said Irani, who previously served on Ajan's executive board.
The ITA investigation also detailed how weightlifting officials evaded World Anti-Doping Agency scrutiny over several years.
Under Ajan, the IWF decided it “could simply ignore WADA's repeated requests to be provided with doping sanction information in a timely and accurate manner.”
WADA said Thursday it had in the past “limited powers to act against international federations that engaged in the sort of behavior that is alleged.”
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
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.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.