More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
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.
Last week, British lawmaker Christian Wakeford opened his office door in the market town of Radcliffe to a passer-by who wanted to talk about the area's regeneration.
A day later, Wakeford said, he would not have let the man straight into his office.
What had changed was that a day after Wakeford's conversation with the man, his fellow Conservative Party lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death at a church in southern England as he was meeting local people.
The killing, five years after opposition Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death by a Nazi-obsessed loner as she arrived to meet voters, once again raised questions about the safety of British members of parliament (MPs).
On Wednesday, interior minister Priti Patel announced that following an independent review by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, the threat level to MPs was now deemed to be substantial.
That announcement came as no surprise for Wakeford, 36, who has received one death threat and seen his office vandalized twice since he was first elected in 2019 to represent the district of Bury South in northern England.
"But Friday and Saturday were the first times I really questioned my safety. I think it was just 'what does it all mean? What are we doing? Are we actually safe?' There are a lot of questions that still aren't being answered," he said in a telephone interview.
MPs regularly hold one-to-one "surgeries," similar to a patient's consultation with a doctor, at which they meet, listen to and advise members of the public who elected them.
They regard this traditional practice as the bedrock of British politics, a system unmatched in most other countries, where the public rarely get the opportunity to quiz public office holders.
But with little or no security and an emphasis on accessibility for all, surgeries can make lawmakers vulnerable.
"No one can understand the mentality behind doing anything like this but David was one of the nicest people you could think of," Wakeford said, as he described how shaken he had been by Amess's killing. "It was more that, if it could happen to him, it could literally happen to anyone."
Police are continuing to question a 25-year-old man of Somali heritage arrested at the scene of Amess's murder under counter-terrorism laws, saying the killing could be linked to Islamist extremism.
After the killing of Cox, a nationwide program aimed at giving lawmakers extra security for their homes and offices, known as Operation Bridger, was set up, though many of the measures became irrelevant as meetings went online after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since lockdown measures were lifted in July, many lawmakers have reverted to public appearances and made an extra effort to be seen in their voting districts, or constituencies. Many are mindful that their absence could hurt their electoral chances.
But Amess's murder has again put their safety into focus, with Patel saying MPs must take the change in risk seriously and access the security available to them. She said police had now contacted all MPs to discuss their security arrangements.
The risks create a dilemma for MPs. Wakeford said the police had been "very good in terms of reassurance in the last week" but he is unsure whether he wants security guards at the various sites where he meets voters, fearing this might create barriers.
Some lawmakers have encouraged colleagues to hold only remote meetings. Others, including Labour's Stephen Timms, who was stabbed at his constituency surgery in 2010, suggested asking the police to review their appointment lists.
An overwhelming number believe the tone of political discourse, especially on social media sites where many are subjected to daily abuse, should change but MPs are divided over whether there should be a ban on social media anonymity.
A few have started to wonder out loud whether they should carry on, with Cox's sister and now Labour lawmaker Kim Leadbeater saying her partner had urged her to quit.
"So many MPs will be scared by this," she told the BBC after Amess was killed. "My partner came home and said, 'I don't want you to do it any more' because the next time that phone goes, it could be a different conversation."
But despite the risks involved, most would not countenance the idea of not meeting constituents face-to-face, saying it undermines the democracy they believe in.
"We must not give up on the accessibility of Members of Parliament," Timms told parliament. "If we do, the sponsors of those who attacked David and who attacked me will have succeeded. That must not happen."
(Editing by Gareth Jones)
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.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
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 Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
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.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
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.”