The terrorist group isn't a spent force yet
Extremism thrives in chaos. Since the Arab Spring plunged Syria into civil war, the country has been consumed by factionalism. For example, the northwest of the country is controlled by the Syrian National Army (which includes an Al-Qaeda faction), and the northeast is controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Syria’s political landscape is…
Arts-based research project will help young Syrian women articulate the challenges they face – and the supports they’ve found
Jasmine Nathoo considered herself fortunate as she joined high-school classes after moving from Kenya to Canada as a teen. She already spoke English and came from an academically strong program. Yet it was still a challenge. “I had to repeat some courses which weren’t recognized. I was having to advocate for myself in the school…
Canada urged to rethink Middle East sanctions that make daily life a struggle just to get daily bread
“Economic sanctions that afflict the poor must be lifted. I stress the word ‘poor,’” Archimandrite (head of a monastery) Georges Masri said in an e-mail from his home base in Syria. He was responding to my request for his views on the unfolding humanitarian crisis in his country, and whether sanctions have exacerbated it. “The…
Canada is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Canada’s private refugee sponsorship regime. But alongside this record of welcome, some refugees are facing a closed door.
By Jamie Liew University of Ottawa and Shauna Labman University of Manitoba Canada is celebrating a milestone – the 40th anniversary of Canada’s private refugee sponsorship regime that has resettled 327,000 refugees. But alongside this record of welcome, some refugees are facing a closed door. Canadians most recently helped resettle thousands of Syrian refugees. Indeed,…
We must insist that immigrants don’t become a burden on the public purse, while finding a way to process them all expeditiously
Europe is tearing itself apart over immigration. There are just too many applicants for too few spots. Many of the people seeking to come to Europe are from war torn countries like Syria, or from failed states in Africa like Somalia and Libya. Some are genuine asylum seekers, who would be in great danger if…
Canada needs to speak up for peace and stability before the situation escalates into a wider conflict
The recent U.S. air strikes in Syria show that a grave risk of wider war, including nuclear war, is upon us. Canada's government, and indeed everyone, should do whatever possible to avoid such a calamity. The federal government should not support any military action in Syria. The recent armed attacks, although fortunately limited in scale,…
In Hillary Clinton’s mind, it’s everyone else’s fault. So she’ll continue to hog centre stage and suck up the political oxygen
Two topics jump out from the current news. One is the continuing Democratic Party angst over the 2016 U.S. election. The other is the recurrent propensity for independence movements to stir things up. On the Democratic front, Hillary Clinton’s promotion of her new book What Happened is Exhibit A. There’s nothing wrong with authors promoting…
While former KGB agent Vladimir Putin no longer reports to anyone, that doesn’t mean a demotion might not be in his future
Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in September 2015, with the deployment of a range of 65 bombers and fighters, 16 attack helicopters and roughly 4,000 personnel, including a contingent of Russian Special Forces. At the time, the Assad government was experiencing significant losses to the Syrian rebels and seemed on the verge of…
What’s troubling is the abrupt manner in which the Trump administration reversed policy on Syria. Assad’s barbarism is not exactly news
Lines are being drawn in the sand in Syria, but the sand keeps shifting. Former U.S. president Barack Obama's administration resolutely declared that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had to go. It said he was an obstacle to the peaceful resolution of the Syrian civil war and that his use of chemical weapons against civilians was a red…
The collapse of the Islamic State nation will have a profound effect on the organization but it will not eliminate its ongoing presence
The Islamic State (IS) is rapidly nearing collapse. But the end of IS is not nearly in sight. IS has lost control of eastern Mosul to a coalition of the Iraqi military and Kurdish, Shia and Sunni militias supported by the U.S. and its NATO allies. That same coalition, which has held together despite a…