I feel like I know you, but the bombing of flight PS752 has robbed us of the chance of real friendship
I truly wish I had never met you, not this way. It has been rough. You can’t know this, but the first mental image I have of you is this: your two hands, clenched in fists – out of fear perhaps? Your hands, Elnaz, your wedding ring. You were not there when your husband, Javad,…
No one believes the decision to cancel two prominent women from speaking was a simple misunderstanding
Canada has experienced some strange episodes of late when it comes to free speech. Two recent decisions on the education front are real doozies, however. The Toronto District School Board cancelled two book club events involving prominent, well-respected female leaders from ethnic backgrounds. Why? For fear and concern (completely unfounded, mind you) that these talks…
NATO largely ignored the ethnic, cultural, religious and other aspects of how Afghans live
The hasty, defeatist and craven withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan in August has compelled the “civilized” Western nations and their leaders to confront the failures and errors of the past 20 years, which resemble those of earlier conflicts. The initial supposed conquest of Afghanistan relegated the remnants of the Taliban zealots to…
The victims’ families deserve justice, and the people of both Canada and Iran deserve the truth
On January 8, 2020, the Islamic Republic of Iran shot down Ukrainian flight PS752, causing the death of 176 people, including 138 Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and others with close ties to Canada. While Tehran called the downing a mistake, a recent report from the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims identifies several key…
Pakistan is one of the most anti-American countries and, by extension, anti-West
The United Nations was born out of an idea for creating a society of nations, a global community, a brotherhood of nations built on a set of higher ideals. These ideals would give rise to a global village with accountability to each other, including social responsibility for the collective good and sanctions for those who…
Is Biden getting ready to cave in to Iran to help rein in oil prices?
Diplomatic pressure is mounting as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies in OPEC+ prepare to decide their next crude oil output move. Global leaders are assembling in Glasgow for the COP26 climate summit this week with considerable unease over increasing gasoline prices. The leaders seem intent on discussing ways to rein in the…
Joe Biden rivals his predecessor, Donald Trump, in the peddling of lies and false promises
During the final week of Canada’s modest evacuation flight effort, Canadian visa holders outside Kabul International Airport took their chances to fight through the crowds and make it to one of the ever-changing gates that occasionally would open and admit tiny fractions of the throngs of people desperately trying to get on an evacuation flight.…
Will Canada’s leaders put election campaigning on hold just long enough to deal with this humanitarian crisis?
Afghanistan’s religious minorities are facing nothing less than a genocide but the Canadian government has yet to make a firm commitment to protect some of the most vulnerable among them, say Canadian human rights activists. Hazaras and Christians – two of these minorities – have been cornered into a desperate situation ever since the fall…
To do anything less would be to our eternal shame
In traditional Afghan tribal culture, there is a concept called Nanawatai that roughly translates to sanctuary or asylum. Under that concept, if a person in need invokes Nanawatai, the other party must come to their aid. The western project to recreate Afghanistan as a representative and socially liberal state (at least within the standards of…
Biden’s claim that the invasion’s original “objective” was achieved is ignorant at best, misleading at worst
Very few people have given a damn about Afghanistan for the last several years. It doesn’t impact their lives. It’s “over there.” The troop count has been low, Western casualties have been effectively nil, and the country’s situation has rarely punctuated the mainstream headlines. I’ve been guilty of the same apathy, especially during COVID. Yet,…