Section: Montreal Gazette (Canada)
Opinion: Access to education is essential for children around the world
Education advocates and government ministers met this past week at the World Education Forum in South Korea to advance efforts to make a quality education accessible to all children. The World Bank pledged $2.5 billion to this end, and Canada is also doing its part. Last month, the federal government announced it would double its contribution to...
Opinion: Victory Day in Russia gets personal
This year’s Victory Day demonstration in St. Petersburg was a far cry from what I remember from my childhood, when we were obliged to march twice a year, portraits of the Politburo members in hand, in ostensible support for the regime. This time it was different. Hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, marched along majestic Nevsky...
Opinion: All too often, journalists pay for press freedom with their lives
My father stashed his war memorabilia in a wooden box a long time ago. After his death, my mother gave the box to me. It remained unopened until I planned a trip to Normandy. The Normandy beaches are a three-hour train ride from the Gare du Nord in Paris. Memorials to war and war heroes are scattered throughout the 100-kilometre stretch, most of...
French sporting world mourns top athletes who died in helicopter crash in Argentina
PARIS Olympic gold medallist Camille Muffat had retired from swimming to focus on her personal life, boxer Alexis Vastine had some unfinished business after two disappointing Olympics, and the beloved sailor Florence Arthaud was a pioneer for women in her sport. The three athletes were among 10 people who died as two helicopters filming a...
Opinion: Canada should renew its commitment to fighting tuberculosis around the world
The world was unprepared for the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa even though red flags were raised months in advance. Thousands of families, communities and individuals were needlessly ravaged by this epidemic. Let us not make the same mistake by ignoring another disease that has killed more people than any other infectious disease in human...
Opinion: Canada’s complacency towards Saudi Arabia should stop at Raif Badawi
While Saudi dignitaries marched with a million people in Paris defending freedom of speech, Raif Badawi endured the first 50 of 1,000 lashes for daring to promote freedom of thought and religious tolerance in the repressive kingdom. Canada’s tepid denunciation, coming on the heels of a sustained campaign to free Badawi, didn’t...
AirAsia jet lost in stormy weather over Indonesia with 162 aboard
JAKARTA, Indonesia A massive sea search was underway for an AirAsia plane that disappeared Sunday while flying from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board through airspace possibly thick with dense storm clouds, strong winds and lightning, officials said. More than 12 hours later, shocked family members huddled at the Surabaya airport...
Opinion: Saudis benefit from keeping price of oil low – for now
How does a manufacturer beat down his competitors? Flood the market with goods and sell them at a low price, hoping to drive competitors into the ground. That, in essence, is what Saudi Arabia is doing with its recent tactics with its oil. In the last few weeks, the Saudis refused to agree to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries...
Canadian Parliament was ‘defiled’ by last month s attack, says French president
OTTAWA — Canada’s Parliament was “defiled” last month when a gunman killed a soldier at the National War Memorial and stormed the Centre Block, says French President Francois Hollande. But he suggested the air campaign in Iraq and Syria to degrade the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, won’t be enough. “It won’t be...
