Section: Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
Here’s what John Kerry should have said about Israel
Earlier this month, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, which declared Israeli settlements on occupied lands illegal. The United States, which had the power to stop the resolution, abstained. Avi Benlolo shares his view of what Secretary of State John Kerry should have said afterward: On behalf of my administration and president, I...
Editorial: A few challenges lie ahead in 2017 – starting with Trump
Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours, and let every new year find you a better man.” We can’t think of better New Year’s advice for … Donald Trump. But since we’re Canadian, it’s best we focus on our own priorities for Confederation’s sesquicentennial year. Plus,...
Putin, Duterte, Assad, Xi, Erdogan: Why 2016 was the worst of years
There’s no getting around it. The year 2016 was a dirty, filthy year. A look back over the annus horribilis reveals a bleak and broken corpse-strewn terrain. There were rays of light, and there is a case to be made for optimism in the long run. We’ll come to that. But first, the hard part. Never in its 71-year history has the United...
Russia worried U.S. will supply Syrian rebels with shoulder-fired air defence missiles
Russia has voiced concerns the U.S. is planning to provide Syrian rebels with shoulder-fired missiles, warning that such equipment to shoot down aircraft could fall into the hands of jihadists. But the U.S. is denying that it has any plans to supply such weapons. “Our position on MANPADS (man-portable air-defense systems) has not changed,” U.S....
Today’s letters: Climate change, language training, Aleppo
Climate change is the least of Kiribati’s problems Re: Migration with Dignity, Dec. 17. I found the article on Kiribati interesting. However, permit me to add a few details in the spirit of helping understand these issues. First, most of Kiribati’s GDP is mainly government revenue from tuna fishing licences to Japanese and American...
Donald Trump’s cabinet of curiosities – straight from 1956
WASHINGTON – We skeptics have learned to appreciate the gifts of Donald Trump as showman, strategist, choreographer, master of events. Until now, though, we did not know him as craftsman. But here, as cabinet-maker, he has outdone himself. His cabinet is a ministry of luminaries. It is, as John F. Kennedy once hailed a gathering of Noble...
Even Canada should be careful about Russian hacking
Evidence is mounting that Russian hackers may have influenced the U.S. presidential election. The CIA has amassed evidence that these Russian-based hackers compromised databases at the Democratic and Republican National Committees, and also obtained and leaked emails between candidate Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager, John Podesta. These...
Milnes: Sixty years later, Diefenbaker has lessons for both Tories and Liberals today
In Ottawa 60 years ago Wednesday, an unlikely hero took to the stage at the city’s Coliseum. He was 61, a loner and a man more familiar with Prairie farmlands than banking towers and hours. Canada’s Tory establishment feared and loathed him but that didn’t matter on Dec. 14, 1956 because the day belonged to John Diefenbaker. “I...
Marijuana laws, MyDemocracy.ca on the pre-holiday Hill agenda
After weeks of increasingly frantic speculation – as well as accusations of strategic leaks – the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation is set to unveil its much-anticipated report. According to the notice, Task Force chair and former Liberal public safety minister Anne McLellan and her vice-chair, Dr. Mark Ware, will take questions...
Liberals have a weakness for dictators. Why?
Though it has proven to be impossible to shame someone with no shame, Donald Trump has been chastised so widely for his admiration of Vladimir Putin that his political brand, not merely his political history, will be defined partly by a sympathy for authoritarians – even, remarkably, authoritarians who don’t happen to be himself. He will...
