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With funding set to run out for a network of sanctuaries housing Afghans who worked alongside the Canadian military, families on Friday will be forced out of hiding and into the Taliban-controlled streets of Kabul.
In one cramped safe house visited by The Globe, 19 families – almost 100 people in all – are losing the only protection they have had since the Taliban seized control of the country in August.
Aman Lara, the non-governmental organization that’s operating safe houses in Kabul, has been supported by the Veterans Transition Network, another NGO that includes many former soldiers who served in Canada’s 10-year military mission in Afghanistan. Aman Lara has been providing refuge for some 1,700 Afghans who meet Canada’s resettlement criteria and do not have a place to stay.
Eleanor Taylor, a retired Canadian lieutenant-colonel and volunteer chief of staff at Aman Lara, said it costs $15,000 a day to keep the safe houses open – and donations are simply not keeping up.
Opinion: Afghan refugees are being unfairly blocked from coming to Canada
A pile of bricks and wooden beams are all that's left of Maqsood's family home. The 30-year-old former military interpreter, who shared the photo, has been living in a safe house with his wife and three young children since Aug. 12. He says his family home had been demolished last month by the Taliban to punish him and his family for his work with Canadian and other NATO forces.Supplied
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Military sexual-assault cases will be moved to civilian justice system, Defence Minister says
The investigation and prosecution of sexual-misconduct cases in the Canadian Armed Forces will be moved from the military justice system to the civilian system.
Defence Minister Anita Anand announced the decision Thursday, in a letter to former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour. Arbour is in the midst of a review of sexual misconduct and harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence.
Survivors and legal experts familiar with the Canadian military justice system’s handling of sexual assault have long called for such cases to be dealt with in the civilian system.
Explainer: Which of Canada’s top military officers are accused of sexual misconduct so far? A continuing list
Ottawa draws up Indo-Pacific strategy with focus on China aggression
Ottawa has enlisted former Canadian diplomat Jonathan Fried to head a special secretariat at Global Affairs responsible for designing a strategy that spans the entire Indo-Pacific region, which will include the challenge of dealing with an increasingly aggressive China.
The strategy, which is Ottawa’s first such effort, is being developed while memories of China’s arbitrary detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are still fresh. The two Canadians’ imprisonment was in response to the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the Vancouver airport.
In recent months, Fried, a former ambassador to the World Trade Organization and Japan, has been consulting business leaders, provinces, academics and China and Asia-Pacific experts on an all-encompassing plan. This not only addresses superpower China but focuses on diversifying trade with Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
Read more: On India and China’s fluid frontier, military tensions are high as global defence alliances shift
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
A win for Edward Rogers would be a setback for shareholder rights, experts say: B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick, who has spent her career focused on narrowly defined legal issues, is expected to rule Friday on a battle for control of Rogers that has sweeping implications for corporate governance. Experts in corporate governance said that if Edward Rogers – who unilaterally moved to replace five independent directors at the telecom giant last month – is successful, it would mark a setback for shareholder rights at Canadian public companies. But a loss, they said, would show that even companies controlled by families must respect the highest governance standards.
Air Canada CEO sets off firestorm in Quebec over language comments: Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau apologized and promised to learn French after facing a barrage of criticism from political leaders in Ottawa and Quebec for saying he’s managed to live in Montreal without speaking the language. The long-time airline executive said he did not intend to show disrespect for Quebeckers and francophones across Canada with those comments. The airline’s headquarters are in Montreal.
Konrad Yakabuski: Tone-deaf Air Canada CEO steps into a linguistic lion’s den
‘A nation in waiting’: Scottish nationalists use COP26 spotlight to amplify calls for independence: Glasgow’s turn in the global spotlight as host of the COP26 climate summit has been a gift for Scottish nationalists who’ve taken the opportunity to promote their cause to an international audience. When world leaders descended on the city earlier this week, the pro-independence Scottish National Party bought several full-page newspaper ads carrying a bold statement, “A nation in waiting welcomes the nations of the world.”
Read more: Biggest polluters missing from COP26 pledge to phase out coal
B.C. Premier John Horgan to undergo radiation therapy after cancer diagnosis: John Horgan said he will begin radiation treatment in the next couple of weeks after a biopsy showed that a growth in his throat was cancerous. In a statement Thursday, the B.C. Premier said his prognosis is good and he expects to make a full recovery.
Ontario pledges more nurses, long-term care beds and support for highways in economic update: The Ontario government says it plans to spend billions on hiring more nurses and personal support workers and adding more long-term care beds over the next few years, according to its fall economic statement. The update projects a lower-than-predicted deficit of $21.5-billion. A mini-budget of sorts, the statement said the government is committed to the planning and design of two highway projects opposed by environmentalists and opposition politicians: Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass. But the document doesn’t identify additional cash to build the projects, which would be years away from construction.
Listen to The Decibel: The reality of life in Canada for international students: Many international students are being drawn to Canada with an enticing promise: come here to study and find prosperity. It’s a promise that’s being heavily sold to young people in India’s Punjab province, where some Canadian postsecondary institutions aren’t just recruiting students but have become household names in villages on the other side of the world.
MORNING MARKETS
Markets await U.S. jobs data: A share rally that has lifted stocks to record levels in recent days lost momentum on Friday, weighed down by renewed uncertainty over China’s property sector and as markets paused for breath ahead of U.S. jobs data due later in the day. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.27 per cent. Germany’s DAX was flat. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.27 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.61 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.41 per cent. New York futures were muted. The Canadian dollar was trading at 80.20 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Canada has learned little on reconciliation
“Historically and cruelly shortchanging First Nations kids costs Canada more in the long run. This lesson Canada never learns.” - Tanya Talaga
The Canadian Dairy Commission has picked a terrible time to milk consumers
“Indifference to the real world is baked into Canadian supply management, a thoroughly opaque system of production quotas, price fixing and protectionist import tariffs that has produced some of the highest retail costs for dairy products in the world. It is a system that allows dairy farmers – along with chicken, egg and turkey producers, who also benefit from supply management – to thrive in a bubble, safe from the global economic palpitations that are being felt by everyone else.” - Globe editorial
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
How to say no to adult children who ask for money
It can sometimes feel impossible to say “no” to your kids, even when they’re all grown up. The “bank of mom and dad” has helped many millennials and Gen Z adults cover expenses at a time when the cost of rent and housing prices have skyrocketed and inflation has risen sharply. Helping adult children out is not an issue, unless it puts parents’ retirement and financial security at risk, says Julia Chung, a senior financial planner with Spring Planning in Vancouver.
MOMENT IN TIME: Nov. 5, 1995
Princess Diana reveals secrets to BBC interviewer
Diana, the Princess of Wales, speaks to reporter Martin Bashir in a pre-recorded interview for the BBC's current affairs program Panorama on Nov. 20, 1995.BBC-TV via REUTERS
It was a stealthy operation. On this day in 1995, Diana, Princess of Wales, dismissed her staff at Kensington Palace for the day and sneaked in a crew from the BBC documentary show Panorama. The undercover manoeuvres would blow up two weeks later, when the interview aired, and Diana revealed her misery to the world. Twenty-three million people watched as she talked about being misunderstood by the Royal Family, her eating disorders and mental-health struggles, her desire to be an ambassador for Britain, and the infidelities that had harmed her marriage – her own and her husband’s. “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” she famously said. She had resigned herself to not being Queen, but wanted to be “a queen of people’s hearts.” The interview caused an immediate uproar. A few months later, she and Prince Charles announced their intention to divorce, and fallout from the broadcast continues to this day. An investigation found the interviewer, Martin Bashir, had used fraudulent documents to secure an introduction to the Princess. And Diana’s sons have been outspoken in their condemnation, with Prince William saying the program “contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation.” Elizabeth Renzetti
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