John Baird looks at Mali and sees Afghanistan

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 3:36 PM - 0 Comments

The House of Commons foreign affairs committee met today to discuss Mali, where France is currently engaged in war against al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups who had taken control of the northern half of the country. Canada has loaned France the use of a transport plane.

Robert Fowler, the former Canadian and UN diplomat who spent 130 days as a hostage of these same Islamists in northern Mali in 2008 and 2009, testified to the committee.

Fowler argued that Canada should contribute more to the French-led mission, including military assets such as intelligence officers, air power and special forces. He said millions of people in northern Africa are in “significant peril” from the Islamist threat and that no Canadians — indeed no Westerners at all — are safe in large swaths of the Sahel where these Islamists hold sway.

There can be no negotiations with them, he said, because there is no middle ground between what they want and what we might be prepared to give. He recalled his captors bragging about the millions of dollars they had obtained through kidnapping and smuggling, and yet they dressed in rags. They didn’t care about material possessions, only jihad and entering paradise as a martyr in God’s war against the infidels. Economic development, in other words, isn’t going to convince them to put down their weapons. They don’t want jobs; they want to die. And they must be killed — “diminished” is how Fowler put it. Continue…

Bob Rae on Mali

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 1:44 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Petrou reviews Monday night’s debate on Mali, the highlight of which was apparently Bob Rae’s speech to the House.

MPs debate Mali; Bob Rae shows talons

By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 9:52 PM - 0 Comments

Monday night’s debate on Mali in the House of Commons began with Bob Dechert, the Conservative parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, describing the proceedings as evidence the government wants to engage Parliament regarding Canada’s response to the ongoing conflict in that country.

There is a tradition of Parliament debating when this country goes to war. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King famously delayed Canada’s entrance into the Second World War until Parliament could decide. The stakes were smaller this time. Canada’s military contribution to the Mali war  is limited to the loan of one transport plane to France, and that decision was made by the Prime Minister, without debate in the House.

Nevertheless, here was a chance for Parliament to discuss Canada’s role in a matter Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has called part of “the great struggle of our generation.” You might think, given that description, that Baird would have shown up. He didn’t. Neither did most MPs. Of party leaders, only outgoing Liberal chief Bob Rae and Elizabeth May of the Greens took part. Attendance peaked at fewer than 40 members, and dropped off as the evening wore on.

For much of the night, it was hard to blame those who stayed away. The discussion was hardly inspiring to watch. There were scripted remarks delivered woodenly from sheets of paper. Bob Dechert appeared to be reading talking points from his smart phone. Little substantial discussion took place about the actual war and what Canada’s involvement in it should or should not be.

Opposition parties spent an awful lot of time arguing that Canada has recklessly cut back aid to, and its diplomatic presence in, Africa. This might be worth further discussion, but meanwhile there’s a war on. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says French soldiers have killed “hundreds” of Islamists over the past month. Frozen CIDA funding isn’t the biggest problem Mali has right now. Continue…

Hollande goes to war

By Michael Petrou - Friday, February 1, 2013 at 12:42 PM - 0 Comments

Alexander Widding/Polaris

François Hollande probably never expected to be a wartime president. To be fair, until Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French Socialist Party’s presumed nominee for president, flamed out amid allegations of sexual assault in 2011, Hollande likely never expected he’d lead the country at all.

He is an “accidental” president, says John Gaffney, co-director of the Aston Centre for Europe at Aston University in Britain, one who triumphed over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy—whose pomposity made a nation sick of him after only one term in office—largely by virtue of the fact that he wasn’t Sarkozy.

Still, to the extent that Hollande seemed likely to do anything bold, launching a unilateral war would not have featured on many analysts’ predictions before this year. Hollande campaigned on a promise to end France’s combat role in Afghanistan a year earlier than scheduled, and did so. In October, during a visit to Senegal, he declared the end of the era of Françafrique, referring to France’s meddling in its former African colonies. Continue…

Canada increases aid to Mali by $13M after donor conference in Ethiopia

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 12:08 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Canada is providing $13 million in new humanitarian aid to help with food and health care for victims of the war in Mali.

International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino announced the additional contribution today after attending a global donor meeting in Ethiopia.

Canada’s additional funds appeared to be a separate contribution from the more than $450 million for the military campaign in Mali against Islamist extremists that was raised by donors at the Ethiopian conference.

Fantino said Canada’s new contribution will help improve food security, reduce malnutrition, address emergency health care and provide other humanitarian assistance.

The new funds will go towards food security, reducing malnutrition, emergency health care support, particularly for children, the minister said in a statement.

“Building on Canada’s significant investments over the past year, Canada will continue its life-saving work in Mali through humanitarian and development assistance,” he said.

“Canadian investments have contributed to improving the quality of life of the most vulnerable Malians affected by the crisis, but we remain deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation and its effects on the stability of the Sahel region.”

The aid will be distributed through non-governmental and United Nations agencies.

Canada is also contributing a C-17 heavy-lift transport plane to help move military equipment in support of French troops until Feb. 15, but government sources say they don’t expect any additional military assets to be committed.

Sources also say Canada’s special forces are on the ground in Mali to help protect Canadian personnel already operating in the troubled West African country.

Canadian special forces in Mali, but not in combat role, sources say

By The Canadian Press - Monday, January 28, 2013 at 11:17 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Canada’s special forces are on the ground in Mali to help protect Canadian personnel who are already operating in the troubled African country, say sources within the Department of National Defence.

Few other details were immediately available, although the Department of Foreign Affairs went to lengths to spell out that the presence of special forces soldiers does not signal an involvement in combat.

“We have been clear; there will be no mission in Mali,” Rick Roth, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, said in a statement.

“Steps have been taken to ensure our mission and Canadian personnel are protected. We cannot comment on security specifics.”

Canadian Forces crews have been piloting and supporting Canada’s C-17 heavy-lift transport as it moves military equipment in support of French troops.

That mission, which was originally only supposed to last a week, is now scheduled to continue until Feb. 15.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday that any further role for Canada would require consultation with parliamentarians.

“We are providing technical assistance to French and other military forces who are there. We have committed heavy-lift aircraft to that engagement, which is being done under a United Nations mandate,” Harper told the House of Commons in response to a question from NDP Leader Tom Mulcair.

“Of course, through this chamber and through committees, we will be consulting with parliamentarians on any further steps that need to be taken.”

There had been speculation that the government would provide a smaller, C-130J Hercules transport to carry African troops into Mali, where forces are fighting to retake the northern half of the country from al-Qaida-linked militants.

The French had asked Canada to take on that role, but a number of other nations, including the United States and Britain, have kicked in air transports.

Harper has repeatedly ruled out “direct” Canadian military involvement in the campaign, which began on Jan. 10 with the arrival of as many as 2,500 French troops to defend Bamako, the capital.

However, Harper has consulted opposition parties in order to build a political consensus about whether there should be further support and how that might play out.

Baird, meanwhile, has sought to reassure allies that Canada appreciates fully the danger posed by having a branch of al-Qaida occupying territory and training jihadists in North Africa.

The Harper government has been under pressure from the African Union — and, perhaps more importantly, from countries bordering Mali that are plagued by Islamic insurgencies of their own — to take more decisive military action.

Mali, once one of the most stable democracies in Africa, has spiralled out of control since a group of junior army officers staged a coup in March 2012. That prompted international condemnation and led the Harper government to suspend humanitarian programs.

Aid is flowing again, but it is directed through international agencies and non-governmental organizations.

The chaos that followed the coup allowed three different, loosely allied hard-line Islamic groups — all of them affiliated with al-Qaida — to seize the northern half of the country.

The interim government in Bamako had been negotiating with some of the rebels when talks broke down in December. That was followed quickly by the United Nations authorizing a 3,300-member African intervention force to oust the guerrillas.

Before the force could be assembled, the militants attacked, prompting the French to dispatch its own intervention force.

Canadian special forces offering protection in Mali; but there will be “no mission”

By The Canadian Press - Monday, January 28, 2013 at 7:34 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Canada’s special forces are on the ground in Mali to help protect Canadian personnel who are already operating in the troubled African country, say sources within the Department of National Defence.

Few other details were immediately available, although the Department of Foreign Affairs went to lengths to spell out that the presence of special forces soldiers does not signal an involvement in combat.

“We have been clear; there will be no mission in Mali,” a Foreign Affairs official said in a statement.

“Steps have been taken to ensure our mission and Canadian personnel are protected. We cannot comment on security specifics.”

Canadian Forces crews have been piloting and supporting Canada’s C-17 heavy-lift transport as it moves military equipment in support of French troops.

That mission, which was originally only supposed to last a week, is now scheduled to continue until Feb. 15.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday that any further role for Canada would require consultation with parliamentarians.

“We are providing technical assistance to French and other military forces who are there. We have committed heavy-lift aircraft to that engagement, which is being done under a United Nations mandate,” Harper told the House of Commons in response to a question from NDP Leader Tom Mulcair.

“Of course, through this chamber and through committees, we will be consulting with parliamentarians on any further steps that need to be taken.”

There had been speculation that the government would provide a smaller, C-130J Hercules transport to carry African troops into Mali, where forces are fighting to retake the northern half of the country from al Qaida-linked militants.

The French had asked Canada to take on that role, but a number of other nations, including the United States and Britain, have kicked in air transports.

Harper has repeatedly ruled out “direct” Canadian military involvement in the campaign, which began on Jan. 10 with the arrival of as many as 2,500 French troops to defend Bamako.

However, Harper has consulted opposition parties in order to build a political consensus about whether there should be further support and how that might play out.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, meanwhile, has sought to reassure allies that Canada appreciates fully the danger posed by having a branch of al-Qaida occupying territory and training jihadists in North Africa.

The Harper government has been under pressure from the African Union — and, perhaps more importantly, from countries bordering Mali that are plagued by Islamic insurgencies of their own — to take more decisive military action.

Mali, once one of the most stable democracies in Africa, has spiralled out of control since a group of junior army officers staged a coup in March 2012. That prompted international condemnation and led the Harper government to suspend humanitarian programs.

Aid is flowing again, but it is directed through international agencies and non-governmental organizations.

The chaos that followed the coup allowed three different, loosely allied hard-line Islamic groups — all of them affiliated with al-Qaida — to seize the northern half of the country.

The interim government in Bamako had been negotiating with some of the rebels when talks broke down in December. That was followed quickly by the United Nations authorizing a 3,300-member African intervention force to oust the guerrillas.

Before the force could be assembled, the militants attacked, prompting the French to dispatch its own intervention force.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird on Obama, pipelines and al-Qaeda in Mali

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, January 28, 2013 at 10:15 AM - 0 Comments

Photographs by Keegan Bursaw

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was in Washington this week to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama. As Americans gathered for the public ceremony and the black-tie galas, the minister attended the Canadian Embassy’s invitation-only inaugural “tailgate” party at its plum location on Pennsylvania Avenue, which featured Beavertails, Tim Hortons coffee and some of the best views in the U.S. capital.

Q: You’re here for the second inauguration of Barack Obama. Are you going to any balls?

A: No, I’m not. I’m not a ball guy.

Q: Can you imagine a million Canadians coming to Ottawa because a Prime Minister was taking the oath of office?

A: I was just telling someone that I remember when the Prime Minister was sworn in. I think we had cookies and coffee afterward. Then there was a dinner for the cabinet that evening, with the food prepared in the parliamentary restaurant. They certainly do things much grander here in the United States. The sense of national pride is exciting. One thing that is bittersweet for me is Hillary leaving. We had a great relationship. Continue…

Intervention means moving into Mali

By Michael Petrou - Friday, January 25, 2013 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty

Robert Fowler got to know the Islamists now battling French and Malian troops in northern Mali pretty well during the 130 days he spent as their hostage in 2008 and 2009. Then the UN secretary general’s special envoy for Niger, he and fellow Canadian diplomat Louis Guay were kidnapped by al-Qaeda’s African franchise and lived with them in desert camps until they were freed.

Fowler describes men more single-minded than any he had previously encountered. Their devotion to Islam was constant, as were their attempts to convert them. They showed no interest in the usual concerns of young men: music, sports, fashion, sex. “The mujahedeen seemed perfectly content to talk and chant about Allah and their servitude to Him endlessly,” writes Fowler in a memoir. Life on Earth was a blink of the eye, and death was nothing when you would live in paradise forever. They hoped to die soon in the service of jihad, or holy war. Around the campfire, young recruits listened with wide-eyed wonder to stories of battles against Algerian soldiers that left a battlefield strewn with their apostate enemies’ blackened limbs—proof, if it was needed, that God was on their side. And yet for all their spiritual obsessions, Fowler’s al-Qaeda captors had practical strategies about how Islam’s victory in this world might be achieved. Continue…

Canadian military transport to support French Mali mission for up to 30 days

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 2:49 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – The Harper government’s commitment of a giant Canadian air force transport to support of the French military action in Mali has gone from one week to one month.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird will issue a statement later today saying the C-17 Globemaster will continue to ferry war materials and vehicles between France and the Malian capital of Bamako until Feb. 15.

Defence sources say no other aircraft or military support has been earmarked for the campaign.

There had been speculation that the government would provide a C-130J Hercules transport to carry African troops into Mali, where forces are fighting to retake the northern half of the country from al Qaida-linked militants.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has ruled out “direct” Canadian military involvement in the campaign, which began on Jan. 10 with the arrival of as many as 2,500 French troops to defend Bamako.

However, he has sought out opposition parties in order to build a political consensus in Canada about whether there should be further support, and how that might play out.

Canada began looking at Mali military involvement as early as last spring

By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press - Monday, January 21, 2013 at 6:03 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Canada’s soldiers and diplomats began paving the way for possible military involvement in Mali last spring, shortly after al-Qaida-backed rebels seized control of the country’s north, newly released documents show.

The documents indicate Canada began laying down lines of communication with the French and Americans over the crisis in the African country as early as March of last year.

But the spade work has not yet amounted to much with the Conservative government, which only a few years ago had been eager to strut its military stuff on the world stage.

A one-week commitment of a single C-17 heavy-lift transport — intended to assist in relocating French military equipment — will likely be extended later this week. But as fighting escalates in remote desert Malian communities, the Harper government’s aversion to getting more deeply involved is almost palpable.

It is a curious turn of events for a government well known for wanting to be seen as leading from the front — throughout the war in Afghanistan, during the Libya bombing campaign, and even in counter-piracy operations off Somalia.

Last spring, Mali’s ambassador in Bamako requested additional military officers be dispatched to the capital “in order to increase the level of liaison with U.S. and French military forces in Mali,” said an April 5, 2012 briefing for Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

The additional help “was considered necessary in order to conduct additional liaison” as well as to provide advice on potential evacuation plans for Canadian citizens, said the note, obtained by The Canadian Press, and separately by a Queens University researcher, under access to information laws.

The documents show the Harper government set up an inter-departmental task force to monitor the crisis in the aftermath of last year’s March coup, which toppled Mali’s democratically elected government.

The group was also charged with giving advice on the concurrent advance of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist behemoth.

While the military had done no specific planning last spring, the documents say off-the-shelf contingencies existed if the Harper government opted for military involvement.

Email traffic and directives labelled “secret,” obtained by Queen’s University researcher Jeffrey Monaghan, show that the country’s special forces were particularly keen to open up an ongoing dialogue with allies.

“From a (Canadian Special Operations Force) perspective, it would be beneficial to be tied into ongoing planning efforts, which would enable us to integrate more easily into any international effort,” wrote Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson in a March 28, 2012 email.

Yet, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has since ruled out any “direct” Canadian military involvement, something defence observers say is clearly the product of political fatigue with Afghanistan.

“I think that’s definitely a factor,” said retired major general Lewis MacKenzie. “Sure, the troops were popular, but the mission was never popular with the way NATO botched it.”

The war often intruded on the domestic political agenda in Ottawa, serving as a distraction when the Conservatives were eager to reshape government in the way they have been doing since combat operations in Kandahar drew to a close.

MacKenzie said a conflict in French-speaking Mali has the potential to create domestic political headaches — particularly if it were to result in the dispatch of members of the Royal 22e Regiment from Quebec, where military interventions are rarely popular.

And yet the potential of a terrorist training base in North Africa is a more clear and present danger to Canada and Canadian interests than the decade-long conflict in Afghanistan ever was, he added.

Robert Fowler, the former Canadian diplomat who was held hostage by al-Qaida in the region in 2009, has said French forces — which recently opened up an offensive to dislodge Islamic rebels — will need more help.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he’s wiling to talk about sending intelligence and counter-terrorism assets to assist the French, and even opened the door to reconsidering planned, deep defence cuts.

Nations going into Mali need to learn the lessons of Afghanistan and limit their involvement to simply “whacking al-Qaida” and should not embark on an nation-building exercise, Fowler said.

Canada evacuates staff from Mali embassy, urges Canadians to get out

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 10:53 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – The federal government has evacuated most of its staff and their families from the embassy in Mali, and is urging any Canadians still in the country to get out now.

The Department of Foreign Affairs says all non-essential staff and all 29 dependents of the workers and diplomats there have been relocated from the mission in the capital of Bamako.

The situation in Mali has been volatile for nearly a year, with Islamist radicals taking over northern parts of the country following a coup.

Two thousand French troops are now stationed in the country, trying to help the government there dislodge the insurgents.

Foreign Affairs warns that it now has a skeleton staff in Bamako, with limited ability to help any Canadians who have stubbornly remained in the country.

The department says in addition to the political instability and military clashes, there is a threat of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping in the northern region.

Canada has sent a heavy-life plane to help the French military with their operation in Mali.

French envoy says money needed to support Mali fight

By Mike Blanchfield - Wednesday, January 16, 2013 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – France is looking for financial backing from Canada and the world to support the international military mission in Mali, says the country’s Canadian envoy.

Ambassador Philippe Zeller told The Canadian Press his country is grateful for Canada’s contribution of a military transport plane to the Mali mission, but says money is needed to support the international force, which will eventually be buttressed by 2,500 French troops.

“Of course, it’s up to Canada,” Zeller said in a wide-ranging interview prior to his meeting Wednesday with Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and the ambassadors from Mali and the Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is current chair of the Economic Community of West African States, a key regional bloc. Continue…

Good news, bad news

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 16, 2013 at 11:54 AM - 0 Comments

Handout/Getty

GOOD NEWS

Bombs away

It’s a welcome sight to see a country other than the United States taking a lead role in the fight against al-Qaeda. France launched air strikes in Mali to head off armed extremists from expanding their grip on the country and over- taking the capital, Bamako. This week, France took the case for intervention to the UN, paving the way for the deployment of African troops to back up Malian forces. Canada also said this week it would send a military transport plane to support the mission. Without France’s bold intervention, the security of North Africa— and, by extension, Europe—would have been at serious risk.

From the rubble

Seven months after their mall caved in, killing two and wounding 20 others, the people of Elliot Lake, Ont., are about to get what they desperately want: answers. Justice Robert Belanger, who will oversee the inquiry into the tragic collapse, announced hearings will begin March 4. The judge also issued an important preliminary ruling, denying a request from the mall’s owner, Bob Nazarian, to keep his finances secret. As Belanger wrote, Nazarian’s bank statements—and how much of that money was spent on main- tenance—are “directly relevant and of significant importance.”

Continue…

Cheese-eating surrender monkeys go to war: Why France is in Mali

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 11:22 PM - 0 Comments

French troops drive through Mali's capital Bamako on Tuesday, January 15, 2013. (AP photo)

Is there are a French television show equivalent of The Simpsons? If so, its writers should start working on some catchy anti-American slurs that imply military cowardice.

It was The Simpsons, back in 1995, that first dubbed the French “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” — a phrase that gained renewed currency in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, which France declined to join.

The barb stuck, at least in America, Britain and Canada, where it played into popular perceptions about France’s quick defeat and subsequent collaboration in the Second World War, and about its perceived disdain for America and Britain in general. For defenders of France, the sneer simply underlined America’s supposed penchant for imperialism in contrast to France’s preference for diplomacy and multilateralism.

These stereotypes were not accurate then and aren’t now. France has always been willing to act with force, and without permission, when doing so suited its interests. And from France’s perspective, many of its interests are in its former colonies in Africa. It’s not surprising then that on Friday France launched a military intervention in Mali, where al-Qaeda and other Islamists have taken over the northern half of the country and were poised to push south, threatening the capital Bamako. Continue…

Canada presses Mali military rulers to hold elections, help restore stability

By Mike Blanchfield - Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 1:57 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Canada is telling Mali’s military rulers to get on with the work of restoring democracy to the West African country following a coup last March.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has told Canada’s ambassador to Mali to formally deliver that diplomatic message to Malian officials.

An aide to Baird also says Ambassador Louis de Lormier will tell officials that the instability caused by the March 2012 coup allowed an al-Qaida affiliated group to take control of the country’s north.

“The coup in March 2012 undermined Mali’s progress as a democracy and provided Islamist extremists with a window that has had devastating consequences,” says Baird’s spokesman Rick Roth. Continue…

Fowler blasts Tories for saying Canada has not been asked to send troops to Mali

By Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press - Monday, January 7, 2013 at 8:29 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Robert Fowler, the retired Canadian diplomat who was kidnapped by terrorists in Africa, blasted the Harper government Monday for saying it has not been asked to contribute to the international military mission to Mali.

Fowler condemned the government for advancing that position on the eve of a meeting between Prime Minister Stephen and the head of the African Union in Ottawa, where a request for a Canadian troop contribution was widely expected.

Fowler, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, accused the government of ignoring last month’s resolution by the UN Security Council that called on all countries to contribute to halt the spread of terrorism that has taken root in Mali.

Continue…

Al-Qaeda rising

By Michael Petrou - Sunday, December 16, 2012 at 7:00 AM - 0 Comments

Luis De Vega/Polaris

When Robert Fowler, who spent 130 days as an al-Qaeda hostage in the Sahara Desert, is asked how he’s doing, he often says he’s doing fine, then adds: “So are my former captors.” In December 2008, Fowler, then the UN Secretary General’s special envoy for Niger, was kidnapped along with his colleague, Louis Guay, in Niger and spirited to northern Mali. The two Canadian diplomats lived in punishing conditions and under the threat of execution for more than four months, until their freedom was negotiated—in exchange, it seems, for a ransom and the release of al-Qaeda terror suspects.

Fowler is now safely back in the embrace of his family in Ottawa, and he sometimes has the bizarre experience of watching YouTube videos of Omar, one of the men who kidnapped him, brandishing a Kalashnikov and issuing hyperbolic threats against France, the United States and all the countries in NATO.

Omar has a lot to gloat about these days. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), along with affiliated Islamist groups, controls the northern two-thirds of Mali, an area roughly the size of France. Their territory consists mostly of desert, but also contains several cities, including fabled Timbuktu, whose ancient Muslim shrines and monuments al-Qaeda has destroyed because of the supposed affront they present to its rigid interpretation of Islam. While American drone strikes have decimated al-Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan, it is comparatively unmolested, and flourishing, in Africa.

Continue…

Tuareg rebels launch media campaign after claiming northern Mali

By Sarah Efron - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 3:53 PM - 0 Comments

AP

The nomadic Tuareg people of the Sahara Desert are not as isolated as you might think. Armed Tuareg rebels, who claimed the northern half of Mali as their own state last month, are using a modern Internet and media campaign to build support for a state they call “Azawad.” The rebels, along with several Islamist militia groups, were able to take control of the territory in the chaos following a military coup by Malian soldiers on April 6.

The Tuareg group National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, known by the French acronym MNLA, issued Azawad’s declaration of independence on its website, mnlamov.net. French and English communiqués boast of the rebels’ “liberation” of various Malian cities, and dispute claims that the movement is dominated by pro-Moammar Gadhafi mercenaries. Site visitors can weigh in on the creation of an independent Tuareg state in a Web poll, check out photo galleries of rebels in action and watch YouTube videos of rebels in traditional wraparound scarves.

The site isn’t actually aimed at people in Mali, where just two per cent of the population uses the Internet, but at governments and journalists in the West. “They’re trying to convince people outside of Mali that they represent people there, and that they’re worthy of being included in negotiations,” says Will Reno, a Northwestern University specialist on rebel movements. “It’s like the peacock raising its feathers to attract attention.”

Continue…

Funding Planned Parenthood, but not abortion

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 1:14 PM - 18 Comments

A few months ago, Conservative MP Brad Trost was boasting that the government had “defunded” Planned Parenthood. But after more than a year of public waffling, the CBC reports that the government is about to approve funding for the group.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda has decided to approve a proposal by the International Planned Parenthood Federation to provide sex education and contraception in five developing countries…

The proposal gets around the thorny issue of abortion by asking for money for sex education and contraception services, and does not include abortion services. The funding is worth $6 million over three years for Planned Parenthood to work in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania, where abortions are illegal except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk.

The unavoidable issue (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 2:46 PM - 0 Comments

Elizabeth Payne talks to International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda and detects some ambiguity in the government’s position on funding abortion overseas.

[It] seems more likely that Canada’s direct aid to Mali, Mozambique and other countries will take the form of help to build more rural health centres and train badly needed caregivers as well as providing clean water and support for organizations that provide nutritious food. But, in addition, the federal government supports Marie Stopes International, which provides family planning in Africa, and is on the verge of re-funding International Planned Parenthood, according to Oda.

'A negotiated release of the hostages was preferable to just about every other conceivable option'

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 2:10 AM - 59 Comments

With confirmation that four al-Qaeda prisoners and several million dollars were exchanged for Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay, here again is the transcript from the Prime Minister’s press conference on the afternoon of April 22, announcing Fowler and Guay’s release.

Continue…