In The News for May 3 : Families of Canada’s Afghan advisers are pleading for help

One adviser, who was given the military code name “Sam,” says his sister’s family was threatened repeatedly by the Taliban over his involvement with the Canadian military and her husband was killed before she fled the country in 2018.

The Canadian Press is not revealing his real name because his sister is now at risk of being deported from Turkey back to Afghanistan.

Though the Canadian government recently created a program specifically to bring the families of people like Sam to safety, his sister doesn’t qualify because she fled too early — before the Taliban took over the country.

“I feel that the responsibility is on me because it happened because of me, you know, because of my involvement,” said Sam, who lives in Ottawa.

The Immigration Department says it consulted a range of stakeholders on its approach to the program, and that family members must meet the eligibility criteria to qualify to come to Canada.

Sam and his former colleagues have spent years advocating on behalf of their families, contacting politicians of all stripes. They’ve shown up to parliamentary committee meetings, called constituency offices and written countless emails in hopes of bringing them to safety.

“Psychologically, it’s torturing me,” Sam said.

A government has allowed a maximum of 380 principal applicants under the special program, which is expected to remain open until September.

Until then, Sam is desperately hoping his phone will ring and someone will be able to help him save his sister from further danger.

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Also this …

A program that for five decades has had young Canadians shadow MPs from across the political spectrum is facing an uncertain future because the model that has kept it running grates against modern labour codes and tax laws.

The Parliamentary Internship Programme brings 10 young professionals and recent university graduates onto Parliament Hill to shadow two MPs — one from the sitting government and the other in opposition — for 10 months

The interns help MPs with analysis and writing while also researching their own academic paper.

The program started in 1970 after a motion from a backbench MP called for the government to create a non-partisan program for young Canadians to learn about the parliamentary process and the role of MPs.

The House of Commons helps run the program with the Speaker as its patron. The Canadian Political Science Association is paid to operate the program using donations from sponsors and alumni. That follows a deliberate formula MPs designed in 1969 to avoid political interference from government and to ensure it was not reliant on public funds.

Last week, the association sent out a notice saying it’s pulling out of the arrangement by the end of 2024 after a year of trying to find a workaround.

The program’s tax status has become increasingly unclear because the interns don’t qualify as receiving a scholarship but also are neither students nor full employees of the House of Commons.

They were at one time considered independent contractors, but that didn’t align with the reality of having the program set their work hours and vacation dates while reimbursing expenses.

In 2020, the political science association converted the interns into employees so they would qualify for COVID-19 subsidies when Parliament Hill scaled down its work at the start of the pandemic.

Since then, the association has had to take on responsibility for human resources, but it only has partial say in which organizations can sponsor the program, and it argues that could put its reputation at risk.

It has proposed the House of Commons absorb the program — something that came as news to the Speaker’s office, which called that a “unilateral decision” by the association’s board.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

WASHINGTON _ U.S. and Mexican officials have agreed on new immigration policies meant to deter illegal border crossings while also opening up other pathways ahead of an expected increase in migrants following the end of pandemic restrictions next week.

Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall spent Tuesday meeting with Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and other top officials, emerging with a five-point plan, according to statements from both nations.

Under the agreement, Mexico will continue to accept migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua who are turned away at the border, and up to 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador who have family in the U.S. will be eligible to live and work there.

Despite sharing a 3,140-kilometre border with the U.S., Mexico had been notably absent from the rollout last week of a fresh set of efforts, including the creation of hubs outside the United States where migrants could go to apply to legally settle in the U.S., Spain or Canada. The first centres will open in Guatemala and Colombia.

The COVID-19 restrictions have allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for a surge. Even with the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new avenues meant as alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.

Mexico’s support is critical to any push by the U.S. to clamp down at the southern border, particularly as migrants from nations from as far away as Haiti are making the trek on foot up through Mexico, and are not easily returned back to their home countries.

With Mexico now behind the U.S., plus an announcement Tuesday that 1,500 active-duty U.S. troops are deploying south for administrative support, and other crackdown measures in place, border officials believe they may be able to manage overcrowding and other possible issues that might arise once the COVID-19 restrictions end.

Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, is trying to signal his administration is making a serious effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, which has been a potent source of Republican attacks. He also is trying to send a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey.

But the effort also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Biden’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions.

The U.S. will continue to turn away Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who cross illegally. Mexico said Tuesday it would continue to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from the four countries that are making up a ballooning share of the overall illegal border crossings, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates _ Economies across the Middle East and Central Asia will likely slow this year as persistently high inflation and rising interest rates bite into their post-pandemic gains, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.

The IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook blamed in part rising energy costs, as well as elevated food prices, for the estimated slower growth. The report said that while oil-dependent economies of the Gulf Arab states and others in the region have reaped the benefits of elevated crude prices, other countries _ such as Pakistan _ have seen growth collapse after an unprecedented flooding last summer or as economic woes worsened.

The regional slowdown also comes as an explosion of fighting in Sudan between two top rival generals _ who only a year ago as allies orchestrated a military coup that upended the African country’s transition to democracy _ threatens a nation where IMF and World Bank debt relief remains on hold.

Rising interest rates, used by central banks worldwide to try to stem inflation’s rise, increase the costs of borrowing money. That will affect nations carrying heavier debts, the IMF warned.

“This year we’re seeing inflation again being the most challenging issue for most of the countries,” Jihad Azour, the director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF, told The Associated Press. “For those who have high level of debt, the challenge of increase in interest rate globally, as well as also the tightening of monetary policy, is affecting them.”

The IMF forecast predicts regional growth will drop from 5.3 per cent last year to 3.1 per cent this year. Overall, regional inflation is expected to be at 14.8 per cent, unchanged from last year, as Russia’s war on Ukraine continues to pressure global food supplies and affect energy markets.

It will be even worse in Pakistan, where the IMF projected inflation to more than double, to about 27 per cent. Pakistan and IMF officials have held repeated talks over the release of a stalled key tranche of a $6 billion bailout package loan to Islamabad.

The IMF warned that financial conditions worldwide will tighten this year, brought on in part by two bank failures in the United States in March. The sudden collapse of Credit Suisse before it was purchased by UBS also strained markets.

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On this day in 2016 …

A raging forest fire, whipped up by shifting winds, sliced through the middle of the northern oilsands capital of Fort McMurray, forcing all 80,000 residents to flee. More than 2,400 buildings were lost but firefighters managed to save almost 90 per cent of the city from destruction. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimated the insured damage totalled $3.58 billion, by far the costliest insured disaster in Canadian history. (A phased re-entry for fire evacuees began on June 1.)

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In entertainment …

It was a relationship that lasted a lifetime: Gordon Lightfoot got his start at Massey Hall as a teenager, and never stopped returning to the Toronto venue, no matter how successful he became.

Hundreds of famous musicians have played the stage in its long history, but none so often as Lightfoot. The folk legend and the concert hall fed off each other’s fame, sharing a sort of symbiosis that spanned more than half a century.

“It’s a spiritual thing,” Lightfoot told The Canadian Press in 2018. “I have an affinity for Massey Hall that’s very strong.”

When the concert hall closed down for major renovations that same year, his was the last performance. And when it reopened three years later, he was the one to usher in its new era with three consecutive shows.

They would be his last at the venue before his death on Monday at age 84.

Jesse Kumagai, president and CEO of Massey Hall, said the venue is mourning the loss of its most frequent performer. Lightfoot took to the stage more than 170 times over the course of his career, starting when he was just 13 years old.

Kumagai described seeing Lightfoot in concert at Massey Hall as the quintessential Canadian experience.

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Did you see this?

Countries around the world whose currencies pay tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II now have a new monarch — and a decision to make about whether the King has a place on their money.

Since the queen’s death in September, Canada has stayed mum on whether or not it intends to put the King’s likeness on its coins and bills.

But other members of the Commonwealth have moved more quickly towards enshrining his visage on their cash — or instead moving away from any kind of royal tribute.

Unsurprisingly, the United Kingdom was the first country to move forward with new banknotes that will feature King Charles, unveiling the designs in December.

The Bank of England says the new banknotes will come into circulation in mid-2024.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand also said after the queen’s death that it would be preparing to change out the image it uses on coins for one approved by the new King. It said the transition would take several years.

Australia went in the other direction, deciding not to place King Charles on its new five-dollar bill. Its central bank announced in February that the country was opting for an Indigenous design instead.

But the King is still expected to appear on Australian coins that currently bear the image of Queen Elizabeth.

In the Caribbean, many countries have been contending with conversations on what role the monarchy should play. Barbados, for example, ditched the British monarch as its head of state in 2021.

Other Caribbean nations that still belong to the Commonwealth have said little about whether King Charles will be depicted on their banknotes and coins.

However, the Antigua Observer reported earlier this year that the governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Timothy NJ Antoine, said there may be “no appetite” for that.

According to the Royal Canadian Mint, Canada has included a likeness of the reigning monarch on its coins since it started production in 1908.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

In The News for May 3 : Families of Canada’s Afghan advisers are pleading for help

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