Newsmaker: Narendra Modi’s misstep on gender equality

MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/Getty Images

Things were going so good for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his revisit to Canada in April, he substantially should have stayed here. Instead, he’s flown off to Bangladesh and stranded his feet in his mouth by complimenting Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her bravery to confront terrorism “despite being a woman.”

The examples of former British primary apportion Margaret Thatcher and her Israeli reflection Golda Meir—hardly restored leaders in a face of terrorism—must have slipped Modi’s mind, and now he’s turn a aim of most online mockery. “DespiteBeingAWoman” has trended as a hashtag on Twitter, where users are bragging about their ability to accomplish tasks such as regulating a Internet and eating breakfast—despite being women. Others reminded Modi of clever Indian women, including one of his predecessors as primary minister, Indira Gandhi, and Noor Inayat Khan, an representative with Britain’s famed Special Operations Executive during a Second World War.

Modi’s tone-deaf comments mount out in pointy contrariety to some of his prior initiatives and open statements per gender equivalence and women’s rights. When he was arch apportion for Gujarat, Modi auctioned off gifts he perceived and used a income to account programs assisting girls in a state get an education. Last year, during his initial Independence Day debate as primary minister, Modi addressed a emanate of rape and urged relatives to military a poise of their sons, instead of simply tying a leisure of their daughters in an bid to keep them safe. He’s also cursed a jagged termination of womanlike fetuses, that has resulted in a gender imbalance in a country.

Modi has frequently trafficked outward India given apropos primary minister, visiting during slightest 19 unfamiliar countries. He’s penetrating to attract unfamiliar investment and to accelerate India’s picture and poke in a world, generally as a blow to China.

Indians seem generally gratified with him so far. A Times of India-Ipsos check published in May suggested a infancy of respondents rated his opening as “very good” or “somewhat good.” But a gaffe like this can hurt. Modi can usually wish India’s womanlike voters, notwithstanding being women, will pardon him.

Newsmaker: Narendra Modi’s misstep on gender equality

Bill Clinton defends family foundation, says political attacks on it inevitable

DENVER — Former President Bill Clinton pronounced Wednesday that if his mother is inaugurated boss he will stop giving paid speeches and, if she asks, step down from a substructure that bears his name and has fuelled attacks opposite her during her nascent campaign.

The Clintons have been criticized for raking in millions of dollars from paid speeches given they left supervision service, as good as for vouchsafing unfamiliar countries and companies with interests before Hillary Clinton’s State Department give income to their foundation.

In an talk with Bloomberg TV during a Clinton Global Initiative’s Denver meeting, Clinton pronounced he’d stop giving paid speeches should Hillary Clinton lapse to a White House. He combined that it would be his wife’s call on either he stayed during CGI.

“She will have to confirm what is my top and best use, including being around to sire her adult in a morning,” he said.

Clinton concurred that some of a $2 billion in donations a substructure has perceived might seem controversial when noticed by a domestic lens. But he pronounced they were supposed with a best intentions. “Has anyone valid we’ve finished anything disgusting with this money?” he asked. “No.”

The gift was set adult after Clinton’s presidency some-more than a decade ago, and he pronounced no one was meditative that Hillary Rodham Clinton would run for boss someday and that “everything we did would be treated with a hypothesis of wrongdoing.”

Clinton cited a $500,000 concession from a supervision of Algeria in 2010 that disregarded an Obama administration anathema on a substructure holding contributions from unfamiliar states. The concession came dual days after a Haiti trembler that killed some-more than 230,000 people. Clinton pronounced a harmed were being anesthetized in a streets with vodka since hospitals were broken — and he was usurpation assistance from anyone.

“There are really few countries in a universe we would not accept for assistance to Haiti,” Clinton said.

In an talk with CNN to be promote Sunday, Clinton concurred “you never know of what people’s motives are” for donations though pronounced he’s seen no efforts to win favours.

He combined that a substructure has a “strict” non-corruption process and remarkable that several Republicans, such as former President George W. Bush and 2012 presidential claimant Mitt Romney, have oral during the gatherings.

Bill Clinton defends family foundation, says political attacks on it inevitable

Where have all the Mexicans gone?

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When we was a boy, my grandfather mostly took me to a tiny lake, where he kept a vessel stashed in a pines and we would hop for pickerel. This was northern Manitoba, a place so remote that if we trafficked north, a subsequent highway would be Russian. Nonetheless, my grandfather feared that this isolated mark low in a proportions of Canada’s forest would fundamentally be overshoot by Chinese immigrants. He would consult a still lake, and say, “One day, this will all be rice paddies.”

My grandfather’s fear was inexplicable. He was an newcomer himself, from Ireland, who had forged out a square of that northern brush for his own; not to grow rice, though a immature grass of clover. Perhaps it was a primal instinct to “get his,” afterwards envy ensure it.

In a United States, this same fear of newcomers, generally from Mexico, has dominated politics for a prolonged time. When George W. Bush came to office, there were some-more than 400,000 bootleg migrants channel their southern limit any year. His response was a argumentative limit wall. President Barack Obama attempted immigration reform, though was incompetent to find bipartisan support. He bypassed legislators with an executive movement to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants. But it was reported this week that a devise has derailed, following a sovereign justice claim from Texas and 25 other states. Few issues have remained so steadfastly divisive.

In a meantime, a problem has mysteriously disappeared. According to new information from a U.S. Census Bureau, sum emigration from Mexico has plummeted by 68 per cent over a final decade, and is now reduce than arrivals from possibly China or India. The U.S. Border Patrol reports that bootleg immigration has halved. And a investigate by a Pew Research Center shows that a sum race of unapproved migrants stopped flourishing in 2006, and has remained during approximately 11 million ever since.

Many on a left and right once believed this was an unstoppable inundate of humanity. What changed? Historically, there has been a tighten association between bootleg newcomer flows and mercantile growth. The U.S. economy entered a “Great Recession” in 2007, and a stagnation rate has malleable slowly. But, even as a U.S. pursuit marketplace recovered, Mexican arrivals kept declining, suggesting that economics is not a reason.

Enhanced limit confidence is a some-more expected cause. The U.S. Border Patrol has doubled in distance given 2004, and billions of dollars have been spent on deploying drones and sensors along a frontier. Furthermore, as a wall went up, punishment was also increased. Before, if we were hold channel a Rio Grande, we would simply be driven back. Now, we are hold in detention, infrequently for weeks.

But there have also been elemental demographic changes in Mexico. The birth rate has depressed from 7 children per lady in a 1970s to only over dual now. Other indicators, such as propagandize enrolment and life expectancy, uncover that a incentives for withdrawal Mexico have declined significantly.

Unfortunately, while migrant numbers might be down, a domestic discuss stays heated. After Mitt Romney mislaid a 2012 election, many Republicans hoped to justice traditionally Democratic Hispanic electorate by appealing to their regressive Catholic amicable views. The inflection of possibilities such as Cuban-American senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as good as former Florida administrator Jeb Bush (who is married to a Mexican-American and speaks smooth Spanish), suggests a change in that direction. But a tongue from others hasn’t softened. Governors Scott Walker and Chris Christie, envy guarding a American Dream, are holding an even harder line on immigration than Romney did. In contrast, 70 per cent of a open supports extenuation authorised standing to undocumented migrants, according to a new Pew poll.

In Canada, a comparatively tiny series of bootleg immigrants has kept this emanate out of a spotlight. However, according to Monica Boyd, a highbrow of sociology during a University of Toronto, this might change. Sociological investigate in other countries, such as Germany, shows that proxy workman programs that don’t concede for transition to permanent-resident standing (such as a one Canada has implemented) emanate incentives for workers to outstay their visas, and mostly lead to a fast boost in bootleg migration.

Unlike a U.S., Canada fails to collect any information on bootleg immigration whatsoever. Boyd explains: “There is probably no approach to come adult with strong estimates on a series of undocumented migrants.” We have no thought how many people arrive illegally any year, and how many are vital here already. If my grandfather were still alive, he’d seize on that fact, demeanour during me forebodingly, and say, “Mark my words. Rice paddies. As distant as we can see.”

Where have all the Mexicans gone?

PM’s visit with Pope focuses on Ukraine, not residential schools

Vatican Pool/Getty Images

VATICAN CITY, Italy – Prime Minister Stephen Harper lifted a discouraging commentary of a residential schools elect Thursday during an scarcely brief assembly with Pope Francis, though stopped brief of mouth-watering him to Canada to apologize.

Instead, Harper referred to a minute sent progressing in a week to a Vatican by his aboriginal affairs apportion that merely told a Holy See of a commission.

“Prime Minister Harper also drew courtesy to a minute sent by Minister (Bernard) Valcourt to a Holy See per a Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” Harper’s bureau pronounced though elaborating.

Harper’s orator did not respond to a ask for clarification.

Harper’s 10-minute assembly with a Pope Francis was surprisingly brief by Vatican standards. Russian President Vladimir Putin had a scarcely 50-minute private assembly with a pontiff a day earlier.

A apart readout from a Vatican did not discuss a residential schools emanate among a topics discussed with Harper.

Harper instead select to pursue a thesis that has dominated six-day outing to Europe — his defamation of Putin.

Harper went into a assembly confronting calls to use a arise to secure a pope reparation for a church’s purpose in Canada’s residential propagandize legacy.

Perry Bellegarde, a inhabitant arch of a Assembly of First Nations, had pronounced a assembly would be a “prime opportunity” for a primary apportion to lift a issue.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that spoke to thousands of residential propagandize students and documented their experiences, released 94 recommendations final week that enclosed a call for a pope reparation on Canadian soil.

Bellegarde pronounced a directly reparation from a Pope “would be huge” and would assistance move closure to those who suffered atrocities and abuses during a schools, many of that were run by a Roman Catholic Church.

In Apr 2009, then-AFN inhabitant arch Phil Fontaine along with 4 aboriginal leaders and a commission from Canada’s Catholic Church had an assembly with Pope Benedict in Rome, that constructed a communique of magnetism from a Vatican.

Harper’s revisit to a Vatican came on a final day of his six-country European tour, and accurately 7 years after a primary apportion released his possess reparation in a House of Commons to residential propagandize survivors.

Canadian officials pronounced that given Putin visited Francis a day before Harper, a primary apportion wanted to lift a topic.

“Prime Minister Harper addressed a conditions in Ukraine and his low regard with Vladimir Putin’s aggression, function and assault in Ukraine,” pronounced Harper’s office. Harper also lifted a predicament of eremite minorities during a hands of Islamic militants.

The U.S. called on a to Vatican this week to step adult a regard about Ukraine in Francis’ assembly with Putin. It was a Russian leader’s second assembly with Francis given 2013.

A Vatican orator pronounced a Ukraine and Middle East crises were large topics of discussion, though a doubt of assigning censure to Russia did not arise.

Harper was during a Vatican for somewhat reduction than an hour, though his tangible assembly with a Pope lasted usually a fragment of that time. He also met with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, a Vatican’s secretary for family with states.

Harper was accompanied by his wife, Laureen, Defence Minister Jason Kenney, 3 Conservative MPs and several staffers. Julian Fantino, Harper’s associate counterclaim apportion and an Italian Canadian, was also during a meeting.

Harper was manifest to reporters usually quickly on 3 occasions when short, mad print ops took place. The primary apportion did not pronounce nor did he take questions from Canadian media travelling with them on a final day of his travel

Harper finished his outing with a call to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has a most closer attribute with Putin than Harper, who has removed him.

Renzi also hosted Putin, as they politely toured a Russian pavilion during a world’s fair. Putin breached custom by nearing an hour and 20 mins late for his assembly with a Pope, who speedy him to make “sincere” efforts to move assent to Ukraine.

Harper visited Ukraine and Poland on this trip, as good as attending a G7 leaders limit in Germany, and was to lapse to Canada on Thursday evening.

— with files from Kristy Kirkup in Ottawa

PM’s visit with Pope focuses on Ukraine, not residential schools

Canadian siblings plead guilty in Malaysian nudity case

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Two Canadians and dual other Westerners have reportedly pleaded guilty to a charged associated to a organisation of tourists posing exposed on Malaysia’s top towering on May 30.

Media reports early Friday pronounced Saskatchewan siblings Danielle and Lindsey Peterson, along with a British lady and a Dutch man, pleaded guilty to a assign of committing pornographic acts in a open place.

The 4 — who avoided hearing by pleading guilty — were remanded in jail and could reportedly be condemned to adult to 3 months in jail or fined, or both.

The Guardian journal says Danielle Peterson arrived in justice handcuffed to British traveller Eleanor Hawkins while Lindsey Peterson arrived handcuffed to Dutchman Dylan Snel.

The 4 were allegedly partial of a organisation of 10 tourists who acted exposed on Mount Kinabalu only days before an trembler killed 18 climbers on a mountain.

The Malay Mail online news portal pronounced a justice was told a organisation of 10 had challenged any other to see who could sojourn exposed a longest in a cold.

They abandoned a counterclaim by their towering beam not to strip, it said.

It quoted counterclaim counsel Ronny Cham as observant a 4 were immature people whose era was accorded some-more leisure and liberties. He pronounced they had suffered adequate mishap and that endless general news coverage of a occurrence has served as halt for others.

Prosecutor Jamil Aripin concluded that there was no couple between a trembler and their act though pronounced it had angry a internal community, The Malay Mail said.

The magnitude-5.9 trembler sent rocks and boulders raining down a movement routes on a 4,095-meter-high towering in Sabah on Borneo island. The victims were 9 Singaporeans, 6 Malaysians and a Filipino, a Chinese and a Japanese national.

The upheaval shop-worn roads and buildings, including schools and a sanatorium on Sabah’s west coast. It also pennyless one of a twin stone formations on a towering famous as a “Donkey’s Ears.”

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan has blamed a tragedy on a foreigners for display “disrespect to a dedicated mountain” by posing exposed during a peak. He has pronounced a special protocol will be conducted to “appease a towering spirit.”

Canadian siblings plead guilty in Malaysian nudity case

Canadians plead guilty in Malaysian nudity case

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Two Canadians and dual other westerners who acted exposed on Malaysia’s top rise were condemned to 3 days in jail and fined for pornographic poise in a open place, their counsel pronounced Friday.

“They were repentant and regretted their act, and had offering a open reparation during mitigation,” pronounced counsel Ronny Cham.

The 4 were among 10 foreigners who bare exposed and took photos on Mount Kinabalu on May 30.

A internal central has pronounced their poise was unpleasant to a mountain, that is believed to be sacred, and caused an trembler on Jun 5 that killed 18 climbers.

The dual Canadians were Saskatchewan siblings Lindsey Petersen and Danielle Petersen. The other dual westerners were Dutch citizen Dylan Snel and British tyro Eleanor Hawkins.

The 4 pleaded guilty in a justice in Sabah state on Borneo island to a assign of open indecency, pronounced Cham.

The justice was told a women were topless while a dual organisation were totally nude, he said.

The justice condemned them to 3 days in jail and a excellent of a homogeneous of some-more than $1,600 Canadian each, to be followed by their deportation, Cham said.

They have paid their fines and approaching to be expelled after Friday given of a time they have already spent in jail given their arrests progressing this week, he said.

Some reports pronounced they were liberated immediately.

Hawkins was scheduled to fly home Saturday, though a counsel couldn’t contend when a others would leave.

The Malay Mail online news portal pronounced a justice was told a organisation of 10 had challenged any other to see who could sojourn exposed a longest in a cold.

They abandoned a defence by their towering beam not to strip, it said.

Cham pronounced a 4 had suffered adequate mishap and that endless general news coverage would deter others.

The Guardian journal reported Danielle Peterson arrived in justice handcuffed to Hawkins while Lindsey Peterson arrived handcuffed to Snel.

Prosecutor Jamil Aripin concluded that there was no couple between a trembler and their act though pronounced it had angry a internal community, The Malay Mail online news portal said.

The magnitude-5.9 trembler sent rocks and boulders raining down on movement routes on a 4,095-meter mountain. The victims were 9 Singaporeans, 6 Malaysians, a Filipino, a Chinese and a Japanese.

The upheaval shop-worn roads and buildings and also pennyless one of a famous twin stone formations on a towering famous as a “Donkey’s Ears.”

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan blamed a tragedy on a foreigners for carrying shown disregard to a mountain, believed by internal tribes to be a resting place for a dead. He pronounced a special protocol will be conducted to damp a towering spirits.

Canadians plead guilty in Malaysian nudity case

Blogger Raif Badawi spared flogging Friday in Saudi Arabia

(Anthony Devlin/CP)

MONTREAL – The Quebec supervision pronounced it would accelerate immigration procedures for Raif Badawi, a blogger in Saudi Arabia who has been condemned to 1,000 lashes though was spared Friday.

It was feared his punishment would resume after a Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia inspected a judgment imposed on a blogger, though a Amnesty International bureau in Paris pronounced it had perceived acknowledgment a punishment was postponed.

Badawi is not a Canadian citizen, nonetheless his mother and children fled Saudi Arabia in 2012 and staid in Sherbrooke, Que., in 2013.

Ensaf Haidar, Badawi’s wife, took to Twitter on Friday to repeat her defence for an finish her husband’s punishment.

“I repeat my interest to his sovereignty King Salman to atonement my father … and stop his flogging,” she wrote.

RELATED:  QA: Ensaf Haidar, mother of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi

Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil told reporters Friday a range would offer Badawi an immigration preference certificate on charitable grounds, that would speed adult a routine to concede him to reunite with his family in Quebec.

Badawi’s apprehension and judgment have influenced adult worldwide defamation and Quebec politicians unanimously adopted a suit in Feb job for his evident release.

Weil was accompanied by members of all other provincial parties in announcing a measure.

“I consider it only shows that we’re all of one mind,” Weil said. “It means that we trust that his diagnosis is outrageous, how he’s being treated and for what he has done, and it’s over tying leisure of countenance — it’s vicious and surprising punishment, it’s positively horrendous.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also oral out opposite Badawi’s treatment, though has pronounced Ottawa’s change is singular by a fact he is not a Canadian citizen.

International Relations Minister Christine St-Pierre pronounced she spoke with Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson on a Badawi box progressing this week about Canada requesting domestic pressure.

Edouard Delaplace, executive of legal affairs with Lawyers Without Borders Canada, says a Saudi aristocrat could ask a high justice to meddle again, though a domestic involvement competence be some-more picturesque during this point.

“It’s utterly expected that it’s some-more a domestic channel that has to be explored,” Delaplace said. “Maybe with a commencement of Ramadan subsequent week, there is an event for a aristocrat to give his atonement and recover Raif Badawi.”

Badawi has been detained given 2012 for criticisms in his blog that promotes tellurian rights and democracy in his country.

The Saudi justice had condemned a 31-year-old male to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for criticizing Saudi Arabian clerics.

However, after a initial event of 50 lashes in January, all others were postponed, apparently due to health concerns and undisclosed reasons.

Weil pronounced she spoke with Badawi’s family on Thursday evening.

“I knew, in a tinge of her (Haidar’s) voice final night, each Thursday night is agony, anguish for her, and each Friday is anguish until she gets a news,” Weil said.

– With files from Alexandre Robillard in Quebec City.

Blogger Raif Badawi spared flogging Friday in Saudi Arabia