Expand Children pan for gold along the Bosigon River in Malaya, Camarines Norte.    © 2015 Mark Z. Saludes for Human Rights Watch Millions of adults and children around the world suffer abuses as workers who obtain raw materials, toil on farms, and make products for the global market. They are at the bottom of global supply chains, for everything from everyday goods like vegetables and seafood to luxury items like jewelry and designer clothing that end up on store shelves worldwide. “Ruth,” age 13, is one of them. We met her processing gold by mixing toxic mercury with her bare hands into… (Full Story)

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Political parties rule the nation by forming governments; these organizations have a great deal of power in the Westminster parliamentary system. Until 1832, governments used to be formed by coalitions and people rather than by political parties. However, the decline of the Crown influence gave more power to party leaders. British politics has started to favoured a two party system. The Labour Party and Conservatives were two main parties contesting elections. In addition, the Labour Party was founded in 1900 outside Parliament. Every British socialist leader joined the Labour Representation Committee, now known as the Labour Party. The Labour Party became a powerful political force in British politics that united the progressive supporters. The Labour Party was modernized by Tony Blair that rejected state owned industry and by reducing trade union influence in the 1990s and early 2000s. Nowadays, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn turned back the party to the left wing of political spectrum. Corbyn is a strong advocate for more government nationalization and for a trade union friendly government. Jeremy Corbyn wants more investments in social programs. He strongly believes in social democracy and in greater government interventions. Under Corbyn`s leadership, the Labour Party is a progressive party that considers a second referendum is needed to settle Brexit. However, this might be very hard for Corbyn to get a mandate to govern because he is not a centrist politician who could unite many moderate voters to support his reforms. Jeremy Corbyn is seen as a radical politician by many voters; thus, this might not be an easy task to get a Labour government elected with Corbyn`s socialist ideals. The Labour Party could have campaigned on a centrist political platform in order to have better chances to a form a government. The Conservatives want to get Brexit done regardless of national unity. If Brexit gets done, Scotland and Northern Ireland could leave the union. As a result, a Labour government is needed in order to protect national unity by settling the never ending Brexit saga through a people`s vote. Besides, national unity could easily be safeguarded by cancelling Brexit which is not a line with national unity because Northern Ireland and Scotland does not support Brexit of any kind. (Full Story)

By Ephraim Kam

Against the backdrop of its military involvement in Syria, Iran has taken a series of steps since 2014 to reinforce its standing in Syria and Lebanon and enhance its military preparedness there, as well as that of its proxies – first and foremost Hezbollah. These steps are of two types. One consists of steps designed to influence Syria’s internal situation and bind it to Iran for the long term, including economic agreements on reconstruction, resettlement of Shiites in Syria, introduction of Iranian religious and cultural values into the country, and establishment of Syrian Shiite militias modeled on Hezbollah in Lebanon. (Full Story)

Every year for several weeks before November 11, a field of scarlet poppies appears on coat lapels across Canada. This wearing of the poppy has a complex history ... (Full Story)

By Orna Mizrahi

A popular protest erupted in Lebanon on October 17, 2019 on a scale unprecedented in recent years. Mass demonstrations grew steadily stronger in successive days, and have so far numbered between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of participants as they spread from Beirut to the country's other principal cities. For now, the protests continue. The trigger for the demonstrations - in the sense of "the straw that broke the camel's back" - was an unusual decision (rescinded immediately, one day after the protest erupted) to tax WhatsApp voice calls.  (Full Story)

New York - Southern (Inner) Mongolian poet Mr. Zhao Baahuu, who goes by the pennames Soliyoot Shulegchin (“Crazy Poet” in Mongolian) and Cao Yuan Nu Huo ( “Fury of Grassland” in Chinese), was detained and placed under house arrest after publishing poems online criticizing China’s ethnic policies toward Southern Mongolians, Tibetans and Uyghurs over the past 70 years.  (Full Story)

As Egypt formulates and implements its economic reform program, “the Chinese development model” is mentioned with increasing frequency in official Egyptian discourse as a supreme positive example. The Chinese model is identified in Egypt with modernization, scientific advances, foreign investments, integration into the global economy, and mega-projects that stand to yield high economic growth rates and enable a response to the challenges of a rapidly growing population and dire poverty. (Full Story)

There are nominated candidates of all races and religions in our Party. the PPC. With names like Salim Mansour, Rocky Dong, Jigna Jani, Tahir Gora, Jude Guerrier, Jing Lan Yang, Salomon Rayek, and many, many others. (Full Story)

Valentine’s Day rituals often begin in the classroom, where the holiday serves both as an enjoyable arts and crafts activity and as a pedagogical tool, teaching children about structuring love and friendship into a concrete, prescribed form. The ritualization of love continues throughout our lives, not only on Valentine’s Day, but through weddings, anniversaries, and Mother’s and Father’s Day. (Full Story)

Montreal Jews rely on non-Jewish academics, writers and filmmakers to present and even explain, in French, Jewish realities to the Quebecois public and within Francophone academia. The considerable number of publications on Jewish themes, both in fiction and non-fiction, written in French by non-Jews is certainly unequaled in the Francophone world and most likely in the West, contends writer Victor Teboul. But do these works encourage or dissuade critical assessment of Quebec and of Quebec–Jewish relations, asks Tolerance.ca’s editor, whose most recent book also questions Quebecois identity. (Full Story)

Despite his dedicated work on behalf of Jewish refugees in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, James G. McDonald (1886-1964) is little known today. Come discover this highly unusual and outspoken maverick through Shuli Eshel’s inspiring documentary, “A Voice among the Silent,” followed by comments and discussion led by Neil Caplan. (Full Story)

The Canadian government's recent announcement that it will be providing more than CDN $600 million (USD $455 million) over the next five years to bail out the country's financially strapped media outlets -- as part of the fall fiscal update about the federal budget ahead of the 2019 federal election -- is not as innocent as it may seem. (Full Story)

By David Barzilay

The intriguing tale of the location and fate of a Jewish baby placed in the Municipal Foundling Home of Thessaloniki during WWII.

It is March 4th 2016 an email pops onto my screen from some unknown group of researchers based in Thessaloniki, Greece. They introduce themselves: “ We are a group of researchers in Thessaloniki working on a common academic project related to the Shoah. Aliki Arouh, genealogist and researcher archivist of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, , Aigli Brouskou, an anthropologist, researcher of the Municipal Foundling Home of Thessaloniki ‘Agios Stylianos’ and Areti Makri, archivist at the State Archives in Thessaloniki and a researcher”. (Full Story)

To many observers, the Jewish community in Quebec is highly integrated into Quebec society, yet to others it appears insular. How can this apparent contradiction be explained? How do religious groups, including Jews, deal with the trend towards secularization in Quebec? We raised these questions and others with Dr. Morton Weinfeld. Professor of Sociology at McGill University in Montréal, Dr Weinfeld holds the Chair in Canadian Ethnic Studies. He is the author of Like Everyone Else, but Different: The Paradoxical Success of Canadian Jews (McClelland & Stewart, 2001), a study of the Jewish community in Canada. Dr. Weinfeld is also a recognized authority on Quebec’s Jewish community. (Full Story)

On Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 7:00 pm at the Gelber Centre, veteran British journalist Ian Black will be speaking on “Israelis and Palestinians: Contested Past, Uncertain Future.” (Full Story)