The return of at least 16 children and an estimated 12 adults to Trinidad following their deportation to Venezuela on 22 November gives the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago a second chance to uphold their domestic and international obligations to provide protection for people seeking safety from danger, said the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Refugees International and 14 other organizations in an open letter to Prime Minister Keith Rowley today. (Full Story)

Click to expand Image   The opening session of Iraq’s new parliament on September 3, 2018 in Baghdad, Iraq. © 2018 Getty Images (Beirut) – Iraqi lawmakers are considering a draft law on information technology crimes that could be used to stifle free expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Free speech is already under attack in Iraq, and on November 23, 2020 lawmakers discussed this  draft law and planned to hold a second reading during the week of November 29. The bill includes vague provisions that will allow Iraqi authorities to harshly punish expression they decide constitutes a… (Full Story)

In the face of mounting pressure from the public and members of Congress, President Donald Trump and his head of the General Services Administration late Monday cleared the way for President-elect Joe Biden to formally begin the transition process following weeks of delay that analysts warned could hinder the incoming government's ability to quickly respond to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and economic collapse.

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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)

During the last fifteen years, Tolerance.ca organized several panel discussions.  To mark International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Tolerance.ca® organized two panel discussions on religious diversity featuring several distinguished panellists. The first meeting was held at Vanier College. The second, on which a report follows, was held at the Maison des écrivains under the theme “Education, Religion and Diversity: Enrichment or Source of Conflict?” (Full Story)

As part of a series of articles on major personalities who have furthered the cause of tolerance in Canada, Tolerance.ca® presents the world-renowned Montreal philosopher Charles Taylor, 2007 winner of the prestigious Templeton Prize. Mr Taylor co-chairs the Québec Commission on reasonable accommodations created by the Charest government in February 2007. (Full Story)

By Daphne Inbar,  Neubauer Research Associate, INSS

Alongside the escalating Covid-19 crisis, another crisis with a widespread effect poses a major challenge in the post-truth era: the diminished public and political trust in experts. On September 8, 2020, the question of the status and role of experts was discussed in an online conference held in the framework of Israel's INSS Lipkin-Shahak Program on National Security and Democracy in an Era of Post-Truth and Fake News.  (Full Story)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing the decisive test of his premiership with the management of the pandemic. Justin Trudeau defines this challenge as the ¨fight of a generation¨. The Prime Minister pleas to Canadians to actively participate in this war against COVID 19. For instance, he wants Canadians wear masks to protect themselves and others. This is a major tool because the virus spreads mainly through aerosols. Besides, the Trudeau government has secured vaccine candidates to have a national vaccination to end the pandemic in Canada and throughout the World. The Trudeau government has a strong plan to have sustainable economy to go through these tough times. No one will be left behind, thanks to changes in the unemployment insurance program improved to respond to the needs of people affected by the current events. (Full Story)

By Udi Dekel and Noa Shusterman

The Abraham Accords will ostensibly serve to inspire peace and normalization agreements between Israel and additional Arab states. Indeed? Which issues are included in the agreement, and why? Why did the UAE and Bahrain decide to establish official relations at this time? What are the implications for the Palestinian arena? And what new challenges are likely to emerge? Insights from a discussion of experts held following the festive signing ceremony at the White House (Full Story)

Le Regroupement québécois des Centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (RQCALACS) and its members will celebrate the Day of Action on Sexual Violence against Women (DASVW) on Friday September 18th for its 39th edition, launching a public campaign under the theme “Brave any way... our way!”. (Full Story)

On the morning of September 4, 2020, Ms. Surnaa, a Mongolian employee of the Alshaa Left Banner Chinese Communist Party Committee in western Southern Mongolia, jumped from her residential building to her death in protest of the Chinese authorities’ new language policy called the “second generation bilingual education”. (Full Story)

Is Diversity about empowering people who have been victims of exclusion or an expression of resentment? Resentment, argues McGill University professor Marc Angenot in his  most recent Senior College Lecture, inspires defeatist behavior by pretending  to march towards the future, to avenge the real or mythical wrongs undergone in the past. (Full Story)

By Itai Brun

What will the world look like one year from now, and how will the corona pandemic affect the Middle East? This article presents four possible scenarios: “continuation,” in which following a temporary interruption of a few months, there is a resumption of familiar global and regional trends from the pre-corona era; “revolution,” in which there is a fundamental change in the patterns that characterized life before the crisis and the world prepares for a new illiberal world order led by China; “breakdown,” in which all global actors emerge wounded from the crisis and the fragile structure of the international system collapses into chaos, expressed inter alia by new waves of upheaval in the Middle East; and “reconstruction,” in which the United States regains its initiative and resumes an international effort to repair the liberal world order and solve burning conflicts.

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By Shahar Eilam and Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky

A comparative analysis enables us to examine different approaches to the challenges posed by the corona pandemic around the world. Most countries have adopted a similar coping strategy, based on three components: the first is a lockdown policy (to varying degrees), in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus and avoid overloading the health system; the second is the improvement of preparedness and readiness in health systems; and the third is a broad economic aid package in response to the sudden economic shutdown and the deep financial crisis. (Full Story)

Last night, December 24th at midnight, we sang Christmas Lieders in German. That was in Long Island, New York, in a tree-lined brownstone neighborhood inhabited by Halb Jüden; half Jews or half Germans, I don’t recall exactly how they defined themselves. But being all survivors of Hitler’s personal madness, the Nazis themselves called them half-breeds, Mischlings, with a full measure of contempt. (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)