Israel kills top Hezbollah figure in Beirut strike, Reuters sources say
Top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, two security sources told Reuters.
Senators are concerned that a long-delayed Liberal bill aimed at unblocking Canadian aid in Afghanistan will bog down development groups in red tape and block access based on prejudicial bureaucracy.
"We have been creative within the confines of the law," Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told the Senate human-rights committee Monday evening.
He was speaking hours after the House passed Bill C-41, which comes more than a year after many Canadian allies issued exemptions in their terrorism laws for aid workers.
The Criminal Code currently bars Canadian aid workers from paying taxes for any labour or goods in Afghanistan, as doing so could lead to prosecution for financially supporting the governing Taliban, which Ottawa designates as a terrorist group.
Bill C-41 would allow development workers, such as those building schools, to apply for exemptions to do their work. Following amendments from the Conservatives and the NDP, it would also enact a blanket exemption for humanitarian workers providing life-saving aid in response to emergencies.
Yet senators raised concerns to Mendicino about how the bill will actually be enforced, such as how bureaucrats will weigh applications for waivers. Sen. Mobina Jaffer said Afghan-Canadians are particularly worried they will face increased scrutiny when seeking exemptions from terrorism laws.
"How do you define impartial? Because that's not the community's experience of how the various departments have defined impartial," Jaffer told Mendicino.
"You know that that's subjective, and the community is nervous."
Mendicino insisted that civil servants are impartial and noted that courts can review any rejected application.
Sen. Salma Ataullahjan urged the government to act fast, noting that peer countries enacted exemptions within months of the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021.
Ataullahjan was born in Pakistan, and like many Afghans is of Pashtun origin. She noted UNICEF reported in April that an estimated 167 children die in Afghanistan each day due to preventable diseases.
"It's my people, so it does of course affect me," she said.
Ataullahjan also asked Mendicino how the legislation will test whether the benefits of permitting an activity outweigh the risks of terrorist financing. The minister said he's committed to a non-discriminatory process but said it hadn't been fully ironed out.
"Coming up with objective principles will be an urgent exercise as we implement the bill," Mendicino said.
Some senators pressed Mendicino for a rough timeline on how long it will take applications to be processed, after aid groups sought a service standard from the government, while acknowledging these timelines might vary based on the breadth of the work.
"We're going to do everything that we can to come up with a process that is efficient," Mendicino testified.
The senators noted, however, that both departments handling applications -- Global Affairs Canada and Immigration, and Refugees and Citizenship Canada -- have been beset by long delays for visas and sanctions waivers.
"It's very difficult in a hypothetical, to comment on how long something will take," IRCC policy director Selena Beattie told senators, but she added the bureaucracy would prioritize urgent requests.
"We would be prepared to do that assessment quite quickly -- we are getting ready and making great strides."
The House passed Bill C-41 Monday afternoon with support from all parties except the NDP, who said it violates aid workers' independence if they have to seek government permission to do their work abroad.
"The principle of third-party authorization -- effectively forcing Canadian aid agencies to seek permission of the Government of Canada to do their important work in fragile contexts abroad -- is unprecedented and unacceptable," NDP foreign-affairs critic Heather McPherson wrote in a statement.
During Monday's hearings, Adeena Niazi, executive director of the Afghan Women's Organization Refugee and Immigrant Services, urged Ottawa to move quickly.
She said her group has had to decline donations from Canadians meant to help a country where children are being ravaged by malnutrition, disease and forced labour.
"It was extremely difficult to witness the Afghan people being punished by these laws."
Senators will deliberate whether to further amend the bill, though aid groups asked Monday that they instead pass it in its current form instead of running the risk of putting it in limbo when Parliament takes its looming summer recess.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2023.
Top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, two security sources told Reuters.
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.
Israel鈥檚 military has struck the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon鈥檚 capital, in a dramatic escalation in a year-long period of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.
A paid passenger on an expedition to the Titanic with the company that owned the Titan submersible testified before a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory panel Friday that the mission he took part in was aborted due to an apparent mechanical failure.
Following the MIND diet for 10 years produced a small but significant decrease in the risk of developing thinking, concentration and memory problems, a new study found.
The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.
They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.