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Canadian law prevails

The Shafia trial is finally over. 

According to the CBC, Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya and their son Hamed were all convicted Sunday of first-degree murder.

They were accused of killing Shafia’s three daughters and his first wife in a polygamous marriage. 

The bodies of the four drowned women were found in a car at the bottom of the Kingston Mills lock.

They have been sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years. 

The trial took almost three months to complete and the verdict came after only 15 hours of deliberations. 

The three individuals maintained their innocence until the very end. The son’s lawyer told The Canadian Press his client would appeal the ruling.

Afghan President Karzai coming negotiations with the Taliban

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is planning to meet with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia to engage in peace talks, according to the BBC.

The meeting is scheduled to happen in the coming weeks, before the Taliban office gets erected in Qatar. The Taliban however notified they will only speak with the United-States and other allies of the Afghan government.

Karzai said he was frustrated that the US and Qatar have previously started working on peace treaties with the Taliban without the Afghan government’s full presence.

There are rumors that the coming discussions might revolve around a prisoners exchange between the Taliban and the United-States. 

PQ to lower the voting age if elected

XVIe congrès national du Parti QuébécoisIf elected to government, the Parti Québecois plans to lower the voting age to sixteen years old.

The PQ also plans to adopt citizen-led referendums in Quebec.

These are just two of a series of plans adopted by the delegates of the provincial opposition party at this weekend’s meeting in Montreal.

The young are among the strongest supporters of the PQ’s sovereignty movement.

The proposal of the citizen-led referendum means that there could be a referendum if fifteen percent of the population was to vote for one on any topic.

This also goes for future referendums on Quebec’s independence.

Pauline Marois is now the official PQ leader after weeks of rumors that former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe might replace her.

Duceppe has announced last week that he was not going to return to active politics after he was accused of mishandling public funds.

The PQ is still third in the polls, not far behind the Liberals, while the CAQ is still leading the polls.

Domain names with French characters to be allowed in Canada

It seems like the internet will become more friendly to francophones. The Canadian Press reports domain names ending in .ca might allow French letters with accents.

A consultation by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority went into its final step last week. They say this change is part of a global movement. Other alphabets have already been approved.

French letters with accents might be approved in nine to eighteen months. France already finished its consultation and will allow letters with accents soon.

Igloofest: Week 2 Recap

After a hot first weekend that provided us with awesome acts like Buraka Som Sistema, A-Trak and Mala, it was going to be hard for the second weekend to top it, but it did, in a big way. On Saturday night, more then 10 000 fans flocked to the site in the Old Port, making it the first ever sold-out night in the history of Igloofest. The stellar lineup may have helped them reach such an achievement. The three days featured big names like Tiga, Pearson Sound, Sébastien Léger, Terence Fixmer, and Max Cooper, all guaranteed to make the fans dance all weekend long.

Friday, January 20th

Friday night got started with the sounds of Seb Fauteux and Max Reynolds who played a groovy set. The duo mixed an upbeat and well-balanced blend of house, techno and some disco, an excellent recipe for a cold night where temperatures hovered around -15°C. You can catch them at the Fizz Factory and Beat Boutique nights at Le Salon Daome on Mount-Royal Boulevard.

They were followed up by the brilliant UK DJ/Producer and Hessle Audio head honcho, David Kennedy, aka Pearson Sound, who was playing in front of a Montreal crowd for the second time in a year. He played a nice set with loads of great tracks, but it felt as if he was holding back and his set never really peaked; considering the immense talent that he’s blessed with, his set never really reached it’s full potential. Luckily, German DJ D. Diggler saved the night by continuing along the same pace as Seb Fauteux and Max Reynolds, making the 9000 plus fans dance the cold winter chill away. I didn’t know what to expect from Diggler, but he turned out to be a pleasant discover. I’m looking forward to hearing more from him.

That same night, I discovered the sounds of electro-swing music being played in the Virgin Mobile Igloo for the first time. Electro-swing is the merging of 1930’s swing music with bass heavy electro songs, making it a very enjoyable and interesting new genre to discover. DJ’s Khalil, Eliazar, Don Mescal (all part of the Speakeasy Electro Swing nights) got the Igloo packed –there was a big line up just to get in.

Saturday, January 21st

Hakim Guelmi opened the Saturday night edition with his own blend of techno and tech-house. He is a regular of Piknic Electronik, Igloofest’s summer counterpart, so you may have heard him before. Last summer, Max Cooper got stuck in the wake of Hurricane Irene and unfortunately had to cancel his Piknic Electronic show. Fast forward five months later; he now gets the chance to perform for the Montreal crowd at Igloofest. The UK DJ brought an assortment of techno and house beats that kept people dancing throughout the set. He was certainly one of my favourite DJs of this year’s edition. But Saturday night was Sébastien Léger’s nights. The French DJ was highly anticipated. Léger’s Chicago/Detroit inspired house got the crowd so worked up that I think he even trended on Twitter at one point. On stage, you could see his energy, as he danced along while mixing his tracks.

It was a great way to end the second weekend of Igloofest, and the last one promises to be a record breaker as well. If you missed this past weekend, I feel sorry for you, but you better not miss the third one.

-MNJIVR hosts AutoBeat every Tuesday from 10-11pm

News - January 27th 2012

Read by Shaun Malley

Produced by Erica Bridgeman

Stories read by Chris Hanna, Judy-Ann Mitchell-Turgeon and Tara Brockwell

Canada seizes a piece of Tunisia's pre-revolutionary pie

The federal government is set to cash-in on the spoils of Tunisia’s pre-revolutionary regime.

According to the CBC assets of members tied to Tunisia’s deposed dictator in Canada were seized.  This includes the Westmount home of former dictator Zine El Abedine Ben-Ali’s billionaire son-in-law who has since fled to Qatar.

A lawyer for Tunisia’s current government claims Canada plans to keep fifty per cent of the spoils.  This enraged local Tunisian community groups who want funds returned to a nation they believe was plundered.

An E-mail from the Department of Foreign Affairs to the CBC stated that funds could be kept for up to five years while an agreement is drawn up with the new Tunisian government.

Details about numbers were not revealed.

The impact of AIDS on Aboriginal people

Yesterday was the third lecture of Concordia University’s Community Lecture Series on HIV/AIDS.

As Doris Peltier delivered her moving story, the audience sat still, absorbing every word of it.

Back in 2002, this Aboriginal woman from the Wikwemikong Unceded First Nations reserve in Ontario was diagnosed with AIDS. 

After a difficult childhood of losses and abuse, she decided that she wouldn’t let the disease overcome her.

Ever since she received her diagnosis, she has been working as an activist for the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network at the local, national and international level. 

She has been giving conferences to share her experience and give hope to those suffering from the same disease.

“I did not want to just be another statistic, I decided to step out and start speaking about it, and disclose my HIV status publicly because we NEED to talk about it.”

As an activist, Doris Peltier is also involved in research with the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network.

Statistics show that Aboriginal women represent 48.8 percent of the HIV infection rate in the community, while youth represent around 32 percent.

For the most part, this epidemic comes from the colonization of the Aboriginal communities by the Europeans back in 1492.

At the time, Aboriginal children were taken from their parents and forced to attend residential schools in an attempt to assimilate them and turn them into westerners.

All of this caused severe disorganization in indigenous societies and disrupted their traditional social structures, alliances and kinship ties.

What Doris Peltier also focuses on are ways of decolonizing the Aboriginal communities in order for them to finally heal, mostly through healing circles.

“Part of the decolonizing is about telling our stories, it validates our experience and it helps to make sense of the past, it’s about releasing something, it’s about removing layer upon layer, and once you begin removing those layers, you began to discover some strengths that might have been covered up by those layers.”

For Peltier, speaking is part of her healing process, and it is part of accepting the disease and becoming the woman she is today.

She insisted on the importance of talking about HIV and AIDS, because healing won’t work in isolation.

“For me, what happened when I was diagnosed was for the very first time I was able to say NO. I experienced childhood sexual abuse, and as a child, you know, you’re frightened, it shuts you down and you’re not able to say no, but for the first time I was able to say no when I got my AIDS diagnosis, no more, no more!”

For many years, Aboriginal women lived with self-esteem issues that made them vulnerable to HIV and AIDS.

The title of this conference was an aboriginal word that meant “the essence of who we are is beautiful”.

And after sitting through the moving and inspiring speech that Peltier delivered, I knew that she was right.

 

Audrey Folliot, CJLO News

US military will decrease troops

8th US Army - KoreaThe US plans to take 100,000 troops out of their military force.

According to BBC News, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta stated that his plan is for the sake of creating a smaller military.

Panetta also revealed military cuts which will be made, such as the retiring of old cargo planes and Navy cruisers.

Republican presidential candidates feel that these plans are not good for the country and will argue against it throughout election time.

NDP Leadership candidates debate at Concordia

Challenged by the loss of one of Canada’s greatest political leaders, the New Democratic Party of Canada still has a leader to elect. Nathan Cullen, Niki Ashton, Peggy Nash, Brian Topp and Martin Singh were all at Concordia’s Oscar Peterson Hall on Wednesday night for an unofficial debate.

Topp says getting Quebec voters on board is crucial for his party:

“So one of the key priorities of the next leader, certainly mine if I’m elected leader is gonna be to keep building the party here in Quebec theres no doubt about that. Including showing up to events like this.”

But much of the talk surrounding the event was who did not show up. Thomas Mulcair decided to attend a campaign event of his own in Montreal’s east end. Paul Dewar and Romeo Saganash also didn’t go.

For the candidates there, much of the time was spent hating on Prime Minister Stephen Harper with Nathan Cullen leading the charge.

“We have to find ways to work with those other progressive Canadians that are out there, so that Stephen Harper can’t get those vote splits, can’t narrowly win a majority and continue to destroy this country. We can’t. We don’t have the time. If 8 months has been terrible with this guy imagine 8 years.”

Speaking to a crowd of mostly students, candidates were critical of the Quebec Liberal government’s proposed tuition hikes for students in the province. Niki Ashton is the youngest candidate at twenty-nine years old. She says young people shouldn’t have to pay higher tuition for the older generations mistakes.

“We’re gonna be told increasingly as young people that we gotta tighten our belts, we gotta take cuts, we gotta deal with an increasingly unaffordable, increasingly expensive future. Well that’s just not on. ”

She also said she wants to bring Quebec on par with the rest of Canada for tuition, not the other way around.

“Quebec has been a model in terms of affordability. And to see that model be attacked is just wrong.”

The NDP leadership race so far has been criticized for being flat in terms of disagreements. On limiting credit card fees, instituting proportional representation and fighting the keystone pipeline they also saw eye to eye. A two state solution in the Arab/Israeli conflict was also popular among candidates. Concordia University is known for involving itself in that conflict. Listen to the crowd roar when the question was posed:

“Would you vote in favour of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations?”

Without being asked it, many of the candidates answered one of the biggest questions of the leadership campaign. Can they speak French? Topp said this about his advantage as a fluently bilingual Montrealer.

“I think it’s very hard to imagine being leader of the Federal NDP official opposition of the Government of Canada with 58 Quebec MPs and not be bilingual.”

The next official debate is this Sunday in Halifax and all eight candidates are expected to be there, even Mulcair. The leadership convention takes place on March 24th.

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