The Canadian Parvasi - Issue 25

The International News Weekly REGIONAL/CANADA
December 15, 2017 | Toronto 06
Which fighter jets will Canada buy?
Agencies
OTTAWA: There are five
potential replacements
for Canada's aging CF-18
fleet. Here's a closer look
at what's known about the
contenders:
F-35 — Lockheed Martin, U.S.
Largely overlooked in
Tuesday's news about a new
competition to find a CF-18
replacement was confirmation
that the F-35 is back in
the running. The move represents
the latest twist in
the stealth fighter's history
in Canada, which included
a promise by the previous
Conservative government
to buy it in 2010 and Justin
Trudeau's promise in 2015
to do precisely the opposite.
The F-35 continues to
face some developmental
challenges and questions
about cost, but a number of
allies are already receiving
it. For all those reasons and
more, the stealth fighter
can again be considered a
front-runner.
Super Hornet — Boeing, U.S.
The Super Hornet is a
newer, larger and much
more modern variant of the
CF-18s that Canada operates,
and is primarily used
by the U.S. Navy and Australia.
It was first flown in
the 1990s; proponents note
that, unlike the F-35, it has
a proven track record. That
appeared to sell the Liberal
government, which
planned to buy "interim" 18
Super Hornets until Boeing
launched a trade complaint
against Canadian rival
Bombardier. Now, because
of its older technology
and uncertain production
future, and the aforementioned
trade dispute, the
Super Hornet could be in
for a tough battle in what
promises to be a lengthy
competition.
Typhoon — Eurofighter, European
consortium
The Typhoon has largely
flown under the radar,
but is built by a consortium
of European companies
that includes Airbus,
which recently offered to
buy a majority stake in
Bombardier's C-Series passenger
jets. It's too early to
tell whether that will be an
advantage, but it can't hurt.
Still, the Typhoon, which
is operated by Germany,
Spain, Italy, the U.K. and
several Middle Eastern
countries, doesn't have a
long track record.
Rafale — Dassault, France
The Rafale has been
used by the French military
since the mid-2000s, and
was recently sold to India,
Egypt and Qatar. The aircraft
has flown missions in
Afghanistan, Libya, Mali,
Iraq and Syria. Dassault's
main pitch is offering to
transfer intellectual property
and create manufacturing
jobs in Canada. But
dissenters have questioned
the Rafale's compatibility
with North America's air
defence system, Norad, as
well as its cost.
Gripen — Saab, Sweden
The Gripen was built
almost entirely in Sweden
and is likely the dark horse
in a competition to replace
the CF-18s. The aircraft
does not have a long operational
history and is not
widely used outside of Sweden,
but is said to be relatively
inexpensive to operate.
Like with the Rafale,
there are questions about
compatibility with Norad.
Class 8 student gangraped
and set ablaze dies in MP
Indo-Asian News Service
SAGAR (Madhya Pradesh): A Class 8 girl, who
battling for her life for a week after she was gang-raped
and then set on fire, died in a hospital in this Madhya
Pradesh district on Thursday, police said.
The 15-year-old victim, who had been admitted to
the Medical College Hospital, succumbed to her injuries
on Thursday morning, Bhangarh police station chief
Ravi Bhushan Pathak told IANS.
Both the rape accused, who tried to burn her alive
to conceal the crime, have been arrested.
The crime took place in Deval village of the district
on December 7 when the girl was alone at home. The
two youth barged in and after raping her, poured
kerosene on her and set her ablaze.
The girl, who was found in a critical condition,
was brought here for treatment. Madhya Pradesh
Home Minister Bhupendra Singh has announced Rs
2 lakh for her family. As the girl's death came on the
day Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was to be
felicitated in the assembly following the passage of the
bill making death sentence mandatory for rape, Leader
of Opposition Ajay Singh raised questions about the
safety of women in the state.
When the Chief Minister is being honoured, the last
rites of the girl, who was raped and then set on fire, will
be held, he said in a tweet.
Canadian families to pay $348
more for food in 2018: Study
Agencies
MONTREAL: Canadians
are eating out more and
can expect to pay extra to
do so in 2018, suggests a
forward-looking report into
food prices.
Food inflation overall
is expected to rise between
one and three per cent next
year, says Canada's Food
Price Report, which was
crafted jointly for the first
time by researchers at Dalhousie
University and the
University of Guelph.
For an average family
of four, that represents an
increase of $348 to about
$11,948 for the year.
About 59 per cent of the
expected hike — $208 —
will come from consumers
eating out and opting for
prepared food.
"Most of (the increase)
will come from food service
which would make some
consumers a bit vulnerable
— particularly those who
don't cook or (who) eat out
a lot," lead researcher Sylvain
Charlebois said in an
interview from Halifax.
Restaurant and store
owners recognize the demand
for eating out and
ready-to-eat products is a
robust one. In the United
States, the divide between
grocery expenditures and
those types of eating out
reached a 50-50 split in 2016.
Charlebois said a fastfood
culture has been successfully
cultivated over
the past 50 years in the
United States, but Canada
could reach that split by
2035 at its current pace.
Canadians now spend
about 30 per cent of their
food budget on eating out
and consuming prepared
meals. The report suggests
different parts of the country
will feel different impacts
at the checkout line
next year.
Atlantic Canada is expected
to see above average
increases — with prices
bouncing back after consumers
in the region enjoyed
lower prices in 2017.
British Columbia too is
expected see increases, due
to inflation.
But increased competition
in Alberta and Ontario
means consumers will see
below average price hikes,
while Quebec, Manitoba
and Saskatchewan are expected
to remain steady.
Canadian Muslims want no-fly list scrapped
Agencies
OTTAWA: Reform of national
security agencies —
not just more oversight and
review — is needed to rebuild
confidence and trust, a
national Muslim group says.
The National Council of
Canadian Muslims told MPs
studying the Liberal government's
wide-ranging national
security bill Tuesday that
new watchdog powers won't
fix the "culture of impunity"
and systemic ills within Canadian
security agencies.
The council's executive
director, Ihsaan Gardee, said
the bill strengthens the security
establishment, even as
the available evidence suggests
disarray — bias and
top-down bullying — within
the institutions that carry
out intelligence-gathering
and enforcement.
"Oversight of those agencies
is not sufficient," Gardee
said during a meeting of the
House of Commons public
safety committee. "Real reform
is necessary."
Conservative MP Pierre
Paul-Hus, the party's public
safety critic, challenged
Gardee to provide some specific
examples of the lack of
confidence.
Gardee pointed to highprofile
cases of Canadian Arabs,
including Maher Arar,
being subjected to abuse
abroad, with the actions of
Canadian agencies being
partly to blame.
The Liberal government's
security legislation
revises elements of a contentious
omnibus bill brought
in by the Harper Conservatives
after a gunman killed
a sentry at the National War
Memorial and rushed on to
Parliament Hill in 2014.
The bill would limit, but
not eliminate, powers that
allow the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service to actively
disrupt terror plots.
A new super-watchdog
— the National Security and
Intelligence Review Agency
— would oversee the intelligence
activities of well over
a dozen federal agencies.
In addition, an intelligence
commissioner would authorize
some intelligence and
cybersecurity activities in
advance — a measure the
government says is intended
to build public confidence.
Another change takes
aim at the recurring problem
of mistaken no-fly list name
matches involving youngsters,
allowing the public
safety minister to inform
parents that their child is not
on the roster.
Under a revised appeal
process, someone's name
would be dropped from the
no-fly list if the minister does
not deal with their appeal
within 120 days. However,
the minister would be able
to extend the deadline before
the first 120-day period expires.
The government says
the changes are steps toward
a longer-term solution to nofly
list headaches.
Faisal Bhabha, legal adviser
for National Council of
Canadian Muslims, said the
no-fly list should be scrapped.
"No amount of tinkering
can solve the underlying
problem, which is that the
no-fly list is one of the most
damaging instruments of
racial and religious profiling
currently in place in this
country," he testified.
"It was an interesting
experiment but its time has
come to an end."
Zamir Khan, whose
three-year-old son Sebastian
often has difficulties at
the airport because of the
list, said some families have
missed flights and children
shy away from air travel for
fear of stigmatization.
"This is not a future I
want for my son," he told the
MPs.