And the Rest of It

A jail located within an active volcano:

We Charity’s Kielburger brothers face jail as hostile witnesses if they don’t testify on conflicts of interest in their dealings with cabinet, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. “There are precedents,” said Philippe Dufresne, the Commons law clerk: ‘Historically there has been authority to bring an individual into custody.’

The Tories demand that the Vance affair be further investigated:

Conservative members of the House of Commons committee probing allegations of inappropriate behaviour against Gen. Jonathan Vance are calling to expand the scope of the study after “troubling” testimony from the ex-military watchdog.

In a letter sent Thursday to the clerk of the defence committee, the four Conservative members asked for an emergency meeting to take place on Monday about calling additional witnesses to testify as part of the probe, launched in the wake of exclusive reporting by Global News of the allegations against Vance.

It's not like there aren't people looking for jobs.

Or jobs:

Canada's recent move to offer permanent residency to more foreigners living and working in the country is a short-term solution to the economic problems spurred by a pandemic-related immigration slowdown, analysts say, while critics argue the strategy excludes too many vulnerable people.

With travel restrictions in place, visa offices closed and immigration applications stalled, the Canadian government finds itself on the back foot as it attempts to reach its target of attracting a record 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021.

READ: new voters block. 

Iraq may experience its first papal visit but it is also a dangerous one:

Regarding travel, there are very few papal firsts left. Ever since Pope St. Paul VI travelled to the Holy Land in 1964 — the first foreign papal trip since the 19th century — the pace of papal travel has accelerated to the point where it is now no longer remarkable. But Iraq is a first.

Pope Francis arrived in Iraq on Friday morning for a three-day visit. His determination to make the trip was personal; the general view in Rome was that he should wait until COVID-19 cases stop surging. The Vatican’s own ambassador in Baghdad was just infected and will spend the visit in isolation. 

But Francis is determined and his trip has three purposes.

The first is to comfort and strengthen the Christian community in Iraq. Before the second Iraq War in 2003, there were some 1.4 million Christians in Iraq; today, there are only about 250,000. Many fled in the upheaval after the American invasion; most of those remaining left when the Islamic State took over parts of the country between 2014 and 2017 and began a campaign of ruthless anti-Christian massacres and persecution.

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The nadir of anti-Christian bloodletting took place in 2010, during the Divine Liturgy at the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, where dozens were massacred as they worshipped. Pope Francis made that church his first pastoral visit upon arrival. The papal visit is an act of solidarity with local Christians.

Second, the trip completes the manifest desire of Pope St. John Paul II. For the Great Jubilee year of 2000, John Paul planned a series of biblical pilgrimages. He went to Egypt — land of the exodus —  and then made his epic Holy Land visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He completed it in 2001 with a voyage in the footsteps of St. Paul to Syria, Greece and Malta.

John Paul had wanted to begin in Iraq, with a visit to the biblical city Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham, but Saddam Hussein made it impossible for him to go. Pope Francis, on the eve of his departure to Iraq, made reference to those frustrated plans and said that he would not “keep the people waiting twice.”

The third reason is closest to Pope Francis’ heart. Two years ago in the United Arab Emirates, he launched his “human fraternity” project. Signing joint declarations with the most senior Islamic clerics, Pope Francis proposed fraternity as the remedy for a world riven by conflict. His argument is that such fraternity must begin with believers across confessional and theological lines. For Christians and Muslims, he proposes that such fraternity be rooted in the common spiritual paternity of Abraham.

Did His Holiness forget these people until now?