'The world is too messy for bureaucratic hurdles': Canada still bars Afghanistan aid
Ottawa has plans to finally stop blocking Canadian development aid to Afghanistan this year.
After Ali Kaviri fled his home city of Kampala, Uganda two months ago, he entered a city that celebrated what, in Uganda, was considered a crime.
“If I go back home right now I can be imprisoned for the rest of my life just for who I am,” he told CTV National News as he walked through Toronto’s Village during Pride Month.
Laws in Uganda allow anyone who is an ally of the LGBTQ2S+ community to be prosecuted, with legislation defining some gay, lesbian or trans acts as crimes that warrant prison sentences usually reserved for murder. Kaviri, who recently applied for Canadian refugee status, has found relief in celebrating freedoms he was previously accustomed to hiding.
“People are happy and happiness here is validated. … I don’t have the words to express what it means to be in this space,” he said.
As Pride festivities kick off across the world, many refugees like Kaviri are celebrating the LGBTQ2S+ community for the first time.
Christopher Nkambwe, a transgender woman, fled Uganda in 2019. She says coming to Canada saved her life.
“Back home I didn’t identify as trans, but when I came here I landed in a safe haven for me to identify as who I am,” she told CTV National News.
Nkambwe, who is now the director of an African refugee centre, was in attendance at the 2016 Uganda Pride Parade, which was broken-up by police. Her story echoes the experience of countless refugees coming from countries that deny the human rights of LGBTQ2S+ community members.
For Kaviri, his first Pride marks a journey of finding acceptance and experiencing for the first time that love is love.
“For me it’s actually given me a second chance at life trying to be who I am -- being free -- and being able to express myself, to find a new journey in my life.”
Ottawa has plans to finally stop blocking Canadian development aid to Afghanistan this year.
Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war at at universities across U.S., some of whom have clashed with police in riot gear, dug in Saturday and vowed to keep their demonstrations going, while several school faculties condemned university presidents who have called in law enforcement to remove protesters.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
State-sponsored actors targeted security devices used by governments around the world, according to technology firm Cisco Systems, which said the network devices are coveted intrusion points by spies.
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'oesn't get' the global phenomenom.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”