'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
After Indian-born British novelist Salman Rushdie was attacked during a writing conference in western New York on Friday, current and former Canadian politicians are weighing in on what such attacks mean for freedom of expression and thought.
Former Liberal Party of Canada leader Michael Ignatieff, who is a friend of Rushdie and has known him since 1984, told CTV News Channel he felt a personal reaction of “sorrow, dismay, and anger” after learning of the incident.
He considers such an attack a threat to freedom of thought.
“I just think fanaticism is a danger to free expression everywhere,” he said. “It’s a danger to every writer and every free thinker. We have to stand against it everywhere it raises its head.”
Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses,” published in 1988, drew death threats from Iran’s leaders, who viewed the book as blasphemy towards Islamic faith and offered a reward for the death of its author. Rushdie was stabbed numerous times in the neck and abdomen on Friday and was rushed to the hospital.
“I just think this is an example of the ways in which a young person, adrift possibly in American society, thought his life had purpose if he executed a religious warrant for an execution,” Ignatieff said.
“That’s what’s dangerous going forward — that there will be other people who will think their lives will suddenly have meaning if they can execute the same warrant laid down 30 or more years ago.”
Ignatieff believes the attack is a painful reminder of what’s at stake, and what, he said, must be protected.
“What we have to defend here is the right of an artist of the word to use words to raise any subject,” he said.
“Every single belief, every single doctrine, including my own, should be subject to criticism, comedy, good jokes, bad jokes. That’s how freedom thrives.”
Ignatieff said blasphemy, as a concept, “should not exist.”
“I respect people who live their faiths,” he said. “I respect them as individuals. But I’m not under their obligation to respect their faith whether they’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or, you know, Liberal seculars. I’m not required to respect a faith. I’m required to respect persons. And I do. Whatever their faith. And I think that’s the distinction we need to hold.”
The former Liberal Party leader added that “every belief needs to be questioned. And that’s what he’s fought and that’s what he’s stood for. And that’s why [Rushdie] has paid the price he’s paid.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also weighed in on the attack.
“The cowardly attack on Salman Rushdie is a strike on the freedom of expression that our world relies on,” he tweeted on Saturday.
“No one should be threatened or harmed on the basis of what they have written. I’m wishing him a speedy recovery.”
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.