Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
The UN special envoy for Myanmar has warned that February's military takeover has led to armed conflict and if power isn't returned to the people in a democratic way the country "will go in the direction of a failed state."
Christine Schraner Burgener told a UN news conference Thursday that conflict between the military, which took power on Feb. 1, and civilians and ethnic minorities is intensifying in many parts of the country.
"The repression of the military has led to more than 1,180 deaths," she said. "The army uses a range of tactics against civilian populations, including burning villages, looting properties, mass arrests, torture and execution of prisoners, gender-based violence and random artillery fire into residential areas."
Schraner Burgener said the military is conducting clearing operations in Chin and several other states and there is continued fighting in Kachin and Shan states, "so all over the country we have a huge scale of violence."
She said the situation is reminiscent of the pattern of operations that the military, known as the Tatmadaw, used against Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine state in 1997. The Rohingya were first targeted by Myanmar's security forces in 1997-98 and over 700,000 fled to neighboring Bangladesh after a military crackdown in 2017.
Schraner Burgener said the movement against the military is now "increasingly militarized," with the so-called National Unity Government formed by supporters of the ousted democratic government led by Aung San Suu Kyi seeking to mobilize a greater number of Peoples Defense Forces and calling for "a people's defense war."
"Clearly, in the absence of international action, violence has been justified as the last resort," she said.
Myanmar for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Suu Kyi's rise to leadership in 2015 elections, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country.
The military takeover earlier this year followed November elections, which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won overwhelmingly and the military contests as fraudulent.
Schraner Burgener warned that "the overall situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate sharply."
She said the conflict must be solved and that "the power must be returned to the people in a democratic way," but the military did not respond to her proposal for an inclusive national dialogue and appears intent on continuing its operations.
In the past, the Tatmadaw would use violence against ethnic armed groups or against the Rohingya but not against the Buddhist Bamar ethnic majority, but that is happening now on a large scale in the central part of the country, she said.
Schraner Burgener said she wouldn't call the current situation a civil war because that's not "international legal terminology," but she said that with violence spreading across Myanmar it is "an internal armed conflict."
"If this situation will continue, then I would say we would have a full blown internal armed conflict," she said.
Looking at the dire situation on the ground, she said, the number of displaced people has increased from 370,000 to 589,000 since the military takeover, the number of people needing humanitarian assistance has jumped from 1 million to 3 million, and the health system and banking system have collapsed.
But unlike the coup in 1998 when people were killed or put in prison or gave up, and the Tatmadaw took over and conducted business as usual, "people will, in my view, not give up" now, she said. "The people continue to resist. They will not go back to work. They will continue to use violence."
Schraner Burgener said the UN has heard that 4,000 soldiers have defected, a figure it can't verify, "but even if it's 3,000 it's quite a huge number."
Every day, she added, she receives messages from people on the ground saying they "would rather like to die than to accept a new military dictatorship."
She said targeted sanctions against the Tatmadaw can have an effect, especially if adopted by more countries.
As for recognition of the military junta, Schraner Burgener said the nine-member General Assembly credentials committee, which is expected to meet in November, will decide whether it takes over Myanmar's UN seat now held by the ambassador appointed by Suu Kyi's government.
"What is very important now from the international community, but also from the UN, is that we don't give any signals or make some movements which could be seen as accepting" the military junta's State Administration Council that is running the country, she said.
"We want to respect the will of the people," she stressed, noting that that was done last November when Suu Kyi's party won 80% of the vote.
Schraner Burgener said the decision of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations not to invite the junta leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, to their upcoming summit is "a clear signal that they also agreed together that the current situation is unacceptable."
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.