Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
The international community needs to step up to hold the Taliban accountable for human rights abuses in Afghanistan, a year after the militant Islamist group took control of the country and limited the rights of women and girls, a human rights advocate says.
"This last year has been a complete nightmare without end, honestly," Heather Barr, associate director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, told CTV National News. "Women have had all of their rights stripped away from them, and girls as well."
She also took aim at countries, including Canada, who purport to have a foreign policy that is supportive of women's rights but are not pushing hard enough for the change that is needed.
"If your feminist foreign policy doesn't mean standing up and providing leadership and taking practical steps to try and address the most serious women's rights crisis in the world right now, which is Afghanistan, what does your feminist foreign policy mean?" Barr said.
The Taliban marked the one-year anniversary Monday since the group seized the Afghan capital of Kabul.
The seizure of the Afghan capital came as the U.S. prepared to withdraw its last remaining troops from the country, a move that would prove chaotic as Afghans rushed to Kabul International Airport in a desperate attempt to flee.
The U.S. would ultimately pull its forces from Afghanistan by the end of August 2021, ending its 20-year-long war in the country and the longest in American history.
With millions in Afghanistan facing food shortages, teenage girls are also barred from going to school and women must cover themselves from head-to-toe in public, with only their eyes showing.
Along with prohibiting girls from attending secondary school, Barr says the Taliban have limited access to work for women, with some losing salaries due to the country's economic crisis, as well.
The Taliban also have prevented women from seeing male health-care professionals, Barr added, and "dismantled" systems to protect women from gender-based violence.
"We've seen women protesting as recently as Saturday against these policies," she said, "but the Taliban's response to those protests has been absolutely brutal, including detaining, abducting and abusing women and forcing them into false confessions."
Barr penned a letter, published Monday by the online news agency Rukhshana Media, in which she apologized that her country, the United States, and others who promised to defend the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan but later broke that promise.
"The world has too easily turned the page on Afghanistan," she wrote.
Barr called the response by the UN and countries around the world to the human rights violations against Afghan women and girls "weak."
She urged the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies to put pressure on the Taliban to ensure its officials are held accountable, whether through travel bans or other sanctions, for violating the rights of women and girls.
"The Taliban cannot kill the spirit of Afghan girls and women, and the world owes you its support," Barr said. "The road is long and brutally hard, but I know you are fighting every day. We see your courage."
Watch the interview with Heather Barr at the top of the article. With files from CTVNews.ca Web Reporter Rhythm Sachdeva and The Associated Press.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
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.
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.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
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.
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.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
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.