TORONTO —
Mohammad Ehsan Saadat is extremely grateful to be in Canada after his family fled Afghanistan six days before the Taliban took over capital city of Kabul.
Saadat said his work with Western Allied Forces as a researcher on women and girls’ rights put him and his family in danger.
“It was too difficult for me to stay there,” he told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday.
So far, more than 1,100 endangered Afghans have reached Canada. Immigration officials are processing about 3,000 of the 6,000 claims from endangered Afghans seeking to flee, officials previously told The Canadian Press.
Saadat had been monitoring the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan for months, and in July, he made the difficult choice to leave.
He filled out immigration applications for the U.S., some European countries and Canada. To his shock, he received travel documents from Canada a week after he sent his papers to the Canadian Embassy in Kabul.
His family took what they could and flew out of the city on Aug. 8. The city fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15.
Saadat and his loved ones arrived in Toronto under Canada’s Special Immigration Measures for Afghans program, which recently expanded its mandate to bring more Afghan citizens into the country.
But he now mourns other families that aren’t able to start anew in Canada. Nine of his own siblings are still in Kabul.
TALIBAN SAYS ONE THING, BUT DOES ANOTHER: SAADAT
In 1996, Saadat went to school in Afghanistan when it was under Taliban rule and vividly recalls how women were barred from attending classes.
“I remember all their laws, including dressing, mosque attendance, the right to freedom of expression, women’s rights, the right to demonstrate and litigate and advocate,” he wrote in a journal entry.
Saadat told CTV’s Your Morning he fully expects that if his family has stayed, his daughters would have face the same fate under the Taliban.
“If my daughters stayed there in 2021, I’m sure they would be uneducated and [wouldn’t] go to school under their government,” he said, adding that, like many others, he strongly doubts Taliban leadership’s claims that they won’t greatly restrict women like decades earlier.
“They say one thing in their words, and then do another thing.”
Although Saadat is heartened by the wave of people in Afghanistan fighting for change against the Taliban and women protesting for equal access, he is worried that protests could lead to Taliban retaliation.
The mandatory hotel quarantine for Saadat’s family ends in the coming days and Saadat said he is looking forward to taking his children to the park. In the long-term, he isn’t ruling out resuming his own studies and gaining a master’s degree in a program such as conflict resolution.
MONTREAL – One expert says entry-level pay under the tentative deal between Air Canada and its pilots could be a stumbling block ahead of a union vote on the agreement.
Under their current contract, pilots earn far less in their first four years at the company before enjoying a big wage increase starting in year five.
The Air Line Pilots Association had been pushing to scrap the so-called “fixed rate” provision entirely.
But according to a copy of the contract summary obtained by The Canadian Press, the proposed deal announced Sunday would merely cut the four-year period of lower pay to two years.
John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University, says as many as 2,000 of Air Canada’s roughly 5,200 active pilots may earn entry-level wages following a recent hiring surge.
After the airline averted a strike this week, Gradek says the failure to ditch the pay grade restrictions could prompt pushback from rank-and-file flight crew and jeopardize the deal, which is up for a vote next month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
ROME (AP) — Salvatore “Totò” Schillaci, the Italy striker who was top scorer at its home World Cup in 1990, has died. He was 59.
Schillaci had been hospitalized in Palermo following treatment for colon cancer.
The Palermo Civico hospital said in a statement that Schillacci died on Wednesday morning after being admitted 11 days ago.
Schillaci scored six goals for Italy during the 1990 World Cup. He came on as a substitute during Italy’s opener against Austria, scored in a 1-0 victory, and went on to earn the Golden Boot awarded to the tournament’s top scorer. He only scored one other goal for Italy in his career.
Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina announced that a minute of silence would be held in memory of Schillaci before all games in the country for the rest of the week.
“The uncontrollable celebrations, in which his face was the symbol of shared joy, will remain forever part of Italian soccer (history),” Gravina said. “Totò was a great player, a symbol of tenacious desire and redemption. … His soccer was full of passion. And that fearless spirit made everyone appreciate him and will make him immortal.”
Schillaci also won the Golden Ball award at the 1990 World Cup as the tournament’s top player ahead of Lothar Matthaus and Diego Maradona.
Schillaci played for Messina, Juventus, Inter Milan and Japanese team Jubilo Iwata during his club career.
“You made an entire nation dream during the Magical Nights of Italia ’90,” Inter said on its social media channels.
West Germany won the 1990 World Cup, beating Argentina in the final, while Italy beat England for third place with a winning penalty kick from Schillaci.
Roberto Baggio, who scored Italy’s opening goal in the third-place match, wrote on Instagram, “Ciao my dear friend.”
Having been born and raised in Palermo, the Palermo soccer team announced that it would hold a public viewing of Schillaci at its Renzo Barbera stadium ahead of the funeral, the Gazzetta dello Sport reported.
French soccer player Wissam Ben Yedder will stay free ahead of his trial on charges of sexual assault while intoxicated, one of his lawyers told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Marie Roumiantseva said Ben Yedder will remain under strict judicial supervision after a woman filed a lawsuit for sexual assault earlier this month.
The 34-year-old Ben Yedder, a prolific striker in the French league, was briefly detained then released after the alleged incident in his car on the French Riviera. Ben Yedder had been stopped by police after he first refused to do so. He was then put in a jail cell.
After he was summoned to appear in court on Oct. 15 and placed under judicial supervision, the Nice prosecutor’s office appealed the decision not to remand the player in custody. The investigative chamber of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence did not grant this request and kept Ben Yedder under judicial supervision.
Ben Yedder attended a hearing Tuesday during which he offered to go to rehab. He has admitted he drove while under the influence of alcohol but has denied any sexual assault.
In a separate legal case last year, Ben Yedder was charged with “rape, attempted rape and sexual assault” over another alleged incident in the south of France.
Ben Yedder has been without a club since his contract with Monaco expired at the end of last season.
