Members of Toronto's Afghan community hold protest to demand security for women and girls in Afghanistan
CBC
Dozens of members of Toronto's Afghan community held a protest outside city hall on Sunday to demand security from the Taliban-run government for women and girls in Afghanistan.
The protest was organized in response to Friday's suicide bombing that left dozens of students killed or injured in a Shia education centre in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul.
Halima Pahman, one of the organizers, said the protest aimed to raise awareness "about the ongoing genocide" happening in Afghanistan against the Hazara people — an ethnic minority group that is "consistently getting attacked by the Taliban, ISIS" and other groups in Afghanistan.
"Today we are here specifically for the Sept. 30th, 2022 attack on the education centre for women, young girls who came to mock a university entrance exam," Pahman told CBC Toronto.
"The international community need to pay attention … and recognize that this is a genocide that is happening in Afghanistan against the Hazara community."
Pahman, who serves as vice-president of Hazara Women Organization in Toronto, said the international community needs to help protect the Hazaras in Afghanistan and also help those who are fleeing as refugees in Pakistan, Indonesia and other countries.
On Friday the bomber struck an education centre packed with hundreds of students in a Shia neighborhood, killing 19 people and wounding 27. Among the casualties were teenagers taking practice university entrance exams, a Taliban spokesman said.
The morning explosion at the centre took place in Kabul's Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, an area populated mostly by ethnic Hazaras, who belong to Afghanistan's minority Shia community.
The Islamic State group has carried out repeated, horrific attacks on schools, hospitals and mosques in Dasht-e-Barchi and other Shia areas in recent years.
A group of Afghan women protested in Kabul the day following the bombing. About 20 protesters gathered in the Dasht-e-Barchi area for about 45 minutes before their rally was broken up by Taliban security. They carried banners in English and Dari reading "Stop Hazar Genocide."
"We are asking the Taliban government, when they claim that they have brought security, how they cannot stop an attacker from entering an educational centre to target female students. In this incident, one family has lost four members, why is it still happening," said demonstrator Fatima Mohammadi.
Tahir Shaaran, another organizer of the Toronto protest, said the Hazara community has been the target of attacks over the last 10 years.
"We're asking the international community, especially the UN, to act urgently and open a committee to investigate who is really behind the attacks on Hazara communities," he said.
"Apart from that, we want the UN National Security Council to have [an] urgent meeting and investigate and condemn the genocide of the Hazara."
From the Detroit Lions losing to Apple iPhones that spontaneously update, Windsorites had things that bugged them this year.
Calgary emergency rooms are “in a state of critical overcapacity” ahead of the anticipated peak of flu season — and to cope with the surge and wait-room crowding, officials are urging doctors to speed up their decisions on whether to admit patients, according to a memo obtained by CBC News.
Northern Ontario's highway system needs improvements in order to make travel safer, a highway safety advocate said.
Hundreds of thousands of used tires are piling up across Ontario as some companies responsible for tire recycling have stopped processing tires amid reduced provincial recycling regulations for tire producers, industry experts say.
People in Guelph facing homelessness will soon have a new place to go during the day.
Islanders are reminded to plan their rides ahead of holiday festivities if they plan on drinking alcohol or using cannabis.
Even before Gwen Healey Akearok began her new role as Nunavut’s Minister of Family Services, she was tuning into the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) hearings on the state of the Family Services department.
The racial reckoning of the COVID era saw Canada grapple with its checkered past — a process that led to statues of some foundational figures being removed, in some instances by force.
Holiday traditions are front and centre for many people at this time of year. But one Uxbridge family's Christmas tradition goes above and beyond the standard Christmas carols or holiday party.
A pedestrian is dead, and police are investigating following a collision in a north London parking lot on Tuesday afternoon.
Police have lifted a shelter-in-place order for parts of St. John's.
Nova Scotia Power is providing more information about the cyberattack on the utility earlier this year and its response in the months that followed.
A rare old-growth forest in Quebec’s Mauricie region is at the centre of a growing conflict between conservation advocates and the provincial government, after forestry roadwork was authorized in an area currently under review for protected status.