Will Canada’s Syria mission bolster Assad’s regime?

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March 27, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News

The federal Conservatives have extended Canada’s anti-ISIS campaign to include airstrikes on Syria. This is necessary, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says, because the group “must cease to have any safe haven in Syria.”

But in doing so, Canada may be helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has, evidence indicates, cluster-bombed and gassed his own civilians, contributed to a massive humanitarian crisis and killed hundreds of thousands of people – far more than the so-called Islamic StateCanada has vowed to defeat.

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Going hungry: Why millions of Canadians can’t afford healthy food

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March 25, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News

Pay the rent, or put food on the table?

It sounds like an unthinkable choice. It’s one Priscilla, a Winnipeg mom with two young kids, both under 8, faces daily.

It’s one the growing number of people Laurie O’Connor sees streaming through Saskatoon’s Food Bank keep asking themselves.

It’s one faced by more than a million Canadian households, a Statistics Canada report revealed Wednesday.

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‘I needed to know it wasn’t my fault’: When rapists are those you trust most

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March 9, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News

We’ve been inundated with the stories — personal, frank, harrowing — of sexual assault survivors since publishing this story about how difficult it is to get justice for rape.

Among the people we spoke with were survivors who wanted to go public with the abuse they suffered and the way they feel Canada’s court system failed them, and wanted to put their names to their stories.

But because of rules imposed by the same court system that in so many cases fails the victims of sexual violence, we believe their names remain under publication ban – ostensibly for their own protection – long after cases are closed or alleged abusers no longer living.

We wish we could honour the wishes of these individuals to be named. Out of an abundance of caution, we have not.

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Retirement lost: More Canadians are cashing out RRSPs early

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February 23, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News

Lianne Paul had to empty her RRSP in September.

Not because she’s retiring – far from it: The mother of three is in her 40s. And a year after crippling health issues, including PTSD, forced her out of her job, she’s still unemployed. Openings for the same administrative work she’d been doing for years require skills that didn’t exist during her original diploma program.

Before she could qualify for income assistance to help her get by while she looks for a job, Paul had to liquidate all her savings – including the retirement nest egg to which she contributed for a decade.

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‘Canadian families are tapped out’: Tories out of touch with economy, opposition says

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February 19, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News

Canadians are struggling in today’s economy far more than the federal Conservatives realize, NDP and Liberal opposition critics say.

They point to analysis in a Global News series on Canada’s financial instability trapas proof the post-recession recovery is, for many families, an unfulfilled promise.

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