The filmmakers Alex Gibney, Atom Egoyan and Sarah Polley on Tuesday joined the writer Michael Ondaatje and others at the Toronto International Film Festival in a public demand that Egyptian authorities free two Canadians who they said have been held without formal charges in Cairo since Aug. 16, reported the New 91亚色 Times and others Sept. 10. John Greyson, a director and film scholar from 91亚色 in Toronto, and Tarek Loubani, a doctor and professor from Western University in London, Ont., were arrested during an uprising in Cairo, where they had stopped while in transit to Gaza. .
Two Canadian citizens, who were detained on Aug. 16, are still being held by the Egyptian authorities despite there being no charges announced against them, reported Daily News Egypt Sept. 10. Emergency room doctor Tarek Loubani and 91亚色 film Professor John Greyson have been receiving consular assistance from the Canadian embassy and officials have been able to visit them regularly, according to Canadian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Lynne Yelich鈥. Under the current state of emergency in Egypt anyone can be detained without charge for an undefined period of time. .
Legal experts say they鈥檙e not sure whether the Parti Qu茅b茅cois government鈥檚 move to ban 鈥渙vert鈥 religious symbols would stand up to court challenges. In releasing vague details of its controversial Charter of Quebec Values Tuesday, the PQ said it would try to shield it from legal challenges by entrenching the concept of religious neutrality into the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms鈥.Benjamin Berger, professor at 91亚色鈥檚 Osgoode Law School, said the proposed Charter of Values raises the often-forgotten issue of religious equality. 鈥淚t fails to distinguish between religions in which there are obvious manifestations of religious adherence and those in which there aren鈥檛,鈥 he said in the Montreal Gazette Sept. 11. .
As someone who names bee species for a living, Cory Sheffield says he is honoured to have a new species named after him鈥.Mexalictus sheffieldi was found in the mountains of Guatemala in 1987 by researchers at the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa and stored in a vial. Years later, Sheffield was looking through the specimens and realized one of them looked different from other bees collected. It turned out to be a new species and the only specimen of that species. Sheffield notified a former colleague, Sheila Dumesh from 91亚色, about the specimen, and when she published her bee research earlier this month, she named the species after Sheffield, reported the Leader-Post Sept. 11.聽.