News for December 11th, 2015

LOCAL
by Catlin Spencer

Universities across Montreal are gearing up to offer their assistance to the thousands of refugees expected to arrive from Syria in the upcoming months.

According to the Montreal Gazette, despite being in full swing end-of-term schedules and final exams, universities are raising money, organizing crowd-funding campaigns and offering tutoring for Syrian refugees.

Concordia is offering six bursaries for refugees, the Universite de Montreal is developing initiatives that will be announced shortly, and McGill has pledged to triple it's support for refugee students.

The first 25, 000 Syrian refugees are expected to arrive in Canada this week, and the majority are due before the end of February.

NATIONAL
by Catlin Spencer

Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien is urging the Liberal government to have an open debate on national security.

According to CTV News, Therrien is hoping the new government will consult the public and specialists before revamping the controversial anti-terrorism bill C-51.

Bill C-51 was railed last March, being called excessive and capable of putting citizens personal information at risk as well as government data.

Therrien is also urging federal agencies to be safer in regards to protecting sensitive personal information, specifically data saved on USB drives, which are easy to lose.

INTERNATIONAL
by Catlin Spencer

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claims that North Korea is in possession of a hydrogen bomb, a weapon hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bomb.

According to CNN, experts are skeptical about the claim, saying that at most the country could be in development of the weapon.

However, if the claim is true, it would represent a major leap in North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities.

A top United Nations human rights official requested that Pyongyang be refereed to the International Criminal Court during a Security Council meeting.