Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a favourite of the Davos set, stuck to his usual themes — gender parity and “progressive” trade. “It is shameful that nearly seven years into the conflict, a war on children continues while the world watches,” a UNICEF spokesman said on Monday. The UN Security Council considered the matter briefly and decided not to do anything, and NATO is quiet, too, owing to embarrassment. Seventy-one countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 countries registering gains. “Liberal democracies have less legitimacy than at any time since World War II, and most of their structural problems don’t appear fixable,” the global risk-analysis firm Eurasia Group concluded in a study released Jan. 2.

Source: National Post January 24, 2018 18:40 UTC