“The danger is 360 degrees, 365 days of the year and you need to have the best trained, best equipped and best led Canadians on the ground to be able to be able to work in a very-very volatile, very complex environment,” said Retired Lt.-Col. Steve Day, former commander of Canada’s elite anti-terrorism unit Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) and president of Radical Ventures, a security consultancy and training company.

Dr. Donald Redelmeier says concussions increase the risk for suicide three and four times.

Paula Donovan says the UN has failed to effectively deal with the allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeeping staff.

Psychologist Sara Dimerman says many factors including a frenetic lifestyle can make children anxious.

Anthony Fenton, an author, a PhD candidate at York University who studies Canada’s foreign policy and is a vocal critic of relations with the monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula, says the past decade has seen a real intensification of Canada’s ties with the Gulf monarchies.

“The Saudis have one of the one of the worst human rights records, the worst of the worst,” said Paul Heinbecker, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and chief foreign policy advisor to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. “They still behead people, they carry out public executions, women are totally repressed, and this is a country that carries out a war with apparently a lot of indiscriminate bombings in Yemen.”

“It’s not just a boy scout wish to be helpful to others – there is some altruism in it – but fundamentally a country the size of Canada needs and prospers from a rules-based international environment,” said Paul Heinbecker. “If it’s left to the law of the jungle, if the biggest countries do whatever they feel like doing and the others suffer what they must, Canada is not going to be in a very strong position to prevail.”

Opera star Mark S. Doss says breaking down barriers is beneficial to all of society.

Columnist Lawrence Martin says the news media are in such decline in Canada that a public inquiry is needed.

“The idea of being in tune with where you are and looking for things that maybe signs of danger is a very good principle,” Prof. Stephen Herrero said. “And it also gets us more in tune with environments we’re in and lets us benefit from reconnecting with nature.”