Canada in brief Nov. 17, 2010

More students find it cool to stay in school: StatsCan

OTTAWA (CUP) — The dropout rate for Canadian high school students has nearly halved over the last two decades, according to a recent Statistics Canada report.

As of 2010, only 8.5 per cent of young twenty-somethings hadn’t seen their secondary school education through to the end. More young men than young women have typically failed to complete high school, although the gap between the two groups has narrowed since 1990.

Twenty years ago, 19.2 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women did not complete secondary school — those rates dropped to 10.3 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively in 2009-10.

—Emma Godmere, CUP Ottawa Bureau Chief

Canada fails in its commitments to international community: Dallaire

MONTREAL (CUP) — Romeo Dallaire’s speech at Concordia University addressed how Canada finds itself in a new international situation with new powers to contest with.

Dallaire went on to argue that there is no longer such thing as a peacekeeper. It is no use throwing money at countries, he said. Instead, Canada must go into countries and “get their boots dirty.”

A multi-disciplinary approach to intervention, he argued, is vital.

—Emma Quail, the McGill Daily

— Compiled by Alanna Wallace