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North Country Realty Inc., Brokerage Buying or Selling in Muskoka? Independently Owned and Operated Frank van der Staay 705-783-9066 Sales Representative frank@frankvanderstaay.com SNA NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 2010 ontario's top newspaper - 2005-2008 Getting new lungs Page 3 www. oakvillebeaver .com 1 M I N R A T E % * Realty Inc., Brokerage 905.331.7653 *Does not include commission to cooperating brokerage. FULL SERVICE BROKERAGE TOTAL COMMISSION AS LOW AS 1% www.Minrate.com Oak-land Ford Lincoln 905.844.3273 www.oak-land.com A member of Metroland Media Group Ltd. Vol. 51 No. 12 "Using Communication To Build Better Communities" WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2013 52 pages $1.00 (plus tax) Oakville MD among doctors at risk in Syria By Hamida Ghafour TORONTO STAR Dr. Anas al Kassem knows he is a marked man. A friend's wife phoned him recently from Damascus to warn that his life was in danger. The friend, a psychologist, had been kidnapped by Syrian security and tortured for three months. When he broke he gave al Kassem's name to his interrogators. Al Kassem, 39, is a trauma surgeon and part of a secret network of dozens of doctors working in 50 underground clinics run mostly out of private homes across Aleppo and Idlib provinces in the northwest, which treat civilians and fighters wounded in the civil war. Security precautions they take are extraordinary. Doctors use false names, even with each other. Carrying medical equipment is a risk and getting caught with a stethoscope at a checkpoint could mean death or detention. "I know I am targeted by the regime," said al Kassem, a father of five, in the living room of his spacious Oakville home as he prepared for his monthly trip to his homeland. "Everyone knows who is active." An increasing number of Syrian doctors are being killed or tortured as the war grinds on between President Bashar alAssad -- who was once an ophthalmologist in England -- and rebels seeking to overthrow his regime. Verifying the reports independently is difficult but the pattern of how medical workers are targeted reflected what organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said. Targeting medical personnel is a breach of the Geneva Conventions and See Targeting page 4 PUTTING LIFE ON THE LInE: Dr. Anas al Kassem, a Canadian-Syrian surgeon from Oakville, faces the possibility of death or torture when he returns to his homeland to work in an underground clinic. CARLOS OSORIO / TORONTO STAR SHUTTERS · Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed · Serving Oakville with Shop at Home Hom ome om e Service Se · Wood & Vinyl Shutters, Supplied & Installed · High High g Quality Quality Quali ty ya at t Affordab Affordable able Pri Pric Prices c CALIFORNIA & PLANTATION SHUTTERS ETC. 905.691.4455 www.shuttersetc.ca Authorized Eclipse Shutters Dealer Shop at Home Service FREE