2 Canadian hostages in Philippines

A soldier in the southern town of Jolo in the Philippines on Tuesday. As soldiers continue to battle Abu Sayyaf, some analysts have begun to question whether the group can be defeated. Credit Ben Hajan/European Pressphoto Agency http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/world/asia/abu-sayyaf-philippines-kidnappings.html?_r=0

By: Mitch Potter

   You can ascribe any number of trigger warnings to Monday’s gruesome news involving two Canadian hostages in the Philippines.

   A deadline arrived. A ransom did not. And thus did the militants of Abu Sayyaf make real the threat to behead expat Calgarian John Ridsdel in a manner so repugnant as to be unworthy of repeating here.

A trigger of devastation for his many friends and family, including none other than former Ontario premier Bob Rae, who knew Ridsdel, 68, since college. When the news broke, a deeply anguished Rae disclosed his months of ultimately fruitless involvement in back-channel efforts to negotiate freedom for his friend.

    A trigger of deepening dread for the well-being of fellow Canadian captive Robert Hall, 50, who remains in the grip of the Jihadist group, alongside a Norwegian man and a Filipino woman. All were snatched up last September in an audacious raid from a holiday resort in the southern Philippine island of Samal. Random hostages, by all accounts...http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/04/25/beheading-threat-prompts-philippines-bid-to-rescue-kidnapped-canadians-2-others.html