Homa Hoodfar Freed

News accounts in numerous media include clips from a news conference at Concordia, Monday afternoon, with professors Marguerite Mendell, Kimberley Manning, Marc Lafrance and Shelley Reuter, who shared their feelings of joy and relief and expressed thanks to the Concordia community and to all those around the world who signed petitions and helped keep Hoodfar's case uppermost on the minds of the public and of decision-makers: CTV and CBC (live coverage), the Montreal Gazette, Gazette e-edition, La Presse +, Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, Yahoo! Finance (with video from The Canadian Press) and, on campus, The Link and The Concordian. Additionally, professor Marc Lafrance is interviewed on CJAD (no link available), Marguerite Mendell is heard on CBC Radio's 'Daybreak' and CBC morning radio in Quebec City (no links available) and Radio Canada television's 24/60 runs clips of Lafrance and Mendell (starting at the 55-second mark) from yesterday's Concordia news conference. Mendell was also interviewed this morning on the Radio Canada Première program 'Garvel le matin' (segment beginning at the 1:11:45-mark of the audio file). Note also that Concordia has issued a statement from president Alan Shepard on Hoodfar's release; the federal government posts a release in which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expresses relief on behalf of Canadians and thanks the governments of Oman, Italy and Switzerland, which Trudeau says were instrumental in helping secure Hoodfar's freedom; CNW/Telbec (reprised by Le Lézard) posts a release from premier Philippe Couillard and minister responsible for international relations, Christine St-Pierre expressing the Quebec government's relief on the news of Hoodfar's release; Geneviève Rail, professor in the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, shares her reaction to the news of Hoodfar's freedom in an interview for the Radio Canada program 'Médium large'; Le Devoir reports that Iranian authorities interrogated Hoodfar for up to nine hours a day on her writings about sexual diversity and feminism in Muslim countries; Radio-Canada's television's 24/60 airs an interview with Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion about Hoodfar's release (at the 3:10 mark). The Toronto Star writes that prime minister Justin Trudeau made personal appeals to allies, notably, Italy and Switzerland and Iranian ally Oman, to help free Hoodfar; the Montreal Gazette publishes a timeline of events in the Hoodfar case; the Québec Solidaire party posts a release, picked up by Le Lézard, in which MNA Amir Khadir expresses relief with the outcome in the Hoodfar case and urges Prime Minister Trudeau to show the same commitment to obtaining the release of other political prisoners of authoritarian regimes; the Green Party of Canada issues a statement on Hoodfar's release; the Quebec section of Lawyers without Borders and the Barreau du Québec post a joint release on CNW/Telbec to express their relief following Hoodfar's release.