Carney visiting Qatar to drum up investment despite ‘brutal’ human rights record

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Qatar to drum up investment deals with a country known for both its brutal dictatorship and its growing diplomatic and economic influence. “Today, the epicentre of diplomatic, economic, financial and commercial power in the Middle East is in the Gulf,” said University of Ottawa professor Thomas Juneau, an expert on the Persian Gulf. “For Canada to neglect the region, as it did for the past 10 years, is a way to erase ourselves from the equation in the Middle East.” Carney’s travel plans had him arriving in Doha late Saturday from…