The family of Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy says the journalist is staying strong despite being handed a 7 year prison sentence earlier this week in Cairo.  His parents and brother visited him in prison yesterday.  Adel Fahmy says his brother “is trying to keep the hope and is emphasizing that there must be another solution rather than waiting for the appeals court.”  Fahmy and two other Al Jazeera English journalists have been found guilty of terrorism related charges in supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood.  They say they were simply doing their jobs reporting on the short lived Brotherhood-led government that was ousted by Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister is defending Canada’s muted response to Fahmy’s prison sentence.  John Baird says critics would’ve accused the Canadian government of “practicing bullhorn diplomacy if it had been loud and vocal.”  But Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada says Baird “needs to go on the record and say this is unacceptable and we insist that he be immediately and unconditionally released.”

The conviction of the journalists prompted outrage from the foreign ministers of Australia, Britain and the U.S.