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Mentorship Program Fosters Entrepreneurial Spirit in Aboriginal Communities
As a young aboriginal man who successfully started his own business, Devon Meekis says there are not only obstacles with access to education programs stopping aboriginal people from pursuing higher education, but ridicule and jealously from their communities.

To try to counteract this attitude, Meekis has joined 24 other young aboriginals to create Project Beyshick, a mentorship program working to foster business initiative in First Nations communities.
"I figured that the best way to show somebody that they can make it is to make it yourself," says Meekis.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Inexpensive Chinese Car Already Has Canadian Fans
China is not fulfilling its obligations as a World Trade Organization member, costing Europe billions in lost exports due to its strict trade barriers, says European Union’s trade chief, Peter Mandelson.

Mandelson says the EU will issue a report later this year on whether China is trying to open up foreign trade and meet its other commitments as a WTO member. He is urging China to become more welcoming to foreign goods, services and investors.
Read more at Canadianbusiness.com<<

May-December romance gripping Hollywood could be answer to Canada's sex imbalance
Madonna's doing it. So is Susan Sarandon. And Demi Moore? The divorced mother of three pretty well started the dating craze currently gripping Hollywood when she married Ashton Kutcher, some 15 years her junior.
Now it seems that May-December type of romance could be the answer to female dating woes in Canada, should the country's sex ratio imbalance grow any worse.
According to the latest census data released by Statistics Canada, the national sex ratio is 95.9 men for every 100 women, down from 96.1 men to 100 Canadian women in 2001. The new statistics show that a Canadian woman's odds of finding a man are on a downward slide. The male-female ratio hasn't been even in Canada for 35 years.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Calgary, Canada's youngest city, experiencing growing pains
A roaring economy has made Calgary a beacon for young people seeking their fortune. Hundreds stream into the booming Alberta metropolis every week.
The influx has pushed Calgary's population past the one-million mark and has given the Stampede city a new claim to fame - welcome to Canada's youngest city.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Death, life sentences meted out by Chinese court in slave labour case
A foreman from a kiln in north China, where workers were beaten and forced to work 18-hour days, has been sentenced to life in prison. And another man was sentenced to death for the beating death of a labourer, a court official said.
The slave labour scandal erupted after hundreds of parents complained that their children were being forced to work in brick kilns in Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Employee shortage predicted as boomers slide into retirement
Canadian businesses could be slammed by an employee shortage as baby boomers hit retirement age. And this could leave some corporations begging staff to stay on, while some financially unprepared workers realize they can't afford to say goodbye.
More workers will leave the country's labour force than enter it within 10 years, Statistics Canada predicted as it released the latest figures on aging from the 2006 census.
That could mean a dearth of experienced workers on the job as the baby-boomer brain drain hits its peak and too many people retire.
Read more at Canadianbusiness.com<<

Home improvement
You love everything about him...well, almost everything. If you sometimes catch yourself cringing because he's tucked his sweater into his jeans, or recoil when he leans in for a smooch due to his swamp mouth, it's time to do something about it.

But, before you begin making over your man, check your motives.

"It's important to understand for yourself why you want him to change," says Vancouver-based couples therapist, Kerry Moller. "You need to look at whether these issues are affecting your intimacy."

Moller also says that your best strategy is to "focus on making specific complaints and requests rather than overwhelming him with a whole bunch of issues at once."

In other words, pick your battles ladies.
Read more at Chatelaine.com<<

Top Wheels: The 2007 Family Car Guide
Family vehicles have come a long way since you and your siblings were crammed into the back of dad’s station wagon on the way to some cheesy theme park. Back then, seat belts were optional, a fill-up cost $10 and wood panelling was a sign of good taste.
Today, there are 33 major car brands and hundreds of models, all with a daunting array of options and safety features.
That’s why we assembled a panel of experts to rate the best picks in five popular categories, with a special emphasis on safety, value and what we’re calling the “family factor.”
Read more at Todaysparent.com<<
Renting Wombs: India’s Rising Surrogacy Rate
More and more women in India are finding an unconventional and controversial way to get out of poverty, becoming a surrogate mother. Carrying babies for women from around the world is increasingly common in India, where it is believed 200 medical clinics offer surrogacy.

The social stigma attached to surrogacy is so severe that many of the women volunteering to take part conceal the truth from their loved ones.

Infertility specialist Dr. Nayana Patel defends the practice, saying, “This is the globalization of reproduction.”
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Chinese Trade Barriers Costing Billions in Lost Exports Says EU
China is not fulfilling its obligations as a World Trade Organization member, costing Europe billions in lost exports due to its strict trade barriers, says European Union’s trade chief, Peter Mandelson.

Mandelson says the EU will issue a report later this year on whether China is trying to open up foreign trade and meet its other commitments as a WTO member. He is urging China to become more welcoming to foreign goods, services and investors.
Read more at Canadianbusiness.com<<

Iran's Freedom Fighters
Never giving up on the dream of a time when they could enjoy the basic human rights the Western world takes for granted, a dedicated underground group of Iranian democratic activists talk about their hopes, fears and frequent prison sentences.

The activists insisted reporter Michael Petrou use their real names in his inside look at their daily reality, despite the danger this put them in, as five of his named sources who met him in Tehran have subsequently been arrested.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Study: CEOs’ Boldness Not Creating More Successful Companies
Narcissistic CEOs don’t tend to have more or less successful companies that their less dramatic counterparts, reports a study by Penn State University researchers.

Looking a group of over 100 computer company CEOs, the study states the bolder heads of the companies tend to either win big or fail miserably, making them on average as successful as more moderate, less ego-centric business leaders.
Read more at Canadianbusiness.com<<
A Quebec University’s China MBA Program Accused of Bending Rules

A Canadian who was an employee of Université du Quebec à Montreal’s executive MBA program in China is shining a spotlight on what he calls widespread cheating and bribery at the school. He says he was fired after refusing to ignore admission rules for influential Chinese wanting an MBA. Officials at the university say he was let go because of cutbacks in the program.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Canadian Universities Denounce British Proposal to Boycott Israeli Academics

Presidents of University of British Columbia, York University and McGill University have rejected British professors’ call to boycott Israeli universities and academics, stating academics’ need to freely collaborate with whoever they choose. The British union voted to isolate Israeli academics and universities in a conference in late May, denouncing the “complicity of Israeli academia” in the occupation of Palestine.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Spanish Anthem Leaves Country Speechless
Hundreds of years of humming have inspired some Spanish athletes to call for lyrics to their wordless national anthem, La Marcha Real. TheSpanish Olympic Committee and the Spanish Football Federation have led opposition leader Mariano Rajoy to present a bill in parliament to begin the hunt for words for one of the oldest national anthems. Getting Spain’s diverse cultural groups to agree on a single version is expected to be a challenge.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

No More Guantanamo?

The widely criticized detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba may close its doors as the U.S. government nears its decision on the prison’s future. The Washington Post reports Bush officials are having trouble deciding the fate of Guantanamo’s 380 inmates should the facility shutdown. Vice-President Cheney and Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales have resisted the current plan that would see the inmates transferred to prisons in the U.S., where their cases would go to trial.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Italy: Where Mussolini and Meryl Streep intersect
For many North Americans, dubbed film dialogue evokes badly done kung fu movies. And most of us would prefer reading subtitles to watching Penélope Cruz lip-synch English in Volver.

But, in Western Europe, particularly Italy, where dubbing movies has been commonplace since the beginning of sound in film, it has evolved into an art. Italy is widely recognized as an industry leader, and its best practitioners were honoured recently at the first International Dubbing Awards.

Some 1,650 people attended the gala in Rome, where at least 90 per cent of Italy's dubbing is produced. They included foreign guests such as Oscar-winning actor F. Murray Abraham.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Death of a dissident

As Vladimir Putin blustered about nuclear missiles at the recent G8 Summit, fallout from another Russian nuclear event -- the poisoning via polonium-210, a radioactive isotope, of former KGB officer turned dissident-in-exile Alexander Litvinenko -- continued to accumulate.
In England, The Guardian reported that since Litvinenko's death in London last November, more than 3,000 government staff have worked on the ensuing public health crisis, which involved testing hundreds of people for radiation exposure and cleaning up traces of radioactive contamination in multiple sites.
And in Cannes, a documentary implicating the Kremlin in Litvinenko's murder, as well as the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, premiered to acclaim.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Son of the drug war

The fate of a three-year-old boy, born in captivity to a high-profile hostage in the Colombian Amazon, has mobilized a country weary of decades of violence and kidnappings into hammering out a lasting deal with members of Latin America's oldest insurgency.
Alvaro Uribe, President of Colombia, has launched an international awareness campaign built around the fate of Emmanuel, the three-year-old boy born to former vice-presidential hopeful Clara Rojas, a hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for more than five years.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Naples: Garbage crisis

On the recently wrapped The Sopranos, "waste management" was Tony's pat answer (along with the signature sheepish grin) when asked about his line of work. But in real-life Naples -- where for weeks more than 2,700 tonnes of trash have been piling up on the city's streets, in its bay, and up the slopes of Vesuvius -- the mob's rumoured involvement in garbage disposal is no joke.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Citytv: a rich price tag for a special brand

Originally constructed in 1914 as the headquarters of the Methodist Church of Canada, the CHUMCity building at 299 Queen St. W. has been, for years, Canada's cultural fishbowl.
It is a place where passersby can press up against the glass to watch Moses Znaimer's great TV experiment in action. He once described his creation -- which debuted in 1972 with an urban, no-frills look -- as a "model for the world."
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Sicko': They love me, they love me not

Michael Moore's fans were out in force, with several hundred of them milling around a Silver City multiplex, in a London, Ont. mall. One held a sign with the slogan: "Michael Moore for Prime Minister."
Larissa Gerow, a 29-year-old quadriplegic -- her neck broken by a truck that ran a red light and slammed into her bicycle four years ago -- watched from a wheelchair strung with a cardboard sign: "London health care saved my life (all I had to do was pay for my parking)."
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

RIM co-CEO Balsillie and province provide $34M for economic research project

Ontario's businesses and government officials will get a little extra help competing in the global marketplace with a $34-million investment into researching how to grow the province's economy, Premier Dalton McGuinty said recently.
The Waterloo-based Centre for International Governance Innovation is getting two cheques for $17 million - one from the Ontario government and one from Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie - to dispense economic research and advice to the government, businesses and the general public.
The research institution plans to focus on how other countries are meeting their energy needs, economic growth in China and India, and Canada's relationship with the Caribbean region.
Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

Radio listening by Canadians on the decline, says StatsCan study

A new study has found that Canadians - especially teens and young adults - devoted less time than ever listening to their radios for entertainment in 2006.
Statistics Canada reports that many teenagers, ages 12 to 17 years, and young adults ages 18 to 24 appear to be switching to digital music players and online music services.
On average, Canadians tuned in to their radios for 18.6 hours during "measurement week" in the fall of 2006. That is down from 19.1 hours a week in 2005 and about two hours less than in the fall of 1999, when radio listening peaked.
Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

China launches US$1 billion African trade and investment fund

China launched a US$1billion fund Tuesday to finance trade and investment by Chinese companies in Africa as part of efforts to nurture commercial ties with the resource-rich continent.
The fund is part of Chinese aid and loans to Africa promised by President Hu Jintao at a November meeting with dozens of African leaders in Beijing. China has been promoting itself as a partner for Africa's development as it tries to secure oil and other resources for its booming economy and new markets for its exports. But, Beijing faces complaints that it is treating Africa as a colony and that it supports oppressive regimes, such as those in Sudan and Zimbabwe.
Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

The Greener House Effect

Canadians are blessed with an abundance of land, resources and endless wonder. Maybe that’s why we’re so wasteful.
A 2005 study comparing Canada’s environmental performance against 29 other wealthy Western countries confirmed that we’re a nation of eco-hogs. We ranked among the worst four in nine critical environmental indicators. They include energy consumption, water use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Read more at Todaysparent.com<<
If the punishment is death, then the executioner's song may soon be China's most-heard tune

As the safety of China’s exports is questioned, the country’s criminal court sentenced the former head of the state food and drug agency to death, sending a clear warning to those who would compromise consumers’ safety to become rich.

But the damage caused by Zheng Xiaoyu, who was found guilty of taking $1 million in bribes to fast track the approval of new drugs, may have already been done. Investigators have found 20 per cent of Chinese-made toys and baby clothes had failed safety tests.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Ontario creates new Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, but no new minister

Trying to relieve tensions with Ontario’s native groups, the province’s Liberal government created a newly independent Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, without adding a new cabinet minister.
Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay, who was already in charge of aboriginal affairs, will be in charge of the ministry. There will be a new deputy minister appointed to oversee the ministry.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Auditor general gives Nunavut student loans program an ‘F’

Auditor General Sheila Fraser criticized Nunavut’s government for failing to collect provincial student loans. Fraser presented her report about the Financial Assistance for Nunavut Students Program in Iqaluit, calling for the government to collect the approximately $4 million students and ex-students owe in loans.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Expats doing business enforcing China's Internet laws

Some Chinese-Canadian entrepreneurs are making it big in the technology world where Google and Yahoo have not. Companies such as Big Café make no apologies for doing business enforcing China’s Internet censorship laws.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Loonie continues upward climb

The Canadian dollar has continued to soar in currency markets as of late. More than a few economists think the loonie could hit par with the U.S. dollar in the near future, and some manufacturers are raising the alarm.
Read more at CanadianBusiness.com<<

Harper unveils land claims reforms

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has proposed a bill aimed at settling native land claims more quickly. According to the federal government, there are currently over 800 unresolved land claims in Canada. On average, each claim takes 13 years to resolve.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Columnist pushes for election reform

Heather Mallick is a journalist who says Canadian women are not present in federal or provincial politics in numbers proportionate to their existence. She’s calling for election reform to even the numbers.
Read more at Chatelaine.com<<

Alleged leader of Asian terror network arrested

Indonesia's most-wanted terrorist was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings and several other deadly strikes. Abu Dujana allegedly leads the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah and may have ties to Osama bin Laden, police say.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Terror suspect wins legal challenge

A Federal Court judge has ruled that the government can use secret evidence against terrorist suspects, but must summarize the information and give suspects and their lawyers the reasons why it can't be disclosed.
The decision comes as part of a legal challenge made by lawyers for Mohammad Momim Khawaja, the first Canadian charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Khawaja is accused of conspiring to help a London terrorist group build a bomb and was arrested at the same time as the British suspects in 2004. Those five accused were given life sentences in Britain last week.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Sino-Canadian rift deepens

Chinese officials say Canada is "damaging Sino-Canadian relations" by allowing its MPs to visit Taiwan, The Globe and Mail reports.
The accusation was made during a private meeting during the first week of May between Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, who was visiting China, and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Criminal or whistleblower?

The contract worker arrested for allegedly leaking the Conservative government's Green Plan says he is the victim of a politically motivated "witch hunt."
Jeff Monaghan, 27, was arrested by the RCMP at his Environment Canada office on May 9th and later released. He may face charges of breach of trust for sending the plan to a journalist and environmental activists and could face up to five years in prison.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Canadian arrested in Kabul

Afghan police have detained a Canadian citizen for possible involvement with the insurgency, The Globe and Mail is reporting.
Sources say authorities believe the man attended a militant training camp in a border region of Pakistan thought to serve as a base for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.
Police detained him in early-May at a bus station in Kabul and are reportedly holding him for questioning. The man's name has not been released, but he has been identified as a 24-year-old of Pakistani origin who used to live in Calgary. He had a Canadian passport on him when he was arrested.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Toews report released

Mexican authorities have released a preliminary report stating that Jeff Toews' apparently fatal injuries resulted from a fall after a night of heaving drinking. But his family continues to insist that he was attacked and is vowing to find out the truth.
Toews, a 34-year-old from Grande Prairie, Alta., was declared brain dead at a Mexican hospital after suffering massive head and back injuries while vacationing with his wife and friends at a hotel resort in Cancun. He was later airlifted to an Edmonton hospital on life-support, where doctors confirmed the diagnosis.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Where sport and human rights meet

The federal government should seize the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as an opportunity to pressure China to improve its human-rights record, according to an all-party report obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The draft report also urges Ottawa to suspend its annual human-rights discussion with China and demand the country improve its policies before continuing the dialogue.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Jaffer takes a stand

Alberta MP Rahim Jaffer, the chairman of the Conservative caucus in Parliament, says sports officials in Quebec overreacted when they refused to let hijab-clad Muslim girls from participating in competitions.
Jaffer's statements on the explusion of participants in soccer and taekwondo tournaments in the province are the first by a member of the Conservative government.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Bad thoughts about 'The Secret'

"What kind of house do you want to live in? Do you want to be a millionaire?" writes money-making expert John Assaraf in The Secret, the Oprah-endorsed self-help phenomenon that' has sold two million DVDs and four million books.
To a skeptical writer at Salon.com, The Secret's super-simple money scheme sounds like an old Steve Martin joke: "So you want to be a millionaire? That's easy. First, you get a million bucks ..."
As the book reveals, "The Secret is the law of attraction ... Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you."
The law sounds easy to follow. "If you see it in your mind, you're going to hold it in your hand," writes personal coach Bob Proctor.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Afghanistan's cultural warrior

If there's one thing that is in no short supply in Afghanistan these days it is ethnic hatred. The Pashtuns hate the Hazara, the Hazara envy the Tajiks, the Tajik are no friends of Turkomans.

Such rivalries have fractured the government, prolonging the war against the Taliban (ethnic Pashtuns) and prompting warlords to keep their mini-armies intact -- just in case.

It is against that backdrop that NATO and development agencies from around the world fight to help Afghans build a better future. But there's another battle being waged: an attempt to nurture a sense of Afghan unity by saving what is left of the country's rich cultural heritage.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

The Great Pet Food Scandal

Sometime in the next couple of years, when the public gaze has drifted from the tainted pet food epidemic and we've all forgotten what melamine is, a judge in Ohio or California or Ontario will take up the daunting question of what a dog or cat is worth.

There was considerable legal debate on this topic even before the current uproar. But if an animal's curative effect on the human heart plays any part in the calculation, the courts might start at a small house in Floral Park, N.Y., where the wounds wrought by the poisoning epidemic will stay raw for a long time to come.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Meet you in the lactation room

It's great that you're breastfeeding, but maternity leave is over. "Your first day back at work is going to be miserable," warns a new advice book for working moms who want to keep nursing.

The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business with Babies is the brainchild of Cate Colburn-Smith and Andrea Serrette, two IBM employees who met in the company's windowless "lactation room."

Pumping milk at work, to later bottle-feed the baby, is a nutritious, cost-saving plan. Except for everything that goes wrong.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

YouTube Populates With Reaction (Some Touching, Some Tasteless) to Virginia Tech Massacre

It was inevitable that the online video world would offer its take on a crime glimpsed as it unfolded most dramatically via a cell phone camera, carried out by a student who put together a CD-ROM of his manifesto and mailed it to a TV news network.
A quick search of YouTube brings up dozens of videos posted in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, many of them simply news footage lifted from the various networks.
Read more at CanadianBusiness.com <<
It hurts when you call me professor

Allison Dube is the kind of professor who greets students by name even though his classes often have more than 100 people. He regularly extends his office hours and provides his home number so students can reach him at any time, and he uses words like “magical,” “joy”, “adventure” and even “love” when describing the “amazing journey” he takes with each new class. By his own admission he “sounds like a Hallmark card.” It would be easy to dismiss it as rhetoric if it weren’t for the fact that his students express similar sentiments when describing Dube in course evaluations: “I would take a course from Dr. Dube even if I was assured a failing grade,” says one student.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Students get ready for battle

After just being re-elected with a minority government, Jean Charest is already facing off with angry students.
Some 1,500 students descended into the streets of Montreal to protest the government's plan to lift the freeze on tuition and hike fees by $50 per semester.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

'My people today are very edgy'

Community leaders in Kashechewan are warning the spring thaw could bring another series of floods to the troubled native community.
Jonathan Solomon, Kashechewan's chief, was in Ottawa to plead with the federal government to fix a failing dike that hasn't been repaired since the reserve was flooded last year.
"My people today are very edgy because of the spring flood that's just around the corner," Solomon told reporters.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Too big for hockey

Accusations ranging from sizeism to anti-Anglophone bigotry are swirling around the Outaouais after an 8-year-old hockey player, Jared Murray, was deemed "too big and strong" by league officials to participate in regional playoffs in the novice B division.

Shawville and District Minor Hockey pulled its teams from the Hockey Outaouais playoffs as a result.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Coderre and Doan face off

Liberal MP Denis Coderre has launched a $45,000 defamation suit against the Phoenix Coyotes' Shane Doan in response to the NHL player's $250,000 defamation suit against him.
At the heart of the conflct are allegations Doan called four francophone on-ice officials "f---ing French" during a game in December 2005. At the time, Doan was given a gross misconduct penalty and a report was filed with the league. But Doan was cleared during a subsequent hearing at which he flatly denied using the slur.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Guantanamo prisoners lose challenge

In a blow to Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, among others, the United States Supreme Court has decided that prisoners at the controversial military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay are not entitled to a review of the legal conditions governing their detention.
The decision stems from a bid to challenge the detentions in a civilian court by two prisoners, an Algerian and a Kuwaiti.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Olympic backlash

A New Democratic Party MLA is charging that the build-up to the 2010 Olympics is costing the poor their homes.
In a letter to Louise Arbour, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, Jenny Kwan has called for the UN agency to monitor the situation. In her letter, Kwan argues that preparations for the Olympics have caused several rooming houses and single room occupancy (SRO) hotels to be shut down, thus violating people's right to basic housing.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

A blunt instrument

The recent Ontario government budget confirmed that the minimum wage is to be raised in Ontario as part of a program to reduce poverty. It will go up annually by $0.75 per hour until it reaches $10.25 per hour in 2010. These hikes follow several increases legislated by Dalton McGuinty's Liberals since taking office in 2003, when the minimum wage was $6.85 per hour.
Within hours, the latest minimum-wage initiative was blasted by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. It said the proposed increases will cost Ontario restaurant operators $765 million in higher wages and payroll taxes over the next three years.
Read more at CanadianBusiness.com<<

Women investors are more active and confident

When it comes to managing their finances and investments, women are no longer sitting on the sidelines.
A recent poll by TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. revealed that 92% of Canadian women take an active roll in household budgeting and investments.
Their incentive for an interest in investing? Three out five women (60%) say they are spurred on by the desire for financial independence, while 77% say saving for retirement was their prime motivator.
Read more at CanadianBusiness.com <<

Do Children Need Religion?

Some parents struggle with whether to raise their children with religion, in light of the current international political climate. However, those who choose to do so, have several reasons to justify their decision.
For thousands of years, religion has served many communities well in reinforcing moral lessons — providing a framework to help distinguish between right and wrong.
Read more at TodaysParent.com <<

Language woes

A poll by Angus Reid Strategies suggests that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is better at communicating with francophones than Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is at getting his message across with anglophones. The poll was conducted by showing clips of both men speaking in their second languages to random groups from each linguistic category. While 81% of francophones rated the Prime Minister's abilities in French as either "good" or "very good," Dion's English achieved just a 56% approval rating.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

No special treatment for Iraqi refugees

The federal government plans to treat refugee claims by Iraqis on a case-by-case basis despite calls by the United States and the United Nations for countries to open their doors to those fleeing.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said the hundreds of thousands of people leaving Iraq represent the largest population movement in the Middle East in 60 years. The U.S. has promised to resettle 7,000 fleeing Iraqis referred by the agency.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Not an option

The residents of troubled Kashechewan have turned down an offer to move their community to Timmins, Ont., preferring a move to traditional land near James Bay instead. But, federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has indicated the government isn't prepared to pick up the $500-million tab for such a move.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Racism or mistranslation?

Despite the complaints of two minority groups, André Boisclair is refusing to apologize for using the term "les yeux bridés" to describe the Asian students he encountered while at Harvard.
In fact, the Parti Québécois leader says it's a term he uses quite frequently.
"I don't have any intention of apologizing," Boisclair said recently.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

No hijabs allowed

A prison guard still in training has been let go for insisting on wearing a hijab to work in Montreal. The provincial union of prison guards ruled that the head scarf could pose a threat to the woman's safety when she is among prisoners. Although the rules make no mention of hijabs, guards are prohibited from wearing neckties and their hair must be tied back for safety reasons. According to the deputy minister for correctional services, Jean Lortie, the headwear does indeed present a risk.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

A Long Journey to Canada

A nine-year-old Canadian boy and his Iranian parents have been allowed into Canada after spending weeks in a Texas detention centre. Refugees Kevin Yourdkhani and his parents were arrested when their plane made a stop-over on U.S. soil on their way to Canada.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Aboriginal protest in Quebec

A highway in western Quebec was the recent target of aboriginal protesters. Between 25 and 50 protesters set up a blockade on Highway 117 to protest what they say is the provincial government's refusal to honour a verbal agreement granting off-reserve natives the right to harvest trees. The group wants to be allowed to log in the region and is calling for a say in the management of forests.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Canada-India Trade Agreement?

Organized labour has indicated it's less than enthused by the prospect of a free trade agreement with India, while the Liberals are expressing skepticism about the government's motives. But, that's not dissuading business leaders, who are enthusiastically endorsing the government's India efforts. Canada plans to open up talks with India to secure a free trade agreement between the two countries. Talks would begin as soon as a foreign-investor protection agreement is reached - something government officials hope will happen before the end of the year.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Do Children Need Religion?

Some parents struggle with whether to raise their children with religion. However, those who choose to do so, have several reasons to justify their decision.
Read more at TodaysParents.com <<

Minority report

Quebec Premier Jean Charest has commissioned a special study group to look into the province’s burgeoning debate over so-called “reasonable accommodations” to religious and ethnic minorities.
Charest is hoping the commission can bring a greater calm to a debate that has inflamed passions across the province and been marked by especially heated rhetoric over the past few months.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Narrowing the field

Federal Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion is considering barring men from petitioning for the party’s nomination in some of the country’s ridings in order to meet his commitment of having one-third of the party’s candidates be women.
Dion made the ambitious promise during his bid for the Liberal leadership last year.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

The return of the FLQ?

The communiqué, anonymously mailed and delivered to all of its recipients on the same day, is chillingly forthright. It reads: "We will use a combination of booby-trapped vehicles and packages and remotely detonated explosives.

"We will focus on strategic targets, including roads, railway tracks, airports, water and gas facilities. It is possible that there will be dead and wounded . . . The bombings will take place between February and March 15th."

Delivered on January 15, 2007 to assorted media, anglophone politicians, as well as Quebec Premier Jean Charest and French President Jacques Chirac, the words are the latest salvo from a group claiming to be a newly formed cell of the FLQ, the Quebec nationalist group.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Child Care: What Canadian Parents Need Now

Here’s how the week shapes up for 21-month-old Ryan Kennedy of Vancouver. From Monday to Wednesday he spends the day at a licensed child-care centre.
On Thursday he’s home with his dad until 3:30 p.m., when Tony Kennedy leaves for his afternoon shift as a counsellor in a halfway house.
Grandma fills the two-hour gap until Ryan’s mom, Joselyn, gets home from her job as a dietitian. On Fridays, Ryan is home with his mom on her day off from work. She works 30 hours over the other four days. Tony, who works later on Fridays, is around until mid-afternoon. That’s just one snapshot of the complicated web of child-care arrangements Canadian families are using these days.
Read more at TodaysParent.com<<

Catholic nun jailed for 30 years for her part in Rwandan genocide

A Catholic nun was sentenced for helping militia kill hundreds of people during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A traditional court ruled that Theophister Mukakibibi must spend up to 30 years in jail for helping Hutu soldiers to kill ethnic Tutsis in the Butare hospital where she worked.

More than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in Rwanda. The genocide ended when Tutsi rebels toppled the government.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Prominent Tamil politician assassinated in Sri Lankan capital as war looms

A prominent Tamil politician was assassinated in Columbo. Nadaraja Raviraj was a member of the Tamil National Alliance – a group thought to have ties to the rebel Tamil Tigers.

A day before he was killed, Raviraj had joined a demonstration outside the local United Nations office to urge the agency to help protect Tamil refugees.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Globe and Mail readers do not take kindly to Norway beating Canada

The United Nations has released its annual ranking of the best places to live. For the sixth straight year, Norway finished atop the standings. Canada, a former winner, finished five spots behind the Scandinavian powerhouse.

In Norway, the news was greeted with a call to cease whining on the domestic front. But, reaction in Canada was considerably less positive - at least among commentators at globeandmail.com.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Economist wants Canada to show 'more self interest' in treatment of nationals abroad

For the record, Don DeVoretz doesn't criticize immigrants who come to Canada, stay long enough to become citizens, then leave to sow greener pastures in the world's economic hothouses.

"Nobody's breaking any law here," the economist and immigration researcher said in an interview from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where he's co-director of Research for Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis, or RIIM.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Sixth minister quits Lebanese cabinet as political crisis deepens

A Christian cabinet minister allied with Hezbollah has resigned, making him the sixth minister to quit and further weaken a divided Lebanese government.

Environment Minister Yaacoub Sarraf, joins five Shiite Muslim ministers who quit Saturday the cabinet.

Lebanon's National News Agency said Sarraf submitted his resignation in a letter to Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

It's about my money, honey

Welcome to the bile-filled, anxiety-ridden world of "pre-nups," or marriage contracts as they tend to be called in Canada.

If you're marrying into money, or even into moderate affluence, there's a growing chance that you'll sign one of these contracts before picking up your diamond solitaire.

The motivation behind this outbreak of premarital legal wrangling is simple: in the absence of a contract, the law dictates that husband and wife split all their family and business assets down the middle. That's simply not fair in the minds of many people who have already amassed substantial wealth before their wedding day.

Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

Stay motivated working at home

It's Wednesday morning. You're halfway through the workweek. As you wake up, you ask yourself (and not for the first time): "Why am I struggling so much in my business?"

It doesn't matter how successful your home-based business is. Both new and established entrepreneurs face this type of dilemma at some point during their professional journey. It often stems from the fact that what once worked for you no longer works.

At one time you enjoyed working from home, but today you are bothered by the isolation. At one time you enjoyed setting your own work hours, but today you find it difficult to separate yourself from your work. At one time you were willing to do just about anything to make your business a success. Today, you question whether it's worth the stress.

Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

How to achieve work-life balance

In the last issue we asked PROFIT-Xtra readers what percentage of them have work-life balance. Exactly 50% of respondents said they do, and they offered insights on how they ensure their dedication to their company doesn't get out of hand.

Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

The China Syndrome

As Stephen Harper made his first official visit to Asia he did so with certain irritants in Chinese-Canadian relations still fresh in mind — among them Canada's cozying up to the Dalai Lama, allegations of corporate espionage, and the Conservatives' rich history of negative reviews of the People's Republic while they were in opposition.

Fred Bild, former ambassador to China, has suggested that the Tories have no China policy. "You can't just deal with it as if it were Liechtenstein," he recently told the Canadian Press.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Nobody seems to like the new proposal to relocate residents of troubled Kashechewan

After coming to prominence amid last year's tainted water crisis, the Kashechewan First Nation had slowly faded from the national consciousness. Now, courtesy of a controversial report by former Ontario cabinet minister Alan Pope, the poverty and misery of the Cree community is back in the headlines.

Among many of Pope's recommendation is that the entire community decamp for greener pastures near Timmins.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Canada issued 2,430 passports during last summer's Lebanon evacuation

The number of emergency Canadian passports issued to Lebanese nationals during last summer's evacuation from the war-torn country represented more than one-half of the entire number of emergency passports handed out the previous year.

Some 3,200 emergency and temporary passports were distributed last year. A total of 1,817 were issued by the Beirut embassy between July 12 and Aug. 31, according to Foreign Affairs statistics obtained under the federal Access to Information Act.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Disabled, obese should only pay one air fare if they need two seats, panel told

Disabled people who need to travel with an attendant and obese people who need extra room aboard an airplane should only be required to pay a single fare, a Canadian Transportation Agency panel has been told.

While the principle of "one person, one fare" is in force on Canadian buses, trains, and ferries, the airline industry remains the only federally regulated provider that forces the disabled to pay two fares, said David Baker, legal counsel for the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Canada mulls hitching on to Pacific-wide trade bloc if global talks are dead

With global trade talks going nowhere, Canada is keen to explore the idea of grouping 21 countries around the Pacific Ocean into a huge free-trade zone that could extend from the United States to China, Australia to Chile.

Trade Minister David Emerson says Canada is interested in a Pacific-wide trading zone - a concept being eagerly discussed in the Vietnamese capital as officials prepared for the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Pandemic Polemics

As the United Nations' special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis is Canada's public face in the global fight against AIDS. The 68-year-old is no stranger to controversy, and his performance at the 16th annual International AIDS Conference in Toronto--held August 13 to 18--was no exception.

At the conference, which attracted some 31,000 delegates and journalists from around the world, Lewis pointed out that not one pill has made its way to Africa since Canada promised to make cheap generic drugs available, where needed, through its Access to Medicines bill passed in 2004.

Lewis recently discussed Canada's contribution--or lack thereof--to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

Rumeur-monger

Québécois producer Jocelyn Deschênes, along with fellow executive producer Moses Znaimer, is bringing a version of his hugely successful Quebec show, Rumeurs, to English Canada's CBC Television, this fall. The former cinema professor talked to Canadian Business about the television industries on both sides of the language divide.

Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

Parti Quebecois members celebrate 30th anniversary of 1976 election win

Members of the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois were in a nostalgic mood as they marked the 30th anniversary of first gaining power.

It was on Nov. 15, 1976, that 71 PQ members were elected to the Quebec legislature, prompting then-leader Rene Levesque to tell supporters he had never been so proud to be a Quebecer.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

New poll suggests the environment will be key election issue for many

A new poll suggests the environment will be a key factor for many voters in the next federal election.

The Decima Research survey found that 26 per cent of respondents said the environment will have the greatest impact on their ballot decision. This suggests trouble for the Conservatives government. Its Clean Air Act has been harshly criticized for doing nothing to curb greenhouse gases.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Ottawa to require background checks for port workers to boost marine security

The federal government has announced it is requiring background checks for port workers at Canada's marine facilities.

The regulatory change is designed to reduce security threats to the transportation system. The requirements will apply to marine pilots, wharfingers, security personnel and seafarers.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Veterans call for better benefits for returning Afghan soldiers

A group of veterans says Canadian soldiers killed and wounded in Afghanistan deserve the same benefits as senior civil servants, who don't put their lives on the line.

Retired captain Sean Bruyea and retired navy nurse Lt. Louise Richard issued an urgent plea for the Conservative government to live up to its pledge to create a ombudsman for veterans.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Montreal police publication suggests women cops respect Hasidic preference for men

A suggestion that female police officers call in male colleagues when male victims prefer not to deal with women has sparked heated debate about how much should be done to accommodate various cultural and religious groups.

A column in the October issue of L'heure juste, an internal newsletter for Montreal police, describes a situation where a crime is committed against a Hasidic Jewish man, whose religious doctrine frowns on "fraternization" between men and women who are not relatives.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Turkey suspends military ties with France over Armenian genocide bill

Turkey has suspended military relations with France in a dispute over whether the mass killings of Armenians early in the last century amounted to genocide, a top army commander said Wednesday.

The move was the latest backlash against French legislation that, if approved by the Senate and president, would criminalize denial that the killings of Armenians in Turkey were genocide.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Eased rules for foreign workers to help labour-strapped B.C. and Alberta

The labour-strapped provinces of British Columbia and Alberta should notice changes quickly under a federal government program to ease regulations on foreign workers coming to Canada, Immigration Minister Monte Solberg says.

"There are going to be certain occupations under tremendous pressure where employers are having trouble finding workers," Solberg told reporters after his announcement.

"We will reduce the requirements that they have to go through to bring in those categories into the country. It will save them several weeks."

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Wife of man in Chinese prison hopeful PM will get answers on husband's case

TORONTO (CP) - The wife of an Ontario imam being held in a Chinese jail on alleged terrorism links is grateful Canada's prime minister has taken up her husband's cause.

Kamila Telendibaeva says she's hopeful Stephen Harper's meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao will yield some answers regarding her husband's incarceration.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Stay in school

A basic principle of the world's great religions is that men and women should be on a journey of lifelong education. Presumably, this reflects our innate need to learn and grow. It's what separates us from the other species. It's also what separates successful entrepreneurs from the mediocre ones.

After all, the world is changing at an increasing pace. In order to stay ahead of your competition, you must constantly learn about best practices in all aspects of business, and implement them with your own spin.

Read more at Canadianbusiness.ca<<

Dutch government proposes ban on burkas

Legislation banning full-length veils known as burkas in public places may become law. The Dutch government says it plans to draft immediately a law for public order, security and the protection of citizens.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Canada sends Chinese official home over snooping charges: Epoch Times report

Canada has sent a Chinese diplomat home, says a newspaper report from the Epoch Times.

The government refused to extend the diplomatic visa of Wang Pengfei, a second secretary at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa.

Wang is said to have been gathering information on devotees of Falun Gong, an ancient meditative practice that China has branded an evil cult.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Mind your manners this holiday season

This is the season for holiday entertaining, no matter which holiday you celebrate. But what are the rules when it comes to being the perfect guest?

Chanting children, curious crowds greet Gov. Gen. Jean on first visit to Africa

A chorus of celebratory wails rained down on Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean as she strolled the cobblestone streets of the ancient casbah on her first day in Africa. It was one of several memorable scenes as Jean kicked off a three-week state visit that is her first as governor general and also her first trip to her ancestral continent.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Those fighting for release of Canadian jailed in China hopeful after PM talks

It was brief and unofficial, but those fighting for the release of a Canadian man jailed in China are calling the meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Chinese counterpart an "important first step." Chris MacLeod, a lawyer representing the family of Chinese-Canadian Huseyin Celil, said Harper's commitment to address the issue with Chinese President Hu Jintao shows Canada won't tolerate China's disregard for international law or its poor treatment of Canadian citizens.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Canadian ambassador in North Korea to press anti-nuke message

Canada sent a senior diplomat to North Korea to lobby for the dismantling of the North's nuclear weapons program, a tactic designed to add another layer of international pressure on the Communist government in Pyongyang.

Marius Grinius, the Canadian ambassador based in Seoul, South Korea, is accredited as the diplomat in charge of North Korea.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

First UN seminar in native community builds global common ground on treaties

A United Nations seminar on international treaty rights concluded Friday with an agreement that indigenous people around the world share similar goals and problems - but also ended with frustration that so few governments chose to participate. "Yes, it is frustrating and disappointing, somewhat," said Willie Littlechild, regional chief for Treaties 6, 7 and 8 in Alberta and an organizer of the seminar in Hobbema.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Italy replaces intelligence chief who is under investigation in CIA abduction

The Italian government has replaced the head of the country's military intelligence. He is among several Italian intelligence officials being investigated in the alleged CIA abduction of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003, government officials said.

Nicolo Pollari, director of the military intelligence agency SISMI, was replaced after a special cabinet meeting, said Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, according to SKY TG24 TV.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Dissidents say poisoning of former Russian spy linked to criticisms of Kremlin

A former Russian spy poisoned in Britain and now in hospital under guard may have been targeted for his criticism of former colleagues and his investigation into the killing of a prominent anti-Kremlin journalist, friends and fellow dissidents have said Sunday.

Col. Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, said earlier he fell ill on Nov. 1, following a meal with a contact who claimed to have details about the slaying of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist gunned down in Moscow.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Mexican government report links 3 former presidents to crimes against humanity

The Mexican government has released a long-awaited report which, for the first time, officially blames "the highest command levels" of three former presidencies for massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of leftists from the 1960s to the early 1980s.

Based partly on declassified Mexican military documents, the report posted on the Internet, ends a five-year investigation by a special prosecutor named by President Vicente Fox to shed light on past crimes, including a 1968 student massacre and the disappearance of hundreds of leftist activists in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Nortel wins US$20-million contract for Iraq fibre optic network

Nortel (TSX:NT) has won a US$20-million contract to build a new fibre optic network for Iraq Telecommunications & Post Corporation.

The 5,000-kilometre network will deliver high bandwidth data, video and multimedia services in 35 cities throughout Iraq, the Iraqi corporation said in a statement.

The new network will link to another one that Toronto-based Nortel built between Baghdad and Basra in 2004 as part of the USAID-funded Iraq Reconstruction Program.

Read more at Candianbusiness.com<<

Live and learn: David Suzuki

"I used to call my dad a mutant because for most children of immigrants their main concern is making money. He was never a big success in making a lot of money. He always loved gardening and trees and camping, and I kept saying, ‘You're a mutant — you didn't get that from your parents’," says scientist David Suzuki.

“My father was my great inspiration. He was my greatest fan and my toughest critic. He taught me how to be a public speaker. He just felt the embarrassing thing about Japanese-Canadians was that they were always so shy and awkward.

“He said if you want to compete in white society, you've got to learn how to speak publicly. The problem is that money grows faster than real things. We demand always that nature be put on steroids in order to provide us a maximum return.”

Read more at Candianbusiness.com<<

Inside Your Teen-To-Be: A Survival Guide for Nervous Parents

Ah the preteen! If you’ve got one of these double-digit people at home, chances are you’ve noticed a few changes to their personality. Toss in the new, and occasionally unsettling, physical alterations overtaking your child and maybe, just maybe, you’ve become a bit panicky about the future.

Is it possible all the scary things you’ve heard about the upcoming teen years are true? Before you jump to conclusions, we thought it might be useful to probe some of the rumours, and realities, of teenage life.

Read more at Todaysparent.com<<

Intervening in Darfur not a simple matter of peacekeeping

A subtext to Canada's involvement in Afghanistan this year is the argument that the country should return to its alleged peacekeeping roots, pull out of Kandahar and intervene in the Darfur region of Sudan to halt a genocide that's been in progress for years.

Even discounting the fact that such an intervention would not be "peacekeeping," the complexity of such an enterprise has been woefully underestimated by those who demand it.

Darfur, many forget, belongs to Sudan. It is not a remote, isolated state. It is the size of France. Darfur cannot be taken out of the context of Sudan or out of the problems that exist, and have existed for some time, in the region.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Kim goes nuclear but angers his ally. What will China do?

When North Korea announced that it had carried out its first successful test of a nuclear device, the regime not only alarmed its enemies, but also hung one of its few friends out to dry.

Until now, China had been effectively keeping Kim Jong Il's brutal dictatorship on life support by supplying most of its fuel and feeding a good share of its impoverished population. Beijing also used its Security Council veto to beat back American attempts to sanction Pyongyang for long-range missile tests in July.

"After all the support they've given them, after all the effort China has made to resolve this diplomatically, North Korea, in testing this device, has in effect put their thumb in [China's] eye," said John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the UN.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Doctor who lost child in Africa kicks off campaign to give a day's pay for AIDS

An Ontario doctor whose young daughter died in Africa is challenging Canadians to give up a day's pay to help fight AIDS.

Dr. Jane Philpott says the death of her daughter impressed upon her the suffering of other mothers affected by the horrible AIDS scourge.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

B.C. premier says Canada needs to invest more to improve Asia-Pacific trade

The world has "shifted to the Pacific," and it's time for all Canadians to reap the benefits of greater trade with the region, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said.

In a speech to the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto, Campbell praised the $591-million commitment from Ottawa to the Asia-Pacific Gateway strategy to improve B.C. ports, highways and railways. But, he said, more is needed if Canada is to keep pace with skyrocketing growth in trade.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Attorney general in Mexico lying about Ianiero investigation: Greenspan

The attorney general for the Mexican state of Quintana Roo is a "bald-faced liar" for his continued insistence that Domenic and Nancy Ianiero were slain by Canadian hands, the lawyer for the family has said.

Edward Greenspan held a news conference to address a report that Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, the Mexican attorney general, has dismissed the one person Greenspan is convinced is the only viable suspect.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
More than a million dissatisfied with jobs; many stressed, depressed: studies

More than a million Canadian workers, or about 1 in 12, are dissatisfied with their jobs, a Statscan survey suggests. And that dissatisfaction leads to stress and depression, researchers warn.

The 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey, which focused on mental health and well-being, said just over six per cent of workers were "not too satisfied" with their jobs, while two per cent were "not at all satisfied."

Men and women who work in sales, service, processing, manufacturing or utilities were most likely to be unhappy, as were many men in administrative, financial or clerical jobs.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Bush signs law for interrogating and prosecuting terror suspects like Khadr

United States President George W. Bush has signed legislation creating new rules for interrogating and prosecuting terror suspects, including Canadian Omar Khadr, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay.

The law, which allows the CIA to resume some tough interrogation tactics while outlawing others, also paves the way for military tribunals to proceed at the prison camp in Cuba.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Longtime rivals Pakistan, India to resume peace talks next month

Top foreign ministry officials from Pakistan and India will resume the South Asian rivals' peace process next month. It was put on hold after the July commuter rail bombings on Mumbai that killed more than 200 people, officials said Tuesday.

The foreign secretaries will meet in New Delhi on Nov. 14 and 15 to review the third round of the dialogue between the two neighbours that started in early 2004, a Pakistani foreign ministry statement said.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Redress payments to Chinese head tax survivors to begin soon: Stephen Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says symbolic redress payments to Chinese head tax survivors will begin in the next few weeks.

Harper said it's important that this happen now, while some of those who paid the tax to enter Canada are still living.

Speaking at a dinner hosted by a Chinese immigrant group, he called the tax "a moral blemish on our country's soul."

Harper recognized several contributions of the Chinese community, including building of the CP Railway.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Grieving Sikh father relives daughter's death at Air India inquiry

Rattan Singh Kalsi couldn't keep his voice from breaking as he described the dream of his daughter Indira to complete her degree in nursing at the University of Guelph, move to the Punjab region of northern India and open a free dispensary to distribute medicine to the poor.

Instead, she perished, along with 328 others, in the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history. The attack was carried out in the name of the Sikh religion into which her father had been born.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Campaign organizer abandons Ignatieff over war crimes comment

Another controversial comment by federal Liberal leadership front-runner Michael Ignatieff has cost him the support of his Toronto campaign co-chair.

Thornhill MP Susan Kadis withdrew her support for Ignatieff after he accused Israel of committing a "war crime" during its bombardment of Lebanon last summer.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk wins 2006 Nobel Prize in literature

Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who faced a criminal charge for discussing some of his country's most painful episodes, has won the Nobel Prize in literature for his works dealing with issues of identity and clashing cultures.

The decision drew a brief but intense round of applause when Hoarse Engdahl, head of the Swedish Academy, made the announcement.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Whose best interest is served when celebs, or any westerners, adopt African children?

Reports that Madonna has adopted a Malawian child have focused attention on foreign adoptions in Africa. And the issue has raised questions about whether it's in an African child's best interest to be spirited away to the wealthy West.

"Are celebrities doing it for the right reasons and not to make a statement?" asked Pam Wilson of the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society.

Comments on talk radio across the region have been even more pointed, with callers accusing the pop-music star of going on a "shopping expedition."

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Iraq's missing dead: thousands of bodies pulled from the Tigris, but not reported

Ali is a collector of the dead. That's his job, or at least one of them. He is also a cook at a kebab house in Baghdad and a member of the Mahdi Army, a Shia militia loyal to the militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. As a collector, his morbid duty is to sweep up the carnage of a sectarian war spiralling out of control -- one that Iraqi officials and their American overseers are trying desperately to downplay -- and quietly transport it to Iraq's main morgue, located in the heavily fortified Medical City in Baghdad's Bab al-Muatham neighbourhood, where all suspicious deaths are taken.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
More than 600,000 Iraqis dead because of war: U.S. study

A controversial new study contends nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war, suggesting a far higher death toll than other estimates.

The timing of the survey's release, just a few weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, led one expert to call it "politics."

In the new study, researchers attempt to calculate how many more Iraqis have died since March 2003 than one would expect without the war. Their conclusion, based on interviews of households and not a body count, is about 600,000 died from violence, mostly gunfire.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
India's young workers worried by new law banning child labour

A ban on child labour in India is now in place, but at roadside food stalls across the capital New Delhi, many of the boys and girls who serve glasses of tea, wash dishes, mop floors and take out trash are not celebrating.

The children of India's tens of millions of poor families are expected to work and in many cases they are the sole breadwinners.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Report: China cancels rap artist Jay-Z's Shanghai concert, citing 'vulgar' lyrics

China's culture ministry has nixed a concert this month by rap artist Jay-Z at Shanghai's Hongkou Stadium, citing a need to protect local hip-hop fans from nasty lyrics, a report said.

"Some of Jay-Z's songs contain too much vulgar language," the state-run Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted Sun Yun, of promoter KS Production Co., as saying to explain the ministry's reason for refusing permission for the Oct. 23 concert.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Dallaire wants to mobilize young Canadians to support Darfur intervention

Romeo Dallaire is calling young Canadians to take to the streets to promote international causes, especially Darfur.

"We need to get Canadian youth off their butts and into the streets to take on some of these significant international causes . . . and to demonstrate their internationalism," Dallaire says.

He says he believe's today's young people are more committed to global causes than their parents and he wants them to demonstrate that commitment.

Dallaire is hoping youth can prod the populace and the government into spearheading an international effort to stabilize Darfur and end the fighting which has killed thousands of people.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Anti-Terrorism Act didn't 'drop out of sky' on 9-11; Crown defends terror law

Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act is "not something that dropped out of the sky on Sept. 11, 2001," a Crown lawyer argued in defending the constitutionality of the legislation.

The act, which is being challenged in Superior Court by alleged bomb plotter Momin Khawaja, was a response to a long list of increasingly violent international terrorist crimes, said Crown lawyer David McKercher.

Khawaja's lawyer spent more than two days arguing that the Anti-Terrorism Act is a hasty, ad hoc response to national stress that infringes on basic freedoms. And, one day will be viewed with the same regret as government’s decision to intern Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

College shootings likely to rekindle debate over gun control

When Marc Lepine gunned down 14 women at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique 17 years ago, it sparked a political storm over gun control.

The recent shootings at Dawson College seem certain to do the same - whether or not anything that politicians do can really avert such tragedies.

The latest incident comes with the Conservative government poised to debate legislation this fall that would repeal the federal long-gun registry, in effect undoing some of the moves made by Ottawa in the wake of the Lepine slayings in 1989.

Though popular in urban Canada, the gun registry has long been condemned by farmers, hunters, target shooters and others for its red tape and cost overruns
Read more at Macleans.ca<<
Non-aligned countries ponder a Third World without Fidel Castro

When Cuba last hosted the Non-aligned Movement summit, the Cold War still divided the world and President Fidel Castro was a strapping 53-year-old inspiring armed movements in poor countries the world over.

As Cubans contemplate life without the only leader most of them have ever known, the countries coming together to map out the developing world's agenda must also learn to fight on without the bearded guerrilla leader.

Read more at Macleans.ca<<

U.A.E. enslaved thousands of boys as camel jockeys: lawsuit

The rulers of the United Arab Emirates are being accused, in a lawsuit, of enslaving tens of thousands of young boys over the last three decades; and forcing them to work under brutal conditions as camel jockeys.

The civil lawsuit seeks class-action status. It was filed by unnamed parents of boys as young as two years old, who were allegedly abducted, enslaved and sold to serve as the backbone of the popular Arab sport of camel racing.

More than 30,000 boys could have been victimized in what the suit calls "one of the greatest humanitarian crimes of the last 50 years."
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Two more torture victims hoping for answers from Arar report

Two more Arab-Canadians who say they were tortured overseas - possibly with the complicity of the Canadian government - are hoping for vindication in the forthcoming report of a public inquiry into the Maher Arar affair.

Abdullah Almalki and Ahmad El Maati, in an emotional plea, insisted that they too deserve answers in the report by Justice Dennis O'Connor.

Almalki, a computer engineer who has lived in Ottawa and Toronto, endured two years of detention in Syria. Like El Maati, he is a Canadian citizen who was arrested on a visit to Damascus.

Both men suspect they were fingered by the RCMP or CSIS; and that Canadian police and security officials collaborated with their overseas captors.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

43 million kids in war zones have no access to education

A recently released report by Save the Children says more than 43 million children in war-ravaged countries don't have the chance to go to school.

The report is part of the human rights group's “Rewrite the Future” campaign. It is a five-year initiative that aims to help children affected by armed conflict gain access to education.

The report says more than six-million 12 to17-year-olds in the Democratic Republic of Congo have never been to school. It also says less than 15 per cent of teachers in Afghanistan are qualified, since most trained professionals have fled the conflict.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Pakistan government makes compromise with Muslim hardliners over rape law

Pakistan's government has agreed to a compromise deal with hardline Islamic legislators over proposed changes to a law that has long made punishing rapists almost impossible in the country.

The widely criticized Hudood Ordinance law, based on Islamic tenets, requires a woman who claims she's been raped to produce four witnesses. Religious political parties had fiercely criticized an amendment bill that would have dropped the requirement as un-Islamic.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

The Taliban dares Canadian forces to attack

A decisive battle is coming. In an unusual moment of frankness, Canada's outgoing battalion commander in Afghanistan, Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, has thrown down the gauntlet, warning the Taliban that the Canadians are coming for them.

Following weeks of intense fighting in Kandahar province, Hope's message is clear: Canada has had enough of piecemeal fights that have taken an unprecedented toll on Canadian troops, and accomplished little.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Ousted Manitoba chief and councillors want court to stop new band election

The ousted chief and four councillors of a Manitoba Ojibwa First Nation say they'll go to court to fight allegations they bought votes in a band election last September.

Irvin McIvor, whom the federal government ordered removed as chief of the Sandy Bay First Nation, says he and the councillors did nothing wrong and are victims of a smear campaign by disgruntled opponents.
Read more at Macleans.ca<<

Sinn Fein leader meets Hamas legislator over Israeli objections

Defying Israeli objections, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has met with a Hamas legislator in the West Bank. And he advised Israelis and the Palestinians to solve their problems using the Northern Ireland formula: negotiations.

Adams heads the Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party is the major representative of Northern Ireland's Catholic minority.

Ahead of his trip Adams said he wants to inspire parties in other conflicts to end decades of fighting.
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Days numbered for seal hunt after EU declaration demanding ban

A declaration signed by the European Parliament demanding a ban on seal products was hailed by animal rights activists as the beginning of the end for Canada's centuries-old commercial seal hunt.

Loyola Hearn, Canada's federal fisheries minister and a Newfoundland MP, said he told Belgian politicians that an import ban would amount to "taking the livelihood away from a number of Canadians whose family members left their blood on the fields here in Belgium, Flanders fields and other places" during the First World War.

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Ramin Jahanbegloo is a free man

Ramin Jahanbegloo, the Canadian citizen who has been detained in his native Iran for over three months, was suddenly released from prison in Tehran. The move surprised supporters and friends, but left them only cautiously optimistic about his fate.

Jahanbegloo had been held in Tehran's infamous Evin prison, the same place Canadian photo-journalist Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death three years ago. He has never been formally charged.
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Just who is Raúl Castro, and how will he rule Cuba after Fidel?

Analysts who specialize in reading Cuba's political tea leaves were not surprised earlier this month when Communist leader Fidel Castro announced from his hospital bed that he was temporarily ceding power to his brother Raúl after undergoing gastrointestinal surgery.

So far, details of Fidel's recovery remained a guarded state secret.

"Mentally speaking he is, for a person that has just gone through surgery, very alive in spirit, and alert, even to take care of making certain decisions," said Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly, in an interview with National Public Radio.

But in an August 13 message to the Cuban people, Fidel Castro acknowledged that his recovery would be long, and possibly unsuccessful.

One thing does appear to be certain: if Castro dies, his shadowy younger brother will continue to rule.
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The biggest winner in the residential schools settlement is a lawyer

Tony Merchant may be one of the busiest lawyers in Canada. By his own account, he billed an astounding 5,300 hours last year -- an average of almost 15 hours each and every day, devoted solely to his clients.

(A lawyer who bills 2,000 hours annually is considered to be a top producer at most big Canadian firms. And that requires lots of late evenings and weekends.)

Merchant, a trim 61-year-old, claims to represent more than 10,000 former students of Indian residential schools. And that's put his firm in line for the lion's share of the biggest legal payday in Canadian history.
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B.C. union wants probe into hiring of foreigners to replace fired Canadians

Several British Columbia unions are asking the federal government for an investigation into what they call the misuse of an immigration policy that will allow companies to hire foreign workers while qualified Canadians sit idle.

B.C. Government Employees Union president George Heyman says a Kelowna long-term care facility has fired 70 aides and is seeking government approval to hire foreign-trained nurses to replace them.
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Japan's Princess Kiko gives birth to boy -- first male heir in more than 40 years

Japan's Princess Kiko has given birth to a boy, providing the centuries-old Chrysanthemum Throne with its first male heir in more than 40 years and defusing a looming succession crisis.

The birth came minutes after Kiko, 39, underwent a Caesarean section. The baby boy is the third in line to the throne, after Crown Prince Naruhito and Kiko's husband, Prince Akishino.

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Annan warns of humanitarian crisis as African peacekeepers forced from Darfur

The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has warned that Sudan would bear full responsibility for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Darfur if African Union peacekeepers pull out by month's end because of the government's refusal to allow a UN-led force to take over.

The cash-starved and understaffed African Union force, whose mandate ends Sept. 30, has been unable to halt the violence in Sudan's western region. Sudan, which recently launched a new military offensive against rebels in Darfur, has ordered the African Union out if it insists on handing over the mission to the United Nations.

Iran's Ahmadinejad calls for purge of liberal university teachers

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Ahmadinejad complained that changes in the country's universities were difficult to accomplish and that the country's educational system had been affected by secularism for the last 150 years.

Earlier this year, Iran retired dozens of liberal university professors and teachers. And last November, Ahmadinejad's administration for the first time named a cleric to head the country's oldest university in Tehran, amid protests by students over the appointment.
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Haitian government, UN to begin major disarmament plan for street gangs

Haiti's government and UN peacekeepers will launch a major campaign seeking to persuade hundreds of gangsters to disarm with promises of money, food and job training.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, special UN envoy Edmond Mulet said officials will begin airing radio and television ads in coming days to inform the public about the disarmament plan.
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Why John Updike's book is a bomb

One of the very very minor aftershocks of 9/11 was how bad the "good writing" was.

I don't quite know why you'd commission a novelist to say something about the Twin Towers, but The New Yorker magazine made John Updike an offer he couldn't refuse and he got to it. Perhaps sensing that he hadn't exactly risen to the occasion, Updike has now given us the big novel on terrorists -- so big indeed that its title is simply, “Terrorist”.

The eponymous terrorist -- or "terrorist" -- is Ahmad, a high school student in a decrepit New Jersey town called New Prospect. He gets mixed up in a plot to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel.
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Reporting for diaper drill: nervous new dads learn from male 'veterans'

When a journalist learned last fall that his wife was pregnant, they found themselves tossed in the sea of emotions common to prospective parents. There was joy, and insecurities about the impending changes to our lives. The father’s fears were fuelled by truths too embarrassing to admit: He had never changed a diaper, never bottle-fed an infant, and hardly even held a baby.

As a journalist crisscrossing the country and occasionally the globe, he had left infant care to others, figuring he could learn it all later by trial and error.
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Increasing numbers of Canadians falling victim to foreigners in marriage

Navdeep Dhillon left her Abbotsford, B.C., home in April 2004, along with her family, and travelled to India for a moment she had long waited for. She exchanged wedding vows in an arranged marriage with a man she had never met before, but with whom she expected to share the rest of her life in Canada.

Five months later, Dhillon's husband, who had been recommended by relatives, arrived. But Dhillon's dream of a happy marriage quickly turned into a nightmare when, she says, he told her he had only wed her to immigrate to Canada, and then disappeared without a trace.

"I can't really explain what's happening with me,” she says. “It's really hard to tolerate. I never had any suspicion he was going to do that to me."

However, Dhillon's story is not a unique one.
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Scottish Gaelic speakers visit Nova Scotia to help restore fading language

Olivia MacDonald hopes to be fluent in Gaelic some day. The nine-year-old from St. Andrews, Nova Scotia learned the dwindling Celtic language at home from her father and in after-school programs. And recently she participated in a week-long immersion program with five Scottish women and their eight children, who are in Nova Scotia teaching their native tongue.
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Children bear brunt of war violence in war-ravaged Congo, says UNICEF report

More than 600 children die every day in war-ravaged Congo. And even more are displaced, sexually abused and swept up into the camps of combatant groups, according to a recently released UNICEF report.

Martin Bell, a former war correspondent and UNICEF ambassador, wrote the “Child Alert: Democratic Republic of Congo” report. It was released only days before the country's elections, the first democratic ballot in more than 40 years.
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Cyprus's many visitors have brought riches and tragedy over the centuries

Thousands of war-weary Canadians now being evacuated into Cyprus are following in the footsteps of