Ottawa Star - Volume 1 Issue 6

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Ottawa Star www.OttawaStar.com • September 12, 2013 • Volume 1, Issue 6

For Canada & World News visit Ottawa Star.com

Ottawa Police foot patrol welcomed presence in Market

By Aaron L. Pope

T

he Ottawa Police Service in partnership with OC Transpo and by-law enforcement has increased their presence in the ByWard Market over the past three months in a proactive effort to decrease petty crime in the area.

The three-month pilot project, which began on June 17 and ends Sept. 17, was spearheaded by Inspector Chris Rhéaume who oversaw 14 handpicked officers from all over the city.

“We were getting community complaints about vagrancy,” said Rhéaume. “Local businesses were worried about it – not just vacancy, but crime and disorder.”

Carley Smith, 20, who has worked in the market for the past five years, has seen and dealt with many intoxicated persons and aggressive panhandlers who have destroyed or stolen product from her stall in the middle of the day.

“The police have always been down here, but they were dealing with more isolated incidents,” said Smith.

Continued on page 2

Carley Smith who works at maple syrup stall in the ByWard Market Photo: Aaron Pope

Quebec corruption suspects gave $2 million to federal political parties Weddings and reality television Couples pay over $11,000 to flaunt their wedding festivities on TV

By Shivan Sarna, The Associated Press

NOIDA, India—Weddings and reality television: Indians are obsessed with both. Now, Shagun TV, a new

television channel headquartered in a sprawling suburb of India’s capital, is hoping it has found a can’tmiss idea—merging the two into a 24-hour matrimonial TV station.

Continued on page 15

By Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL—Dozens of suspects accused of corruption at Quebec’s municipal and provincial levels have also been involved in national politics, giving more than $2 million in donations to federal parties, an investigation by The Canadian Press has revealed.

An analysis by The Canadian Press involving all 102 individuals charged after sweeps by Quebec’s anti-corruption police squad shows that nearly half—45 of them—made registered legal contributions to federal parties from 1993 to 2011.

The actual extent of their connections to federal politics, however, may never be known.

An ongoing public inquiry in Quebec has heard explosive allegations about illegal political financing, bid-rigging, collusion and Mafia ties in the province’s construction industry, but it does not have a mandate to explore whether such activities have occurred in the federal realm.

At the inquiry, industry players have described using political donations to gain influence at the provincial level and help unlock public funding for projects that had frequently been rigged at the municipal level.

Which begs the question: Has this occurred elsewhere in Canadian politics?

There have been only glancing and peripheral references to federal politics at the inquiry, Continued on page 8

PAGE 2 • www.OttawaStar.com

Community

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Words and Kurds Writer’s romantic adventure marrying Kurdish rebel

By Staff Reporter

The EcoEquitable board and staff members. Photo: EcoEquitable

Sewing program helps women find employment

By Ellen O’Connor

Ottawa organization EcoEquitable is making it possible for immigrant and underemployed women to enter the sewing sector and launch their own business through the program, Sowing for Jobs.

The non-profit charity teaches women how to sew through hands-on workshops, using donated and recycled textiles, so they can develop the skills to become employed in the sewing industry or begin their own business.

Sowing for Jobs was launched three years ago, with 5-month sessions that run twice a year at EcoEquitable located at 153 Chapel St. The most recent session, which kicked off this August, provides both intermediate and beginner training with a focus on long-term employment, hands-on experience, financial literacy and individual mentoring from teachers.

“The students are serious about the program and they really enjoy it,” said Antiqah Mohammad Khuzaini,

program outreach intern at EcoEquitable. “Before, they didn’t have much to do day to day, but they are so committed to the program now.”

The intermediate classes run Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon, and the beginner classes are Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Between 40 and 50 women graduate from the program each year. Some receive employment in the industry through partner companies such as Stitch It, while others set out on their own path.

Hilola Ahmed, a recent graduate of the program, received funding from the YMCA in mid-August for her new business, teaching sewing classes to children. She will also do business and management training from the YMCA. Other graduates have also started their own businesses selling quilts, bags and bumbrellas, which are old umbrellas converted into bicycle seat coverings.

“It’s not only about getting a job after, but it’s about the emotional and

social support,” said Khuzaini. “It’s the support group that really matters to everyone. Previous students who have graduated have said how it felt like a family and a home to them.”

Women who don’t find employment right away after graduating the program get experience by working on projects around the community, or working as a teaching assistant in EcoEquitable sewing workshops.

“EcoEquitable is grateful for the support we receive from the City of Ottawa, Community Foundation of Ottawa—Lucy Grossmann-Hensel Fund and United Way Ottawa for the Sowing for Jobs program,” said Executive Director Tara Templin.

EcoEquitable is one of 18 charities run out of the charity co-op Heartwood House. However, this fall, they will be moving to Vanier where they will have a storefront location, street access, and a non-profit boutique selling items the women have made, such as bags, purses, and quilts.

Ottawa Police foot patrol welcomed presence in Market Continued from page 1

“Now they go around on their bikes and you see them parked all over the place. It used to take 20 or 30 minutes for the police to respond to complaints, but now they’re here right away.”

Since the program started, the area has seen a decline in calls to police by as much as 23 per cent.

Rhéaume says having police on the ground to pay attention to certain individuals who have been a problem has reduced the need for people to call and report offences.

He added that it hasn’t always been this way, however. Over the years the police have moved from walking a beat to patrolling larger areas in cars and motorcycles.

“Back in ‘97 I was an old beat cop,” said Rhéaume. “We’ve gotten away from that mentality of walking down the market, not that we don’t do that, but it’s just a more targeted and proactive approach to doing it. We basically brought back the old beat cops.”

The program has been well received by local businesses in the area.

“It’s always nice to have some sort of security here,” said John Fitzgerald, manager of the Wine Rack. “I know that they do walk around and they know who the trouble people are in the area and they’re aware of where they are at all times.”

Mike Balfour, director of loss prevention/health & safety at the Chateau Laurier said he thinks the foot patrol is a welcomed addition to the market,

because the increased presence helps with many major issues that face the lower town area including aggressive panhandling and parking enforcement.

The decision has not yet been made as to whether or not the Ottawa Police Service will continue the program in the coming years.

Rhéaume says he hopes the program continues, but the decision lies with the chief of police.

“I think it’s been well received,” said Rhéaume. “We’re actually doing a survey of all the merchants down in that area to see how they perceive the increase of patrols.”

Smith says she would want to see the Lowertown foot patrol return next summer.

Laurie Fraser, an Ottawa teacher and healer, “fell face-flat in love” with a Kurdish freedom fighter while she was holiday in Turkey. She returned a few months later, and they married in Muslim ceremony. As she explains it, “You just don’t date in a small village in Turkey, and you certainly don’t co-habitat without a marriage licence.

I didn’t know he was freedom fighter until after our 3-day wedding, but that’s natural- it’s not the sort of thing you tell your girlfriend. Even his family didn’t know.”

It was 1995, a tumultuous time in Turkey politically. The Laurie Fraser struggle between the P.K.K. (Kurdistan Workers Party) and the Turkish Army had peaked. Bombs were going off at tourist sites and armed confrontations were a way of life in East Turkey (Kurdistan). The Kurds had been brutally oppressed since the end of World War I when Ataturk initiated violent attacks and racist policies. At the time, it was illegal to speak their language, yet 80% of the population could speak nothing else. They could be jailed and tortured at any time. Even in the 90s, villages were burned, journalists were murdered, and elected Kurdish Members of Parliament were jailed. Fraser herself met a man who had lost one arm during torture for playing Kurdish music.

In 1996, Fraser and her husband met some Kurdish refugees near the Iraq border- 51 people living in floorless tents. It was then that she determined to write their story- to tell the world but also to prove to her husband that non-violence can win battles. The meeting is recounted in her novel, The Word Not Spoken.

The novel is about much more than politics. Fraser says, “Although his work was frightening, for most of our time together, it had little impact on my daily life. I remember that time as one of the happiest of my life, certainly a time when I felt very much alive. My main concerns were domestic: washing clothes by hand, managing intrusive neighbours, struggling with Turkish, learning to cook from scratch (there was no canned, frozen or prepared food where I lived- all fresh- and no microwave, oven or fridge in my place), but I drew the line at killing a chicken or lamb. My life, in many ways, was simple, and I miss it with all my heart.”

Her husband was murdered in 1997. The book became more than an expose of the Kurdish situation and life in a poor Muslim village; it became a very personal record of a love that never died and a relationship that wasn’t easy. Fraser’s husband contributed a great deal to the book, often dictating (illegal) notes that she had to mail home the same day- notes about torture in Turkey, the inner workings of the P.K.K., foreign involvement in the P.K.K., and guerilla training camps in Syria and Iraq.

Fraser wrote the book while her husband was alive, but he never read it. It was too much of a risk to bring it to Turkey. She continued working on it while she travelled and worked in other countries, reluctant to return to Ottawa and “live a normal life again”.

The Word Not Spoken is a romantic adventure that asks questions about human rights, risk and the requirements for love. Chapter one, excerpts and photos are at www.lauriefraser.com.

The book launch will be at Britannia Beach on Sunday September 30 at 1 pm- attend and win a free ebook.

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Community

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 3

Young Ottawa leader to represent Canada at summit in South Africa

By Ellen O’Connor

The mantra, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” is something that 25-year-old Martina Buchal takes to heart.

The young Ottawan has transformed her passion for civil rights and social change into actively advocating for peace within the local and global community.

This October, Buchal will go one step further as she represents Canada and her generation at the One Young World Summit, along with other chosen young leaders from across the globe, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The summit, an annual event organized by the charity One Young World, gathers together a group of bright, young minds from all corners of the globe to collaborate, debate, and share solutions for current world issues ranging from education and health to business and transparency.

“It’s supposed to be one of the best networking and inspirational resources you can attend as a young person, particularly in leadership,” said Buchal, who currently works for the Ministry of the Attorney General. “It’s going to be the experience of a lifetime.”

The chosen delegates from global and national companies, NGOs, and universities are joined by a group of world leaders selected to be their One Young World counsellors for the four-day conference.

Some of this year’s counsellors include Arianna Huffington, president and editor-inchief of the Huffington Post; Boris Becker, youngest ever Wimbledon Champion and founder of Boris Becker GmbH; and Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker and economist who developed the concept of microcredit. Buchal, who graduated from Carleton University in 2012 with a B.A. Honours in Law, was chosen to attend the summit earlier this summer, and is now reaching out to the community to help cover the $7,000 cost so she can confirm her spot by September 13.

“The cost of the summit is very high,” said Buchal. “Having just finished university and living on my own, I can’t afford the full cost – or even part of it – so hopefully the community recognizes this great opportunity and can help out.”

Buchal said she has been interested in advocacy ever since she led the defense council during a regional mock trial in her Grade 11 law class. While completing her studies at Carleton part-time, Buchal worked full-time for the Canadian Senate and was the head of her department at the Embassy of the Czech Republic.

Currently, she volunteers with the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiations and the Peace Practitioner’s Cafe, and is competing in an international leadership competition called Your Big Year, started by World Merit, a network that provides support and opportunities for young leaders, to win a year of paid travel as a global ambassador.

Buchal also created the EMPOWEREDme, an international network of women leading women, which she plans to bring forward at the summit. The project seeks to bring together young women to collaborate and mentor millennial girls into becoming the greatest possible holistic version of themselves.

“One thing the One Young World conference will bring to this idea is the networking opportunity to meet these other

young leaders,” said Buchal. Women from Pakistan, Iraq, Africa, and Philippines are already participating. Through the success of theEMPOWEREDme, Buchal hopes that in a year from now they can set up a women’s centre in Ottawa as well as hubs in other countries with a group of foundational leaders and their own networks.

To support Buchal’s trip to the One Young World Summit in Johannesburg, visit www.gofundme.com/3vlo1k

Martina Buchal, a world merit ambassador, “jumped for peace” on Parliament Hill.

Photo provided by Martina Buchal

PAGE 4 • www.OttawaStar.com

Community

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

HADA raises money for hospital, staff in Somalia

By Ellen O’Connor

T

he Horn of Africa Development Assistance (HADA) group held a BBQ fundraiser on Sunday, September 1 to raise money for the funding of a medical staff at a new clinic in rural Somalia.

Close to 250 friends, family, co-workers and community members came out to Vincent Massey Park to support the cause and enjoy an afternoon in the sun.

HADA brought in $1,500 from the BBQ to go toward their goal of $18,000.

All of the money raised will fund the salary of a nurse, doctor and possibly a security guard or service staff in Taleh, a historical town in the northeastern Sool region of Somalia.

“We are trying to keep away from bigger cities and go to rural communities that are often neglected or don’t have the capacity to do it themselves,” said 31-year-old Mohamed Sofa, chair of HADA. Sofa is one of 13 young members who revitalized the non-profit Ottawa organization in 2011 following the famine in Somalia and drought in East Africa.

HADA has raised $3,000 since beginning their fundraising efforts at the end of July, and have already secured the

HADA fundraiser Vincent Massey Park

Photo by Mike Power

funds to build the clinic in Taleh. While Taleh has a small informal clinic run out of someone’s home, many must travel the poorly-maintained roads to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, or the city of Galkayo, about 200 km away.

“It’s easy to build a hospital, but it’s much harder to continue,” said Sofa.

“What we’re doing is ensuring the continuity of it after it’s built.”

HADA also began the Student Scholarship Program in 2012 in partnership with Nugaal University in Sool, Somalia. Twenty low-income students in the city of Lascanod and surrounding regions were given four-year scholar-

Mohamed Sofa, chair of HADA Photo by Mike Power

ships to pursue their studies at Nugaal.

“Our hope is to maintain that 20 and do it for another 10 years,” said Sofa.

“That will give us 200 young people who otherwise wouldn’t have attended postsecondary institutions.” The students are set to graduate in 2015.

To learn more visit hada.ca.

School of Debke unites cultures through dance

By Ellen O’Connor

Performers from across the city pulled on their dancing shoes and busted a move at the School of Debke’s first ever Dance Revolution event held to bring together and celebrate various cultures in the nation’s capital.

Close to 500 attendees and dancers from Palestinian, South American, African, Iran, Algerian, and Egyptian communities in Ottawa tore up the floor of the Hellenic Centre, located on Prince of Wales Drive, on Friday, Sept. 6.

This was the first event of this capacity held by the School of Debke, formed a decade ago to promote Palestinian culture through dance.

“We realize there is a big opportunity here,” said 24-year-old Muhanad Joudeh, event organizer and teacher at the School of Debke. “There are many cultures in Ottawa, but they often do separate events. This event is meant to bring everyone together and show that we all have a rich culture, and we all came to Canada.”

Joudeh, along with fellow organizer and teacher Mona Ahmed, teach dance lessons at the School of Debke, which has about 50 members ranging in age from 6 to 60. Joudeh said he has worked with all of the performers on separate occasions,

but the Dance Revolution was the first time all groups came together.

The lounge-themed event showcased a range of dance styles from salsa and African dance to break dancing and belly dancing, along with performances by the School of Debke and Raqsaat Zaffe group. To emphasize the idea of a dance revolution and the intertwining of cultures, each performance flowed smoothly into the next to form one continuous piece.

“We believe as Palestinians we brought an extremely rich culture with us when we came to Canada and thankfully they enriched that culture even more,” said Marwan Abdallah, vice president of The Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians, who partnered with the school to help with the organization of the event.

APAC was founded in 1985 with the purpose to organize educational, cultural and community events and programs for the Palestinian community in the nation’s capital.

Prior to the dancing, guests enjoyed dinner and a performance by Palestinian-Canadian comedian, Eman Al-Husseini. After the scheduled dance performances, music was provided by DJ Tonee and a live band playing modern English hits.

Clockwise from top: Six members of the School of Debke, including teacher and organizer Muhanad Joudeh, tore up the dance floor of the Hellenic Centre on Sept. 6; School of Debke teachers Muhanad Joudeh and Mona Ahmad have been teaching the art of Debke to youth and adults for a decade; The Raqsaat Zaffe Group was one of the many performers that participated in the School of Debke Dance Revolution. Photos by: Mentor Bullaku

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Canada

Pauline Marois rant multiculturalism policy leads to people beating each other up and setting off bombs

By Nelson Wyatt, The Canadian Press

M

ONTREAL—Premier Pauline Marois is being urged to apologize for comments she made blaming multiculturalism for social unrest and bombs in Britain.

Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard says he was astonished when he read the remarks by Marois in a newspaper interview and asserts they are unworthy of a head of government.

“I almost could not believe it,” an incredulous Couillard said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “I had to read it two or three times to be sure.”

Marois told Montreal Le Devoir that England’s multiculturalism policy had led to people beating each other up and setting off bombs.

While acknowledging France’s efforts at secularism “are not perfect,” she said it was preferable to the multiculturalism policies of practiced in England.

“In England, they’re smashing each other in the face and throwing bombs because of multiculturalism and nobody knowing any more who they are in that society.”

She made the remarks in an interview published September 6 where she spoke about the proposed Charter of Quebec Values, preliminary details of which are expected to be released next week.

Elements leaked to the media suggest people working in the public service could be banned from wearing religious symbols such as the hijab. Marois said she could phase her charter in slowly, and did not rule out exempting certain institutions like universities and hospitals.

“To link or associate multiculturalism with violence, particularly interracial violence—I think she should immediately rectify or apologize because this is a very serious way to talk about the communities,” Couillard said. “It’s terrible to say things like that.”

Marois’ charter proposal has majority public support, according to opinion polls,

however it has drawn some criticism from commentators normally friendly to the PQ. Former Bloc Quebecois federal MP Raymond Gravel, who is also a priest, described the idea in an open letter as “worthy of a dictatorship.”

One column in Le Devoir newspaper suggested that the PQ might make some short-term electoral gains at the expense of its long-term strategic goal: convincing Quebec immigrants to support independence.

It suggested that because demographic growth in the province will come

from minorities, and that many of those newcomers are arriving from Frenchspeaking, Muslim, North Africa, it would be suicidal for the PQ to alienate them.

The Liberals, meanwhile, have argued that the PQ is dragging out this hot-button debate to distract from an issue more Quebecers might care about: a lagging economy.

In fact, politicians outside Quebec have tied the charter issue to the economy as well. The premier of Ontario and mayor of Calgary have essentially invited minority workers, like doctors,

OTTAWA—It’s a coming war of words between Ottawa and the Quebec government that you can take to the bank.

Premier Pauline Marois’s Parti Quebecois government introduced a bill in the spring that would create an economic development bank for the province, offering loans and seed money for new businesses.

But the proposed legislation, still stuck in the national assembly, has stirred a lin-

upset at the PQ policy to move to their jurisdictions.

Some members of cultural communities, quoted in Quebec media reports, have said that’s exactly what they would do if the charter is introduced as it was described in the leaked draft.

The province has already seen its demographic clout shrink within Canada in recent decades as Quebec retains a smaller share of immigrants than some other provinces.

After criticisms, Pauline Marois says she didn’t mean to offend anyone with comments blaming multiculturalism for social unrest and bombs in Britain. She said her comments were made in the context of a discussion about different models of integration around the world.

Marois added that she didn’t intend to interfere with United Kingdom policies.

‘I’m glad that I told everybody:’ transgender boy shares story at school

By Chris Purdy, The Canadian Press

EDMONTON—When 11-year-old Wren Kauffman went back to school, he didn’t hide the fact that he’s actually a girl.

Teachers, friends and other students at his Edmonton school know the truth—that he’s a girl on the outside but feels like a boy on the inside. And that’s why, even at such a young age, he has chosen to live in the world as the opposite sex, and not keep it a secret.

“If you’re not yourself, then it kind of gets sad and depressing,’’ says the freckle-faced kid with short-cropped hair.

“I’m glad that I told everybody.’’

Some studies shows six out of 1,000 students experience transgenderism. About one out of 170 teachers are transgender.

Wren, born Wrenna, says he doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t feel like a boy.

Wendy Kauffman says she and her husband, Greg, knew their daughter was different. She would often ask: “When do I get to be a boy?’’ And she pleaded to be born again in order to come out right.

Transgender student Wren Kauffman.

Photo: The Canadian Press/Jason Franson

They thought it was a phase. Then they thought their child might be gay.

But as Wren got bigger, so did the sadness and frustration.

Kauffman says it finally hit home when Wren was about nine and Kauffman was tucking her six-year-old child, Avy, into bed one night. “She said to me, ‘You know, Mom, Wren is a boy and he told me to tell you.’’’

War of words between Ottawa and PQ government? You can bank on it

By Dean Beeby and Stephanie Marin, The Canadian Press

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 5

guistic tempest in the federal Finance Department because the new entity is to be called a “banque”—or “bank” in English.

Federal law forbids provinces or territories from calling development agencies or any other such institutions “banks,” reserving that term for federal institutions and banks certified under the Bank Act. The minority PQ government floated the plan last November, promising to consolidate existing investment and development activity into a “Banque de developpement economique du Quebec,”

introducing the enabling Bill 36 in April.

The troublesome word “banque,” however, set off alarm bells in the federal Finance Department, which has since been gingerly tip-toeing through linguistic and political minefields—especially fraught now with a sovereigntist party ruling Quebec.

“There is a long-standing prohibition in the Bank Act on using the terms ‘bank,’ ‘banker’ or ‘banking’ and their equivalent in other languages,” says one of several briefing notes on the issue for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Kauffman says she got a bit defensive. “’I said, ‘Well, I know Wren wants to be a boy.’

“Avy said, ‘No, Mom, he REALLY wants to be a boy.’’’

Kauffman, tears welling up in her eyes, says it was a pivotal moment. Her youngest child had seen it all so clearly and, now, she did too.

Kauffman later told Wren: “I love you whether you’re a boy or a girl and I understand now. And we’ll figure out how we can help you. And we’ll do it together.’’

Kauffman says he first started living life at home as a boy. After about a year, they were ready to tell his school.

Wren says he hasn’t been subjected to any harassment. Just some teasing when he first came out—one student winked and called him “Mr. Kauffman.’’

A couple of others asked for proof that he was actually a girl, but Wren laughed it off and told them he wasn’t prepared to pull down his pants.

Wren says he knows it won’t always be this easy and he’s prepared for the possibility that he may be bullied later in life.

“The legislation prohibits any entity from using the term ‘bank,’ except for banks and affiliated entities created by a federal Act of Parliament … and non-financial entities, e.g., The Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank.”

Says another note: “Provincial financial services providers are not permitted to use the term.”

Flaherty’s advisers said Ottawa’s banking czar—the superintendent of financial institutions—does have the power to grant some exemptions, but only to federally recognized banks that want to establish related entities.

A spokesman for Flaherty’s department said the issue remains unresolved, but that Ottawa has contacted the Marois government about the matter.

PAGE 6 • www.OttawaStar.com

Opinion

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

“I have a dream” Race relations 50 years after King’s speech

By Sangeetha Arya

O

Editorial

Frosh chant reinforces prevalence of rape culture F

or many students embarking on their university experience, frosh week is the ultimate icebreaker. With everyone playing the role of the ‘new kid on the block,’ the first bonds of friendship are cemented, and perhaps most critically, there is the forging of a collective identity that seeks to bind the incoming class of students with their university.

What happened during frosh at Halifax’s St. Mary’s University, however, was in a word, reprehensible. During their frosh week, student orientation leaders led forth the following chant stirring up a freshman crowd more than 400-strong:

Y is for your sister O is for oh-so-tight U is for underage N is for no consent G is for grab that a-St. Mary’s boys we like them young.

Lean back and picture this scene. A football field full

of bright and educated young men and women—inheritors of this country’s future—egged on voraciously to spew out these depraved lyrics. Like a horde of brainwashed conformists—embodying the very worst kind of groupthink—they openly glorified rape culture.

In this age of social media —a video of the chant found its way into the online domain through Instagram. Justly facing widespread condemnation, the lead perpetrators were forced to issue public apologies. Any claims that the incident was a one off—a freak occurrence—as opposed to being a symptom of a darker diagnosis is simply untenable. Incomprehensibly, this particular frosh chant has been a university tradition, a rite of passage of sorts since at least 2009—with the lyrics, occupying a morbidly sacrosanct nature, being passed down on paper from one group of orientation leaders to the next. It seems utterly incredible to think that for

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a period this long, the celebratory orientation that is supposed to be the hallmark of frosh week had instead been grossly tainted by this pernicious indoctrination –questioned by none until the recent video went public.

Are we not blowing this incident, a simple frosh chant, way out of proportion - one might ask. After all, it was just a group of young students singing aloud to a few words they surely do not believe in - you might even assert. In this case, however, the act has implications that vastly transcend the actors involved.

Irene Smith of the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre stated that this chant propagates the root causes of the cultural mindset that make cases like Parsons’ possible. “The message of that chant reinforces rape culture in our society. The fact that 80 frosh leaders…were enthusiastically saying those works on a football field signals that none of them questioned the effect and message those words have.”

Publisher: Chandra Arya Chief Editor: Sangeetha Arya Editor: Ellen O’Connor Deputy Editor: Michael Power

n August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the speech that was to become the defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

King started out reading from his prepared speech till Mahalia Jackson shouted “Tell ‘em about the dream, Martin,” referring to a theme that King had used several times in his sermons before. All of a sudden King decided to deviate from his prepared notes and started extemporaneously speaking about “I have a dream.”

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed,” he shouted, his out-stretched right arm reaching towards the sky.

Soon he was gaining momentum, urged and motivated by the chants and cries of the crowd. “Dream on!” they shouted. “Dream on!”

King had made an extremely compelling case for non-violent racial change, and had done so with such eloquence, oratory and power that it reverberated and echoed not only on Washington’s Mall, but also in the living rooms of white Americans. Terrible and violent days lay ahead. Nevertheless, the day 28 August 1963 stands out as a staggeringly beautiful, epoch making, and momentous day.

Jon Meacham writes that, “With a single phrase, Martin Luther King, Jr. joined Jefferson and Lincoln in the ranks of men who’ve shaped modern America”. The speech was ranked

Production: Benoit Deneault Joey Sabourin Editorial Contact Editor@OttawaStar.com

the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.

Despite great advances from the violence of the 1960s, America still has work to do in healing racial wounds. In recent years economic progress has stalled creating a wide wealth gap between blacks and whites.

Between 2000 and 2011, black median household income fell from 64% to 58% of the white figure. In 2005 white families’ median net worth was 11 times that of blacks; in 2009 it was 20 times. On other measures, too, blacks fare poorly. Many struggle in school and by the age of 30-34 one black man in ten is behind bars. The traditional black family has collapsed since King’s day. In the 1960s many thought it a crisis that nearly 25% of black children were born out of wedlock. Today it is 72% (for whites, 29%), and most of these children are being raised by mothers who are truly alone, not cohabiting In spite of the economic disparities, America has come a long way from its infamous and shameful past. Laws have changed, society’s attitude has and there even is a black president at the helm who was elected twice– all great examples of how far the nation has come since King’s speech For instance, in King’s day, inter-racial love was illegal in many states. Today, 15% of new marriages cross racial lines; for black men, the number is 24%. In King’s day, racial segregation was the law and norm in the South and the North. Today segregation is declining in all 85 of America’s largest metropolitan areas.

As the world celebrates the 50 anniversary of this historical day, let us not forget that Martin Luther King was not only “a dreamer” but also “a doer,” and “Let us not just be dreamers this day. Let us recommit to being doers.”

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Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Opinion

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 7

Stringent controls are needed for the use of Tasers by police

C

By Doug Firby

ALGARY, Troy Media—Given all the controversy they seem to generate, it might sound odd to suggest that Tasers are wonderful devices. But they actually are.

Many other modern gadgets we have are pretty amazing, too, like smart phones, cars that can park themselves and Bluetooth.

In the right hands.

The problem with any miracle of modern technology occurs when it is quite literally too good—its positive attributes too obvious, its labour-saving or, in the case of Tasers, life-saving potential so clear—that we start a love affair

with the gadget that defies rationality.

Like the Ontario government, which has decided to equip all its frontline officers with Tasers. Until now, only tactical units and front-line supervisors could use the ubiquitous zappers.

The case for Tasers is almost self-evident, and described eloquently by law enforcement agencies around the world. The high-voltage devices, which are intended to momentarily incapacitate a threatening person, provide a real alternative to lethal force. It’s the gadget police should have used—that is, if any was needed—on troubled Toronto teen Sammy Yatim, who died after being shot nine times on an empty transit car in July, even though his only weapon was a pocketknife.

Statistics suggest that, deployed properly, Tasers do indeed save lives. In March 2009, the federal RCMP watchdog reported that RCMP officers used the gadgets 1,106 times in 2008. Were they always necessary? Even if you were to argue

lethal force was required in one-tenth of those situations, that’s still preventing 110 potential deaths at the hands of police.

But that number is alarming. Although the number of Taser deployments was down one-third from the year before, it strains credibility to think that lethal force was truly needed on more than 1,000 occasions. This is where the love affair with the gadgets goes sideways.

Tasers have become a handy tool to “bring someone down”, when maybe a little physical force would have done the job. Viewed as largely harmless, Tasers are a great for cops to avoid getting involved in a wrestling match with disorderlies resisting arrest. Much of the time, no harm done.

But overuse leads to recklessness, and anyone who has watched the disturbing citizen video of 40-year-old Robert Dziekanskigetting zapped five times at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007, can easily see that Tasers are

Americans drive less due to economy or cultural change?

By Joan Lowy, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—Driving in America has stalled, leading researchers to ask: Is the national love affair with the automobile over?

After rising for decades, total vehicle use in the U.S.—the collective miles people drive—peaked in August 2007. It then dropped sharply during the Great Recession and has largely plateaued since, even though the economy is recovering and the population growing. The Federal Highway Administration reported vehicle miles travelled during the first half of 2013 were down slightly, continuing the trend.

Even more telling, the average number of miles drivers individually rack up peaked in July 2004 at just over 900 per month, said a study by Transportation Department economists Don Pickrell and David Pace. By July of last year, that had fallen to 820 miles per month, down about 9 per cent. Per capita automobile use is now back at the same levels as in the late 1990s.

Until the mid-1990s, driving levels largely tracked economic growth, according to Pickrell and Pace, who said their conclusions are their own and not the government’s. Since then, the economy has grown more rapidly than auto use. Gross domestic product declined for a while during the recession but reversed course in 2009. Auto use has yet to recover.

Meanwhile, the share of people in their teens, 20s and 30s with driver’s licenses has been dropping significantly, suggest-

ing that getting a driver’s license is no longer the teenage rite of passage it once was.

Researchers are divided on the reasons behind the trends. One camp says the changes are almost entirely linked to the economy. In a few years, as the economy continues to recover, driving will probably bounce back, they reason.

At the same time, they acknowledge there could be long-term structural changes in the economy that would prevent a return to the levels of driving growth seen in the past; it’s just too soon to know.

The other camp acknowledges that economic factors are important but says the decline in driving also reflects fundamental changes in the way Americans view the automobile. For commuters stuck in traffic, getting into a car no longer correlates with fun. It’s also becoming more of a headache to own a car in central cities and downright difficult to park.

“The idea that the car means freedom, I think, is over,’’ said travel behaviour analyst Nancy McGuckin.

Lifestyles are also changing. People are doing more of their shopping online.

More people are taking public transit than ever before. And biking and walking to work and for recreation are on the rise.

Social networking online may also be substituting for some trips. A study by University of Michigan transportation researcher Michael Sivak found that the decline in teens and young adults with driver’s licenses in the U.S. was mirrored

in other wealthy countries with a high proportion of Internet users.

Demographic changes are also a factor.

The peak driving years for most people are between ages 45 and 55 when they are the height of their careers and have more money to spend, said transportation analyst Alan Pisarski, author of “Commuting in America.’’ Now, the last of the baby boomers are moving out of their peak driving years.

There’s also a driving gender gap.

In a role reversal, there are now more women than men in the U.S. with driver’s licenses. Driving by men has declined in every age group except those 65 or older, where it increased slightly.

Among women, driving declined only among young adults and teenagers.

being treated by some police as nothing more than a convenient arrest tool.

Dziekanski, as we know, died. A provincial public inquiry under commissioner Thomas Braidwood, released on July 23, 2009, concluded that stun guns can be deadly and that the B.C. provincial government had abdicated its responsibility to establish province-wide standards for their use.

The RCMP, in May 2010, released new Taser restrictions, indicating officers can only use the weapons in cases where a person is causing bodily harm or an officer has “reasonable grounds” to believe a person will “imminently” harm someone. They must also give a verbal warning “where tactically feasible” before unleashing the volts.

That’s all well and good for our federal force, but they’re not the only agency involved. By the end of 2010, 129 law enforcement agencies were using Tasers, according to numbers from the Canadian Police Research Centre.

There are several economic factors that help explain the trends. Driving declines exactly mirror job losses among men during the recession. But average automobile use has declined recently even among those who have remained employed.

Economists say many Americans, especially teens and young adults, are finding that buying and owning a car stretches their financial resources.

Then there’s the cost of insurance, maintenance and parking. The price of gas has gone up dramatically over the past decade. Owning a car is increasingly beyond the reach of many young drivers, researchers said.

Research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 18- to 20-year-olds were three times more likely to have a driver’s license if they lived in a household with an annual income above $100,000 than if they lived in a household with an income below $20,000.

Letters to the Editor Agree with Mr. Arya on Quebec “Values” I quite agree with Mr Arya (Ottawa Star August 29: Quebec bares its intolerance towards religious minority).

I would add also Santayana’s wellknown perspective that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

I have long asserted that Jews are only safe in Canada until Parliament says otherwise. Other members of my community have criticised me for this, but I doubt that they’ll criticise me any

more (on this matter; there’s lots of other matters they can criticise me for...).

We have now learned from Ms. Marois that no ethnic is safe in Quebec unless they wear a crucifix. This shocking bigotry is precisely the same one that forced Jews underground during the Spanish Inquisition. Quite a number of these Jews wound up in Goa over time and many intermarried with Jains, Catholics or Muslims.

Kindest regards, Arie Chark Rector The Metivta of Ottawa

PAGE 8 • www.OttawaStar.com

Canada

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Quebec corruption suspects gave $2 million to federal political parties Continued from page 1

which resumed this week after a summer break.

But Elections Canada’s records do offer information on many of the 102 individuals charged following investigations by the province’s anti-corruption squad—a list of people that includes industry executives, engineers, city officials, municipal politicians and lawyers.

The Canadian Press examined their donation history as well as the federal contributions of all 13 companies charged by the same Quebec corruption-fighting unit, which was created in February 2011.

Records show that more than threequarters of those companies—or 10 firms—gave federal political donations between 1993 and 2006. Corporate donations in Canadian politics were restricted in 2003 and banned entirely in 2006.

The analysis also counted donations to federal parties made by construction and engineering companies where some of the 102 individuals held powerful positions, such as owner or senior executive. The Elections Canada

online database only goes as far back as 1993.

Altogether, the contributions from the individuals and the companies, which were amassed over two decades in more than 900 donations, totalled nearly $2.2 million.

A decade ago, Liberal cabinet minister Sheila Copps argued in favour of an outright ban on corporate political donations, saying it was necessary to keep companies from influencing government policy decisions.

When Copps was in cabinet, the Chretien Liberals placed limits on corporate donations in 2003. They were banned altogether by the Harper Tories in 2006, while individual donations were also capped at $1,100 annually.

The Canadian Press analysis revealed a precipitous plunge in donations in three stages: contributions from those now charged fell after the 2003 reform; fell again after the 2006 reform; and stayed low until they disappeared almost entirely after 2009, when the corruption scandals erupted in Quebec.

The Liberals, who held power from 1993 until 2006, received the

most donations. Varying smaller amounts went to the old Progressive Conservatives, the Bloc Quebecois, the post-2003 Conservative party and its precursor parties, the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance and the Reform party.

Connections between Quebec scandals and the federal domain have been officially off-limits at the public inquiry, but they have still come up since proceedings began last year, usually in brief instances.

At the inquiry, a witness testified about an alleged collusion scheme in the Quebec City area where eight big construction companies conspired to drive up prices while Ottawa went on a historic multibillion-dollar infrastructure spending blitz after 2007.

Another allegation came from the lips of the then-vice-president of Dessau Inc., one of the largest engineeringconstruction firms in Canada.

Rosaire Sauriol explained during testimony how he used fake-billing schemes to pump $2 million from the company into the coffers of provincial and municipal parties.

During his March appearance at the inquiry, Sauriol was asked whether he used the same strategy to channel money to federal parties and he replied: “Yes.’’ Such illegal donations would not have appeared in the Elections Canada database pored through by The Canadian Press.

No further details about federal contributions emerged from Sauriol’s testimony.

Records from Elections Canada show he personally gave two donations to the Bloc for a total of $304. Between 1993 and 2006, his family’s company, Dessau, and its subsidiaries contributed a total of $246,368 to federal parties, primarily to the Liberals, and to a lesser extent the Progressive Conservatives and the Bloc.

There have been other examples of the probe sniffing along the periphery of Quebec provincial politics. The Charbonneau inquiry has heard how construction-industry players used political donations and other gifts to win favour with provincial politicians in hope of unlocking public contracts.

Canada

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Supreme Court getting tons of inputs on Senate reforms

By Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA—The Supreme Court of Canada is getting an earful on the future of the Senate. Different points of view from across the country are coming in over the federal government’s Senate reference case.

So far, everyone seems to agree that Ottawa cannot act alone to overhaul or outright abolish the upper chamber.

Where they differ is in the details. Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Nunavut argue the unanimous consent of all the provinces is needed to get rid of the Senate. However, Alberta contends all that is needed for abolition is the so-called 7/50 rule—the consent of seven provinces, representing at least half of the population.

On the questions of whether Parliament alone can set term limits or hold elections for senators, opinions vary.

Ontario says Parliament does not need the provinces’ consent to set term limits of nine years or longer. However, the province says the 7/50 rule would apply if Parliament wants to set Senate term limits of less than nine years.

Ontario also says the 7/50 rule comes into play if Parliament wants to change the rules so that senators must be elected instead of appointed, as they are now.

Alberta says Parliament does not need the provinces’ permission to unilaterally change the term limits for senators. The province is the only one to elect nominees for Senate appointments. However, Alberta argues Parliament cannot change Senate term limits without the participation of the provinces.

Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut and Manitoba have all filed submissions arguing Ottawa cannot act alone to set term limits, hold elections for senators or abolish the upper chamber outright. Ottawa is asking the court for guidance on what it would take to reform the upper chamber and whether it can abolish the body without provincial consultation.

In its submission, the federal government argues “it is constitutionally permissible for Parliament to impose term limits, provide for public consultative processes on Senate appointments, and remove the archaic requirement” that a senator own at least $4,000 worth of land. The Conservatives say they plan to move ahead with Senate reform—or even outright abolition—once the Supreme Court provides guidance over how they may do so.

The New Democrats, meanwhile, are calling for Senate abolition.

A Liberal senator also weighed in on the debate. Liberal Sen. Serge Joyal says Parliament alone lacks the power to set term limits for senators, hold elections for Senate seats and outright abolish the upper chamber.

But Joyal says the Senate could be abolished—but only with the unanimous consent of every province and taking into account the interests of aboriginals.

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 9

Parole board to revoke a pardon it once granted to terror suspect

By Allison Jones, The Canadian Press

TORONTO—The lawyer for a man charged in an alleged plot to attack a Via Rail train says it’s “absurd” for the parole board to revoke a pardon it once granted to the man for unrelated crimes when the new charges have not been proven in court.

Raed Jaser, 35, was granted the pardon in 2009 for uttering threats and fraud convictions from when he was a young man, his lawyer, John Norris, said September 5.

Federal Court documents show that the Parole Board of Canada decided to revoke Jaser’s pardon in July, months after he was charged with three terror offences in the alleged Via plot.

The parole board wrote to Jaser in June saying it was recommending his pardon be revoked and it finalized the decision on July 30.

“It (said) essentially, ‘Because of these charges we’ve concluded that you are no longer of good character and thus not entitled to the pardon any longer,’ which in our view is simply absurd,” Norris said in an interview.

Norris is asking the Federal Court to overturn the decision, arguing that

Jaser was born in the United Arab Emirates, came to Canada in 1993 and became a permanent resident in 2009, the same year he received his pardon.

The federal government has said it will take Raed Jaser is arraigned on terrorism-related charges in a Toronto steps to deny peocourtroom Source: Wikipedia ple without status in Canada the possibility of a criminal pardon after rerevoking Jaser’s pardon when his new viewing Jaser’s case. The office of the pubcriminal charges have not been proven is lic safety minister has said it is unacceptable an abuse of process. that inadmissible foreign nationals are able “It was completely wrong of them to get criminal record suspensions. legally to reach this conclusion at this Under the Criminal Records Act, the stage of the process where these are parole board can revoke a pardon if somenothing but allegations,” Norris said. one lied to get it, if they are convicted of Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier were arrested in April and accused of plotting to a new offence or if there is evidence the attack a Via train that runs between Toperson “is no longer of good conduct.” ronto and New York City. Police stressed Norris is also asking the Federal at the time of the arrests that there was no Court to declare the good conduct section of the act unconstitutional. imminent threat to the public.

Big gap between income boomers need to retire and what they have

By Romina Maurino, The Canadian Press

B

aby boomers’ savings are well below the levels needed to retire comfortably, and that’s making soon-to-beretirees increasingly unsure about their golden years, according to a new study from the Bank of Montreal.

As many as 46 per cent of boomers surveyed weren’t confident they had sufficient savings to retire, almost double the 20 per cent who felt that way in 2006, before the economy went into a deep recession and interest rates fell to historic lows.

“We had the credit crisis in 2008 and there’s been quite a bit of volatility in the markets during that period; it’s also been a period of low yield,’’ said Chris Buttigieg, senior manager of wealth planning strategy at BMO Financial Group.

Boomers said they anticipated they will need a nest egg of about $658,000 to feel financially secure in retirement, but have so far have only put away about a third of that, the survey found.

According to Statistics Canada, the average senior couple spent about $54,100 in 2009. BMO says that based on historical returns and a four per cent withdrawal rate, that level of spending suggests they would need savings of about $1.35 million to retire.

That figure relates to how much they spend, however, and doesn’t include what portion of their post-retirement income would come from the Canada Pension Plan or Old Age Security.

If a family gets CPP and OAS at an average rate of 75 per cent, that would amount to $28,000 a year and make up a significant chunk of the income.

Buttigieg agrees that not all responses in the BMO survey were based on hard numbers, saying some people would have been answering based on a figure they felt they should aim for rather than a real target.

But regardless of how they came to conclude their numbers, boomers surveyed were left with the idea that while they would like to retire, on average, when they turn 59, they felt they would need to work until the age of 63.

As a result, 71 per cent expected to take on a part-time job to earn extra income after they retire, while 44 per cent said they will sell off collectibles, antiques or possessions they no longer use.

About 32 per cent expected to sell their home, while another 19 per cent said they will rent out part of their home for additional income.

To Buttigieg, boomers’ ability to save may have been affected by the challenges associated with paying off a mortgage, helping children through university and caring for elderly parents.

Inflation, low returns, living a long life and health issues call also spoil retirement plans, according to Mastracci, but he says one of the biggest problems continues to be debt loads.

“A lot of retirees still have debts (and) they have to clear the deck,’’ he said.

A separate report from Equifax Canada last week found that seniors were borrowing money to finance their post-retirement lifestyles. Total consumer debt in Canada rose $77 billion, or 6.1 per cent, in the second quarter of 2013 from last year, and by 6.5 per cent among those 65 and over, the report said.

A poll commissioned by CIBC, meanwhile, found that many Canadian parents were delaying their retirement and taking on debt to help put their children through school.

The BMO results were based on an online survey of 291 pre-retirement boomers, defined as born between 1945 and 1964, conducted in the first week of August.

PAGE 10 • www.OttawaStar.com

Entertainment

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Fall Movie Preview: From outer space to slavery era Louisiana, worlds to be immersed in

By Jake Coyle, The Associated Press

NEW YORK—“Captain Phillips,” a based-on-a-true-story tale about a cargo ship taken by Somali pirates, was Hanks’ first time working with Paul Greengrass, the “United 93” and “Bourne Identity” director. Hanks plays the titular captain in a performance sure to be hailed as one of his best.

“Captain Phillips” (out Oct. 11) is only one way moviegoers this fall will be fully, often staggeringly immersed in worlds as varied as slavery-era Louisiana (“12 Years Captain Phillips: a Slave”), 1970s Sony Pictures.

Massachusetts conmen (“American Hustle”) and outer space, among the detritus of a space station torn apart by a storm of debris (“Gravity”).

This autumn promises no less a mix of both aspirational filmmaking and mainstream attractions. As if her fans needed notice, Jennifer Lawrence will return not just with “Silver Linings Playbook” director David O. Russell in “American Hustle,” but also as Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (Nov. 22).

A quite different fervour will greet Will Ferrell’s “Anchorman: The Legend Continues” (Dec. 20), the long-in-coming sequel. There will be other sequels, too, including Chris Hemsworth in “Thor: the Dark World” (Nov. 8) and Peter Jackson’s high-frame rate “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (Dec. 13). As the CIA analyst of the bestselling Tom Clancy books, Chris Pine will try to jumpstart a new franchise in “Jack Ryan” (Dec. 25).

But other types of powerhouses will compete with action spectacle.

John Wells’ adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “August: Osage County,” features an ensemble cast topped by the tantalizing duo of Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts as mother and daughter.

True Tales For “12 Years a Slave” (Oct. 18), director Steve McQueen drew from Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography about his horrifying odyssey as a free black man with a family in upstate New York kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. With undiminished dignity, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Northup as he’s led from plantation to plantation.

McQueen tells the story straightforwardly, often in long takes, submerging the audience in the world of slavery. Ejiofor says McQueen aimed to tell Northop’s story literally, without embellishment. “In doing that, it creates its own intensity,” says the actor.

Even for a season known for prestigious biopics, there’s a plethora of films based on true stories: Nicole Kidman plays Grace Kelly (“Grace of Monaco,” Nov. 27); Benedict Nicole Kidman will play Cumberbatch Grace Kelly in “Grace plays WikiLeaks of Monaco.” Photo Georges founder Julian Biard/Wikipedia.

Assange (“The Fifth Estate,” Oct. 18); Idris Elba plays Nelson Mandela (“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” Nov. 29); and Matthew McConaughey plays an industrious HIV-infected man (“Dallas Buyers Club,” Nov. 1).

There’s also Hanks as Walt Disney (“Saving Mr. Banks,” Dec. 20); Naomi

Watts as Princess Diana (“Diana,” Nov. 1); Ralph Fiennes as Charles Dickens (“The Invisible Woman,” Dec. 25); Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsburg (“Kill Your Darlings,” Oct. 18); Hemsworth as Formula One driver James Hunt (Ron Howard’s “Rush,” Sept. 27); and Channing Tatum as Olympic wrestling champ Mark Schultz (Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher,” Dec. 20).

Cinema Stars Like McQueen, Alfonso Cuaron (“Children of Men,” ”Y Tu Mama Tambien“) is known for his predilection for uninterrupted takes. He opens “Gravity“ (Oct. 4) with an unbroken 17-minute shot, the kind that bravura craftsmanship cinephiles will drool over.

Gravity: Warner In the film, Brothers Pictures.

Sandra Bullock and Clooney play astronauts tethered together after they’re left stranded in space. The film is, in part, a chamber piece between two characters, floating in the black abyss Many other top-flight filmmakers will be showing their craftsmanship this fall, including Martin Scorsese, who’ll release his “The Wolf of Wall Street” (Nov. 15), a story of the decadence of modern finance starring Leonardo DiCaprio that should rival that of the actor’s last film, “The Great Gatsby.”

The Coen brothers have “Inside Llewyn Davis,” (Dec. 20), a film about a folk musician struggling in early 1960s Greenwich Village. Ridley Scott will release “The Counselor” (Oct. 25), a dark Mexican border thriller from a script by Cormac McCarthy. “Nebraska” (Nov. 22) is Alexander Payne’s return to his native Midwest, a black-and-white father-son road trip. Spike Lee has his remake of Chan-wook Park’s “Oldboy” (Nov. 27).

More fanciful will be Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (Dec. 25), an adaption of James Thurber’s short story; and Spike Jonze’s “Her” (Dec. 18), a futuristic romance starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Family Fissures To create a realistic impression of the Westons, the Oklahoma family of “August: Osage County,” Wells congregated his cast – picked to feel like a family – at an old Osage County home. Other tales of family, albeit of very different sorts, Hugh Jackman will this fall include star in “Prisoners.”

“Prisoners” (Sept.

Photo: Grant Brummett/Flickr.

20) a thriller in which Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard play fathers whose daughters go missing. In “Out of the Furnace,” Christian Bale and Casey Affleck star as brothers separated when one is lured into a gang while in prison. In Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day” (Dec. 25), Kate Winslet plays a mother who, with her 13-year-old son, encounter an escaped convict.

Awards Attention Many of these films will naturally enter the awards circuit and the monthslong handicapping leading up to the Oscars. It was only months ago that Russell went through that gauntlet with “Silver Linings Playbook,” which received eight Academy Awards nominations, winning one for Lawrence.

An instinctive filmmaker, Russell escaped the frenzy by jumping – quicker than he ever had between films – into “American Hustle” (Dec. 25). The film, which stars Bale, Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams, is a stylish story about the FBI Abscam operation and a cast of corrupt characters operating in the ’70s recession-era Northeast.

How Netflix chooses users to be guinea pigs

By Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press

TORONTO—Want to be a guinea pig for Netflix, get early access to new features, and help shape how the video streaming service grows and evolves?

At any given time Netflix is conducting hundreds of tests across its website and other platforms. Some are based on bold new ideas and are immediately obvious to its test subjects, while others are being run invisibly beneath the user interface.

Users who have been with Netflix since the company launched in Canada in September 2010 aren’t likely to be in on the testing, but newer members almost certainly are, whether they realize it or not, said Netflix’s chief product officer Neil Hunt.

“One of our limited resources is users to try out new ideas, so I would say it’s the unusual individual who doesn’t end up in some kind of test at some point,’’ said Hunt.

“Most testing is done with brand new users who don’t have learned behaviours

to unlearn, that gives us the cleanest read, and so the typical new user coming in will end up in half a dozen or a dozen different test experiences, most of which will be very trivial and minor and invisible.’’

A year’s worth of testing culminated in the recent release of Netflix’s Profiles feature, which allows users to create multiple log-ins within the same account.

And it took almost two years of testing before Netflix released My List, which allows users to bookmark titles to watch later. Netflix relies on the statistics gener-

ated by user tests to inform its decisions, Hunt said, rather than following the socalled “HIPPO’’ philosophy. That acronym stands for “highest paid person’s opinion’’ and refers to an organization’s preference to make top-down decisions. anyone’s existing behaviour.’’

The good news for Canadians who are accustomed to big tech companies launching new products here months or even years after the U.S. is that Netflix has decided to release its new features to all its markets simultaneously.

Entertainment

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 11

Entertainment news in brief The Associated Press

Actor bemoans fellow Italians who shun simple jobs, left to immigrants even in tough times VENICE, Italy—The star of a new film celebrating the dignity of manual labour is lamenting that many of his fellow Italians shun traditional trades like carpentry, leaving such jobs to immigrants even during stubborn economic crises.

The bittersweet comedy “L’Intrepido’’ (The Intrepid) is one of 20 films competing for the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. Its veteran star, Antonio Albanese, plays a rare character these days in Italy: a man who cheerfully throws himself into any job he can get in the unemployment-plagued country, from souschef to pizza deliveryman.

In an interview, Albanese called manual labour noble work. Director Gianni Amelio told that difficult times demand a film about someone who cares about working, not about wealth or social hierarchy.

Spider Man to the rescue CLEVELAND —A Cleveland Heights dad was getting worried about the costs of his eldest daughter’s upcoming wedding. Then, Spider-Man to the rescue!

“Amazing Spider-Man’’ The Plain No. 1, published in 1963. Dealer of Cleveland reports that Richard Schaen remembered that he had stored away his comic books decades ago. He dug out the box, and the first comic he saw was “Amazing SpiderMan’’ No. 1, published in 1963. The 69-year-old man says the 12-cent comic sold for $7,900 through an auction company, netting him about $7,000.

His copy was graded as 6.5 on a scale of 10. A mint-condition copy would have sold for much more. But he’s happy, and says the sale will help cover the catering costs for daughter Jane’s reception.

Red Green is back – with a new book and tour For years, nay, centuries, man has struggled with one central question: What does it take to make a woman happy? Thankfully, a wise man has boldly stepped forward with the answer: Red Green. Yes, that Red Green. The guy with the checkered shirt, fishing hat and suspenders. The genius who uses duct tape to fix everything. Red Green is back from Possum Lodge, Chapter 11, and, once again, he’s got all the answers.

You’ll find them in his new book: “Red Green’s Beginner’s Guide to Women (For Men Who Don’t Read Instructions).”

Hollywood posts record summer with $4.7 billion in revenue NEW YORK—Despite some spectacular flops, Hollywood’s summer ended with a record $4.7 billion in box-office revenue.

The summer movie season closed out on Labor Day weekend as the boy band concert film “One Direction: This Is Us” took in an estimated $18 million from Friday to Monday for Sony Pictures, according to studio estimates Monday. That wasn’t enough to unseat Lee Daniels’ “The Butler,” which stayed on top with $20 million.

It was a positive note to end the season for Hollywood. More than ever before, the industry packed the summer months with big-budget blockbusters that ranged from the hugely successful “Iron Man 3” to the disastrous “The Lone Ranger.”

The box office saw a 10.2 per cent increase over last summer, with attendance rising 6.6 per cent.

‘Trailer Park Boys’ actor now directing TORONTO—When fans stop Cory Bowles for a photo, it’s usually because they recognize him as his goofy character on TV’s “Trailer Park Boys.’’But while the 39-year-old enjoys the attention for his role on the popular mockumentary series, he says the director’s chair is increasingly where he really feels alive.

Star went to extremes to prepare for role of depravity VENICE, Italy—Scott Haze says he spent three cold months living in the mountains of Tennessee, subsisting on one piece of fish and one apple a day, and sleeping in caves to prepare for the role of serial killer Lester Ballard in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel “Child of God.” Haze’s Lester Ballard descends into violence after being kicked off his family’s land and losing his parents, moving outside the social order into caves where he abandons himself to extreme degradation. To prepare for the Ballard role, Haze said he dropped from 195 pounds to 150 pounds (88 kilograms to 68 kilograms) on the apple-and-fish diet while living in a cabin in the Tennessee mountains, sleeping at times in caves often without a sleeping bag until the December temperatures dropped too low.

“I slept in caves many nights with bats all around. It was crazy,” Haze said.

“I let everything go, just hung out with the hillbillies and stayed as isolated as possible.”

The only thing he took with him “from society”: an i-Pod loaded with Eminem music.

Director James Franco said Haze took off for the hills without consulting the director and showed up to shoot not

only looking the part—undernourished, ratty beard and disheveled—but acting it. Haze “didn’t really talk to anyone, stayed to himself, and was like that for the whole shoot,” Franco told reporters.

‘American Idol’ taps Lopez, Connick as judges

Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban will be the new judges on American Idol.

Photos: Ana Carolina Kley Vita/Wikipedia. Tulane Public Relation/ Flickr. César/Wikipedia.

LOS ANGELES—“American Idol’’ is betting that a judges’ remix with Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban will fare better with viewers than bickering divas Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj did last season. The rumoured addition of Lopez and Connick as judges for season 13 was announced by Fox. They’ll join Urban to make up the talent show’s first panel consisting solely of singers - a la NBC’s successful 2011 upstart “The Voice.’’

News from the Toronto International Film Festival The Canadian Press

Screening snafu The Toronto International Film Festival’s first press and industry screening for “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’’ on Saturday was scrapped due to a “mechanical’’ problem.

The issue arose 45 minutes into the screening, eliciting a collective groan from the packed theatre, which seats nearly 560.

British actor Idris Elba stars as the legendary South African freedom fighter in the highly anticipated adaptation of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom.’’

Naomie Harris co-stars as his wife, Winnie Mandela, and Justin Chadwick directs the William Nicholson screenplay.

The film was to have its world premiere gala at the festival Saturday night.

Surprise cameo draws gasps at TIFF There’s a casting twist in the upcoming comedy “Lucky Them’’ that elicited gasps Friday night during the movie’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film features Toni Collette as a troubled journalist assigned to track down a musician boyfriend who went missing years earlier. It’s a semi-biographical story written by Emily Wach-

tel, a script that was championed by the late Paul Newman.

Shot in Seattle, “Lucky Them’’ features a stellar cast, including Oliver Platt and Thomas Haden Church, as well as the aforementioned hot Hollywood actor (who appears briefly in a critical scene).

During a Q&A session after the screening, an audience member asked the filmmakers how they managed to land the elusive star.

Apparently it was an admiration for Newman that drew the actor to the project. Newman’s wife, Joanne Woodward, took over executive producing duties for “Lucky Them’’ after the “Butch Cassidy’’ star died in 2008.

Pint-sized actor looks away during sex scenes It’s rare to see a child in the audience during an evening gala at the Toronto International Film Festival.

But tiny Rohan Chand - dressed in a crisp dark suit - beamed as he sat amid his co-stars Friday night for the world premiere of Jason Bateman’s directorial debut, “Bad Words.’’

Trouble was, the film - about a pottymouthed school dropout (Bateman) who finds a loophole to gain entry to a kids’ spelling bee - wasn’t exactly age appropriate.

But Chand—who plays a fellow speller angling to win the competition—seemed to have a solid viewing plan in place.

He checked out his own performance, but appeared to discreetly bow his head for the hilariously raunchy sex scenes between Bateman and Kathryn Hahn (“Crossing Jordan’’).

Susan Sarandon’s furry travelling companion A furry chaperone has been sitting in on many of Susan Sarandon’s interviews at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The actress, who is in the city promoting “The Last of Robin Hood,’’ had her pint-sized pooch Penny sit calmly on her lap as she worked the press circuit Saturday.

The fluffy white dog posed obligingly for pictures and was, as Sarandon said herself, “incredibly well-behaved.’’

Sarandon, who often takes Penny with her on her travels, says the pup is a “good cuddler’’ and a bit of a globetrotter.

Penny also has her own Twitter account ((at)mspennypuppy) and has been sending out snippets of tail-waggingworthy information on her time at TIFF.

Entertainment

PAGE 12 • www.OttawaStar.com

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Folk fest a success despite speed bumps Michael Power

Another year of the Ottawa Folk Festival has come and gone, and despite a couple of speed bumps, this year’s edition can only be described as an unqualified success.

The festival kicked off Wednesday night with performances from City and Colour and rock legend Patti Smith.

City and Colour, led by Canadian singer-songwriter Dallas Green, stepped in to replace Neil Young as the headliner when Young’s guitarist suffered a hand injury in mid-August.

Green told the audience that he was touring in Britain when he found out about Neil Young’s cancellation. “…I was sitting in a van in England going to play a show when I got the call asking to play folk fest, and I said ‘Yes, thank you.’”

Early in the show, awash in gold lights, Green paid tribute to the artist that he was subbing-in for with a rousing rendition of Young’s classic “Heart of Gold” that had the crowd singing along.

They continued with songs from their latest album, The Hurry and the Harm, mixed in with some older crowdpleasers like “The Grand Optimist,” “Sleeping Sickness,” and “The Girl.”

City and Colour was at one time essentially just a backing band for Green’s solo career, but Wednesday’s show put them on the map as a unified and cohesive headline level band. Green was pitch-perfect throughout the performance, showing off the impressive range of his voice without sounding strained in the least.

Those who turned up early enough to catch punk pioneer Patti Smith were in for a treat. Smith and her band played a lively set to a small but energetic crowd, with Smith even wandering into the crowd to shake hands with fans as her band continued to play the hits.

When she returned to the stage, with more and more people showing up to see the headliner, she had the crowd captivated with a performance of “Because the Night” her 1978 hit co-written with Bruce Springstein.

On Thursday night, visitors to the festival were treated to one of the world’s top

Hey Ocean! singer Ashleigh Ball got the crowd dancing with their hit song “Make a New Dance Up” Photo: Michael Power

indie-rock bands. New York City-based Vampire Weekend came to the capital to play tunes from their latest album Modern Vampires of the City mixed in with songs from their Gold-certified albums Vampire Weekend and Contra.

Earlier Thursday evening saw a performance from Ottawa’s own Amos the Transparent. The Ottawa band has achieved success with a pair of well-received albums since the band’s formation in 2007. Their most recent release, 2012’s Goodnight My Dear…I’m Falling Apart earned them a spot on CBC Radio program Q with Jian Ghomeshi as well as having songs aired on CBC Radio and featured in a television commercial for an online dating site.

Friday night brought a younger crowd to Hog’s Back Park with a night featuring one of the biggest names in hip-hop, Compton, CA born and bred Kendrick Lamar.

Lamar, whose albums Section.80 and good kid, m.A.A.d. city have sold over a million copies, performed to the biggest crowd of the entire festival. Although a bit strange to see a night of rap at the Folk Festival, it was clearly a calculated decision by festival organizer Mark Monahan.

Acts like Lamar bring in a younger crowd, and with the festival taking place over the first weekend of frosh week at the two universities in the nation’s capital, the students were out in full force.

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Ewan Currie and The Sheepdogs brought their vintage sound to Ottawa Folk Fest Photo: Michael Power

Saturday was the busiest day with over 20 performances and workshops spread across the six stages scattered throughout Hog’s Back Park.

Some of the highlights of the day included sets from The Belle Game, Sondre Lerche, and our most famous astronaut Chris Hadfield, who gave the crowd a few space-inspired songs.

“Hello Ottawa! Looking forward to playing in the Ottawa Folk Festival tomorrow with Danny Michel and Brother Dave. Some new space songs.” Hadfield tweeted from his @Cmdr_Hadfield account on Friday night.

As evening rolled in, the skies looked ominous, but the rain held off for the most part. Vancouver-based Hey Ocean! played a vivacious set that had the crowd dancing, chanting and singing along.

Led by Ashleigh Ball on flute and vocals, David Beckingham on vocals and guitar and David Vertesi on bass, the band is no stranger to the National Capital region having played here several times over the past couple of years.

Ball displayed the kind of charisma and stage presence that simply can’t be taught. When they came on stage the crowd was no more than seven or eight rows deep, but by the time they were finishing up there were several thousand people taking in the show.

Saskatoon-based rock band The Sheepdogs took to another stage immediately after the set from Hey Ocean! They played their blend of modern-day classic rock to a crowd big enough to question why they weren’t scheduled for the main stage.

The Sheepdogs’ songs sound like a cross between Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Doors and John Fogerty. Winning a contest to be featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine brought them into the spotlight just two years ago. They then had their new album produced

by Pat Carney of The Black Keys, one of the few artists today who share their blues-based classic rock sensibility.

The crowd ranged in age all the way from teens to baby-boomers – some of whom looked like they may have seen some classic rock back when it was contempo-

rary. It was a show that everybody seemed to enjoy, which may have something to do with the way their music makes you feel.

Closing Saturday night’s performances were the folk-rock sounds of the Avett Brothers. The North Carolina band played to a large crowd as part of a tour taking them from Ottawa to Montreal and then on to the Maritimes.

While the rain held most of the day, it finally came down during the ultimate performance of the evening.

The weather couldn’t stop an enthusiastic crowd though, as they danced and sang along like it was a clear night in the capital.

A small crowd was treated to the musical talents of Sam Amidon on Sunday evening. Amidon is a folk musician in the traditional sense, playing the banjo, guitar and fiddle. Regardless of which instrument he played, Amidon embodied everything that folk music represents.

The big draw on Sunday was Canadian songwriting legend Gordon Lightfoot. Lightfoot’s performance was the perfect bookend to the festival as the crowd enjoyed his classics like “Sundown,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and “If You Could Read My Mind.”

While the Folk Festival may have smaller acts and smaller crowds than its sister-festival, Ottawa Bluesfest, it makes up for it with a better atmosphere.

For one, the smaller crowds make for a more intimate environment. You can get closer to the bands on the main stage without having to show up hours in advance.

People seem friendlier, and maybe that’s because they aren’t quite as dehydrated from spending hours in the mid-summer heat. But it could also be because they don’t seem to be gulping down quite as many adult beverages as they do at Bluesfest. Maybe not good news for the beer vendors, but it’s a win for the fans.

The location of the festival grounds, at Hog’s Back Park, is ideally situated.

While there is no parking on-site, free parking was made available just a short walk away at Canada Post headquarters at Heron Road and Riverside Drive. Free “valet” bicycle parking was available on site, and was widely used.

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Canada

Diabetes led to 2,000 foot amputations in Canada in 2011-12: report

By Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press

T

ORONTO—More that 2,000 foot amputations took place in Canada in 2011-12 due to complications of diabetes, according to a new report on wounds in the Canadian health-care context.

Amplifying that already evident tragedy is the fact that many of those amputations could have been avoided, with good blood sugar control and careful foot care, said Dr. Jan Hux, chief scientific adviser for the Canadian Diabetes Association.

“It’s depressing that the number continues to be high and it’s particularly discouraging because we know that much of that could be prevented,” said Hux, a general internist and adjunct scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto.

Hux was commenting on a finding of a report on wounds published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which said that nationally, compromised wounds were reported in almost four per cent of inpatient acute hospitalizations, more than seven per cent of home care patients, nearly 10 per cent of long-term care residents and almost one-third of hospitalbased continuing care clients.

The report contained data for 2011-12 collected from all provinces but Quebec.

Possibly the most striking figure in the report related to foot amputations among diabetics.

People suffering from both forms of the disease—Type 1 and Type 2—are at higher risk of having to undergo an amputation because of a one-two punch diabetes throws.

The disease damages the small blood vessels that feed the nerves in the extremities, particularly the feet. That leads to a loss of sensation, which leaves diabetics with neuropathy (the term for the condition), unable to sense small cuts, blisters or abrasions on their feet. As a result, they may continue to wear a shoe that is rubbing, or won’t know to clean and treat a cut or blister.

Once wounds form, they are slow to heal. Hux explained that the damage to the blood vessels prevents white blood cells from getting to the source of infection to clean up wounds and start the healing process. It even impairs flow of antibiotics to the site of the wound, if those medications are needed.

Depending on how far the damage has progressed, people can need to un-

After months of phone calls, letters, emails and meetings, Canada Border Services Agency gave the family of 10 a one-month deadline in July to sell the vehicle or see it destroyed.

But on Wednesday, Wall said the family will be allowed to bring the $90,000 vehicle home, as long as it passes a full inspection.

Wall said the province will accept the responsibility of licensing the vehicle.

Alison Morris said her husband and eight children are excited.

“We’ve had lots of people tell us to quit over the last two years, well-meaning people, that didn’t want to see us hurt anymore,’’ she said. “But I believed that we were going to get it all the way along. I just didn’t know how it was going to happen.’’

She said the struggle has taken a toll on the family but has also brought them closer together.

“When things get tough, you don’t just quit and give up,’’ Alison said.

“When something is right and you need to defend it and continue to defend it, you should. We had no guarantee that this outcome would happen, but we had to still give it our best effort until we couldn’t do anymore because that’s how we want (the children) to live their lives.’’

wear and belts, keep their laptops in their cases and keep their liquids and gels in their carry-on bags.

Passengers who are eligible include U.S. citizens who are members of airline frequent traveller programs or the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Trusted Traveler program.

Canadian citizens who are members of the CBP’s NEXUS program are also eligible.

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 13 dergo a substantial amputation merely because what would be a small wound on someone else will not heal.

“If the injury is just in a toe, surely they could just do an amputation of the toe? But the very thing that prevents your own body from healing the wound in the toe would prevent it from healing the incision once you’ve done the surgery,” Hux said.

“And so if the blood vessels aren’t good in the foot and the blood vessels aren’t good at the ankle and the blood vessels aren’t good at the calf, you may end up with an above-the-knee amputation for a wound on the toe because that’s how far the surgeon has to go to get tissue that has a sufficiently good blood supply that it will be able to heal after the surgery.”

Hux wasn’t surprised by the 2,000 amputations figure, and said the number will rise because the number of Canadians with diabetes is increasing as the large baby boom generation hits the age when the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes is higher.

Canada news in brief The Canadian Press

Tory MPP Shurman bills $20,719 for a second residence TORONTO—Peter Shurman last year claimed the maximum $20,719 housing allowance for a second residence in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Housing allowance is for members of the legislature who live more than 50 kilometres from Queen’s Park.

Shurman, who flies his own private Beechcraft airplane, represents the Toronto riding of Thornhill and has an apartment in the city.

Liberal house leader John Milloy calls Shurman’s decision “outrageous’’ and says it’s probably time to look at the rules to close the loophole.

Milloy says Shurman regularly lectures the government about living and spending within its means,” and wants Hudak to stop what the Liberals call a ‘’taxpayer-funded retirement home subsidy.”

“What’s even more outrageous,’’ said Milloy, “is I have to hear his sanctimony and arrogance day after day about the waste of taxpayers’ money, and him going on and on and on about having to account for every nickel, and then we find out he found this loophole. It’s a bit rich.’’

Opposition Leader Tim Hudak has announced that Mr. Shurman has agreed to discontinue any receipt of the accommodation allowance and going forward pay for the expenses in question out of his own pocket.

Family gets backing in fight to bring custom vehicle home REGINA—A large Saskatchewan family’s two-year fight to get back its specially modified vehicle is finally over after Premier Brad Wall waded into the battle at the border.

The Morris family’s extra-long vehicle had been sitting idle at the North Portal border crossing after Canadian border officials refused to let it cross because it had been altered in the U.S.

Portland International Jetport chosen for expedited screening program PORTLAND, Maine—The Transportation Security Administration is bringing a new program to Maine’s Portland International Jetport that allows pre-approved travellers to pass through screening checkpoints more quickly.

The TSA says it’s expanding its so-called “pre-check’’ expedited screening program to 60 new airports by the end of the year.

The program allows pre-approved air travellers to use screening lanes where they can leave on their shoes, light outer-

Passengers to get up to $800 if bumped from flights MONTREAL—The Canadian Transportation Agency has ordered Air Canada and Porter Airlines to alter their compensation policies to protect passengers who are unable to fly to their destinations as planned.

The regulator says Air Canada, the country’s largest carrier, must pay passengers between $200 and $800 cash, or three times that in travel vouchers, if they are involuntarily bumped from flights.

The Montreal-based airline has the flexibility to switch to smaller aircraft for operational and safety reasons, but the agency says Air Canada must pay compensation if it can’t prove that it took all reasonable steps to avoid the substitution.

In a separate decision issued, the agency ordered Porter to refund fares paid for cancelled domestic flights and provide compensation for reasonable expenses when flights are delayed. It called the Toronto-based airline’s current policies unclear, and said Porter should make “reasonable” efforts to inform passengers of schedule changes and the reasons for them.

Condo market crashing?

Unlikely: Conference board TORONTO—A growing population and continuing, albeit modest, job growth will prevent condo markets in Canada’s major cities from crashing, a new report from the Conference Board of Canada predicts.

Sales are expected to fall everywhere but

Edmonton this year, with eight per cent drops anticipated in Toronto and Vancouver.

And mortgage rates, which have been inching higher for the past few months, will likely further cool the market in 2014, according to the report released by mortgage insurer Genworth.

But an all-out crash is unlikely, even in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver where markets are being watched with concern.

The report said a swelling population and a growing number of “condominiumloving empty-nesters” aged 55 and older will support the market, as will modest job growth over the medium term.

The report also noted the banks, which require builders to have pre-sold a certain number of units before they fork over the cash for construction of a new building, will help to prevent an oversupply of condos from flooding the market.

Top three of world’s most livable cities in Canada VANCOUVER—Vancouver has been ranked as the world’s third most-livable city in an annual survey by an independent business associated with the Economist magazine.

Toronto and Calgary placed fourth and fifth, but Melbourne took the top spot for the third year in a row in a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Vienna came in second in the ranking of 140 cities based on 30 factors including the quality of health care or the threat of military conflict.

Vancouver spent almost a decade in first place before Melbourne moved to the top of the list.

The lowest livability score was shared

by Damascus, because of Syria’s ongoing civil war, and Karachi, Pakistan.

London and New York have been ranked as numbers 55 and 56 respectively, mainly because of a perceived risk of terrorism, according to the report.

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PAGE 14 • www.OttawaStar.com

World

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

US spies had intercepted key intelligence But didn’t connect dots before Syrian strike

By Kimberly Dozier, The Associated Press

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ASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence agencies did not detect the Syrian regime readying a massive chemical weapons attack in the days ahead of the strike, only piecing together what had happened after the fact, U.S. officials say.

One of the key pieces of intelligence Secretary of State John Kerry later used to link the attack to the Syrian government—intercepts of communications telling Syrian military units to prepare for the strikes—was in the hands of U.S. intelligence agencies but had not yet been “processed,’’ according to senior U.S. officials.

That explains why the White House did not warn either the regime or the rebels who might be targeted as it had done when detecting previous preparations for chemical strikes.

“We know that for three days before the attack the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons personnel were on the ground in the area making preparations,’’ Kerry said as he presented the evidence in a State Department speech. “We know that the Syrian regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks and taking precautions associated with chemical weapons.’’

But the Obama administration only uncovered the evidence after Syrians started posting reports of the strike from the scene of the attack, leading

NY jury rejects argument that use of N word among blacks can be culturally acceptable

By Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press

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U.S. spies and analysts to focus on satellite and other evidence showing a Syrian chemical weapons unit was preparing chemical munitions before the strike, according to two current U.S. officials and two former senior intelligence officials.

The report says U.S. intelligence intercepted communications after the attack by a “senior official intimately familiar with the offensive’’ who confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government, and was concerned that the U.N. inspectors might find evidence of the attack. The report also says the U.S. has intelligence that Syrian chemical weapons personnel were directed to “cease operations’’ on the afternoon of Aug. 21, several hours after the attack.

The U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence say such intercepts were in hand but waiting to be processed among hours of intercepted military communications.

The CIA and the Defence Intelligence Agency have dozens officers on the ground in countries neighbouring Syria, relying on a network of rebels and local agents to provide human intelligence on the goings on of both the regime and its opponents. The Pentagon also has satellites focused on the area, capturing images of the regime and rebel manoeuvrs, while various types of airborne platforms collect electronic transmissions such as military radio traffic or cellphone calls.

NEW YORK—A federal jury has rejected the argument that use of the N-word among blacks can be a culturally acceptable term of love and endearment, deciding its use in the workplace is hostile and discriminatory no matter what.

Jurors last week awarded $250,000 in compensatory damages and $30,000 in punitive damages to a black employment agency worker who was the target of an N-word-laced rant by her black boss.

The case against Rob Carmona and the employment agency he founded, STRIVE East Harlem, gave legal airing to what some see as a complex double standard surrounding the word: It’s a degrading slur when uttered by whites but can be used at times with impunity among blacks.

In closing arguments, Johnson’s attorney Marjorie M. Sharpe said Carmona’s use of the word was intended to offend

“and any evidence that defendants put forth to the contrary is simply ridiculous.’’

“When you use the word nigger to an African-American, no matter how many alternative definitions that you may try to substitute with the word nigger, that is no different than calling a Hispanic by the worst possible word you can call a Hispanic, calling a homosexual male the worst possible word that you can call a homosexual male,’’ Sharpe told jurors.

The 61-year-old Carmona, a black man of Puerto Rican descent, in his testimony, explained that the word has “multiple contexts’’ in the black and Latino communities, sometimes indicating anger, sometimes love.

Carmona said he might put his arm around a longtime friend in the company of another and say: “This is my nigger for 30 years.’’

“That means my boy, I love him, or whatever,’’ he said.

World

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 15

Afghan militants kill Indian female author in latest attack against prominent women

By The Associated Press

K

ABUL, Afghanistan—Officials say militants in Afghanistan have killed an Indian woman whose memoir about marrying an Afghan and life under the Taliban was made into a Bollywood film.

The killing of Sushmita Banerjee is the latest in a string of attacks on prominent women in Afghanistan, adding to fears women’s rights will recede even more in this nation after U.S.-led foreign forces leave.

Provincial police chief Gen. Dawlat Khan Zadran says suspected Taliban militants arrived early Thursday morning at Banjerjee’s residence in Paktika province. They tied up her husband before taking her outside and shooting her.

He and another top official identified her by her local name, Sahib Kamal, but also said her last name was Banerjee.

Banerjee wrote “Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife,” the basis for the 2003 film “Escape from Taliban.”

According to Wikipedia, Sushmita Banerjee was born in Calcutta, India in a Hindu Brahmin family. She married Janbaaz Khan, an Afghan businessman on 2 July 1988. The marriage took place secretly in Kolkata, as she feared her parents would object to the inter-religious marriage. When her parents tried to get them divorced, she fled to Afghanistan with Khan. She discovered that her husband already had a first wife, Gulguti, when she found them in bed together. Although shocked, she continued to live in Khan’s ancestral house in Patiya village, with her three brothers-in-law, their wives, and with Gulguti and Gulguti’s children.

Later, Khan returned to Kolkata to continue his business, but Banerjee could not return. Sayeda, a trained nurse in gynecology, opened a clinic to help the women of the village.

With the burgeoning Taliban power in Afghanistan, Banerjee witnessed fundamentalist changes occurring in the country. In a 2003 interview, she said that the plight of women in particular got worse.

Women were banned from talking with men other than family members, they were not allowed outside home. Schools, colleges, and hospitals were shut down.

Taliban men discovered her clinic and beat her severely in May 1995.

Banerjee made two abortive attempts to flee Afghanistan. She was caught and kept in house arrest in the village. A fatwa was issued against her and she was scheduled to die on 22 July 1995. With the help of the village headman, she finally fled from the village, in the process killing three Taliban men with an AK-47 rifle. She

reached Kabul, and took a flight back to Kolkata on 12 August 1995.

She lived in India until 2013, and published several books. After returning

to Afghanistan, she worked as a health worker in Paktika Province in southeastern Afghanistan, and also started to film the lives of local women.

Sushmita Banerjee

Photo: IANS

World’s leading drug trafficker in the ‘90s sentenced

By Michael Tarm, The Associated Press

CHICAGO—A long time fugitive was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in leading one of the world's largest heroin networks, which extended from suppliers in Thailand to distributors working out of a boutique in Chicago.

The sentencing of Musiliu Balogun highlights a seismic shift in how heroin gets to the U.S. In the 1990s, when Balogun was in his heyday as a drug trafficker, most of the heroin originated from Southeast Asia and got to the United States through couriers. Now, most of it is smuggled across the southern border by Mexican cartels.

Balogun, who is of Nigerian descent, evaded capture until his arrest in Amsterdam in 2006 as he sought to fly to

Ghana and Dutch authorities extradited him to the U.S. in February.

Balogun was initially looking at a life sentence on multiple trafficking charges, but a plea deal following his extradition meant he faces a maximum nine-year prison term.

While Balogun trafficked pricey Asian heroin injected with a needle, today's Mexican- and Colombian-made heroin is as potent but cheaper and easier to ingest in its powdery form, said Jack Riley, the Drug Enforcement Administration's head in Chicago.

Based in Thailand and Cambodia, Balogun was adept at recruiting couriers in hotels or airports, and they would then smuggle the heroin to the U.S. aboard airlines—sometimes swal-

lowing it in small bags and expelling it after reaching Chicago, Riley said.

Among the other key figures in the network were women working out of a Chicago boutique shop; they received the contraband from couriers, then distributed it to local street gangs, who handled street-level sales, Riley said.

The women, like Balogun, were of Nigerian descent, which Riley said was a common feature of trafficking organizations in the '90s. Over the years, Mexicans and their operatives came to dominate the trade, he said.

The investigation of Balogun's crime group, dubbed Global Sea, was one of the largest operations of its kind at the time, Riley said. Dozens of co-conspirators were arrested in 1996.

Weddings and reality television Continued from page 1

Shagun TV can itself seem obsessed.

Artwork on the windows of its lobby depict an Indian wedding procession, with turbaned men beating drums and an elephant-drawn carriage carrying the groom.

In the main TV studio, a large cardboard astrology chart lies against a wall, used by one host to answer wedding and relationship questions. And a plasma television loops video of a bridal ceremony.

Then there are the programs. There is a bridal makeover show, a show featuring dreamy honeymoon destinations and one on the often-fraught relationship between mothers and daughters-in-law. There’s “Gold n’ Beautiful,” showcasing bridal jewelry. Coming soon are marriage-themed soap operas.

“There is no reining in the penchant for (wedding) celebrations in India,” said Dheeraj Sinha, author of “Consumer India: Inside the Indian Mind and Wallet.”

“They are only becoming louder and more professional,” Sinha said.

Media analysts say the channel is the first in India offering round-the-clock wedding entertainment. It looks to cash in on a big fat Indian wedding market valued at an estimated $38 billion a year and ex-

pected to grow 25 to 30 per cent annually, according to Alex Kuruvilla, the managing director of Conde Nast India, which publishes a string of luxury magazines.

The Indian wedding season, which starts in October and lasts until spring, can at times seem like a bridal invasion.

Traffic grinds to a halt in major cities on wedding dates thought to be astrologically auspicious. On particularly lucky days, newspapers reported up to 60,000 couples tying the knot in New Delhi alone.

For centuries, Indian marriages were alliances between families of similar backgrounds, and the weddings were displays of status and wealth. In many ways, the quest for status is only intensifying as India’s economy grows.

If much of the channel is dedicated to astrology and matchmaking shows, it is also breaking privacy taboos by bringing on couples to openly share private details of their relationships. But don’t expect risque American-style confessions. This is a family-friendly channel, where feel-good content is the rule.

In one talk show, “So It’s Final,” engaged couples share details about how they met, the qualities they like and dislike in one another, and expectations of married life.

The show is designed as a “pre-marriage therapy session,” said Anuranjan Jha, Shagun TV’s managing director. But, he acknowledges, there’s no talk about sex or serious marital discord. Its aim is not to create drama, but “to help in guiding how to lead a good life,” he said.

If things are fairly tame now, the show’s hosts intend to raise pricklier wedding issues, like dowry demands and inter-caste marriages.

Shagun TV says its aim is to give a platform to middle-class Indians who want to be in the spotlight. In fact, couples shell out between $11,000 and $19,000 to flaunt their multi-day wedding festivities on the channel—with the price depending on how many nights of the celebration they want aired.

Many of the families are wondering: How do you hold onto ancient traditions in a modern India, where the family structure now faces working women and greater individual aspirations?

Nidhi’s mother, Durgesh Gaur, says the answer may be found on television.

“It’s possible that Shagun TV, through emphasizing marriage and family, brings back our Indian values and traditions,” she said.

World

PAGE 16 • www.OttawaStar.com

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Some students claim that Donald Trump University is a scam New York Attorney General launches a $40 million lawsuit

By Verena Dobnik, The Associated Press

N

EW YORK—Bob Guillo spent almost $35,000 hoping to learn some of Donald Trump’s real estate secrets.

Instead, he says, he left the sessions of Trump University cash-poor, with little more than a photo of himself next to a life-size cardboard cutout of the mogul, who never even showed up.

“They told everybody to get their credit card limits raised to buy real estate, but the true purpose was to pay $35,000 for the next bunch of seminars,” said Guillo, of Manhasset, on Long Island.

Nora Hanna dished out about $17,000 for the Trump University program, concluding after just a few days that “what I learned there, I could read on the Internet.”

The Brooklyn woman fought for two months to get her money back as promised to those who changed their mind within three days. “They wouldn’t answer my calls or emails,” she said. Eventually, she said, her money was returned.

Trump’s former students are coming forward to tell their stories in the wake of a $40 million lawsuit against “The Apprentice” star and his real estate school by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who says Trump helped run a phoney university that promised to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and largely useless seminars.

The billionaire developer says that Schneiderman’s lawsuit is false and that his school had done a “fantastic job,” with a 98 per cent approval rating among students from around the country. He called the attorney general “a political hack looking to get publicity.”

Guillo said that in the group seminars he attended in New York hotel conference rooms in 2009 and early 2010, an instructor “was flashing his Rolex watch and wearing a very expensive suit and fancy cufflinks as he told us his rags-to-riches story.”

“We followed PowerPoint presentations, and they gave us loose-leaf manuals and websites you could pull up on your home computer. We were all scammed,” Guillo said.

Not everyone feels that way.

Marla Rains-Colic called her experience “extremely positive.”

“It was an education that opened the door for us in real estate,” said Rains-Colic, who with her husband paid $25,000 for a private, three-day “mentorship” program“ in St. Louis with a real estate expert from Wisconsin chosen by Trump’s organization.

Michael Greco is another grateful student who calls the lawsuit baseless.

After a free introductory presentation, the New Jersey resident spent $500 for an online tutorial offered by Trump.

“I got my value, and it was real value,” Greco said, adding that he never felt

Donald Trump

Photo: Gage Skidmore

pressured to pay or do any more than that. “I got my money’s worth.”

According to the lawsuit, some students in the initial three-day group seminar costing $1,495 were upset that they were pressured to take more expensive Trump “Elite” programs.

Asked for names of students who testified for the lawsuit, Schneiderman’s

Hackers find ways to hijack car computers and take control

By Tom Krisher, The Associated Press

DETROIT—As cars become more like PCs on wheels, what’s to stop a hacker from taking over yours?

In recent demonstrations, hackers have shown they can slam a car’s brakes at freeway speeds, jerk the steering wheel and even shut down the engine—all from their laptop computers.

Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre (OCCSC)

Notice of Annual General Meeting 2013

T

he Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre (OCCSC) invites all community members and interested people to attend our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, September 17th, 2013 at the Ottawa Chinese Alliance Church, 22 Eccles Street, Ottawa Reception and Registration from 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm AGM: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm.

Please be advised that there will be voting for elections to the Board of Directors and for an amendment to our Constitution and By-Laws.

All members in Good Standing are eligible to vote and to nominate eligible members for nomination to the

Board. Members in good standing must have been a member of the OCCSC for a minimum period of 90 days, have paid their membership fees in full, and who support the mission and goals of the Centre.

All memberships are valid for one year from the date of commencement and multi-year memberships are also available.

The membership fee is $10 ($5 for seniors) which not only helps to support our programs and services but also brings special purchasing privileges at local stores and businesses. You may also contact Doreen Ju in advance for memberships at 613-235-4875, ext. 144.

The hackers are publicizing their work to reveal vulnerabilities present in a growing number of car computers. All cars and trucks contain anywhere from 20 to 70 computers. They control everything from the brakes to acceleration to the windows, and are connected to an internal network.

A few hackers have recently managed to find their way into these intricate networks.

To be sure, the “hackers’’ involved were well-intentioned computer security experts, and it took both groups months to break into the computers.

And there have been no real-world cases of a hacker remotely taking over a car.

But experts say high-tech hijackings will get easier as automakers give them full Internet access and add computer-controlled safety devices that take over driving duties, such as braking or steering, in emergencies. Another possibility: A tech-savvy thief could unlock the doors and drive off with your vehicle.

office provided only two— Guillo’s and Hanna’s.

Another student claiming the program didn’t fulfil its promise of insider expertise is Sema Tekinay.

She said she paid $10,000 in 2009 and was supposed to get three instructor-led courses in New York or New Jersey—near her Manhattan home—with access to advisers to guide her to private lenders and foreclosed properties.

Instead, she said, she was told the courses would be offered in Texas and California—nd then, only online.

She tried to cancel but was told she could not because three days had already passed.

“I felt fooled,” she said.

Another student, Gregory Ryan, has sued Trump University separately in state court on Long Island, saying he was the victim of a $25,000 “rip-off.”

And in California, Tarla Makaeff filed a class-action lawsuit against Trump in San Diego federal court, claiming she was scammed out of nearly $60,000 while attending seminars in 2008.

In the last 25 years, automakers have gradually computerized functions such as steering, braking, accelerating and shifting. Electronic gas pedal position sensors, for instance, are more reliable than the old throttle cables. Electronic parts also reduce weight and help cars use less gasoline.

The networks of little computers inside today’s cars are fertile ground for hackers.

Two years ago, researchers at the University of Washington and University of California, San Diego did more extensive work, hacking their way into a 2009 midsize car through its cellular, Bluetooth and other wireless connections—even the CD player.

Stefan Savage, a UCSD computer science professor, said he and other researchers could control nearly everything but the car’s steering. “We could have turned the brakes off. We could have killed the engine. We could have engaged the brakes,’’ he said.

Savage doesn’t think common criminals will be able to electronically seize control of cars anytime soon. Currently it would take too much time, expertise, money and hard work to hack into the multitude of computer systems.

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Business

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 17

Addicted to the mobile web? You’re not alone as trend shows desktop usage dropping

By Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press

TORONTO—A few short years ago, back when spotting an iPad in public was still a novelty, some tech prognosticators were boldly predicting that it wouldn’t be long before use of the mobile web surpassed Internet usage through computers.

It was a little hard to imagine.

It hasn’t happened in Canada yet—it’s still not even close—but it no longer seems that implausible.

Facebook recently announced that its users now connect to the social network more on phones and tablets than they do with desktop and laptop computers.

BBC News also reported this summer that for the first time ever, it saw mobile traffic exceed computer traffic for some of its news coverage, including stories on the death of Canadian actor Cory Monteith.

Experts’ best guesses suggest it’ll still take years before mobile is fully neck and neck with computer usage when it comes to overall Internet consumption—particularly in North America—but given how quickly tablets and smartphones have been adopted, it could happen sooner than expected.

“I think there are products like Facebook where it’s a much more natural fit to be using on mobile, so we’re very much a leading edge on this transition to mobile because it’s a more natural use case. Not every product in the world has that same dynamic, there are some products that may make more sense on a desktop so they’re going to have a longer transition to mobile,” said Cory Ondrejka, Facebook’s director of mobile engineering.

According to the website StatCounter, mobile represented just 0.67 per cent of global Internet traffic in January 2009 but grew to 1.5 per cent a year later, 4.3 per cent by the beginning of 2011 and nearly doubled in each of the following two years. It now stands at about 18 per cent. The numbers are higher in Africa and Asia but lower in North America, with only 11 per

cent of overall Internet traffic in Canada linked to mobile devices.

The mobile trend has taken off quicker in emerging markets where computers are less commonly found in homes, said Ondrejka.

“There are billions of people over the next three or four years that their first connection to the Internet is going to be through mobile devices,” he said.

“If you think about most of the people we talk to every day, they got to know the Internet through a laptop or desktop machine and then started using mobile browsers. There’s a huge number of people who have never seen the Internet and their first experience with that is going to be on the phone.”

Even when people have access to a computer at home they’re increasingly choosing to use a mobile device instead on their WiFi network, said Dave Caputo, president of the computer network company Sandvine.

He noted that about 20 per cent of North American Internet traffic is linked to mobile devices on WiFi. “I think it’s amazing that people are consuming a big chunk of content on their mobile devices over their home WiFi network, a phenomenon we call home roaming,” said Caputo.

But if you’re counting megabytes and gigabytes – instead of time spent on each platform – desktop and laptop computer usage still comes out way ahead.

In North America, the average monthly Internet usage per customer is about 44 gigabytes on computers and only 390 megabytes on mobile, according to Sandvine’s research.

“Whereas in the past the only time you could enjoy the Internet was when you were at your desk, in your office or a classroom, now you can enjoy the Internet wherever you are, you have it in your pocket and you’re connected all the time.

“You used to have to go online, now you are online,” says Eric Morris, Google Canada’s head of mobile advertising, said”

A bit of plastic can go a long way for students looking to save

By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

CALGARY—For students looking to cut back on costs, a little bit of plastic can go a long way.

Jessica McCormick of the Canadian Federation of Students says the International Student Identity Card, or ISIC, is a must-have in every students’ wallet.

The card is free for the 500,000 students across Canada represented by the federation and can easily be picked up at student union offices.

“The card can get students deals on flights and travel, when you’re shopping, buying groceries, or for entertainment on the weekend,’’ said McCormick.

One of the benefits of ISIC is that it’s accepted around the world, says Jason Merrithew, national sales and marketing manager at Travel Cuts, a student-focused travel agency.

An ISIC card can get students discounts or even free access to museums and tourist sites if they’re going on backpacking trips during the summer or spending a semester abroad on exchange.

Andrew Lau at Red Flag Deals said another good card to have is the Student Price Card, or SPC. Unlike ISIC, an SPC can be bought for $9 at a number of retail stores or online. The card is good for a year.

“The card basically provides discounts in the ballpark of about 10 to 15 per cent on a lot of retail and a lot of restaurants,’’ says Lau. A lot of individual retailers—Lau cites Apple as an example—also have their own student discounts. He says this time of year especially, there can be great discounts to be found on laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Students can also save on groceries, if they time their shopping trips right.

Some Loblaws, Zehrs and Superstore locations across the country offer a 10 per cent discount to students on Tuesdays. On Mondays, students can enjoy the same deal at some Valu-Mart and Your Independent Grocer locations.

The stores will ask for valid student picture ID, and some items are exempt, such as prescriptions, alcohol, tobacco, eyewear and gift cards.

A woman browses the internet on a mobile phone. Photo: Ian L.

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Business

PAGE 18 • www.OttawaStar.com

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Foreign companies in China feel unfairly singled out by government probes The Associated Press

BEIJING—Foreign companies believe they are unfairly being singled out for scrutiny in bribery and pricing investigations, the biggest European business group in China said last week.

The comments by officials of the European Chamber of Commerce in China follow announcements about fines imposed on dairy suppliers over pricing issues and an investigation into possibly bribery by employees of drug manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi.

In pricing investigations, the chamber’s member companies believe “there is a disproportion of how foreign companies are covered on this issue’’ compared with Chinese rivals, said its president, Davide Cucino. He said foreign companies also believe accusations against them receive more prominent publicity from state-controlled media.

Officials of the chamber have met with Chinese authorities to discuss the pricing investigations, said Cucino. He said the chamber stressed that any action should be according to law but gave no other details of the meeting.

In the dairy case, six foreign suppliers were fined for vertical price-fixing, or setting minimum retail prices for baby formula. Such a tactic is common in foreign markets but lawyers say the antimonopoly law prohibits it.

A spokesman for the Cabinet’s planning agency was quoted by Chinese media on Aug. 16 as saying it would look into possible anti-monopoly violations in petroleum, telecommunications, autos and banking.

Drug manufacturers have been rattled by investigations into whether Britain-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC and

French rival Sanofi SA bribed doctors to prescribe their medications.

Investigations have targeted only foreign companies, including those with the strongest standard operating procedures, or SOPs, to prevent employee misconduct, said the president of the chamber’s pharmaceutical working group, Bruno Gensberger.

“What I feel a little bit unfair, the foreign companies that are most serious about SOPs have been the most investigated and the most discriminated,’’ said Gensberger. “To my knowledge, today no Chinese company has been investigated.’’

China’s yuan joins ranks of world’s most traded currencies for first time, bank says

By Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press

HONG KONG—China’s yuan has joined the ranks of the most traded currencies for the first time, underlining the growing might of the country’s economy, the world’s second-largest.

The yuan became one of the top 10 traded currencies in 2013, rising to No. 9 on the list due to a “significant expansion” in offshore trading, the Bank for International Settlements said in a report Thursday. It’s a sharp jump from the bank’s last survey in 2010, when the yuan, also known as the renminbi, was No. 17 on the list.

Turnover in trades involving yuan surged to $120 billion a day on average in April 2013, three and half times more than the $34 billion in 2010. Still, that figure is dwarfed by the dollar, which accounted for about $4.7 trillion daily.

The Bank for International Settlements, which is an international organization of

China’s yuan has joined the ranks of the most traded currency. Photo: Pixel23, Wikipedia.

central banks, said the yuan along with the Mexican peso, which rose to No. 8, “saw the most significant rise in market share among major emerging market currencies.”

China’s leaders want the yuan to become an international currency and have been promoting its use as an alternative to the dollar.

The yuan is not yet fully convertible but Beijing has been gradually loosening

Is It Time For A Second Opinion?

controls. It has started allowing companies to settle international transactions in yuan, signed currency swap deals with Pakistan, Thailand South Korea and others and has worked with financial centres such as London and Hong Kong to develop international hubs for offshore trading of the currency.

Earlier this year, Australia and China agreed that their currencies could be directly exchangeable, making the Aus-

tralian dollar the third major currency to have direct convertibility, after the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen. The deal eliminates the need to exchange Australian dollars for U.S. dollars in order to buy yuan and vice versa.

In other findings, Singapore overtook Japan to become the biggest foreign currency trading centre in Asia and the third largest in the world, behind Britain and the United States.

The report also found that the euro’s international role has shrunk since the onset of the sovereign debt crisis in the 17-nation eurozone, with its market share falling.

In contrast, the yen’s share of trading jumped. Research suggested most of the rise came ahead of aggressive measures by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this year to revive Japan’s economy that pushed down the currency’s value.

The bank surveyed 24 currencies in 53 jurisdictions for its report.

When the markets turn as volatile as they have been in recent years, even the most patient investors may come to question the wisdom of the investment plan that they’ve been following.

I would be pleased to provide you with a personal consultation and second opinion on your portfolio. Call me at 613 239-2881.

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CIBC Wood Gundy is a division of CIBC World Markets Inc., a subsidiary of CIBC and a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. If you are currently a CIBC Wood Gundy client, please contact your Investment Advisor.

Ottawa Star • September 12, 2013

Business

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 19

Business news in brief The Canadian Press

Lure of jobs in Alberta not likely enough to get workers to stay CALGARY—A Statistics Canada study suggests the lure of jobs in Alberta’s energy sector probably isn’t enough to convince out-of-province workers to make a permanent move.

The study found there were plenty of people moving to Alberta between 2004 and 2009.

But figures showed that only one in four people coming for jobs decided to make Alberta their primary residence.

They still listed their home province on their tax returns.

About three-quarters of the jobseekers were men from British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada, and half of those were employed in construction and oil and gas extraction.

Out-of-province workers accounted for 133,000 of Alberta’s workforce in the peak year of 2008.

That’s before government tax credits that act like a discount for most people, depending on their income.

List-price premiums for a 40-yearold will average close to $330, the study found. They’re nearly double that for a 60-year-old, $615 a month.

The study by the private data analysis firm Avalere Health points to a competitive market emerging, said lead author Caroline Pearson, with big price differences among age groups, states and even within states.

EU says Harper sounding conciliatory on free trade talks

Boeing sees China adding 5,580 planes for $780 billion BEIJING (AP)—China’s airlines are likely to triple the size of their fleets over the next two decades, driven by strong economic growth and rising tourism spending, Boeing Co. said Thursday.

Boeing and European rival Airbus Industries are looking to China to drive sales as growth in demand cools elsewhere. China’s economic growth fell to a two-decade low of 7.5 per cent in the latest quarter but that still was well above forecasts for the United States and Europe.

Purchases by Chinese carriers should rise 7 per cent a year through to 2032, totalling 5,580 planes for $780 billion, Boeing Co. said in an annual sales outlook. It said that should account for one-sixth of global sales.

The outlook represents an increase over last year’s 20-year forecast of sales of 5,260 new airplanes valued at $670 million in 2012-2031.

“Tourism in China and intra-Asia travel will help spur a strong demand for single-aisle airplanes,’’ the Seattle-based aircraft manufacturer said in a statement.

It said sales of wide-body planes should be driven by growth in long-haul traffic to and from China.

Sticker price for Obamacare: $300/month premiums WASHINGTON (AP)—It’s the No. 1 question about President Barack Obama’s health care law: Will consumers be able to afford the coverage?

Now the answer is coming in.

The biggest study yet of premiums posted by states finds that the sticker price for a 21-year-old buying a midrange policy will average about $270 a month. A copy of the study was provided to The Associated Press.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, pictured at the G20 Summit in Russia. Photo: PMO.

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office is sounding more “conciliatory’’ about an imminent resolution to the continent’s long-stalled free trade talks with Canada, a senior European Union official said last week.

Peter Stastny, the union’s rapporteur on the Canada-Europe negotiations, said he is more optimistic than he was several months ago.

“The good news is, that I keep hearing, more and more a kind of conciliatory and optimistic rhetoric, particularly from the office of Prime Minister Harper of Canada,’’ Stastny said in a briefing to the European Parliament’s international trade committee.

He said that is because Harper’s office is playing down the gaps that remain on the main unresolved obstacles to a deal, including access for Canadian pork and beef, drug patents and provincial procurements.

“They are minor issues that should be and could be solved,’’ Stastny said.

The two sides want a deal in time for the European Parliament to ratify it by next year. That would get it in before the union becomes distracted by separate talks with the United States, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Canadian banks turn to wealth management for growth TORONTO—Canada’s biggest banks are turning their focus to their wealth management operations, with several ex-

ecutives predicting that the lucrative and low-risk division will play an important role in future growth.

Bank CEOs have made optimistic predictions for their own wealth management divisions, which house financial planning operations and portfolios for both average investors and high-net worth individuals.

CIBC chief executive Gerry McCaughey said he aims to grow the bank’s wealth management business to represent 15 per cent of its revenue.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Canadian banks are taking a harder look at how to boost growth in the safest way possible.

Unlike many other banking ventures, such as lending, wealth management is generally a low-risk operation that doe sn’t require a lot of capital to run, but can deliver solid fee-based returns on its trading services.

“Even though the stock market may go down, it’s the client that suffers the losses,” Nakamoto said.

“It’s very different from loan losses where (the bank) has to try to get back the money by seizing assets, for example.”

In other countries, struggling banks may sell their wealth management operations as other parts of the business come under pressure.

However, an acquisition of foreign assets might not come so easily for the Canadian banks, said CIBC World Markets

New union budgets $10 million to grow membership in new non traditional sectors

US senators take aim at Canada’s West Coast ports with new cargo tax legislation

Tooth Fairy’s doling out nearly $4 a tooth

WASHINGTON (AP)—Two U.S. senators plan to introduce legislation soon aimed at shippers who favour Canadian ports over American ones due to supposed lower costs north of the border, measures that could have a significant impact on Canada’s lucrative West Coast ports.

At a time when trade between the U.S. and Canada is supposed to be easing under the much ballyhooed Beyond The Border initiatives, Washington state lawmakers Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, longtime foes of the U.S. Harbor Maintenance Tax, are once again targeting the levy with a proposal that would penalize Canadian ports.

The senators want to replace the Harbor Maintenance Tax on shippers with a levy that would apply to all cargo containers coming into the United States via Canadian and Mexican ports. That means when a shipping company unloads its containers in Prince Rupert, B.C, for example, and they’re loaded onto a U.S.bound train or transport truck, the cargo will be taxed at the border.

For Canadian port executives, who have long argued that foreign shippers choose Canadian ports for myriad reasons beyond the American tax, such a levy would amount to a punishing tariff.

TORONTO—Canada’s newest union has a few ideas on how to expand it’s already sizable membership even during turbulent times for the labour movement.

The Canadian Auto Workers union and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada merged this weekend to form a new group called Unifor.

The merged union already has around 300,000 members but discussion at Unifor’s founding convention in Toronto this weekend has been highly concerned with membership expansion – including organization in traditionally non-unionized industries.

This comes at a time when labour feels it is under attack, a point that was made forcefully at the Unifor convention.

“There is no doubt that the union moment in the private sector is on it’s heels, it has been in retreat for some years now,” said Nelson Wiseman, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

The union will be setting aside a tenth of it’s budget for projects like workplace sign-up drives and footing legal bills for groups in Canada trying to unionize.

“By allocating 10 per cent of our total revenue to organizing means that we will have approximately $10 million for organizing, that is very large war chest for a Canadian union,” said Unifor official Fred Wilson.

NEW YORK (AP)—Days of finding a quarter under your pillow are long gone. The Tooth Fairy no longer leaves loose change.

Kids this year are getting an average of $3.70 per lost tooth, a 23 per cent jump over last year’s rate of $3 a tooth, according to a new survey by payment processor Visa Inc., released Friday. That’s a 42 per cent spike from the $2.60 per tooth that the Tooth Fairy gave in 2011.

Part of the reason for the sharp rise: Parents don’t want their kids to be the ones at the playground who received the lowest amount.

Visa has a downloadable Tooth Fairy Calculator app that will give you an idea of how much parents in your age group, income bracket and education level are giving their kids, says Alderman. The calculator is also available on the Facebook apps page.

How much kids are getting from the Tooth Fairy depends on where they live.

Kids in the Northeast are getting the most, according to the Visa study, at $4.10 per tooth. In the west and south, kids received $3.70 and $3.60 per tooth, respectively.

Midwestern kids received the least, at $3.30 a tooth.

The Visa survey results are based on 3,000 phone interviews conducted in July.

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