Ottawa Star - Volume 2 Issue 1

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Ottawa Star www.OttawaStar.com • July 1, 2014 • Volume 2, Issue 1

For Canada & World News visit Ottawa Star.com

Child migrants head for US to flee crime Drawn by belief they are allowed to stay

By Alberto Arce, The Associated Press

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Visitors to the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre’s annual fair welcoming newcomers to Canada. Story on Page 3 Photo: Ellen O’Connor

RRIAGA, Mexico—Five years ago Gladys Chinoy’s mother left Guatemala for New York City, where she went to work in a restaurant and saved money for the day when she could bring her daughter north.

This month, convinced U.S. authorities were allowing unaccompanied children to stay in the country once they made it across the border, Gladys’ mother told her to memorize her phone number and board a bus to Guatemala’s northern border on the last day of school.

With nothing but the clothes on her back, the 14-year-old took a Continued on page 15

A century later, Canada before the First World War seems a world apart

By John Ward, The Canadian Press

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TTAWA—From a century away, the Canada of 1914 seems to exist in another world.

It was the world of Anne Shirley and Green Gables, of Stephen Leacock’s “Sunshine Sketches’’—quieter, more rustic, more bucolic.

The country was much smaller, with a population of about 7.5 million. Just under half the population was urban. Only four cities, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver held more than 100,000 people.

Continued on page 9

Bill would create different classes of Canadian citizens And allow it to banish people from the country: Canadian Bar Association

By Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

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TTAWA—The public thinks it is “absolutely legitimate’’ to strip dual nationals of their Canadian citizenship if they commit acts of treason, terrorism or espionage, says the federal immigration minister.

Chris Alexander told the House of Commons the Conservatives won a strong mandate to reinforce the value of Canadian citizenship based on allegiance to the country.

Opposition MPs put Alexander on the defensive on June 11 over Tory legislation that would greatly broaden the

grounds for taking away citizenship— even from some people born in Canada.

Currently, someone may be stripped of Canadian citizenship for attaining it through false representations.

The federal bill would increase the scope to include those born in Canada but eligible to claim citizenship in another country—for instance, through their parents—and expand the grounds for revocation to include several criminal offences.

Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati is spearheading a planned constitutional challenge of the provision, calling the government proposals reckless.

NDP multiculturalism critic Andrew Cash said the bill, currently before the Senate, would allow the government to deport a Canadian-born citizen who happens to have citizenship Continued on page 8

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PAGE 2 • www.OttawaStar.com

Community

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

The 3rd Canada-Korea Dialogue Series on the Parliament Hill “Gateway to Opportunities: Successful Conclusion of the CKFTA & Canada’s Role in Global Security”

By Staff Reporter

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ttawa—The 3rd annual CanadaKorea Dialogue Series on the Hill event on June 3 was another great success. Jointly presented by the Canada Korea Society (CKS) and the CanadaKorea Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group (CKIFG) in partnership with the Korean Embassy, the Hon. Yonah Martin, Senator and Mr. Barry Devolin, MP, co-Chairs of CKIFG and Ms. YoungHae Lee, President, CKS welcomed the Panelists and Participants/Attendees to the evening event which focussed on the historic conclusion of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement (which took almost 10 years to conclude) as well as on demanding Global Security issues with particular reference to North Korea, China and Russia.

The Honourable Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship & Immigration Canada was key-note speaker while Panelists were: H.E. Cho Hee-yong, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea; The Hon. Hugh Segal, Senator, whose committee membership includes Foreign Affairs (former Chair) and the Special Senate Committee on Anti-Terrorism which he currently chairs; Mr. Ian Burney, Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy & Negotiations, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) —Mr. Burney was Canada’s Lead in the successful conclusion of the bi-lateral Free Trade Agreement Negotiations, and retired Ambassador Marius Grinius who has served as Canada’s Ambassador to South Korea and concurrently to North Korea.

Amb. Marius Grinius – former Canadian Ambassador to South and North Korea, The Hon. Hugh Segal, Senato, Ms. Young-Hae Lee, Canada Korea Society President, The Hon. Chris Alexander, Minister, Citizenship & Immigration, H.E. Cho Hee-yong, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, The Hon. Yonah Martin, Senator, co-Chair, CKIFG, Mr. Ian Burney, Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy & Negotiation, DFATD Photo: Robert Vibert

Minister Chris Alexander’s enthusiastically received address focused on the conclusion of the C-K FTA negotiations which was signed by Prime Minister Harper and President Park in March of this year, and the significance of the bilateral relationship over the years including the early contribution of Canadian missionaries to Korea in the fields of education and medicine, Canada’s participation in the Korean War and more recently, G20 collaboration. He also expressed the importance of leadership by our two countries in the many current and crucial issues from the perspective of Global Society.

The Panel Presentations and Q &A sessions were jointly moderated by

Senator Yonah Martin and Ms. YoungHae Lee 1st Session: CKFTA H.E. Cho Hee-yong: “Korea-Canada FTA—Launching a New Era in our Bilateral Relations” and Mr. Ian Burney: “Towards CKFTA Implementation” 2nd Session: Global Security The Hon. Hugh Segal: “Canada, its Role in Global Security” and Amb. Marius Grinius: “Canada, North Korea and Asia’s Security” Some 110 people attended the event

including MPs & senators, representatives from business, academia, government (including members of the CKFTA negotiation team, DFATD), Korean War veterans, leaders of the Korean community, diplomats and special attendees, including Mr. Richard Blackwolf, President, Canadian Aboriginal Veterans, Victoria, B.C., and the Hon. Norm Letnick, British Columbia’s Minister of Agriculture. Other participants traveled from Toronto and Montreal.

After most stimulating and cutting edge sessions, a Korean buffet dinner was served with wine courtesy of the Korean Embassy where attendees networked and shared their views on the evening.

Federal Court hears Budlakoti’s citizenship case

By Aaron L. Pope

Deepan Budlakoti, the Ottawa-born man facing deportation by the Canadian government, appeared in front of the Federal Court of Canada on Monday, June 16 to fight for the return of his Canadian citizenship.

Dozens of supporters gathered on the front steps of the Supreme Court, where the hearing was held, to show their support for Budlakoti before the hearing got underway.

Budlakoti has been fighting to stay in Canada, the only home he’s ever known, for the past three years. The Canadian government is of the opinion that Budlakoti should never have been granted

citizenship due to the circumstances of his birth along with two criminal convictions.

The government points to the fact that Budlakoti’s parents were employed as housekeepers for the Indian Ambassador in 1989 and under the 1977 Citizenship act, children born to foreign diplomats are excluded from Canadian citizenship.

In a signed letter, the former High Commissioner for India swore that Budlakoti’s parents had ceased working for him in June of 1989, several months before Deepan was born at Grace Hospital in Ottawa.

Korinda McLaine, the attorney for the government in this case argued to have the case thrown out saying, “There is no such thing as a de facto citizen,” and

Deepan Budlakoti Photo: Justice for Deepan website

the case of whether or not Budlakoti is a citizen is mute because he never applied for citizenship to begin with.

Both Budlakoti’s parents had applied for citizenship, but never applied for their newborn son because they believed he was Canadian by virtue of being born in Canada.

Budlakoti’s lawyers say there is more to this case than the circumstances of his birth to consider. If the government’s attempt to strip Budlakoti’s citizenship is successful, he will be left stateless as India has refused to grant him Indian citizenship and will not issue travel documents.

The Federal Court will now consider whether or not Budlakoti’s Charter of Rights challenge will go ahead, but have not announced when that decision will be made.

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Community

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 3

Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre holds annual fair welcoming newcomers to Canada

By Ellen O’Connor

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he Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre held their third annual Community Welcome Fair on Sunday, June 1 to welcome newcomers and immigrant families and provide them with information about settlement agencies and services in Ottawa.

The event saw a successful turnout of 750 guests, which included visitors, volunteers, community partners and sponsors, and 40 immigrant families who were first-time visitors to the centre.

Held in the OCCSC back parking lot located at 381 Kent St, visitors could stop by one of the many booths set up by community service providers to ask and receive answers about settlement and financial services, employment, education, language skills and more.

“We want to build a welcoming community and community connections so that average Canadian citizens get to know the needs of immigrants and are interested in working together,” said Sharon Kan, executive director at OCCSC. “It’s important for us to reach out, not only to the public, but to the business sector, including the employers.”

The settlement agencies and community partners included YMCA –Newcomers Information Centre, Immigrant Women Services Ottawa, World Skills, Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, Algonquin College, Ottawa Catholic School Board, Centretown Community Health Centre, Come From China Website, Canada China Friendship Society, Ottawa Health Services, the Ottawa Police and Fire Department.

Afarin Beglari, settlement counsellor with Catholic Centre for Immigrants who had a booth at the event, said their main goal is to help government-sponsored refugees with housing, employment, further education, social services, and sponsoring their family members.

“I love it when people ask me questions and feel safe because they know I won’t send them anywhere that I doubt will provide any service but the best,” said Beglari. She added that one of the problems, however, is newcomers aren’t aware of the services available or basic things like GST, the food bank, volunteer work or financial assistance.

“Except those who are under RAP, the Resettlement Assistance Program sponsored by the government, a lot of newcomers don’t know, especially skilled workers or those who are helping to sponsor and it’s a pity,” said Beglari. “I think Immigration Canada should do better publicity about these services because it’s the first encounter they have.”

Along with the information booths, the afternoon was filled with Tai Chi and

Participants at the annual fair welcoming newcomers Photo: Ellen O’Connor

musical performances, a photography exhibition displaying submissions for the “A Joyful Moment in Ottawa” contest, book signings, an OCCSC guided tour, and a children’s area that featured a bouncing castle, face painting, balloon animals and cotton candy to simultaneously celebrate International Children’s Day. One of the biggest draws this year was a seemingly un-ending line of visitors excited to have their photo snapped with Mayor Jim Watson.

“These kinds of events are important so we let newcomers to Canada know we value their contributions to our society,” said Watson in between posing for photos with people. “We need more people coming to Canada and Ottawa

in particular as a growing city and this centre does enormously good work helping people get over some of the language and economic barriers so they can be a great, productive member of our society” Both Watson and Kan were part of the Ottawa delegation that travelled to Beijing and Shanghai in October 2013 to build on Ottawa’s relationship with China in the areas of tourism, education and economic development, particularly encouraging more foreign students to study in Ottawa.

With a population of about 20 to 30% of Chinese immigrants living in Ottawa, Kan said that while many newcomers go to Vancouver or Toronto, she hopes that many know that Ottawa is a great city as

well. She also hopes that Canadian citizens understand the benefit of immigration.

“I hear a lot of comments about how [immigrants] take away jobs from Canadians, but that’s not the case at all,” said Kan, who added that she thinks we’re not bringing in enough immigration and need to be more competitive.

“We want to have a balanced approach—we protect our local workers, bring in the good ones overseas and we help the economy and job creation. The government should work harder to get the right information to know where the labour market needs are, and we will do the bridging.”

To learn more about the OCCSC and their services visit occsc.org.

PAGE 4 • www.OttawaStar.com

Community

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Dr. Anant Anantaraman - Finding purpose from tragedy

By Ellen O’Connor

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midst the peacefulness of an early spring morning, Dr. Anant Anantaraman reached down and gently touched the three names emblazoned in the plaque before him, tracing each single letter with care.

Bhawani Anantaraman. Aruna Anantaraman. Rupa Anantaraman.

The names of his wife and two young daughters killed in the bombing of Air India flight 182 on June 23, 1985, leaving Anantaraman with just his memories and their names forever engraved in the memorial plaque in Commissioner’s Park at Dow’s Lake to remember the 329 victims.

Now, almost 30 years later, Anantaraman continues to visit the memorial every spring. While the pain of losing his family is something that will never fully fade, he has found a way to regain purpose in his life and make an incredible difference in the lives of others through the establishment of the Bhawani Anantaraman Memorial Foundation and the Bhawani Memorial School in India.

“My life was shattered, but then eventually I came out of it by doing all these things, and now I could say, yes, I feel happy, and I wouldn’t have been able to say that before,” said Anantaraman. “Anything that I do is in memory of all the children that lost their lives, all their ambitions totally unfinished and unrecognized. Not just Aruna and Rupa, but all the children.”

Anantaraman established the Bhawani Anantaraman Memorial Foundation in 1995 in memory of his wife and two daughters. The foundation strives to promote education among young children, particularly the disadvantaged, as well as foster musical talent in young performers.

He has created six musical scholarships so far for performers gifted in violin, cello and viola that are awarded through the Kiwanis Music Festival, University of Ottawa, and Ottawa Youth Orchestra, and was a founding donor for the university’s school of music.

“At that point there was no string scholarship, there was no string program at all at the University of Ottawa,” said Anantaraman. “Our scholarship was the first one started in the string program.”

All of the scholarships are a tribute to Anantaraman’s belief in musical education and his own daughters’ success as gifted violinists. His impressive educational background, with Master Degrees and PhD’s in chemistry, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, led him from India to California and finally B.C. After ten years however, it was his desire to support his daughters’ love for the violin that led them to relocate to Ottawa where, at the ages of 10 and 13, Rupa

Dr. Anantaraman visits the Air India Memorial at Commissioners Park to remember his wife and two daughters killed in the bombing in June 1985. Photo by Ellen O’Connor

Dr. Anantaraman teaching a class at the Bhawani Memorial School in Yercaud, Tamil Nadu.

Photo by Haroon Patel

and Aruna became founding members of the Ottawa Youth Orchestra. .

Anantaraman’s generosity and commitment to changing the lives of others extends beyond Ottawa, however.

“I worked at a lot of things, trying to find some meaning to my life, I just didn’t know what to do,” said Anantaraman who spent several years supporting NGO’s with donations and volunteer efforts following the 1985 tragedy.

After wrapping up his career at the University of Ottawa, and previously as a research scientist at the Department of National Defense, Anantaraman decided to return to India where he established the Bhawani Memorial School in Yercaud, Tamil Nadu in 1999.

From small beginnings, the two bedroom house converted into a school house for seven students gradually expanded to

a class of 60 students, 8 teachers including Anantaraman, and the construction of a large new campus.

“I started the school there and then immediately found there was a need in the community for expansion because it’s mostly a tribal area,” he said. “There was a need for more schools and education, particularly free education.”

All of the children receive a free education and are provided with books, uniforms, snacks and lunch, medical and dental care at no cost. He explained that while public schools are free, the large class size per teacher doesn’t make for a good learning environment, and private schools are too expensive for many.

“What I thought is education must be free. It must be available to every child and a part of their birthright,” said Anantaraman. “[The foundation] is provid-

ing opportunities for kids who could not afford to otherwise go to private schools and get a decent education.”

Anantaraman’s work isn’t done yet, either. He has plans to have 200 students at the school and expand the school infrastructure further with money from his own pockets and from fundraising events held every April and May in Ottawa during his yearly visit.

In honour of the 30th anniversary of the Air India Bombing next June, he is also planning on creating education scholarships in County Cork, Ireland, near where the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean and where they hold a beautiful memorial every year in honour of the victims.

To learn more or make a donation to the Bhawani Anantaraman Memorial Foundation visit www.bamf.uottawa.ca

Community

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 5

Tantalizing & Tasty: Cuisine of Kerala — God’s Own Country

By Ms. Raju Banerjee

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he India Canada Friendship Circle’s (ICFC) June 8th sold out session on food tourism in Kerala, a state in South India, with the talented Joe Thottungal, Chef and Owner of Coconut Lagoon Restaurant, was an event not to be missed for foodies, gourmands, and connoisseurs in pursuit of tasty and exotic flavours.

Joe laid out an array of exotic spices along with many that are used everyday in Kerala kitchens and pointed out a common misconception that “spicy food” means “hot food” unsuitable to some delicate palates. Spices are used to enhance natural flavours and to bring out the complexities of many ingredients. He highlighted how using different techniques can change the taste, colour, flavour and strength of a spice; for example, tamarind when smoked has a completely different taste and flavour than when unsmoked. Joe explained that mace, the outer shell of nutmeg, imparts an altogether different aroma than the nut itself and that black pepper, at the various stages of drying, changes its color from green to red to black with unique potency and smell at every stage!

Since Kerala means the “land of the coconut”, it was natural for Joe to artfully demonstrate how to buy a good coconut and crack it open! In fact, it is this very meaning of “Kerala” coupled with its beautiful backwaters and lagoons that inspired him to name his Ottawa restaurant, located at 853 St. Laurent Boulevard, “Coconut Lagoon”.

ICFC members learned of Joe’s challenges in rising amongst the entrepreneurial ranks and how his Indian advisors encouraged him to specialize in authentic Indian rather than western cuisine. This advice went far in shaping Joe’s 20-plus year career, spanning India, Saudi Arabia and now Canada, as he worked amongst the world’s best chefs. One of his initial challenges was

MP Joe Daniel, Chef Joe Thottungal and MP Mauril Belanger Event. Photo: ICFC

how to raise awareness of the regional differences in Indian cuisine and, with the success of Coconut Lagoon, he created a niche for Kerala and South Indian cuisine in Ottawa.

There was more in store for the ICFC crowd as Joe came with freshly prepared authentic Kerala snacks: Shrimp ‘pancakes’, samosas, potato and cheese fritters and Kerala tea infused with cardamom. Everyone, including Mr. Mauril Belanger, Member Parliament for Otta-

Is It Time For A Second Opinion?

wa-Vanier, and Mr. Joe Daniel, Member of Parliament for Don Valley East (Toronto), enjoyed a taste of God’s Own Country—Kerala right here in Ottawa!

Joe emphasized that it’s Kerala’s unique combination of geography, climate and diverse cultures that makes its cuisine so special. He insisted that there is nothing that compares to leisurely drifting along the backwaters of Kerala in a handmade houseboat enjoying the tranquility of the unspoiled countryside

while dining on freshly caught giant prawns prepared for you by your own on-board chef. True to his word, Joe led a group of Canadians on a very successful 15 day culinary expedition to Kerala in March 2014.

ICFC’s next event on September 21st will feature Suneet Tuli, CEO, of DataWind, which is widely known for its “Aakash”—an Android-based tablet, dubbed as the world’s most affordable tablet.

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.

Patrick Brooks, Investment Advisor 50 O’Connor Street, Suite 800 Ottawa, ON K1P 6L2 patrick.brooks@cibc.ca

PAGE 6 • www.OttawaStar.com

Opinion

Editorial

Celebrating our anniversary with Canada Day! O

ttawa Star is one year old on this auspicious day—when the whole of Canada is celebrating her 147th birthday!

Time flies -and good time really flies very fast. It feels like just yesterday when we decided to launch the paper and what better day than Canada Day to start this endeavour.

On this special day on behalf of the Ottawa Star team, I would like to thank all our readers for their continued support and encouragement.

Wow what an incredible journey it has been! In this journey we met a lot of inspiring people who are making a big difference in their community, participated in a lot of interesting events that are taking place in our beautiful city of Ottawa, and boy, have we learnt a lot.

On July 1, 1867, Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain and a federation of four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. The anniversary of this date was called Dominion Day until 1982. Since 1983, July 1 has been officially known as Canada Day. On this day in most towns and cities throughout Canada, there are a range of events organized, often outdoors. These include pancake breakfasts, parades, concerts, carnivals, festivals, firework displays and citizenship ceremonies for new Canadian citizens. The celebrations often have a patriotic

mood. Canada’s national flag is widely displayed and a lot of people paint their faces red and white, which are Canada’s national colours. The celebrations in Ottawa—being the capital city—are particularly exuberant.

On this day we also reflect and ask ourselves what it is that makes us so proud to be Canadians. Being Canadian for me means being a part of family that is accepting and more inclusive; to feel that I can dream and then achieve whatever I want to do in my life; to be in a land of freedom, opportunity and generosity. This day commemorates that intrinsic feeling that I would rather be right here than anywhere else in this world. It is also a poignant reminder that while we, as Canadians, enjoy our Constitutional rights and freedoms, we also have the duty to take our responsibilities and obligations seriously—to know we

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are lucky to have what we have and of not taking Canada for granted.

As this great country celebrates her 147th birthday, let us take this opportunity to gather in our communities, and to proudly celebrate all we have in common. Canada Day is a time to celebrate the heritage passed down to us through the works of our writers, scientists, entrepreneurs and artists. It is a time to rejoice in the success of our entrepreneurs, in the breakthroughs of our scientist, and in the creative artistry of our entertainers. In short, it is a time to commemorate our history - a history in which each new chapter reveals itself to be more compassionate, more embracing of our plurality of thought and ideas than the last.

As we look ahead, we have every reason to look forward to the future with confidence, enthusiasm and pride!

Editorial by Sangeetha Arya

Publisher: Chandrakanth Arya Chief Editor: Sangeetha Arya Editor: Ellen O’Connor

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Summer-time to relish and create memories!

By Sangeetha Arya

“R

est is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” —John Lubbock, The Use Of Life.

Why do we love the summer? The reasons are obvious.

Summer is a time to relax and have fun! You don’t have as many stresses and this is a time to enjoy life with your friends and family. When I was young I loved it because it meant schools were over and happy, carefree, relaxing holidays were about to begin! Summer means relaxed pace, more daylight, everything’s in bloom, lots of colour, listening to the birds chirping early in the morning, picnics in the park, sleeping in front of the fan and just enjoying the simple things!

“Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy.To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds.”

Regina Brett We also love summer because after enduring the cold long winter we look forward to sunny summer.

“I love summertime more than anything else in the world.

That is the only thing that gets me through the winter, knowing that summer is going to be there”. Jack McBrayer Summer’s happiness comes from the slower pace and the warm sun- “that long anticipated

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

stretch of lazy, lingering days, free of responsibility and rife with possibility.”

The smell of rain and the magnificence of thunderstorms make even the wettest days of summer some of the most inspiring. It is the time to make the most of what Mother Nature has to offer on these days, even while you sit inside with a good book or creative project. It is a time to savor, appreciate and relish old memories.

You don’t have to be alone inside the house or bear the cost of expensive air conditioning to find restful and relaxing afternoons in the summer. You can bring the comfort of your home outside: sway in a hammock, or relax in chair, find a spot of shade beneath the trees and enjoy crisp mornings, warm days and lingering evenings. Every moment you spend curled in this cocoon is another moment taken to nourish the serenity of your soul; to retreat and enjoy the bliss.

This is the season when nature may beckon you most, every hour of the day. The fresh mornings and lingering evenings of summer leave you feeling revived and motivated to embrace the natural world you can make your own.

Summer is the season of freedom and refreshment. It is also the time to travel with family and creating long lasting memories. It is also the time to read -hit the library and load up on books.

You can make every summer beautiful and bright - let go, open up your home, and your heart, to the sweet abundance of the season. Make your evenings light, warm and walk down the memory lane with the familiar smoky smell of camping trips and midsummer memories.

Sales: Michael Power mpower@OttawaStar.com 613.627.3869 Distribution COMET 2000 Printed by: Winchester Print & Stationery www.winchesterprint.com

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Opinion

Why it’s so hard to improve our health system

By Harvey Lazar

V

ICTORIA, BC, Troy Media— Canadians weren’t always as concerned about the state of their healthcare system as they are today.

While polls over the last decade or so have found that healthcare is the top priority among Canadian voters—and the policy area in which governments often score most poorly—in the 1980s worries about healthcare barely registered in public opinion data.

So what’s changed?

It’s not a lack of money. Health spending continues to be a spending priority.

It’s not the performance of individual healthcare providers, especially when there is an urgent and acute need.

Canadians are generally satisfied with quality and the timeliness of the care they receive in critical situations.

On other health-related matters, however, the reviews have been less than

impressive. The Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey (2010) found that, of 11 OECD countries surveyed, Canada fared worst or second worst in several access-related areas, including: • access to healthcare in the evenings and on weekends; • wait times for appointments with medical specialists and for certain kinds of diagnostic tests; • access to prescription drugs (we’re second worst).

Of course, the slow response to the growing need for chronic care has also been apparent for some time, despite its predictability.

None of these concerns are new, however. They have been documented in the 2002 Romanow and Kirby Reports and, before them, in the reports of many task forces, advisory committees and commissions. Yet, here we are, decades later, and these issues have still not been adequately addressed.

Why is it so hard to reform healthcare policy in Canada? The answers to this question—which my colleagues and I posed in an examination of 30 health reform case studies—are not heartening.

Our study indicates that, by and large, it is self-interest among vested parties that has led to mostly meagre health reform across the country. Among them: Provincial medical associations, which have been able to protect physician interests, in some cases by keeping the health reform window shut, in others by persuading governments to advance their goals through incentives rather than through regulation.

This problem goes right back to the foundations of medicare itself, when the provinces adopted a fee-for service method for compensating physicians. While it seemed to make sense at the time, over time it has led to a close and growing relationship between provincial health ministries and provincial medical associations. This influence, which continues today with agreements between provincial health ministries and provincial medical associations rarely subject to public discourse, has resulted in provincial medical associations having veto or near-veto powers over the many policy-related issues that affect physician compensation.

Nurses and unionized hospital workers. Their support for the not-forprofit hospital sector against competi-

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 7 tion from privately-run hospital corporations has had the effect of halting discussion of any possible real reform outside the current model.

There were, of course, a few exceptions to these broad findings. In cases of newly elected first-time governments, there were some instances of significant reforms, although these were largely within the existing medicare framework.

In a nutshell, provincial medical associations, other healthcare provider bodies, the labour movement, and the general public all prefer the arrangements that we created a half-century ago rather than to undertake reforms with an uncertain outcome.

What does that mean for health reform going forward?

It means that the chances of reform on a very large scale—the proverbial big bang— are slim at best. It took the Great Depression and the Second World War to create the political climate in Canada that enabled a new innovative postwar social contract among Canadians in the form of medicare. Without some sort of insurmountable disruptive force, either a major shift in medical science or technology or a catastrophic economic or political crisis, fundamental health policy reform in Canada in the future remains unlikely.

Harvey Lazar is adjunct professor at the School of Public Administration, University of Victoria. His co-edited book, Paradigm Freeze: Why it is so Hard to Reform Health-care Policy in Canada was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.

He is an advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca. Article Courtesy www.troymedia.com

BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies hitting a brick wall

By Gywn Morgan

V

ICTORIA, BC, Troy Media—A recent article in Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper headlined, Developing Economies Hit a BRICS Wall, captured the global economic question of the decade.

It’s been 12 years since Goldman Sachs Investment Banker Jim O’Neil predicted that Brazil, Russia, India and China would take over global economic leadership from the over-indebted and increasingly uncompetitive Western developed economies. That prediction, which gained O’Neil rock star status on Wall Street, certainly proved prescient.

Between 2001 and 2013, the collective GDP of those four countries grew 240 per cent from US$5.6 trillion to $13.6 trillion.

Now, a strengthening West and flagging BRIC performance are spawning predictions that 2014 will be the year when the tables are turned. Just last week, UK-based Centre for

Economics and Business Research lowered its predictions for BRIC growth. Brazil’s slide from a go-to country for foreign investors to struggling courtier was illustrated by President Dima Rouseff’s speech at the Davos World Economic Forum, where she beseeched industry leaders to “bear in mind a medium and long term horizon in our reviews”.

Russia’s already uncertain outlook now faces the impact of tightening economic sanctions.

India’s banks are facing a mountain of bad loans and corruption is rampant. Going into the recent national election, nearly a third of parliamentarians were facing criminal proceedings. This; along with class-based discrimination, violence against women and abysmal law enforcement continues to deter potential investors. Now the hopes of Indians fall on the shoulders of newly-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who vows dramatic reforms.

That brings us to China, the fourth and mightiest BRIC. A recent report from the Toronto Globe and Mail highlighted the issues that I personally observed during my many visits to the country as a Director of China’s largest foreign bank. These include massive overbuilding of infrastructure and factories often with collusion by corrupt public officials bribed

to circumvent environmental laws and obtain financing, leaving hundreds of billions of dollars in bad loans sitting as ticking time bombs on the balance sheets of government banks.

China’s growth rate, which hit a high of 14 per cent a few years ago, is expected to drop to 7 per cent in 2014. Likewise, India’s apex growth rate of 10 per cent has fallen to half that level. Brazil’s growth rate, which peaked at 6 per cent, is expected to be under 2 per cent this year.

The Economist Intelligence Unit predicts that BRIC’s US$98 billion growth lead over the G4 (U.S., Japan, Britain and Germany) in 2013 will reverse to fall US$44 billion behind the G4 this year.

That’s a massive year-over-year reversal of US$142 billion in favour of the G4. The United States is expected to add more to global economic growth than China in 2014 and Japan will add more than India.

Falling energy costs, due to domestic oil and gas shale production, have helped make American manufacturing more competitive.

Over the past two years, 4.3 million jobs have been created. Personal debt is falling, consumers are spending and businesses are investing some of their enormous cash reserves.

Japan’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s

“Abenomics” economic plan has started to lift the country out of deflationary stagnation.

Britain has staged an impressive economic resurgence and Germany continues its solid performance. Even in battered Europe, there are positive signs. Loosening of rigid labour laws are improving business productivity and sovereign bond yields have fallen sharply.

So is this, as an Economist report stated, “The West’s Turn”? There’s little doubt that 2014 will mark a hiatus in the economic rise of the four countries that dominated global economic growth for the past 12 years, and that Western developed countries are shaking off some of the selfinflicted wounds holding them back.

But lest we lapse into self-congratulatory schadenfreude, let’s remember that world economic growth is not a zero sum game. In a globalized world, prosperity in any single country contributes to the prosperity of all others. The crucial importance to Canada of resource exports to China is a clear illustration of that reality. Canadians would be wise to hope that China, in particular, navigates its challenges successfully.

Gwyn Morgan is a retired Canadian business leader who has been a director of five global corporations. Article courtesy www.troymedia.com

Canada

PAGE 8 • www.OttawaStar.com

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Fontaine: First Nations attitudes shifting Bill would on resource development, industry create

By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

C

ALGARY—The former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says attitudes are shifting amongst aboriginal people when it comes to resource development.

Phil Fontaine told an energy and environment roundtable in Calgary on June 20 that he’s optimistic industry and First Nations can work together, though the acrimony surrounding high-profile projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline proposed

by Enbridge Inc may suggest otherwise.

Fontaine said it was once unheardof for an aboriginal community to go into business with a mining or oil and gas company. But now, resource companies and First Nations frequently discuss equity stakes or joint venture deals.

“We’ve come to learn and appreciate that the relationship with the government is not the only relationship that’s going to be important to our future and that the private sector is a viable option,” he said.

“We shouldn’t fear a relationship with the private sector. We have to de-

velop a degree of trust that the road ahead won’t always be ensures that we can do good smooth. business together.”

He said that “all peoples Fontaine has been hired have the right not only to say

by TransCanada Corp. to yes, they also have the right to help win support the prosay no. It’s incumbent upon inposed Energy East pipeline dustry to know and understand proposal, which would carthat and to respect that right.” ry Alberta crude as far east Phil Fontaine “I’m optimistic and I’m Photo: Courtesy of Wikipedia as Saint John, N.B. very encouraged by what I’ve Some 185 aboriginal seen, what I’ve witnessed. I’m communities along the especially encouraged by what route are “anxious to see what is in the I sense is a willingness on the part of industry and resource companies to be different, cards for them,” Fontaine said. positively different.”

There are more than 600 major resource projects worth $650-billion planned Last month, Ottawa gave the conditional green light to the Northern Gatein Western Canada over the next decade way oil pipeline through B.C., which sevthat affect at least one First Nations community, according to a report by the Fraser eral First Nations in that province have Institute published last fall. vowed to fight in court. One of the conditions of the approval is more consultation Fontaine said there’s not doubt that industry will “have to engage with our people with First Nations communities. in a different way and that means that both Enbridge says it has signed agreements of us have to learn about each other.” with 26 aboriginal communities along the While Fontaine is pleased industry playroute, accounting for about 60 per cent of ers are doing a better job engaging with First the affected population, but that has a lot of Nations than they did in the past, he warned work to do to get the rest on side.

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different classes of Canadian citizens Continued from page 1

elsewhere to a country “they have no connection to.’’

“This is nonsensical and it’s most likely unconstitutional,’’ Cash said during question period in the House of Commons.

“Why did the government turn down every single suggestion put forward to try to fix this bill?’’

Alexander accused Cash of being “lost in the thickets of his own ideology.’’

The “arbitrary’’ change put forward by the government cuts to the absolute core of what it means to be Canadian, said Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett.

“How can the minister justify this abuse of power which tramples on the rights of Canadians, even those who were born here in Canada?’’

Alexander said the Conservatives were fixing flaws introduced by the Liberals in 1977—legislation that “actually cheapened Canadian citizenship, opened it to abuse and put to one side the whole question of allegiance and loyalty to this country.’’

The government’s legislation would create different classes of Canadian citizens and allow it to banish people from the country, the Canadian Bar Association says.

In a brief on the bill, the association says banishment is one of the most serious punishments that can be inflicted on a citizen—one that has not been in common use since the Middle Ages.

At a Senate committee examining the bill, Barbara Jackman, a member of the association’s national immigration law section, suggested the bar for losing citizen would be far too low.

She pointed to the recent case of Canadian Greenpeace activists who faced prosecution for protesting at a Russian oil platform in the Arctic.

“Had they been convicted, they could have lost citizenship, that’s how broad it is,’’ Jackman said.

“That’s just a protest, but that protest can be characterized as terrorism. I think in addition to that, it’s what comes next? Once you open the door ... citizenship is not secure for any Canadian. That is not the understanding that Canadians have of their citizenship.’’

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Canada

A century later, Canada before the First World War seems a world apart Continued from page 1

Most of the population was of French, British and Irish descent, although recent immigration waves had brought in substantial numbers of Germans and Ukrainians, among others. Legislation severely restricted Asian immigration.

Much of Canada consisted of small towns and villages, many with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants.

More people were involved in agriculture than in any other industry. Other major employers included manufacturing, mining, lumbering and fishing.

It was a country where horsepower generally meant horses, period. Farms relied on 2.6 million horses to pull the plows and harvesters and to haul produce to markets or the local grain elevator. These were not the sleek riding horses of today.

They were heavy draught horses, Belgians and Percherons and Clydesdales.

The cities, too, were full of horses towing carts and wagons and buggies and landaus. Automobiles were spreading, but they were often prone to mechanical failure.

When the First World War broke out, the army would need thousands of horses to haul artillery, pull supply wagons and carry the cavalrymen.

Electricity—much of it generated by falling water at places like Niagara Falls— was beginning to illuminate large cities, but many smaller towns and outlying villages and farms lit kerosene lanterns as night fell.

The country was tied together by rails, not highways.

In 1912, British auto writer Thomas Wilby and American-born mechanic Jack Haney became the first people to drive a car from Halifax to Vancouver. They didn’t actually drive the whole way because in places, there were no roads. The stretch between Sault Ste. Marie and Winnipeg, for example, was covered either by ship or on a rail car.

It took the pair 49 days to make the journey in their Reo Special. On their best day, they covered 298 kilometres. On their worst, they made 19 kilometres.

The Trans-Canada Highway wouldn’t be completed for another 45 years.

Instead, the railways ferried people and goods across the country. They were powered by smoky, coal-burning steam locomotives. There were the fast, intercity express trains and the slower locals, the milk runs that actually stopped along the way to pick up cans of fresh milk from farms along the way.

It was a rare community that didn’t have a railway station.

Aviation was essentially non-existent, except as a novelty. The planes of the day were basically flimsy, motorized kites flown by self-taught daredevils who often built their own aircraft.

By the end of the war, however—under the forced draught of military needs —planes evolved into deadly serious ma-

chines, able to carry machine-guns and bombs at 200 kilometres an hour.

Telephones were becoming more commonplace, although there were only 300,000 in use in 1914. Most communication relied on letters or telegrams, The latter delivered by teenage boys on bicycles.

There were no commercial radio stations.

The first would open in Montreal after the war.

Movies were in their infancy, but were growing in popularity. Entertainment included music halls and play houses and concert halls.

Social life often revolved around churches, with pot-luck suppers and socials and teas.

At home, people played cards and checkers and chess. They read Robert Service and Leacock and Montgomery. Gramophones and sheet music carried the hits of the time, including Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band’’ and “By the Beautiful Sea,’’ by Harry Carroll and Harold Atteridge.

Outdoors, there were summer swimming holes and winter rinks on frozen ponds and rivers.

Hockey was big even then. In March 1914, the Toronto Blueshirts, predecessors to the Maple Leafs, defeated the Montreal Canadiens in a two-game series to win the Stanley Cup. The second game, in Toron-

to, was the first Stanley Cup match played on artificial ice.

In April, James Duffy of Hamilton, Ont., won the Boston Marathon in 2:25:01.

The modern record is 2:03.02. In December, Toronto Argonauts defeated U of Toronto, 14-2 to win the their first Grey Cup. So-called modern conveniences did not exist. Food was kept cool in ice boxes, which were loaded with blocks of ice home-delivered by the iceman. Dishes and clothes were washed by hand. Coal deliveries kept home furnaces burning.

For all that the world of 1914 seems less harassed than 2014, it was also a much harsher place. Antibiotics did not exist; an abcessed tooth could be fatal. There was a vaccine against smallpox, but diseases such as measles, chicken pox, mumps and rubella were considered normal childhood events.

Tuberculosis was an ever-present threat, especially in crowded city tenements. Vaccines against whooping cough, polio and diphtheria were years away.

In 1911, life expectancy at birth was 50 for men and 53 for women. Today, it’s 79 and 83 respectively. Medicine, public health and sanitation were far behind today’s norms. Workers toiled in hard, dan-

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 9 gerous conditions. Factories and locomotives belched smoke and fumes.

Water purification with chlorine was just beginning. A typhoid outbreak caused by sewage contaminating the city water supply occurred in Ottawa in 1911. It killed 83 people and a second outbreak killed 91 people in 1912.

Milk often went unpasteurized. Refrigeration was spotty. Food safety regulations were cursory or non-existent. In winter, fresh vegetables and fruit were often simply unavailable, leaving diets unbalanced and unhealthy.

But for most, 1914 was a good year.

The crops were doing well, although the grain harvest would be down due to western drought. But there was a bumper crop of potatoes in the East.

Politically, things were quiet. Sir Robert Borden’s Conservatives had replaced Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberals in the 1911 federal election, which was fought over a Liberal plan for freer trade with the United States.

The big news story of the year before the outbreak of war was the tragic sinking of the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland. The big steamer sank in the wee hours of May 29 after being rammed by a collier in fog in the St. Lawrence near Rimouski. More than 1,000 people died, including 134 children.

The war that loomed would be far deadlier for Canada, which would lose almost 60,000 men in 1,560 days.

Canada

PAGE 10 • www.OttawaStar.com

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Bring mandatory voting, preferential ballot to Canada: Trudeau adviser

By Jennifer Ditchburn, The Canadian Press

O

TTAWA—Canada should adopt mandatory voting and a preferential ballot to re-engage citizens in the political system and reinforce democracy, says a new paper by an adviser to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

The analysis, by academic Robert Asselin for the progressive think-tank Canada 2020, comes as Conservative backbencher Michael Chong pushes a bill aimed at rebalancing power between the Prime Minister’s Office and the House of Commons.

Asselin, of the University of Ottawa’s graduate school of public and international Affairs, points to the recent Ontario election as more evidence of the gulf between Canadians and the political system. In that case, approximately 52.1 per cent of eligible voters turned out to cast a ballot.

Asselin proposes the type of mandatory voting that Australia has instituted, as well as a preferential ballot where the second and third choices of voters are applied until one candidate achieves more than 50 per cent of the vote.

“I’m pushing mandatory voting and preferential ballots so that citizens don’t see democratic reform just as reforming institutions, but they see it as something that belongs to us and if we don’t take care of it like anything else in our lives … it will just fall apart,” Asselin said in an interview.

Trudeau is also a supporter of a preferential ballot, having made it a plank of his leadership platform. The party passed a resolution at its convention earlier this year that said a Liberal government would launch an all-party consultation on reforming the electoral system, including looking at a preferential ballot.

Asselin would also like to see a strengthening of accountability for the people whom Canadians elect to represent them. He said party discipline has been followed to the extreme in Ottawa, and MPs need to re-establish their legislative independence.

That means setting aside the talking points provided by their leaders’ offices, and spending more time understanding the issues before them.

Asselin recommends that members of Parliament and the committees they sit on be able to hire more staff to research and analyse legislation—all part of better asserting their independence.

He points out that most congressional and senatorial committees in Washington have upwards of 25 non-partisan researchers, compared with only one for Canadian committees.

“If we want MPs to fulfil their role and hold executives to account, we need to provide them with the means to do so,” writes Asselin.

“If Parliament matters and ministers are allowed to hire more than 20 staffers, why are we accepting that MPs can only hire one legislative assistant under the current budget?”

Asselin also proposes that question period be reformed to double the length of questions and answers to 90 seconds, and instituting a prime minister’s question period that would allow him to take more questions from backbenchers.

The speaker should also be able to take punitive action against MPs and ministers who “behave inappropriately” during question period, he says.

Asselin notes his paper was written for Canada 2020, and is not an indication of Liberal party policy.

Some results A quick look at key changes to the of the latest temporary foreign workers program phase of the Canada-U.S. entry-exit initiative

By The Canadian Press

By The Canadian Press

OTTAWA—Some preliminary results of the latest phase of the Canada-U.S. entry-exit initiative: Time period: June 30 to Sept.

30, 2013.

Locations: Land border ports of entry between Canada and the United States.

Records collected from: Citizens of countries other than Canada and the U.S., permanent residents of Canada, lawful permanent residents of the U.S. Entry records Canada received from the U.S.: 1,295,849.

Entry records the U.S. received from Canada: 1,343,424.

Number of unique travellers: 861,501 (meaning some people made multiple border crossings).

Number of people subject to Canadian removal orders revealed by analyzing the data: 20 Number of immigration warrants cancelled as a result, as of Nov. 25, 2013: Four.

(Canada Border Services Agency records released in June 2014 under the Access to Information Act)

OTTAWA—Highlights of the changes to the temporary foreign workers program announced June 20: —Employers in the accommodation, food and retail sectors in areas where unemployment is above six per cent will not be allowed to bring in temporary foreign workers for low-skill jobs.

—Employers with 10 or more employees will face a cap on the number of lowwage foreigners they can hire at each of their worksites: 30 per cent of a worksite’s employees, falling to 10 per cent by July 2016.

—Employers seeking to hire a temporary foreign worker must detail how many Canadians applied for the job, how many were interviewed and why the Canadians were not hired.

—Employers will be required to reapply every year for approval to hire lowwage temporary foreign workers, instead of every two years.

—Employers seeking to hire highwage temporary foreign workers must show an increased effort to hire Canadians, including through higher wages, investments in training and more active recruitment within Canada.

—The government will post the number of temporary foreign workers approved every quarter, along with the names of companies that hire them.

—Enforcement will be increased so that one in four employers using temporary foreign workers will be inspected each year.

—The fee to bring in a temporary foreign worker increases to $1,000 from $275.

—Starting this fall, employers who break the program rules will face fines of up to $100,000.

—An end to the freeze on hiring temporary foreign workers in the foodservices sector.

Refugee lawyers to fight citizenship bill on constitutional grounds OTTAWA—A national group of refugee lawyers plans a constitutional challenge of the Conservative government’s citizenship legislation, saying the bill will create different classes of Canadians.

The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers says it will fight the measures in the courts once the bill, which still needs Senate approval, becomes law.

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and Amnesty International Canada, though not part of the litigation, support the association’s challenge.

Currently, someone may be stripped of Canadian citizenship for attaining it through false representations.

The federal bill would increase the scope to include those born in Canada but eligible to claim citizenship in another country—for instance, through their parents—and expand the grounds for revocation to include several criminal offences including treason and terrorism.

The legislation violates equality rights under the Constitution by creating separate classes of Canadians, said Lorne Waldman, president of the asso-

ciation of more than 250 lawyers who represent refugees.

The association also argues: —the proposed revocation procedures lack the fairness of due legal process.

—a provision forcing new citizens to swear they intend to reside in Canada— and risk losing their citizenship if they later go abroad—would mean some Canadians have mobility rights while others do not.

Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati is also planning a constitutional challenge of the legislation, though on procedural rather than Charter of Rights grounds.

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

World

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 11

After backing Sunni rebels in Syria, Gulf nations face blowback in militant campaign in Iraq

By Aya Batrawy And Matthew Lee, The Associated Press

D

UBAI, United Arab Emirates— Saudi Arabia and other petro-powerhouses of the Gulf for years encouraged a flow of private cash to Sunni rebels in Syria. Now an al-Qaida breakaway group that benefited from some of that funding has stormed across a wide swath of Iraq, and Gulf nations fear its extremism could be a threat to them as well.

Those countries are trying to put the brakes on the network of private fundraisers sending money to the rebel movement, hoping to halt financing going to the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

At the same time, the Gulf states sharply oppose any U.S. military assistance to Iraq’s Shiite-led government aimed at stopping the extremists’ rapid advance. And they are furious at the possibility that Washington could co-operate with top rival Iran to help Iraq.

Their stance reflects the complex tangle of national rivalries and sectarian enmities in the region. Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, along with its Gulf allies, have had the primary goal of stopping the influence of mainly Shiite Iran in the Middle East, and they deeply oppose Iran’s ally, Iraqi Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whom they accuse of discriminating against his country’s Sunni minority.

Gulf states are torn over the Islamic State’s victories. While they would welcome a more Sunni-friendly government in Iraq, they also fear Islamic radicals might eventually turn their weapons on the Gulf ’s pro-Western monarchies. Gulf leaders also worry Iran will have an even bigger role in Iraq—a scenario already beginning to play out with top Iranian military figures in Baghdad helping organize the army.

In phone calls mid-June with the leaders or foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry heard a chorus of disapproval for any kind of U.S. military operation to help al-Maliki, such as airstrikes or train-andequip missions, according to U.S. officials familiar with the conversations. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the private exchanges.

Third week of June, Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet put out a statement blaming the insurgent explosion on al-Maliki’s government’s marginalization of the Sunni minority—“the sectarian and exclusionary policies practiced in Iraq over the past years.”

Iraq’s Cabinet replied with a furious statement of its own, accusing Saudi Arabia of fueling the Islamic States’ rise and of “appeasement to terrorism.” It

said it holds the kingdom accountable for “the resulting crimes, which are tantamount to genocide.”

The Islamic State’s surge in Iraq is in part a blowback from the Gulf countries’ policies in neighbouring Syria, where they have backed the Sunni-led rebellion in hopes of toppling another of Iran’s allies, President Bashar Assad.

With government consent, influential and even state-linked Sunni clerics in the Gulf in recent years urged men to join reb-

els in Syria and drummed up donations for the Syrian cause in campaigns in mosques, online and on TV. The funds went to numerous Syrian rebel factions, but some are believed to have gone to extremist ones like the Islamic State.

The head of the Western-backed Syrian opposition coalition, Ahmad Jarba, angrily denounced the international community for failing to support more moderate rebels from the Free Syrian Army and implicitly accused Gulf na-

tions of backing the Islamic State in a speech to a gathering of leaders from Islamic countries in the Saudi city of Jiddah on June 17.

“Some leaders believed they could use terrorists as hired mercenaries but suddenly found themselves stuck with terrorists who used the opportunity to advance their own interests and agenda,” Jarba said. Free Syrian Army fighters have been battling Islamic State forces in eastern Syria, trying to hold back their advances there.

PAGE 12 • www.OttawaStar.com

World

Sri Lankan police ban rallies inciting religious, communal hatred after anti-Muslim violence

By Bharatha Mallawarachi, The Associated Press

C

OLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Sri Lankan police announced Sunday that they will not allow rallies or marches inciting religious and communal hatred in the future, a week after Buddhist mobs attacked minority Muslims in deadly violence that was condemned by the international community.

On June 22, a mob led by the group Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Power Force, which rails against the country’s Muslim minority, hurled gasoline bombs and looted Muslim homes and businesses in Kaluatara district, south of the capital, Colombo. The attacks killed three people and injured more than 50.

The violence erupted after a rally by Bodu Bala Sena. Video clips show the group’s general secretary, the Rev. Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, telling the crowd

that Muslim-owned shops were in danger. Gnanasara later told reporters that the Buddhists were angry over an alleged attack on the driver of a Buddhist monk.

Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said that religious rallies or processions will be permitted, but not those inciting communal or religious hatred.

Bodu Bala Sena has been gaining followers and is believed to enjoy state support. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s powerful defence secretary and the president’s brother, once made a public appearance supporting the group’s cause.

Sri Lanka is still deeply scarred by its 1983-2009 civil war between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and ethnic Tamil rebels, who are largely Hindu, but Buddhist-Muslim violence has been relatively rare.

The United Nations, European Union and the United States have expressed con-

cern about the violence and have urged the government to protect religious minorities.

On June 22, a group of Buddhist and Muslim religious leaders urged the government to identify and punish the perpetrators of previous week’s violence and to take measures to prevent similar violence in the future.

“We urge the government not to allow any religious extremist group to operate and cause violence in the country,” Buddhist monk Galagama Dhammaransi told reporters in Colombo.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised an impartial investigation into previous week’s attacks and the arrest of those responsible “irrespective of race or religious differences.”

He has also asked officials to provide compensation to the affected families and to repair damaged property.

Earlier, the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka—an umbrella organization of Muslim groups—had called upon Rajapaksa to investigate extremist groups and ban those who have been carrying out a campaign of hate, intimidation and violence against religious minorities.

Rohana said police have deployed 15 more teams to speed up the investigation and bring those responsible to justice.

Earlier, five police teams were probing the violence and 35 people have been detained in connection with the investigation.

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Obama quietly extends administration’s advocacy to transgender rights The Associated Press

S

AN FRANCISCO—President Barack Obama has steadily extended his administration’s advocacy to the smallest and least accepted band of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rainbow: transgender Americans.

With little fanfare or criticism, he became the first chief executive to say “transgender” in a speech, to name transgender political appointees and to prohibit job bias against transgender government workers.

All happened in his first term.

Since then, the Obama administration has quietly applied the power of the executive branch to make it easier for transgender people to update their passports, obtain health insurance, have gender reassignment covered by government insurance programs and seek access to public school restrooms.

Conservative groups quick to criticize the president for his gay rights advocacy have been slower to respond to administration actions benefiting transgender people.

India born NY prosecutor confronts criticism he faced in cases against South Asian defendants

By Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press

N

EW YORK—After years of silence on the issue, India-born U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has begun to open up about the cultural scorn he has faced over his high-profile prosecutions of South Asian defendants, particularly that of an Indian diplomat that led to one commentator in India to call him an “Uncle Tom.” In a recent speech at Harvard Law School, he noted the criticisms and countered them with unusual candour. Citing one commentator in India who questioned if he took up the diplomat case “to serve his white masters,” Bharara quipped about who those white masters might be.

“Presumably, Eric Holder and Barack Obama,” he said.

But the prosecutor also conceded that the uninvited scrutiny has been painful. It reached a fever pitch after the December arrest of a mid-level Indian diplomat on charges she underpaid a domestic worker. Much of the furor in the case against Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York, focused on the fact that she had been strip-searched, which was viewed in India as degrading and unnecessary.

Soon afterward, she was permitted to return to India, though charges remain.

“Talk show hosts in India took to calling me a self-loathing Indian who made it a point to go after people from the country of his birth. Which was a bit odd, since the alleged victim was also Indian,” Bharara recalled.

Bharara said the criticism “might not have bothered me so much except that it bothered my parents.”

“I had to explain to my daughter, who overheard a conversation in the house, what it meant to be called an Uncle Tom,” he said.

Preetinder Bharara was born in Ferozepur, India, in 1968. His family moved to the U.S. when he was 2, and he was raised along the New Jersey shore in Monmouth County.

After graduating from Harvard in 1990 and Columbia Law School in 1993, he became an an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan and eventually was U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer’s chief counsel, helping to lead an investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys under President George W. Bush.

Soon after his 2009 appointment by President Barack Obama as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, he presided over one of the largest roundups of Wall Street professionals in history, using hundreds of hours of wiretaps that resulted in more than 80 convictions.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

Photo: Courtesy of Wikipedia

But his prosecution of some fellow highly successful South Asians strained perceptions of him in his birthplace even before the diplomat’s arrest. Three years ago, his office successfully prosecuted Raj Rajaratnam, of Sri Lanka, along with some of Rajaratnam’s India-born friends from college. Rajaratnam, serving an 11-year prison term for insider trading, became a billionaire after creating the Galleon Group of hedge funds that once handled as much as $7 billion. His brother is currently on trial on insider trading charges.

Bharara also has prosecuted several highly successful Indian-born defendants, the most prominent of which is Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble board member who rose to the

peak of American finance before he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison on insider trading charges The uproar over the arrest of India’s deputy consul general in New York turned whispers about his motivations into shouts.

“Is Bharara targeting Indians?” was the question posed by an article on India Today’s website in December. Firstpost.com Editor-in-Chief R. Jagannathan wrote in a December column that the United States “will use a Preet Bharara to target Khobragade (or Rajat Gupta or Raj Rajaratnam) so that it looks like Indian-Americans are implementing the law, and hence not racist.”

He finished the column with: “At the very least, we should target Preet Bharara for humiliating an Indian diplomat and make sure he never enters this country again.”

Bharara declined to talk about the issue to The Associated Press. But in his May 28 speech at Harvard, he said he eventually recovered perspective as the accusations got increasingly absurd.

“After all, Indian critics were angry because even though I hailed from India, I appeared to be going out of my way to act American and serve the interests of America. Which was also kind of odd, because I am American and the words ‘United States’ are actually in my title,” he said.

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Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

By John Heilprin, The Associated Press

G

ENEVA – The countries generating the most refugees are all conflict zones.

The three biggest refugee populations are from Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria, which together account for more than half of all the world’s refugees, according to an annual report by the Geneva-based U.N. refugee agency. By descending order, the top 7 are:

AFGHANISTAN Afghans have been fleeing the country in droves for decades, and their country is still the single biggest source of refugees although Syria has emerged as a strong second. As of the end of 2013, 2.56 million Afghan refugees were living in 86 countries, meaning one of every five refugees in the world is from Afghanistan. Most are in Pakistan or Iran, followed by Germany.

SYRIA A heavy flow of Syrians fleeing the civil war, now in its fourth year, was behind a huge increase in the overall number of refugees last year. The fighting forced 2.47 million people to flee the country and left 6.5 million others internally displaced by the end of 2013. Only two years before that, Syria ranked 36th in the U.N.’s annual Global Trends Report on source countries for refugees. Most of the refugees have gone to neighbouring countries, especially Lebanon, which has been strained by the influx. Syria’s exodus last year was the singlebiggest since the 1994 Rwanda genocide, when 2.3 million fled their homes.

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 13

SUDAN In 2013, the number of Sudanese refugees rose to 649,300, an increase of 80,000 from the year before. Chad and South Sudan were the biggest recipients. Since conflict broke out in 2011, some 294,000 Sudanese have fled the country.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO At least 55,000 people originating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo were forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. Still, the overall number of DRC refugees dropped from 509,500 at the start of 2013 to 499,500 a year later. The main reason was the return of almost 63,000 DRC refugees from the Republic of Congo. Another reason the number dropped resulted from the verification of registration records in Uganda and other countries in the region.

MYANMAR The Asian nation has generated the sixth-most refugees in the world, some 479,600 by the end of 2013.

Much of this is from the statistical inclusion of 57,500 unregistered people from Myanmar in the refugee camps in Thailand, a change from the past.

SOMALIA

IRAQ

The number of 1.12 million refugees from the lawlessness in Somalia is little changed from a year earlier. The pace of the exodus into Kenya and Ethiopia slowed a bit in the past two years amid hopes for improved security, but 9,700 Somalis still risked journeys across the Gulf of Aden or the Red Sea to reach Yemen.

There were 401,400 Iraqi refugees in 2013, far less than the 745,900 reported a year earlier.

Many had fled into Syria and Jordan, but with the war raging next door the number of Iraqi refugees reported in Syria dropped from 471,400 down to 146,200. Many other Iraqis fled to Iran and Germany.

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World

PAGE 14 • www.OttawaStar.com

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

Locked and loaded: Pakistan’s largest city gets first woman leader of a police station

By Adil Jawad, The Associated Press

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ARACHI, Pakistan—Just days into her job running a police station in Pakistan’s largest city, Syeda Ghazala had to put her training to the test: she opened fire with her .22-calibre pistol at a man who shot at police when they tried to pull him over during a routine traffic stop.

It’s not clear whether it was Ghazala’s shots that wounded the man before he was arrested, but as the first woman to run a police station in Pakistan’s often violent port city of Karachi, she’ll likely have many more chances to hit her mark.

When Ghazala joined the police force two decades ago, she never dreamed that one day she would head a police station staffed by roughly 100 police officers—all men. Her recent promotion is part of efforts by the local police to increase the number of women in the force and in positions of authority. Shortly after she assumed her new job the city appointed a second woman to head another police station.

In a country where women have traditionally not worked outside the home and face widespread discrimination, the appointments represent a significant step for women’s empowerment.

“The mindset of people is changing gradually, and now they (have) started to consider women in leading roles. My husband opposed my decision to join the police force 20 years ago,” said the 44-year-old mother of four. But by the time this job rolled around, he had come full circle and encouraged her to go for it. “It was a big challenge. I was a little bit hesitant to accept it.”

The station house is in Clifton, a posh area home to the elite of this sprawling metropolis of more than 18 million people.

But in a city prone to family feuds, political unrest and jihadist violence—where 166 officers were killed in the line of duty last year—it’s by no means an easy assignment.

Crimes ranging from petty theft and muggings to terrorism or murder are all part of a day’s work, Ghazala says.

Running a station is a high-profile job in the Pakistani police, one that requires the officer to constantly interact with the public and fellow officers. It’s also a key path to advancement. Senior police officer Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, said he and others in the top brass hope Ghazala’s appointment leads to more women joining the force.

“Our society accepts only stereotype roles for women. There is a perception that women are suitable only for particular professions like teaching,” he said.

Syeda Ghazala

Photo: Courtesy of Sindh Police

The police force is also training the first batch of female commandos, a group of 44 women going through a physically intensive course involving rappelling from towers or helicopters and shooting an assortment of weapons.

Currently, the two in Karachi are the only women running police stations in Pakistan. In the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where women make up less than one per cent of the roughly 75,000-member police force, women only run stations specifically designed to help female crime victims.

In the southeastern Baluchistan province, there are only 90 women on the police force and no women station heads. In Punjab province, only one woman has ever run a station house, back in 2005, but currently no women hold the position.

Ghazala said most people she has encountered in her new job have been supportive, and she’s become a bit of a celebrity in the neighbourhood. She said during her career she’s only had a few instances where she’s felt discrimination. When she got the highest marks in a training course required for promotion, some of the men objected, saying that in Islam women couldn’t lead men.

But she said the commander simply told the men they should have gotten better grades.

“It was the only moment somebody objected to me as a woman,” she said. “Otherwise, all my career, fellow and senior officers encouraged me a lot.”

Ottawa Star • July 1, 2014

World

Child migrants head for US to flee crime drawn by belief they are allowed to stay Continued from page 1

truck-tire raft across the Naranjo River into Mexico and joined a group of five women and a dozen children waiting with one of the smugglers who are paid $6,000 to $7,000 for each migrant they take to the U.S. The women and children waited by the train tracks in this small town in the southern state of Chiapas until the shriek of a train whistle and the glare of headlights pierced the night. Suddenly, dozens of teens and mothers with young children flooded out of darkened homes and budget hotels, rushing to grab the safest places on the roof of the northbound freight train and join a deluge of children and mothers that is overwhelming the U.S. immigration system.

“If she gets across she can stay here, that’s what you hear,” said the mother, who declined to provide her name because she is in the U.S. illegally. “Now they say that

all children need to do is hand themselves over to the Border Patrol.”

The number of unaccompanied minors detained on the U.S. border has more than tripled since 2011. Children are also widely believed to be crossing with their parents in rising numbers, although the Obama administration has not released year-by-year figures. The crisis has sparked weeks of bitter political debate inside the U.S., with the administration saying crime is driving migrants north from Central America and congressional Republicans saying Obama’s policies are leading migrants to believe children and their mothers will be allowed to stay.

In interviews along the primary migrant route north to the United States, dozens of migrants like Gladys indicated that both sides are right.

A vast majority said they were fleeing gang violence that has reached epidemic levels in Guatemala, Honduras and El Sal-

vador in recent years. The migrants also uniformly said they decided to head north because they had heard that a change in U.S. law requires the Border Patrol to swiftly release children and their mothers and let them stay in the United States.

The belief that women and children can safely surrender to authorities the moment they set foot in the U.S. has changed the calculus for tens of thousands of parents who no longer worry about their children finishing the dangerous trip north through Mexico with a potentially deadly multiday hike through the desert Southwest.

The migrants’ faith isn’t totally misplaced. While Mexicans generally are returned across the border quickly when they’re caught, overwhelmed border facilities leave the government with no way to care for most Central American children and their parents. The Central American minors who cross the border alone have

When asked to describe their skin colour, Brazilians came up with 136 variations

By The Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil—When Brazilians were given a chance to describe their skin colour, they came up with 136 shades and variations. The survey was done in 1976 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and was published again in a 2011 Congressional document titled: The constitutional Commission on Justice and Citizenship.

The list illustrates how Brazilians see themselves, a far more complex colour system than simply black or white. English translations are provided.

Acastanhada: Somewhat chestnut-colored Agalegada: Somewhat like a Galician Alva: Snowy white Alva escura: Dark snowy white Alvarenta (not in dictionary; poss. dialect): Snowy white Alvarinta: Snowy white Alva rosada: Pinkish white Alvinha: Snowy white Amarela: Yellow Amarelada: Yellowish Amarela-queimada: Burnt yellow Amarelosa: Yellowy Amorenada: Somewhat dark-skinned Avermelhada: Reddish Azul: Blue Azul-marinho: Sea blue Baiano: From Bahia Bem branca: Very white Bem clara: Very pale Bem morena: Very dark-skinned Branca: White

Branca-avermelhada: White going on for red Branca-melada: Honey-colored white Branca-morena: White but dark-skinned Branca-palida: Pale white Branca-queimada: Burnt white Branca-sardenta: Freckled white Branca-suja: Off-white Branquica: Whitish Branquinha: Very white Bronze: Bronze-colored Bronzeada: Sun-tanned Bugrezinha-escura: Dark-skinned India Burro-quando-foge: Disappearing donkey (i.e. nondescript) humorous Cabocla: Copper-colored (refers to Indians) Cabo-verde: From Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) Cafe: Coffee-colored Cafe-com-leite: Cafe au lait Canela: Cinnamon Canelada: Somewhat like cinnamon Cardao: Colour of the cardoon, or thistle (blue-violet) Castanha: Chestnut Castanha-clara: Light chestnut Castanha-escura: Dark chestnut Chocolate: Chocolate-colored Clara: Light-colored, pale Clarinha: Light-colored, pale Cobre: Copper-colored Corada: With a high colour Cor-de-cafe: Coffee-colored Cor-de-canela: Cinnamon-colored Cor-de-cuia: Gourd-colored Cor-de-leite: Milk-colored (i.e. milk-white) Cor-de-ouro: Gold-colored (i.e. golden) Cor-de-rosa: Pink Cor-firme: Steady-colored Crioula: Creole

Encerada: Polished Enxofrada: Pallid Esbranquecimento: Whitening Escura: Dark Escurinha: Very dark Fogoio: Having fiery-colored hair Galega: Galician or Portuguese Galegada: Somewhat like a Galician or Portuguese Jambo: Light-skinned (colour of type of apple) Laranja: Orange Lilas: Lilac Loira: Blonde Loira-clara: Light blonde Loura: Blonde Lourinha: Petite blonde Malaia: Malaysian woman Marinheira: Sailor-woman Marrom: Brown Meio-amarela: Half-yellow Meio-branca: Half-white Meio-morena: Half dark-skinned Meio-preta: Half-black Melada: Honey-colored Mestica: Half-caste/mestiza Miscigenacao: Miscegenation Mista: Mixed Morena: Dark-skinned, brunette Morena-bem-chegada: Very nearly morena Morena-bronzeada: Sunburnt morena Morena-canelada: Somewhat cinnamon-colored morena Morena-castanha: Chestnut-colored morena Morena-clara: Light-skinned morena Morena-cor-de-canela: Cinnamoncolored morena Morena-jambo: Light-skinned morena Morenada: Somewhat morena

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 15 generally been released into the care of relatives already in the U.S., while mothers with children are let go with a notice to appear later in immigration court.

While many children and families may eventually be ordered out of the U.S., many are reporting in calls back home that they’re free to move around the U.S. while their cases wend through a process that can take years.

The Obama administration estimates that between October 2013 and September 2014 it will have caught 90,000 children trying to illegally cross the Mexican border without their parents. Last year, the U.S. returned fewer than 2,000 children to their native countries.

“The story is that you have to give yourself up to the Border Patrol, provide a contact in the United States and you’ll be freed even though they give you a court date far in the future,” said Ruben Figueroa, a member of the Mesoamerica Migrant Movement who works in a shelter for migrants crossing the southeast Mexico state of Tabasco. “If you combine this information with the violence in the streets and extortion keeping people from living their lives, the result is a massive exodus.”

Morena-escura: Dark morena Morena-fechada: Dark morena Morenao: Dark-complexioned man Morena-parda: Dark morena Morena-roxa: Purplish morena Morena-ruiva: Red-headed morena Morena-trigueira: Swarthy, dusky morena Moreninha: Petite morena Mulata: Mulatto girl Mulatinha: Little mulatto girl Negra: Negress Negrota: Young negress Palida: Pale Paraiba: From Paraiba Parda: Brown Parda-clara: Light brown Parda-morena: Brown morena Parda-preta: Black-brown Polaca: Polish woman Pouco-clara: Not very light Pouco-morena: Not very dark-complexioned Pretinha: Black – either young, or small Puxa-para-branco: Somewhat toward white Quase-negra: Almost negro Queimada: Sunburnt Queimada-de-praia: Beach sunburnt Queimada-de-sol: Sunburnt Regular: Regular, normal Retinta: Deep-dyed, very dark Rosa: Rose-coloured (or the rose itself) Rosada: Rosy Rosa-queimada: Sunburnt-rosy Roxa: Purple Ruiva: Redhead Russo: Russian Sapecada: Singed Sarara: Yellow-haired negro Sarauba (poss. dialect): Untranslatable Tostada: Toasted Trigo: Wheat Trigueira: Brunette Turva: Murky Verde: Green Vermelha: Red

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