Ottawa Star - Volume 2 Issue 8

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Ottawa Star The Voice of New Canadians www.OttawaStar.com • February 1, 2015 • Volume 2, Issue 8

For Canada & World News visit Ottawa Star.com

Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil prepares for ‘Ottawa inspired’ reform

By Jocelyne Richer, The Canadian Press

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uebec is preparing for a major reform of its immigration policy, with proposed changes partly inspired by Ottawa, says the province’s immigration minister.

The time has come for Quebec to re-examine its immigration model, and the way the province chooses, welcomes and integrates foreigners into the job market, said Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil ahead of year-long public consultations on the issue set to begin Jan 28 at the Quebec legislature.

Weil told The Canadian Press she was ready to launch a “big reform’’ of relations between new immigrants and Quebec society at-large by the end of the year, a process that will include the revision of Quebec’s immigration law.

Everything will be on the table: the number of immigrants welcomed annually, the selection process and favoured countries of origin, the importance of knowing French before arriving, French language courses, the recognition of training undertaken abroad, regionalization, and the sharing of common values.

The minister said she wanted a wide-reaching debate on the issues, and was “very open to everything that will be proposed.’’

Fifty stakeholders are expected to participate in public consultation hearings over the next few weeks on the future of immigration to Quebec. The province’s current policy has been in place for 25 years.

A later consultation will also be held on two specific aspects of immigration: the number of immigrants Quebec wants to welcome every year and their countries of origin.

The emphasis, however, will be placed on the economy and balancing between the recruitment of Continued on page 10

The Ottawa performers rehearse All About That Bass before the Darren Espanto show in Ottawa. Story on Page 8. Photo: Ellen O’Connor

Federal parties struggle to stay on top of offensive Facebook comments

By Jennifer Ditchburn, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA—The recent terror attacks in Paris have unleashed a barrage of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant comments on the Facebook pages of federal politicians and their

parties in Canada—much of it plainly visible to the public.

Managing racist, sexist, homophobic and harassing material is just one of the new challenges facing parties who want to have an active social media presence, grounded in the concept of free speech and open dialogue.

Little drone, big fears White House incident occurs amid worries over UAVs

By Alexander Panetta, The Canadian Press

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WASHINGTON—A tiny drone that crashed on the White House lawn on Jan 26 struck a sensitive area—and not just in the geographic sense.

There’s big concern about those small devices in the U.S. intelligence The drone that crashed onto the White House grounds in Washington, Monday, community.

Continued on page 14

Jan. 26, 2015. US Secret Service handout photo

A Jan. 7 post on Stephen Harper’s Facebook account, in which the prime minister said he was “horrified by the barbaric attacks in France,’’ received approximately 575 comments. Some six dozen—expressing support for blocking immigration Continued on page 11

Five Things every Canadian should know about the Maple Leaf Turns 50 next month The Canadian Press

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TTAWA—Canada’s iconic Maple Leaf flag turns 50 next month. Five things every self-respecting Canadian ought to know about its history: Continued on page 10

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Community

Dr. Qais Ghanem - Ottawa radio host a voice for multiculturalism

By Ellen O’Connor

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ttawa radio host and author Qais Ghanem’s efforts to promote gender equality and interfaith understanding have once again been recognized by the community at the annual Martin Luther King Day celebrations where he received the DreamKeepers Outstanding Leadership Award.

Held on Monday, Jan. 19 at Ottawa City Hall, the award was presented by the DreamKeepers organization to Ghanem and two other Ottawa residents who have demonstrated themselves as role models in the community and beyond by promoting the values held by the late Martin Luther King Jr. For Ghanem, this award falls on the heels of his induction into the Order of Ottawa, which took place in November. The award honoured his professional and civic contributions to the community, particularly in the media sphere where he is a tireless advocate for multiculturalism and the integration of New Canadians into Canadian society.

Ghanem is the creator and host of Dialogue with Diversity, an hour-long talk show broadcast once a week on CHIN Radio. His show breaks down barriers between different religions, ethnicities and cultures by providing a forum for open, ignorance-free discussion.

CEMA award: an interview “I was being interviewed with three women– one by people on the radio and Jewish, one Christian and saw how the power of radio one Muslim—all personal is very important,” explained friends of his and acquainGhanem. “People think that tances with each other. ToTV is the thing, but it’s not, gether they intelligently and more people listen to radio openly discussed religion, actually.” At the time, he had human rights and how to started the group Potlucks bring people together. for Peace, a Jewish Arab Ghanem has also dialogue group to encourage Dr. Qais Ghanem made a significant mark in peaceful discussion. the literary world, having He approached then authored three fiction novels, co-authored CHIN station manager Gary Michaels My Arab Spring My Canada and a book with his idea to create Dialogue with Diversity. “I wanted an hour every week to inof Arabic and English poetry From Left terview Somalis one week, then Ethiopians, To Right. He is also the president of the Brazilians, Bolivians, Americans and so on, National Capital Region chapter of the all from Ottawa.” Within five minutes, MiCanadian Authors Society. chaels asked when he wanted to start.

Published in 2012, “My Arab Spring Since then, Dialogue with Diversity has My Canada” is a book for and about Arab-Canadians. become a four-time award winning show, “The theme of the book is to urge garnering awards from the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, children of Arab immigrants—like me, I’ve United Way, and two from the Canadian been here for 44 years—to shed their baggage and keep it back home, not to bring it Ethnic Media Association, a rare occurrence, according to Ghanem. As one of only over here and try to impose their own culture or religious habits or the way they treat two people to twice win an award from the their women,” said Ghanem. “If you come CEMA, he says it is because of his content. to Canada you have to become a Canadian He recalls a particularly eye-opening interview that contributed to his first and, within reason, adopt the customs, cul-

Lynda Brown - A Contemporary Woman with a Traditional Twist

By Kelly Buell

“Dynamic. Unbelievably proud of her culture and someone who works very hard,” said Rob Nicholson when asked to describe his wife Lynda Brown. “Awesome,” said close friend Heidi Langille.

“Lynda and I have been friends for a long time. She’s smart, she’s funny she’s – how do you describe a best friend?”

There are many ways to describe Brown. Among them, talented and an excellent role model would also be understatements.

Mother, wife, director of youth programs at Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre (OICC), president of the Inuit Non-Profit Housing Incorporation, traditional throat singer and drum dancer, Brown is an inspiration to those who know her and empowers those who don’t with her friendly personality and her vast knowledge of Inuit culture.

Born in Nunavut, Brown moved to Ontario and studied at Trent University where she graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Native Studies and Psychology in 1998. Following graduation, she relocated to the Nation’s Capital and volunteered at Tungasuvvingat Inuit, an Inuit Community Centre located in Ottawa’s downtown core. The community centre encouraged her to get involved with the Sivummut Head Start Program at OICC, where she began volunteering and working as a bus monitor and teacher’s assistant in 1998. She also completed her Early Childhood Education studies.

Although a background in education and teaching, Brown’s passions lie in throat singing and drum dancing.

“I learned how to throat sing and drum dance in 2000 and 2001,” said Brown says, adding that she had different mentors during this time. “Throat

Lynda Brown is the director of youth programs at Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre and a traditional throat singer and drum dancer. Photo by Kelly Buell.

singing I learned through some people at Tungasuvvingat Inuit.”

Brown’s inspiration to learn drumming came from her sister who had been writing a proposal to do a drumming class.

Together, the two learned how to drum in 2000 and a year later they tried throat singing. Brown said that getting over the weirdness of it was the biggest challenge.

“In singing you sing with people, in throat singing, you’re not singing at the same time,” she said, explaining this style is called

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015 ture and language of Canada.”

An immigrant himself, Ghanem was born and raised in Yemen then moved to Scotland to study at the University of Edinburgh to become a physician. He returned to Yemen, but due to the political instability and the impending takeover of a communist government, he moved back to the United Kingdom. There he became a specialist in pediatrics and public health and married his wife Valerie.

“At the time there was a vacancy for a doctor in pediatrics at Queen’s University advertised in a British medical journal. I applied thinking nothing would happen, but they immediately asked me to come over and take the job,” said Ghanem, who immigrated to Canada in 1970 to work in Kingston.

Twenty years later, he moved to Ottawa and continued his career in medicine until retiring four years ago. He most recently served as director of Neurology and Sleep Lab at the Military Hospital in Ottawa as well as the sleep labs at the Ottawa and Montfort hospitals and was an associate professor of neurology at the University of Ottawa.

Ghanem is also the founder of a “Mixed Couples” social group for couples and their children of different races and religions; founder of Dialogue for Democracy, a monthly open forum for anyone interested in discussing issues impacting Canadians; and he operates the popular website Dialogue with Diversity, www.dialoguewithdiversity.com.

circular singing. “Learning the rhythm was probably the hardest part ever.”

With humble beginnings throat singing at pow wows, Brown now participates in Aboriginal Day with Turtle Island every year, at Canada Day celebrations and has performed for large audiences across Canada and the world doing a combination of throat singing and drum dancing.

“Some of the big ones I’ve performed for are the Duke and Duchess in 2010 and the Queen of Norway,” said Brown.

Her favourite accomplishment to date is the throat singing karaoke booth currently on exhibit at the Museum of Nature. Featuring Brown and friend Heidi Langille, the karaoke booth gives participants the chance to experience the art of throat singing.

“As someone who has learned from a lot of people I want to pass on what I’ve learned. I don’t think throat singing should be a lost art form, so I always incorporate it in the shows that I do.

I have so much more pride and a greater understanding [of my Inuit culture].

There has been a shift in how people view our culture. Especially since the creation of Nunavut, public perception and knowledge has changed greatly and programs like the OICC are changing it,” said Brown.

And through her own talents and contributions to her community, Brown is helping to shape how people see Inuit culture, too.

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Community

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Arabian Canadian Bazaar in Ottawa raises $25,000 for Syrian refugees

By Anaïs Lynn Voski

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efugees in Syria will soon receive bundles of warm winter clothing due to the large success of the Arabian Canadian Bazaar, which raised over $25,000 in donations on January 18.

With a total number of 30 sponsors and vendors, and more than hundreds of attendees, this collaborative effort between dozens of local and non-local organizations and charities was able to attract enough people to raise awareness of the Syrian cause.

“We were able to reach our fundraising goal, so we’re very happy,” said Yaman Marwah, who is involved with both the Syrian Association of Ottawa as well as Human Concern International—two of the many organizations actively present at the bazaar.

“In Syria it was negative 10 last week and when I say that, I don’t mean a Canadian negative 10,” explained Marwah when asked why they chose to collect money for winter apparel. “[Syrians] don’t have the heaters we have, and they don’t have the walls we have—they’re living in tents.”

While the event was organized exclusively to raise money for warm clothing, some portion of the humanitarian aid will also be spent on medicine, according to Mohamed Ali, president of the Syrian Association of Ottawa.

Besides the all-day bazaar, a special fundraiser and mini-gala took place in the evening that kicked off with a special auction.

“We had someone create art pieces of cultural sights from different countries, so we’re planning to sell them for at least $200 each. Through this auction, all the money is going to donations,” explains Ali. Amongst different types of organizations, student associations from various backgrounds were also present from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. Carleton University’s Student Association (CUSA), for example, was one of the main sponsors of the event.

Organized on a gloomy Sunday, the all-day bazaar brought smiling faces and colourful merchandise to the St. Elias Banquet Centre despite the weather.

The bazaar included tasty food vendors, colourful scarves, paintings, original henna tattooing, Middle East-

Jewellers were one of the most popular vendors at the bazaar. Photo by Anaïs Lynn Voski

A vendor poses and smiles with her Middle Eastern A young woman collects funds and domerchandise. Photo by Anaïs Lynn Voski nations at Bazaar. Photo by Anaïs Lynn Voski

ern jewellers, as well as cultural dances and children’s entertainment programs throughout the day.

Despite the Arabian Canadian Bazaar’s fundraising success, however, the problem is far from resolved yet, as the number of refu-

gees keeps growing by the day and temperatures continue to drop into the minuses.

“The number of Syrian refugees keeps increasing, so even if there are millions of organizations helping these people, we always need more,” reminds Marwah.

Community

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Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Inspiring greatness through the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

By Ellen O’Connor

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anadian Football League legend Michael “Pinball” Clemons said Martin Luther King Jr. is the man he admires most in life, “not because he stood for black people, but because he stood for all people.”

The former Toronto Argonaut player, head coach and current vice-chair of the Argos shared the words of Dr. King with those who gathered at Ottawa City Hall for the 11th annual celebration of Martin Luther King Day where he received the 2015 DreamKeepers Lifetime Achievement Award.

“This year’s recipient has demonstrated what it means to be a social citizen,” said former University of Ottawa football player Daniel Hall, who presented the award to Clemons. “He truly practices what he preaches, he embodies the citizen activist virtues that are shown and were seen by the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” Hall spoke of the Michael Pinball Clemons Foundation, an organization that empowers children through education and has reached its goal of building 260 schools in underprivileged communities.

Clemons was among four recipients who were recognized for their selfless efforts to instill King’s vision of social justice, minority rights and racial tolerance. Kathleen Johnson, Roger SaintFleur and Qais Ghanem received the DreamKeepers Outstanding Community Leadership Award.

“I petition you, implore you, challenge you to live as Dr. King has. That’s what our challenge is to remember today.

Not to take back and relive it all - we don’t want to relive, we want to forgive,” said Clemons as he moved through the room.

His words—“We don’t want to relive, we want to forgive... we don’t want to elevate the problems, we want to mediate them... we don’t want frustration, we want education”—were repeated by the captive crowd, followed by the exchange of handshakes and the phrase, “I play this game for you.”

Along with Clemons, many speakers took the stage to celebrate the life and accomplishments King as well as South African leader Nelson Mandela and even those creating positive change right here in the Nation’s Capital.

“Greatness inspires greatness and we are here to be inspired today,” said Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey who led the welcoming remarks. Following the singing of O Canada

by Vanessa London-Lumpkin, children from Carson Grove Elementary School performed a fully-choreographed skit, telling the story of King and his fight for African-American civil rights, highlighting the Montgomery Bus Boycott and arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955, non-violent protests and his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.

Children of Carson Grove Elementary listen on as they prepare for their skit

DreamKeepers Outstanding Community Leadership Awards were presented to (from centre left) Kathleen CFL legend Michael “Pinball” Clemons Johnson, Roger Saint-Fleur, and Qais Ghanem addresses the crowd

Mayor Jim Watson led the proclamation of Martin Luther King Day and was joined by city councillors as well as members of the DreamKeepers organization, including co-founder Daniel Stringer.

The guest speaker of the evening was The Honourable Irwin Cotler, Member of Parliament for Mount Royal and mostly notably international human rights lawyer, serving as Canadian counsel for Mandela among other world

leaders. Cotler was introduced by Professor Joanne St. Lewis who described him as “counsel to the oppressed.”

“Mandela and King embody the struggles of the 20th century—freedom, equality, democracy and peace,” said Cotler, adding that education is a transformative agent of change and both Mandela and King had an immense impact on his life, work and identity.

Faith readings were done by Imam Dr. Zijad Delic, representing the Muslim faith, Rabbi Reuven Bulka, representing the Jewish faith, and Reverend R.J. McEwan, representing the Christian faith.

Bulka referenced recent events in the United States, particularly the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and other cases of police brutality against African-Americans, in his invocation.

“There’s one thing these episodes have shown—what King planned and what’s sprouted from that is something we can never take for granted,” explained Bulka.

“By celebrating Martin Luther King Day we are recommitting to his legacy. It’s something that continues to be built. The moment we stop building, we start destroying.”

A Mindful Evening at the Gallery

By Stephen Koster

Near the end of a group meditation session inside the National Gallery of Canada held Tuesday, Jan. 22, a man’s phone began ringing and vibrating. The attendees of An Inspirational Evening With Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong treated this distraction the same way they’d treated everything for the past three minutes—with an inhale, and an exhale.

Dekyong, the General Spiritual Director of the New Kadampa Buddhist tradition, opened her talk on overcoming stress with mindfulness by saying mindfulness has become a bit of a trendy word lately—but actually has been a practice for 2,600 years.

Dekyong led the auditorium through a brief meditation exercise—a basic introduction to what she called “Blackand-white meditation,” in which the individual visualizes stress and annoyance as thick black smoke, leaving the body and evaporating during the exhale, while goodness and purified thoughts enter the body as bright white light.

As a visibly relaxed audience ended the meditation, Dekyong patiently walked the audience through a philosophical, yet simply worded, treatise of what she sees as the causes of stress and how they can be undone. She explained how irritations

do not exist in the exterior world, but only in the interior world—the world of the mind—and how focused meditation can do away with such irritations.

Dekyong’s warmth and candid sense of humour settled the audience for the hour-and-a-half talk. She mentioned a friend recommending she try beavertail while in Ottawa, and, being a vegetarian, was initially against the idea thinking, as many others have before her, that a beavertail is a literal descriptor.

She touched upon the elusive nature of external happiness; of the unsatisfying, untrue satisfaction gained by material possessions and the anxiety gained from such possessions, such as the stress caused by trying to avoid scratches on a new car.

She humbled herself, saying she had been pleased at the gift of a brand new suitcase from a friend, which, after only a single plane ride, had become tarnished with black scuff marks all over. Choosing not to dwell on something beyond her control, she accepted the fate of her new suitcase, enjoying its new, more beat-up appearance.

Kelsang Varahi, administrative director of the Joyful Land Buddhist Center, the organization responsible for putting on Dekyong’s talk, said of the audience during the reception: “There seems to be a brightness.”

Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong, General Spiritual Director of the New Kadampa Buddhist tradition. Photo by Robert Davis

“We’re all expecting to find happiness somewhere outside of us, but it’s not there,” she said, as audience members wafted by, chatting with practitioners adorned in robes of red and yellow. “We create our own happiness, it’s in our minds.”

When asked what she hoped audience members would take away from the evening, she said, “I hope they’ll do a little meditation practice, you know, it doesn’t have to be big.

If they just find that little peace, you’re encouraged to do a little more.”

The Joyful Land Kadampa Buddhist Center is located on Somerset Street West and offers classes on meditation as well as instruction in Buddhist teachings.

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Literary works of Canadian authors recognized at the Canada-Japan Literary Award ceremony Japanese tragedy inspires award-winning novels

By Amanda Dickerson

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he literary works of Canadian authors Ruth Ozeki and Michel Régnier were recognized on Sunday, Jan. 25 at the Canada-Japan Literary Award ceremony hosted by the Japanese Embassy in Ottawa.

Roger Gaudet, director of the Canada Council for the Arts, introduced the works of Ozeki and Régnier explaining that, “reading and writing is how we make sense of the world.” Both winning novels were inspired by the tsunami that devastated the North-Eastern Coast of Japan in 2011.

“This tragedy remains fresh in our hearts and our collective consciousness,” said Gaudet. “Both authors bring

us intimate stories of a monumental event and recount how family and friends felt the reverberations of this tragedy.”

Ozeki’s novel A Tale for the Time Being is the story of a young Japanese girl and a Japanese-Canadian woman who are brought together by the forces of the tsunami. In her absence, a representative from Ozeki’s publisher Penguin Canada received the award on her behalf.

Régnier accepted his award with a heavy heart, explaining that Japan is like a second home to him. He recounted some of the destruction that he witnessed in Japan following the tsunami, which is what inspired him to write his French novel Seize Tableaux du Mont Sakurajima.

Community

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A glimpse into I.LEAD 2015

Michel Régnier receives the Canada-Japan Literary Award for his novel Seize Tableaux du Mont Sakurajima. Photo: Amanda Dickerson

For the last 25 years, the Canada-Japan Literary Award has recognized Canadian writers for their work that reflects Japanese themes or depicts Canada-Japan relations. Funded by the Japanese government, the award is presented to both an English and French language book, selected by the Canada Council for the Arts.

“It is an honour for us to have Canadians trying to look at the world through the prism of Japan,” said Japanese Ambassador Norihiro Okuda during a reception held prior to the ceremony. “It is fitting that today’s events combine music and literary art forms as it demonstrates the many ways that countries can learn about each other through culture.”

The Ambassador expressed his hope that sharing cultures will allow Canadians to form a closer bond with Japanese people.

Following the literary awards ceremony, musicians Ryoko Itabashi and Scott Kusano performed a concert of Japanese music arranged to be a musical journey through Japan.

“There are many festivals in Japan throughout the year. We love these traditions and chose some songs from all over, hoping to make you feel like you are in Japan,” said Kusano who, with Itabashi, played an assortment of festival and folk songs.

The concert featured sounds from the three-stringed tsugaru shamisen, played by Itabashi, as well as a flute medley played on shinobue flutes and an adrenalinefilled drum medley, performed by both musicians. They received such an overwhelming applause following their finale that they returned to play a final piece that challenged the audience of over 100 people to vocally participate.

Happy Pongal!

Ottawa Tamils celebrate harvest festival Participants at the Festival Celebrations. Photos by Smiles Events

By Staff Writer

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hai Pongal Vizha, the number one festival on the Thamizh (Tamil) calendar, was celebrated on Sunday, Jan. 10 with a spectacular display of Tamil heritage.

From iyal (literature), isai (music) and naadagam (drama and arts), children and youth from the Tamil community in Ottawa brought the Harvest Festival to life inside the walls of the Kailash Mitel Theatre at Carleton University.

The annual event is organized by Muthamizh Kalaa Mandram, an Ottawa-based organization that thrives to promote the richness of Thamizh language, arts and culture among the Canadian-Tamil community, particularly the young generations.

Originating from Asia in countries like India, Singapore and Sri Lanka, Thai Pongal is now celebrated by people of Tamil origin all cross the world.

The month of Thai (January) was also proclaimed by the Government of Ontario as Thamizh Heritage Month and is recognized by cities across Canada such as Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area and the Nation’s Capital.

Similar to Canadian Thanksgiving, Thai Pongal is a Thamizh Harvest Festival held at the end of the rainy month of Margazhi (mid-December to mid-January) and the beginning

of the month of Thai, which welcomes a series of festivals including Pongal day, celebrated the first day of the month.

Standing on the threshold of a new harvest season, farmers express their gratitude for good weather conditions and healthy livestock, and people exchange Pongal wishes, hoping that a new year will bring good luck, good fortune and good cheer, as well as happiness, peace and prosperity.

The I.LEAD conference is a community initiative organized by 11 major mosques in the Ottawa/ Gatineau region. The acronym I.LEAD stands for Islam. Learn. Engage. Achieve. Develop. This year, the third annual I.LEAD conference will be held on Saturday, March 21st at Palais des Congrès de Gatineau.

On average, 2,500 people attend the conference every year. This conference is unique in its attempt to bring together all the Muslim organizations to concentrate their resources on issues pertaining to the Muslim community, and most importantly to promote harmony and unity in the Ottawa/Gatineau region. It attracts well-known local and international speakers, some of whom have included University professors, medical doctors, psychologists, religious scholars, a children’s book author and even a professional football player from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The theme of last year’s conference focused on youth identity.

The objective was to help the community’s young people identify personal and social challenges and then provide them with tools to deal with those challenges. It discussed topics such as peer pressure, gender relations, Internet and social media addiction, and sealing the gap between the youth and their parents.

The theme of the conference this year is “In the footsteps of the Prophet: The Path to a Balanced Life.” Its intent is to help attendees, both young and old, follow a justly balanced path in their personal, professional and spiritual aspects of life. Muslims view Prophet Muhammad as the best role model with respect to his high moral principles. He is also known as the Messenger of Peace. He strived for and achieved inter-religious peace in the Arabian Peninsula, a region that was otherwise plagued by wars.

The conference not only includes lectures and interactive workshops but also activities for children, entertainment and a bustling bazaar. The entertainment section has featured a local beat boxing group, a comedian and a spoken word artist in the past 2 conferences. The Bazaar features all kinds of items from organic honey to books to argan oil products to ethnic clothing to traditional jewellery to toys to calligraphic art to flags from around the world and much more. This year the conference will also feature at least 5 different ethnic food vendors.

For more information, you can visit the conference web page at www.ileadottawa.ca

Opinion

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Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

3 things we can do to Target misses the mark end poverty in Canada Editorial

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arget Canada’s announcement that it would be closing all 133 of its stores by July and lying off nearly 18,000 employees less than two years after it got here, losing $5.4 billion, is one of the greatest retail flops in North American history.

So why did the famous U.S. chain that had so many Canadians involved in crossborder worship for so many years fail in such a dismal way in such a short time with those same Canadians?

What went wrong, and why?

Experts say there are many reasons why Canadians failed to buy into the U.S. store’s “brand” in Canada even though they were overwhelmingly receptive to its arrival.

One of the main reasons was management’s overconfidence in Canadian customers and their presumption that they just had to put a Target logo on stores and Canadians would come.

Another important reason was, as CIBC analyst Perry Caicco said in a recent research report, “a badly functioning distribution system, chronic out-of-stocks, mispricing, weak promotional efforts, and a paucity of Canadian products, tactics or management.” People felt that shelves were perpetually empty, the aisles full of nothing. In-store stock did not match flyer promotions. The website was a joke with nothing for sale online. Besides they also felt the stores are cold, lacked the ambiance and pizzazz that pull us in and make us buy things.

Canadians wanted the American Target experience that they had come to love in Bangor and Plattsburgh, Buffalo and Grand Forks, Great Falls and Bellingham. Also setting prices at noticeably higher levels on certain products and categories compared to what Canadians were accustomed to at U.S. locations was a grave misjudgment. Canadians were repulsed

like they had been saddled with the poor cousin to an American star. They felt cheated and let down by Target’s pricing.

Target quickly exhausted all goodwill generated with Canadians prior to its arrival. Once customers are disappointed and feel their expectations are not met it is very difficult to convince them to come back.

Once lost, it is lost for ever.

Target also ran into a wall of competitors in Canada that had been honing their skills and preparing for this showdown in anticipation of its arrival in March 2013.

According to retail analysts Target’s competitors, like Walmart, Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire, focused on “improving their store operations, offered better pricing and brought in new ranges.”

Target Canada also bit off more than it could chew, and “started with an overly ambitious market entry plan, from which it never recovered.” They should have opened a few stores at first and tested the waters, then gradually added more and more over the years. Instead, it spent US$4 billion to open 127 stores and recruit nearly 20, 000 new employees in a little more than a year.

They failed to take account of the fact that Canadians are not Americans. They are a different kind of shopper with a different mindset.

Target American owners apparently thought all they had to do was open up in the Great White North and customers would come rushing through their doors, despite poor locations, empty shelves, unimpressive prices and little understanding of what Canadians want to buy.

It’s no mystery why Target missed its mark! May be it will be a great lesson for all retailers what not to do in Canada.

Editorial by Sangeetha Arya

Ottawa Star

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

By Art Eggleton

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TTAWA, ON, Troy Media— “Time to end poverty in Canada” was the message from the Salvation Army coming across our TV screens this past holiday season. A great idea from an organization that fights poverty every day in our country – but is it realistic?

Yes, it is.

Poverty doesn’t just cost the poor their dignity and a reasonable standard of living, it costs us all. A study guided by noted economists for the Ontario Association of Food Banks found that poverty costs the government about $30 billion a year, much of which was healthcare expenditures because being poor frequently means poor health.

Consider also the homeless. Numerous studies have found that it costs three to four times more to leave someone on the street (in and out of shelters, hospitals, jails) than to give them a home with support services.

And that doesn’t include the millions spent on provincial welfare systems which entrap people with thousands of bureaucratic rules, to which the late Senator David Croll once said, “We spend billions every year on a social welfare system that merely treats the symptoms of poverty but leaves the disease itself untouched.”

It is astounding that here, in this rich country, one in seven lives in poverty according to Statistic Canada. For these fellow citizens every day is a battle. Just struggling to get by, these families can’t even dream about getting ahead.

What is also disturbing is that over a million are children, even though 25 years ago the House of Commons said it was going to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000.

And then there is the wide gap in wealth and income levels that has come about in the last 30 years and which is now posing a threat to our social fabric. Cities once dominated by middle income neighbourhoods are giving way to greater polarization between high- and low-income communities. More and more are living pay cheque to pay cheque (if they have a job) with heavy debts. As the TD Bank states in the title of a recent report, it is time to recognize “The Case for Leaning Against Income Inequality in Canada.”

Let’s be clear: poverty and inequality are not obscure issues that only concern

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

economists or policy wonks. It’s degrading our economy, changing the nature of our cities, creating unequal health outcomes and impacting the cohesion of our society.

So, what do we do about all of this?

Here are three ways we can end poverty: 1. Education is a great enabler and leveller in any society. While Canada overall does fairly well in post-secondary education statistics, there are pockets of the population that need attention.

For example, the aboriginal high-school dropout rate is four times higher than the national average. Improving literacy rates, early childhood learning and skills development to reflect the ever changing job market are all good investments that will pay long term dividends.

And let’s make sure kids don’t go to school hungry. They can’t learn on an empty stomach.

2. We need to explore a basic income plan for Canadians. It would start moving people off the costly social welfare systems to an income tax managed formula. It wouldn’t provide for the ‘good life’ but it would ensure that no one in this country goes without the basic needs of nourishing food, warm clothing and decent shelter. We put such a plan in place for senior citizens back in the 1970s and it brought most of them out of poverty.

Also, at that time, an experiment in Manitoba called ‘Mincome’ demonstrated a reduction in healthcare costs and higher school graduation rates.

While there will be transitional costs, overall we don’t need to spend more money; we need to invest smarter, more efficiently and effectively.

3. It is time to get serious about tax reform. The last major federal overhaul arose from the Carter Commission in the 1970s.

Federal corporate taxes, which stood at 29 per cent in 2000, have been reduced to a current level of 15 per cent without a discernable effect on the rate of employment.

Let’s improve the fairness and progressivity of our tax system, tackle tax havens and loopholes and establish a carbon tax.

Yes, it is time to end poverty and reduce inequality in this rich country we are blessed to live in. It’s time to improve equality of opportunity and a better sharing of our prosperity.

Art Eggleton is a former Toronto mayor, Member of Parliament, and is currently a Canadian Senator. Article courtesy www.troymedia.com

Sales: Michael Power mpower@OttawaStar.com 613.627.3869 Distribution COMET 2000 Printed by: St. Lawrence Printing Company Ltd www.slpprint.ca

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Opinion

Most Canadians don’t understand food nutrition labels

By John Millar and Mélanie Meloche-Holubowski Expert Advisors EvidenceNetwork.ca

V

ANCOUVER, BC, and MONTREAL, QC, Troy Media—With January coming to an end, those of us who vowed to eat better in 2015 have probably already given up. That’s not surprising, considering that most people grossly underestimate both the amount of calories they consume, and their fat, salt and sugar consumption, even after consulting nutrition labels.

According to Statistics Canada, half of women and about seven in 10 men in Canada consume more calories than needed and as many as 25 per cent have fat intakes above the recommended value.

The truth is, even when Canadians want to make healthier choices, many don’t know how to begin. And our food labels don’t help.

Studies show that most Canadians don’t comprehend the per cent daily value or the variety of units (g, ml, percentages) com-

mon on food nutrition labels. One Canadian study showed that less than half of participants could identify the number of calories in a soft-drink bottle even after consulting the nutritional labels. Half of participants who saw a “110 calories per serving” label believed this was the number of calories for the entire bottle, when, in fact, the bottle in question contained several servings (264 calories).

Pre-packaged foods in Canada are required to display a nutrition facts table. But regulation does not apply to foods served in restaurants, and serving sizes are not standardized and front-of-packaging logos and health claims are mostly unregulated.

Nutrition labels are relatively inexpensive to implement and give consumers the autonomy to choose what they will eat, while being informed. Small changes could go a long way to improving public understanding, and possibly, public health.

Modifying regulations to simplify nutritional information on food products and imposing standardized and nutrition labelling at restaurants could increase consumer under-

standing, positively affect food choices and reduce caloric consumption. However, we need governments to ensure that these claims are evidence-based and easily understood.

In a step in the right direction, the federal government recently asked Canadians what they would like to see on food product labels. It turns out, quite a lot.

Canadians want easier-to-read labels, more legible fonts, simpler terms and the use of colours and symbols. The government is considering making adjustments, such as regrouping all sugars, changing font sizes and standardizing portion sizes.

These are welcome changes, but more comprehensive solutions are needed.

The U.K. adopted a colour-coded-system: traffic lights colours indicate if a product contains a little or a lot of a certain nutrient. As a result, supermarkets noticed an increase in the sale of fruits and vegetables.

One study showed that putting the number of minutes of walking it would take to burn off calories consumed on product packages helped reduce caloric consumption.

Unfortunately, in Canada, front-ofpackage symbols and health claims are mostly designed by the food industry, are often confusing and some are not based on proper scientific evidence. Seven years ago, the Canadian Standing Committee on Health asked the federal government for a mandatory, standardized, simple, front of package labelling. They are still waiting. Instead, in 2012 the government

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 7 chose to stop policing nutrition claims on food labels for budgetary reasons.

Regulations for restaurant nutrition information also need policy reform. Consider this: Canadians consistently underestimate the calories in restaurant meals, sometimes by up to 900 calories, says one study. Even registered dieticians underestimated the calories in a restaurant meal by 200 to 600 calories. With nearly 40 per cent of Canadians eating out a few times per week, regulating menu labels should be a priority.

The food industry is in business to make money. Many are constantly creating and marketing products that encourage overconsumption of sugar, fat and salt that are contributing significantly to the obesity epidemic.

Mandatory labelling will possibly be helpful to motivated, educated consumers who want to make healthier choices, but there is also a need for stronger environmental ‘nudges’ such as increased pricing on sugar sweetened beverages and reduced portion sizes to more fully address the obesity epidemic.

But we can at least begin with proper food nutrition labels so Canadians can make informed decisions about their food choices.

John Millar is a Clinical Professor at the School for Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia where he is involved in teaching and research in public health leadership, health policy and international health. Mélanie Meloche-Holubowski is a journalist intern for EvidenceNetwork.ca and is a webmaster and journalist for Radio-Canada in Montreal. Article courtesy www.troymedia.com

Why implementing health reform in Canada remains a challenge

By Greg Marchildon and Livio Di Matteo

R

EGINA, SK and THUNDER BAY, ON/ Troy Media/ - Canadian economists received a pleasant surprise recently: expenditure growth on public healthcare in Canada finally appears to be slowing down.

However, it is unclear if this slowdown is the result of explicit success in sustainably bending the cost-curve or more short-term cost-cutting in response to slower economic growth or future federal health transfers.

So is it a blip on the healthcare horizon or the beginning of a trend?

With the continued aging of the Canadian population, the diffusion of new healthcare technologies, and increased pressure for other public spending, we anticipate healthcare costs will continue absorbing the energies of governments in Canada for years to come. And bending – or breaking – the cost curve, will remain a perpetual challenge. Here’s why: 1. Bending the health-care cost curve is a long-term process that is much more than a quick cost-cutting exercise or yet another “structural re-disorganization.” But the voting public is impatient for change. Governments have a time horizon that operates within four-

year cycles and are expected to demonstrate substantive improvement in the short run.

2. When it comes to cost control, there must be an emphasis on prices as well as volume or numbers of health providers.

To date, cost control attempts have focused mainly on the number of service and healthproviders with “prices” (the fees paid by government to providers per service) remaining the undiscovered country. At the same time, however, one person’s health spending is another person’s income, and constraining fees will likely be vigorously opposed by those affected (doctors and health providers), even if a clear public benefit can be demonstrated.

3. While health system sustainability is about revenues (how much tax money a province has at its disposal) as much as it is about spending, most provincial governments have seemingly determined that they are not prepared to increase tax revenues. The basis for this decision seems to be rooted in a general public aversion to higher taxes and a need for competitive tax systems. At the same time, there is an inconsistency in public attitudes that desire more and better public health services but with fewer or lower taxes.

4. While policy should be evidencedinformed rather than belief-based, the

complexity of health-system change makes it difficult to draw a straight line from one evidence-based improvement to health-system change as a whole. Indeed, improving the quality and quantity of evidence-based decision-making is perhaps the greatest challenge in systematically devising policies for bending the cost curve.

5. While comparative evidence is essential for a better understanding of policy problems, you cannot bend the health-care cost curve by cherry-picking reforms from other jurisdictions with other political and social contexts. Ultimately, solutions are devised within the context of specific political, economic and policy environments.

Grafting quick fixes onto one health system based on experiences in another can quickly generate new problems to replace those they were intended to fix.

A major hurdle for health reform is that we need to decide exactly what changes we want to make in our health system. While there remains room to increase efficiencies and gain greater value for money, bending the cost curve requires fundamental reforms to the way we manage and deliver health services in Canada. This is a reality many Canadians seem reluctant to face.

Another challenge is getting federal, provincial and territorial governments to agree on the basic values or principles we want to preserve and enhance as we reshape policies, structures and the regulatory environments of healthcare in Canada.

Both challenges are formidable but surmountable barriers to ensuring the sustainability of publicly-financed healthcare in Canada.

Addressing these challenges will fall mainly on the shoulders of our provincial governments, and of course, the electorates they serve. However, the federal government also has both the potential and the responsibility to play an important role.

One thing is certain: whoever wins the next federal election in 2015 will have to meet these challenges head on.

Greg Marchildon is an expert advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Economic History (Tier 1) at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina. Livio Di Matteo is an expert advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca and Professor of Economics at Lakehead University.

They are the editors of the newly released, Bending the Cost Curve in Health Care (University of Toronto Press). Article courtesy www.troymedia.com

PAGE 8 • www.OttawaStar.com

Community

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Darrenatics Descend On Bronson Centre Filipino singing sensation Darren Espanto and local talent hit all the right notes

By Ellen O’Connor

I

f one had wandered into the Bronson Centre on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 4, the high-pitched screams and cheers that erupted inside the packed theatre could easily make one think they had stumbled into a Justin Bieber concert or the second coming of The Beatles. Instead, it was the presence of 13-year-old Darren Espanto, the FilipinoCanadian singer and runner up on The Voice Kids, that had children—and their parents—singing and clapping all night long at “The Voice of Darren Espanto.”

Dubbed “The Total Performer,” Calgary-born Espanto first made waves at 10-years-old when he auditioned for YTV’s reality show The Next Star Season 5 and became the youngest finalist to make it to the top six. His rise to fame, however, came swiftly after he competed and placed second in the Philippine’s reality singing competition in July 2014.

Espanto remained in the Philippines to pursue his career and the past several months

have been a whirlwind of success including topping the Philippine iTunes charts, staging his first solo concert, making his Carnegie Hall debut, and releasing his first solo album Darren on Dec. 6 with MCA Music Inc. And, of course, winning the hearts of a large and ever-growing mass of adoring fans—or Darrenatics—as they call themselves. ‘It’s still kind of not sinking in,” said his mother Marinel, who was accompanied by her husband Lyndon and 4-yearold daughter Lynelle. “I still want to walk in the mall in the Philippines, but it’s different now. When I noticed that people would try and run after you to take pictures, I said ‘Oh maybe, life is changing.’”

Espanto’s evening set featured hits he performed during his time on The Voice such as Jessie J’s Domino, Beyonce’s Listen and Whitney Houston’s One Moment In Time. He was joined by backup dancers Breadcrumbs for some of the songs and even brought his sister Lynelle onstage who, without hesitation, joined in on Neon Lights (Demi Lovato).

Darren Espanto and background dancers ‘Breadcrumbs’ rehearse for the show. Photo: Ellen O’Connor

Bernice Reyes, 16, who won Vocalist Teri Agpoon opened Filipino singing sensation Dar- Ottawa Idol 2014, performed the show with her performance ren Espanto, 13, at Ottawa her single This Is Our Time. of Rather Be. Photo: Ellen O’Connor Bronson Centre. Photo: Ellen O’Connor Photo: Ellen O’Connor

It was only between the applause when he shyly giggled and thanked the crowd that the humble and fresh-faced 13-year-old preteen shone through, despite his commanding stage presence and impressive pipes. Equally impressive was the line-up of outstanding local talent from the Ottawa Filipino community that took the stage during the first half of the concert.

With overwhelming support from the vivacious audience that only grew as the night went on, vocalist Teri Agpoon kicked off the show with a big performance of Rath-

er Be (Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne) then slowed it down with an acoustic version of David Guetta’s Titanium accompanied by her brother Dillan on the guitar and sister Jessica singing harmony.

Eleven-year-old Lareina Almuete followed next, and although the youngest performer of the night, she was the only one to accompany herself that evening, effortlessly playing acoustic guitar as she sang All Of Me (John Legend) and Royals (Lorde). Aside from music school recitals, where she also plays drums and piano, this was her first big performance.

Bringing a rock vibe into the theatre next was Mic Lomocso, lead vocalist and guitarist for Ottawa band One Vision. Lomocso kept the energy high with her rendition of Ain’t It Fun by Paramore, as she waved to her mom in the mezzanine then tackled the vocally challenging Chandelier by Sia. She returned to the stage to accompany seasoned singer Jhune Leonardo who performed Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball and later Love Runs Out. As the stage lights turned red, Dona Lyne Degamo, 33, came out in a red romper and appropriately belted out Girl On Fire by Alicia Keys. “I started singing when I was a kid, like 8-years-old, and it was my passion. Then I started joining competitions and I decided to go to Hong Kong and there I won the Superstar Search in 2010,” said Degamo who also sang Let It Go from the movie Frozen.

Wrapping up the first-half solo acts was 16-year-old Bernice Reyes who was the 2014 winner of Ottawa Idol held in September. Although battling a cold on Sunday night, Reyes gave it her all as she performed Bang Bang (Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj), a duet of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing with her brother Marc Reyes, also a talented singer and finalist of Ottawa Idol, and her first single—a prize from Ottawa Idol—an original called This Is Our Time.

All of the performers came together for a choreographed performance of All About That Bass (Meghan Trainor) at the end of the first half. The show was presented by Bright Star Tours of Aida A. Dolores and sponsored by Manila Bakery and TFC (Edwin Zerrudo Acuna).

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Community

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 9

Spotlighting the successes of immigrant entrepreneurs in Ottawa

By Jen Halsall

P

erseverance, dedication, and passion.

These are the uniting qualities among four very different business successes at this year’s Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards.

Abdul Haseeb Awan of BitAccess, Anand Aggarwal of Manor Park Developments, Mona Kalra of Maple Care Physiotherapy, and Peyman Yazdani of Subway restaurants all received awards for their exceptional entrepreneurship on Thursday, Jan. 29.

“It’s very exciting,” said Yazdani. He rose from humble beginnings as a sandwich artist at Subway restaurants in 1994, and now owns 17 franchises in the Ottawa area.

“It’s an honour and completely amazing and I’m very, very, happy about this award.”

Mayor Jim Watson heralded the entrepreneurs’ successes as proof that “Ottawa is not just a government town.”

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander was also among the guests.

In a speech, he stressed the importance of immigrants and entrepreneurs to the economy and lauded Ottawa as one of Canada’s centres for entrepreneurship.

The Immigrant Entrepreneurial Awards are a joint project between the City of Ottawa and the Economic Club of Canada. They are meant to recognize exceptional entrepreneurs born outside of Canada who now call Ottawa their home.

They’re also intended to inspire others born outside of Canada to take the plunge and follow their business dreams.

For Yazdani, helping other immigrants holds particular importance. “I will always look forward to helping other immigrants and other people to a start,” he said. “Because I went through it, I know how difficult it is.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for those brand new ones. And I will help them get started; I’ll do my best in my businesses.”

But entrepreneurship can be intimidating.

“When you go from having a job to becoming an entrepreneur, you’re not sure how it’s going to work financially,” said Kalra. She ran her own physiotherapy business in India for seven years, but had to be relicensed when she came to Canada. She balanced career, family, and education to make Maple Care Physiotherapy a success.

Haseeb said his experience as an immigrant has prepared him for challenges he’s faced with BitAccess. “Being in Ottawa and being an immigrant, that has challenges.

I think it’s a battle you fight every day, and that’s what makes you different from others.”

“Work hard,” said Aggarwal. “It’s a great country and it’s a great opportunity.

It’s going to take time, it’s not an easy job.

You’ve got to work hard, and this is an absolutely fantastic environment in Canada.”

Abdul Haseeb Awan Abdul Haseeb Awan is an electrical engineer by degree, but an entrepreneur at heart. He came to Canada as an international student at the University of Ottawa, and emigrated from Pakistan in 2010. Haseeb is a year into his latest venture, BitAccess.

BitAccess manufactures automated bitcoin teller machines (BTMs). The machines convert money into an online currency called Bitcoin. In just over 12 months, BitAccess has grown to become the largest BTM manufacturer in the world.

Haseeb said being an immigrant gave him the courage to become an entrepreneur. “Whenever you’re an immigrant, you’re basically already in an uncomfortable situation because you left everything.

So if I was born here I probably wouldn’t have done what I did now, because I had nothing to lose.”

Mona Kalra “Don’t give up; keep working at things you would like to achieve. Give 100 per cent, and support as many people as you can.”

These are the words of Mona Kalra, owner of Maple Care Physiotherapy. Kalra came to Ottawa in 2002, after running a successful physiotherapy business in India for seven years. Moving the business wasn’t easy –Kalra had to go back to school to get licenced in Canada, and found herself in a careful balancing act between family, education, and her career.

“It’s like you realize you’re trying to do everything together, and then you realize ‘Oh, I have the potential to do it’ and then you’re ready to take on more challenges,” she said.

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and Mayor Jim Watson with Immigrant Entrepreneur Award winners. Photo: Jen Halsall

Maple Care Physiotherapy now has two Ottawa locations, and Kalra shows no signs of slowing down. “I think every moment where we can make a difference for somebody, it feels good. So there are a lot of wonderful moments and that’s why I find it a really rewarding career.”

Paymen Yazdani Paymen Yazdani began his entrepreneurial career while growing up in Iran, selling items to street vendors. Fearing religious persecution, his parents fled the country after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. They eventually settled in Ottawa in 1986. After earning a bachelor of mechanical engineering from Algonquin College, Yazdani found himself working at Subway. He became an assistant, then a manager, and in 1994 he and a partner opened their first Subway franchise. He says he hasn’t looked back since.

“Even though I’ve been to school for mechanical engineering, business has always been my thing,” he said. “As soon as we opened the first one [Subway], I knew this is what I wanted to do.”

Yazdani now owns 17 stores in the Ottawa area, and makes a point of helping other immigrants find their passions in their new country. “Originally, when you come to a country it’s the most difficult

time for you,” he said. “And I have hired so many people who are brand new to the country because I know not many people want to give them their first crack.”

Anand Aggarwal Anand Aggarwal of Manor Park Development was born in a small village in India, but he’s made it big in the real estate business. He came to Canada in 1967, studied for three years at the University of Alberta, and then got a job working for the government. But Aggarwal was soon ready for something more.

“It was a bit boring, and I reached my level of competence, as they say, pretty fast.

So I decided to try something different.”

He started investing in real estate, purchasing his first property in Hull. Brick by brick, he expanded his portfolio, eventually branching out into condo, hospitality, and other forms of development.

Aggarwal said the best part of his job is watching his projects develop. He’s even getting his son, Lalit Aggarwal, involved in the family business. But Aggarwal’s next big project will be bittersweet.

“The next big project is retirement! I want to build another hotel on the King Edward site, but I think that will be the last one. I’m approaching 70, so I think this is enough for me.”

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Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Quebec Immigration Man who came to Canada Minister Kathlee Weil from Fiji at age 11 faces prepares for ‘Ottawa deportation for robbing store inspired’ reform

By Cam Fortems, The Canadian Press

Continued from page 1

new immigrants and workforce needs. Finding candidates that can fill empty jobs will be key, and on that point, Quebec is being inspired by Ottawa.

Last year, the federal government reformed its selection process for new immigrants.

With the focus now primarily on filling jobs, every candidate for immigration to Canada must produce a “declaration of interest’’ showcasing his or her ability to meet employers’ needs.

Weil said she wanted to appropriate that model. “ 1/8What 3/8 I want to arrive at, is an immigration system based on the Canadian model,’’ she said.

In 2013, unemployment among new immigrants to Quebec sat at 11.6 per cent, four percentage points higher than the general population. This was despite the fact that the majority of new immigrants were well educated: 57 per cent completed at least 14 years of schooling.

Employers in each sector across the province will be invited to better define their workforce needs and provide a profile of the ideal worker to bring to Quebec. Professional associations, meanwhile, will be asked to better consider candidates holding diplomas earned abroad.

This is even more important at a time when the search for qualified immigrants is “much more competitive’’ than in the past, Weil said.

Every year, between 50,000 and 55,000 foreigners move to

Quebec, the majority of whom are from Africa. From 20092013, one immigrant in five came from Algeria or Morocco.

After the public consultations, Weil will produce a new immigration policy and an action plan. She said she would present a bill in the fall to “modernize’’ the current law, which she described as “really outdated.’’

The new bill will be “the last piece of this large reform,’’ and an “absolutely fundamental’’ piece of the puzzle, she added.

Among the provincial government’s challenges will be to specify the importance of immigrants’ knowledge of French prior to their arrival in Quebec and French-language courses.

Upon their arrival, nearly half of all immigrants (43 per cent) do not speak a word of French.

“What can we do to go even further?,’’ Weil asked, to make French “the cement’’ and Quebec’s common language.

She added that new immigrants must have an “adequate level of French’’ to find jobs and successfully integrate.

Drawing new immigrants to towns across the province will also be a priority, as three out of four currently settle in the greater Montreal area. Local mayors must play “an increased role’’ to address this issue, Weil said.

Ultimately, immigration reform needs “the full participation of each and every member of Quebec society,’’ the minister said.

K

AMLOOPS, B.C.—A Kamloops, B.C., man who immigrated to Canada as a boy may face deportation to his native Fiji after he is sentenced on a robbery charge, provincial court has heard.

Feroz Buksh, 44, pleaded guilty to one count each of robbery and use of an imitation firearm at a store where he broke down in tears in the middle of a demand for money from the till.

Judge Stephen Harrison accepted a joint submission from Crown and defence lawyers for an 18-month jail sentence.

“Mr. Buksh is a sympathetic character,’’ Harrison said.

Prior to the robbery, Buksh did not have a criminal record.

He blamed his divorce and

death of his mother and brother in Fiji for sending him into a spiral where he was “homeless, broke, hungry and addicted to speed,’’ said Harrison, who read a letter from Buksh at the sentencing hearing.

Harrison delayed the sentencing to hear a defence submission about the impact of a sentence on Buksh’s future in Canada.

He is a permanent resident and does not have citizenship despite living in Canada since he was 11. His two adult children were in the courtroom.

Student lawyer Jay Michi told Harrison that the passage of a recent law means anyone living in Canada without citizenship and sentenced to more than six months in jail may face deportation without appeal.

Buksh walked into a store last Sept. 19 and asked a clerk for some

hot food and 10 packs of cigarettes.

He tried to pay for the items with a pre-paid Visa card. When that failed he demanded money from the till and said he had a gun.

Then he began to cry, telling the clerk he would use the money to pay for bills and that he was going through a divorce.

Buksh grabbed the money and ran out. As he did, the bag broke and the contents spilled out.

Police found him hiding in a closet at a friend’s house.

“I have to say as well that robberies of this sort are far too frequent in this community,’’ Harrison said. “People who work these jobs in corner stores and markets should not have to fear this.’’

Buksh has already spent three months in jail after he breached his bail. He will also serve 18 months’ probation.

Five Things every Canadian should know about the Maple Leaf Continued from page 1

The flag was conceived on Oct. 22, 1964. Well, sort of.

That’s the date the flag selection committee voted, unanimously choosing the Maple Leaf design as the new Canadian flag. The vote was sent on to Parliament and the flag was officially adopted on Feb. 15, 1965.

Its origins remain the subject of fierce debate. Some insist Dr. George Stanley, inspired by the commandant’s flag at Kingston’s Royal Military College, designed the flag; others say Brockville’s

Is It Time For A Second Opinion?

John Ross Matheson, a Liberal MP, is due most of the credit.

It was controversial from the outset. The Globe and Mail wrote of the new flag in an editorial in December 1964: “Flags that have been torn in battle with a foreign enemy can still fly with pride. This will surely be the first flag in history that was shred by its sons.’’

John Diefenbaker was not a fan. Diefenbaker, the Opposition leader, fought bitterly against Lester Pearson’s plans to adopt a new flag, even losing one party member in the

process. Leon Balcer, a Tory MP from Trois-Rivieres, broke ranks with Diefenbaker over the flag and left the party to sit as an Independent.

Neither was Quebec. Liberal MP Pierre Trudeau suggested much of Quebec was apathetic about the flag. “Quebec does not give a tinker’s damn about the new flag,’’ he said. “It’s a matter of complete indifference.’’

Source: “The Flags of Canada,’’ by Alistair B. Fraser; “Lester B. Pearson: Extraordinary Canadians,’’

by Andrew Cohen.

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Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Canada

Federal parties struggle to stay on top of offensive Facebook comments Continued from page 1

from Islamic countries, closing Canada’s borders or just criticizing Islam—were still on the page more than two weeks later.

“Time to step down on all Islamic communities worldwide,’’ wrote one visitor to the page.

Said another: “All muslims should go home and never be let back here please mr harper make that happen they steal real peoples jobs that belong to us canadians.’’

A Jan. 14 Conservative Party of Canada Facebook post entitled “Protecting Canadians from Barbaric Cultural Practices’’—aimed at promoting the government’s legislation barring forced or child marriages—elicited similar sentiments.

One example: “Deport them all if you want to save Canada.’’

A handful of other comments were taken down after The Canadian Press asked the party last Tuesday about their Facebook policy.

A few commenters expressed dismay with the vitriol against Muslims.

“Wow ... so much hate, bigotry and fear mongering on this page! So sad to see that so many in Canada have been brainwashed to think like this,’’ said one.

Harper’s Facebook presence is described on the site as a “family-friendly page,’’ which notes that the administrators reserve the right to delete inappropriate submissions including hateful, malicious, uncivil or disrespectful content.

Party spokesman Cory Hann explained that an online Facebook tool is used to screen out certain words, but the rest of the work falls to a party staff member who must scan the content manually.

“With over 100,000 fans of our Facebook page, we do our best to keep up with the large volume of comments we get daily,’’ Hann said.

“Obviously it goes without saying we don’t endorse every single comment, and work to remove inappropriate ones that the built-in filter does not pick up.’’

Facebook pages for NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau relating to the Paris attacks also included a sprinkling of comments critical of immigration from Muslim countries, all of them along similar lines.

Both the NDP and the Liberals also have a policy against hate speech and racist comments on their Facebook pages.

Privately, party insiders say keeping up with the sheer volume of comments can be difficult, given that staff are also taking care of a range of other tasks.

Ian Capstick, managing partner of public relations firm MediaStyle, said major corporations will purchase a separate filtering program from Facebook’s, plus hire staff or an outside firm to keep up with the comments.

Capstick, a former Parliament Hill aide to NDP and Liberal politicians, says

the real source of the problem for Canada’s political parties is they still only see social media as a one-way conversation.

“Canadian politicians are very good at using social media to broadcast, but they’re very bad at using it to have actual conversations,’’ said Capstick, whose firm does some social media management.

“If there were more actual conversations going on, there would be more regular usage of those Facebook sites and Twitter accounts, and people would be cleaning them more regularly.’’

The media industry has also grappled with the challenge of policing comments sections, and the racist, sexist or homophobic comments that can live there. Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times took down its comments sections in order to study the issue, while other sites have played down the sections.

Paula Todd, digital media professor and author of “Extreme Mean: Trolls, Bullies and Predators Online,’’ said some offensive speech should be left online so that it can be exposed and critiqued by others.

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 11 But Todd, the chair of the digital issues committee at Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, said political parties have an obligation to ensure sites they’re responsible for do not contain examples of hate speech.

The Criminal Code’s section on the “wilful incitement of hatred’’ describes a perpetrator as someone who “wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group.’’ Such groups are defined by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.

“We’re discovering the effects of putting all this horrible stuff online,’’ said Todd.

“One of the effects is that because it’s 24 hours a day, because it flies around the world in seconds, and because it’s permanent, these kinds of hate attacks can be more damaging than just the face to face.’’

PAGE 12 • www.OttawaStar.com

World

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Portugal approves citizenship plan for Sephardic Jews, 5 centuries after persecution

By Barry Hatton, The Associated Press

LISBON, Portugal—Portugal’s government on Jan 29 approved a law granting citizenship rights to the descendants of Jews it persecuted 500 years ago, following Spain’s adoption of similar legislation last year.

Cabinet spokesman Luis Marques Guedes said the government passed changes to its nationality law, providing dual citizenship rights for Sephardic Jews - the term commonly used for those who once lived in the Iberian peninsula.

The rights will apply to those who can demonstrate “a traditional connection’’ to Portuguese Sephardic Jews, such as through “family names, family language, and direct or collateral ancestry.’’

Applicants will be vetted by Portuguese Jewish community institutions, as well as by government agencies. Applicants will also have to say whether they have a criminal record.

Similar legislation is pending in Spain’s parliament.

The Portuguese Parliament unanimously endorsed the law in 2013. Since then, the government has been drawing up the legal details and establishing administrative procedures. The effective date of the law was not immediately announced, but will be when the legislation is published soon in the country’s official gazette.

Jewish community leaders say they expect the application procedure to take four months. Applicants will not need to travel to Portugal.

Portuguese monarchs, eager for tax revenue and Jewish talent that helped Portugal become one of Europe’s wealthiest nations during the Age of Expansion in the 1400s, had protected their thriving Sephardic community.

After Spain drove out Jews in 1492, some 80,000 of them crossed the border into Portugal, historians estimate. King

Joao II charged the fleeing Sephardic Jews a tax to shelter in Portugal. He promised to provide them with ships so they could go to other countries, but later changed his mind.

In 1496 his successor King Manuel I, eager to find favour with Spain’s powerful Catholic rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella and marry their daughter Isabella of Aragon, gave the Jews 10 months to convert or leave. When they opted to leave, Manuel issued a new decree prohibiting their departure and forcing them to embrace Roman Catholicism as “New Christians.’’

The “New Christians’’ adopted new names, inter-married and even ate pork in public to prove their devotion to Catholicism. Some Jews, though, kept their traditions alive, secretly observing the sabbath at home then going to church on Sunday.

They circumcised their sons and quietly observed Yom Kippur, calling it in Portuguese the “dia puro,’’ or pure day.

Though officially accepted, the New Christians were at the mercy of popular prejudice. In the Easter massacre of Jewish converts in 1506 in Lisbon, more than 2,000 Jews are believed to have been murdered by local people.

The Portuguese Inquisition, established in 1536, was at times more cruel than its earlier Spanish counterpart. It persecuted, tortured and burned at the stake tens of thousands of Jews.

Now those events are widely viewed as a stain on Portuguese history.

In 1988, then-president Mario Soares met with members of Portugal’s Jews community and formally apologized for the Inquisition. In 2000, the leader of Portugal’s Roman Catholics issued a public apology for the suffering imposed by the Catholic Church, and in 2008 a monument to the dead was erected outside the Sao Domingos church where the Easter massacre began.

Israel’s Arab lawmakers unite for first time, hoping to boost voter turnout, unseat premier

By Areej Hazboun And Daniel Estrin, The Associated Press

H

AIFA, Israel—Israel’s Arab political parties are banding together under one ticket for the first time ever ahead of national elections in March, hoping to boost turnout and help unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The result is an awkward political marriage of communists, Palestinian nationalists, religious Muslims, feminists and even one Jew. But Arab politicians say it will improve chronically low Arab voter turnout and help block Netanyahu from forming the next government.

“We will be a central player in politics like never before,’’ said Ayman Odeh, a first-time parliamentary candidate and the leader of the combined Arab list.

The four parties agreed to unify because of a new law passed last year that raised the percentage of votes that a party must win to land a seat in parliament from 2 to 3.25 per cent - a law advanced by Israel’s ultranationalist foreign minister that Arab lawmakers believe was intended to reduce Arab representation in parliament.

Arab politicians say they have come under mounting pressure from their constituents to co-operate in order to tackle the challenges facing the Arab community, including what many see as increased hostility from the Israeli public and Israeli leaders particularly since the summer war in Gaza.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. DOD photo by Cherie Cullen

“People said to us, ‘Your answer should be unity,” said Masoud Ganaim, the number two on the list and a representative of an Islamic movement.

The unified list is campaigning on promises to prevent Netanyahu from winning again by serving as an opposition bloc that would complicate his coalition-building efforts and help give rise to a centre-left government headed

by Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog and former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni.

Arab citizens of Israel make up about a fifth of the population of some 8 million, but their participation in Israel’s democracy has long been a complicated matter.

Though they enjoy full citizenship in the Jewish state, Israel’s Arabs say they have suffered from decades of discrimination, with unemployment and poverty often higher than the national average in their communities.

Israel’s Arabs also largely identify with the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza, leading many of Israel’s Jewish citizens to view them with mistrust. Israel’s Arab population mainly consists of Palestinian families who remained in Israel following the 1948 war that attended its creation.

Arab politicians seem to manifest a split identity. They champion Palestinian rights and have long had ties with politi-

cians in the Palestinian territories, but they often speak eloquent Hebrew and are firm believers in participating in Israel’s democratic government. At Odeh’s home in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Haifa, he displayed both a trophy of appreciation from the Palestinian Fatah faction as well as leading Hebrew novelist Amos Oz’s autobiographical novel. Ganaim, the Islamist representative, has a book penned by Netanyahu on his office bookshelf.

Still, many Israeli Arabs have felt disenfranchised, and previous elections have seen low Arab turnout, with many boycotting the process.

Continued on page 13

World

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

Top French court upholds stripping citizenship for binational jihadi in terrorism case

By Sylvie Corbet, The Associated Press

P

ARIS—France’s top court on Jan 23 upheld the government’s decision to strip the citizenship of a Franco-Moroccan man convicted of terrorism-related crimes, amid calls to expand such measures after deadly attacks in Paris.

The constitutional Court said the fight against terrorism justifies different treatment of those who were born French and those who acquired citizenship.

Existing law allows stripping citizenship only if the person has citizenship elsewhere, and targets especially

those convicted of terrorism, if the crimes took place before the person became French or within 15 years of acquiring citizenship.

Franco-Moroccan Ahmed Sahnouni el-Yaacoubi, 45, had his French citizenship revoked last year, following a sentence to seven years of prison in 2013 for criminal association with a terrorist enterprise.

El-Yaacoubi was implicated in a network for recruiting jihadis for various countries. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, he became a French citizen in 2003.

Drug smugglers plant magnetized boxes under cars of ‘trusted travellers’ from Mexico

By Elliot Spagat, The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO—Drug smugglers are turning people who are granted “trusted travellers’’ status by the U.S. government into unwitting mules by placing containers with powerful magnets under their cars in Mexico and then recovering the illegal cargo far from the view of border authorities in the United States.

One motorist spotted the containers while pumping gas after crossing into Southern California on Jan. 12 and thought it might be a bomb.

His call to police prompted an emergency response at the Chevron station, and then a shocker: 13.2 pounds (6 kilograms) of heroin were pulled from under the vehicle, according to a U.S. law enforcement official. San Diego police said the drugs were packed inside six magnetized cylinders.

The driver had just used a “trusted traveller’’ lane at the San Ysidro border crossing, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because some details of the case have not been made public.

Authorities have learned of at least three similar incidents in San Diego since

then, all involving drivers enrolled in the enormously popular SENTRI program, which stands for Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection.

There were 12.6 million SENTRI vehicle crossings in fiscal 2013, more than double the 5.9 million four years earlier.

The program enables hundreds of thousands of people who pass extensive background checks to whiz past inspectors with less scrutiny. Signing up can reduce rush-hour wait times from more than two hours to less than 15 minutes at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry, the nation’s busiest crossing, where SENTRI users represented 40 per cent of the 4.5 million vehicle crossings in fiscal 2013, the Government Accountability Office found.

But like other prescreening programs, there’s a potential downside: the traveller can become a target, and such cases can be tricky for investigators when people caught with drugs claim they were planted.

Using magnets under cars isn’t new, but this string of cases is unusual.

The main targets are people who park for hours in Mexico before returning to the U.S., authorities say. Smugglers track their movements on both sides of the

Prime Minister Manuel Valls welcomed the court’s “exceptional decision’’ confirming the state’s power to strip French citizenship “every time it’s necessary.’’

Stripping citizenship is a rare procedure in France, occurring only eight times since 1973. Some on the French right and far right recently asked the Socialist government for a change in the law to expand the state’s ability to take away French citizenship.

A series of international conventions, including the European Convention of Human Rights, forbid measures that would make people stateless.

However, British law was amended last year to make it legal to deprive foreignborn offenders of citizenship in some serious cases, even if it makes them stateless.

The three radical Islamic gunmen behind Paris attacks this month on newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher market were born in France, as was the man jailed for killing four at the Brussels Jewish Museum last year, and the gunman who killed seven people in 2012 in attacks on a Jewish school and paratroopers.

border, figuring out their travel patterns and where they park. It takes only seconds to attach and remove the magnetized containers when no one is looking.

“It’s a concern for everyone, not as big a concern for me because I’m careful,’’ said Aldo Vereo, a SENTRI user and office assistant at the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency who parks in a garage when home in Tijuana and varies his routes.

“People should be worried because they go straight home and straight to work.’’

“Trusted travellers’’ were issued windshield decals for years, but they are no longer needed to identify vehicles approaching the inspection booths.

New stickers haven’t been issued since 2013, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency says existing stickers can be removed.

Many haven’t heeded the call, which can make them a target. The Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce in San Diego told newsletter readers last week that decals should go.

“It’s basically demonstrating that you are a SENTRI user,’’ said Alejandra Mier y Teran, the chamber’s executive director. “Criminals are savvy, and they know they are part of a program where they are not checked as much.’’

CBP says frequent crossers also should vary their travel routines and keep a closer eye on their cars.

There have been 29 cases of motorists unwittingly carrying drugs under their cars in the San Diego area since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified the trend in July 2011, including six drivers who made it past inspectors, said spokeswoman Lauren Mack.

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 13

Israel’s Arab lawmakers unite for first time, hoping to boost voter turnout, unseat premier Continued from page 12

But the union could change that. A recent poll conducted on behalf of the Abraham Fund, which promotes Arab-Jewish equality in Israel, suggests that the unified list would boost Arab turnout to 56 per cent - 10 percentage points higher than the last election in 2013. The poll questioned 514 Arab citizens and had a margin of error of 4.5 per cent. By comparison, Jewish voter turnout in 2013 was nearly 68 per cent.

With that anticipated surge in votes, Arab politicians estimate that their joint list could garner up to 15 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, large enough to help block a hardline coalition headed by Netanyahu and paving the way for his dovish challengers to form a government. Arab parties traditionally do not join coalitions, saying they do not want to bear responsibility for Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza, but Arab politicians say they would serve as a “security net’’ by voting with the dovish government even while sitting in the opposition.

The four parties involved in the unified list collectively hold 11 seats in the current parliament. In a poll aired Monday on Channel 2 TV, the union garnered 12 seats, making it parliament’s fourth largest list. The poll had a margin of error of 4.5 per cent and surveyed 575 people.

Beyond its potential political might, the union is promising Arab voters a shift in priorities.

Odeh, the fresh-faced 40-year-old head of the joint list, said he wants to strengthen efforts to address the domestic concerns of Arabs in Israel alongside veteran Arab lawmakers’ longtime focus on the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Odeh hopes to land a leading position on parliament’s internal affairs committee, giving his list the power to increase budgets to Arab towns that lag behind in development compared to the country’s Jewish towns.

But the united parties, which have yet to choose a name, face hurdles in convincing voters that their varied interests can be fairly represented under one banner.

Osama Masri, 55, an Arab actor, said he would vote for the unified Arab list, but begrudgingly so. He said that as an atheist, he is uncomfortable voting for a party that includes Islamists. Arabs in Israel do not all share the same ideology, he said.

“We’re not a matchbox, with the red part of the matches all lined up in the same direction,’’ Masri said.

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PAGE 14 • www.OttawaStar.com

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World

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

The drone that crashed onto the White House grounds in Washington, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015.

US Secret Service handout photo

Little drone, big fears White House incident occurs amid worries over UAVs Continued from page 1

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So when a man said he was flying a drone for fun just after 3 a.m. in downtown Washington, D.C., and had an accidental crash-landing into a tree on the wrong side of one of the world’s most highly protected fences, he didn’t merely touch the famous property at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He also touched a nerve.

In interviews, U.S. military officials have expressed fear that the cheap, increasingly popular recreational items sold at electronics stores could be used as terrorist weapons.

“It’s a very insidious threat,’’ one high-ranking U.S. military officer told The Canadian Press in a recent interview.

“If we don’t take that very seriously, it could be dangerous...

“We have to get our brains around that.’’

One concern he specifically mentioned was terrorists targeting a VIP. With a few modifications, he said, a $300 gadget used for aerial photography could be transformed into an airborne improvised explosive device.

The military has dedicated numerous conferences to the topic in recent years.

There’s also a growing body of academic research. A study at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. last year warned drones could be used for: -Illicit reconnaissance missions. In one example late last year, French authorities reported that most of the country’s 19 nuclear facilities had experienced drone flyovers in restricted airspace over a brief period, in flights that occurred mainly overnight and appeared to have been part of a co-ordinated effort.

-Explosions. The Birmingham study said a small-scale blast from a toy drone could kill people, or be used to prevent authorities from responding to a scene.

-Chemical attacks on crowds, for instance at a sporting event.

Norad, the Canada-U.S. agency that’s been monitoring the skies for aerial threats since the Cold War, now says it’s

developing a policy to deal with small unmanned aerial vehicles, in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which has spent years working on commercial regulations for drones.

Norad is already testing blimps over Washington to detect more traditional threats like cruise missiles, and also more modern ones like drones.

“They are becoming more and more ubiquitous,’’ one Norad official said recently. “If I’m a bad guy I can go pick one up at the local toy shop and fit them with explosives or chemicals.’’

He said terrorists are changing their tactics, and policy-makers have to evolve too.

But one officer at Norad said there are, fortunately, limits to drones’ illicit potential. Their size alone, he said, reduces the potential damage one might cause.

The one that crashed Monday into the White House property was a two-foot device with four propellers.

“Most drones are small and they don’t carry a lot of payload,’’ U.S. Army Col. Steve Sicinski said during a tour of the Norad facility last summer.

“A drone, in and of itself, does not make a good weapon.’’

A Canadian military official concurred.

He said commercially available drones are designed to carry cameras - not big payloads. So the explosions one might produce would be much smaller than the ones from a military drone, he said.

It’s also fairly easy to jam their signals, the official added.

No date has yet been set for the release of the commercial drone regulations in the U.S. The Federal Aviation Administration mostly bans commercial drone flights like those Amazon.com has famously announced it wants to test. Recreational users are barred from flying drones higher than 122 metres, or within eight kilometres of an airport.

The Secret Service hasn’t said whether charges will be laid in the latest incident.

Ottawa Star • February 1, 2015

World

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 15

Kurdish demonstration against ISIL in Vienna, Austria, 10 October 2014. Wikipedia Photo by Haeferl

Digging at roots of anti-Islam protests reveals fear of unknown, links to Germany’s far right

By Frank Jordans, The Associated Press

G

ROSSROEHRSDORF, Germany—The 17 North African refugees turned up just before Christmas and Simon Richter felt nothing to cheer.

The electrician and his friends organized a meeting that sent out a message loud and clear: We don’t want the foreigners in our midst. Within days, authorities caved to pressure and moved the young men elsewhere.

The episode reflects the increasingly tense mood in the eastern state of Saxony, where anti-immigrant protests have been growing by the week, drawing international attention and fears that xenophobia is on the rise again in Germany - whose Nazi past has long made such sentiments taboo.

Police said more than 25,000 marched through the state capital, Dresden, on Jan 12 under the banner of a group calling itself Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA. Organizers claimed 40,000 had attended, despite calls from Germany’s justice minister to cancel the rally because of last week’s terror attacks in Paris.

Some marchers wore black ribbons to show their solidarity with the victims and held up placards with the names of the French journalists killed. Others carried banners condemning the “lying press’’ that they claim misrepresents their cause.

Co-organizer Lutz Bachmann said “the terrible acts of Paris are further proof that PEGIDA is needed.’’

Hours before the rally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke out strongly against the protesters, citing a comment by former president Christian Wulff that Islam is a part of Germany.

“That’s how it is - I think that too,’’ she told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Merkel, the leader of Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats, said she was confident that Muslims themselves reject violence such as that seen in Paris.

Many of the Dresden marchers in the last few months come from rural areas near the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic. During the rallies they hold up signs with the names of their towns and villages, and insist they aren’t racist—just ordinary people worried about crime—though skinheads and far-right activists are visible among the crowd.

“I think they’ve got a legitimate cause,’’ said Richter, who has attended several PEGIDA protests himself.

The mood in Grossroehrsdorf— population 6,700—finally turned against the asylum seekers when a 23-year-old local man reported to police that he’d been assaulted by one of the foreigners.

Days later, police announced that the man had lied. But by then authorities had already decided to shut the gym and disperse the refugees across other asylum centres in the region.

The decision wasn’t just a victory for Richter and his friends. The far-right National Democratic Party, or NPD, also saw a reason to celebrate.

Its local representative, Juergen Koetzing, told The Associated Press that the party supported the protests in Grossroehrsdorf and has helped with logistics behind the scenes during the PEGIDA marches in Dresden.

Protestant pastor Stefan Schwarzenberg, who supports the refugees, said people in Saxony remain affected by decades of communist rule, even 25 years after the end of the dictatorship in East Germany.

“There are people who are still stuck in their old thinking and their old horizon,’’ he said.

Schwarzenberg said the fear of Muslims—a sentiment that has been growing in different parts of Europe— was largely based on ignorance.

“Even though they hardly know any foreigners or have asylum seekers in their towns and villages,’’ he said, “they have this bogeyman, which is the Islamization of the West.’’

The pastor noted that some parents had threatened to keep their children out of school until the refugees were moved: “It’s was a very emotional situation.’’

Some experts have said that PEGIDA is likely to remain a fixture limited to Saxony. Attempts to organize similar marches in other cities have been met with overwhelming counter-protests.

“Especially rural areas in Saxony are known to be ultraconservative,’’ said Michael Luehmann of the Goettingen Institute for Democracy Research.

“They are also afraid of strangers— probably because there are almost no foreigners in Saxony.’’

Martin Strunden, a spokesman for Saxony’s Interior Ministry, said the state can cope with its share of asylum seekers - about 12,000 of the 200,000 people who came to Germany seeking shelter from war and persecution last year.

The bigger challenge, he said, lies in reaching out to the local population and reassuring them that their fears are unfounded. In fact, Germany is struggling with a lack of workers to fill jobs— so it needs more immigration, not less, Strunden said.

Saxony has lost 10 per cent of its population since 1990 and will lose another 10 per cent before it stabilizes, he said. Since 2014, more people have been retiring from the job market than arriving from school, a trend that will weigh on Europe’s biggest economy in the coming decades.

Getting that message across will be difficult in a region where people jealously guard their comfort zones.

“I heard in the news recently that some of the refugees that cross the Mediterranean pay 8,000 euros (nearly $9,500) a head to get here,’’ said Richter. “That’s a sum many working people here can’t afford to spend on their holiday.”

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