Ottawa Star - Volume 1 Issue 15

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Ottawa Star The Voice of New Canadians www.OttawaStar.com • March 1, 2014 • Volume 1, Issue 15

For Canada & World News visit Ottawa Star.com

Canadian kids can navigate a tablet before they can tie their laces: report

Government to create longer wait to become Canadian Strip citizenship from terrorists TORONTO—In the first major overhaul of the Citizenship Act in nearly four decades, the Conservative government vowed Thursday to tighten the rules for those who want to become Canadian, crack down on fraud and strip citizenship from dual nationals who engage in terrorism.

The proposed changes were aimed at strengthening the value of Canadian citiContinued on page 11

Photo courtesy: InPhonic/Wikimedia Commons

By Diana Mehta, The Canadian Press

By Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press

No criminal T charge or conviction is needed for a government forfeiture

ORONTO—A global study of how young kids are using the Internet found Canadians were spending less time online and were less likely to have their own email address or social media account.

Still, more of the three- to fiveyear-old Canadian children involved in the study knew how to use a mouse and

By Allison Jones, The Canadian Press

A man from North Bay, Ont., cannot reclaim $10,000 in suspected drug money that police seized after they found it in several wads stuffed in his pockets, a judge has ruled.

Jason Paquette at various times told police the source of the money was none of their business, that it was to buy a car and that it was his savings, and explained he didn’t keep it in the bank because he didn’t want any of it taken for child support, the Ontario Superior Court judge wrote in his ruling.

“I am not persuaded by Paquette’s explanation as to why he kept the money on his person,” Judge M. Gregory Ellies wrote.

Continued on page 10

play computer games than ride a bike or write their name.

The survey of more than 6,000 mothers in 10 countries was conducted by security software company AVG Technologies, which researched how kids between the ages of three to five and six to nine were engaged with the Internet.

About 89 per cent of the kids in the older group were already Internet users, while the figure was one percentage

point higher in Canada. A whopping 97 per cent of the Brazilian kids and 96 per cent of the British children in that age bracket were familiar with the Internet.

When the parents of the six- to nineyear-old kids were asked how long they allowed their children to go online the most common reply was between two to five hours a week (42 per cent), followed by less than two hours weekly (36 per cent), five to Continued on page 9

Two ex-Supreme Court judges offer conflicting views on Quebec’s proposed secular charter The Canadian Press

QUEBEC—Two former Supreme Court of Canada justices delivered conflicting views on Feb 7 on whether Quebec’s proposed secular charter would hold up in court.

Louise Arbour, a member of Canada’s highest court from 1999 to 2004, wrote in a letter to Montreal La Presse

she firmly believes the Parti Quebecois government’s proposed charter violates the right to freedom of religion.

Arbour, who also served as the UN high commissioner for human rights, wrote that the prohibition of wearing so-called conspicuous religious symbols will mainly target Muslim women who wear a head scarf.

Continued on page 9

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Ottawa Star • March 1, 2014

A holistic approach to yoga from a yogi’s perspective

By Ellen O’Connor

A

lthough Dr. Virendra Bharti may be the oldest member of this family, he can confidently say he is the healthiest.

With strong eye sight, excellent blood pressure and iron levels that make the doctors ask for his nutritional secrets, he is scoring all A’s in his health report and owes it to the holistic benefits of yoga.

Bharti has been practicing yoga since 1988 and has been a prominent member in the local yoga scene for the past eight years. A certified yogi, he is also president of Yoga Canada and president of the Ottawa chapter of Patanjali Yogpeeth Canada, an international non-profit company with headquarters in the United Kingdom.

After he attended a Patanjali yoga session in Toronto in 2007, Bharti was asked to start one up in Ottawa, to which he said, “Why not?” The Patanjali Ottawa chapter was then formed in 2009 and runs under the motto, “No profit, no loss.”

“The motive is to spread the great and almost hidden treasure of vast, effective and almost free knowledge in its authentic form without commercial interest,” said Bharti, who immigrated to Ottawa 20 years ago from Gorakhpur, a district in the province of Uttar Pradesh located in Northern India.

Bharti’s adoption of yoga into his lifestyle wasn’t done on a whim; but rather out of necessity. As a young 24-year-old at Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in India, he often found himself studying into the wee hours of the morning, drinking strong coffee to keep him awake.

An onset of indigestion and stomach problems led him to a doctor, who told him he had scarring along his esophagus and would have stick to a strict diet of only bland foods accompanied by daily pills.

Unwillingly to tie himself to a lifetime of pills and plain rice, Bharti sought out the advice of a yogi who visited his university.

“He told me, ‘Medicine will never cure you, it will only make it worse and worse.

They may maintain as long as you take them, but the moment you get off of them you go back to the previous situation.’”

He then told Bharti about Ayurveda, an Ancient Indian medicine system based on herbs and spices, and suggested he try a sixweek diet of only cold milk, nothing more.

Six weeks later, frail and 25 pounds lighter, Bharti returned to his doctor who told him the scarring on his esophagus was completely gone. He returned to his regular diet, started practicing yoga daily, and has not seen a pill or felt any pain since.

Now, Bharti has three Masters Degrees and one PhD, is a published author, works as scientific advisor for Ottawa Public Service,

Libyan-Canadian Fatma Ben Fadel, who travelled from Quebec City with her husband and children, was happy to have made it on the third and final day of elections to cast her ballot. Photo: Samantha Ammoun

Making change happen right from the ballot box

Dr. Virendra Bharti.

and teaches free weekly yoga classes with other teachers throughout the city.

Money from the teachers’ pockets is used to rent spaces to offer classes, such as the Walter Baker Sports Centre in Barrhaven where Bharti teaches on Saturdays, and they also receive funding from Yoga Canada, India Canada Association, City of Ottawa, Trillium Foundation and the Sri Lanka Association. Classes are also sometimes held at teachers’ homes to save on all costs.

“I’m not saying business is bad, but the perspective should not only be business,” said Bharti, referring to the market forces that have influenced the teaching and practice of yoga. “The perspective should be spreading the knowledge as well, and knowledge was given by Patanjali about 7,000 years ago.”

He added that although the physical exercises associated with yoga are good, the rewards could be far more if people strive to achieve the comprehensive benefits that yoga has to offer, such as balancing your solar plexus every morning, acupressure and Ayurveda.

“Yoga is the whole personality, starting from postures and breathing, to Ayurveda, lifestyle and your behaviour, everything all together,” he said. “One component is good, but there’s a connection between different components and there’s signs of that connection. So when you take only one component, you miss the overall benefit.”

For those that want to go one step farther and become a certified yoga teacher, Patanjali offers a three-level course. The first level is training, and a fee of $100 to $200 is required, which gives you CDs of practice material, a manual and dresses.

The second is a written test, and the third is 7-10 day trip to India to do international training and receive your certificate.

New this August, a three-day Yoga Retreat Camp is taking place at Camp Scout Awacamej Mino in Quebec for all interested yogis to experience the yogi lifestyle from dawn to dusk.

How can one become a yogi? “Just do it,” said Bharti. “Give me half an hour everyday and I will make you a prefect yogi with health, wealth and happiness for the body, mind and soul.”

By Samantha Ammoun

T

here is no quick fix to the continuous turmoil happening within Libyan borders.

Winning the African National Championships in football, their first international title, early in February, brought all Libyans to their feet, but did not put a stop to the ongoing violence and kidnappings happening each day in the North African Nation.

After months of delays and debates, the Libyan government finally announced that Constitutional Assembly elections were to take place between February 15 and 17 and that out-of-the-country Libyans would be able to participate in the electoral process.

“This constitutional committee will become the face of the country. Its members will be become its pillars. Libya is still going through a lot of difficulties but what we are doing now has nothing to do with that. We have been running under Qadhafi for 42 years and we couldn’t say anything, now Libyans have the opportunity to say something,” said Doctor Adel Esayed, Canadian national advisor with the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) also Chair of the School of Technology Studies at Niagara College in Niagara Falls.

For the first time in over four decades, registered Libyan voters are finally selecting Libya’s 2014 Constituent Assembly who will be in charge of drafting the country’s constitution. Canada was among the 13 countries selected to offer out-of-the-country Libyans the possibility to cast their ballot.

The HNEC and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), both independent organizations, partnered to make these elections happen on an international level. Libyans who were interested in taking part in the voting process were asked to first register online and then cast their vote in person.

The voting station in Ottawa was open between 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and was held at the Marconi Centre at 1026 Baseline Road.

190 Libyan Canadian voters from Nova Scotia, Southern Ontario and Quebec happily made their way to the polls as many brought their cameras to take pictures by the Libyan flag and by the ballot box.

“This election means everything to me in my life and it is too for every Libyan citizen. It means democracy, freedom, it means the building of a new nation, a new nation for all Libyans,” said Fawziya Abu Hamad, a Canadian and Libyan citizen from Montreal.

Others had driven over eight hours to make it on the third and final day and could not be any happier.

“This experience is one we have never had before,” said Fouad Ban Fadel, a Canadian Libyan citizen who travelled all the way from Quebec City with his wife and children to cast his ballot. “We are trying to improve the situation in our country and build a democratic one. So we need these steps to finally be able to issue laws and apply them - that’s what we are hoping for.”

Jasmine Riley, the country coordinator and trainer with IOM, which facilitates the out-of-country voting, said that apart from Canada, voting was possible in 12 other countries including Qatar, Tunisia, Eqypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Malaysia, Ireland and Jordan.

“Jasmine and I have visited most of the community across Canada, from Windsor to Vancouver,” said Esayed. “We have been communicating with them through Facebook, email and even in person, trying to encourage people to get to know the candidates who have been featuring their CVs online, and inform them of the importance of this election and participating.”

Along with the Ottawa electoral centre, a second was available in Calgary which saw 111 voters. Riley said the number of centres depended widely on the size of the population. The Unites States, for instance, had four polling stations.

Continued on page 3

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2014

Community

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 3

EcoEquitable launches new boutique

By Liora Raitblat

A

new stylish boutique is in town, and it’s using textile recycling for its stunning women’s accessories.

EcoEquitable, a local charity that provides employment and skill development training for underemployed women, launched their boutique at 404 McArthur Avenue on February 20.

It was a joyous and symbolic occasion when the ribbon was cut by Mayor Jim Watson, as well as the founder Lucille Beland, to officially begin the jour-

Making change happen right from the ballot box Continued from page 2

With over 400 candidates running in this election, from engineers, lawyers to social workers, the Libyan government decided to divide the country into three main areas where each area was then divided into several smaller electoral regions.

“In Libya, if someone is from Tripoli, they can strictly vote in that designated area but for people voting at an international level, they are lucky because they can choose to vote for a candidate from any area despite if they are born in Tripoli or Benghazi for instance,” said Esayed.

The constitutional assembly will be made up of 60 seats and among them, six seats are reserved for women and six others for the cultural and linguistic groups (those from the southern parts of Libya living in the mountain areas).

“This is the first step of democracy and we are looking forward to it. We wish all of Libyan candidates the best of luck.

We know many people have been waiting for this day. The weather makes it difficult for people to travel all the way here, but despite that they are still coming to cast their ballot. It is great to see,” said Adel Issa, cultural and media affairs officer with the Libyan Embassy in Ottawa.

Results will be shared with the public February 20 by the Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who had urged Libyans over the election weekend to cast their ballot in a press conference at the High National Electoral Commission headquarters in Libya.

Once the constitutional assembly is announced, members will have 120 days to draft a new charter that will go through to a popular referendum. If the document is approved, it is with great hope that Libyans will then see the paving of the road to democracy where a parliamentary election will follow in late 2014.

entrepreneurship to transform lives and ney of the EcoEquitable boutique. shape a better more sustainable world.

Community members, supporters, and Founded in 2002, EcoEquitable devolunteers gathered to celebrate the team’s hard work velops training in smalland enjoyed live music and scale textile recycling great food while admiring the to reduce textile pollution in our landfills décor, fabrics, chic handbags, and help women tranand more. Along with women’s accessories, the bousition to sustainable fistique will also offer repairs, cal independence. alterations, and classes.

During the event, The launch was done some graduates of the Naima Bode singing about in partnership with EnacEcoEquitable sewing EcoEquitable. Photo: Liora Raitblat tus uOttawa, a club that uses program and current

volunteers shared their incredible success stories. One woman in particular talked about the hardships of taking in six orphaned children after the majority of her African community passed away, before she immigrated to Canada and turned her life around with the assistance of EcoEquitable.

“I stay here for the great people and incredible atmosphere,” she said with a smile.

The celebrations concluded with a breathtaking performance by local singing sensation, Naima Bode, who sang an original song about EcoEquitable.

Community

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Ottawa Star • March 1, 2014

Parade kicks off the Chinese Year of the Horse Staff Writer

T

he sound of cymbals, drums and firecrackers were heard along Somerset Street as Chinese-Canadians in the capital came out to kick off the Chinese Year of the Horse on Saturday, Feb. 8.

Colourful dragons and lions danced through Chinatown followed by drummers and dance troupes, making stops at Chinese businesses along the route to bring them good fortune and ward off evil spirits.

In accordance to Chinese New Year traditions, restaurants and grocers along Somerset, such as My Sweet Tea, Cafe Orient Hong Kong, and Lim Bangkok grocery, hung a head of lettuce from their doorway with a red packet of money for the dancing lions to find.

After the lion eats the lettuce and pockets the cash, he scatters the lettuce leaves to symbolize a fresh start and good fortune for the business in the coming year.

Photos by Mike Power

The lions are led by a Laughing Buddha who is dressed in monk’s robes and carries a decorated fan. Laughing

Buddha led the lions to the shops that had tied lettuce outside their door.

This year’s parade had spectators lin-

Black History Month in Ottawa

By Samantha Ammoun and Ellen O’Connor

“I

t’s very convenient to stuff us all into one box,” said Sarah Onyango, member of the board of directors of Black History Ottawa and emcee at the launch of Black History Month that took place at Library and Archives Canada on February 1.

The opening ceremony kicked off a month of artistic events and activities held across the city to recognize the achievements of African Canadians, showcase local talents, and highlight the programs and initiatives that speak to the community’s role in education, civic engagement, sports, law enforcement, and more.

This year’s theme “Our Canadian Story: Making Our Voices Heard” served as a backbone for the different events and encouraged the need for African Canadians to engage in politics at every level of the government through voting, lobbying and advocating for change, according to the Black History Ottawa website.

The launch of Black History Month has for years been presented by Black History Ottawa, a local community organization that works to extend a sense of belonging to its current and potential members.

“It’s important that our children know they are a part of that continuum,” said Onyango. “How can you shape a new identity that is rooted in Canada when you don’t even know its history? What kind of contribution can we expect from the new generation? Immigrants are empowered when hearing that people like themselves were a

The Sifa choir performing at the Black History Month launch. Photo: Samantha Ammoun

Liz Wong, Canada Post stamp design manager, unveiled two new designs in honour of Black History Month. Photo: Samantha Ammoun

part of the growing history of a nation.”

At the launch event, members of the community joined for an opportunity to hear speeches from recognized individuals such as MPP Yasir Naqvi, Ken Wichiu, president of the South African Rainbow Nation Association and many other active members of the community.

Mayor Jim Watson presented Godwin Ifedi, president of Black History Ottawa, with the Black History Month 2014 Proclamation.

“A lot of what I do as a leader is succession planning and looking towards the future,” said Ifedi. “Whatever the legacy that we leave, we hope it can be carried on by these people.”

Angelique Francis performing the National Anthem and African-American Anthem.

Photo: Samantha Ammoun

Watson also took the opportunity to mention that early next month he will be bringing a recommendation forward to the City of Ottawa that the front lawn of City Hall be named Nelson Mandela Square.

“It’s an opportunity for us to recognize the achievements of African Canadians and what they have done for our community and the black community as a whole,” said Watson. “Certainly, I’ve done it before when I was mayor, but it was a request that came in from the community and it gives a little bit of profile to a month of events that mark the accomplishments of the black community.”

“When you look at some of the individuals who are going to be highlighted today, you realize we have a wonderful

ing Somerset’s sidewalks from Preston Street to Bronson Avenue, snapping photographs and cell phone videos the whole time.

multicultural community where everyone feels welcome to participate at their own level,” he added.

The energy and spirit from the launch carried forth throughout the rest of the month with Gospel concerts, musical performances, art exhibitions, documentaries, and conferences organized by different community groups.

Some of the musical highlights included Black Violin on February 8, a performance by duo Kev Marcus and Wil-B that combined classical and hip-hop music to create an urban sound with violin mixtures, vocals and funk; A Roots Rock Reggae Night of Education, Entertainment and Grooving that presented the impact of reggae music and paid tribute to reggae icons; and Impressions: A Celebration of Music and Black History performed by pianist John Kofi Dapaah.

Artists and filmmakers also participated in the celebrations with Merci Pour Les Souvenirs: Group Art Exhibition from Feb. 3 to March 15 at The Lorraine Fritzi Yale Gallery that explores the notion of identity and memory. Art For Justice also held an art exhibit at Hintonburg Public House to celebrate the black counter-culture of the 1970s.

For the film lovers, a documentary 14 years in the making, “American Promise” provided a look into the lives of two middle class black families and was produced by 3 dreads, and Jaku Konbit presented “Domestic Pioneers” a documentary of the journey of black domestic workers who migrated to Canada.

On February 22, the Global Community Alliance Gala and Award Ceremony was held highlight and recognize the businesses, individuals, and associations who have made a difference in our diverse community.

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2014

O Canada

By R K Jain

Y

ou have embraced me for longer time than my birth country. I came to you as a graduate student just one day before Canada Day in 1987. I was born and raised in Delhi, India. I am now called Indo-Canadian or first generation Indian immigrant. Indians calls me more Canadian than Indian. It does not matter to me. You are my home now.

I knew very little about you before coming to you. I had not heard of ice hockey, your vastness, bone marrowfreezing temperatures, and that only a few people inhabited you. Frankly, you were not even my first choice. You were a good second fall-back option. Most of my friends went to the USA for graduate studies. I got stuck with you after not getting a good score on my GRE, required for admission there. You still took a chance on me.

I longed for quietness while growing up in noisy, narrow, windy, and populous streets of Delhi. Little did I know that one day I would end up in quiet, broad, straight, and sparse streets of you? You are so quiet that sometimes I crave noise.

It has been a good journey so far, though difficult at times. I am thankful to you for providing me higher education and work opportunities in science, technology, patent law and business. I would have liked to continue to work in my first trade, science, but when one door closed, another one opened. It was difficult to bear but I got to explore work in diverse areas of my interests.

I often came up short on cultural, communication, and conflict resolution skills that are needed to “succeed” with you. I would do more to learn these. I hope you understand the challenge of balancing two cultures. The first generation is always torn. But don’t worry, within the next generation or so, my progenies would have learned your culture and values. They would dress the same, talk the same, eat the same, and name their children the same. They would just look different, and less so with every passing generation.

I arrived with two small suitcases, full of lentils and spices, on your shore (airport). Now every time we move, we rent a bigger truck to stuff our belongings. When I visit your malls and see your diverse people happy, I feel consumerism may solve all our problems, eliminate our differences, unify us, and homogenize us one day. It has the potential to be the super religion. Just make sure people have jobs so that they continue to spend.

Within months of arrival someone called me a “Paki” not knowing I was from India. I can’t blame them; we do look alike. Later on someone told me to “go back to where I came

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from” on phone while I was trying to sell my used car through a newspaper.

He sounded drunk.

It did not matter to them that I merely took up a graduate assistantship in science and technology that most Canadian students did not want. They did not want to toil in labs for five long years on meager scholarship money. They may have decided to go to the USA for better opportunities. International students from India, China, Eastern Europe, Middle East filled the deficit in the opportunity gradient.

You may not realize even today most of the graduate students in science and technology are from other countries. Some funded by you like I was and others funded by their country of origin. All building and strengthening backbone of your economy for now and the future away from lime light. They are also ambassadors of your progressive ideas to their countries.

You are trying to encourage young people to take up science and technology through your innovation agendas.

I hope they will be motivated by your pitch. It would help if average scientists had more opportunities than average accountants and lawyers. You would need more primary producers: farmers, teachers, scientists to support them anyway in long run. Perhaps you may want to appoint a few more scientists in senate and award few more Order of Canada to scientists to recognize their profession more. That show by Chris Hadfield in space was a good start.

My twelve year daughter seems to have all the opportunities in the world (she does not realize it though). I can’t say the same for first nation’s children.

You promise me that you would do more for them. It is a complex problem but you can do better. I do only a bit for my community here but I will do more going forward.

I was fortunate not to come on a boat to you but many do. They take away your resources. Many resent them.

Please don’t close your doors on them.

Be generous as you are. Your journey with them not be smooth in the beginning but one day they will be self- sufficient and contribute to your well being.

With your help it is possible for many to close the gap between the near poverty and good life within a generation. They will also thank you as I do.

Oh yes, I also promise to learn your song and not lip sync it.

Ravi Jain earned a PhD and MBA from Canada and worked as a scientist, patent agent, and manager in Canada and the USA including National Research Council of Canada and Monsanto Company. He now owns and runs an educational franchise in Ottawa. He is a first generation immigrant and has survived more than 25 Canadian winters.

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 5

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Editorial

Opinion

Don’t worry. Be happy!

Canada’s formidable and confident avatar in Sochi “W

By Sangeetha Arya

C

anada’s elite winter athletes rode a wave of strong and bold momentum into the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics thanks to the combination of aggressive training, large government funding, renewed confidence and inclusion of several events in which Canadian athletes had a strong presence.

Collinge, who is from Nova Scotia, spoke for all Canadians when she said, “This is our Olympics. We play a lot of winter sports and we’re good at them.”

Canada’s maple leaf was everywhere in Sochi. A country that valued politeness and maintaining a low profile was suddenly expressing greater confidence and swagger. They were not ashamed of asserting themselves and wanting to win.

Exactly, what had brought about this metamorphosis? It was not hard to find. Fans say the aggressive “Own the Podium” program of 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver where Canada became the first host nation since Norway in 1952 to lead the gold-medal count had the Canadians see themselves in a new way. To top it all the Team Canada’s gold medal in men’s hockey against USA became the most transformative event. It created a new breed of athletes who were daredevil, gusty and ready to take on and crush the most extreme and thrilling sports. To quote Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong, it was a chance for Canadians to “stand a little taller.”

They wanted to show they could compete with the best, and win.

Of course, Canada’s dreams would have remained just a dream without the strong government funded push: funding for freestyle skiing, for instance, surged from $1.2 million Canadian, to C$10.3 million for Sochi. In all, Own the Podium pumped nearly C$70 million into Olympic support before Vancouver and more than C$80 million for Sochi.

The Sochi Olympics brought the country together in a way that is unparalleled and it is hard for anyone not to get into the hype and buzz with patriotism.

The Games have been thrilling since the very moment Canada claimed its first medal when Mark McMorris, broken rib and all, débuted in a new Olympic sport—slope style snowboarding—where he twisted and turned for a Bronze medal finish for Canada. Quebecois sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe followed that impressive performance up with Canada’s first Gold and a Silver in women’s moguls and ending having a grand finale with men’s hockey gold. The list goes on with more and more medals won and more and more endearing stories making us all proud of our athletes.

After decades of dismal performance, Canada is now enjoying new winter supremacy.

The successes in the Olympics are a good indication that the country has come a long way from being just a second fiddle.

It is like the winter itself that blankets it for half the year, “a force of nature.”

Editorial by Sangeetha Arya

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Ottawa Star • March 1, 2014

orry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy”— Leo Buscaglia Everyone worries from time to time. We all have our own worry list like—job loss, stock market collapse, safety of kids, debt, retirement savings, growing old, mortgage, death, taxes, inability to perform adequately at work, concern about our child’s behavior in school, problems paying the bills, so on so forth.

A little worry is healthy. In fact worry can be a strategy to keeps us thinking ahead and help us prepare in the best possible way for a future that is uncertain, unknown, dangerous, and out of control or just plain unpredictable.

However, when you worry too much, we make our whole

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

life miserable and burden our self with a lot of unnecessary stress.

“Worry is like a rocking chair—it’s always in motion but it never gets you anywhere” said Joyce Meyer.

Why do we struggle with worry even though we know very well that what we’re worrying about probably won’t—or couldn’t—actually ever really happen? In fact it is seen that more damage is done by worrying than by what is being worried about. This is because 90 percent of all worries never come to pass.

Psychologists believe that excessive worry can do more harm than good. Worriers consume themselves with thoughts of all the horrible possibilities that could actually occur in an effort to prepare themselves for any such eventuality. They think that over thinking or worrying can help them with tackling the problem instead it hinders by over stimulating the emotion and fear processing areas in the brain. This in turn leads to heart problems finally making the body unable to cope with stress. John Edmund

Haggai insightfully stated, «A distraught mind inevitably leads to a deteriorated body.»

I strongly feel that life is too short to be wasted in worry. I believe in enjoying my life, remaining healthy, and be full of peace and in such a life worry cannot be part of my daily routine. The goal is to find a reasonable balance, say “this is enough,” and take the plunge. Start something you’ve always dreamed of doing and give it a shot. Live in the moment and remember the important thing is living your life as it is now and count your blessings.

Use your will power to “break the spell”—the vicious cycle of negative worry by some positive obsession. Indulge in a healthy activity that will help bring the fun and creativity back and help you lose track of time.

Let go and as Henry Ford said: “I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn›t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end.

So what is there to worry about.”

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Ottawa Star • March 1, 2014

Opinion

Older Canadians count for more than younger Canadians

By Paul Kershaw

V

ANCOUVER, Troy Media—If there is one thing we can take away from the latest federal budget, it is that the government continues to prioritize our aging population over adapting to new problems facing younger Canada.

In fact, annual spending on retirees has been growing by approximately $12 billion annually since the Conservatives were first elected in 2011 – nearly six times more than spending increases for Canadians under age 45.

But Canadians didn’t hear about this generational inequity from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty during his budget speech. What we did hear about was what’s ‘new’: the latest mini-tax credit, promises of income splitting in the future, and small spending commitments totalled up over several years to dazzle us with numbers that sound big.

Ignored were the fundamentals like Old Age Security, Health Care, Employment Insurance and Benefits for Families with Children that really drive how Ottawa uses our tax dollars. Since these are not new, they may seem ‘less newsworthy’.

But such a view is akin to missing the forest for the trees. The spending trends reflected in the fundamentals of Budget 2014 shine a light on a troubling pattern: the Federal government’s continued disregard to Canada’s Generation Squeeze.

Here’s what we know about how the federal government plans to spend $132 billion in 2016/17: Elderly Benefits like Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement will rise to around $49 billion a year, up $8 billion from 2011/12 after adjusting for inflation.

The Canada Health Transfer will rise to $36 billion a year, up $4 billion. Nearly half of medical care spending goes to the 15 per cent of Canadians over age 65.

Employment Insurance for the working age population will stay relatively static at around $20 billion a year.

Benefits for families with children will fall to around $13.7 billion a year, a drop of

around 4 per cent per person under age 45.

The Canada Social Transfer, which represents federal contributions to education and social services, will stay relatively static around $13 billion a year.

These budget fundamentals illuminate major contributions by Ottawa to what the Generation Squeeze campaign calls Canada’s generational spending gap.

All levels of Canadian government combine to spend around $45,000 per retiree each year, compared to approximately $12,000 per person under age 45.

The high level of spending per retiree is not the problem. The Canada Public Pension Plan, Old Age Security and Medical Care have successfully reduced the economic pressures facing millions of seniors today compared to the past.

Now poverty is lower for seniors than any other age group, which is a policy success of which we should be proud.

The problem is that Ottawa adds nearly $12 billion in new annual spending to maintain the $45,000 allocated per person over 65 as more Canadians retire, while going on to say we can’t afford to address new challenges facing younger generations.

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 7 Although today’s high housing prices mean more wealth for those who bought homes decades ago, they are bad for their kids and grandchildren. High home prices squeeze generations under age 45 with crushing debt, which they must pay with wages that have fallen thousands of dollars a year compared to a generation ago, and in jobs that rarely contribute pensions.

Canadians under 45 can’t work their way out of this time- and money-squeeze without giving up something fundamental. They are increasingly forced to choose between coping with the squeeze by studying and working more at the expense of having the family they want. Or they have the family they want, but at the expense of coping with the squeeze by patching together a financial foundation that depends on more time in the labour market.

Given that younger Canadians are squeezed by lower wages, higher costs, less time and a deteriorating environment, spending just $12,000 on benefits and services per person under age 45 is out of balance with allocating around $45,000 per person over 65. It’s time for Canada to restock the cupboard to invest more in younger generations, or to explain why spending on younger citizens is so much less important than spending on retirees.

Paul Kershaw is a Policy Professor at the University of BC and Founder of Generation Squeeze (gensqueeze.ca), a campaign that is building a Canada that works for ALL generations. Article courtesy: www.troymedia.com

Why parents should worry about student math scores

By Gwyn Morgan

V

ICTORIA, Troy Media—Recent news that the math performance of Canadian students had continued its steady decline, dropping to 13th spot in the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings, stimulated a crescendo of commentary and analysis.

John Manley, former Deputy Prime Minister and current President of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives characterized the results as “... on the side of a national emergency”. Manley’s concerns were no doubt deepened by the results of our country’s most formidable competitors: 30 per cent of Asian students performed at the “high achieving” level, compared to 16 per cent for Canadian students. And while the latest triennial study focused on math, the report also showed that Canada’s science rankings had fallen from third to eighth place since 2006.

So how do we reverse this downward spiral? Fundamentally, education consists of what is taught (curriculum), how it’s

taught (teaching methodology) and who teaches it (teacher competence). Each component is crucial to learning.

Curriculum and teaching methodology are closely linked, so it’s no coincidence that the decline in PISA rankings followed the implementation of “discovery learning” in Ontario, the western provinces and much of the Maritimes. Tellingly, the poor (below level 2) math scores of students in those provinces expanded by an average of 46 per cent, while the high achieving (levels 5 and 6) group shrunk by 30 per cent since 2003.

Rather than requiring students to memorize basic skills and facts such as multiplication tables and scientific formulae, discovery learning promotes “investigating ideas” through problem solving and open-ended investigations. Under this philosophy, there is no right or wrong answer to, for example, how to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius. Thus, math and science questions that require numerical answers become essays on how the student “thought” about the question.

Despite the damage already wreaked upon math and science education, B.C.’s Education Ministry released a discussion paper last year that would dig the discovery learning quagmire even deeper. The paper criticises the current curriculum for focusing on, “what they learn over how they learn, which is exactly the opposite of

what modern education should strive to do.” If you suspect this destructive teaching fad was designed by math and sciencephobic humanities graduates, your suspicions are well-founded, considering that only a small proportion of teachers and administrators have significant post-secondary math and science training.

Quebec was the only province where PISA results held steady. It’s also the province which, like the top performing Asians, has shunned discovery learning in favour of basic mathematical drills and scientific facts.

University of Winnipeg mathematics professor Anna Stokke sums up the folly of discovery learning as follows: “If they don’t know their math facts, they won’t be able to do algebra, which means calculus is out, which means they can’t be engineers, doctors, pharmacists, economists, programmers or any other discipline that requires math, including skilled tradeswork. But the one thing they can become? Teachers.”

That leads to the other crucial educational factor: teaching quality. A person teaching from graduation to retirement would impact the future of at least 1,000 students. Imagine the damage done by just one incompetent teacher. Respected Harvard Economics Professor Raj Chetty co-authored a study entitled The Long Term Impact of Teachers that was cited in U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of

the Union Address. The study found that when a “high value added” (top 5 per cent) teacher entered a school, the test scores in his or her classes rose almost immediately.

And students assigned to high value-added teachers are more likely to go to college and earn higher incomes. The study also found that replacing a low value-added (bottom 5 per cent) teacher with one of average quality increases future earnings by more than U.S. $1.4 million per class taught. Those findings have stimulated an effort to improve American teacher performance evaluations. Twelve states have moved to evaluating teachers based on their students’ standardized test scores.

Others states have moved to a “trained observations” approach, wherein “Master Teachers” drop into classes unannounced.

Parents, employers and all Canadians must insist that math and science teaching return to fact-based learning. But that won’t help much unless the most qualified and effective teachers replace those whose qualifications are measured only by years of seniority. Failure to take decisive action will see the future of Canadian students and the prosperity of the country continue to slide on the same uncompetitive course as these PISA rankings.

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

PAGE 8 • www.OttawaStar.com

Community

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2014

Historical figures come to life for Ottawa Heritage Day

By Ellen O’Connor

T

he late Moss Kent Dickinson, founder of Watson’s Mill in Manotick and pushing 192-years-old, was in full glory along with his 165-year-old daughter Lizzie Dickinson, at the Ottawa Heritage Day celebration on Tuesday, Feb. 18.

The Dickinson’s were among many historical characters brought to life by dedicated volunteers dressed in period clothing to share the local heritage of Ottawa treasures, from museums and archives to historical societies and places of archeological significance.

Hundreds of Ottawans filled Jean Piggott Hall Place at Ottawa City Hall to browse the 45 local exhibitors with booths showcasing photos, pieces of art and history, informational brochures about services and events, and even treats including syrupy pancakes from Museoparc Vanier, and popcorn from the City of Ottawa Archives.

The event was organized in partnership

by Cultural and Heritage Services Branch of the City of Ottawa with the Council of Heritage Organizations in Ottawa.

“Ottawa is a remarkable, thriving city, one that is constantly evolving and improv-

The late Moss Kent Dickinson and his daughter Lizzie came to life to share the history of Watson’s Mill and Dickinson House in Manotick at Ottawa Heritage Day. Photo: Ellen O’Connor

ing as we move towards a bright future. As we look forward as a community, we must remember the accomplishments rest firmly on the strong pillars of our past,” said Mayor Jim Watson, who participated in the opening ceremony and proclaimed Heritage Day. Since 1974, The Heritage Canada Foundation has designated the third Monday of every February to be Heritage Day; however in Ottawa it is celebrated on Tuesday to follow Family Day on the Monday.

“Heritage Day is a chance to reflect on past accomplishments and recognize the contributions of people, organizations

and volunteers who promote heritage conservation,” said Watson, who finished by thanking all of the volunteers who continue to conserve Ottawa’s heritage.

Some of whom included Michael Scholtz and his wife, who dressed as the Dickinson’s to share the story of Watson’s Mill, built in 1860 by Dickinson and his partner Joseph Currier. Today, the whole wheat flour is milled on Sunday and sent to Richmond Bakery where it’s baked into bread and then sent back to the mill to be sold.

The mill, along with the Dickinson House, where Sir John A. MacDonald housed his campaign headquarters for his election in 1882, offer tours throughout the year and holds a variety of family and public events including concerts and festivals, food and wine tastings, and kids camps.

Erin Manning, database assistant, and Evelyn Marshall, youth programs facilitator, were also dressed to the nines to share what the Bytown Museum has to offer, including educational tours, children’s programs, and cultural exhibitions to celebrate and educate about the diverse cultural groups living in the Nation’s Capital.

One of the two new Algonquin College campuses to open in Qatif, Saudi Arabia. Photo credit Algonquin College

Algonquin College: Taking applied learning around the world

By Phil Gaudreau

I

t was expected the revamped Saudi Arabian college system would be popular. But when 900 first-term students filled the halls of Algonquin College’s campus in Jazan, Saudi Arabia last September, the College exceeded not only its own enrolment targets, but also what

many observers expected was possible for a brand-new post-secondary institution.

Project Manager Martin Doyle says personalized outreach was a decisive factor in helping the college achieve such remarkable first-time success.

“We had faculty members phone prospective students to answer their questions and let them know what they

could expect from an Algonquin education,” Doyle said. “That direct, one-on-one contact with instructors was hugely appreciated. It made people feel we really were there to be part of their community.”

For its second term, the college set a goal of recruiting 400 additional students. By January, it had enrolled 600 —prompting Saudi Arabia’s post-secondary ministry, Colleges of Excellence, to want to learn more about Algonquin’s marketing and recruitment plan.

That success in Jazan may have also played a contributing role in Algonquin’s successful “wave two” bid – announced recently – for two more campuses in Saudi Arabia. This time, the college was awarded a female and a male campus in Qatif, a city along the eastern coast of the kingdom.

Mexico Fantastico, which began last May for Cinco De Mayo and just closed February 17, was the first exhibit to kickoff the new community space. The exhibit was created in partnership between the Bytown Museum and the Mexican Canadian Cultural Association of Ottawa, the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa, and the National Mexican University, located in Gatineau.

“The Chinese community and the Greek community are also applying to use our community gallery for their own celebratory exhibition,” said Executive Director Robin Etherington. “So any ethnic community or community group may use our gallery free of charge.”

Applicants can fill out an application form from the Bytown website and then submit their proposal. Currently the Polish Spirit Exhibit is on until March 23 and presents the significant contributions of Polish-Canadians to Ontario’s heritage.

“Right now our gallery is filled for the next 15 months, which is great because it means that the community is responding positively to using museum space for their own exhibitions,” added Etherington.

“Algonquin is making a difference internationally with our unique brand of hands-on, applied programs that ensure students are ready to start a career immediately upon graduation,” says Dr. Kent MacDonald, president of Algonquin College. “We have seen firsthand the impact we are having in changing lives and breaking down barriers by engaging with partners that believe as Algonquin does —that all citizens are entitled to a quality education.”

Algonquin was one of over 120 bidders in the second wave of bidding for these Saudi campuses—this time the competition included fellow Canadian institutions, one of which was also successful in acquiring a male campus. Algonquin is also opening a Kuwait campus in partnership with Orient Education Services in 2014.

“To paraphrase the late Nelson Mandela, ‘Education is the greatest tool which you can use to change the world,” added MacDonald. “We appreciate the support of the Canadian and Ontario governments in this process, and we believe that this second successful bid is an unquestionable sign that our unique polytechnic approach to education is in high demand.”

The agreements for the two Qatif campuses await Ontario Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) approval. If the two new campuses are approved, they would open this fall to approximately 450 students each. By year five, it is expected each of Algonquin’s three Saudi campuses would provide education to over 2,000 students in fields ranging from technology and business to food production and trades-related programming.

Canada

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2013

Canadian kids can navigate a tablet before they can tie their laces: report Continued from page 1

10 hours a week (16 per cent) and more than ten hours weekly (seven per cent).

About 40 per cent of the Canadian parents said they limited Internet time to less than two hours a week and 48 per cent said they allowed two to five hours of web time weekly.

Although it’s emerged as a bit of a trend among digitally obsessed parents, few involved in the survey said they made a point of registering an email address for their baby or toddler.

Just eight per cent of the parents said they reserved an email address with their child’s name, while six per cent of the Canadian moms did so. Sixteen per cent of Brazilian moms had staked out email addresses for their kids.

Just two per cent of the Canadian moms said they had signed up for social media accounts in their young kids’ names, while it was six per cent globally.

Brazilians, again, were the most eager to set up an early online presence for their children, with 12 per cent of the moms surveyed admitting they had started social networking on their kids’ behalf.

As for what the younger three- to fiveyear-old kids were doing themselves, 78 per cent of the Canadian tots could already use a computer mouse, 76 per cent could play a basic computer game, 54 per cent knew how to turn a computer on and off, 40 per cent could navigate a tablet or smartphone, 19 per cent could competently browse the web, and 16 per cent could make a phone call.

Meanwhile, 85 per cent could recognize their name and 56 per cent could write it out, 65 per cent could ride a bike, 47 per cent knew their address, 38 per cent knew their mother’s phone number, and 28 per cent could tie their laces.

The Canadian kids were above the global average for mastering most of the non-digital skills that researchers asked about and were also ahead of their international counterparts when it came to knowing how to use a mouse, play a computer game and browse the web.

The online survey of 6,017 parents in Canada, Australia, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, the U.K. and U.S. was conducted during November and December.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population like traditional telephone polls.

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 9

Quebec’s proposed secular charter Two ex-Supreme Court judges offer conflicting views on charter Continued from page 1

“It is particularly odious to make women, who are already marginalized, pay the price,” Arbour wrote. “Women, for whom access to employment is a key factor for their autonomy and integration.”

Meanwhile in Quebec City, Claire L’Heureux-Dube offered her unconditional support for the proposed charter during hearings at the legislature.

The former justice said the charter should withstand any court challenge.

And if necessary, the government could use the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, she added.

L’Heureux-Dube, a Supreme Court justice between 1987 and 2002, said she sees no discrimination in the most controversial aspect of the proposed charter – a ban on state employees from wearing conspicuous religious symbols.

The proposed legislation would ban public-sector employees, including teachers and daycare workers, from displaying or wearing religious symbols at work. It would also forbid public employees from

wearing other visible religious symbols such as turbans, kippas and bigger-thanaverage crucifixes.

L’Heureux Dube said the wearing of religious symbols is not a fundamental right. And, she adds, no right is absolute.

Religious symbols “are part of the display of religious beliefs and not the practice of a religion,” L’Heureux-Dube said. She finds it perfectly reasonable for the state to impose restrictions on its employees, comparing it to the state’s restriction on political expression.

L’Heureux-Dube also took the opportunity to lash out at Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard, accusing him of breaking from what she described as his past position as a defender of secularism and women’s rights.

She expressed dismay the party had drifted away from its roots. She noted the Liberals frequently battled with the Roman Catholic Church, notably during the right to vote for women in 1940.

“I wonder how one can deny that great tradition of secularism,” she said.

Also on Feb 7, the rector of the Universite de Montreal drew parallels

between the PQ government and the totalitarian Franco regime in Spain.

Guy Breton said the move to ban state employees from wearing symbols reminded him of the excesses of the regime that was firmly in power for decades until 1975.

That comment drew the ire of PQ minister Bernard Drainville, the author of the charter, and a reminder from commission chair Luc Ferland to Breton to show more restraint.

Breton said the charter would create huge problems recruiting foreign academics. He noted his institution includes faculty members with 134 different nationalities.

From the get-go, Breton said the mindset in Quebec needs to shift.

“We need to stop being afraid, being afraid and giving the impression that because people are different, there is a danger in that,” Breton said.

Drainville didn’t appreciate the rector’s comments, calling Breton’s view an “amazing extrapolation” and an “abusive interpretation” of the government’s charter.

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Canada

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2013

Union group says Canadians who lost jobs to foreign workers shows system broken The Canadian Press

F

ORT MCMURRAY, Alta.—The federal government says dozens of workers laid off in Alberta’s oilpatch have jobs again, but a labour group says that’s not the case and it points to a broken temporary foreign worker system.

Earlier this week, the government announced it was investigating whether the 65 workers at Imperial Oil’s Kearl project had been replaced with workers from Croatia at half the pay.

An official with the Employment and Social Development Department said Friday all of the laid-off workers have received job offers on “other projects in the area.”

However, Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said not all have received offers.

The company at the centre of the controversy, Pacer Promec Joint Venture, also issued a news release saying it would rehire Canadians to positions that had been filled by temporary foreign workers.

The statement was vague and didn’t say if the company would rehire the people they laid off or what would happen with the Croatian employees.

McGowan said the company had not contacted the Edmonton Iron Workers Union about rehiring the laid-off Canadians.

The company’s managing partner, Paolo Cattelan, said in the release that a subcontractor brought in the foreign workers, and thought it had followed the rules of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

“I regret that our actions, which we believe are consistent with the legislation, led to the current controversy,” Cattelan said.

“These temporary workers should have been assigned to other projects where there is an existing labour shortage. Going forward, PPJV will use its best efforts to ensure temporary foreign workers fill positions where there is a shortage.”

The federal Employment minister’s office said an investigation into the case will continue.

“Our government will not tolerate any abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” said spokesman Nick Koolsbergen.

“Those who are found to have violated the rules of Temporary Foreign Worker Program will be added to a blacklist and denied the ability to hire temporary foreign workers in the future. Canadians must be first in line for available jobs.”

McGowan said what happened to the workers is not isolated case. He has received complaints about other Canadians losing their jobs to foreign workers.

He wants the federal government to revamp its foreign worker program. And he wants a royal commission to examine the whole issue.

“It’s simply not good enough for the employer to say, ‘Sorry, we’re going to hire the workers back,”’ said McGowan.

“What’s happened here is that they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. And the bigger Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan concern is that if the rules said not all of the laid-off workers have received offers. don’t change, and the fedPhoto: Alberta Federation of Labour eral government doesn’t get really serious about Ottawa brought in new regulations enforcing new and more aggressive rules, in December to calm fears that foreigners then we’re going to see this kind of situation repeated over and over again.” were taking jobs from Canadians.

No criminal charge or conviction is needed for a government forfeiture Continued from page 1

“There are many safer places to keep $10,000 in cash other than in your pants.”

A police officer spotted Paquette and his girlfriend in a heated argument in downtown North Bay close to midnight on Sept. 10, 2012. When the officer approached and asked if everything was all right, Paquette swore, took his dog’s leash off and swung it over his head, saying “Come get some,” according to Ellies’ decision earlier this month.

Paquette was arrested and later charged with public intoxication. When he was searched police found $10,000 in five bundles held together with elastic bands, the judge wrote.

The police seized the money and the Crown went to court for a forfeiture order, arguing it was either the proceeds of unlawful activity, an instrument of unlawful activity, or both.

There was no direct evidence that the money came from a drug transaction or was going to be used for one.

But the judge wrote that he was satisfied from the Crown’s circumstan-

tial evidence – including Paquette’s two previous drug possession convictions and his failure to “adequately explain the source and purpose of the funds” – that the money was either to be used in a crime or was the proceeds of a crime.

The judge said he couldn’t accept Paquette’s evidence that the $10,000 cash was his savings. His tax returns showed that in the previous four years he earned between $10,000 and $26,000.

“It is unusual, if not highly unusual, for someone to be carrying $10,000 in cash in his pant pockets in downtown North Bay late at night,” Ellies wrote.

“The presence of such a significant amount of money, found late at night on Paquette’s person after he had been in a bar in downtown North Bay, bundled the way it was, is strong circumstantial evidence from which an inference can be made that the money in question is proceeds of drug trafficking, an instrument of drug trafficking, or both.”

Some lawyers have raised concerns about the laws, including that no criminal charge or conviction is needed for a government forfeiture.

Lawyers for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association were in court Monday in that province intervening in just such a case.

RCMP found marijuana plants in David Lloydsmith’s home in 2007 and seized them. He was arrested but never charged and nearly four years after the search, the government brought a forfeiture application on his home, the BCCLA says.

Lloydsmith argued that his Charter right to be free from unreasonable search or seizure was violated and a trial judge agreed that issue should be dealt with first, before a full trial on the forfeiture, but the director of civil forfeiture has appealed.

The BCCLA intervened in the appeal to argue that the issue should be considered at the outset of the case. If it is not addressed until the end, the government would be “well-positioned to leverage settlements from defendants so that stage is never reached,” the organization wrote to the court.

“This will not be an acceptable result for the reputation of the administration of justice—civil forfeitures and forfeiture settlements must not become a consolation prize for criminal investiga-

tions that are failed or aborted because they are marred by serious Charter infringements,” the BCCLA argues.

These cases can be an “end run” around the criminal process, said BCCLA counsel Raji Mangat.

“We may see situations in which evidence that was obtained in violation of the charter may be used to effect a forfeiture of somebody’s property,” she said.

“We see that these proceedings do have the potential for inducing people into settling because they simply don’t have the resources to fight it all the way through to the end of a trial.”

Fighting the government on these cases can be hard for people to do, said tax lawyer Richard Yasny, as the Crown’s burden of proof is different than in criminal prosecutions.

In provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia cases are decided on a “balance of probabilities,” as in other civil cases, instead of the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard required for criminal convictions.

“We may find that Canadian courts control these rules well enough if you can afford the cost of defending yourself,” he said.

“But the powers seem much broader than most people would expect in Canada. Though I have faith in our police and justice system, if the police abuse these rules it may be very hard for people to protect themselves.”

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2013

Canada

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 11

Government to create longer wait to become Canadian, strip citizenship from terrorists Continued from page 1

zenship and improving the efficiency of the process required to attain it.

“Canadians take as much or more pride in their citizenship than any other country,” said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. “The rate of application is likely to go up in spite of the fact that we’re taking certain measures to reinforce the value of citizenship.”

Many of the new measures aim to crack down on so-called Canadians of convenience by making it harder to attain citizenship.

When the new laws come into effect, permanent residents will to maintain a “physical presence” in Canada for four out of six years before applying for citizenship, compared to the previous requirement of three out of four years.

They will also need to be physically present in Canada for 183 days each year for at least four of those six years, and will have to file Canadian income taxes to be eligible for citizenship.

In a new twist, the government also plans to have prospective citizens officially declare their “intent to reside” in the country.

More applicants will also have to meet language requirements and pass a knowledge test before attaining citizenship, with the government expanding its age range for those requirements to those aged 14-64, compared to the current range of those aged 18-54.

“Our government expects new Canadians to take part in the democratic life, economic potential and rich cultural traditions that are involved in becoming a citizen,” said Alexander.

As eligibility requirements increase, the government said it would simultaneously speed up processing times for citizenship applications by streamlining its decision-making process.

It’s hoped the change will help drastically cut the backlog of citizenship applications, which currently sits at more than 320,000 files with processing times stretching to as much as 36 months. By 2015-2016, the government said it hopes to process successful applications in less than a year.

Liberal immigration critic John McCallum said he would be watching closely to see if the government actually cuts processing times as promised.

“Waiting times over the last five years have mushroomed in all cases,” he said. “I hope they get the time down, but I can’t say, given their record, that I have great confidence.”

In an effort to crack down on fraud, the proposed legislation increases penalties for phoney applications to a $100,000 and or five years in prison. The cost of applying for citizenship is also going up to $400, from the current $200.

The most controversial changes announced Thursday revolved around stripping citizenship from certain dual nationals.

Under the new legislation, citizenship can be revoked from dual nationals who are members of armed forces or groups engaged in an armed conflict with Canada, and from dual nationals convicted of terrorism, high treason or spying.

The legislation will also deny citizenship to permanent residents who are involved in those activities.

When asked how the government would determine whether terrorism charges or convictions in countries with dubious justice systems were legitimate, Alexander said the new provisions in the act would likely apply to exceptional cases that would be carefully examined.

“The government of Canada has very clear criteria for terrorism, terrorism entities, terrorist groups,” he said.

“Committing an act of terrorism is a Criminal Code violation so that is the threshold that would have to be met.”

Nonetheless some observers still worried those provisions would create a two-tiered system.

“We want to make sure it doesn’t go against our Charter of Rights. We want to make sure it doesn’t create two classes of citizens,” said NDP immigration critic Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe.

“We have a justice system, a legal system that is able to deal with criminality and we’re not sure it’s necessary to go on that dangerous path.”

The Canadian Council for Refugees echoed those concerns, saying there were some countries, like Syria for example, where revoking one’s original citizenship after becoming Canadian was very hard.

“If they have their citizenship stripped they can’t return to Canada to clear their name if they have in fact been wrongly accused,” said executive director Janet Dench, pointing to the case of Maher Arar as a cautionary example.

Arar, a Canadian of Syrian descent, was labelled a member of al-Qaeda while switching planes at New York’s Kennedy Airport in 2002 en route to Canada. He

spent nearly a year in a Syrian prison where he said he was repeatedly tortured.

A Canadian judicial inquiry cleared him of any terrorist links in 2007.

“It’s a very disturbing direction the government is going in where they’re making citizenship something that can be taken away as a form of punishment,” said Dench. “Once you open that door, where does it lead to?”

The new legislation would also bar permanent residents with serious foreign criminal charges and convictions from getting citizenship. Current laws only bar citizenship for those with certain domestic criminal charges and convictions.

In another change, permanent residents who are members of the Canadian Armed Forces will have a fast track to citizenship.

Meanwhile, the government plans to extend citizenship to the so-called “lost Canadians” who had been wrongfully denied it in the past.

The group of individuals who fell through the cracks in existing legislation include certain children of war brides born before 1947 when Canada had no citizenship laws of its own.

PAGE 12 • www.OttawaStar.com

Canada

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2013

Experts say plenty of alternatives to income splitting

By Maria Babbage, The Canadian Press

O

TTAWA—When the Conservative brain trust sits down to hash out a crowd-pleasing alternative to income splitting, hoping to undo the damage from backing off a key 2011 campaign promise, experts say there will be plenty of options on the table.

Critics of the controversial, threeyear-old proposal—and there are many —say allowing spouses with children under 18 to share up to $50,000 of their income for tax purposes does little for lowincome families and encourages one of

the parents to stay out of the workforce.

The C.D. Howe Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives alike say roughly 85 per cent of households would gain nothing from the proposal, particularly single parents.

Some 40 per cent of the benefits would go to families earning more than $125,000, for whom the change could be worth $6,400 a year, the institute calculates.

That would likely include Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who makes $320,400 a year and has two teenage children.

If the Conservatives want to provide tax relief for more families with children,

there are some alternatives, said Alexandre Laurin, who co-authored the 2011 study. Increase the universal child care benefit, which gives $100 a month to families with children under six, he offers.

Kevin Milligan, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia, suggests extending the age range to older children, to the benefit of both low and high-income families.

Another example, the Canada child tax benefit for families with children under 18, provides a certain amount per child and is phased out by income level.

And widening the employment insur-

Cord cutting growing?

Poll shows almost 1 in 4 Canadians don’t have a TV subscription

By Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press

TORONTO—Another new poll suggests so-called cord cutting may be growing in Canada.

Nearly a quarter of the respondents in an online survey conducted by Ipsos Reid in recent weeks said they did not have a traditional TV subscription.

The increasingly compelling selection of streamable content available online and access to free over-the-air TV signals have convinced some consumers to cut the cord, or go without paying for TV. But Ipsos Reid noted that an even bigger trend is so-called cord stacking, when TV subscribers decide to pay for a la carte digital services to complement their TV package.

Among the three quarters of Canadians that told pollsters they do pay for TV through a cable, satellite or IPTV provider, nearly half also paid for video content through another source.

Apple’s iTunes marketplace, Netflix and sports subscription services including NHL GameCenter and MLB. TV are among the most popular of the sources, sometimes called over-the-top content providers.

About one in five of the TV subscribers polled said they pay for two or more OTT services on top of their TV bill.

The poll of 1,000 Canadians was conducted between Jan. 30 and Feb. 4.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys

cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population like traditional telephone polls.

A telephone poll released by the Media Technology Monitor last month found that one in seven Canadians said they were either somewhat or very likely to quit their TV service and opt for free or cheaper alternatives.

The Media Technology Monitor’s survey of 4,009 anglophone Canadians was conducted by Forum Research and is considered accurate within 1.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

In November, the Convergence Consulting Group estimated about 400,000 Canadian TV subscribers out of 11.8 million have cut the cord since 2011, which is about 3.5 per cent of the market.

ance provision for parental leave would give parents to spend more time with their children, Laurin says.

But his personal preference would be an across-the-board tax cut and, as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has suggested, paying down the $619-billion federal debt.

“The more you lower the tax rate, the less the need for income splitting, if the intention was to equalize the tax burden between two types of families,” he says. “It’s just simple arithmetic.”

University of Calgary economist Jack Mintz argues it’s time to change the tax system so single-income families aren’t facing a higher tax rate than other households. The income-splitting proposal can be tweaked so different families can share the benefits, he argues.

Right now, one spouse can transfer the unused portion of the basic personal tax exemption to the other spouse. One alternative would be to make that personal exemption non-transferable if they decide to take advantage of income splitting.

“Between income splitting and this provision, you actually create a lot of equality between families of different types,” Mintz says. “Because to me, this whole issue is how to treat families of different types.”

If the Tories were to lower the $50,000 transfer limit on the original proposal—$25,000, for example—they’d not only save on the cost of income splitting, it would also help middle-income families, says Mintz. Or it could also be clawed back from higher-income earners.

David Macdonald, the chief economist with the Centre for Policy Alternatives, says the Tories should abandon the income-splitting proposal entirely because it only helps wealthy, single-earner families.

“It’s sort of like a poison,” Macdonald says. “If you take too much poison, it’s going to kill you. If you take a little less poison, maybe you’re just going to get a sore stomach for a couple of days, and then if you take even less poison, maybe you’ll only get a headache.”

If the Tories want to help families with children, they could look at existing child-based benefits, such as the national child benefit supplement, he suggests. It provides monthly payments to low-income families with children, no matter if it’s one or two parents, and reduces them as they earn more income.

The working income tax benefit, meanwhile, helps single parents in particular by giving them an extra boost to join the workforce. “If you’re looking at helping families with children, it’s quite clear that these other measures are ones that are more effective.”

Finally, says Macdonald, a national child-care program would cost about the same as the income-splitting plan, which is estimated at upwards of $2.5 billion a year.

World

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2013

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 13

The real Olympic hosts: Sochi’s indigenous Circassians divided over games on ancestors’ lands

By Angela Charlton, The Associated Press

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OLSHOI KICHMAI, Russia— While Vladimir Putin and rich Olympic sponsors watched the Winter Games in gleaming arenas, boys in nearby Bolshoi Kichmai herd their goats by tying them to rickety bicycles, riding against the wind through a rocky valley where invading Russian armies slaughtered their ancestors 150 years ago.

These Circassian boys, their families and neighbours are the real hosts of the Sochi Olympics. Circassians, a Muslim ethnic group native to these lush lands that Putin chose for his hegemonic Olympic project, were massacred and exiled by czarist troops, persecuted under Stalin and largely ignored in the run-up to the Sochi Games.

Members of the Circassian diaspora from New Jersey to Turkey and Israel have protested, arguing that Olympic skiing and other events are being staged on the blood of their forebears. But Circassians who still live in villages sprinkled through the Sochi region are loath to put up a fuss.

The people of Bolshoi Kichmai worry more about securing a long-awaited gas pipeline and paved roads than righting historical wrongs. And they fear that confronting powerful Russian authorities could invite new discrimination against a long-powerless minority.

“We don’t need to throw stones at the past, we need to look forward,” said Aisa Achmizov, who runs the small folk art museum in Bolshoi Kichmai, which he hopes will bring in more visitors thanks to the Olympics. “You have to know the history of your country. But I don’t want to say too much.”

Russia’s most prominent terrorist, Doku Umarov, made matters worse by adopting the Circassians’ cause. In a warning last year, the Chechen rebel leader urged Muslim extremists to target the Games.

Circassians insist they are peaceful and have nothing to do with Umarov’s threat. But it has made the villagers of Bolshoi Kichmai even more wary of speaking

An Adyghe strike on a Russian Military Fort built over a Shapsugian village that aimed to free the Circassian Coast from the occupiers during the Russian-Circassian War, 22 March 1840 Photo: Wikipedia

out. Activists say Umarov’s threat has provided Russian security services a pretext to increase document checks and pressure on women in headscarves and men with long beards across the Caucasus.

The Circassians are one piece in a patchwork of more than 100 ethnic groups across the Caucasus whose warrior traditions and resistance to outside rule loom large in Russia’s history and collective consciousness. The people of Bolshoi Kichmai are from one of several Circassian tribes, the Shapsug.

That diversity contributes to Russia’s cultural wealth—and has posed challenges to Russian rulers ever since they brought the soaring peaks and seashores of the Caucasus region under the imperial yoke.

The conquest ended in the 1860s after decades of scorched-earth warfare, mass killings and expulsions that some label genocide. The Circassians surrendered in 1864 in the city of Sochi, and exiled Circassians scattered across the Caucasus and around the world.

Today, Circassians in New Jersey have a tight-knit community whose congressional representative defends their interests.

Circassians in Jordan are among the country’s elite.

Circassians in Bolshoi Kichmai, by contrast, struggle to get by on tourism

Is It Time For A Second Opinion?

in a town with few amenities, just a few dozen kilometres from Olympic events but a world away from their glory.

The toilet at the folk art museum is an outhouse with a hole in the floor. Firewood is the primary fuel for many families.

Grandparents fight a losing battle to ensure that the goat-herding boys and other village children speak their native dialect.

And well water is running dry, after a company building railroads for the Olympic project hauled away huge amounts of gravel from the Shakhe river, disrupting its flow through town. Residents filed a lawsuit against the company, but are still waiting for results.

It’s the latest of many ways the Circassians have been wronged.

The No Sochi campaign (www.nosochi2014.com) wants Russian authorities to recognize what happened in 1864 as a genocide, to allow Circassians from around the world to move back to ancestral lands, and an end to de facto quotas for Circassians in local police, government and other positions.

Amid the pressure, regional authorities belatedly acknowledged that the Olympic sites are on what was once Circassian land, and Olympic organizers hastily erected a Circassian House in Olympic Park.

A mini-museum displays a sanitized version of their history, with iron and bronze tools and embroidered sheepskin robes. An adjacent stage hosts children’s dances and harmonic songs of Circassian love and legend. In each room stands what appears to be a minder from the security services, watching in silence.

The Circassian House falls far short of a national apology. And Putin last week dismissed Circassian protests abroad as a tool in a campaign against Russia’s global influence.

“Efforts to restrain Russia are cropping up here and there, including, unfortunately, efforts to use the Circassian factor as an instrument concerning this Olympic project,” he told a Circassian leader at a community meeting.

Some ethnic Russian visitors at the games reflect their leader’s view.

“In the history of any country there are moments like this,” said Igor Negubailo, a lawyer from the regional capital of Krasnodar. He said he looked online to learn more about the Circassians after hearing the diaspora was protesting the games, but dubbed it a “provocation” and insisted that his Circassian friends don’t share the same concerns.

Few foreigners at the Olympics seem familiar with the Circassians’ story. Athletes from the U.S., Germany, Slovakia and Finland returned puzzled stares when asked about them.

Matt Chelap, a sports marketer from Atlanta watching luge races, said, “Coming from the United States and how we treated native Americans, I guess I’m not surprised by it. But it is sad to hear indigenous people were taken out of it.”

Circassian spectators are hard to find. Bolshoi Kichmai’s residents are leading their lives as if the Olympics weren’t happening just a few valleys away.

Beekeeper Khamed Komzh shrugs when asked about how history has treated his people.

“Well, what can we do? It is done.

God will be their judge.”

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PAGE 14 • www.OttawaStar.com

World

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2013

Under pressure by Hindu nationalists, Penguin India yanks US scholar’s religious history

By Katy Daigle, The Associated Press

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EW DELHI—Under pressure from a small Hindu nationalist group, Penguin India publishing house has yanked all copies of an American scholar’s narrative history of Hinduism from sale in India and ordered them destroyed.

The group Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, or the Save Education Movement, had objected to religious historian Wendy Doniger’s 2009 book, “The Hindus: An Alternative History” for describing mythological texts as fictional and, thus, hurting “the religious feelings of millions of Hindus,” according to a lawsuit filed against Penguin India.

A leader of the group filed the lawsuit in 2010 against the Indian publishing house as well as the New York-based arm Penguin Group Inc. On Monday, Penguin India said that, as part of a case settlement, it was ordering all Indian sales of the book to cease and all copies to be pulped.

The action stunned writers and intellectuals in India, with many wondering how one of the world’s oldest publishing houses had given in to demands by rightwing nationalists.

Some worried it was a sign of growing intolerance of dissent in India, with the country’s main Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Narendra Modi, campaigning aggressively for this year’s elections.

“You have not only caved in, you have humiliated yourself abjectly before a fly-bynight outfit by signing settlement,” novelist and rights activist Arundhati Roy wrote in a letter to the publisher printed Thursday in the Times of India.

Roy, best known for her Booker-prize winning novel “God of Small Things,” is also published by Penguin, though she suggested she may rethink the relationship.

“You owe us, your writers an explanation at the very least,” she wrote, saying the publisher’s decision “affects us all.”

An editorial in The Hindu newspaper excoriated Penguin India, saying that in allowing itself “to be browbeaten into submission by a little-known outfit that saw no contradiction in its own sweeping slander of the author … is a comment on the illiberalism incrementally taking India in its sweep.”

Doniger is not the first author to be silenced by religious or political conservatives in India. In 2011, the state of Gujarat where Modi has held the top office for 12 years

banned Joseph Lelyveld’s biography on pacifist freedom fighter Mohandas K. Gandhi, after reviews suggested Gandhi had a homosexual relationship.

The same year, the Indian government banned visits by American writer and broadcaster David Barsamian, who has said he believes his reports from the disputed region of Kashmir may have irritated officials, though he has never officially been given a reason.

India-born writer Salman Rushdie’s 1988 book “The Satanic Verses,” has been banned in the country, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous. Rushdie was forced to cancel a 2012 appearance at the Jaipur Literary Festival in the northern state of Rajasthan amid protests and threats by prominent Muslim clerics.

Doniger, a professor at the University of Chicago, said herself she was “angry and disappointed,” as well as “deeply troubled by what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate.”

But she defended Penguin India, saying in a statement that the publisher “took this book on knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks, and they defended it in the courts for four years, both as a civil and as a criminal suit,” until being defeated “by the true villain of this piece—the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offence to publish a book that offends any Hindu.”

While regretting that thousands of copies would be pulped, she hinted that Indians would still be able to read the book if they wanted on Kindle or possibly through other online postings. “I am glad that, in the age of the Internet, it is no longer possible to suppress a book.”

Ottawa Star • March 1, 2013

World

www.OttawaStar.com • PAGE 15

NSA collects under 30 per cent of US phone data despite effort to amass it all

By Stephen Braun, The Associated Press

W

ASHINGTON—The National Security Agency collects less than 30 per cent of calling data from Americans despite the agency’s massive daily efforts to sweep up the bulk of U.S. phone records, two U.S. newspapers reported Feb 7.

Citing anonymous officials and sources, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal both said the NSA’s phone data collection has had a steep drop-off since 2006. According to the newspapers, the government has been unable to keep pace since then with a national surge in cellphone usage and dwindling landline use by American consumers.

The Post said the NSA takes in less than 30 per cent of all call data; the Journal said it is about or less than 20 per cent. In either case, the figures are far below the amount of phone data collected in 2006, when the government extracted nearly all of U.S. calling records, both newspapers reported. NSA officials intend to press for court authorization to broaden their coverage of cellphone providers to return the government to near-total coverage of Americans’ calling data, the newspapers said.

The lowered estimates for the sweep of government surveillance would be significant because federal judges, members of government task forces and media accounts based on documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden have all described the NSA’s bulk metadata collection as sweeping in millions

of records from American phone users.

Lowered estimates could be cited by officials to alleviate privacy and civil liberties fears, but they could also raise questions about the government’s rationale for the program – that the NSA’s use of all Americans’ phone records are critical in preventing potential terrorist plots.

National security officials have said that the collection of bulk data is essen-

tial to national security because it provides a massive pool of calling records and other metadata that NSA analysts can quickly search to pinpoint calling patterns showing evidence of potential terror threats. Congressional critics have pressed efforts to end the bulk phone data sweeps, and two panels of experts have urged President Barack Obama to end the program because they see

little counter-terrorism advantages and say the program intrudes on personal liberties.

Obama has committed to ending government storage of phone records but still wants the NSA to have full access to the data. NSA and DNI officials declined to confirm or discuss the reports.

Civil liberties groups said they were not reassured by the reports, saying the government still intends to gather phone records from all American users. “To accept their legal reasoning is to accept that they will eventually collect everything, even if they’re not doing so already,” said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Verizon and AT&T said last December that they would provide figures this year on data requested by the government in law enforcement and intelligence investigations. But the Journal reported last year that several major cellphone entities including Verizon Wireless and TMobile were not part of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection. It is not clear why cellphone providers would not be covered by the NSA legal authority.

Portugal, like Spain, looks to offer citizenship to descendants of Jews who fled The Associated Press

JERUSALEM—Portugal’s tourism minister says his country is promoting an offer similar to that of Spain’s—to offer citizenship to descendants of Jews who were expelled five centuries ago.

Adolfo Mesquita Nunes told Israel’s Channel 1 that the Portuguese parliament unanimously approved an initial bill in May and that “in the near future it will also be possible in

Portugal” for Jews to apply for the citizenship.

In 1492, Spain’s Jews were given two choices: convert to Catholicism or leave the country. Many departed while others converted publicly while continuing to practice Judaism in secret. The Spanish Inquisition killed those who were caught.

Some Jews departed to neighbouring Portugal where they were initially absorbed before a brutal inquisition of its own killed the Jews or forced them out.

Portugal’s tourism minister says his country is promoting an offer similar to that of Spain’s—to offer citizenship to descendants of Jews who were expelled five centuries ago. Photo: government of Portugal

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