Back to newsletter list 12/11/2006 23:14:58 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Sports | Weather RCI VIVA: The new Radio Canada International?s web Service Now more than ever, Radio Canada International is emerging as a multicultural, multilingual and multimedia broadcaster. On the heels of its first foray a year ago into satellite radio with the channel RCI plus on SIRIUS Canada, RCI is set to put online next monday, a new, never-before-seen Web service for new immigrants to Canada. Designed to address issues commonly faced by those who have immigrated or are looking to immigrate to Canada, the service will air programming in English and French, as well as Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Ukrainian. Content will include social context and arts & entertainment stories to help immigrants discover their new home; handy tips to help them fit in and do what they need to do; capsules to help them hone their skills in the two official languages; and discussion boards to share their experiences, so they can be heard and get involved in their newly adopted community. Free of charge 24-7, this tailored orientation program will be available via podcast and streaming audio at www.RCInet.ca, because the Internet is fast becoming an excellent way to reach new arrivals. This Canada-wide radio presence adds a new component to the mandate of RCI, which has been broadcasting Canadian content to the world since 1945 and will continue to do so well into the future. Headlines  - Canada increases international micro-credit funding. - Immigration minister looking at expatriates' obligations. - Voters in Ontario cities poised to elect mayors.
HALIFAX: CANADA INCREASES INTERNATIONAL MICRO-CREDIT FUNDING Canada is committing more money to help people in developing nations to start their own businesses. The federal goverment is giving CDN$40 million to be used as micro-credit loans. Micro-credit involves giving small loans to poor people who have no collateral. The rate of repayment is reported to be about 90 per cent. Canada's new funding was announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay. He's among some two thousand delegates attending the four-day Global Micro-credit Summit that began on Sunday in the Canadian city of Halifax. Queen Sofia of Spain participated in the opening. Among the other delegates are representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh. He showed the potential of micro-credit when he founded the Grameen Bank in 1983. Since then, more than 3,100 micro-credit institutions have opened in the world. Delegates at the Halifax conference want to ensure that loans reach 175 million people by 2015. The Canadian International Development Agency spends one per cent of its annual budget, or CDN$32 million, on micro-credit programs. CIDA announced an additional CDN$12 million for micro-credit programs in Afghanistan last month. OTTAWA: IMMIGRATION MINISTRY LOOKING AT EXPATRIATES' OBLIGATIONS Canada's minister of citizenship and immigration, Monte Solberg, says that his department has concerns not only about dual citizenship, but about the obligations that Canadians everywhere have toward their country. Mr. Solberg spoke on Friday in Vancouver. He alluded to studies that put the number of Canadians with dual citizenship at between four and five million. Other research puts the number at three million. The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada estimates that about 2.7 million Canadians live abroad---about nine per cent of the total population. Statistics Canada showed that in 2001, the number of Canadians living in Canada with dual citizenship was 691,310. The large majority were immigrants. Mr. Solberg spoke a few days after he told a House of Commons committee that his department is reviewing dual citizenship as a result of the evacuation of 15,000 Lebanese-Canadians from Lebanon earlier this year. He insisted that dual citizenship is an issue that goes beyond an extraordinary evacuation of overseas residents. Some concern has been raised that millions of expatriate Canadians who have not paid domestic taxes for years might return to Canada when they become senior citizens, putting excessive pressure on Canada's social benefits and medical services networks. Mr. Solberg commented that their return might upset many Canadians who paid taxes to ensure adequate social services. But some argue that restricting or ending dual citizenship might discourage skilled foreigners from emigrating to Canada. TORONTO: VOTERS IN ONTARIO CITIES POISED TO ELECT MAYORS Voters in cities and towns across the province of Ontario had their final look at their candidates for mayor on Sunday, the last day before municipal elections. In Canada's largest city, Toronto, the incumbent mayor, David Miller, appeared poised to be re-elected despite criticism that his term was largely ineffective. But opinion polls give him a large lead over his rivals, Jane Pitfield, a city councillor, and the former president of the Liberal Party of Canada, Stephen Le Drew. The election campaign was generally a dull affair. In Canada's capital, Ottawa, the incumbent mayor, Bob Chiarelli, is facing two strong challengers, Alex Munter and Larry O'Brien. Both of the challengers have shown more popular support in the polls than Mr. Chiarelli. Voters are concerned about the city's future growth. Municipal elections are held every four years. Employers must give employees three hours off work to vote. OTTAWA: CANADA ATTENDS INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT CONFERENCE Canada will present two different positions this week at the international conference on global warming in Nairobi, Kenya. Delegates from 180 nations are meeting to discuss how to salvage or to amend the Kyoto Accord before it expires in 2012. A delegation led by the environment minister from the Canadian province of Quebec, Claude Bechard, intends to support the provisions of the Kyoto Accord. But Canada's environment minister, Rona Ambrose, will present a new environmental program that she announced last month. Although Canada ratified the Kyoto Accord, Miss Ambrose and the Conservative Party government consider its greenhouse-gas reduction goals to be unrealistic and unobtainable by the expiry deadline. Miss Ambrose invited Mr. Bouchard and some federal opposition politicians to attend the conference, but she has refused to allow him to address delegates officially. QUEBEC CITY: PREMIER INSISTS THAT HIS PROVINCE IS A NATION Premier Jean Charest of Quebec insisted on Saturday that his province is a nation regardless of what people in the rest of Canada considered it. The majority of people in Quebec speak French. Many of them support moves to separate from Canada and form an independent nation or some form of sovereignty association with Canada. Speaking to a regional meeting of his Liberal Party, Mr. Charest said that Quebecers do not need to have permission to ask from anyone to be who they are. The question of Quebec's status as a nation was again raised recently when one of the leading candidates for the federal Liberal Party leadership, Michael Ignatieff, declared that he wants to recognize Quebec formally as a nation within Canada. But recent opinion polls show that less than half of Canadians agree. CALGARY: HOMELESS SHELTER OFFERS REFUGE TO NATIVE PEOPLE A homeless shelter in Calgary is offering to take in some native people who were forced to leave their homes last month because of danger of asbestos poisoning. The asbestos was inside the walls of the Harvey Barracks, a former military base near Calgary where the natives had taken shelter after the base was abandoned eight years ago. There is a debate about whether to demolish the buildings or not. Six hundred members of the Tsuu T'ina band who left the base have been living in more than 100 apartments in Calgary. Non-band members were put in hotels by Canada's Indian Affairs ministry until November 19. After that date, they must find their own accommodation. As the November date approaches, they are becoming increasingly anxious. Vacancy rates in Calgary are at a record low. As winter approaches, the city's shelters are preparing for the annual influx of homeless people. But the Inn from the Cold shelter has CDN$100,000 from the provincial government to pay for extra rooms for the natives in church basements and other facilities. The provincial government is also considering giving money to the natives to help them pay room rents. TORONTO: MAPLE LEAF GARDENS TURNS 75 One of Canada's most famous buildings celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary on Sunday. Maple Leaf Gardens in downtown Toronto was long the home of the city's hockey team, the Maple Leafs, and host to large-scale touring shows like the Moscow Circus. The first hockey game at the Gardens was played on November 12, 1931, between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks. Several yearsa ago, there were fears that the Gardens would be demolished, but the supermarket chain, Loblaws, bought the building in 2004. It plans to create a super-store in the Gardens, preserving the architectural heritage of the building. TORONTO: POPULAR CANDY PRODUCTS ARE RECALLED Some of Canada's most popular candy were recalled on Sunday because of fears that they might contain salmonella. The candy is all produced by the Hershey company. Among the recalled products are Oh Henry and Cherry Blossom, candy that is sold throughout the country. There have been no reports of illnesses associated with the products, but the company decided to take precautions and issue the recall. OTTAWA: CANADIANS PREFER PRISONS AT HOME Canadian convicts jailed abroad prefer to serve their sentences at home. A report released in Ottawa says that some 240 Canadians imprisoned for crimes committed abroad have asked to serve out their sentences in Canadian prisons. Only six foreigners jailed in Canada want to serve their prison sentences in their home countries. The Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime says that the numbers suggest that Canadian prisons 'are more comfortable' than those abroad. MAUI: SHARK MAULS CANADIAN SWIMMER A Canadian man has survived a shark attack while swimming on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Twenty-nine-year-old Kyle Gruen of Vancouver was about 10 metres off shore when the shark grabbed his left side, injuring his leg and hand. He was reported in stable condition in hospital. As a precaution, authorities in Maui closed beaches about half a kilometre in either direction of the attack.
IRAQ Two suicide bombers struck outside a police recruiting centre in Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 65 others. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed four civilians. In the southern city of Basra, gunmen attacked a British patrol, killing four British soldiers and seriously injuring three others. On the same day, three American soldiers were also reported killed. Meanwhile, Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is calling for a sweeping cabinet shuffle. The move is a response to his government's failure to stop sectarian violence. Police on Sunday found the bodies of 22 people in Baghdad, all victims of sectarian strife. UGANDA The United Nation's Under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland met on Sunday with the rebel leader of the Uganda Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. The brief meeting in Ri-Kwangba, Sudan, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, ended inconclusively. The U.N. envoy nonetheless called the meeting important because it was the first time that he had presented the whole range of his humanitarian concerns. The U.N. wants the rebels to release hundreds of children whom they have kidnapped as well as the wounded held among their other captives. Mr. Kony denied that his group is holding captives. Mr. Egeland has been meeting with the Ugandan government and rebel leaders of the L-R-A in southern Sudan. He hopes to bolster peace talks aimed at ending a 20-year militant insurgency. EGYPT The Palestinian government has accepted a proposal to hold a peace conference to resolve its conflict with Israel. The Palestinian foreign minister, Mahmoud Zaar, agreed to the proposal at a meeting with Arab foreign ministers in Cairo. They suggested a conference involving Israel and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Israel has yet to comment on the proposal. The proposal was made one day after the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for a deadly attack in Gaza this week. Nineteen Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, died in the attack in the town of Beit Hanoun. VATICAN CITY The Vatican on Sunday announced details of Pope Benedict's trip to Turkey later this month. During the four-day trip beginning on November 28, the Pope will meet in Ankara with the senior Muslim cleric, Ali Bardakoglu, who denounced his controversial comments on Islam two months ago. In a speech in Germany, the Pope quoted a 14th-century Byzanine emperor who described Islam as a religion spread by the sword. The Pope later said that he had no intention of offending Muslim sensibilities and that he respected Islam. The Pope will also meet with high-ranking members of the Orthodox church. CHINA A typhoon with winds of up to 125 kilometres an hour headed across the South China Sea on Sunday. Typhoon Chebi was expected to gain strength as it approached central Vietnam. The typhoon swept across the northeastern Phillipines on Saturday, killing at least one person. It toppled trees and caused flooding and landslides. Rice crops were damaged. Many of the same areas were damaged by Typhoon Cimaron last month. AFGHANISTAN At least 20 Taliban militants have been reported killed in Afghanistan in the last five days. One NATO official says that the number might be as high as 60. In the same period, four NATO and three Afghan soldiers were injured. None of them were Canadian. Canada has about 2,300 soldiers serving in the NATO force in Afghanistan. But a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that no independent estimate of the number of dead fighters was available. SWITZERLAND A new international treaty came into force on Sunday aimed at reducing the devastating effects of cluster bombs and other unexploded devices left behind in conflict zones. Under this new law, countries are expected to clear up their unexploded ordinances or pay teams of experts to do so. The treaty on explosive remnants of war covers ordnance such as land mines and cluster bombs. Meanwhile in Geneva, a U.N. arms review conference is under way. There is growing pressure on member states to discuss a total ban on cluster bombs. Aid agencies say that such bombs should be banned, not just cleaned up. There are thought to be billions of cluster bombs stockpiled around the world. CZECH REPUBLIC The media in the Czech Republic reports that local secret service agents stopped three attempts by North Korea last year to buy special equipment needed to make nuclear arms. The CTK news agency reports that the first attempt was followed by a second attempt through a third country. None of the attempts succeeded. The equipment was described as special machine tools that could produce small nuclear weapons. North Korea is believed to have tested its first nuclear device last month.
CALGARY: MIDDLE EAST COMPANY BUYS CANADIAN OIL AND GAS FIRM Dana Gas PJSC of the United Arab Emirates will buy the Canadian oil and gas company, Centurion Energy International of Calgary, for CDN$1.15 billion in a friendly takeover. Takeover talks began on October 31. The deal is slated to be concluded in January. The offer represents a premium of almost 56 per cent over the company's recent average share price. Dana Gas has major operations in Egypt. Established in 2005, it is the first regional private-sector natural gas company to operate in the Saudi Arabian region. Several other international energy companies based in Calgary have a focus in the Middle East.
FOOTBALL The Montreal Alouettes beat the Toronto Argonauts, 33-24, on Sunday, to gain a berth in the Grey Cup championships. Playing at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, Montreal defeated Toronto in the Eastern division final for the fourth time in the last five years. Toronto fell behind 30-10 before staging a rally in the fourth quarter that put the team within six points of Montreal. In the Western division final, the British Columbia Lions beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders, 45-18. HOCKEY The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1, on Saturday, their fourth victory in a row. Toronto played its last two games without captain Mats Sundin. Montreal has lost two of its three games with Toronto this season. The Calgary Flames won their fourth game in a row, beating the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2. Calgary's goalie Miikka Kiprusoff made 26 saves. The Boston Bruins beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-3. Boston's Glen Murray scored twice. Ottawa has one victory, five defeats, and one tie in their last seven games. In international hockey, Canada's men's team won the bronze medal at the Deutschland Cup in Hannover, Germany, on Sunday. Canada beat Germany, 5-4. Matt Higgins scored the winning goal on a power play. SPEED SKATING Canadian Christine Nesbitt finished second in the women's 1000-metre event at the World Cup speed skating competition in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, on Sunday. Anni Friesinger of Germany was first. Canadian Kristina Groves finished fifth. In the 3000-metre event, Groves finished fifth. Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands was first.
Weather Here is Canada's weather on Monday. British Columbia will have rain. The high temperature in Vancouver will be nine degrees Celsius. The Yukon: light snow. Whitehorse, minus 20. Northwest Territories: snow flurries. Yellowknife, minus ten. Nunavut: variable cloudiness. Iqaluit, minus eight. Alberta: snow. Edmonton, minus seven. Saskatchewan: light rain. Regina, four. Manitoba: sunny. Winnipeg, three. Ontario: overcast. Toronto, seven. Ottawa, 11. Quebec: rain. Montreal, 12. New Brunswick: sunny periods. Fredericton, 11. Nova Scotia: overcast. Halifax, eight. Prince Edward Island: sunny. Charlottetown, minus two. Newfoundland: cloudy. St. John's, three.
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