Census shows Toronto still has world's highest rate of newcomers
ELAINE CAREY Toronto Star DEMOGRAPHICS REPORTER

Ethnic neighbourhoods — once the hallmark of Toronto's inner city — are expanding into the surrounding suburbs. And the immigration influx is changing the very face of the booming 905 regions.

While Toronto used to be the first landing spot for newcomers, Markham has caught up, becoming the first municipality in Greater Toronto where more than half the population is comprised of immigrants. Fully 53 per cent of its residents are foreign-born and 56 per cent are visible minorities, according to new data from the 2001 census released yesterday.

But new immigrants are making their first home in areas all over the GTA. While they comprise just under half of Toronto's population, they also make up more than 40 per cent of the residents of Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan and Richmond Hill.

Of Greater Toronto's 4.6 million people, 1.7 million — or 36.8 per cent — are visible minorities, up from 31.6 per cent five years ago and a quarter in 1991.

'Hate speech' Condemned
From The Catholic Register
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNS)

The Pakistani bishops' justice commission has asked the government to end "hate speech" against minority religions. A Jan. 9 statement by the commission said hate speech has led to a dramatic increase in crimes and discrimination against non-Muslims, reported UCA News; an Asian church .news agency based in Thailand. "We urge the government to take necessary action to curb the crime of hate speech," the statement said. "The policy of turning a blind eye to hate crimes resulted in the destruction of churches and temples and bloodshed of thousands of innocent citizens in the name of religion or "sect" said the statement, signed by Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, commission chairman, and Peter Jacob, executive secretary.

Students Honoured For Essays To Coincide With Week Of Prayer for Christian Unity
From: The Catholic Register Jan 26, 2003
By: CATHOLIC REGISTER STAFF~TORONTO

The winner of the first annual Franciscan Friars of the Atonement essay writing contest is a 17-year-old student of Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School in Toronto. Amanda Pereira won the $500 first prize with her essay on "We are Earthen Vessels Carrying God's Treasure," the theme for this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan. 19-25). "I was really excited, really surprised," Pereira told The Register Jan. 13 when she claimed her prize. Pereira is a student at the self-directed Catholic high school, one of only six such schools in Canada, where students attend a minimal number of lectures and work individually with teachers to follow programs of study.

Dr. Colin D'Cunha appointed to the post of Commissioner of Public Health and Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM)

TORONTO, Jan. 21 /CNW/ - Tony Clement, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, today announced that the Ontario government has appointed Dr. Colin D'Cunha to the newly-created post of Commissioner of Public Health and Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM). Read the detailed article at http://www.goanvoice.ca/2003/issue2/colin.htm

Cities attract greatest numbers Urban centres pull in most immigrants
ALLAN THOMPSON Toronto Star OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA—The census report released yesterday tells a story that immigration officials already know by heart — that immigration to Canada is a tale of three cities.

And for Citizenship and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre, the census finding that Canada's newcomers are increasingly gravitating to Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal is more ammunition for his bid to create new programs to distribute new immigrants more evenly across the country.

"The challenge will be to encourage immigrants to settle in other regions of Canada to allow all parts of the country to benefit from immigration," Coderre said in a statement released yesterday.

Home ownership rates soar 61.6% in Toronto own their houses First-time buyers are driving market
TONY WONG Toronto Star BUSINESS REPORTER

Spurred by first-time home buyers who are taking advantage of low interest rates, more people in the Toronto area own their own homes than ever before, according to a survey.

By year's end, an estimated 61.6 per cent of all Toronto homes will be owner occupied — or owned by their residents. That's up from 60.9 per cent last year, 59.2 per cent in 2001, and 54 per cent in 2000, according to a Re-Max-Compass Research survey released yesterday.