Michaëlle Jean our new Governor General

Prime Minister Paul Martin has named journalist Michaelle Jean as Canada's next governor general. Jean will be installed as Canada's 27th governor general Oct. 1. At just 48 years old, the award winning journalist will become one of the youngest governors general ever, the third woman in the job and the first black person to call Rideau Hall home.For more details click here. (Photo courtesy:CBC Photo)

Engineering in Canada ­ CAPE* Perspective
Are you a new immigrant with an Engineering background?
Are you thinking of immigrating to Canada?
Will you be looking to work in the Engineering field in Ontario?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions, you will find it useful to http://www.capeinfo.ca/

According to the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE), 10,225 foreign trained immigrants with engineering backgrounds immigrated into Toronto in 2001 alone. This number is greater than the entire Canadian graduating class of engineers in that year. Toronto offers only 17% of the total jobs in Canada An ongoing survey of foreign trained immigrants having engineering backgrounds in Ontario being carried out by CAPE shows that over 80% of them cannot find a job in their field of expertise. Therefore before you make a decision to immigrate to Canada on the basis that you will be able to make a smooth transition to practice your engineering expertise in Ontario , we would recommend that you study this website.

*The Council for Access to the Profession of Engineering (CAPE) is an Ontario based, not for profit, membership organization that began in 1990 when a number of independent associations serving internationally trained engineering graduates got together.

Facts about Canada and Canadian Immigration
http://www.canada-city.ca/canada-immigration.php

• Five times in this decade, Canada has been ranked number one by the United Nations Human Development Index as the best country in the world in which to live.
• Canada has the world's highest rate of post-secondary education enrolment, along with an excellent health care system.
• The Canadian government accepts businesspersons and skilled workers from every part of the world.
• Thanks to immigration, because Canada's Asian communities have been established for over 100 years.
• Eligibility for Canadian Citizenship within three years of arrival to Canada with permanent residence and work status.
• In general, Canada has safe neighbourhoods, and it is considered to be much safer than many other countries.
• Migrate to Canada has become one of the easiest comparing to other countries.
• Welcome to Canada - What you should know

Canadians and Americans support biometric technology in passports and drivers' licences: survey
But citizens of both countries are concerned about cost and government abuse
TORONTO, Aug. 2 /CNW/
On both sides of the border, support for including biometric identifiers in government-issued identification documents is high, though slightly higher in Canada, according to a new survey conducted by TNS, the world's largest custom market information company, and TRUSTe, the online privacy leader.

"Including biometric data such as fingerprints or retinal scans in ID documents are perceived by the public to help prevent fraud and identity theft, but, at the same time, many Canadians and Americans express privacy and cost concerns about government use of the technology," said David Stark, privacy officer of TNS.

The TNS/TRUSTe survey of Internet users in Canada and the U.S. - 1,157 Canadians and 1,003 Americans - found that citizens in both countries ranked the passport ahead of all other ID documents as the most appropriate one for the addition of biometric identifiers (85% support in Canada; 79% in the U.S.). Including biometric technology in drivers' licences, social insurance cards (social security cards in the U.S.) and provincial health insurance cards also registered high levels of support.

The Government of Canada plans to use facial recognition biometric technology in the Canadian passport and the U.S. Department of State is currently testing an electronic passport containing a computer chip with biometric information.

In June, the U.S. Congress approved the REAL ID Act, which will require state motor vehicle agencies to use a common machine-readable technology and other federal ID standards in drivers' licences by 2008. The new requirements will be established by the Department of Homeland Security and could include adding biometric information to drivers' licences.

Doors open at Canada's largest year-round school
02 Aug 2005
CBC News
A brand-new school opened its doors west of Toronto for a new school year Tuesday - launching the largest implementation in Canada of year-round schooling.
Instead of getting one long break in the summer, 1,100 students at the new Roberta Bondar Public School in Brampton, Ont., will get a series of smaller ones spread out over the school year, as well as a much shorter summer vacation.

"It's pretty cool," student Kushman Kardaliwal told CBC News.
"We get to start before everybody else and we get more breaks than everybody else."
There will still be the same number of academic days as other schools, plus holidays on such days as Good Friday, Easter Monday and Victoria Day and the Christmas to New Year's break.What's new are the short breaks in October, February and again in March.