Canadians Nearing Record-Breaking Winter For Snow
By Jonathan Spicer and Randall Palmer Mon Mar 10,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080310/wl_canada_nm/

TORONTO/OTTAWA (Reuters) - Eastern Canada closed in on record snowfall levels this weekend, after a late-season storm dumped up to half a meter (20 inches) of snow on a region that has already been battered by a series of winter storms.

Toronto was among the first hit late on Friday as the storm pushed up from the U.S. Midwest. By Sunday, about 30 cm (12 inches) of snow had accumulated, leading to hundreds of traffic accidents, scores of flight cancellations and buried any expectations of spring. It also left the country's biggest city only about 21 cm (8 inches) shy of its 69-year-old annual snowfall record.

"People are demanding a recount, they want to break the record," said David Phillips, Environment Canada's chief climatologist. "It was a monster storm where you had the lake-effect component, the winds were wild, and there were two waves of it," he said in an interview.

Montreal took on about 42 cm (16 inches) of snow over the weekend, leaving it about 23 cm shy of its record, set in the winter of 1970-71. But Ottawa felt the most pain: The nation's capital just about completely shut down after more than 50 cm (20 inches) of snow fell, canceling flights, trains, buses and many activities.

About 407 cm (13.4 feet) of snow has fallen in the city so far this year, which approaches its seemingly invincible record of 445 cm, also set in 1970-71. Meanwhile, on Canada's west coast, Spring flowers have been in bloom for weeks. The temperature in Vancouver was 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) over the weekend, and much the same was expected on Monday.

Canada - Ethnic diversity and immigration
http://www41.statcan.ca/2007/30000/ceb30000_000_e.htm

Over the past 100 years, more than 13 million immigrants have arrived to forge a new life here, making Canada one of the world’s most ethnically diverse countries. Most came from Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Later on, non-Europeans started arriving in larger numbers as economic immigrants or refugees, or as family members of previous immigrants.

By 1970, half of all immigrants were coming from Caribbean nations, Asia and South America. In the 1980s, a growing number were arriving from Africa.

In the 1990s, 58% of Canada’s immigrants were born in Asia (including the Middle East); 20% were from Europe; and 22% came from the Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa and the United States. Most (73%) settled in Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver, transforming the ethno-cultural composition and socioeconomic dynamics of these cities.

In 2001, 10.3 million people—nearly half of Canada’s population aged 15 and older, not including Aboriginal peoples—reported British, French or Canadian ethnic origins, or some combination of the three, reflecting the long history of British and French peoples in Canada. Meanwhile, 4.3 million Canadians reported other European origins, 2.9 million reported non-European origins, while 3.3 million reported mixed ethnicity.
Visible minority population growing fast

Canada’s visible minority population is growing much faster than its total population: 25% growth from 1996 to 2001 versus 4% growth in the general population. This is due largely to increased immigration from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America and the Middle East. In 2001, about 70% of the visible minority population was born outside Canada.

From 1981 to 2001, the number of visible minorities increased more than threefold from 1.1 million people, or nearly 5% of the population, to 4.0 million people, or 13% of the population. Chinese made up the largest visible minority group in 2001, followed by South Asians and Africans.

By 2017, about 20% of Canada’s population could be visible minorities, or anywhere from 6.3 million to 8.5 million people. Close to half are projected to be South Asian or Chinese. The highest growth rates are projected for West Asian, Korean and Arab groups, whose populations could more than double by 2017 but remain small relative to the South Asian, Chinese and African populations. In 2017, 95% of the visible minority population will live in a census metropolitan area (CMA), virtually unchanged from 2001.

Canada’s population is highly urban: 64% of Canadians lived in a CMA in 2001. The proportion of recent immigrants settling in a CMA rose from 84% in 1981 to 94% in 2001. The share of Canadian-born people residing in a CMA grew from 53% to 59%.

Recent immigrants prefer CMAs for many reasons: 41% cite a spouse, partner or family in the area; 18% cite proximity to friends. Others cite job prospects, educational opportunities, lifestyle and housing.

From 1981 to 2001, Canada’s five largest cities—Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa–Gatineau and Calgary—received much smaller shares of immigrants from North America, Western Europe and Oceania, but received larger shares from West Asia, South Asia and East Asia.

In Montréal, most recent immigrants have arrived from Haiti, Algeria, France and Lebanon. In Vancouver, more than half of recent immigrants in 2001 were from East Asia, with 62% of them coming from just five countries: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and the Philippines.

Ontario Left With Labour Shortages As Workers Move
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Canada/2008/03/09/pf-4951801.html
March 9, 2008
Call of the West
By TOM GODFREY, SUN MEDIA

Excerpts:
By drips and drabs, by the dozen and the hundreds, skilled Ontario workers are pulling up stakes and moving elsewhere. Long-term skilled job vacancy numbers and federal labour mobility statistics show Ontario is increasingly losing talent and experience to other jurisdictions -- and to Western Canada in particular.

Ontario will be short more than 360,000 skilled workers by 2025 and this can escalate to 560,000 jobs by 2030, according to the Conference Board of Canada. "We aren't producing the numbers of highly skilled graduates needed to replace an aging workforce," said Dr. Rick Miner, past chairman of Colleges Ontario and now president of Seneca College.

And for the first time in this country's history, half the workers are over 40. The impending retirement of tens of thousands of baby boomers will leave a massive hole in this province's labour force.

"Starve Your Neighbor" Policy Roils Food Trade
Wed Mar 5, 2008
By Missy Ryan
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USHO57295820080305

Excerpts:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many nations are turning to export restrictions to ease soaring food prices, but such interventions may aggravate turmoil on world commodity markets, a leading research center has warned.

"If one country after the other adopts a 'starve your neighbor' policy, then eventually you trade smaller shares of total world production of agricultural products, and that in turn makes the prices more volatile," said Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, or IFPRI.

A growing list of countries, including Egypt, India and China, has imposed bans, raised tariffs or unveiled other restrictions to limit crop, mainly grain, exports.

It's a bid to blunt the impact of a global boom in commodity and food prices, driven by tight stocks, growing biofuel production, and income growth in developing nations, a trend that takes the biggest toll on the poor.

For full article go to : http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USHO57295820080305

Indian migrants challenge Britain on visa rules
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14618182
Friday, 07 March , 2008,

London: A challenge to changes made to Britain's visa rules, mounted by 49,000 mostly Indian migrants, reached the British courts on Wednesday with the government accused of breaching race relations and human rights acts.

The migrants are challenging retrospective changes made by the British government to its Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) visas. Launched in 2002, the scheme was aimed at attracting doctors, engineers, accountants and IT specialists to fill a skills gap in Britain.

However, the government made retrospective changes to the visa regulations in 2006 saying applicants had to show annual incomes of 40,000 pounds and be younger than 32 years of age in order to qualify.

A voluntary group known as the HSMP Forum, whose 49,000 members are mostly Indians but also include other Asians and Africans, claim they and their families are at risk because of the retrospective nature of the rules.

They say making the rules retrospective violates their human rights, a view backed the British parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights, which has recommended that “those who had already been granted leave as a highly skilled migrant on the HSMP when the relevant changes took effect should be treated according to the rules which applied before those changes.”

The migrants also cite Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) findings to claim it is harder for black and ethnic minorities (BME) to secure highly-paid jobs in Britain, which means many of those who are already in the country may not earn 40,000 pounds a year. The CRE says the new rules favour European Union migrants over those from outside the EU region.

The Forum says 90 percent of its members - around 44,000 people who left well-paid jobs in India to settle and raise families in Britain - may have to leave if the changes are applied retrospectively. According to Forum Executive Director Amit Kapadia, up to 150,000 people may be at risk, when families are taken into consideration.

Chandrasekar Elangovan, executive committee member of the HSMP Forum, said he hoped for justice from the “highly respected UK judicial system.”

“It is ironic that a government which boasts itself as champions of human rights around the globe is actually playing with the lives of thousands of skilled immigrants and their families by changing the rules retrospectively,” he said

U.S.A. Immigration
Immigrant Advocates want to see a change in who controls the debate
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801235.htm
By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After the failure last year of a bill that seemed so close to passing that people started planning how to implement it, supporters of comprehensive immigration reform are regrouping, preparing to take on their opponents who have been dominating public debate on the issue.

Frank Sharry, a leader of the comprehensive reform movement and longtime director of the National Immigration Forum, is leaving that organization to launch a new one, America's Voice, with the goal of "taking off the gloves" in responding to opponents of comprehensive reform.

"There is a concerted effort by the opponents of immigration to demonize immigrants," Sharry said at the annual gathering of Catholic social ministry workers in Washington in late February. "They use talk radio and distorted facts. Those who demonize don't have the facts, but they have had the upper hand in the debate."

One oft-cited claim by those who want more restrictions on immigration, that immigrants are responsible for rising crime, was refuted by new reports by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Immigration Policy Center in Washington.

The California study found that although people born outside the United States account for 35 percent of the state's adult population, immigrants make up only 17 percent of the prison population. Even among those most likely to be convicted of crimes, men ages 18-40, U.S. natives were 10 times more likely than immigrants to be jailed, it found.

But the national debate about immigration of recent years has been framed as a question of either/or, Sharry said. For example, some say either one supports "the rule of law" and believes anyone in the country illegally should be prosecuted, or one must support lawbreaking.

"The current system respects neither the rule of law nor the right of families to seek improvement in their lives," he said. "It's about time we had an immigration system that embodies both traditions, upholding the law and the right to seek better opportunities -- (which is) a human right, not a legal right."

"The Catholic Church has been so prophetic in taking on this issue," Sharry said, noting that the church has a 2,000-year perspective on migration, which it views as a fundamental right of people who wish to improve their lives.

Kirpan barred, so Sikh group to skip meeting with Pope
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/

A Sikh organisation in the US will skip a scheduled meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Washington, DC, next month because its representatives have been been asked not to carry kirpans to the event.

The World Sikh Council - America Region (WSC-AR) decided against attending the April 17 inter-religious meeting with the visiting pope because the US Secret Service refused to allow the kirpan, the ceremonial dagger that is one of the five articles of faith for Sikhs. "We have to respect the sanctity of the kirpan, especially at such inter-religious gatherings. We cannot undermine the rights and freedoms of religion in the name of security," said Anahat Kaur, secretary general of the WSC-AR, in a press release Friday.

She pointed out that Sikhs wearing their kirpans had met Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. Disappointed with the US agency responsible for security of visiting leaders, WSC-AR has called upon it to respect the religious rights and freedoms of the Sikh community.

In 2004, the then chairperson of WSC-AR, Kuldeep Singh, was also forced to decline an invitation to the White House on the kirpan issue. The National Council of Churches in the US had supported the position taken by WSC-AR. The WSC-AR continues to be concerned that at events held by Sikh organisations at the White House and Capitol Hill, Sikhs are still refused the right to wear their kirpans.

WSC-AR had expressed solidarity with the Sikh Federation (UK) when its representatives refused to enter the European Union parliament in Brussels in May 2006 when asked to first remove their kirpans. The WSC-AR is a representative and elected body of about 45 gurdwaras and other Sikh institutions in the US and takes up Sikh issues at the national and international levels.

Retirement Income of Canadian Seniors

Source
Statistics Canada Government of Canada
Monday, March 10, 2008
Study: Income security in retirement among the working population
1983 to 2004
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080310/d080310b.htm

On average, Canadian workers had family disposable incomes at age 75, when most are retired, that were 80% of their incomes at age 55, when they were working, according to a new study. However, the extent to which they maintained their income in retirement varied with their level of income.

Disposable incomes for wealthier Canadian workers declined significantly after they headed into the retirement years, but those with low incomes encountered relatively little change.

The study used data from Statistics Canada's Longitudinal Administrative Data base to determine the extent to which individuals at the age of 55 were able to maintain their family incomes, as they moved into the retirement years until their mid 70s. It covered the period from 1983, when the people in the analysis were age 55, to 2004, when they reached age 76.

It found that among workers with average incomes at age 55, family disposable income fell after the age of 60, declined until 68, then stabilized at about 80% of the income level they had when they were 55.

Lower income workers (those in the bottom 20% of the income distribution) experienced little change in income as they moved from the age of 55 through the retirement years. This was largely because of the income maintenance impact of the public pension system.

These lower income workers experienced high levels of individual income instability in their late 50s and early 60s. However, after retirement, their incomes became more stable. However, better-off workers in the top 20% of the income distribution experienced substantial declines in income by time they were 75.

These findings are important because of the aging of the population. The proportion of the population who are retirees will increase considerably.

As a result, the degree of financial well-being experienced by seniors will likely become an important issue. The extent to which an individual's income at, say, the age of 55, is replaced throughout the retirement years is an important aspect of maintaining a pre-retirement lifestyle. Wide variations in "income replacement rates"

This study calculated the "income replacement rate," which is the after-tax, after-transfer family income at a given age, say 75, compared with the after-tax, after-transfer family income of the same individual at 55. These rates depended on whether an individual was in a richer or poorer family. The analysis also took account of changes in family size from pre- to post-retirement ages.

The study found that on average, the higher the disposable income at 55, the lower the portion of income that was replaced in retirement. The richest workers, those in the top 20% of the income distribution at 55, replaced on average about 70% of their income during their 70s.

Still, these workers had an average family income of $90,000 after taxes for a family of two by time they reached 75. About 40% of this income came from private pensions or Registered Retirement Savings Plans, 28% from investment and capital gains, and about 18% from public pensions or the old-age security.

People in the poorest 20% of families at age 55 experienced little change in their incomes as they aged. They maintained roughly 100% of their disposable income because their earnings from earlier years were replaced by income from the Canada/Quebec pension plans (C/QPP), Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

At 75, these workers recorded average after-tax family income of around $30,000 for a family of two. About 60% of it came from the C/QPP, OAS or GIS.

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