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Ontario's economy sinks deeper into recession, says RBC http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2009/15/c6207.html?view=print TORONTO, June 15 /CNW/ - Amid difficulties in the manufacturing sector, weak external demand for products and continued job losses, Ontario's economy is projected to contract by 3.4 per cent this year, one of the biggest economic drops in Canada, according to a report by RBC Economics. "In Canada, the global recession has hit Ontario especially hard," said Craig Wright, senior vice-president and chief economist, RBC. "Activity fell the most in nearly 18 years in the final three months of last year and evidence so far this year indicates that, far from regaining its footing, the province's economy likely sank even deeper early in 2009, dragged down by the collapse of the auto manufacturing sector." Housing construction has continued to slide, accelerating last spring's trend. Combined with the twin pressures of declining consumer demand for retail goods and automotives, this has led to Ontario's unemployment rate surging to a 12-year high of 9.4 per cent. The report emphasized that the path ahead for the Ontario economy is fraught with uncertainty, particularly with respect to the fate of major motor vehicle and parts manufacturing operations in the province. With the auto industry expected to stabilize by next year, however, RBC forecasts that the provincial economy will show greater benefits from substantial monetary and fiscal stimulus in 2010. In particular, stimulus spending on infrastructure should significantly boost construction activity in the province, and even greater stimulus south of the border should spur U.S. demand for Ontario products and services. According to RBC, these factors should increase economic growth in the province next year to a moderate rate of 2.2 per cent - still lower than the national average of 2.5 per cent.

Gloomy Canada data show crisis http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090610/business/cbusiness_us_economy_wrapup Wed Jun 10, 10:52 AM | By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada unexpectedly posted a trade deficit in April on slumping exports while new house prices fell by the most in almost two decades, showing the economic crisis is still biting despite talk of a recovery. The trade deficit for April was $179 million, the third time the balance had slipped into the red since December. Until that month Canada -- which relies heavily on exports -- had posted surpluses for almost 33 years. Analysts, who variously called the data "pretty dismal" and "simply bad news", had on average predicted a $1 billion surplus after a $1 billion surplus in March. Statistics Canada said exports fell 5.1 percent to $30.79 billion, the lowest figure since the $30.18 billion recorded in June 1999, on smaller shipments of industrial goods, machinery and equipment and energy products. It also cited a 3.2 percent reduction in prices. The figures reflect the continuing damage that the world economic crisis is wreaking on Canada, a leading commodity producer which sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States. Exports have declined by 30.6 percent since July 2008. "Clearly, Canada's export sector continues to struggle against a tide of sluggish demand, but also the headwinds brought about from a pretty significant appreciation in the Canadian dollar, which gained a lot of traction in April," said Charmaine Buskas, economics strategist at TD Securities. "The undercurrent in trade is unlikely to significantly change in the near term. The Canadian dollar continues to broadly rally against the U.S. dollar and is poised to appreciate even further in the near term. This complicates the export profile." April imports dropped 1.5 percent to C$30.96 billion, the lowest since the $30.89 billion recorded in December 2004, on lower volumes of imports of machinery and industrial goods. Imports have dropped by 21.6 percent since last July. The Canadian currency slipped on the data and at 10.20 a.m. was at C$1.1101 to the U.S. dollar, or 90.08 U.S. cents, compared to Tuesday's finish at C$1.1032 to the U.S. dollar, or 90.65 U.S. cents. "The trade picture ... tends to trample on some of those economic sprouts the market has been looking for," said HSBC Securities economist Stewart Hall. "The Achilles heel of the economic recovery story has been a paucity of hard economic data supporting the survey data that has hinted at a near term bottoming out (or) stabilization." In recent weeks Canadian government ministers have expressed optimism that the worst of the crisis might be over. To underline the general feeling of gloom, Statscan said the prices of new homes in April fell by 0.6 percent from March and by 3.0 percent from April 2008. The year-on-year decline was the largest since the 3.2 percent fall recorded in December 1991. Market analysts had expected new housing prices to fall by 0.4 percent from March. It was the seventh consecutive month-on-month drop. ($1=$1.11 Canadian) (Reporting by David Ljunggren)

Anti-Indian Race Violence Spreads To Canada Source: http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/msid-4319195,prtpage-1.cms 10 Jun 2009, Close on the heels of Indians being attacked in Australia, six members of the community were racially assaulted by a group of young Canadians while playing tennis on the outskirts of Vancouver. Police have arrested four Canadians, including a woman, in connection with the assault for shouting racial slurs at and robbing a group of tennis players in Aldergrove on Friday last. The four -- all in their teens -- have been charged with robbery, assault with a weapon and uttering threats. The attack began when a group of four teenagers approached six players at the Jackman Park tennis courts. The youths allegedly used a metal bar and boards ripped off a fence to menace the six victims, all the while shouting racial slurs' local media reported quoting police. The players were herded into a corner of the court, and one was hit on the head by a thrown board. Their personal belongings were taken by the teenagers. The B.C. Hate Crime Team is helping the Langley RCMP with the investigation, said RCMP Cpl. Holly Marks. Rodney Mercieca, a 19-year-old Surrey man, and Lesley Rothwell, an 18-year-old Langley woman, have both been charged with four counts of robbery, one count of uttering threats, six counts of assault with a weapon, and one count of assault causing bodily harm. Mercieca has also been charged with breaching his probation. He had been bound by a probation order on June 4, the day before the attack, said Marks. Mercieca will now remain in custody until June 12 when he will be back before a Surrey Provincial Court judge for a bail hearing, while Rothwell has been released on several conditions, including no contact orders with the victims or her co-accused. The other two accused are minors, both Langley boys, aged 15 and 16. The 15-year-old has been charged with two counts of robbery, breach of recognisance, uttering threats and assault with a weapon. He will remain in custody to appear in Surrey Youth Court on June 17. The 16-year-old is charged with two counts of robbery and one count of assault with a weapon. He has been released to appear in court on the 17th, and will be under a curfew and no-contact orders.

Five Stabbings at St. Joseph's Secondary (Catholic) school in Mississauga 2 students arrested http://www.canada.com/News/injured+after+stabbing+Toronto+suburb+school/1704894 Excerpts from article by: Megan O'Toole, National PostJune 17, 2009   MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Two youths have been arrested after a knife fight at St. Joseph's Secondary School sent four students to hospital along with a teacher who intervened. Peel Regional Police said Wednesday afternoon that the youths, aged 16 and 17, face one count of attempted murder and several other weapons-related charges. They cannot be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Both are scheduled to appear Thursday in the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton. Police arrived at the school shortly before 8:30 a.m. to find the victims suffering from various injuries, said Sgt. Zahira Shah. One of the stabbing victims, a Grade 12 student, told the National Post he saw two groups of teenagers facing off in a hallway, and one student pulled what looked like a large knife. "He started to go crazy and stab everyone," the student said. The Grade 12 student said he jumped into the fracas, and was slashed in the back; he showed a Post reporter the blood on his shirt. The teacher tried to intervene, and was stabbed in the hand, but the injury appeared minor, said the student, who returned to school after a brief hospital visit. Bruce Campbell, a spokesman for the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board, said the parents of all students involved in the incident were notified and a lockdown imposed after the incident was later lifted. ''All of the individuals involved were members of the school community," he said. One of the victims was taken to a trauma centre and three others were transported to hospital. He did not know extent of the injuries. Campbell said usually there are about 1,800 students at St. Joseph's, but because it was an exam day there were only about 1,000 students in the school at the time. Exams have been rescheduled for Monday, he added. ''It's an extremely safe school. . . . This is an unusual incident, to be sure,'' said Campbell. Mississauga is about 25 kilometres southwest of Toronto.

Bishop Mylo Vergara, Visiting Toronto From The Philippines, Calls On Filipino Youth To Evangelize http://www.catholicregister.org/content/view/3160/849/ Written by Carolyn Girard, The Catholic Register, Friday, 05 June 2009 Filipino Catholics have a great responsibility for evangelization and they should embrace their culture in the faith context, Bishop Mylo Vergara told a group of 540 youth and young adults. The 46-year-old bishop, from the Philippines diocese of San Jose, Nueva Ecija, reminded the large group that they are children of the only Catholic country in Asia Pacific and represent the third largest Asian-Canadian group. He was in Toronto as the guest speaker at the Office of Catholic Youth’s Filipino-themed Banquet on May 28. “I think there is a reason, given our population and migration, perhaps knowing we are the only Catholic nation in Asia and can reside in other countries, to proclaim what Jesus proclaimed,” Vergara said. Using Powerpoint, the bishop flipped through statistics about immigration and world populations. Of the 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide, he said the Philippines contains the tenth largest population of Catholics — 70 million people from a national population of nearly 98 million. Canada accepted an influx or 20,500 Filipino immigrants yearly between 2001 and 2006, and continues to welcome more, Vergara added, making Filipino culture relevant to Canadians. “I hope when we reflect on our culture that we will appreciate who we are as sent by God into this world,” he said. “And our evangelization must be done with recognition to our culture.” Vergara emphasized that Filipino culture is family-oriented, “kundiman”-oriented (expressing emotion and devotion through song), “bayani”-oriented (knowing their heroes) and spirit-oriented. It must be lived out in the Western world and be permeated with devotion to the Holy Family and to the Eucharist, and with service and trust in the Holy Spirit, He said Filipinos have learned how to be joyful even amidst pain and suffering. One day, travelling through his rural diocese which had been ravaged by a storm, he passed victims of the tragedy who were still smiling and whose children continued to play and laugh, he said. The tolerance to pain has been lost in the Western world, and Filipinos must help other Canadians understand how to be joyful amidst suffering, through dedication to the Filipino culture. Filipinos have been able to preserve religious traditions by affixing them to more secular events, such as beauty pageants, said Vlad Mamradlo, a recent graduate of the University of Toronto and parishioner of St. Paschal Baylon Church in Thornhill, who attended the banquet. During the banquet, a group of Filipino-Canadian youth put on a fashion show to exhibit traditional Filipino clothing. Religious fashion shows are often held in the Philippines in celebration of St. Helen, a festival known as Santacruzan. But the girls also wore sashes inscribed with virtues or titles given to Mary, the mother of Jesus. They placed flowers at the feet of a statue of Mary, incorporating the traditions of the festival of Flores de Mayo. “As Filipinos, we have received the faith in a way that is rooted in the Filipino culture,” Mamradlo said. “For me, what that would mean is that there isn’t such a huge gap between the secular and the sacred.” Many of the youth wore traditional Filipino clothing to the banquet, such as the baro’t saya, the barong Tagalog or the Maria Clara. Christian Elia, director of the OCY announced that next year’s banquet will feature Polish culture to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death. This year’s banquet had the largest turnout so far. The OCY has been hosting a yearly youth banquet for the past decade, but began highlighting different cultures within the archdiocese of Toronto in 2007.

Group Calls for 'Renewed Vision' for Schools: Report http://www.cfra.com/?cat=1&nid=65725 Josh Pringle | Monday, June 8, 2009 The group People for Education is calling for a "renewed vision" for public schools.  A report released today says students are being forced to pay out of their own pockets for art supplies, sports equipment and materials in core learning classes such as science or French.  The group says 63 per cent of secondary schools charge fees for labs and course material. More than 50 per cent of schools charge fees for arts classes.  The report shows in the 2007-2008 school year, schools and parents raised $595 million through fundraising and corporate and charitable donations.  Executive Director Annie Kidder says the government needs to find new ways to look at education by focusing on the creation of community hubs for parents and children.  Kidder also wants the government to address the issue of donations and fundraising through a ministry-created policy.

Japan urges Sri Lanka to engage global community http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hNU7QNvrsRC9k COLOMBO (AFP) — Japan on Thursday urged Sri Lanka to develop closer ties with the international community as Colombo tries to rebuild the war-battered north of the island after decades of bloody ethnic conflict. Yasushi Akashi, a peace envoy for Tokyo, Sri Lanka's largest aid donor, said the government in Colombo needed to engage in a "continuous dialogue with the international community". "Sri Lanka needs and deserves more fruitful two-way dialogue with the international community with as many countries as possible as well as with the UN and other organisations," he said. In recent months Colombo has angrily fended off criticism of its massive offensive against the Tamil Tigers, including allegations that government troops killed thousands of civilians before it defeated the separatist rebels. Sri Lanka has also barred aid workers, rights activists and journalists from working freely in the north, where hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians displaced by the fighting have been confined to heavily guarded camps. The envoy said Sri Lanka "has lots to do" to improve the conditions of those living in the overcrowded camps in the north, where there are shortages of food, water, sanitation and medicines. "Many people appeared to be undernourished," he said after a visit. Akashi, ending a three-day trip to the island, said Sri Lanka may have lobbied enough diplomatic support to block a war crimes probe, but he hinted the government had severely damaged its ties with many nations. A stand-off at the UN's Human Rights Commission last month, he said, was "an indication that lots needs to be done to bridge the different perceptions and different priorities in countries." "There is always a need for more candid dialogue with international friends," Akashi said. Sri Lanka has locked horns with Western nations and accuses international aid agencies of having supported Tamil rebels. It has won support from Russia and China to keep the issue off the Security Council's agenda. Akashi said international opinion was divided on the way the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended, and why so many casualties took place during the final stages of the nearly four-decade conflict. The LTTE was accused of holding tens of thousands of Tamil civilians as human shields, but government troops were also accused of indiscriminately shelling rebel-held areas packed with civilians.