Canada to start accepting more immigrants

Canada to start accepting more immigrants

BETH DUFF-BROWN
Associated Press

TORONTO - Canada's government unveiled changes to its immigration policy Monday, including plans to take in up to 300,000 new immigrants annually within the next five years.

Immigration Minister Joe Volpe, in a report on immigration introduced in the lower House of Commons, said Canada accepted nearly 236,000 immigrants last year, facilitated 2,000 international adoptions and reunited 6,000 refugee spouses and children with their families.

He said Canada intends to accept as many as 255,000 new immigrants next year.

"Looking to the future, more successful and well integrated newcomers in all parts of Canada are key to nation building and to our economic prosperity," Volpe said in his annual report on immigration.

The U.S. is headed toward lockdown while Canada is opening its doors to the world.

Canada criticizes US border lockdown

Canada urges U.S. to 'take time to get it right' in requiring border IDs

Stephen Thorne
Canadian Press

Monday, October 31, 2005

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada urged the United States on Monday to "take the time to get it right" in developing new border identification requirements, cautioning it to not throw the baby out with the bathwater in its bid for tighter security.

In a submission to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the federal government asked Washington not to be tied to its January 2008 deadline for new border identification requirements. It said it is critical that, while enhancing security, the two governments "streamline the movement of low-risk travellers and trade."

"Changes to document requirements on either side of the border - if not done right - have the potential to disrupt the health of our economies," said the brief, citing tourism and the auto sector as examples of countless industries that rely on a border that is both secure and efficient.

"It would also cause significant disruption in shared border communities across Canada and the United States. Backlogs and congestion themselves create security vulnerabilities."

The report comes in response to the U.S. Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which would require cross-border travellers to carry passports or some other secure identification document yet to be determined.

Critics fear the plan could cost both countries billions of dollars in trade and tourism, as well as immeasurable costs, including damage to cross-border relationships.

Currently, Canadians and Americans need only a birth certificate or driver's licence to cross the border. The Americans are considering a so-called "passport lite" for residents living near the border as a cheaper, easy-to-carry alternative to a regular passport.

The border lockdown. Isn't this what the neo-cons complained about with the Soviets?

Read the rest here.

Canada supports quake relief

Canada boosts funding for quake relief efforts

Ottawa is increasing its funding for relief efforts in quake-ravaged South Asia by $20 million, bringing the federal government's commitment to $57 million, International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll said Wednesday.

"Half of this will go to the South Asia Earthquake Matching Fund; the remaining $10 million will go to the two appeals that we have now received -- one from the United Nations and one from the Red Cross movement," said Carroll, with Foreign Affairs Pierre Pettigrew by her side.

Canada works with the international community not against it.

Canada take the lead against bird flu

Canada hosts bird flu response summit
OTTAWA, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A two-day international summit of 29 health ministers concerned with a potential bird flu pandemic opened in Ottawa Monday.

The meeting is intended to help affected Asian and European nations strengthen their means of early disease detection and response to a potential avian flu pandemic, as well as addressing issues relating to the development and distribution of an avian flu vaccine and antiviral medicines.

Among the international agencies represented are the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the World Organization for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

There have been 120 confirmed cases of bird flu being transmitted to humans in Asia, of which at least 60 have been fatal. In the past two weeks, thousands of birds have been culled in southern and western Europe as the related H5 strain of virus has turned up.

Sunday, Britain reported a quarantined parrot died of the H5N1 strain. The bird had recently been imported from Suriname on South America's northeast coast.

Good to see someone take the lead against this public health menace.

Canada takes stand against big tobacco

Canada ruling strikes blow to tobacco firms

Landmark decision allows a province to sue for smoking-related public health costs.

By Rebecca Cook Dube Contributor of The Christian Science Monitor

TORONTO – Canada is now the first country outside the US where governments can sue tobacco manufacturers to recover billions of dollars in smoking-related health costs, thanks to a unanimous Canadian Supreme Court ruling last week. Tobacco foes hope other countries will follow Canada's litigious lead.

"Canada is a pioneer in this," says Richard Daynard, president of the Tobacco Control Resource Center. "The legislation would obviously be available as a model for legislation in any other country."

British Columbia's law, upheld last Thursday by the Canadian Supreme Court, allows the western province to sue tobacco companies for the cost of treating past and future health problems related to smoking. Experts estimate the province's claim could reach $8.6 billion ($10 billion Canadian). If Canada's nine other provinces follow British Columbia's lead - and several already plan to do so - experts say claims against the tobacco industry could top $86 billion.

Thank you Canada for taking the lead on this important issue.