Mila & Arlei

O dia em que nos tornamos canadenses...

2012-01-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Tulum

2012-01-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

Riviera Maya II - Cenote

2012-01-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

Riviera Maya - Mexico

2011-12-26T11:50:00.003-07:00

Gostariamos de desejar a todos voces que acompanham o nosso blog um Feliz Natal e um Ano Novo cheio de bencaos! Abracos. Mila & Arlei

Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, Banff & Calgary

2011-10-25T18:33:00.000-06:00

Cut immigration applications to fix backlog, Kenney says

2011-10-24T20:46:00.001-06:00

By Laura Payton, CBC News

Canada needs to accept fewer applications from people wanting to live here, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says, and he's eyeing the family class for cuts.

Canada is facing too big a backlog and, despite accepting 254,000 applications every year, there are one million people who are waiting to hear whether they can move to Canada, the citizenship and immigration minister said Thursday.

Canada gets about 420,000 applications every year and refuses about 10 per cent of those.

Speaking to the House committee on citizenship and immigration, Kenney said processing applications faster won't fix the backlog problem. And it isn't possible to accept enough people to deal with it either.

The only options, he said, are to vastly increase acceptances, or take fewer applications and keep processing the ones already received.

"Those are the only two possible solutions. It's a math problem," Kenney told reporters after the committee meeting.

Cut family class applications

Kenney pointed to the family class, under which parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens can immigrate. His department received 37,500 applications in 2010 but admits 18,500. Right now, there's a 10-year wait time for processing.

"Merely for us just to tread water, we would have to double the number of people coming into that program … and that wouldn't even reduce the backlog," he said.

Kenney said other countries require a minimal family income, private health insurance or a bond to limit parent and grandparent applications.

Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said Kenney's right to suggest a cap on the parents and grandparents category.

"Unless you solve the intake problem, you're going to have a growing backlog with growing processing times and it's time to bite the bullet," he told reporters after the committee meeting.

Kurland said a 20,000 cap is appropriate, and that the government should break the applicants into categories.

"Bring in as priority one the single parents overseas. Priority two is you bring in parents where the families can pony up $75,000 up front to defray medicare costs, either with permanent resident visa on payment or [for $75,000] give that family a 10-year visitor visa to Canada and that way they can be here waiting until their number comes up in the immigration inventory overseas."

Speaking to Rosemary Barton on CBC's Power & Politics, Kenney called the $75,000 payment "a very interesting idea."

"I’ve heard similar ideas about asking people to share in a greater portion of the social and health-care costs. And maybe that’s one practical way of bringing more fairness while limiting the number of new applications so we can avoid the big backlogs. That’s a very valid idea," he said.

The Conservative government and previous Liberal governments averaged about 18,000 parent and grandparent entrants a year, he added.

Kenney says the department is launching consultations on cutting the backlog.

NDP immigration critic Don Davies said reducing parent and grandparent applications is the wrong way to go.

"What I object to the most is the minister has come into this so-called study, these meetings, with a preconceived conclusion. The only policy tool that he's looking at is capping applications. Well, that's not the only policy tool available to the minister," Davies said.

He wants Canada to accept another 100,000 immigrants every year, arguing a per capita measurement doesn't make sense because the country has so much space.

Should our kids be learning Brazilian Portuguese?

2011-10-20T20:58:00.001-06:00

By Ray Castelli, Vancouver Sun

Many parents I know have enrolled their kids in French immersion schools, or weekend Mandarin courses, in an effort to prepare the next generation for a competitive future world of open trading markets and portable skills. While commendable and far-sighted, I wonder how many parents have considered preparing their children for a world where Brazil becomes an economic powerhouse and significant trading partner for Canada?
I suspect not many. That should change.
Why should Brazil matter to Canada? It's now the world's seventh largest economy, one of the fastest growing and projected to be No. 5 within a few short years. Its natural resource based economy is similar to Canada's, as are the vast distances that separate its resources from its main population centres. Most importantly, it is a rapidly developing economy with specific needs - many of which Canada is uniquely positioned to address.
It should be no surprise, therefore, that one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's first foreign trade missions, since winning a new mandate, was to Brazil. Or that our new Trade Minister, Ed Fast, has already helped arrange two trade missions to that country in the past 100 days.
What they see is an opportunity for our businesses, our people and ultimately for our children.
Canada has much to offer Brazil. We have 80-plus years of experience in developing a natural resource economy, building critical infrastructure, and traversing large tracts of sensitive terrain in order to connect our resources to our population base. Developing infrastructure is a major priority for Brazil. In addition to hosting both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, Brazil has plans to invest more than $800 billion in new infrastructure projects over the next 10 years. One example of the types of solutions Canada can provide Brazil is the portable camp and shelter market. Canada is a world leader in this field, born out of decades of helping resource and construction companies provide high quality living conditions to workers.
Weatherhaven is a 30-year-old Vancouver-based company that develops portable and re-deployable shelter solutions for the natural resource, disaster relief and military markets. Our specialty is re-deployable camps in remote areas, particularly those requiring a very light environmental footprint. We have supplied customers in more than 50 countries and, after entering Brazil 10 years ago, have seen it become one of our fastest growing markets.
This past August, as a direct result of our participation in the PM's trade mission, Weatherhaven was able to secure a significant new deal with HRT, a very progressive and innovative Brazilian oil and gas company. This new opportunity, to build leadingedge sustainable exploration camps in the Amazon, will result in employment for British Columbians and create opportunities to export Canadianmade technology and services.
It's clear that Brazil is a country in fast-forward mode, with an ambitious well-financed government, and fuelled by natural resource revenues. Its large companies are becoming aggressive global players: Witness the recent acquisition of Canadian mining (Inco) and brewing companies (Labatt's) by larger, more global Brazilian competitors.
Ironically, the pace of Brazil's economic development outstrips its domestic R&D and education capabilities, which provides tremendous opportunities to Canadian companies and to our education sector to help them bridge those gaps. For instance, Canadian universities are already stepping up to meet that need. Canada has become the No. 1 destination for foreign education and training by Brazilian students.
If you don't know much about Brazil, or if your view of it is based on old stereotypes, you owe it to yourself and your children to learn more about this country. Not only won't you regret it, your children may one day tell you "Obrigado."
Ray Castelli is CEO of Vancouver-based Weatherhaven. The company recently started offering free Portuguese classes to all its Vancouver-based employees.

Rocky Mountains with Family III

2011-10-20T20:52:00.000-06:00

Rocky Mountains with Family II

2011-10-09T12:27:00.000-06:00

Canada - World's most respected country

2011-10-09T11:25:00.000-06:00

"According to some 42,000 survey respondents, Canada is the most respected country in the world, setting a standard for its level-headed economy and appealing environment. By the estimation of the world, Canada has the sixth-most advanced economy on earth, the fourth-most effective government and is the nation people say they'd like most to both live and work in when given the choice of any country around the globe."

By Jason Buckland, October 9, 2011

Rocky Mountains with Family

2011-10-05T19:50:00.000-06:00

Waterton National Park III

2011-09-24T21:06:00.000-06:00

Waterton National Park II

2011-09-18T11:56:00.000-06:00

Waterton National Park - Hiking

2011-09-14T20:43:00.000-06:00

Houston/Texas - Downtown

2011-08-28T11:01:00.000-06:00

Houston/Texas - NASA

2011-08-24T19:52:00.000-06:00

Elbow Falls

2011-08-03T21:36:00.000-06:00

Forget-me-not Pond

2011-07-24T18:50:00.000-06:00

Summer 2011 Part 2

2011-07-05T18:26:00.000-06:00

Summer 2011

2011-07-04T17:04:00.000-06:00

Placas Curiosas aqui em Calgary

2011-06-05T22:38:00.000-06:00

2011 homicides: Edmonton has 19; Calgary, 2. What's going on?

2011-04-25T10:52:00.004-06:00

Experts say 19 homicides to date this year don't mean Edmonton is unsafe

By Ryan Cormier,

EDMONTON - Though Edmonton has seen more than a homicide a week in 2011, experts say the city is safer than the numbers suggest.

The city officially has 19 homicides this year, much higher than average, though many are specific to the circumstance and present little danger to the larger public.

By comparison, Calgary has seen just two homicides so far this year.

“Very, very few homicides are completely random,” said Michael Gulayets, a criminologist at Grant MacEwan University. “In most cases, the victim and offender know each other, such as a domestic dispute or a drug transaction gone bad. Unless you are dealing drugs or involved in similar behaviour, Edmonton is a safe city.”

Two of the 19 homicides occurred in previous years and are only included in the 2011 numbers for bureaucratic reasons.

Two victims were shot by police. Another was killed in prison. Two were killed at known drug-houses and another two had criminal pasts and were facing charges at the time of their deaths.

Two more were killed in domestic situations by people they knew well.

One man died after a “minor assault” that police have said was not an intent to kill anyone.

Only four cases have the potential to be random, and none of them have been declared as such.

“The homicides we’ve seen have been, generally speaking, alcohol-fuelled spontaneous stabbings as opposed to organized crime or planned executions,” said Steven Bilodeau, Alberta’s Chief Crown Prosecutor. “It’s difficult to say why these are happening in such a cluster and the fact is it’s also very hard to take preventive steps against these sorts of criminal actions.”

Gulayets said homicide trends are often only visible in hindsight and not in the midst of a spike. Nineteen homicides will have 19 different explanations.

“Homicide is an extremely complicated human interaction. To try to sift it down to a simple explanation is folly,” he said.

Central Edmonton has seen more homicides than any other area, a common trend for a decade now.

Arlene Yakeley, chair of the Edmonton Police Commission, pointed out that this year’s homicides have not been marked by the patterns of years past.

“While violent crime has the tendency to make people feel unsafe, citizens need to know there is no pattern to these homicides, there are no drug wars, no gang connections and no obvious links between them.”

Edmonton is safe, Yakeley emphasized, a sentiment shared by Sgt. Tony Simioni, head of the Edmonton Police Association.

The city has always had factors that stand as root causes of homicide, he said, such as a significant “blue-collar” population and more young, single males than cities of comparable population such as Calgary or Ottawa.

Calgary currently has two homicides. Ottawa has had three. Vancouver has six.

Eleven of the 19 homicides are considered solved.

Other crimes in Edmonton have not seen the same spike. In the first quarter of 2011, assaults have dropped 8.3 per cent and robberies have dropped by 17 per cent. Break-and-enters have decreased by 43 per cent, when compared with the first quarter of 2010.

However, sexual assaults have jumped 16 per cent so far this year.

The history of homicide in Edmonton changed drastically in 2004 and 2005, as the most recent oil boom hit the province. Previously, the rough average was 20 homicides a year, and the 28 that occurred in 2004 set a record. That was smashed in 2005, with a huge leap to 39 killings.

That number stayed in the 30s for several years, before dropping to 27 in both 2009 and 2010.

In 2005, Edmonton’s city limits were home to 712,391 people. In 2009, that number had increased to 782,439.

From 2005 to 2008, the worst stretch for homicides in Edmonton’s history, the Eastwood neighbourhood often bore the worst brunt. The situation was particularly bad in the Fall of 2005, when a roving gang of youths killed two random people and injured a woman by dropping a cinder block on her head. The victims were chosen only because they were outside at night.

People were afraid to leave their homes, particularly near the intersection of 82nd Street and 118th Avenue. The area became the example of random homicides, those that scare residents the most.

“We basically barricaded ourselves under a siege attitude,” said Norm Aldi, past president of the Eastwood Community League. “But now, things have changed drastically in our little part of the world. We can walk the streets and feel secure.”

The community put pressure on Alberta Avenue restaurants that catered to the prostitutes and drug-dealers that lined the streets. Some closed down, some underwent a change in management. Once there was nowhere to go, those people began to disappear, Aldi said.

Derelict housing was tore down and residents began to improve their yards and homes without the fear of vandalism. The Edmonton Police Service used undercover cops on the streets to help regular patrol officers.

In 2004, city workers counted only four kids per hour going to the Eastwood Community League park. The ground was often littered with used condoms and needles. Last summer, the park was clean and an average of 35 kids an hour showed up.

“It was something we wanted to see, but only a few thought it could happen,” Aldi said proudly. “There were times we were really discouraged, those were bad times.”

There has only been one homicide in the Eastwood-Alberta Avenue area this year, and it was not random.

‘Big One’ in B.C. would be akin to Japan disaster

2011-03-13T17:41:00.000-06:00

By Cassidy Olivier, Postmedia News

VANCOUVER — Like many on Friday, Simon Fraser University earthquake expert John Clague watched with a mixture of fascination and horror as Japan struggled to cope with the devastation caused by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake that sparked an equally destructive tsunami that has left thousands dead or missing.

While the images of burning buildings and floating cars were impressive, it was something else, a little closer to home, that kept the professor of Earth sciences monitoring the headlines throughout the day.

What if the Big One hit here?

Like Japan, the West Coast of B.C. rests on a subduction zone — in this case the Cascadia Subduction Zone — the physical convergence of two tectonic plates that sees one plate, an oceanic plate, submerge under the other, either another oceanic plate or a continental plate.

The result is a highly unstable geographical area that features volcanoes, earthquakes and mountain ranges. The entire Pacific region is lined with these subduction zones, earning it the nickname the Ring of Fire.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone sits a few hundred kilometres off the coast of B.C. and stretches from the middle of Vancouver Island to Northern California. It marks the convergence of the submerging Juan de Fuca plate and the North American Plate. Movement here could produce an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 or greater.

Given their geographical similarities, what was happening in Japan Friday easily could serve as a carbon copy for what would happen in areas along the West Coast, in particular Vancouver and Victoria, should there be major movement along the Cascadia subduction.

While Vancouver Island should protect Vancouver from the brunt of the ensuing tsunami — which will be moving at speeds of 700 kilometres an hour, the equivalent of a jet — the devastation will still be catastrophic.

The question then, is how long before the Big One strikes?

“We can’t predict when the next one will occur,” said Clague. “But I would say that they are inevitable. We will experience one and what I’m most interested in is that this earthquake is a perfect analog for what we would expect to see on our coast.”

Clague said geographical evidence suggests there is major movement along the Cascadia subduction about every 400- 500 years, the last rupture occurring in about 1700 AD. The ensuing earthquake, estimated to be comparable to Thursday’s, is believed to have triggered a tsunami that struck Japan.

Should there be an earthquake, residents along B.C.’s coast likely would have 15 to 20 minutes to find high ground before the tsunami hit.

Clague said the amount of energy released during Japan’s 8.9 quake could be compared to the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, or just slightly less than the annual energy consumption of the United States. Based on similar earthquakes in the past, the number of expected aftershocks could be in the thousands, he added.

Clague said there is likely no link between the earthquake in Japan to New Zealand’s 6.3 quake last month, although there is some recent research that suggests that there could be a relationship between earthquakes in different parts of the world.

“Normally, we would say there’s no relation,” he said. “But there is some research that is being done that suggests there could be some subtle linkages.”

Vancouver Province
© Copyright (c) The Province

Winter 2011

2011-01-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

Tobogganing

2010-12-30T20:20:00.000-07:00