New poll shows cracks in immigration support

Thu, June 25, 2009
By ELIZABETH THOMPSON, Sun Media

OTTAWA — The number of Canadians who say immigration has a positive effect on their community has dropped “noticeably” over the past two years and is now at the lowest level since the government started tracking attitudes in 2004.

A public opinion poll conducted for the immigration department earlier this year found there is still strong support among most Canadians for immigration and most Canadians consider immigration beneficial. But it also showed signs that support might be slipping.

Study blames alcohol for half 1990s Russian deaths

Thu, June 25, 2009
By DOUGLAS BIRCH – THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOSCOW (AP) — A new study by an international team of public health researchers documents the devastating impact of alcohol abuse on Russia — showing that drinking caused more than half of deaths among Russians aged 15 to 54 in the turbulent era following the Soviet collapse.

The 52 percent figure compares to estimates that less than 4 percent of deaths worldwide are caused by alcohol abuse, according to the study by Russian, British and French researchers published in Friday’s edition of the British medical journal The Lancet.

US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

By Tom Leonard in Flint, Michigan
Published: 6:30PM BST 12 Jun 2009

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

Animal Farm still hits raw nerve for Poles

Tue, June 9, 2009
The production at London’s Polish school underscores totalitarianism that threatens freedom in the world today
By KATE DUBINSKI

In the darkened school gymnasium, as the teenagers shout “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,” with Polish communist songs interspersed in the background, it’s hard to know who finds the moment most significant.

Is it the watching parents, who remember being forced to sing those songs in school, who immediately, unconsciously, sit a little straighter when the drum starts to beat?

Is it the teens on stage, most born here in Canada but who hear stories about the forbidden play their parents weren’t allowed to read?

Or is it the teacher who remembers the years before coming here, when teaching George Orwell’s Animal Farm in Poland wasn’t even an option?

Bet dieting takes hold in the UK

A new method of losing weight by betting on your own success is gaining popularity in the UK.

Bet dieters join a website and make a commitment to lose a certain amount of weight over a defined period of time.

Then, if they fail to meet their targets, money is withdrawn from their account and paid to a charity of their choice.

Darker the skin, less you fit

May 14, 2009 04:30 AM
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Immigration Reporter

Vanessa Kirunda is the last person you’d expect to be looked down on.

Poised, articulate, educated and confident, Kirunda, a black woman, can dissect and analyze why Canadians treat her differently.

But all bets were off when schoolmates called her 10-year-old son Sean a n—–. Three times. Three different children.

“I anticipated this would happen, but it breaks my heart. Something is wrong when children say these things. On top of everything, I’m not going to have my child degraded,” said the Mississauga resident.

Tim Hortons is the great equalizer: poll

By John Ward, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Wed May 27, 2009

OTTAWA — The double double and cruller have it over the latte and biscotti hands down, a new poll suggests.

The survey suggests that fans of the iconic Tim Hortons brand — which has outlets from Kelowna to Kandahar — outnumber Starbucks people 4-1.

And it indicates that Tim Hortons is the great Canadian leveller, whose popularity cuts across political lines and unites old and young, rich and poor.