Formal Accord Dept: Kenney made the pledge after he and French counterpart Eric Besson completed a meeting in Paris they organized with ministers from Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece and Belgium, according to Montreal Gazette. Kenney said Parliament should consider minimum jail sentences for people-smugglers to send a strong message, following the recent landing of 492 Tamil migrants in B.C and the federal government will attempt to toughen its domestic anti-smuggling law and seek a formal accord with the European Union in a bid to contain the inflow of bogus refugee claimants, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The seven, representing many of the world's top recipient countries for asylum seekers, agreed to look for ways to accelerate the removal of failed claimants. As reported in the news.
@t eric besson, french counterpart

International Adult Dept: Low literacy is defined by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's International Adult Literacy Skills Survey as having difficulty in reading, understanding and functioning effectively with written materials, according to CTV. More than 15 million Canadian adults will have low literacy skills by 2031, up 25 per cent from 2001. However, the percentage of adults with low literacy skills in 2031 will actually dip to 47 per cent -- a three per cent decline over a 30-year-period. In "The Future of Literacy in Canada's Largest Cities," the council also took an unprecedented look at adult literacy projections for Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa. Ottawa is predicted to see an 80 per cent surge in the number of adults with low literacy skills, from more than 275,000 in 2001 to nearly half a million in 2031 and canada may be among the leaders of industrialized nations and rank among the best educated countries, but the report from the Canadian Council on Learning suggests the country is hardly immune from literacy problems within the population. The council's report projects there will be little to no change in the proportion of adults with low literacy in Canada overall, and a small increase in the total number of adults with low literacy within the next two decades. As reported in the news.
@t literacy skills, canadian adults

Tamil Dept: Since getting deported to Sri Lanka seven years ago, Sanjeev Kuhendrarajah says he has tried to build a new life, according to CTV. But once again, Kuhendrarajah has ended up separated from his family and stuck in a country where he does not want to be and a man who was kicked out of Canada for his criminal behaviour and former ties to a Tamil street gang says he is determined to get back to the country where he spent his formative years. The 28-year-old got married, started a business and tried to stay out of trouble. As reported in the news.
@t formative years, seven years

Dangerous Operation Dept: On Wednesday, as Brace appealed convictions for dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest, a three-judge panel heard there is evidence four Toronto police officers beat the Albanian immigrant and rammed his head into a cruiser three or four times, according to The Star. A balding officer with a goatee smashed Brace s head into the rear passenger side of a cruiser three or four times, according to Groenendyk, who later filed a complaint with the Toronto Police Service s professional standards unit and back in 2007, a Toronto trial judge warned Eugjen Brace that if he violated his bail conditions, the court would arrange to have some big black guy positioned behind him in the shower in jail. Kim Groenendyk, a senior policy adviser with Ontario s natural resources ministry and the daughter of a Guelph police superintendent witnessed the incident from the balcony of her Rusholme Ave. apartment on Aug. 20, 2004, and made notes about what she saw, including officers kneeing and punching Brace in the abdomen and back. As reported in the news.
@t police superintendent, policy adviser

Sokolsky Dept: They didn t have two nickels to rub together, Sokolsky says of the turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants who paved the way for a post-war wave from Eastern Europe a pattern of migration that continues today from Israel and the former Soviet Union, according to The Star. They didn t call it city building back then, but that s what it was, he says and for Ted Sokolsky, there s a back-to-the-future feeling as an ambitious project launched by the Jewish community part of a $450 million GTA-wide renewal plan begins to emerge in Vaughan. But no matter how terrible things were, they always had this propensity to build communal infrastructure, says Sokolsky, president of the United Jewish Appeal Federation. As reported in the news.
@t future feeling, jewish immigrants

Economic Prosperity Dept: By 2031, more than 15 million Canadian adults three million more than today will have low literacy levels, the Canadian Council on Learning says in the report released Wednesday, according to CBC. With low literacy skills, a person can deal "only with simple, clear material involving uncomplicated tasks," the council said and the number of Canadian adults with low literacy levels will increase 25 per cent in the next two decades, creating a "literacy dilemma" if the problem isn't addressed immediately, a new report says. "Unless some action is taken to reverse this trend, the literacy dilemma we are facing can translate into profound challenges for Canada's social well-being and economic prosperity," the council warned. As reported in the news.
@t profound challenges, literacy skills

Marc Fournier Dept: Claude B chard, left, chats with provincial Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier at a ceremony Aug. 11 in Quebec City, two years after being diagnosed with cancer. Cl ment Allard/Canadian Press B chard, 41, died only a few hours after announcing his health had worsened and he was resigning as minister of agriculture and intergovernmental affairs and as the legislature member for Kamouraska-T miscouata, according to CBC. In Quebec, national funerals are offered for personalities who have marked Quebec politics or its cultural and social life. State funerals are offered for current or former premiers and, on occasion, for former ministers and a national funeral will be held Saturday for Quebec cabinet minister Claude B chard, who died after a public battle with cancer, Premier Jean Charest announced Wednesday. The flag at the national assembly in Quebec City was lowered to half-mast after the news. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Cath drale Sainte-Anne in Saint-Anne-de-la-Pocati re, in B chard's riding. As reported in the news.
@t quebec politics, being diagnosed with cancer

Sun Sea Dept: Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced Tuesday that the government will publish a series of advertisements in partnership with Crime Stoppers to teach Canadians how to detect signs of trafficking and report their suspicions to authorities, according to CBC. Boat People: 1975 -1980 The arrival in August of a ship carrying hundreds of Tamil migrants has prompted the federal government to launch a human trafficking awareness campaign, but some immigration experts are questioning whether that tactic is the best approach. Toews said that while the case of the 492 migrants who arrived in B.C. aboard the MK Sun Sea ship was an example of human smuggling, not trafficking, he noted that smuggling sometimes turns to trafficking if those being transported are unable to make payment. Archives As reported in the news.
@t human trafficking, human smuggling

Human Trafficking Dept: Toews, in announcing an anti-trafficking program modelled after Crime Stoppers, acknowledged that smuggling -- facilitating the illegal movement of people across international borders -- can sometimes become trafficking, which is defined as the exploitation of migrants who cannot pay the usurious fees they are charged. Toews' "Blue Blindfold" campaign calls on Canadians to report suspicious activity, such as migrants who are forced into the sex trade to pay off debts, according to Calgary Herald. Both initiatives come in the wake of last month's arrival of the MK sun Sea, a ship carrying hundreds of Tamil migrants. The going rate commanded by smugglers is about $50,000 per head for their Asian clients, a figure leading to the assumption that only the wealthy can afford it. This is hardly the case. Smugglers, whether they be Mexican "coyotes" or Asian "snakeheads," often operate on convenient instalment plans. Those who miss payments risk having loved ones back home being raped, tortured or killed. Or, they can be threatened directly and o n Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews drew a distinction between human smuggling and human trafficking. The impression he left was that smuggling is the lesser of the evils. Whether someone is involved in human smuggling or human trafficking to us seems irrelevant. When human beings are treated as commodities, those involved should be dealt with harshly, which is why we prefer the less-muddied suggestion made by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney that there be mandatory minimum jail sentences for human smugglers. As reported in the news.
@t vic toews, calgary herald

Jason Kenney Dept: Having exhausted all legal recourse, Gloria Patricia Uribe's lawyer yesterday asked Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to grant her and her daughters, ages 2 and 10, a temporary residency permit. A reporter's call to Kenney's office in Ottawa was not returned, according to Montreal Gazette. Ifaza refused to turn over half his profits to them and later killed a paramilitary in self-defence as a group attacked him. His son Luis later killed another paramilitary member, also in self-defence and weeping and holding the younger of her two children in her arms, a failed Colombian refugee claimant has appealed to the Canadian government for asylum based on her fear of retribution should she be deported. Uribe's fear arises from a conflict between paramilitary forces and her family that began after Uribe began living with her uncle Luis Alfonso Ifaza in 1999 on his cattle farm near Medellin. As reported in the news.
@t cattle farm, immigration minister