Nicolas Sarkozy Dept: - BRITAIN Prime Minister David Cameron is fulfilling his campaign vow to restrict non-European Union immigration, according to Calgary Herald. - GERMANY A book critical of immigrants for failing to assimilate, by banker Thilo Sarrazin, resulted in a denunciation from Chancellor Angela Merkel and his resignation from the German central bank's board. There is speculation that a far-right party could break the five per cent threshold to win seats in parliament for the first time since the Nazi era and anti-immigrant, far-right political parties have played an increasingly influential role in European politics since the global economic crisis. Here's a rundown: - FRANCE Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right National Front bounced back in spring regional elections. President Nicolas Sarkozy is clearing illegal Roma camps in an attempt to win that vote back. As reported in the news.
@t president nicolas sarkozy, angela merkel

Wait Time Dept: The desire to become a new citizen in Calgary requires a lot of patience. The city has one of the longest wait times in the country. Canada's Citizenship and Immigration office has a backlog of applications with a wait time of nineteen months. As reported in the news.
@t wait times, country canada

Rocco Dept: Background : In a March 4 speech, Rossi said the city needs a transit system that will support the wave of newcomers coming to Toronto over the next decade, according to The Star. The one million figure soon became a staple in Ford s talking points. On a televised debate, he questioned the value of immigrants when, he said, the city struggles to serve the needs of the people already living here and claim : Rocco Rossi and Rob Ford have both said Toronto will be absorbing one million newcomers over the next 10 years. We re getting one million new people in the next 10 years. That s either a fabulous economic opportunity or a recipe for disaster, he said. As reported in the news.
@t one million, newcomers

Six Hours Dept: Hilton flew out of Tokyo's Narita Airport on Wednesday after submitting to six hours of questioning, according to media reports, according to Calgary Herald. Hilton flew to Japan via private jet Tuesday so she could make several promotional appearances for her various lines of branded fashion stuff, but was barred from entering the country because of her recent drug arrest and you now have more reason to visit Japan: Paris Hilton isn't allowed into the country. "I'm going back home, and I look forward to coming back to Japan in the future," Hilton told reporters, adding, "I'm really tired." As reported in the news.
@t paris hilton, private jet

Refugee Status Dept: The new category would have allowed claimants who arrived in a large group to be detained for two weeks rather than the usual 48 hours before their first hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board. To put the 500 Tamils in perspective, about 30,000 people claim refugee status every year in Canada, according to Montreal Gazette. Fortunately, the prime minister rejected the proposal on Tuesday, choosing instead to focus on the smugglers. These smugglers profit from other people's misery, secure in the knowledge that Canada's strict legal procedures mean claimants will remain in the country, at least for a while. But as tempting as it is to tailor-make legislation to deal with people-smugglers, Canada already has laws that can be used against them. The real challenge is to get hold of them, especially if they remain offshore and but the people they were smuggling, people so frantic to flee that they are willing to hand over everything they own to get somewhere safe, were never a fair target. Yet as recently as Tuesday, this was a distinction that was lost on members of the Conservative government. They proposed creating a new category of "mass arrival" refugee claimant in the wake of the arrival of nearly 500 Tamil refugees off the coast of British Columbia last month. Mass-arrival claimants would have been turned into a lower category of less-believable refugee claimants simply because of the method they used to leave their homeland. Canadian legal scholars were fast to point out the unfairness of subverting people's constitutional and human rights in that way. As reported in the news.
@t tamil refugees, immigration and refugee

Vancouver Sun Dept: On the populist Right, members of the upstart Tea Party movement promote conspiracy theories to the effect that President Barack Obama wasn't born American and is a secret Muslim. The noisy Left is not much better. Its members try to shut down anyone who disagrees with them on issues of taxes, immigration or mosques at Ground Zero by throwing accusations of xenophobia, racism and bigotry. This is tantamount to delegitimizing the political participation of hundreds of thousands of Americans, according to Vancouver Sun. In truth, there's a fair bit of anti-intellectualism on both sides of the ideological divide these days. This is not new in American culture. In 1963, the historian Richard Hofstadter published a book about the phenomenon, Anti-intellectualism in American Life. Hofstadter linked this anti-intellectualism to religion, particularly fundamentalist Protestantism; to the tendency of business to focus on practical concerns at the expense of intellectual effort; and yes, to a populist impulse among the masses and to watch American politics nowadays is to worry, as both the Left and the Right in that country continue to flirt with extremism. This is not good for the United States or, by extension, the western world. The Left largely regards the Tea Party as a circus of the ill-educated and ignorant, and it demeans Tea Party leaders Sarah Palin, for example as little more than hicks. The Left, however, is forgetting the populist roots of its own progressive agenda recall the 1960s' counterculture movement . As reported in the news.
@t sarah palin, anti intellectualism

Metro Morning Dept: - Mr. Ford says city council voted to spend $360-million to tear down the Gardiner Expressway. No such decision has been made. City council voted in July, 2008, only to launch a study into the future of the elevated expressway. The study was expected to cost about $8-million. Mayor David Miller has made it clear he would like to take down the Gardiner east of Jarvis and one city estimate put the cost at about $360-million, but that is only one option under study and council has never voted to approve it, according to Globe And Mail. - Mr. Ford said on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning this week that in 2000 the city had a $6.5-billion budget and “now we have almost a $12-billion budget.” In fact, the city’s operating budget has risen from about $6-billion in 2000 to $9.2-billion today. It reaches almost $12-billion only if you add in the capital budget, which pays for road repairs, transit expansion and other projects. Capital spending was not included in Mr. Ford’s 2000 figure, so his comparison exaggerates the growth in spending. - When he talks about overspending at city hall, Mr. Ford often cites the controversial new bike lane on Jarvis Street. He says it cost $6-million. The actual cost was $59,000, $6,000 less than the city’s $65,000 estimate. The money was used to install bike-lane signs, paint new lines on the pavement and remove the overhead signals for Jarvis’s old reversing traffic lane. - Mr. Ford says that under Toronto’s “tax, tax, tax, spend, spend, spend” government, “residents of this city have been hit with a property-tax increase of 5 per cent every year.” After all the waste that taxpayers see, he said at a debate on Tuesday night, “it just infuriates them when they turn around and have to pay a 5-per-cent property tax.” In fact, homeowners’ property taxes went up 2.9 per cent this year, 4 per cent last year and 3.75 per cent in 2008. There has never been a property tax increase of 5 per cent since Mr. Ford was first elected in 2000. As reported in the news.
@t gardiner east, gardiner expressway

Jeffry Dept: Carla Campana, 24, was put on a plane to Santiago on Tuesday night, her lawyer Jeffry House said, according to CTV. But Campana insists she thought the group's goal was to promote the advancement of Latin women and she didn't know about the group's alleged illegal activities and tORONTO — A Toronto woman who said cupcakes and a stuffed animal are her only links to a gang has been deported to Chile. Campana -- who does not have a criminal record -- is accused of being a member of the Almighty Latin Kings and Queens Nation, also known as the Latin Kings. Toronto police allege the local chapter has been involved in firearms crimes, drugs and aggravated assault. As reported in the news.
@t toronto police, almighty latin kings and queens nation

Federal Court Decision Dept: The ruling overturns decisions by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to reject six permanent resident applicants. The rejections occurred after they failed to respond to emails asking them for more documents, according to CBC. A Federal Court justice ruled that if the government chooses to send critical information by email, it bears the risk of failed transmission and a Federal Court decision involving transmitting important decisions by email could have wide-reaching implications for government, says a Vancouver lawyer. Jamil Azimzadeh, a Coquitlam, B.C., immigration consultant who handled their cases, said he never received the emails. His lawyer, Richard Kurland, argued in Federal Court that while the government's records showed the emails had been relayed, there was no evidence they'd ever been received. As reported in the news.
@t vancouver lawyer, citizenship and immigration

Missus Dept: Well, the missus has finally spoken up about it all, in Harper's Bazaar. Key quote: "I chose not to act from ego because I just felt like it would be too crushing for my children.", according to Montreal Gazette. But won't she also have to explain it to son Cassius, 10? Maybe she'll make Dad explain it to him and remember actor Balthazar Getty, father of four, leaving wife Rosetta to take up with starlet Sienna Miller two years ago? Remember the pix of him smooching with a topless Miller on a boat at some Italian resort? Remember him finally crawling back home? She added this: "I'm going to have to explain this to my daughters one day." Those would be Grace, 8; Violet, 7; and June Catherine, 2. As reported in the news.
@t montreal gazette, sienna miller