Le Journal De Montreal Dept: The move comes after an investigative reporter at le Journal de Montreal, posing as a young driver, was able to buy a certificate within minutes at six different schools several of them in the new immigrant neighbourhoods of Park Extension and C te-des-Neiges, according to CBC. Driving lessons were made mandatory in Quebec two years ago, and the Quebec Driving School Association said it learned of improprieties among certain problematic schools not long after the change took effect and quebec's automobile insurance board, la Societe de l'assurance automobile du Quebec, is shutting down six driving schools in the Montreal region, after reports they sold course completion certificates without requiring students to take their courses. The certificates, normally awarded to people who have undergone ten hours of theory, allow the bearer to obtain a learner's permit. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Economic Health Dept: It would be nice if he had shared with us his concerns about the aging of the population, and the threat it poses to our long-run social and economic health, during the last election, rather than joining in the all-party consensus that there was nothing wrong with Canada that could not be fixed with more and richer promises to the elderly, according to Vancouver Sun. First, a little demographic arithmetic. Over the next 20 years, as each year's litter of baby boomers reaches the traditional retirement age of 65, the proportion of the population drawing a pension will double, from roughly 12 per cent now to 25 per cent and at last, the hidden agenda, and not a moment too soon. Vague, indirect and overseas as it was, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Davos speech was perilously close to a vision statement, of a kind the prime minister has seldom made until now, and will henceforth have to make often. Instead, we are now past the Tories' sixth anniversary in power and the conversation, judging by the shocked reaction to Harpers's speech, has barely begun. Fine: let us at least hope it now continues. Because things are about to become real in a hurry, and it is long since time we did the same. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Honour Killing Dept: But legal experts and those who work in women's shelters say once the words are stripped away, the crime is one that happens far too often in Quebec and the rest of Canada: women being killed for not doing or behaving as they are told, according to Montreal Gazette. "It's a violent assault on women because they're women." For months during the Shafia murder trial in Kingston, the term honour killing was bandied about as if it were some exotic ritual that only happened in other countries with cultures far removed and backward from our own. "I think we're fascinated right now with the concept of honour killings because that was the name given to it by the prosecution and the accused but that doesn't change what the underlying activity is," said Pearl Eliadis, a Montreal human rights lawyer. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Supreme Court Dept: Dass took his appeal all the way to India's Supreme Court. Because for him and others in this part of South Asia, what he did in 2006 was not only his right, but his responsibility, according to CBC. Last May, the Supreme Court of India agreed: it sentenced Dass to death and killing his own daughter was necessary to protect the family's honour, Bagawan Dass argued, and that was why it didn't merit a life sentence. The family's honour and standing in the community had to be protected after Dass's daughter married someone against the family's wishes. For them, the life sentence didn't fit the crime. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Trash Collectors Dept: For decades, the Zabbaleen have been Cairo's unofficial trash collectors and have been subject to hard living conditions, according to CBC. Nearly eight generations of Zabbaleen have lived this way, harvesting garbage from Cairo's streets and businesses. Using donkey carts, and more recently pickup trucks, they transport mountains of refuse back to their communities in the hills to be sorted and eventually sold and cairo's largest Coptic Christian community, known as the Zabbaleen, fear worsening conditions under Egypt's new Islamist-led parliament. Coptic Christians make up 11 to 15 per cent of Egypt's population. Known in Arabic as 'the garbage collectors,' the Zabbaleen are one of the largest concentrations of Coptics in the country and have made a living collecting, sorting and re-selling recycled material collected from Cairo's trash for decades. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Unbelievable Twists Dept: The photographs and footage of these faces was grim, as the three demonstrated their incredible arrogance in delivering unbelievable twists of tale. All this despite mounting piles of evidence that rendered preposterous the Afghan family s story about the so-called accident at the Kingston, Ont., locks that left four females dead, according to The Chronicle Herald. There were the three beautiful young sisters: Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, at 13 barely too old for dolls and news coverage of the Shafia murder trial focused on the names and faces of the accused the father, the mother, the brother. But it is the faces of the four victims that haunt me. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Prince George RCMP Dept: In 2003, Clay Willey, 33, was hog-tied and shocked with two Tasers simultaneously by officers at the Prince George detachment. He died hours later in hospital. Clay Willey died in July 2003 from several heart attacks following his arrest by Prince George RCMP. Facebook, according to CBC. The report from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, which was issued on Tuesday, raises questions about the way police dealt with his arrest and the investigation that followed and the RCMP in B.C. is coming under fire again for the use of Tasers and restraints in the death of a Prince George man, and for the internal investigation conducted after his death. An autopsy later found Willey had cuts, bruises and broken ribs but ultimately died from several heart attacks brought on by a cocaine overdose. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Liberal Interim Leader Bob Rae Dept: Harper hinted that changes to Canada's pension system are in the works while at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last week, touching off a flurry of speculation as to what those changes might be -- including bumping the age of eligibility from 65 to 67 years old, according to CTV. "The prime minister stated categorically during the leader's debate . . . that this government was not going to be touching transfers to individuals and transfers to seniors . . . is the prime minister committed to sustaining seniors or is he committed to breaking his promises?" Liberal Interim Leader Bob Rae charged during question period and with budget cuts on the agenda, Prime Minister Stephen Harper outlined plans to reduce the deficit, but carefully avoided specifics on possible changes to Old Age Security during the first question period on Parliament Hill after a six-week break. Opposition parties complained that the Conservatives never mentioned touching Old Age Security when they were on the campaign trail. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

President Barack Obama Dept: My father doesn't speak Spanish, Craig Romney announced to the crowd gathered in the parking lot out-side Casa Marin restaurant, according to Vancouver Sun. Whatever his linguistic limitations, the former Massachusetts governor was telling his audience in English exactly what it wanted to hear - slamming a decision last year by President Barack Obama to liberalize U.S. policy toward Cuba. "Mi papa no habla espanol." It was less apology than explanation, and it hardly mattered to the 200 mostly Cuban-American voters who had ventured out on a muggy South Florida afternoon to hear Mitt Romney make his pitch to be the 45th president of the United States. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

President Barack Obama Dept: WASHINGTON - It's a photo destined to become an iconic image of Barack Obama's presidency an angry, Tea Party-backed politician, wagging her finger in the face of the man despised by the movement's "patriots.", according to Winnipeg Free Press. The controversy wasn't showing any signs of dying down on Monday, with Brewer herself fanning the flames and a conservative website digging up old footage of a high-profile journalist jabbing his finger at George W. Bush and arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points during an intense conversation with President Barack Obama at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, , Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Haraz N. Ghanbari The recent tarmac tiff at the Phoenix-Mesa airport between Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer over a passage in her new book is emblematic of the bad blood between left and right since the first black president in American history took office three years ago. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.