Public Pressure Dept: The centre is currently slated to close in March of 2014, but the Canada Employment and Immigration Union believes public pressure could change that and it is planning an EI rally next weekend in Montague, according to CBC. "Hopefully put some pressure on the politicians to leave it open. We are going to have some postcards to send to Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Finley," she said and the union representing workers at the EI processing centre in Montague has launched a campaign to convince the federal government to keep the centre open. "We are trying to generate some public support, let the public know what's going on," said local union spokeswoman Donna MacDonald. She said that she hopes the rally will result in a change of the government's plans. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Working Poor Dept: Between 2000 and 2005, the area s working poor grew by 42 per cent, to 113,000 people, according to a groundbreaking report based on Statistics Canada labour and income data, according to The Star. Working many hours and holding full-time, year-round employment is no longer a guarantee of escaping poverty, says the report, entitled: The Working Poor in the Toronto Region; Who they are, where they live, and how trends are changing. The legions of Toronto area workers pouring coffee, cleaning toilets and otherwise toiling for low wages in office towers and factories is growing dramatically. Across the region, they accounted for 6.4 per cent of the working-age population. But inside the city of Toronto, they surged to 8.2 per cent of the workforce, or 70,700 people, says the study by the Metcalf Foundation , released on Saturday. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Credentials Dept: When I applied to come here, immigration officials saw the value of my credentials and my education, he says. But now that I am here, no one recognizes my credentials. , according to The Star. Das s wife, who also worked as a banker in India, has been equally unsuccessful at finding work in her field and has resigned herself to looking after the couple s three children, aged 1, 4 and 12, while her husband soldiers on and uttam Das can barely contain his frustration. Das, 46, a senior banker specializing in risk management in his native India, came to Canada under the skilled-worker program two years ago with post-graduate degrees in economics and finance, along with numerous international certificates in financial risk management, including one from a Toronto institute. But the only work he has been able to secure is as a hotel dishwasher and a security guard. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Roman Catholic Dept: But administering to spiritual needs in Canada s biggest Roman Catholic jurisdiction includes managing a multi-million dollar organization in transition. Salvation may be the ultimate goal, but aging bricks and mortar, strained human resources and changing demographics also require daily attention, according to The Star. We now have only one washroom in the whole church, Collins says. A $23 million renovation includes making room for more bathrooms and toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins doesn t like being called the archdiocese s CEO. It has too much of a corporate ring for a man who sees himself as a simple evangelist. Downtown Toronto s St. Michael s Cathedral, for instance, is an unquestionably beautiful place to unburden the soul. But it s not so good at providing physical relief. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Dept: The world is on the threshold of what might be called peak people. The world s supply of working-age people will soon be shrinking, causing a shift from surplus to scarcity. As with peak oil theories which hold that declining petroleum supplies will trigger global economic instability the claims of the doomsayers are too hyperbolic and hysterical. These are not existential threats but rather policy challenges. That said, they re very big policy challenges, according to Globe and Mail. But population aging will affect us in far more profound ways, because it is global and but the consequence of smaller families is fewer young people. And family sizes have plummeted so fast, around the world, that working-age adults are being outnumbered by seniors and children, who tend to be dependent on state funds for their health, education and livelihoods. Canada s crisis is mild compared to most countries, but it s still serious. There are currently almost five working-age Canadians whose income taxes pay the pension and health-care costs of each retiree; within 20 years, there will be only three. As a result, according to Ottawa, health-care costs will double and social-service costs will rise by a third. Compared to, say, Japan, where pensioners will become a majority this century, that s nothing. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Quesnel Dept: The playwright was Joseph Quesnel, one of Canada's first theatrical impresarios. Colas et Colinette was the first play to be written, as well as published, in Canada, and Quesnel both acted in it and wrote its musical interludes, according to Montreal Gazette. On Nov. 24, the company's first two plays were presented. They were comedies, but the cur of Notre Dame, Fran ois-Xavier Latour-D z ry, was not amused. Two days before the curtain went up, Latour-D z ry delivered a scathing sermon against the iniquities of the Th tre de Soci t in particular and theatre in general. Plays were "danger-ous and still prohibited by the Church," he fulminated and our anonymous reviewer was delighted. A new play entitled Colas et Colinette, ou le Bailli Dup , had just finished a one-month run, and the actors, the play itself and its author were all worthy of "a great and just encomium." Early in November 1789, Quesnel, another Frenchborn immigrant named Louis Dulongpr , and several others founded a company they called the Th tre de Soci t . Dulongpr 's house on St. Paul St. was fitted up as a theatre and, as painting was among his several callings, it was he who did the theatre's sets. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Economic Crisis Dept: Construction of the Sydney steel plant started in 1899. Among the waves of immigrants was a contingent of Poles, leaving a country under foreign occupation and rural regions plagued by economic crisis, according to The Chronicle Herald. Indeed, in 1909, the St. Michael s Polish Benefit Society was established to provide a semblance of a social safety net and a cultural gathering place and the proposal to close Sydney s vibrant, historic St. Mary s Polish Parish, just months before its 100th anniversary, puts at risk an entire cultural community, a community that has helped to shape Nova Scotia s identity. Despite appalling, unsafe conditions in the steel plant and the coal mines, the Poles stayed and settled throughout industrial Cape Breton. They somehow found ways to survive. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Guangzhou Dept: Prime Minister Stephen Harper s four-day trade mission to China has had a taste of it all, bouncing from Beijing, to Guangzhou, and on Saturday to the southwestern inland city of Chongqing, according to The Star. Moments later, Harper tried to practice a little foreign influencing of his own and gUANGZHOU, CHINA Ping pong, pipelines and pandas. Harper used a keynote speech here Friday to slam the foreign money and influence behind critics of Canada s oil sands even as he welcomed Chinese investment in Canada s energy sector. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Working Poor Dept: Between 2000 and 2005, the area s working poor grew by 42 per cent, to 113,000 people, according to a groundbreaking report based on Statistics Canada labour and income data, according to The Star. Working many hours and holding full-time, year-round employment is no longer a guarantee of escaping poverty, says the report, entitled: The Working Poor in the Toronto Region; Who they are, where they live, and how trends are changing and the legions of Toronto area workers pouring coffee, cleaning toilets and otherwise toiling for low wages in office towers and factories is growing dramatically. Across the region, they accounted for 6.4 per cent of the working-age population. But inside the city of Toronto, they surged to 8.2 per cent of the workforce, or 70,700 people, says the study by the Metcalf Foundation , released on Saturday. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Citizenship And Immigration Canada Dept: Unlike immigrants, temporary foreign workers come to Canada on restrictive visas and do not have the rights of permanent residents. Their admission to the country and employment are contingent on not taking opportunities and jobs away from Canadians, according to The Chronicle Herald. When most Canadians think of temporary foreign workers, they likely think of field workers in Canada s agricultural belt or caregivers. A 2007 parliamentary report, however, shows that this is far from the case. In fact, "elemental workers and labourers" accounted for just over two per cent of temporary foreign workers. By contrast, about a quarter were "intermediate and clerical workers," another quarter were "professionals," and about a fifth did not state their skill level and during the fall of 2011, the Conservative government implemented a number of dramatic changes to the Canadian immigration system. Pundits and critics filled much newsprint weighing-in on many of the changes, but few commented on the rapid increase in the number of temporary foreign workers coming to the country. Statistics on temporary foreign workers vary widely, depending on how they are compiled. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in 2000 there were 177,781 temporary foreign workers in the country. By 2010, the number was 432,682 a 140 per cent increase. According to Immigrant and Settlement and Integration Services, based in Halifax, the number of foreign workers entering Nova Scotia has almost doubled in the last five years, from 1,495 to 2,795. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.