OTTAWA A Liberal Party Dept: OTTAWA A Liberal party researcher has resigned for tweeting salacious information about Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to protest the government s online surveillance bill, according to The Chronicle Herald. I discussed the matter with that individual this morning. He offered his resignation and I ve accepted his resignation, Rae told the Commons. And I want to offer to the minister my personal apology to him for the conduct of the member of my staff. UPDATED 5:44 a.m. Tuesday Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae told a stunned House of Commons that one of his staffers was responsible for creating the Vikileaks30 Twitter account that circulated alleged details of Toews divorce. Rae said the offending staffer later identified as Adam Carroll had resigned, and the leader extended a full apology to Toews. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ontario Council Of Agencies Serving Immigrants OCASI Dept: The federal government will not renew its $9 million, five-year funding to the five Metropolis research centres in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax when the grant runs out in 2013, according to The Star. If you want to make policies based on opinions instead of what the facts are, you get rid of the facts, said John Campey, of Social Planning Toronto, which founded the Ontario centre in 1996, along with United Way Toronto and the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants OCASI , in partnership with three Toronto universities and ottawa plans to stop funding a research network whose findings have helped improve Canada s immigration policies and settlement programs, the Star has learned. Critics say the cut is another blow to researchers and community groups who have already lost the reliable data gleaned from the mandatory long-form census, which the Conservatives ended in 2010. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Robinne Lee Dept: Despite torrents of debate among African-Americans over the merits of the segregation-era movie "The Help," most still hoped that Viola Davis, who plays a maid, would become just the second black winner of the best actress Oscar, according to Winnipeg Free Press. "Oohhhhhhhnnnnnnooooooooooooooo," wailed Robinne Lee on Twitter and viola Davis, right, and Julius Tennon at the Governors Ball following the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. AP Photo/Chris Pizzello And so there was widespread disappointment when Davis lost the Academy Award to Meryl Streep on Sunday night. Still, ambivalence tinged the reaction: Besides regret that the ranks of black Oscar winners remained small, many felt relief that a role viewed as stereotypical was not honoured. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

HSBC Dept: For the second year in a row, Canada is the fifth-largest market for its parent company, HSBC Holdings Plc, which is in 80 countries and territories around the world, Gordon said. Yet Canada is only the 10th-largest economy in the world, according to Vancouver Sun. In 2011, HSBC's profits were $704 million, up 13.9 per cent from $618 million. Profits attributable to common shares - which is net income after dividends have been paid on the preferred shares - were $633 mil-lion, almost 19 per cent higher than the $531 million in 2010 and hSBC Bank Canada's focus on inter-national banking has the Vancouver-based bank expanding in Central Canada and punching above its weight, president and CEO Lindsay Gordon said Monday. So Canada is a great place to do business. And that's reflected in HSBC Bank Canada's results. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Wilfrid Laurier Dept: When we talk about the 30,000 migrant workers that come to Canada annually, the majority have been here before, said the study s author, Wilfrid Laurier professor Jenna Hennebry. This is not a one-off. This is people who have spent the better part of their lives, five or 10 or 25 years, coming to Canada to the same communities over and over. , according to Globe and Mail. You end up with some kind of disjuncture where they really are quite separate. There is some animosity toward them. You get conflict, Prof. Hennebry said. Long-term it can be arguably quite damaging because you don t have ways to integrate migrant farm workers with the larger community and the workers are often the same from year to year and they work at the same farms and shop in the same communities, typically from April through to autumn. Yet they remain mostly isolated from the Canadian mainstream and are unlikely to integrate, according to a new study from the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Of the 600 Mexican and Jamaican farm workers surveyed by Prof. Hennebry, the average worker had spent seven to nine seasons working in Canada. They work long hours, often don t speak the language and have little opportunity to connect with the communities they re working to build, according to the study. Less than 1 per cent of those surveyed said they worked alongside Canadians. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Political Uncertainty Dept: China's economic miracle of the last 30 years, which has created about one million millionaires and up to 300 billionaires, has also created an environmental wasteland and great political uncertainty, according to Vancouver Sun. And as the Communist party prepares later this year to begin the process of transferring power to the fifth generation of leaders since the revolution of 1949, some would-be emigrants say they don't believe things can continue as they are and there are two overriding reasons driving thou-sands of China's wealthy to emigrate: desire for a better lifestyle, and lack of faith in the ruling Communist party. In surveys and interviews many of China's new rich say they feel insecure. They know that in a country without the rule of law and a dictatorial one-party regime, their wealth can be seized or otherwise taken away from them at any time. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Michael Sona Dept: Dire consequences deter indiscretion. Even the most bull-headed staffers would rather ask permission than forgiveness as Mr. Carroll now knows, the latter often ends in revising your re, according to Globe and Mail. So much for dire consequences and every staffer lives in the shadow of self-immolation. Every tweet, every joke, every Facebook message invites the prospect of personal catastrophe. If you screw up, the error is permanent, carved into stone by Google, Twitter, and 24-hour news. In politics, discipline is indispensible and idle hands bedevil your handiwork. Nowhere has this been truer than in Stephen Harper s campaigns and no one knows it better than Michael Sona. During last May s federal election, Mr. Sona, then a Conservative campaign worker, made national headlines when he tried to grab a ballot box at a polling station on the University of Guelph campus. It was a black eye for the Tories but it made little difference; the Liberals held Guelph, the Conservatives won the election and Michael Sona went on to work for a Conservative MP. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Community Development Organization Dept: It will be a few months before foreign workers, who work mostly in fish plants and on farms, begin arriving on P.E.I., but the Cooper Institute, a community development organization, was looking to get people thinking about their needs early, according to CBC. "We're also hoping to build more awareness about what those gaps are and ways that those gaps could be filled with more support." P.E.I.'s Cooper Institute was in Murray Harbour Monday night with part of a series of workshops, talking to communities about the challenges faced by temporary foreign workers on the Island. "The work of the community really serves to mitigate some of the shortcomings in the program, then that's a really important role that communities are filling," said Institute member Josie Baker. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Minister Of Public Safety Vic Toews Dept: OTTAWA - A Liberal party researcher has resigned for tweeting salacious information about Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to protest the government's online surveillance bill, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Rae said the offending staffer later identified as Adam Carroll had resigned, and the leader extended a full apology to Toews and liberal leader Bob Rae rises during a Point of Order to announce that a Liberal staffer had been responsible for attacks on Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Monday February 27, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae told a stunned House of Commons that one of his staffers was responsible for creating the Vikileaks30 Twitter account that circulated alleged details of Toews' divorce. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Real Estate Dept: Florida, which was among the first U.S. states to be hit by the real estate downturn and recession, is finally emerging from its swamp of foreclosures and depressed house prices. Realtors' gut instincts, anecdotes and hard evidence all point to a turnaround under way in the state's home prices - a development that could light a fire under any would-be Canadian snowbirds, according to Vancouver Sun. Realtors are trying to recruit potential buyers with the message that anyone thinking of buying a home in Florida ought to look now, because the bargains won't last forever and just as even the brightest, warmest sun must eventually set, the era of bargain real estate in Florida may be coming to an end, experts say. Florida cities took eight spots on the National Association of Realtors' recent list of "Top 10 turnaround towns." Miami - where 60% of all buyers are foreigners and the median house price is US$185,000 - was No. 1. Inventory is disappearing: In Fort Lauderdale, the number of homes listed on the market dropped 42% from 2010 to 2011. And a report commissioned by two Florida real estate firms, the Related Group and International Sales Group, predicted that by the end of this year, the developer-owned condo inventory from the last round of construction, in 2005-'06, will have completely evaporated from the Miami area. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.