Permanent Residence Dept: Starting immediately, Kenney said spouses will have to wait five years from the day they are granted permanent residence status before they can, in turn, sponsor a new partner, according to Vancouver Sun. "I held town hall meetings across the country to hear from victims of marriage fraud," said Kenney, who made the announcement in Brampton, Ont., just west of Toronto. "In addition to the heartbreak and pain that came from being lied to and deceived, these people were angry. They felt they had been used as a way to get to Canada. We're taking action because immigration to Canada should not be built upon deceit." A crackdown on bogus marriages of convenience falls short of addressing the real problem, critics said Friday, shortly after Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced the regulatory change. The move is meant to prevent people from fraudulently marrying Canadians for the purposes of immigration only to leave them and then sponsor a new partner while their Canadian spouse is still financially responsible for them for three years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Philippines Edition Moises Dept: THEY might not have become The Next Star, but there s no question Moises and Mimoza Duot are among their community s new generation of musical stars, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Philippines edition Moises and Mimoza Duot in their home studio: "YouTube is wonderful, because it's one of the best things you can have nowadays to showcase your talent as an artist." The Winnipeg siblings were finalists -- in separate seasons, two years apart -- on the YTV reality/competition series The Next Star. Neither ended up winning the title, but each took lessons from the experience that have helped shape the ongoing pursuit of their musical dreams. Related Items Articles Winnipeg is home, closely knit home for nearly 60,000-strong Filipino community (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Vladimir Putin Dept: Unpopular Putin headed for win, according to The Star. Putin has now visited the icon in a 16th-century monastery five times. His latest visit to the monastery east of St Petersburg was in January, before he revved up his campaign for Sunday s election and erased any doubt he will win convincingly and tIKHVIN, RUSSIA Vladimir Putin followed in the footsteps of Russia s tsars when he interrupted his presidential election campaign to seek the blessing of the Virgin of Tikhvin, a Byzantine icon which believers say works miracles. Legend has it that all the tsars except one sought the Virgin s blessing before ascending the throne. The one who did not, Nicholas II, turned out to be the last, killed by revolutionaries in 1918. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Maureen O Reilly Dept: In requesting the no-board report last week, CUPE Local 4948 said negotiations had reached an impasse, according to The Star. With cuts of permanent staffers in the budget, we will now have more part-timers in Toronto Public library than full-timers, O Reilly said and the province issued a no-board report Thursday, meaning 2,300 Toronto Public Library employees will be in a legal strike position as of 12:01 a.m. March 18. We re just hoping that it will bring greater focus to our talks, Maureen O Reilly, Local 4948 president, said Thursday. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Natural Resource Dept: The newspaper will launch a daily print edition, website and mobile news apps in Saskatoon and Regina, which are both fast growing thanks to the booming natural resource and energy sectors. Those papers will be distributed by hand, in boxes and at other locations, with a focus on the downtown cores, according to The Star. It s an opportunity to dip our toes into the market to test the marketplace, said Bill McDonald, president of Metro English Canada, in an interview. Editions in those cities will include local news as well as national and other news and the freebie newspaper Metro is expanding to six new cities next month, targeting what it calls youthful, active urban dwellers. Metro will also offer digital-only information in Hamilton, Kitchener, Windsor and Victoria which were chosen because of demographics, population size and the importance of those markets to marketers. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

North American Tour Dept: When it s the Burmese guy s turn, he says, I can control my entire country for 23 years but I have no brains, said Zarganar, Burma s most popular comedian, according to The Star. More than three months after his release, Zarganar is in Toronto to promote democratic change for his homeland as part of a month-long North American tour, which includes meetings with top officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and one of Zarganar s favourite jokes about Burma s military junta goes like this: An American without legs boasts about reaching Mount Everest twice. A Brit with no arms brags about swimming across the Atlantic twice. What makes Zarganar, 51, whose real name is Thura meaning Bravery , so popular is his audacious willingness to satirize Burma s military regime. But those tongue-in-cheek jokes have also landed him in jail four times, for a total of 11 years behind bars. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Winnipeg Dept: When Rod Cantiveros arrived in Winnipeg with his wife Linda in 1974, he knew very little about his new home. Including the fact that there was a thriving Filipino community already here, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Local performers, as well as dance troupes from the Philippines, make the country's Folklorama pavilion one of the most vibrant of the annual festival. BORIS MINKEVICH / ARCHIVES Enlarge Image Three generations of the Maglalang family represent the faces of the growing Filipino community in Manitoba. "I was just so shocked," said Cantiveros, 69, a journalist and entrepreneur who first came to Winnipeg to work in a garment factory. "I really had no idea what Winnipeg was like. Nobody talked that much about the city and I didn't know anyone from the Philippines who had gone there. But then I arrived, and I found there were so many Filipinos already here. I said to myself, 'How could this be?' " Enlarge Image (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Lela Tabidze Dept: Lela Tabidze said she received a call from Toronto police Thursday morning regarding remains found near Yonge St. and Hwy. 401. Mariam Makhniashvili: A timeline of the search, according to The Star. It was a kind of warning. It could be something, it could be nothing, she told the Star , adding that police told her to expect a call next week and the mother of Mariam Makhniashvili, whose mysterious disappearance nearly three years ago sparked a massive nationwide search, is anxiously awaiting the results of forensic tests after police notified her that human remains were discovered in a Toronto ravine. Tabidze stressed that police divulged little information and made no explicit mention of Mariam, but she was nevertheless rattled by the news. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Immigrate To Canada Dept: A few years later, my parents began helping their parents and siblings immigrate to Canada. This was the early 1970s and the process involved going down to the Manpower and Immigration office on Edmonton Street to speak to an immigration officer. After filling out a 3-4 page form in which my parents had to declare that they had $50 in assets for each family member, their sponsorship applications were approved, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Immigration from the Philippines has transformed Manitoba, with the province's Filipino community reaching 60,000 due to an immigration boom over last five years On a cold January morning in 1968, my parents, Rey and Gloria Pagtakhan, arrived at Emerson to immigrate to Canada. About 12 weeks earlier, my father sent in their immigration application from St. Louis, Missouri, where he and my mother were going to school on visas from the Philippines. Instead of a visa confirming his immigration, my father was sent a telegram by what was then Manpower and Immigration Canada with the simple instruction to proceed to the border. Philippines edition (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Desiree Carbonell Dept: Boris Minkevich / archives BORIS MINKEVICH Enlarge Image, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Boris Minkevich / archives BORIS MINKEVICH Enlarge Image Desiree Carbonell and other young Filipino immigrants enjoy a day at the Festival du Voyageur. TREVOR HAGAN/ Enlarge Image Visitors take in the display at the first Filipino Folklorama pavilion in 1970. The Winnipeg Filipino community now numbers close to 60,000. Enlarge Image (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.