Wrecking Ball Dept: The album has been growing on me with each play; it starts out heavy-handed, but by the end it moves from duty to pleasure. Springsteen definitely picked the right title song. Wrecking Ball, written from the first-person point of view of the old Giants Stadium, turns a conceit into a homily into a hoot, according to The Chronicle Herald and jON PARELES: Jon, if good intentions were all that mattered, Bruce Springsteen s Wrecking Ball would be a shoo-in for album of the year which is, not coincidentally, an election year. Wrecking Ball is Springsteen s latest manifesto in support of the workingman. It s sincere, ambitious and angry, which can lead to mixed outcomes. It also which may be a surprise on an album billed as a broadside holds some of Springsteen s most elaborate studio concoctions since Born to Run. But he was less strategic making We Take Care of Our Own, the first single. In my imagination he was watching that Republican debate when someone in the audience cheered the idea of letting the uninsured die, and his sense of duty kicked in; he thought he should write a song that insists compassion is patriotic. It s a trademark E Street Band sound, from the chord changes to the glockenspiel to the backup vocals, and it feels awkward and hectoring. I don t think, as you wrote after the Grammys, that it s jingoistic, only that it tries to associate flag-waving nationalism with shared responsibility. But there s much better stuff on the album. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Postmedia News Dept: Baird will be the first Canadian foreign minister to visit the southeast Asian nation. The trip will likely be officially announced Tuesday, according to Vancouver Sun. "We are visiting at a time when we're cautiously optimistic about recent changes," a source told Postmedia News. "While we're not at a point of lifting sanctions, we want to make sure advances made are not reversible." Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird will make a rare visit to Burma, one of Asia's most repressive and dictatorial regimes, amid signs the ruling military junta will allow more democratic freedoms in the country. In response to widespread human-rights abuses and military crackdowns against protesters, Canada imposed diplomatic and economic sanctions against Burma in 1988. These sanctions ban military exports to the country, hinder trade, and deny visas to senior members of the regime. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Stephen Harper Dept: The leaders of Canada s two most populous provinces say they fear more responsibilities will be downloaded to the provinces in the federal budget later this month, according to The Chronicle Herald. "When you download responsibilities or costs from one level of government to the next, taxpayers simply pay the same costs to a different government," he said. "In the end, no one wins." TORONTO Prime Minister Stephen Harper s cash-strapped government will try to balance its books on the back of the provinces, the premiers of Ontario and Quebec said Monday. The same thing happened in the 1990s under former prime minister Jean Chretien s Liberal government, but it s "nothing but a shell game," said Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Nicolas Sarkozy Dept: Prime Minister Fran ois Fillon made the suggestion after Sarkozy called during the weekend for butchers to clearly label meat slaughtered according to religious laws, according to Montreal Gazette. "Religions should think about keeping traditions that don't have much in common with today's state of science, technology and health problems," Fillon said and france's prime minister urged Muslims and Jews to consider scrapping their halal and kosher slaughter laws on Monday as President Nicolas Sarkozy and his allies stepped up their efforts to woo far-right voters. Fillon and other conservative leaders linked their tough stand on ritually prepared meat to issues such as immigration and French identity that the far-right National Front uses to tap into resentment against Europe's largest Muslim minority. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Quebec Dept: That's the premise of the Quebec Community Groups Network, an umbrella group of English-speaking community organizations that serve all age groups in the province. It will embark on a three-year research project to identify problems that inhibit access to government services, continuing education, housing, leisure activities and other types of services for Quebec's 132,485 English-speakers over the age of 65, according to Montreal Gazette. "Everything points to a need to have English-speaking seniors visible in public policy in Quebec," Sylvia Martin-Laforge, executive director of the QCGN, said after attending Blais's news conference in Montreal and quebec seniors need services and support to help them stay active and remain at home, and, if they're English-speaking older Quebecers, they also need a voice in this province. It's one of 73 community-based projects aimed at helping seniors remain autonomous that will split $5.8 million in Quebec government funding, Marguerite Blais, the minister responsible for seniors, announced Sunday. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Peter Allan Dept: Peter Allan and his wife Joy have purchased the deep-fried chicken outlet for just under a million dollars and are planning to re-open it in mid-June, according to CBC. Allen said his wife will manage the restaurant. It will undergo extensive renovations to update the equipment and whitehorse s Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise will reopen this summer after being closed for three years. I thought it would be a really good idea to open it again, he said. I think it's been sorely missed and of course everybody is excited about it. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Financial Services Firms Dept: When the 26-year-old Saint Mary s University graduate arrived at the International Careers Fair in Halifax, he made a beeline for three financial services firms, according to The Chronicle Herald. I majored in finance and I would like an entry-level job in my field, said Zhang, from China but looking to put down roots in Nova Scotia and dong Zhang didn t come to the job fair to chit-chat. Dressed in a grey suit with a portfolio under one arm and a stack of targeted resumes under the other, Zhang delivered tailor-made pitches to recruiters for Citco Canada, TD Canada Trust and RBC Royal Bank. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Canada Dept: Known in legal circles by the Latin name jus soli, or right of soil, as opposed to jus sanguinis, or right of blood, the citizenship policy is unique, among developed nations, to Canada and the United States. All other countries that take in immigrants base their citizenship on blood, and require at least one parent to be a citizen, or to have lived there for a certain time, in order to confer citizenship on the child, according to Vancouver Sun. "With today's inexpensive and rapid modern travel, someone can fly in for a couple of weeks, have a child and fly out, and otherwise never actually live in the country and have no intention of doing so, but establish a basis for the family to become Canadian permanent residents," he said. "So it strikes me that times have changed and perhaps we should modernize our approach to reflect the international norm and the vulnerability we have to people who want to cut the corners." The law that anyone born in Canada is automatically Canadian is an "outdated" relic from a time when immigrants arrived on a one-way boat ticket, and it leaves Canada's modern welfare state open to exploitation by "birth tourists," according to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. "I think automatic citizenship by place of birth is outdated in this respect. When we established that legal approach, specifically in the 1947 Citizenship Act, most immigrants, if they came to Canada, they were not going back. People would come by sea, and they would leave behind their countries of origin, and rarely if ever have the chance to go back," Mr. Kenney said in an interview Monday about his proposal to scrap jus soli by the end of the year. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Lisa Mason Dept: Lisa Mason says she was driving home when she encountered the SUV approaching on the wrong side of the highway near Bowden, Alta, according to CBC. "So I don't know if he was playing chicken with us. I kind of watched him in my rearview mirror and he did the same thing to the guy behind us." Four temporary workers from the Philippines were killed when these two vehicles collided near Innisfail, Alta and a woman from Carstairs, Alta., says she was nearly hit by the same SUV that smashed head-on into a vehicle carrying five Filipino workers on the QE II Highway near Innisfail Sunday night, killing four of them and seriously injuring another. "He's coming straight at us and just at the last minute, I swerved and he swerved away from us," Mason told News. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper Dept: The leaders of Canada's two most populous provinces say they fear more responsibilities will be downloaded to the provinces in the federal budget later this month, according to CBC. "When you download responsibilities or costs from one level of government to the next, taxpayers simply pay the same costs to a different government," he said. "In the end, no one wins." Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cash-strapped government will try to balance its books on the back of the provinces, the premiers of Ontario and Quebec said Monday. The same thing happened in the 1990s under former prime minister Jean Chretien's Liberal government, but it's "nothing but a shell game," said Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. 'What's especially troubling about these new costs being downloaded onto Ontario taxpayers is that the federal government remains so untroubled by the whole thing.' Dalton McGuinty (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.