OTTAWA - Canadian businesses: OTTAWA - Canadian businesses expect higher sales growth and more investment and employment in the year ahead, helped by improving U.S. demand, but they remain wary given the sluggish economy, a Bank of Canada poll showed on Monday, according to Reuters. "Expectations regarding the economic outlook remain muted. Firms continue to express concerns about the prospects for domestic demand," the central bank said and By Randall Palmer The survey of senior managers, taken from May 21 to June 13, showed the balance of opinion on past sales had turned modestly positive and the future sales outlook was also somewhat positive, though less so than a quarter earlier. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews: Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced Monday, in the leadup to an anticipated cabinet shuffle, that he was resigning as MP for the Manitoba riding of Provencher effective Tuesday. Related Items Columns Who will replace Vic Toews as Manitoba's regional minister? Reports of Toews' exit premature? , according to Winnipeg Free Press. Toews, 60, was first elected to the House of Commons in 2000 under the banner of the Canadian Alliance and was re-elected four times. In the last federal election in 2011, he won the seat for the Conservatives with just over 70 per cent of the vote. STEINBACH, Man. - A federal cabinet minister who suggested his opponents were allies of child pornographers and saw details of his sordid divorce on social media while he argued for increased Internet surveillance is leaving public life. "I am leaving public life in order to focus on my family and to pursue opportunities in the private sector," Toews said in a news release. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Edward Snowden: But Castro made no reference as to whether Cuba itself would offer him refuge or safe passage, a key issue since Snowden's simplest route to Latin America might be one of five direct flights that Russian carrier Aeroflot operates to Havana each week. From there Snowden could fly to Venezuela, Bolivia or Nicaragua, all possible destinations for him. President Raul Castro stopped short of saying Edward Snowden could pass through Cuba. Ismael Francisco, Cubadebate/Associated Press, according to CBC. Snowden had been booked on an Aeroflot flight to Havana two weeks ago, but did not board the plane. The flights normally pass through U.S. airspace, raising the possibility they could be intercepted and Cuban President Raul Castro threw his support behind other leftist Latin American governments willing to give asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, calling him a man persecuted for his ideals. It is not clear whether, despite Castro's speech on Sunday, the communist-run country wants to risk torpedoing mildly improved relations with the United States by letting Snowden transit through the island. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

International Monetary Fund: The country's civil servants union, ADEDY, also called a four-hour work stoppage from noon for all civil servants in the capital, Athens. The municipal workers' strike was expected to see all local services, including trash collection, suspended, with the exception of welfare and social services, according to CTV. Poul Thomsen, the International Monetary Fund representative, and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said Sunday they were "hoping" for a final agreement between Greece and its bailout monitors -- the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission -- before the meeting and ATHENS -- Greek municipal workers went on strike Monday to protest government plans to reduce the number of civil servants, a measure demanded by Greece's international creditors before they approve their next bailout installment for the country. The latest stoppages come ahead of a Brussels meeting later of the finance ministers of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro where Greece's bailout will be a major topic of discussion. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Pope Francis: Francis, a pope from the end of the Earth whose ancestors immigrated to Argentina from Italy, has a special place in his heart for refugees: As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he denounced the exploitation of migrants as slavery and said those who did nothing to help them were complicit by their silence. More Related to this Story, according to Globe and Mail. Vatican publishes encyclical authored by two popes Pope Francis heads Monday to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa for his first pastoral visit outside Rome, going to the farthest reaches of Italy to pray with migrants who have recently arrived by boat and mourn those who have died trying. Pope Francis calls for structural renewal to keep up with the places, the times (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper: British Columbia Tory MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay wrote to Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose last year encouraging her to get her department to enter into talks to renew its lease on a building owned by a constituent, according to CTV. She signed her letter as both the member of Parliament for Delta-Richmond East and as parliamentary secretary and OTTAWA -- One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretaries looks to have run afoul of conflict-of-interest rules by lobbying on behalf of a man in her riding. Findlay was the parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice at the time she wrote the letter. She has since been promoted to associate minister of national defence, where she is responsible for military procurement. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose: British Columbia Tory MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay wrote to Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose last year encouraging her to get her department to enter into talks to renew its lease on a building owned by a constituent, according to CBC. She signed her letter as both the member of Parliament for Delta-Richmond East and as parliamentary secretary. Findlay also included a handwritten message to Ambrose at the bottom of the letter and One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretaries looks to have run afoul of conflict-of-interest rules by lobbying on behalf of a man in her riding. Findlay was the parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice at the time she wrote the letter. She has since been promoted to associate minister of national defence, where she is now responsible for military procurement. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Canada: A new report on political participation in Canada shows that only a slim slice of the population is in any way involved in political activities whether its volunteering for party duty or even discussing issues online, according to The Star. The results are sobering for those who believe Canada turns on political debate and OTTAWA Politicians, partisans and political junkies may have to confront a harsh truth Canadians just arent that into you. Samara, a non-profit organization devoted to improving civic culture in Canada, carried out a national survey to find out how and whether citizens involved themselves in politics in between elections. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Jason Kenney: One of the obvious changes Kenney has brought to his portfolio is a weakening of the governments use of multiculturalism as a favoured term. Observers have thought that the move was in part a distancing by the Harper government from the Liberal legacy of a Trudeau-era term. But in a 2009 interview , Delacourt recounts, Kenney explained the shift on these grounds: Multiculturalism says to a lot of people kiosks at folk fests. We need a term that has a deeper meaning; that talks about the deeply different world views or belief systems that people have, and I thought pluralism perhaps speaks more to that, according to The Star. If you think about it, thats not how we re used to hearing Canadian diversity described by political leaders; it sounds more like the terrain of religion as opposed to national origin or ethnicity. And thats no accident because Kenney has brought religion to governmental attention in a way that no other Canadian minister has. He has arguably been the governments most visible face on the Office of Religious Freedom. His Twitter feed constantly notes his meetings with ethnic religious groups from the mainstream to the minor and sectarian. His office issues almost daily statements commemorating the religious holidays of various groups and In her column last week, Susan Delacourt observed a few events raising the question of whether multiculturalism has hit a bump in the road whether our understanding of Canadas diversity is changing in some fundamental way. One of the events she notes is an impending cabinet shuffle thats rumoured to be reassigning Jason Kenney, whos been Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism since 2008. Kenney is universally acknowledged to have had an immense, perhaps unparalleled, influence as a minister in this portfolio. If hes on his way out of this role, its worth considering which bumps in the road have been deliberately introduced into the national discussion of multiculturalism on his watch. Its possible to generalize Kenneys words, as Delacourt does, as getting at a notion of diversity thats less about visibly different newcomers and more about deep societal inclusiveness more about us than them. Yet what his words actually say, however, is more specific: namely, the belief that his portfolio is about diversity that includes not just outward folk culture but deeply different world views or belief systems as well. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Public Safety Minister Toews: Provencher MP Vic Toews will resign effective Tuesday, according to a statement released by Toews today. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. "It takes a great deal of deliberation on the part of those who decide to enter politics," Toews said in the statement. "It takes an even greater amount of consideration and effort to step out of office when one still enjoys the support of those who elected them. Vic Toews has been the MP for Provencher since 2000. The statement says Public Safety Minister Toews is to pursue interests in the private sector. Toews timeline Sept. 10, 1952 born in Paraguay 1976 Receives law degree from University of Manitoba and following year becomes a Manitoba Crown attorney. 1995 Wins a seat in the Manitoba legislature as a Progressive Conservative in the constituency of Rossmere. Serves in the Filmon cabinet first as minister of labour and later as attorney general and minister responsible for constitutional affairs. 1999 Defeated in Rossmere in the September election as the NDP comes to power. 2000 Elected as a member of the Canadian Alliance to represent the riding of Provencher in the House of Commons. Becomes justice critic. 2005 Toews is charged with violating Manitobas Election Finances Act in the 1999 provincial election. He pleaded guilty to spending more than the allowable limit and was fined $500. 2006 Conservatives under Stephen Harper form minority government. Toews is named minister of justice and attorney general as well as regional minister for Manitoba. 2007 Toews is appointed as treasury board minister, after just 11 months in the justice portfolio, where he earned a reputation as a hardliner on law-and-order issues. 2010 Toews becomes Public Safety Minister in January of that year, a position he now holds. 2012 Introduces Bill C-30, which would have allowed police expanded powers and mandate that Internet service providers provide subscriber information and reveal information transmitted over their networks without a warrant. In response to criticisms to the bill, Toews says people can either stand with us or with the child pornographers. After howls of protest from the public, the government scraps the bill, but not before Toews is targeted by an anonymous Twitter account that posts information about Toews divorce proceedings. July 8, 2013 Announces his retirement from politics. Related Items Articles Retirement of Toews unlikely to herald law-and-order policy shift: analysts Columns Who will replace Vic Toews as Manitoba's regional minister? Reports of Toews' exit premature? (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.