NDP government: Once again an election is looming, and once again opposition parties are accusing the NDP government of a pre-writ spending spree, according to The Chronicle Herald. The Dexter government is trying to restore its reputation in Yarmouth after cutting the subsidy to the Maine ferry after it came to power in 2009 and Tuesday afternoon, the government announced a $31.4-million contract to lease new ambulances from Tri-Star Industries of Yarmouth. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Kayla Smith: I called the guy up," she told The Globe and Mail. " Totally played super sweet, was like, Hi, how are you? You know, I have the day off today, why dont I come meet you? ', according to Huffington Post. Unsure what to do next, Smith told CBC News she asked the seller if she could take the bike for a test ride around the parking lot. " And then I just got on it... and rode away ." She thought her stolen bike was lost forever, but when Kayla Smith saw it listed in an ad on Craigslist, the Vancouver woman decided it was time to get it back. They agreed to meet in a McDonald's parking lot, where Smith realized that it was the same bike she had left locked up at the Olympic Village on Aug. 21. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms: No, these words do not come from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms adopted in 1982 without Quebecs signature. Rather they comprise Section 3 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms passed unanimously by the National Assembly, including its Parti Qu b cois members, seven years before Canada got around to it. The 1975 Quebec charter is an admirable document, proudly proclaiming that rights and freedoms constitute the foundation of justice, liberty and peace and the rights and freedoms of the human person are inseparable from the rights and freedoms of others and from the common well-being, according to The Star. A Charter of Rights and a Charter of Values come from two very different places. The first recognizes the existing rights of individual citizens and minorities and pledges to respect them; the second denies some of those minority individuals some of their rights. One flows from the brilliance of the liberal-pluralist tradition; the other from the darkness that lurks at some level in all nationalisms and Every person is the possessor of the fundamental freedoms, including freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association. Which should not but unfortunately does bring us to recent talk of a Charter of Quebec Values . In 1975, Quebecers rallied around the liberal precepts of the Quiet Revolution . But their current PQ government seems intent on entrapping the province in an ugly philosophical and political contradiction with its plan to deny public employment to those wearing religious symbols. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

food insecurity: The study released Tuesday by the Conference Board of Canada addresses food insecurity, which is the lack of access to nutritious and affordable food. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. "In a country as advanced as Canada, it's really telling that there are people who go hungry everyday, especially vulnerable populations such as children," she said. TORONTO - A new report is recommending provincial and territorial governments create a pan-Canadian program to fund school meals for vulnerable children. Almost 10 per cent of Canadian households with children faced food insecurity in 2007-08, compared to less than seven per cent for homes without children, said lead author Alison Howard. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Pauline Marois: Meanwhile, the federal government, which should be protecting those citizens rights, is sitting idly by, contenting itself with making noises about this not being Ottawas problem. , according to Times Colonist. How the wearing of religious symbols by individuals going about their daily routine prevents French culture from flourishing is beyond comprehension. Why should Marois care if a Jew wears his kippah to work? How does forbidding a Muslim daycare worker from wearing her hijab preserve Quebecs identity and language? Is Marois afraid the children might see the hijab, and realize there are other people in the world who are different from them? The Parti Qu b cois is turning Quebec into a xenophobic hellhole where the Charter rights of Canadian citizens to freedom of religion and freedom of expression are about to be revoked. The Quebec government has confirmed it wants to pass legislation that will prohibit all public-sector workers from wearing any religious clothing or symbols. The reason, as Premier Pauline Marois explains, is to preserve our identity, our language, our institutions and our values. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Gadhafi: Abdel-Qader Radwan told reporters that the trial will start Sept. 19 on alleged crimes committed during Gadhafi's 42-year rule and during the eight-month-long civil war that deposed him, according to Times Colonist. Radwan said Libyan authorities have issued more than 280 arrest warrants for those wanted on similar charges and TRIPOLI, Libya - Late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's son and his spy chief were charged on Tuesday with murder in relation to the country's 2011 civil war and are set to stand trial, said Libya's general prosecutor. The defendants are former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi and Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the heir apparent and only son of the former dictator who is in custody. A total of 28 former regime members will face trial that day on various charges ranging from murder, forming armed groups in violation of the law, inciting rape and kidnappings. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Royal Bank: Royal Bank TSX:RY says its housing affordability index reversed course in the second quarter of this year in two of the three categories it measures -- bungalows and two-storey homes -- after generally improving over the past year, according to CTV. The quarterly increase was not spectacular -- 0.3 points to 42.7 per cent on a detached bungalow and 0.4 points to 48.4 per cent on a standard two-storey home. The index on a condo was unchanged at 27.9 per cent and OTTAWA -- Home ownership has become less affordable for the average Canadian, but that hasn't stopped many from jumping into what may already be an overpriced market, suggests a new report from the Royal Bank. That means that on average, Canadians were paying more of the pre-tax income to service their homes compared to the first quarter of the year, although the index is still down from a year ago. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Carl Vall e told The Globe and Mail Tuesday that there isn't a rush to bring Parliament back to discuss possible intervention against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to Huffington Post. British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Tuesday that he is recalling the British Parliament and cutting short his vacation to deal with the crisis and A spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper says there are no plans to recall Parliament early, even as the apparent use of chemical weapons in Syria makes Western military action more and more probable. "It is premature to discuss recalling Parliament at this time," he told reporter Campbell Clark. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

National Household Survey: Ottawas move to replace the mandatory long-form census which one in five Canadians was required to fill out every five years with the voluntary National Household Survey which one in three Canadians was asked to fill out back in 2011 has already proved costly, according to The Chronicle Herald. So the upfront costs were higher. There are potential inefficiencies when governments base decisions, that will be paid for with taxpayers money, on less accurate data. Finally, and especially for those municipalities shut out of NHS findings for their local areas, theres the additional costs those governments will incur when and if, as you d reasonably expect, they re forced to expend extra effort to gather sufficient information to ensure they re making decisions based on solid evidence, not guesswork and Taxpayers paid millions in extra costs and no doubt will be paying many millions more for years to come thanks to the federal Conservative governments breathtakingly dumb decision in 2010 to fix what wasnt broken with the national long-form census. The NHS cost an extra $22 million, resulted in 200,000 more Canadians answering intrusive questions than did so with the 2006 long-form census, but produced results so inferior that 1,100 smaller municipalities across the country including almost half in Saskatchewan that have relied on census data to guide decision-making have been told NHS data for their communities is too unreliable to release. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz: Being born outside the U.S. is a definite no-no for anyone who wants to occupy the Oval Office, according to The Star. At first I thought this story was nothing more than a summer trifle, another amusing take on some of the strange fixations of our American cousins and CALGARY Texas Senator Ted Cruz is causing quite a stir. He has ambitions to be president of the United States and yet he was born in Calgary and lived here until he was 4-years-old. So suddenly Cruz, who if he were any more to the right would fall off the edge of that wing, wants to strip himself of his Canadian citizenship and pull up his Alberta roots to satisfy all those birthers in the United States who still dont believe Barack Obama was born on American soil. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.