student loans: McNeil said his Liberal party thinks it is wrong to charge students interest on loans to further their post-secondary education, so he wants to eliminate interest at a cost of about $2.5 million a year to the government, according to CTV. "A new Liberal government will help alleviate part of that burden," he said and HALIFAX -- The leaders of the NDP and the Liberals focused their election campaigns on young voters Tuesday in Nova Scotia, with Darrell Dexter trumpeting a tax credit his government gave to small business as a job creator and Stephen McNeil promising to remove interest on student loans from the province. McNeil, who made his announcement at a coffee shop near the campus of Dalhousie University in Halifax, said the average student in Nova Scotia graduates with more than $30,000 in loans. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

David Ljunggren: n" - The Canadian province of Quebec will not allow public servants to wear Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps or other obvious religious symbols under a new charter unveiled on Tuesday that is designed to cement a secular society, according to Reuters. Opponents say it infringes on civil liberties in a part of Canada that has already seen years of tension over accommodation for religious minorities, particularly those from immigrant communities and By David Ljunggren The pro-independence government of the predominantly French-speaking province says its Charter of Quebec Values will help create a distinct identity for its 8 million people. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Quebec: Quebec would become the only jurisdiction in North America to impose a sweeping ban on religious clothing for public employees including at schools, hospitals and courthouses, under a "Charter of Values" whose details were released Tuesday following months of speculation. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. It would impose a career-or-faith dilemma on judges, police, and prosecutors; public daycare workers; teachers and school employees; hospital workers; municipal personnel; and employees at state-run liquor stores and the auto-insurance board. Quebec Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions and Active Citizenship Bernard Drainville presents the Charter of Quebec values Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot If adopted by the legislature, the plan would apply to hijabs, kippas, turbans and larger-than-average crucifixes worn by religious public servants. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ezra Levant: In a segment of Sun News' "The Source" that aired in September, 2012, the always controversial Levant described the Roma as a culture synonymous with swindlers, according to Huffington Post. Levants comments were in violation of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code , the CBSC announced Monday and Sun News host Ezra Levant violated the broadcasting ethics code when he portrayed Gypsies as being criminals, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council CBSC has ruled. At another point in the segment about an organized crime ring in Ontario that involved some Roma, Levant declared: Gypsies are not a race. They re a shiftless group of hobos. They rob people blind. Their chief economy is theft and begging. For centuries these roving highway gangs have mocked the law and robbed their way across Europe. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

TransCanada: The report by Deloitte Touche LLP, released Tuesday by TransCanada, predicts some 10,071 direct full-time equivalent jobs across the country will be needed to develop and build Energy East until 2018. Of that, Quebec represents 36 per cent and Ontario represents 23 per cent, according to CTV. The study also found the project will add about $35 billion to Canada's gross domestic product during the development and construction phase and over the 40-year life of the project. As well, it's expected to add $10 billion in tax revenues at the municipal, provincial and federal levels the over that time and CALGARY -- A study commissioned by TransCanada Corp. shows Ontario and Quebec to be among the biggest economic winners from construction of its proposed Energy East pipeline, though company CEO Russ Girling admits it will take more than rosy numbers to win public support for the $12-billion project. Once the pipeline is up and running, Deloitte sees the creation of some 1,081 direct jobs, at which point Alberta will start to see a bigger share of direct employment. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Alert reader Martin Foster: No, I mean Canada is literally foreign. Alert reader Martin Foster had emailed me about the details of our new passport, and I hadnt believed him. But he is right, according to The Star. The passport contains 22 visual watermarks portraying the essence, the uniqueness of Harperlandia. There are, by my count, 98 images of males, six of females. There are various landscapes, from the north, the Prairies and Newfoundland, plus Niagara Falls. There are football players and hockey players, a warship, three war memorials, the RCMP and a soldier. But there is no image of Toronto or Vancouver and no aboriginal Canadian. Apparently only one Canadian verging on our lifetime Terry Fox has ever distinguished himself and Canada is increasingly becoming unrecognizable to me. I dont mean this just in an abstract sense, when I read about shameful things like Ottawa trying to avoid taking in refugees who have been tortured, because they require extra medical care. Foreigners who wake up weeping, with bone chips floating around their spinal cords, I hear you, Stephen Harper, these people are costly . The passport, good for 10 years and packed with security features so novel they ll be useless by 2015, is now being mailed out. But which nation issued it? It is a distant country of which I know little. It is Harperlandia. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Bashar Assad: First, there are the global fault lines laid bare by the Syrian crisis, according to The Star. But his immediate priority, he says, is the fear that Syrian leader Bashar Assad, after testing the West , will believe he has been given the green light to gas his people again and OTTAWA On the morning after a summit which some fear may have emboldened the Assad regime to again use chemical weapons against its citizens, John Baird sat in his office sipping a coke and contemplating the meaning of such inaction. Canadas foreign minister acknowledged the growing strains in relations between Russia and the West, the difficulties at home and abroad for U.S. President Barack Obama, the inefficiency of the United Nations, a Syrian opposition which is becoming a convention for jihadis and the danger of Syrias chemical stockpiles falling into the hands of Al Qaeda. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Catherine Pinhas: In her very first interview, over dinner at Crescendo, an Italian restaurant overlooking the St. Lawrence River in the working class borough of Verdun, southeast of Montreal, Catherine Pinhas, says Canadians dont know that her husband is a sweet guy. Seated next to him, she describes a man who cares for people, visits friends at the hospital and has earned the long-time loyalty of his staff, according to Huffington Post. They see him as a big brute which is totally false. I could never be with a brute, she says, her brown eyes flashing. He is nice, he is kind. ...That, I would like people to know, she says, grabbing his hand tenderly. He smiles at her and VERDUN, Que. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair may come across as an angry, bullheaded and intransigent figure, but his wife wants you to know he is a really kind man even if he doesnt always show it. After a complicated order, substituting Mulcairs vegetable soup for another tomato juice, ensuring that Pinhass meal has no bell peppers, asking that she can have the arugula salad on special without ordering the $29 Table d H te and that the Boston cod for both has no breading, Pinhas says Mulcair is one of the best people she knows. But Canadians dont know it, she says. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty: Planned rate increases are no longer necessary because the separate account through which the government manages the fund is looking healthier than it did a few years ago, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Monday, according to CTV. "More people are working, so more people are paying into the operating account of the employment insurance plan and fewer people are claiming," Flaherty said at an event south of Ottawa and OTTAWA -- Employers and workers will get a small break over the next three years as the Conservative government freezes employment insurance premiums at the current level. The account, which ran a deficit following the economic downturn, is on track to return to balance faster than expected. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Joseph Boyden: TORONTO - Acclaimed author Joseph Boyden says his highly anticipated new novel, "The Orenda," closes a chapter on a goal he's had his entire life. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. It's a rich period of history Boyden who has Irish, Scottish and Metis roots has been fascinated with since childhood, when he learned about it as a student at Toronto's Jesuit-run Brebeuf College School. Author Joseph Boyden is shown in a handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Penguin Canada On sale Tuesday, the story is an arresting fictional look at the sometimes brutal conflict between the Jesuits, the Huron-Wendat Nation and the Iroquois in the New World of the mid-1600s. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.