human trafficking: VANCOUVER - A young woman from East Africa had lived a life of hardship and poverty before meeting the employer who eventually brought her to Canada and allegedly forced her into domestic servitude, a human trafficking trial heard Wednesday. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. The alleged victim, wearing glasses and a black outfit, testified at B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday that she began working as a housekeeper for Ladha in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, when she was about 14 years old. Seen through a window, Mumtaz Ladha, left, and lawyer Tony Paisana talk at the end of the first day of a human trafficking trial at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, B.C., on September 4, 2013. A young woman from East Africa had lived a life of hardship and poverty before meeting the employer who eventually brought her to Canada and allegedly forced her into domestic servitude, a human trafficking trial heard Wednesday. The employer, 60-year-old Canadian citizen Mumtaz Ladha, is facing several charges, including the human-trafficking of the 26-year-old Tanzanian woman who cannot be identified under a publication ban. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck The employer, 60-year-old Canadian citizen Mumtaz Ladha, is facing several charges, including the human-trafficking of the 26-year-old Tanzanian woman who cannot be identified under a publication ban. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Maria Mourani: Maria Mourani has been highly critical of the Parti Quebecois and its proposed partial ban on religious symbols and clothing, according to CTV. That was too much for Bloc Quebecois leader Daniel Paill , who issued a video statement ejecting Mourani from the party and The Bloc Quebecois has expelled one of its few MPs because she is denouncing the Charter of Quebec Values. In interviews and a letter she co-wrote with a number of separatists, Mourani said the attack on religious icons was nothing less than the promotion of ethnic nationalism. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Premier Pauline Marois: In an interview with Radio-Canada on Wednesday, Mourani said Quebec's charter of values was a political miscalculation on the part of Premier Pauline Marois, according to CBC. But Bloc Qu b cois Leader Daniel Paill said on Thursday that despite what Mourani would have Quebecers believe, the charter of values is far from being "a serious strategic error on the part of the sovereignty movement or even worse, a demonstration of ethnic nationalism." The Bloc Qu b cois has expelled MP Maria Mourani from its caucus over critical comments she made about the proposed Quebec charter of values. "We will not achieve political independence in Quebec without including everyone, without Montreal it's impossible," Mourani said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

The Youth Employment Fund: The Youth Employment Fund is being implemented to provide more than 200 local youth with extensive skills training, placement opportunities and support, according to CTV. The first stage of the strategy will include outreach to Windsor-Essex employers to let them know about the incentives that are available for training and employment of youth. It will also feature the implementation of the Youth Employment Soft Skills Certificate to prepare youth for the workplace and Theres more help available for youth looking for work in Windsor and Essex County. I am pleased that the Employment Ontario Service Network has brought the Windsor-Essex community together for a united effort to get full benefit from the Youth Employment Fund, says Windsor-West MPP Teresa Piruzza. Our young people will get training and jobs while employers will benefit as any skills shortages in our region are addressed." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

blue collar workers: Hours after Tory Leader Tim Hudak urged MPPs to back Tory MPP Jack MacLarens private members bill on construction labour mobility, it went down to defeat on second reading Thursday by the minority Liberal government and New Democrats, according to The Star. Its not fair . . . blue collar workers are being left out in the cold, Hudak told a news conference, saying the situation in eastern Ontario has reached a tipping point. Its time we stopped being boy scouts and The Progressive Conservatives have lost a bid to get Premier Kathleen Wynne to play hardball with Quebec for making it tough on Ontario construction contractors, workers and truckers to toil in la belle province. Hudak charged Quebec is ignoring a 2006 agreement on the issue while its workers easily find employment in Ontario. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Quebec: Since the proposal was published, all three opposition parties in the National Assembly have deplored its attack on the fundamental rights of religious minorities. Quebecs largest union federation, the three main candidates for mayor of Montreal, the mayors of the 15 other municipalities on the island of Montreal, a prominent Bloc Qu b cois MP expelled from the tiny BQ caucus Thursday , a major teachers union, the F d ration des femmes du Qu bec have all come out publicly against that part of the charter. So has a group of prominent separatist intellectuals, according to The Star. The media often exaggerated the facts and gave the impression that such cases were common. Sometimes, they illustrated their stories about Muslims with pictures of women wearing a burka or a niqab, using photographs taken in the Middle East since there are practically no women dressed in the all-covering garments in Montreal and Seen from outside Quebec, it may seem that the proposal to forbid government workers from wearing ostentatious religious symbols is another example of Quebecers supposed xenophobia. Before I denounce the so-called charter of Quebec values, which I called the charter of shame in an editorial published in La Presse Wednesday morning, let me underline that a very large number of Quebecers from all walks of life, including a significant number of separatists, are categorically opposed to the Marois governments policy on that front. Many are, as I am, worried and sad. This is not the Quebec I know, they sigh. As in all societies, our province has its share of prejudiced and ignorant people. In Quebec in the last seven or eight years, those peoples fears of strangers have been exacerbated by a few cases where members of minority confessions have benefited from what seemed to many to be unreasonable arrangements workers enjoying additional days off for religious holidays, others demanding for a driving instructor of their own sex, others yet asking for separate public pool hours for men and women, etc. . (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Mumtaz Ladha: The 26-year-old woman from Tanzania testified that in 2008, Mumtaz Ladha, the West Vancouver woman accused of forcing the woman into domestic servitude, asked her to come to Canada for six months, according to CTV. The woman, who can't be named because of a publication ban, said Ladha then offered her a job in Canada that would pay her $200 a month and VANCOUVER -- An alleged victim of human trafficking believed she was coming to Canada for a salon job when she signed her visa applications, not knowing that the paperwork said she was going overseas as a domestic worker, a B.C. Supreme Court judge heard Thursday. She refused because she didn't want to leave her son, she testified. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

NASA: Thirty-six years after it was launched from Earth on a tour of the outer planets, the plutonium-powered probe is more than 11 1/2 billion miles 18.51 billion kilometres from the sun, cruising through interstellar space the vast, cold emptiness between the stars, the space agency said Thursday, according to Times Colonist. While some scientists remain unconvinced, NASA celebrated with a news conference featuring the theme from "Star Trek." LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Voyager 1 has crossed a new frontier, becoming the first spacecraft ever to leave the solar system, NASA said. Voyager 1 actually made its exit more than a year ago, according to NASA. But it's not as if there's a dotted boundary line or a signpost out there, and it was not until recently that scientists with the space agency had enough evidence to say that the probe had finally plowed through the hot plasma bubble surrounding the planets and escaped the sun's influence. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Christoph Duenwald: Christoph Duenwald told The Associated Press in an interview that the Palestinian territories are plagued by a host of problems: Slowing growth, high unemployment, large budget deficits, Israeli restrictions, and an unpredictable stream of donor aid, according to Times Colonist. "The whole problem is rooted in the political conflict between Israelis and Palestinians," Duenwald said late Wednesday night ahead of the release of an IMF staff report on West Bank and Gaza economies and WASHINGTON - Palestinians are in a precarious economic position and may struggle to keep financing their budgets over time, the International Monetary Fund mission chief for the West Bank and Gaza warned. Progress in newly restarted peace talks with Israel holds out the most hope for relieving Palestinian hardship. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Michel Leblanc: MONTREAL - Montreal's business community has urged the Quebec government to modify its proposed charter of values because it fears the legislation would harm the city's reputation and economic performance. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. "The government's proposal is generating a great deal of concern in the Montreal business community," Michel Leblanc, president of the organization, said in a statement Thursday. Salam Elmenyawi, left president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, answers questions at a news conference on Thursday. It was held to announce that a multicultural protest will be held Saturday against the Quebec government's controversial proposal for a charter of values. Adil Charkaoui, right spokesman for the Quebec Collective Against Islamophobia, told the news conference the demonstration is the first step in actions that are planned against the Parti Quebecois governments plan. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Ray The Montreal Board of Trade is warning that the city has more to lose with the charter than with the status quo. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.