Claudio Aprile: TORONTO Three high-profile chefs were literally bursting with excitement during their first day on the set as judges for the new TV show MasterChef Canada, according to The Chronicle Herald. It was incredible. It was lightning in a bottle, Claudio Aprile, the owner and creative force behind the Orderfire Restaurant Group, which includes Torontos Origin brand restaurants, said during a break on Monday and Restaurateurs Michael Bonacini, Claudio Aprile and Alvin Leung will put home chef contestants through their paces in the Canadian version of the Gordon Ramsay hit, expected to debut on CTV in the winter of 2014. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Emily Saliers: As seen on YouTube, Saliers revealed the news between songs during a show at Vancouver's Vogue Theatre. "I got married," she said to cheers. "My partner's my wife, she's Canadian. She's from, well, she was born in Calgary but she spent most of her adult life in Toronto. She went to Lethbridge though for school. She's geographically a hybrid, according to Huffington Post. "Canadian girls are awesome!" a fan shouted and Indigo Girls singer-guitarist Emily Saliers announced during a Vancouver show Saturday night that she tied the knot with her Canadian partner now wife Tristin Chipman. "I got married in New York because we would've got married in Canada if it counted in the U.S. but you all know what I mean. We got married in New York so that she could get her green card so we could be free. We waited such a long time." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

workplace rules: The provinces minority government argues that its initiative will bring to heel a growing wave of unreasonable faith-based exceptions from societal and workplace rules, guarantee equality of the sexes in the province and reinforce the religious neutrality of the state, according to The Star. But Claire L Heureux-Dub , who sat on the countrys top court from 1987 until 2002, argued in a lengthy May 2013 radio interview that some rights are more fundamental than others and that, in Canada, the right to equality trumps religion and A former Supreme Court of Canada judge, who claims she sees more veiled women in Quebec than in her travels to Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Morocco, is expected to line up behind the Parti Qu b cois charter of values and lend her legal credibility to the proposed ban on religious clothing in the public service. The many critics in the political, legal and academic arenas warn the proposal would violate religious freedoms already enshrined in Canadian and Quebec charter rights and inevitably be ruled unconstitutional. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Stephen Cornish: But nothing prepared them for the morning of Aug. 21, when more than 3,500 people arrived from the agricultural area gasping for breath, sweating, vomiting, some suffering convulsions and unconsciousness, according to The Star. But medical staff responding to the emergency were also affected, says Stephen Cornish, who heads M decins Sans Fronti res MSF Canada . In one health centre 70 out of 100 suffered secondary symptoms, ranging from mild to severe. One died and Medics in three suburban Damascus hospitals were used to emergencies during two years of bloody war: people with shattered limbs, shrapnel wounds, life-threatening blast burns. By the end of the day, between 300 and 1,000 some say more were dead from what UN inspectors have identified as a chemical attack. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Diaspora Nation: Today, Canada attracts more immigrants from Asia and Latin America than from Europe. But only China and India are among our top 10 trading partners, according to The Star. This is a large and growing problem because diaspora networks are becoming more and more important to global economic growth. As that we are releasing today a new study called Diaspora Nation that we are releasing today finds, Canadian businesses that discover how to tap into emerging markets such as Brazil, China, India and the Philippines will thrive in coming decades. If Canadian businesses fail to mobilize immigrant talent and expertise, Canada will miss one of the enormous global economic developments now underway and Canadas population grows more diverse every year. Oddly, our trading and export patterns have not diversified to the same extent. We remain woefully dependent on trading with the United States. One reason is that we re not doing a good enough job integrating immigrants economically. The diversity of our people is one of Canadas strengths but we re not capitalizing on this comparative advantage. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

offshore oil platform: SALEKHARD, Russia Russia announced Tuesday that it had opened a piracy investigation against the crew of a Greenpeace ship after its activists scaled an offshore oil platform in the Arctic last week. The step signaled that the authorities intended to act decisively to thwart more protests against Russias ambitious plans to expand energy exploration in the region, according to The Chronicle Herald. The ship has since been towed to port in Murmansk, arriving Tuesday. Its crew of 30, held incommunicado since the seizure, includes citizens of 18 countries, raising the prospect of a diplomatic confrontation given the gravity of the piracy charges, which carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and The Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, was seized by Russian border guards in international waters in the Pechora Sea last Thursday, a day after several members of the crew tried to board the Prirazlomnaya platform, which is operated by the Russian state energy giant Gazprom. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter: Dexter used the backdrop of the Irving Shipyard in Halifax to promote his government's record on job growth, which has been one of the major issues during the campaign for the Oct. 8 election, according to CTV. Dexter said the company will only get money back from the province if it meets its job targets and HALIFAX -- Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter championed the NDP's approach to stimulating employment in his bid to get re-elected, but neither he nor his government could say Tuesday how many jobs were created at BlackBerry as a result of a payroll rebate, one of the cornerstones of his economic development policies. While at the shipyard, Dexter was asked about the deal his government struck in February with BlackBerry TSX:BB that could see the troubled tech-giant get $10 million over the next five years if it keeps at least 400 jobs in the province at an average salary of at least $60,000 a year. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

new national household survey: The picture painted by Statistics Canada's 2011 census and the new national household survey -- a second-rate stand-in for the former mandatory long-form questionnaire axed by the Harper government -- is clear, to a degree. Almost 15 per cent of Canadians, for example, are living on after-tax low incomes -- less than $39,000 for a family of four. And, almost 70 per cent of households owned their home. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. That's because the voluntary survey, which was sent to a third of Canadian households last year, had some really low response rates and was unreliable in spots. DALE CUMMINGS / But sorting through what that means -- who are they, exactly where are they living -- gets tough the further one tries to drill down in a province, city, town or neighbourhood. Some neighbourhoods don't even show up. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Dexter Michael C. Hall: The bad news is that the ending we did get didn't make a lot of sense, according to The Star. It was clear after last week's episode that Dexter Michael C. Hall was never going to get to Argentina with Hannah and Harrison, not with his sister Debra Jennifer Carpenter bleeding out on the floor of Oliver Saxon's kill room after Saxon shot her and fatally stabbed Deputy Marshal Clayton and First the good news, Dexter didn't conclude its eighth and final season with a credulity-straining happy ending. Let's take it from the top. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Stephen Elop: Elop, the ex-Microsoft executive hired to turn Nokia around, stands to receive the pay off if shareholders approve Nokia's plans to sell its handset business to Microsoft, according to Reuters. "All the details were not checked," he told Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Nokia confirmed his remarks and HELSINKI - Nokia's interim boss Risto Siilasmaa said he erred in describing a clause in former chief executive Stephen Elop's employment contract, which resulted in an 18.8 million-euro $25.4 million termination payment, as similar to his predecessor's. Siilasmaa had previously said Elop's predecessor Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo had a similar employment deal, but on Tuesday said he was wrong. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.