Stephen Harpers: While Sen. Mike Duffys revelations and allegations may be self-serving, they have also cast light on the squalid m lange of deal-making, betrayal and bullying that characterizes politics at the highest level of government, according to The Star. What the prime minister doesnt say and what the fuss over the Senate obscures is that the economy is not doing well and The Senate scandal is great sport. It shows Stephen Harpers governing Conservatives at their worst. It has even forced Canadas notoriously aloof prime minister to explain himself on talk radio. But in the end, this is a sideshow. When Harper says its the economy that matters to voters, he is correct. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

UN General Assembly: The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to condemn the U.S. commercial, economic and financial embargo against Cuba for the 22nd year in a row, according to The Chronicle Herald. The embargo was enacted in 1960 following Cubas nationalization of properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations. Sanctions were strengthened to a near-total embargo in 1962 and The symbolic vote Tuesday was 188-2, with three abstentions. The United States and Israel voted against it. General Assembly resolutions are unenforceable. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander: Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says the backlogs in the program are unacceptable. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. The number of caregivers who complete their work obligations and become eligible for permanent residency outpaces the planned levels of admissions from the program. OTTAWA - The federal government is promising to cut backlogs and speed up processing of applications under a program that brings live-in caregivers from overseas. The department says application backlogs and processing times have grown steadily in recent years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ramiro Osorio Cristales: Now, 31 years later, he remembers the events of that day Dec. 7, 1982 with almost preternatural clarity, according to The Star. I dont feel hate, Osorio says. I dont live with hate and Ramiro Osorio Cristales was just 5 years old on the day the Earth stood still. When he speaks to a reporter on the phone, Osorio has only recently returned to Canada from a late-September journey to Riverside, Calif., where he testified as the final witness for the prosecution at the trial of Jorge Sosa Orantes , a former Guatemalan army officer and alleged war criminal. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Employment and Social Development Canada: In her annual report , released Monday, Stoddart said new all-time highs were set for both privacy complaints submitted by Canadians about federal organizations, and data breaches reported by the agencies themselves, according to CTV. She said much of the increase was generated by two highly publicized data breaches involving Employment and Social Development Canada, and Justice Canada and Complaints over privacy concerns have reached a record-high, Canada's privacy watchdog Jennifer Stoddart says in her latest and final report. From April 2012 to March 31, 2013, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner received 2,273 such complaints, up from 986 over the same period a year before, which marked an increase of 130 per cent. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Lance Gibson: Gibson, a sergeant in the Canadian Armed Forces based at CFB Borden, north of Toronto, has hepatitis C, according to Huffington Post. Story continues below slideshow Loading Slideshow 10: Alberta TORONTO - Doctors like Jordan Feld and Morris Sherman are worried about how many people like Lance Gibson are out there across Canada. He was completely unaware of the chronic infection for years, probably decades. Tests done during a military physical in late 2008 noted Gibson had an abnormal blood platelets reading and further testing led to an early 2009 diagnosis. By the time Gibson realized he was carrying the virus, he was already on a potentially fatal track he had stage 5 liver failure. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Michelle Nichols Marzuki Darusman: UNITED NATIONS - Fewer North Koreans are fleeing to South Korea, possibly due to tighter border control and cases of asylum seekers being returned home by China, a U.N. rights envoy said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. "This represents a reversal of the trend of steady increase in the number of annual arrivals since 1998, possibly due to recently tightened border control and increased incidents of refoulement," Darusman wrote in a statement presented to a U.N. General Assembly human rights committee and By Michelle Nichols Marzuki Darusman, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation in North Korea, said that in the first nine months of this year 1,041 North Koreans arrived in South Korea, compared to 1,509 people for all of 2012 and 2,706 people in 2011. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

TFW: According to data from Citizenship and Immigration Canada CIC , there were 124,017 admissions to Canada under the TFW program in the first six months of this year. Thats an increase of about five per cent from the same period in 2012, and up nearly 18 per cent since the same period in 2011, according to Huffington Post. However, the new rules came into effect after June, so the numbers for the first half of this year dont reflect the governments changes and The federal government has boosted the number of temporary foreign workers TFWs allowed into Canada, even as the governing Tories promised a crackdown on the contentious program. The increase in TFWs took place as the Harper government repeatedly announced it is tightening the program's rules, following an outcry this spring over laid-off workers at RBC being asked to train their replacements , some of whom came to Canada on TFW permits. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Arthur Hamilton: The industrious partner with the Toronto law firm Cassels Brock and Blackwell has been the legal bulwark of the Conservative party and some of its principal players since before the modern version of the party even existed, according to Huffington Post. Name a Harper government controversy that involved the Conservative party and you'll find Hamilton in the footnotes, if not in the executive summary and OTTAWA - To those who follow federal politics closely, it seemed only a matter of time before Arthur Hamilton's name popped up somehow in the latest Conservative brouhaha. So when Sen. Mike Duffy delivered his latest eye-popping revelations in the Senate expense drama this week, describing how his legal fees of more than $13,000 had been secretly paid by the Conservative party, the only unsurprising detail was that Hamilton handled the transaction. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander: In tabling his annual report to the Parliament Monday, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander also announced that Ottawa will admit between 240,000 and 265,000 permanent residents to Canada in 2014, the same level as this year, according to The Star. The EOI system is to start on Jan. 1, 2015 and Canada is set to launch its Express of Interest System EOI to let employers cherry-pick skilled immigrants from a pool of pre-screened candidates. While Canadians will continue to get the first crack at available jobs, getting the right people in the right places is key to addressing regional labour needs and fuelling Canadas long-term prosperity, Alexander said in Ottawa. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.