Canada: Today, we welcome you as fellow citizens. Today, you are as equal as anyone in this room, including the citizenship judge who swore you in as a Canadian. You are as equal as anyone who immigrated to Canada 10 or 20 or 50 years ago. You are as equal as anyone born in this blessed land. We have no hierarchy of citizens. We are all equal before the law, according to The Star. Canada is as close to nirvana as it gets. But, being a modest people, Canadians assert this negatively that we are the least racist nation in the world. Still, that does not mean that we are free of racists and bigots and The following is excerpted from remarks by Star columnist Haroon Siddiqui at a swearing-in ceremony for new citizens in Toronto this week : That, however, does not mean that everyone will treat you as equal. Some of us, both the Canada-born and foreign-born, have developed a bad habit of telling new Canadians how to behave, what you can or cannot do, in order to become a real Canadian. Ignore such busybodies. Dont let them hector you. You are as equal as they. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Brittany Murray: Hefty fines under Bill 2:, according to Winnipeg Free Press. in construction zone today: $481. 80 Brittany Murray For a driver ticketed travelling 80 km/h in a 60 km/h zone: (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Doug Porter: Okay, thats an exaggeration, but if things keep going the way they are, it won't be for long, according to Huffington Post. But dig a little deeper into the data, and what you see is a story of two different export sectors. As BMO chief economist Doug Porter put it in a client note Friday morning, there is energy doing just fine and there is everything else doing anything but fine and Canada no longer knows how to sell anything to the world except oil and gas. StatsCans latest numbers on Canadas trade balance, released Thursday, look positive on the face of it: Exports and imports both grew, and Canadas trade deficit with the world shrank by more than half, to $435 million. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

New Veterans Charter: Fallen on a day like today, Nov. 11, according to The Star. April, 2006 the New Veterans Charter was created amid great fanfare that it would benefit our veterans heroes if using the federal government vernacular and Re: Fallen on a day like today, Nov. 11 As we put away our poppies, but before our memories of Remembrance Day fade, please consider Remembrance Day as more than an annual event. Our veterans need our help for theirs and their families battles are not over and for some have not yet begun. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ruslan Abdullayev: Ruslan Abdullayev has lived in Calgary with his wife and their two children for the past four and a half years after leaving Azerbaijan, according to CTV. Abdullayevsays his family has been in Canada for the appropriate length of time and should qualify for citizenship. Instead of receiving approval of the application they submitted last year, the family was asked to fill out another application and may have wait an additional two years to receive their official papers and For many immigrants, obtaining Canadian citizenship can be a tiring and frustrating ordeal following changes the former Immigration Minister made to the application process. According to the latest Immigration Canada numbers, the Abdullayevs are four of the nearly 350,000 permanent residents on the waiting list for Canadian citizenship. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Outgoing New Democratic president Moe Sihota: Sihota says the party lost votes last spring in the Indo-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian communities, and without support from multicultural groups it won't win future votes, according to CTV. Delegates will hear an address by Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair later today and Outgoing New Democratic president Moe Sihota says his party's political future rests with this province's aboriginal and multicultural communities. He also asked delegates attending the party's convention to look around the hall and ask why the face of the party includes fewer and fewer people from ethnic and aboriginal communities. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

David Beckham: MIAMI - From his tattoos to his finely chiseled physique and Armani underwear ads, soccer icon David Beckham oozes Miami-style sex appeal, according to Reuters. Expectation is high that the former captain of the England team, who retired as a player in May, will exercise a $25 million option in his Major League Soccer MLS player contract to start a new team later this year and base it in Miami and By David Adams and Kevin Gray Blending charisma with a smart business plan, Beckham intends to launch his own professional soccer team in Miami, a multicultural market that has defied major league owners twice before. But Beckham is known for making long shots. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander: In an interview with Evan Solomon, host of CBC Radio's The House, Alexander said it's up to "the responsible authorities" to sanction Ford's behaviour or curtail his responsibilities. , according to Huffington Post. The federal Conservatives have repeatedly attacked Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for his support for legalizing and regulating marijuana, as well as for admitting he has smoked pot once since he was first elected. But party officials haven't taken a strong stance on Ford's admitted drug use and excessive drinking. Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says the federal government has to continue working with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, but that the Conservatives are "not fans" of anyone who uses hard drugs. "The bottom line for the federal government is we have to work with a mayor of Toronto. We have to keep working with Toronto city council. We have work to get done on building subways, on building infrastructure projects, on responding to the needs of the people of this great city, and we don't want this incident, this distraction, to detract from that work any more than it already has," said Alexander, speaking from Toronto. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

NDP: Adrian Dix didn't admit his campaign statements about the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project and an NDP plan to use a Liberal retirement fund to fight poverty lost the election for the NDP, according to Huffington Post. Dix's New Democrats started last spring's campaign with a 20-point lead over Premier Christy Clark's Liberals in the polls, but ended up losing on May 14, the fourth straight NDP loss to the Liberals and VANCOUVER - British Columbia's outgoing New Democratic Party leader said on Saturday that he made two election campaign mistakes last spring that helped inspire the B.C. Liberal campaign. But he came close. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

departures: It's no secret there have recently been some very high profile and very public management departures from local and national organizations as well as suspensions for perceived unethical expense claims by a group of senators recruited by their preferred political party. To be honest, if readers had the opportunity to examine any of these situations carefully, they would more than likely find that many of these departures can be traced back to poor recruitment and hiring decisions. In other words, the wrong people in the wrong job. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. However, on average, the cost of termination for any employee in any organization can range from three- to five-times annual salary with costs increasing as the level of personnel reaches senior levels. This includes costs for severance, organizational time to recruit a replacement, recruitment and selection expenses such as advertising, candidate travel and selection committee hours, candidate training and orientation and, perhaps, moving expenses. c MCT And not only do situations such as these cause public relations nightmares, they cost dollars and cents. For instance, as we have recently seen, the departure of a senior civic official can cost the organization upwards of $400,000. Yet, that doesn't include any behind the scenes financial fallout from earlier internal staffing shuffles, a decline in morale and productivity, resignations and departures from disgruntled staff that wouldn't be calculated in any final payout for a departing leader. And, it wouldn't include costs such as continued pension and/or health care benefits sometimes awarded to the departing individual for a period of time. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.