Finance Minister Jim Flaherty: "We will be balanced again in approximately 14 months and we'll be in a position to run a surplus and make the policy decisions that are made then about what to do about the surplus," Flaherty said, according to CTV. Flaherty has pledged to meet the target in the past, but the 14-month deadline was his most specific to date and The federal government's books will be back in balance in little more than a year and run a surplus from that point on, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Monday in generally upbeat testimony given separately to both the Senate and Commons finance committees. The Harper government is counting on balancing the budget in 2015 in order to fulfil campaign promises made four years earlier that it would introduce partial income splitting for families among other tax cuts once the deficit is eliminated. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Changi Airport: Flight SQ 21 landed early Monday in Changi Airport, bringing an end to a nine-year run. A direct service to Los Angeles has also been cancelled as part of a fleet renewal, according to Huffington Post. Analysts said the rise in fuel prices since 2004, when the 15,335-kilometre 9,529-mile service was launched to cater to business travellers, made it economically unsustainable and SINGAPORE -AFP - The world's longest nonstop commercial flight ended without fanfare Monday after Singapore Airlines SIA flew its last nearly 19-hour service from New York. "Food and refreshments were served to customers at the airport gate hold rooms in Singapore and Newark. Customers were also presented with commemorative gift sets and certificates," an SIA spokesman added. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Benjamin Disraeli: In the 19th century, some European countries were prepared to integrate their Jewish citizens on condition they obliterate their Jewishness. Baptism became a path toward acceptance by the majority. Thats how Karl Marx, Benjamin Disraeli and many other Jews became nominal Christians. Of course, the rabid racism of the Nazis proved such efforts tragically futile. Being as good as a Christian wasnt good enough for them, according to The Star. In recent decades, being Jewish has become more acceptable, especially in North America. Some descendants of European immigrants who had hidden their origins and hadnt even told their children they were Jews acknowledged their roots when they discovered the truth. Madeleine Albright, the former U.S. secretary of state, is one of them. Perhaps they should be called Jews by surprise to differentiate them from Jews by birth and Jews by choice and I get occasional compliments of the kind, You re as good as a Christian. Its often well-meant but never well-received. I have the highest regard for Christianity, but I m a Jew and I bristle at the confusion between equality and sameness, whether unconscious or deliberate. When people praise me for being like them, they re praising themselves. I want to have equal rights even though I choose to be different. In the Holocaust, some Jews were helped by Christians to conceal their identity as a way of saving themselves from the gas chambers. Occasionally, families, monasteries and similar institutions provided shelter. After the Second World War, most returned to Judaism, sometimes having to overcome Christian disappointment, even resistance. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Quebec: Members of the group, known as the Lev Tahor, are under investigation by social services in Quebec for alleged child neglect. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. Denis Baraby, director of youth protection for Quebec's Laurentians region, says there are concerns about the health and education of the children and the hearings were to ensure child services had regular access to the families. Authorities were planning a Monday meeting to address the case of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that abruptly left Quebec for Ontario last week. The group, totalling about 200 people, packed up and drove to Chatham, Ontario in the middle of the night, in advance of court hearings for some of the families scheduled later in the week. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Maribel Villajos: The frail, 31-year-old farmer lost his shanty to Typhoon Haiyan, which flattened much of Tacloban in Leyte province as it killed more than 5,200 people. Now he lays idle in a tent shelter in suburban Manila, where he has no known relatives and little chance of finding more than menial and temporary work, according to CTV. "What will happen to us when this kindness ends?" asked Maribel Villajos, a 37-year-old mother of three children who sat listlessly with her husband on cots surrounded by bags of newly donated clothes, potato chips and instant coffee sachets at the same shelter where Abadines and his family were taken and MANILA, Philippines -- Romnick Abadines' heart pounded as a Philippine air force C-130 carried him above typhoon-wrecked Tacloban city. He had never been on a plane before, never watched silvery-white clouds pass from a small round window. It was not the first time, or the last, that he felt helpless and out of his element. More than 12,000 people displaced by the massive Nov. 8 have made it to the capital. Most are with relatives; those with no family here are in shelters. Many have no idea how or where to rebuild their lives. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay: Justice Minister Peter MacKay and Industry Minister James Moore will reintroduce legislation designed to better protect the public when someone is found unfit to stand trial or not criminally responsible for their actions because of mental disorder, according to Times Colonist. Neither is expected to steer the opposition parties away from the Senate scandal, however, as they continue grilling the Harper government during question period in the House of Commons and OTTAWA - The federal Conservatives will try to turn the country's attention to the Tory bedrock issues of crime and the economy today, and away from the Senate spending scandal. And Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will appear before the Senate finance committee studying the government's second omnibus budget implementation bill. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Claudette Zabsonre: Fast forward and like many municipalities surrounding Toronto, rapid growth has descended upon the town and its impact is felt to the core. From 2006 to 2011, Whitchurch-Stouffville grew by 54.3 per cent, making it the fastest growing municipality in Canada. In the seven years shes lived there Claudette Zabsonre has seen the changes wrought by rapid growth. Its not the rural community it was, said Zabsonre. And while hard infrastructure like road expansion is moving forward to accommodate growth, health and social services havent kept pace with the changing needs, according to The Star. Whitchchurch-Stouffville has many needs because of growth, she said in an interview and It wasnt long ago Whitchurch-Stouffville was a sleepy, bucolic community that described itself as the Country Close to the City the best of both worlds. Its what United Way York Region heard time and again during public meetings in all nine York municipalities. Zabsonre was among those to have her say. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Doris McKay: Doris McKay was born 61 years ago in a hospital across the border in Maine, because it was the closest hospital to her familys Saint-Leonard home, and returned to New Brunswick the following day, according to CTV. McKay, who runs a hair salon in the basement of her Petitcodiac home, recently learned she may not be a Canadian citizen after applying for a passport and A New Brunswick woman is getting a great deal of support from her community after learning she may not be a Canadian citizen. I have lived here all my life. I have worked here. I have children here. I married here, and I was only in the States to be born and left that next day, Doris McKay told on Friday. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

personal income taxes: Its the apparent result of successive Liberal and Conservative governments that have cut corporate taxes far more aggressively than they have cut personal income taxes, while increasing hidden taxes that mostly impact low-income and middle-income workers, according to Huffington Post. Personal income taxes, on the other hand, have remained at more or less steady levels through this time. The lowest tax bracket, which now applies on incomes below $42,706, has fallen slightly to 15 per cent today from 17 per cent in 2000. The top marginal tax rate has stayed the same, at 29 per cent and For the first time in Canadian history, more than half of the federal governments revenue in 2014 will come from personal income taxes -- a vivid sign that Canadas tax burden is slowly shifting away from corporations and onto consumers. The federal corporate tax rate has been nearly cut in half since 2000 -- from 28 per cent at the turn of the century to 15 per cent in 2012. The Harper government boasts that this will give Canadian corporations the lowest tax rate on new investment of any G7 country. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Premier Stephen McNeil: Nova Scotians may have voted dramatically for change in the October election, reducing the NDP from a dominant majority to bedraggled fringes on the electoral map. But voters will not see many dramatic changes in direction as Premier Stephen McNeil and his cabinet heads into Province House for the fall legislative session and Pomp and ceremony will yield to the nuts and bolts of governing as the McNeil Liberals begin this week to put their stamp on the province. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.