coalition government: The Dutch election is over, the incumbent prime minister has won, his far-right racist rival has lost and the sound of fizzy Champagne bottles popping open can be heard throughout the capitals of Europe, according to Toronto Star. But does this mean that the right-wing, populist dragon in Europe has been slain and we can all go back to where we much prefer to be, obsessing about Donald Trump's latest tweets Well no, not quite. TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP/GETTY IMAGES By Tony Burman Foreign Affairs Columnist Sat., March 18, 2017 This has been a dramatic week in the battle for Europe. Here are five lessons from the crucial Netherlands election 1. His party will be the largest in the Dutch parliament by far, and he is certain to lead a coalition government. It's a triumph with limited impact Article Continued Below By any measure, the victory by incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte was impressive. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

design exchange: Instagram feeds glowed with arty angles of its Vegas-style neon sign, according to Toronto Star. The Centre for Social Innovation joined local artists, craft breweries and the Design Exchange to rock the funky shell of the old store for a Farewell weekend of installations and parties. Rick Madonik / Toronto Star By Karen von Hahn Fashion Columnist Sat., March 18, 2017 It was interesting, the rush of nostalgia for Honest Ed's as it finally closed its doors for good. Weeks beforehand, people who hadn't been there in years were lined up to buy anything a bent and scuffed scrap of paper advertising Jergen's Lotion for 3.99 so long as it qualified as Honest Edwardiana some examples of which, of course, are already up for resale on eBay and Kijiji . Not only do I have several friends who developed a sort of addiction to Ed's signage and kept going back for more, I, too, found myself visiting the old discounter on more than one occasion to pick over the scraps. In its best years, back when Ed himself was alive and kicking, you were guaranteed to find something truly great amidst the dreck a quality, Italian-made aluminum frying pan; obscure reggae recordings on vinyl; real Hungarian paprika or simple, all-cotton baby onesies are among the treasures I recall bringing home over the years. And while there was something sort of sad about all the hipsters the same types who will end up living in the condo that will replace the store on the site picking over its carcass, I decided not to feel badly about it because I really did love and frequent the store. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

votes: Richard Starke, a sitting PC legislature member, was second with 323 votes, according to Huffington Post Canada. Longtime party member Byron Nelson was a distant third, with 40 votes. Kenney, 48, captured 1,113 of 1,476 votes cast in the party's first delegated convention since 1985. Today, it's springtime in Alberta,'' Kenney proclaimed after the results were revealed. Photo Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press Kenney will now begin the next phase of his unite-the-right campaign by seeking a deal with the Wildrose party to join forces under a new conservative banner. This result sends a message to our fellow Albertans who are struggling, to those 200,000 Albertans who are looking for work, we are going to ensure there is a government on your side.'' A convention attendee is silhouetted amongs shamrocks at the Alberta PC Party leadership convention in Calgary on March 17, 2017. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

premier rachel: Today, it's springtime in Alberta! Kenney proclaimed, according to Brandon Sun. Supporters roared, cheered, chanted Jason and clouds of orange, white, and blue balloons floated down from the ceiling. Today we have chosen unity. Today this great party has acted with courage and vision to, in the words of former PC premier Ralph Klein, stop arguing about history and instead to make history, Kenney said. Today is the beginning of the end of this disastrous socialist government, said Kenney. Kenney promised that as premier he will take a wrecking ball to all the policies of Premier Rachel Notley's governing NDP, starting with the carbon tax on gasoline and home heating bills. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

aid workers: The UN has said 4.4 billion in humanitarian aid is needed by July to avert disaster, according to Huffington Post Canada. Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen urged factions in the conflicts in the affected countries to allow safe access for aid workers so that they can provide much-needed help to those at risk of starvation. The pledge comes in response to a United Nations warning earlier this month that the desperate situation in the four countries represents the largest humanitarian crisis the world has faced since the end of the Second World War. Photo The Canadian Press Canada's contribution of 119.25 million, to be delivered through UN agencies and non-governmental humanitarian organizations, will go towards the provision of food, health care services, clean water and sanitation facilities, and support to protect people's income-generating activities. Severe food insecurity in the region is the result of internal conflicts, which have displaced millions, and major drought in Somalia. In particular, the aid is to be targeted at the most vulnerable, generally women and children. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

asian canadian: Ins Choi's play, also called Kim's Convenience, has been a hit since its debut at the Fringe in 2011, according to Toronto Star. For me as an Asian Canadian, the recognition of the play, and especially the TV show, is long overdue. THE CANADIAN PRESS By Eleanor TyFri., March 17, 2017 The CBC TV show Kim's Convenience won two prizes at the ACTRA awards in February the Ensemble award and Outstanding Female Performance. Kim's Convenience is more than a strong comedy with great punchlines. For the first time on TV this season, I saw someone who looked like me on prime-time television in my own city. It is about making Asian Canadians, who have long been an absent presence in Canada, visible in the media. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

attack helicopter: Abdiker said it's still unclear who carried out the attack, according to CBC. He said various survivors provided conflicting messages about whether the attack came from a military vessel or an attack helicopter that had taken off from the vessel. About 75 men and 15 women survived the attack, according to the UN's Mohammed Abdiker, emergencies director at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva. He said the attack at around 3 a.m. was totally unacceptable and that responsible combatants should have checked who was aboard the boat before firing on it. The coalition has been heavily bombarding the nearby coast around the Yemeni city of Hodeida, and it accuses the rebels, known as Houthis, of smuggling weapons into the port in small boats. Scene of panic Earlier, Yemen's Shia rebels accused the Saudi-led air coalition of carrying out the attack. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

bus shelter: It's not known how long the graffiti inside the Wyandotte and Jefferson Street bus shelter has been there, but it didn't take long for Windsorites to denounce the message, according to CTV. Windsor residents are sounding off after hate filled graffiti was discovered on a bus shelter on the city's east side. Hate-filled messages have been scrawled by a permanent marker, denouncing immigrants and threatening the prime minister. It's really terrible to see something like that, said one student waiting at the bus stop. I don't know why someone would feel that they have to express themselves in this kind of way. According to one transit rider, the messages have been there for nearly a week. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian: Trump immigration policies kill work visas for specialized Canadian nurses Specialized Canadian nurses stress over rules preventing them from working in U.S. Canadian citizens holding these positions in the U.S. have been approved for non-immigrant professional TN visas under the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA for years, according to CBC. But that recently changed when nurses applying for renewals and new visas were being denied, according to officials at Henry Ford Hospital. Nurses and hospitals have been in a frenzy in the past week as visa applications for advanced practice nurses and advanced clinical nurse practitioners working in Detroit hospitals were denied. At least one Henry Ford nurse was turned away at the border last week. These nurses fall under the registered nurse category of the TN visa status, said Kristoffer Grogan, public affairs officer with U.S. Customs. A U.S. Customs spokesperson, on Friday, said the agency needed to get clarification on whether the specialized Canadian nurses qualified for TN visas. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

christmas island: If there is no appeal, the Federal Court will hear a class-action suit by detainees who say a blanket ban on phones in all Australian immigration detention centres would be illegal, according to Metro News. The ban would affect hundreds of detainees on the Australian mainland and on the Australian territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The government has two weeks to decide whether it will appeal Justice Steven Rares' ruling. The phone ban would not apply to asylum seekers who attempted to reach Australia by boat and have been sent to immigration camps on the Pacific island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection had planned to confiscate all phones last month, but human rights lawyers obtained an injunction allowing inmates to keep in contact with the outside world until the legality of the new policy is decided. Most asylum seekers arrive in Australia by plane and are kept in mainland detention centres along with foreign nationals who have breached their visa conditions and criminals who are awaiting deportation after serving prison sentences. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

dawn edlund: She said that while more than half of the privately sponsored Syrian refugees who arrived before March 2016 have found work, only 10 per cent of government-sponsored refugees have done so, according to CTV. The integration journey that people are on has various aspects to it, and Syrian refugees, whether privately sponsored or government-sponsored, are on that exact same pathway, she told The Canadian Press in an interview. In comparison to government-sponsored refugees, privately sponsored newcomers tend to fare much better in the short term in language acquisition and job integration, Dawn Edlund of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said Thursday. I don't know if I identify that as a gap. Edlund was among the first presenters at a multi-day conference in Montreal that is bringing together speakers from academia, government and social-services organizations to discuss how best to integrate newcomers over the long term. It's a similar pathway that we've seen resettled refugees travel before. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

dutch: Indeed, the results in full suggest that Dutch resistance to immigrants, particularly Muslim immigrants, remains high, according to The Chronicle Herald. The rest of the world rarely pays attention to elections in the Netherlands. Wednesday's Dutch election wasn't quite the victory over populism it is said to have been. It is a small country. It is usually governed by a coalition of political parties that are largely unknown to outsiders. It has no nuclear weapons. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

european counterparts: Trump stands at the forefront of a new trend in mainstream Western politics, a populist challenge to the status quo anchored in ethnic nationalism, according to Hamilton Spectator. Merkel, on the other hand, is arguably the de facto guardian of the liberal order once authored by the United States. It's a visit that seems a clash of geopolitical poles and personalities Trump, the maverick, shoot-from-the-hip outsider and Merkel, the bookish, calm and experienced policy wonk. Although a center-right politician herself, she has set about defending international institutions as well as the broader politics of integration and tolerance now seemingly under assault from Trump and his far-right European counterparts. She will bring a number of CEOs of leading German companies in tow a pro-trade agenda Trump certainly understands and will stress the significance of the overall German-U. S. partnership, one that became particularly close during the tenure of former president Barack Obama. But Merkel arrives at the White House with a message of unity and collaboration. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

famine crisis: These 20 million people need humanitarian assistance now, he said at the Keele Street Community Hub, according to CBC. We know that Canadians care and want their government to respond to the needs of people in these regions. Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told reporters in Toronto on Friday that the money will go toward those in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen who are facing extreme food insecurity. UN humanitarian chief warns of famine crisis, urges global action He said Canada will provide 27 million to Nigeria, 21 million to Somalia, 37 million to South Sudan and 34 million to Yemen. Canada responding to UN appeal Canada's contribution will be delivered through United Nations agencies and non-governmental humanitarian organizations. Famine has already been declared in parts of South Sudan and food crises are developing there, in northeastern Nigeria, and Yemen due to conflicts and in Somalia due to drought. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration courts: Judges were previously moved to two immigration detention centres in California, according to Metro News. Trump's executive order on border and immigration enforcement in January says judges should immediately be assigned to immigration detention centres . Many courts are for immigrants who are freed before their cases are heard. The department's Executive Office for Immigration Review said the transfers to four locations in Texas and one each in Louisiana and New Mexico will occur Monday. The clogged immigration courts have gotten less attention than other aspects of Trump's orders, such as construction of a wall on the 2,000-mile border with Mexico and the addition of 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 10,000 Immigration and Customs and Enforcement officers and agents. Jeremy McKinney, a Greensboro, North Carolina, attorney and board member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said transfers to detention centres means longer waits for people who aren't being held. There was a backlog of 542,646 cases at the end of January, including 20,856 people who were being held in custody. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

irish people: The Associated Press By Catherine Lucey The Associated Press Thu., March 16, 2017 WASHINGTON Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny is urging President Donald Trump to help Irish people living in the U.S. illegally, saying they just want to make America great, according to Toronto Star. Kenny spoke at a luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday as part of a series of events celebrating St. Patrick's Day reception. Patrick's Day, including a one-on-one meeting with Trump at the White House, where the two discussed immigration, trade and the Irish economy. On people living in the U.S. illegally, Kenny said We would like this to be sorted. In the evening, the pair participated in the annual shamrock ceremony, a decades-old tradition in which Trump was presented with a bowl of Ireland's famous greens. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

leadership: Reached on Thursday evening, Bernier said he had never heard of such allegations and suggested such accusations must signal that the reality TV personality's campaign is in trouble, according to Huffington Post Canada. I think he's desperate, the perceived front-runner said. The claims are being levelled by fellow leadership challenger Kevin O'Leary. We don't need to do this, people are coming to us, we are not desperate. Kevin O'Leary claimed there was widespread vote rigging in the leadership race on Thursday. On Thursday, O'Leary sent a note to reporters and a fundraising pitch to party members saying unnamed backroom organizers were committing widespread vote rigging and potentially breaking our electoral and financing laws to try to buy a Leadership victory. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

municipality staff: According to an information report for Tuesday's council meeting, there are currently three gateway signs at 100-series highway entry points at Highway 101 near Mount Uniacke, Highway 102 near Enfield and Highway 103 near Hubbards, according to The Chronicle Herald. They aren't due to be replaced but when they are, they will likely be written in multiple languages. Halifax Regional Municipality staff say they want to make highway signs more multicultural and inclusive, with the addition of French and Mi'kmaq to the now-English signs. In June 2015, regional council requested a staff report outlining the implications of updating these HRM Gateway signs. There was some debate regarding which languages should be included with suggestions like English, French, Mi'kmaq/First Nations, Gaelic and Arabic. In the discussion, it was noted that signs should only be updated where there is a need to repaint, repair or replace them. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

cent: The Halifax Regional Police figures showed that of the roughly 37,000 people checked between 2005 and 2016, almost 4,100 were black, despite making up only 3.59 per cent of the municipal population, according to the 2011 census, according to Globe and Mail. Both Nova Scotia's premier and Halifax's mayor have voiced concerns about the numbers. A January report from the Halifax RCMP which patrols certain parts of the Halifax Regional Municipality found that in the first 10 months of 2016, 41 per cent of 1,246 street checks involved African-Nova Scotians. Blais said Thursday that records of the 68,400 street checks conducted over that period suggest 91 per cent of them can be linked to individuals who have been charged with a crime. Of the 12 homicides in Halifax in 2016, he said seven of the victims were black males. The police chief defended street checks as a necessary information-gathering policing tool, and said community concerns must be wedded to broader issues of criminality. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

saudi-led coalition: The coalition has been heavily bombarding the nearby coast around the Yemeni port of Hodeida, where it accuses the rebels, known as Houthis, of smuggling weapons in small boats, according to Metro News. There was no immediate coalition comment.A Yemeni trafficker who survived the attack said the boat was filled with Somali refugees, including women and children, who were trying to reach Sudan from Yemen, which has been racked by conflict for more than two years. The attack, which Yemen's Shiite rebels blamed on a Saudi-led coalition, highlighted the perils of a heavily used migration route running from the Horn of Africa to the oil-rich Gulf, right through Yemen's civil war. Al-Hassan Ghaleb Mohammed told The Associated Press the boat left from Ras Arra, along the southern coastline in Yemen's Hodeida province, and was 30 miles 50 kilometres off the coast, near the Bab al-Mandab strait, when the military vessel open fire, followed by the helicopter gunship. He said the helicopter then stopped firing, but only after dozens had been killed. He described a scene of panic in which the terrified refugees waved flashlights, apparently to show they were not combatants. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

values tests: Extreme vetting and travel bans are feeding that trend in Donald Trump's America, according to Toronto Star. But here in Canada, too, a new poll this week showed that two-thirds of people were inclined toward the idea of values tests for would-be immigrants as Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch has been controversially proposing. Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS By Susan Delacourt Parliament Hill Fri., March 17, 2017 National-identity testing is shaping up to be the political fashion trend of 2017. The poll conducted for Radio-Canada found that 35 per cent of respondents strongly agreed with subjecting newcomers to a Canadian values test, while another 39 per cent said the idea was mostly favourable. I noticed this week that ancestry.ca was offering a St. I don't know if this is connected to what seems to be the rising popularity of consumer DNA testing the type we're seeing advertised on TV, in which people discover their Scottish, Italian or indigenous roots merely by putting a saliva sample in the mail. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

years: Penn aired his early career grievances on Twitter after he stumbled onto some scripts from his younger years, according to Hamilton Spectator. He wanted to avoid having to do accents, but casting directors would insist. But in the years leading up to his breakout, he, unlike most struggling actors, faced an added layer of difficulty Most roles were stereotypical parts that entailed heavy accents and broken English. Tried to convince them to let me speak without an accent & make it funny on the merits was told no he tweeted. The parts entailed cologne jokes and profuse sweating, not to mention names like Ravi Tulu Singh Shankar Ramanji. He also said that when he was asked to make his accent more authentic, it usually meant they wanted Apu, as in the immigrant Kwik-E-Mart owner from The Simpsons. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

yemeni trafficker: The coalition has been heavily bombarding the nearby coast around the Yemeni port of Hodeida, where it accuses the rebels, known as Houthis, of smuggling weapons in small boats, according to Hamilton Spectator. There was no immediate coalition comment. The attack, which Yemen's Shiite rebels blamed on a Saudi-led coalition, highlighted the perils of a heavily used migration route running from the Horn of Africa to the oil-rich Gulf, right through Yemen's civil war. A Yemeni trafficker who survived the attack said the boat was filled with Somali refugees, including women and children, who were trying to reach Sudan from Yemen, which has been racked by conflict for more than two years. He described a scene of panic in which the terrified refugees waved flashlights, apparently to show they were not combatants. Al-Hassan Ghaleb Mohammed told The Associated Press the boat left from Ras Arra, along the southern coastline in Yemen's Hodeida province, and was 50 kilometres off the coast, near the Bab al-Mandab strait, when the military vessel open fire, followed by the helicopter gunship. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

marines: The campaign has been in the works for months, but its release comes as the Marine Corps' image has taken a beating amid an investigation into nude photos of female Marines posted without their consent on a private Facebook page used by Marines, according to Brandon Sun. The Marine Corp is in the process of trying to boost its numbers and recruit more women, and the new TV ads include clips of women in combat fatigues. Battles Won is the name of the campaign that includes TV ads and online clips of Marines unloading Toys for Tots boxes and real video of a Marine veteran tackling an armed robber. But Marine Corps officials said the campaign is not aimed at a particular demographic other than those of recruiting age. The military's smallest branch is also considering replacing its iconic tagline, The Few. The Marine Corps shared the campaign with The Associated Press ahead of its official rollout Friday in conjunction with the first weekend of the hugely popular March Madness college basketball games. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

nations warning: The UN has said 4.4 billion in humanitarian aid is needed by July to avert disaster, according to Brandon Sun. Canada's contribution of 119.25 million, to be delivered through UN agencies and non-governmental humanitarian organizations, will go towards the provision of food, health care services, clean water and sanitation facilities, and support to protect people's income-generating activities. The pledge comes in response to a United Nations warning earlier this month that the desperate situation in the four countries represents the largest humanitarian crisis the world has faced since the end of the Second World War. In particular, the aid is to be targeted at the most vulnerable, generally women and children. In February, the UN declared a famine in parts of South Sudan. Severe food insecurity in the region is the result of internal conflicts, which have displaced millions, and major drought in Somalia. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

saudi-led coalition: The coalition has been heavily bombarding the nearby coast around the Yemeni port of Hodeida, where it accuses the rebels, known as Houthis, of smuggling weapons in small boats, according to Brandon Sun. There was no immediate coalition comment.A Yemeni trafficker who survived the attack said the boat was filled with Somali refugees, including women and children, who were trying to reach Sudan from Yemen, which has been racked by conflict for more than two years. The attack, which Yemen's Shiite rebels blamed on a Saudi-led coalition, highlighted the perils of a heavily used migration route running from the Horn of Africa to the oil-rich Gulf, right through Yemen's civil war. Al-Hassan Ghaleb Mohammed told The Associated Press the boat left from Ras Arra, along the southern coastline in Yemen's Hodeida province, and was 30 miles 50 kilometres off the coast, near the Bab al-Mandab strait, when the military vessel open fire, followed by the helicopter gunship. He said the helicopter then stopped firing, but only after dozens had been killed. He described a scene of panic in which the terrified refugees waved flashlights, apparently to show they were not combatants. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.