soldiers spraying: Others said thousands were stuck in Myanmar because most boatmen had made the crossing to safety themselves and soldiers had burned many of the boats that remained, according to CBC. Over the last month, an estimated 430,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh as their homes and villages were set on fire by mobs of soldiers and Buddhist monks. Some Rohingya who have fled over the last week said Myanmar army soldiers were shooting at those trying to flee to Bangladesh. They have brought with them accounts of soldiers spraying their villages with gunfire. Many crossed into the country via the thin sliver of the Bay of Bengal that separates Myanmar from Bangladesh. In the first three weeks of the latest convulsion of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, tens of thousands of Rohingya poured into Bangladesh each day, walking for days through forests or taking rickety wooden boats on the rain-swollen Naf River. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

student refugees: I was looking for a way to actually go to any place where there is school, he said, according to Toronto Star. For Madhier and 1,700 other young refugees in the World University Service of Canada's WUSC Student Refugee Program, that place was Canada. Madhier cried tears of frustration at his family members, who could not see a world beyond their farm in what was once the south of Sudan following generations of civil war, who did not understand the magic of reading. Since its 1978 beginnings, the program has recruited student refugees from 39 countries of origin, promising an opportunity to pursue a post-secondary education at one of 80 partner campuses in Canada and eventually even sponsor their families. But though he'd lived under the ever-present threat of bombings, famine, or being swept up by militiamen, this naivet also exposed him to unforeseen danger. Article Continued Below Looking back, the 28-year-old Madhier credits his childhood naivet for helping him get to where he is today, a fourth-year student at the University of Toronto. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

sunday night: The Iraqi government requests neighbouring counties and the countries of the world to deal with the Iraqi federal government exclusively with regards to ports and oil, read a statement from the prime minister's national security council released Sunday night, according to CTV. Earlier Sunday, the Kurdish region's president Masoud Barzani pledged the vote would be held despite pressure from Baghdad and the international community. The referendum is set to be held Monday in the three provinces that make up the Kurdistan region as well as dozens of towns and villages that are disputed, claimed by both Baghdad and the country's Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. He said that while the referendum will be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the region's partnership with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad is over. Only through independence can we secure a future where we will not have the past atrocities, he said. Barzani detailed the abuses Iraq's Kurds have faced by Iraqi forces, including killings at the hands of former leader Saddam Hussein's army that left more than 50,000 Kurds dead. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

trump: Republicans in Congress insist there isn't an actual deal, though Trump has said the two sides were fairly close, according to Metro News. Pelosi tells NBC's Meet the Press I trust him on it. Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer have said they had an agreement with Trump to protect those immigrants while also bolstering border security as long as his long-promised wall with Mexico is addressed separately. She says she remains concerned about what Trump might come up with on border security. Pelosi says she expects Congress to act before Christmas. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

welfare states: In the U.S. and in Canada, immigration tends to reduce crime, according to Toronto Star. And both history and data show that in the U.S., immigrants assimilate successfully into the local culture and social fabric. For example, the best available data says that immigrants don't take native-born Americans' jobs, or drive down their wages; indeed, it's more likely that skilled immigrants boost the earnings of the native-born. But there is one anti-immigration argument that sometimes does have merit. Governments in advanced countries tend to levy heavy taxes on the rich, and use these to pay for services for the poor, the old and the sick. In countries with strong welfare states, immigrants can impose a large fiscal burden on the government. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

childhood friends: Former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty read from the Bible, and many of Chan's colleagues were honorary pallbearers, including Conservative MP Erin O'Toole and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, according to National Observer. Chan was remembered as principled and optimistic, a devoted family man and a talented musician, and an MP completely engrossed with the political process. Trudeau was one of several speakers at the ceremony, along with Chan's wife Jean Yip and their three sons as well as childhood friends. In an emotional tribute, Trudeau described Chan as man with deep conviction, calling him one of the most honourable members of that House of Commons. You all know that I don't sing often, and there's a reason for that, Trudeau said. He said the last time he saw Chan, they sang Elton John's Your Song together, with Chan on piano. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

ap team: The Associated Press' South Asia news director, Bernat Armangue, is part of an AP team in the refugee camps documenting the crisis, according to Toronto Star. Armangue, a photographer who covered global stories from the Arab Spring to the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, shares his thoughts on some of the images he has taken of the unfolding calamity A bleak procession Shortly after we arrived, we started driving down to the area where we knew refugees were arriving in Bangladesh. The crisis has drawn global condemnation, with the United Nations and human rights groups calling on Burma to end what they describe as a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing. There was a moment, looking across the rice fields, that I could suddenly see a line of people crossing, like a long snake moving. There were so many people crossing the border. We stopped the car and started walking through muddy fields. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

grandmother: Her family moved to Canada in 2009, giving Yao an opportunity to help her grandmother, Shurong Li, according to CBC. Yao says at first, her grandmother was very quiet and didn't go out much, because she couldn't speak much English. When Kan Yao was growing up in China, it was her grandparents who took care of her, because her own parents were so busy with work. In order to help her make friends and be more independent, Yao agreed to take her grandmother to an English as an additional language class run by Age and Opportunity. School boards see hike in number of students needing English language instruction English class in high demand at Winnipeg high school Newcomers learning English call on government to stop proposed cuts to Winnipeg EAL program Her grandmother asked Yao to stay with her to help translate, and Yao agreed. At first she was nervous, and then she was seeing a lot of people, other newcomers in the class, and she just said 'Oh, maybe I can try a little bit,' said Yao in an interview with CBC Manitoba's Weekend Morning Show. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

justice department: U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia blocked much of the law on Aug. 31, a day before it was to take effect, according to The Chronicle Herald. The state appealed to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Under the law, Texas police chiefs could face removal from office and criminal charges for not complying with federal immigration officials' requests to detain people jailed on non-immigration offences. Arguments on Garcia's injunction against parts of the law are scheduled for the week of Nov. 6. That request was before a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit on Friday morning. However, state officials, joined by the U.S. Justice Department, sought an emergency stay allowing enforcement to begin. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

mp erin: Trudeau was one of several speakers at the ceremony, along with Chan's wife Jean Yip and their three sons as well as childhood friends, according to CTV. Former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty read from the Bible, and many of Chan's colleagues were honorary pallbearers, including Conservative MP Erin O'Toole and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen. Chan, the member of parliament for Scarborough-Agincourt, died of cancer earlier this month at age 50. Chan was remembered as principled and optimistic, a devoted family man and a talented musician, and an MP completely engrossed with the political process. He said the last time he saw Chan, they sang Elton John's Your Song together, with Chan on piano. In an emotional tribute, Trudeau described Chan as passionate and convicted, calling him one of the most honourable members of that House of Commons. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

statement saturday: Their two sons already have dual citizenship, according to CBC. In a statement Saturday, the 57-year-old Firth said he and his wife had never thought much about their different passports, but now, with some of the uncertainty around, we thought it sensible that we should all get the same. Firth, who is married to environmentalist Livia Giuggioli, says he has become a dual U.K.-Italian citizen, and his wife is applying for British nationality. Firth has been quoted as calling Brexit a disaster. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and King George VI in The King's Speech, said he will always be extremely British but also has a passionate love of Italy. The actor, who has played Mr. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

stories: In this first week we've looked at arts and architecture, obs and labour, gentrification and meaningful places, according to CBC. Here's some of how you have already responded and reacted to these stories. Through stories this week and next, we're looking at what the changing city looks like for workers, residents, commuters, newcomers and lifers who call Hamilton home. View the story What you're saying about Hamilton's Identity Crisis on Storify (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

syria: Turkish officials have repeatedly warned the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq to abandon its plans for independence, according to Toronto Star. Kurds are dispersed across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran and lack a nation state. The decree allows Turkey to send troops over its southern border if developments in Iraq or Syria are seen as national security threats. Turkey itself has a large ethnic Kurdish population and is battling a Kurdish insurgency on its own territory that it calls separatist. It also emphasized the importance of Iraq and Syria's territorial integrity and said separatism based on ethnicity poses a threat to both Turkey and regional stability. The bill read in parliament Saturday listed combatting Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq and Daesh as national security requirements for Turkey. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

burma soldiers: He saw his father shot by Burma soldiers, he volunteers in a calm yet deeply unsettling tone, lifting two fingers of his right hand to illustrate the act, according to CTV. When his father didn't die right away, he saw the soldiers slash his throat. By age 12, the Rohingya Muslim boy has seen more than anyone should have to see in a lifetime. His mother fled their home in Myanmar with Hamid and four younger siblings. Now he is the elder of his family, he says. They hid in forests for days and then walked for two days to reach the safety of Bangladesh. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian citizenship: It likely will be several weeks before the Supreme Court decides whether to hear the case, according to Toronto Star. Read more Toronto-born son of Russian spies wins fight to regain Canadian citizenship In June, the appeal court ruled in Alexander Vavilov's favour the latest turn in a long-running spy saga brimming with international intrigue. In asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hear the case, the government says the absurd result of the Federal Court of Appeal's decision raises important issues about the integrity of Canadian citizenship and should not be allowed to stand. Article Continued Below Vavilov, 23, was born in 1994 as Alexander Philip Anthony Foley to Donald Heathfield and Tracey Ann Foley. One day in June 2010, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation turned up at the family's Boston-area home. The following year the family including an older boy, Timothy left Canada for France, where they spent four years before moving to the United States. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian ideology: Since it aligns with Washington, London and Kigali's interests, as well as liberal nationalist Canadian ideology, the statistical inflation passes with little comment.A Tyee story last month described the slaughter of over 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda between April and July 1994, according to Rabble. An earlier Globe and Mail profile of Rom o Dallaire cited a higher number. Canadian commentators often claim more Tutsi were killed in the genocide than lived in Rwanda. It noted, over the next few months, Hutu activists and militias, supplemented by police officers and military commanders, killed an estimated 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis. In the Globe and Mail and rabble last year Gerald Caplan wrote that, despite his Dallaire best efforts, perhaps a million people of the Tutsi minority were slaughtered in 100 days. Even self-declared experts on the subject cite these outlandish statistics. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

circuit court: The state appealed to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Metro News. Arguments on Garcia's injunction against parts of the law are scheduled for the week of Nov. 6. Under the law, Texas police chiefs could face removal from office and criminal charges for not complying with federal immigration officials' requests to detain people jailed on non-immigration offences .U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia blocked much of the law on Aug. 31, a day before it was to take effect. However, state officials, joined by the U.S. Justice Department, sought an emergency stay allowing enforcement to begin. Court officials said the panel would begin discussing the case immediately after the hearing ended, but a decision was not expected Friday. That request was before a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit on Friday morning. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

clinton: Article Continued Below Hillary Rodham Clinton's What Happened offers a compelling guide to the perplexed, according to Toronto Star. Like the start of her 2003 memoir that chronicles girlhood in Chicago's postwar suburbs, the initial pages of this book unfold behind the scenes at Donald Trump's inauguration. The people downstairs have since given us plenty to talk about but our wonderment has reached new heights since the 2016 presidential election. Even George W. Bush seems far from enamoured with the new chief executive. Yet Clinton remains confident about her own future as an active citizen and the resilience of her country, noting that she refuses to disappear following a campaign that didn't turn out as the more than 65 million Americans who supported her in 2016 wanted. What Happened recounts not just electoral loss but also what Clinton sees as profound threats to American democracy An FBI director who mixes innuendo and investigation, Russian oligarchs determined to stop her ascent and news organizations with a distorted sense of journalistic balance figure prominently. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

deportation: The 31-year-old faces deportation back to Tunisia if he leaves the confines of the building, according to CTV. It's not life to be between four walls, says Maazaoui. Maazaoui has been holed up in the Shediac Bay Community Church for nearly two-and-a-half years. I think now is the time for the government to go back and check my case and lift the deportation and give me my permanent residency. He came to Canada with his family, all of whom received their permanent resident status. Maazaoui fled his homeland in 2004 after facing persecution for converting from Islam to Christianity. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

father shot: He saw his father shot by Burma soldiers, he volunteers in a calm yet deeply unsettling tone, lifting two fingers of his right hand to illustrate the act, according to CBC. When his father didn't die right away, he saw the soldiers slash his throat. By age 12, the Rohingya boy has seen more than anyone should have to see in a lifetime. His mother fled their home in Myanmar with Hamid and four younger siblings. Violence against Rohingya 'looks a lot like ethnic cleansing,' Freeland says Canada provides 2.5M in urgent funding for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh Now he is the elder of his family, he says. They hid in forests for days and then walked for two days to reach the safety of Bangladesh. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

funds: I worked for a year without pay to get it off the ground 10- to 12-hour days were common, according to The Chronicle Herald. I'll probably continue to run it without pay for another year until it is stable enough, while paying my employees their salaries. I recently started a small business. I borrowed a lot of money. I have no pension or retirement funds to speak of, and likely won't be able to contribute to those funds for a few more years. I depleted all my savings. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration documents: The complainant, who is not a resident of Canada, told RCMP they had arrived in Canada on a Temporary Foreign Worker permit and were promised permanent residenct by their employers, according to CTV. The employers, a couple from Conrich, allegedly withheld the worker's passport and immigration documents and financially exploited them. According to RCMP officials, the Strathmore RCMP detachment received a complaint from someone who identified themself as a victim of human trafficking. RCMP have not disclosed the age, gender or nationality of the worker but confirm the alleged victim is an adult. As a result of a lengthy investigation into the allegations, members of the RCMP Federal Serious & Organized Crime unit executed a search warrant at an undisclosed residence in Conrich on September 20. The nature of the work promised to the visitor has not been confirmed. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

need contacts: He described the exchange of threats between Washington and Pyongyang as quite bad, unacceptable, according to CBC. Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before! real Donald Trump Lavrov also warned that if the Iran nuclear deal falls apart, North Korea will have little incentive to give up its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. We have to calm down the hotheads and understand that we need pauses, we need contacts, Lavrov told reporters during a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York. He said he was convinced a Russian-Chinese proposal could still pave the way for a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis. Iraqi Kurds are expected to vote on Monday to back an independence drive that neighbouring countries and Western powers fear could break up the country and stir broader regional ethnic and sectarian conflict. Kremlin against Kurdish vote Earlier in the day, Lavrov told his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari that Moscow supported Iraq's territorial integrity and sovereignty, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

pascal laberge: Here's my best guess at how the league will shape up this year 1, according to The Chronicle Herald. Victoriaville Tigres This is the only team I truly believe is at the very top of the building cycle. The 2017-18 QMJHL season opened on Thursday so there's really no putting it off anymore. Players like Pascal Laberge, Maxime Comtois and Ivan Kosorenko make them a championship-calibre team. 2. Most signs point to him making the jump to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada The big X factor here is Pierre-Luc Dubois. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

refugees: Under the 2016 EU-Turkey agreement to stem migratory flows, refugees or migrants reaching the Greek islands from Turkey will be returned there unless they can prove sufficient reason for seeking asylum in Greece rather than Turkey, according to Metro News. The decision made public Friday concerned two Syrian men, aged 21 and 29, who had their Greek asylum applications rejected and were fighting deportation to Turkey. In a case with implications for thousands of refugees in Greece and others planning to enter the country seeking asylum the court found that deported refugees face no threat of torture, inhumane or degrading treatment, or punishment in Turkey. They reached Greece's eastern island of Lesbos in July 2016, four months after the agreement came into effect. In the year leading up to it, more than a million people reached the Greek islands on their way to Europe's prosperous heartland. The EU-Turkey deal, combined with a series of Balkan border closures, had a big impact on reducing the numbers of people fleeing war or hardship who entered Greece in smuggling boats from Turkey. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

kyi: Now, Suu Kyi is a tarnished icon with a reputation totally in tatters, according to Toronto Star. As de facto civilian leader of Burma also known as Myanmar she is associated with a campaign of ethnic cleansing and perhaps even genocide by Burma's military of the Rohingya Muslim minority in her country. Asia's Mandela, she was called. And as recently as Tuesday, in the face of overwhelming international uproar, she stubbornly defended the military's actions. Those were momentous times. How could this be so How did we both public and journalists alike get her so wrong Article Continued Below Looking back, it is striking that Suu Kyi was honoured with the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in the months following Nelson Mandela's dramatic emergence from his South African prison cell. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.