rajasthan region: Inder Chopra, vice president of Toronto's International Film Festival of South Asia IFFSA visited India last month to try to land Padmaavat for his own festival, according to CBC. The film tells the story of a 14th-century Rajput queen revered in India's Rajasthan region for resisting the advances of a Turkish Muslim king, after he attacks and overcomes the formidable fort of Chittorgarh and the Rajput ruler, in order to capture the beautiful Hindu queen. Inder Chopra of the International Film Festival of South Asia expects the historical drama by director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, which opened Wednesday in India, to be a grand show. Or so the story goes. But in the northern region of Rajasthan, where Rajput warriors repeatedly fought off invaders, the film's rumoured depiction of the queen a symbol of high female honour sparked violent protests by some Hindu groups and Rajput caste organizations. The film is based on an epic poem written 200 years after the siege in 1303, leaving questions ever since about its accuracy, and whether the queen in question even existed. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

garneau theatre: The Ice on Whyte festival is back drawing crowds to Old Strathcona with a variety of events, activities and ice and snow exhibits, according to CBC. It all happens this weekend and next weekend. You can expect it to turn up at the annual Edmonton Pet Expo Saturday and Sunday at the Edmonton Expo Centre. Art made out of ice will be on display at Ice on Whyte in Old Strathcona this weekend. Lake Summerside is the place to be at noon on Sunday for the polar plunge, a fundraiser for Special Olympics Alberta. CBC Over at the Garneau Theatre, Metro Cinema is offering Canada's Top Ten Film Festival until Feb. 4. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

leitch: I have concluded, however, that the time has come for me to serve in other ways, including as a surgeon and volunteer, according to Rabble. She gave no specific reason for her departure beyond saying is it time to return to the public service that is the core of my being. My time in politics has been a genuine privilege, and I will always be thankful to the constituents of Simcoe-Grey for their tremendous support, Leitch said in a statement late Tuesday. She said she will serve out the rest of her term, but then I'm looking forward to getting kids back on the playground to play. Leitch, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, was first elected in her Ontario riding in 2011 and made a failed bid for the party's leadership last year. She has been a valued member of the caucus for a long period of time, said Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

obama-era program: The proposal represents a reversal for the president, who once promised to eliminate an Obama-era program protecting immigrants brought to the U.S. as children and now in the country illegally, according to Toronto Star. He later urged lawmakers to extend the program, but maintained he was not considering citizenship. Senior White House officials offered a preview of Trump's immigration framework Thursday, casting it as a compromise that could pass the Senate. The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program currently covers roughly 690,000 of those younger immigrants about half the number who qualified for the program, according to independent estimates. It would not allow parents of those immigrants to seek lawful status, the officials said. Trump's plan would expand this further by adjusting some of the requirements, officials said, but they would not offer specific details. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

refugee claimants: It was still scary to have someone say they'll be deported in two hours if they don't pay up.'- Louisa Taylor, Refugee 613 They're asking asylum claimants for money, saying that there's a pending investigation and they owe money to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, and to pretty much pay up, said the IRB's Line Guibert-Wolff, according to CBC. Guibert-Wolff said the IRB first learned of the scam in December. The IRB has printed posters in six languages warning refugees about the scammers, who threaten their targets with deportation if they don't pay up. She said refugee claimants were contacted by phone or email by people claiming to represent either the RCMP or the IRB. Some were instructed to pay in cash, while others were ordered to use iTunes cards or bitcoin. She said the IRB has been working with the RCMP in its investigation. She said a pending investigation prevents her from speaking in detail about the amounts the scammers demanded, or about how they were able to obtain claimants' phone numbers and email addresses. 140 targeted since August Guibert-Wolff said the IRB became aware in December of 140 asylum seekers who had been targeted by the scammers since last August, though it's believe none actually made the payments. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

time: This writer happens to find it to be of an intrinsic interest that is almost aesthetic, akin to a symphony or great painting, according to Rabble. In this series, going back 50 years, one decade at a time, from 2018 to 1968, I have been interested in looking at events of the still recent past from the standpoint of the way many of us now see such current issues as the environment, inequality, Indigenous people, youth and women. In fact, there might be no reason at all to pay any attention to history, be it recent or ancient. Today we travel back four decades to a time when this writer was a mere 30 years old.1978In 1978, P.W. Botha became the last hardline head of government of South Africa. Botha's reign was marked by intense, brutal and violent repression of the anti-Apartheid movement. His successor, F.W. de Klerk, freed Nelson Mandela and negotiated an end to the Apartheid system. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

rohingya insurgents: This moment is not safe to go back, he said, according to CTV. We have to improve the security situation inside Myanmar to send them back. While many Rohingya want to eventually return to their villages, UNICEF deputy executive director Justin Forsyth said that no one he met during visits to Bangladesh's refugee camps said they would go back now. More than 680,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar's Rakhine state beginning in August, after Myanmar security forces began clearance operations in their villages in the wake of attacks by Rohingya insurgents on police posts. Forsyth spoke one day after former New Mexico Gov. While most of the refugees left Myanmar in the first weeks of the crisis, Rohingya are continuing to trickle across the border into Bangladesh, complaining of mistreatment at home. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

roy halladay: That would certainly fit with the recent trend after four players were elected this week in the 2018 class, according to CTV. Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman were voted in this year by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, marking the second time in four years the BBWAA elected four players. With newcomers Mariano Rivera and Roy Halladay headlining the ballot -- and Edgar Martinez up against a deadline -- next year's induction class could be another sizable one. Since 2013, when the writers elected nobody, there's been a veritable flood of BBWAA inductees -- at least two per year for five straight votes. Next year could be another multiplayer induction. The last time the BBWAA voted in multiple players for that many years in a row was from 1951-56. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

shopping centre: In terms of the number of businesses, it is Canada's second largest shopping centre, behind the West Edmonton Mall, according to CTV. The Torgan Group, the corporation that manages New Horizon Mall, says that over 98 percent of the units have been sold. The new multicultural shopping centre was first announced back in 2013 and will feature about 500 stores and restaurants in 320,000 square feet of retail space on two floors. The stores will offer a variety of goods, including unique products and services, contemporary fashion and high-tech goods as well as an assortment of other items. Wasim Elafech, the listing agent for New Horizon Mall, says this will help Calgary small businesses greatly. For the first time in Alberta, each of the retail stores in the internationally-themed centre is individually owned and can be either owner-operated or leased to a retailer by the owner. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

tilda swinton: It has been launched with the clear aim of dismantling their rights, by dismantling the institution that is charged with protecting them, according to Metro News. Actresses Gillian Anderson, Olivia Wilde, Emma Thompson and Tilda Swinton were also among the signatories. The real target of this lethal attack is the Palestinian people themselves, the group said in a joint statement. The letter was released by the Hoping Foundation, a London-based group that assists Palestinian children. Washington subsequently suspended a 65 million payment to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that provides education, health care and other social services to over 5 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants scattered across the Middle East. Expressing frustration with a freeze in Mideast peace efforts, Trump this month blamed the Palestinians for the deadlock and threatened to cut U.S. funding. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

misconduct allegations: Little did they know it would happen five months before the election and end the career of the PC leader, according to NOW Magazine. Brown is gonzo, toast, finished after sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him by two women. The Ontario Liberals were waiting for a misstep to knock Patrick Brown off his perch. The allegations, first reported by CTV, involve two incidents, one with a constituency assistant while Brown was a backbencher in Stephen Harper's government, another 10 years ago involving a woman who says she was in high school at the time.A clearly shaken Brown presided over a hastily-called press conference at Queen's Park just before 10 pm last night to read a prepared statement saying he would fight the allegations. By then, his campaign manager, chief of staff, deputy campaign manager and press secretary had already resigned, and taken to Twitter to let the world know, indicating that the situation may be worse than is currently being reported. Tellingly, there was no one with him. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

administration crackdown: We can't have it, Trump says, according to Metro News. We want a safe country. President Donald Trump says mayors who boycotted a White House event over an administration crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities are placing the needs of illegal immigrants above citizens. Trump is welcoming a bipartisan group of local leaders to a meeting initially billed as a discussion of infrastructure, drug addiction and other topics. Landrieu, the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, called the meeting untenable. Trump noted the absence of invitees like New Orleans' Mitch Landrieu and New York's Bill de Blasio. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

bill richardson: The sudden resignation Wednesday of probably the panel's most prominent member, a former senior U.S. politician and diplomat who considered Suu Kyi a close friend, raises serious questions about international efforts to deal with the calamitous fallout of Burma military operations, according to Toronto Star. Since August, the operation against the Rohingya Muslims has been called textbook ethnic cleansing by the United Nations. Bill Richardson has resigned from an advisory panel on the massive Rohingya refugee crisis, calling it a whitewash and a cheerleading operation for Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It also offers possible insight into the thinking of Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate once revered as an icon of human rights whose leadership during the Rohingya crisis has shocked many outsiders. She believes there's a concerted international effort against Myanmar Burma and I believe she is wrong, Richardson said Wednesday evening in an Associated Press interview at his hotel in downtown Rangoon, the country's biggest city. Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and President Bill Clinton's energy secretary, castigated Suu Kyi for blaming outsiders for the crisis instead of looking honestly at military actions that have forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee to squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they have spoken of mass killings, rapes and the obliteration of whole villages in Burma. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

fight bias: In a report released this week, the commission says there was no significant difference for candidates from visible minority groups when their personal information was concealed, according to Toronto Star. It also says applicants from all other groups were less likely to be brought in for an interview under that system compared to a traditional method. The practice involves removing names and other identifying information such as country of origin from job applications to fight bias against people of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Article Continued Below The commission notes that the results can't be generalized to the entire public service because the pilot relied on departments that volunteered and used a non-random selection of external hiring processes. The report is just one of the many ways the PSC is exploring innovative approaches to ensure a diverse and representative workforce while supporting bias-free recruitment within the federal public service, Patrick Borbey, president of the Public Service Commission of Canada, said in a statement. react-empty 158 We will continue to push boundaries in this area while maintaining the integrity of the federal public service's non-partisan and merit-based staffing system. The project included 27 external job postings across 17 departments between April and October of last year, resulting in a sample of 2,226 candidates, of which 685 self-identified as visible minorities. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

discussion point: It's going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years, according to The Chronicle Herald. Trump's pronouncements came as the White House announced it would be unveiling a legislative framework on immigration next week that it hopes can pass both the House and the Senate. We're going to morph into it, Trump told reporters. The president's remarks amounted to a preview of that framework. But immediately after Trump spoke, a senior White House official stressed the idea of a pathway to citizenship so-called Dreamers was just a discussion point in the plan that the White House intended to preview to the House and Senate later Wednesday. He said he'll propose 25 billion for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and 5 billion for other security measures. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

jim thome: A .300 career average, according to The Chronicle Herald. In the age of baseball analytics, there's still room in the Hall of Fame for big, round numbers you can count on. More than 600 saves. Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman were rewarded Wednesday, easily elected in the newest class headed for Cooperstown. Yes, you can dig deeper, he said. I don't know how you tabulate or calculate WAR, Jones said, referring to a sabermetric stat that didn't exist for much of his career. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

marios: He learns everything as much as he can.'- Peter Jackson Marios Al Bazi, and his family, originally from Iraq, were brought to St, according to CBC. John's by a group that raised money to sponsor their immigration from Lebanon where they had lived for the last several years. He's like a little information sponge. It's been a productive two years for Marios, who's gone from barely being able to speak a word of English to placing fourth in his Grade 6 class spelling bee earlier this week. I enjoyed doing it, he told the St. I got 28 out of 35 right and I had fun doing it. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

mother minutes: To remedy what their parents, a gay married couple, view as an injustice, Ethan Dvash-Banks became a plaintiff at the tender age of 16 months in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. State Department that seeks the same rights his brother has as an American citizen, according to CTV. Each boy was conceived with donor eggs and the sperm from a different father - one an American, the other an Israeli citizen - but born by the same surrogate mother minutes apart. Everything but a toothbrush and U.S. citizenship. What we're trying to do is pursue justice for Ethan, said Elad Dvash-Banks, Ethan's biological dad, and correct a wrong that the State Department is continuing to pursue that might affect other couples. The cases filed in Los Angeles and Washington by Immigration Equality said the children of a U.S. citizen who marries abroad are entitled to U.S. citizenship at birth no matter where they are born and even if the other parent is a foreigner. The lawsuit was one of two filed Monday by an LGBTQ immigrant rights group that said the State Department is discriminating against same-sex binational couples by denying their children citizenship at birth. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

security reasons: While the Immigration Department has concluded she was a known conduit of harmless information about that project and its Canadian personnel, the Canada Border Services Agency insists that she is inadmissible and must appear before an admissibility hearing on Thursday, according to Toronto Star. It is really difficult to see why she is being put through all of this or how she could be considered a risk to Canada's security either now or then. Elena Crenna is deemed inadmissible to Canada for security reasons for her contacts with Russia's intelligence and security agency, the FSB, while working as a translator for a Canadian housing development project 20 years ago. She was accepted as an American citizen after thorough security vetting. The housing project she allegedly spied on never had any official secrets. She is a registered nurse in California and her son served in the U.S. military, said her lawyer Seamus Murphy. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

offer: So we're going to have to start on a new basis and the wall offer is off the table, Schumer told reporters, according to CBC. An aide said the offer was pulled on Sunday. A day after the end of a government shutdown linked to wrangling over immigration, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he pulled the offer because of what he said was Trump's failure to follow through on the outlines of an agreement the two men discussed last Friday. What's up with Trump's border wall Prototypes are ready to test, but it's a bit more complicated in Texas Why Trump's desire for a protectionist wall threatens more than Don Pittis The Congressional Hispanic Caucus expressed fears on Tuesday that Republicans in the House of Representatives would pursue a harsh immigration bill written by judiciary committee chairman Bob Goodlatte. During the 2016 election campaign, Trump said Mexico would pay the cost of building a wall along the southwestern border of the United States to keep out illegal immigrants. The House measure would allow Dreamers to renew their legal status for three years, instead of putting them on a pathway to citizenship, and would call for hiring 10,000 more agents at U.S. borders while shutting down some visa programs and taking other steps to find people who are in the country illegally. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

post-season regulars: Consider the nightly rotations a mere warmup for a post-season that could feature a handful of teams who missed the playoffs last year, according to CTV. Teams like Tampa Bay, Vegas and Winnipeg are making life hard for post-season regulars, though luckily for two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh, there's plenty of time to climb back into contention. Just be ready for them to change again once the games resume. Then again, the Chicago Blackhawks, with three Stanley Cups since 2010, are further back and in danger of missing the playoffs entirely without a late surge. Anytime you get a little break, you want to come back and really be on top of your game because from now on, it's only going to get harder, Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne said. The teams in front of the usual powers plan on staying there once the All-Star Game weekend ends. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

rohingya muslims: After Myanmar expressed readiness to start receiving an estimated 680,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled incredible violence over the last five months, Younus said he would rather die in the camp than go back again to the land of his birth, according to CTV. They have been killing Muslims for a long time now, he said. The 30-year-old Rohingya Muslim, who has been slowly rebuilding a shadow of a normal life in a sprawling and squalid refugee camp in Bangladesh, is in no mood to return home to Myanmar. We run and come to Bangladesh. We come back to Bangladesh, and go back again. Then we go back. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

signature pledge: Schumer said the offer was being taken off the table, according to CBC. While it's arguably a setback, the administration has been making progress toward additional barriers along the 3,145-kilometre border, a signature pledge for Trump since he first brought up the notion of a fence at the Iowa Freedom Summit in January 2015, five months before his official campaign launch. The White House rejected the characterization, saying no offer existed, but Texas Republican John Cornyn and Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said the offer entailed 25 billion US for the wall and other border security measures, spread over several years. Why Trump's desire for a protectionist wall threatens more than Don Pittis What's up with Trump's border wall Prototypes are ready to test, but it's a bit more complicated in Texas Trump's border security ideas evolved on the hustings, as he frequently exhorted supporters at his rallies in chants of Build that wall! Here's a look at how the issue has evolved since Trump was inaugurated as president just over a year ago. Earlier in the year, the pair had a contentious phone call about the border wall. Trump meets Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Germany on July 7. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

dozen others: She heard sirens, but quickly dismissed them, assuming they signalled an accident somewhere else, according to National Observer. When she arrived at an intersection about 50 metres from the local mosque, police officers had blocked the road. It was a Sunday night. They stopped her and aimed guns at her car window. They were running everywhere, it was strange, Elazzouzi recalled. Minutes later, she learned of the carnage a gunman had run into the mosque, killed six worshippers and wounded more than a dozen others. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

affairs employees: It's not clear why Lukasz Niec, 43, was taken into custody last Tuesday, according to The Chronicle Herald. Niec is a legal U.S. resident who works at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. A Michigan doctor who came to the U.S. from Poland as a young child was in jail Monday, nearly a week after immigration agents arrested him at his home. He has two misdemeanour convictions from high school and an impaired driving conviction from 2008 that was later dismissed. An automatic response said the agency's public affairs employees aren't working because of the government shutdown. The Associated Press sent an email Monday seeking comment from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canada: This call was echoed and supported by many other Muslim groups, according to Rabble. Yet the call has not been heeded by any government to date. The National Council of Canadian Muslims called for making January 29 a day against Islamophobia in Canada many months ago. Some politicians dodge the question skillfully, while others explicitly say they will not do it. As I think about this, I ask which president decided to celebrate February as Black History Month, and which governor adopted and initiated the Pride Parade If the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History would have called on the United States government, in 1926, to declare the second week of February as Negro History Week, they probably would have been waiting, till today, for President Donald Trump to tweet his consent. I am left to wonder which is worse. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.