animal abuse: A few protesters bang on bongos, others chant, There's no excuse for animal abuse, and hand out animal-rights leaflets to passersby, according to NOW Magazine. Since last fall, members of the group Grassroots Anti-Speciesism Shift GRASS have staged protests outside the Dundas West restaurant every week. On a Saturday evening in late June, around 20 protesters hoisting signs with slogans like Peace Begins On Your Plate and Don't Buy While They Die! are staked outside Antler Kitchen & Bar. Antler's chalkboard sidewalk sign had read Venison is the new kale, which caught the attention of GRASS founder and local resident Marni Ugar. Meanwhile in nearby Parkdale, another group is taking a different approach, spreading the gospel via vegan Big Macs, chickpea steaks and tempeh fish and chips. Ugar says the goal of the protest is to dispel the myth of humane meat Antler's menu focuses on Ontario game meats and to force Antler to put a pro-animal-rights sign in its window. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

chicago: Baer is based in Chicago, where he works for the local public television station WTTW and also gives tours for the Chicago Architecture Foundation, according to The Chronicle Herald. He spoke about the show and the backstory of some of the monuments featured in the episode airing July 17 in an interview with AP Travel's weekly podcast Get Outta Here ! Here are some excerpts from the podcast, edited for brevity and clarity. In addition to famous monuments, other episodes focus on streets that changed America like New York's Broadway and on modern marvels like the Hoover Dam. MOUNT RUSHMORE When cars were a new form of transportation, a state official in South Dakota really didn't think in the early days of the road trip that scenery was going to be enough to lure people to drive all the way there, Baer said. Originally the carvings were going to depict heroes of the American West, but that wasn't deemed a big enough draw, so the concept was changed to presidents. So he decided to create the world's biggest roadside attraction. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

coach tuesday: An undated handout photo released by the Royal Thai Navy on June 30 shows a group of Thai Navy divers in the Tham Luang cave during rescue operations in Chiang Rai, Thailand, according to Toronto Star. A team of cave divers rescued the last of the boys and their coach Tuesday from deep inside the warren of underground passages near Thailand's border with Burma, one of Southeast Asia's more remote regions. It turned into a nearly three-week-long story of survival, international collaboration and triumph over the impossible one that was avidly embraced and followed live across the world. Thai Navy SEAL via GETTY IMAGES A team of cave divers rescued the last of the boys and their coach Tuesday from deep inside the warren of underground passages near Thailand's border with Burma, one of Southeast Asia's more remote regions. How they did it was a mix of trial and error, improvisation, skill, massive water pumps, kilometres of guide rope and strategically placed air tanks along the three-kilometre-long escape route, much of it submerged. One by one, the divers brought the final four members of the Wild Boars team and their coach out of the flooded Tham Luang Cave. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

donor egg: The couple does not want to know whose genetic material was passed on to the child, according to CTV. We never want to know, O'Callaghan told CTV News Channel on Wednesday. Jay O'Callaghan and Aaron O'Bryan both provided sperm to fertilize the donor egg that was implanted in the surrogate who gave birth to their son Jake in Toronto. We're his dads. They want Jake to be a dual citizen, but claim they were met with silence from the Irish government when they started inquiring about an Irish passport for the toddler. Both men are permanent residents in Canada, and are awaiting Canadian passports. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

munich court: The group's name, often shortened to NSU, alludes to Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, according to CTV. Zschaepe was also found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization, bomb attacks that injured dozens and several lesser crimes including a string of robberies. The Munich court sentenced Beate Zschaepe, the only known survivor of the National Socialist Underground group, to life in prison in the killings of 10 people -- most of them migrants -- who were gunned down between 2000 and 2007. Four men were also found guilty of supporting the group in various ways and given prison terms of between 2 1/2 and 10 years. The verdict is a first and very important step, said Gamze Kubasik, the daughter of Mehmet Kubasik, who was shot dead by Zschaepe's two accomplices in the western city of Dortmund on April 4, 2006. While the verdict was widely welcomed by victims' families as well as anti-racism campaigners and mainstream political parties, the court's failure to investigate the secretive wider network of people sympathetic to the National Socialist Undergound group's cause drew criticism. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

prison terms: Four men were found guilty of supporting the group in various ways and sentenced to prison terms of between 2 1/2 and 10 years, according to Toronto Star. Defendant Beate Zschaepe arrives in a courtroom before the proclamation of sentence in her trial as the only surviving member of neo-Nazi cell National Socialist Underground NSU behind a string of racist murders, in Munich on Wednesday. Judges sentenced Beate Zschaepe to life in prison for murder, membership of a terrorist organization, bomb attacks that injured dozens and several lesser crimes including a string of robberies. Zschaepe, 43, was found guilty of complicity in 10 deadly shootings of mostly Turkish immigrants carried out by clandestine trio the National Socialist Underground NSU . MICHAELA REHLE / AFP/GETTY IMAGES Presiding judge Manfred Goetzl told a packed Munich courtroom that Zschaepe's guilt weighed particularly heavily, meaning she is likely to serve at least a 15-year sentence. The 43-year-old showed no emotion as Goetzl read out her sentence. Her lawyers plan to appeal the verdict. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

release children: They said their hands were tied by dueling requirements to release children from detention after 20 days and also keep them with their parents or other adult relatives, according to Toronto Star. Milka Pablo wears a monitoring bracelet on her ankle while holding her daughter Darly Coronado, 3, as they wait for a bus soon after being reunited after months apart, at the bus station in Phoenix, Ariz., July 10, 2018. Faced with a pair of court orders restricting immigration detentions, federal officials said they could not hold all of the migrant families who were apprehended at the southwestern border. The government was scrambling Tuesday to carry out the first court-ordered reunifications of young migrant children with their families, but thousands remain in custody. Parents with children under the age of 5 are being reunited with their children and then released and enrolled into an alternative detention program, Matthew Albence, executive associate director of ICE's enforcement and removal operations, told reporters Tuesday. VICTOR J. BLUE / the New York Times Confronted by audio of crying children that drew widespread outrage, Trump administration officials also said they had stopped referring migrant adults who enter the United States with children for prosecution. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

roger ardino: Scores of children separated from their families were sent to government-contracted shelters or foster care hundreds of miles away from where their parents were detained, according to The Chronicle Herald. Roger Ardino, from Honduras, was happy to be back with his 4-year-old son, Roger Jr., who sat on his lap and played with the microphones as the father spoke to reporters. The administration has been scrambling to reunify the families this week to meet the first of two deadlines set by a federal judge in San Diego who ordered thousands of children be given back to their immigrant parents. The father said he was still shaken by the ordeal he had to go through just to speak to his boy while he was in government custody. He described feeling a pain in his heart and like he couldn't breathe after his son was taken away. The two were separated in February. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

wednesday afternoon: The meeting notice was posted Wednesday afternoon, after both NDP immigration and refugee critic Jenny Kwan, and Conservative critic Michelle Rempel issued statements requesting the House of Commons Citizenship and Immigration Committee urgently meet to discuss the matter, according to CTV. The pair also happen to be the vice-chairs of the committee. The opposition parties also want to hear from Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen on the matter, before early August. While united in their desire for the meeting, their reasoning differs. The time to act is now, before this situation gets any worse. The NDP have called for the meeting to discuss the lack of support for the asylum seekers coming from the United States, while the Conservatives want to meet to review the government's response to what they consider a border crisis. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

west africa: Performers include Linda Carvery, Julio Fernandez, Brigitte Aucoin, Tamar Dina, SAMM, Anisha Rajaselvam, M.O.B. Syndicates, and the Dublin Street Poets, according to The Chronicle Herald. The afternoon will also feature musical contributions by Holly Arsenault, Lukas Pearse, Gary Steed and Woody Woods. Titled A Tribute to Culture Around the Globe, the show reaches beyond Canadian borders to Cuba, Sri Lanka and West Africa for a one-of-a-kind event. A Tribute to Culture Around the World is presented in English in Kenneth C. Rowe Hall, and is included with the price of admission to the museum. For more information, visit pier21.ca. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

asian festival: Expand Jaime Espinoza What's your name, role and organization Vikas Kohli, executive director, MonstrARTity, according to NOW Magazine. Tell us about MonstrARTity's signature events. See all of the profiles here. Our Bollywood Monster Mashup event is the largest South Asian festival in Canada. Events will feature a space for kids to play, dance lessons, food vendors and shopping. This will be our eighth season and we're going to hold free concerts with international Bollywood stars Aaman Trikha and Khushboo Grewal. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

housing costs: Rehearsal spaces at libraries, according to Vancouver Courier. They're ideas that would seem entirely foreign in places not crushed by an affordability crisis, but just about anything's on the table in a city where income inequality is 2.5 times higher than the national average and housing costs are highest in Canada.article continues below Trending StoriesUBC biologist killed during research trip was a leading authority in his field Young scallywags who stole taxi driver's rum return it, with interest Remembering Megan Scraper adventurer was gifted athlete, social media maven The Lookout' and The Ridge' could be the first developed sections of Arbutus small businesses struggle amid tax, property crunch Art of survival increasingly difficult for Vancouver's creative community The Vancouver Music Strategy was discussed at length by council July 10, given the policy document is two years in the making and deliverable ideas are taking shape. Gigs in churches or community centres. The end goals are fluid and there are many streamline communication between the city and artists, diversify building types that can house the arts and make life more affordable for creative types. What we want to see is partners in all things music, said Sandra Gajic, the city's director of civic theatres. There's even talk of mandating fair play standards so venue owners compensate bands fairly and the establishment of a poverty reduction plan for local musicians. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

liniker barros: LINIKER E OS CARAMELOWS with BRUNO CAPINAN at Lula Lounge 1585 Dundas West Thursday July 12 doors 7 pm. 33.50- 40. lula.ca, according to NOW Magazine. When Liniker Barros, who fronts Brazilian soul band Liniker e os Caramelows, sings deixa eu bagun ar voc let me mess you up from breakout single Zero, Brazilian audiences sing along with unabashed emotion and volume, a chorus echoing over a sultry, slow-groove backbeat. When a trans woman takes the stage, that alone is political. Audacious self-expression is paramount for any LGBTQ artist, but it takes on even more significance coming from a Black, trans singer in Brazil, which has one of the world's highest rates of anti-trans violence. They followed with their crowdfunded 2016 debut album Remonta. A collective from Araraquara in the interior of S o Paulo state, the band busted out with 2015's Cru EP, with Zero clocking 1.5 million You Tube views in its first week. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

prison terms: The group's name, often shortened to NSU, alludes to Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.article continues below Trending StoriesUBC biologist killed during research trip was a leading authority in his field Young scallywags who stole taxi driver's rum return it, with interest Remembering Megan Scraper adventurer was gifted athlete, social media maven The Lookout' and The Ridge' could be the first developed sections of Arbutus greenway Zschaepe was also found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization, bomb attacks that injured dozens and several lesser crimes including a string of robberies, according to Vancouver Courier. Four men were also found guilty of supporting the group in various ways and given prison terms of between 2 1/2 and 10 years. The Munich court sentenced Beate Zschaepe, the only known survivor of the National Socialist Underground group, to life in prison in the killings of 10 people most of them migrants who were gunned down between 2000 and 2007. While the verdict was widely welcomed by victims' families as well as anti-racism campaigners and mainstream political parties, the court's failure to investigate the secretive wider network of people sympathetic to the National Socialist Undergound group's cause drew criticism. I just hope all other supporters of the NSU are found and convicted. The verdict is a first and very important step, said Gamze Kubasik, the daughter of Mehmet Kubasik, who was shot dead by Zschaepe's two accomplices in the western city of Dortmund on April 4, 2006. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

research trip: Scores of children separated from their families were sent to government-contracted shelters or foster care hundreds of miles away from where their parents were detained.article continues below Trending StoriesUBC biologist killed during research trip was a leading authority in his field Young scallywags who stole taxi driver's rum return it, with interest Remembering Megan Scraper adventurer was gifted athlete, social media maven The Lookout' and The Ridge' could be the first developed sections of Arbutus greenway Roger Ardino, from Honduras, was happy to be back with his 4-year-old son, Roger Jr., who sat on his lap and played with the microphones as the father spoke to reporters, according to Vancouver Courier. The father said he was still shaken by the ordeal he had to go through just to speak to his boy while he was in government custody. The administration has been scrambling to reunify the families this week to meet the first of two deadlines set by a federal judge in San Diego who ordered thousands of children be given back to their immigrant parents. The two were separated in February. The father held up his wrist and told reporters that after they were separated, he threatened to use a razor on himself if he couldn't speak to his son. He described feeling a pain in his heart and like he couldn't breathe after his son was taken away. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

brenda garcia: Brenda Garcia is reunited with her 7-year-old son, Kevin, at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., in June, according to Toronto Star. Dozens of immigrant children will be released from detention centres and reunited with their parents Tuesday. It was the largest single effort to date to undo the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump's zero-tolerance policy of separating families who try to slip across the Mexican border into the country. RYAN CHRISTOPHER JONES / The New York Times More than 50 children under five-years-old could be back in the arms of their parents by the deadline at the end of the day, the Justice Department said. Government attorneys returned to federal court in San Diego on Tuesday to seek an extension for releasing 20 other children under age five, saying officials need more time to track down parents who have already been deported or released into the U.S. Asked about the missed deadline, Trump said Well, I have a solution. Authorities gave few details on where the reunions would be held, and many were expected to take place in private. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

children: The Department of Justice asked Gee to alter a 1997 settlement after the president reversed a policy of separating migrant children from their parents that caused an international uproar when the emotional scenes of families being split up were caught on camera, according to CTV. The government wanted to alter the settlement so it could detain families together long-term. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee said the federal government had failed to present new evidence to support revising a court order that limits the detention of children who crossed the border illegally. Gee called the government's request a cynical attempt to shift responsibility to the court for over 20 years of Congressional inaction and ill-considered executive action that have led to the current stalemate. She said the application to change the agreement in the case named for lead plaintiff Jenny Flores was procedurally improper and wholly without merit. Gee said the government's had sought to replow the same familiar territory it had three years ago when she rejected a similar effort by the Obama administration. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

country: Like our ancestors, migrants are fleeing persecution and looking for a better life, according to Toronto Star. They will help build our country and become the next physicians at hospitals, politicians in Parliament and truck drivers delivering the food we eat. We should not politicize this issue and divide people in order to score points. Immigrants are not aliens from outer space. Our country is being built by immigrants. They are you and me and our next-door neighbours. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

government lawyer: The Trump administration was working on final background checks for another five children ahead of Tuesday's deadline, according to CTV. On Monday, Trump's administration acknowledged it would not meet a Tuesday deadline set by a San Diego federal judge to reunite detained children under 5 with their families. A government lawyer said Monday at least 54 children under the age of 5 would join their parents by a court-ordered deadline, only about half the 100 or so children covered by the order. Trump said Tuesday that he has a solution to the missed deadline Tell people not to come to our country illegally. Don't come to our country illegally. Before departing the White House for Europe, Trump said, That's the solution. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

health solutions: Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said the plan is to modernize the management of health information, according to The Chronicle Herald. This means that patients will finally be able to see their own health information, the minister told a news conference Tuesday. The money will be invested by Canada Health Infoway, an independent, not-for-profit organization that promotes digital health solutions across Canada. It will also create an electronic prescription service, which means that prescriptions can go directly from the doctor's office to the pharmacy. This will be a game changer, significantly improving the way doctors, pharmacies and hospitals operate, Petitpas Taylor said. The announcement came at the conclusion of a meeting in Summerside, P.E.I., that included the four Atlantic premiers and federal ministers responsible for the Atlantic Growth Strategy. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

ice centre: The three fathers were just holding them and hugging them and telling them that everything was fine and that they were never going to be separated again, said immigration lawyer Abril Valdes, according to The Chronicle Herald. One of the fathers, Ever Reyes Mejia, walked out of the ICE centre carrying his beaming son and the boy's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, two boys and a girl who had been in temporary foster care were reunited with their Honduran fathers at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement centre about three months after they were split up. The boy was secured in a booster seat, and father and son were driven away. The Justice Department said more than 50 children under age 5 could be back in the arms of their parents by the deadline at the end of the day. Lawyers said the fathers were too distraught to speak to the news media. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

los angeles: The government said that long-term confinement was the only way to avoid separating families when parents were detained on criminal charges, according to Toronto Star. A mother, left, and son, from Guatemala, hold hands during a news conference following their reunion in Linthicum, Md., after being reunited in June following their separation at the U.S. border. In a ruling that countered nearly every argument posed by the Justice Department, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a long-standing consent decree that requires children to be released to licensed care programs within 20 days. A California federal judge rejected the Trump administration's efforts to detain immigrant families in long-term facilities, calling it a cynical attempt' to undo a longstanding court settlement. In another setback, federal immigration authorities were preparing Monday to unspool the administration's family separation program, with 54 young migrants scheduled to be returned to their parents as a result of an earlier court ruling from a federal judge in San Diego. Patrick Semansky / The Associated Press Gee said the administration's request to modify the decree, the 1997 Flores agreement, was a cynical attempt to shift immigration policymaking to the courts in the wake of over 20 years of congressional inaction and ill-considered executive action that have led to the current stalemate. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

medicine hat: Brooks, with a population of about 14,450 is on the Trans-Canada Highway, but it's 190 kilometres to Calgary toward the west and 110 kilometres to Medicine Hat in the east, according to The Chronicle Herald. We already feel cut off to a degree because of the availability of some services in the big city only, said Idriss, manager of Brooks and County Immigration Services. Greyhound has announced it will end all its routes in the West, save for one between Vancouver and Seattle, at the end of October. A large population of newcomers to Canada work in Brooks, about 90 per cent of them at a beef-processing facility owned by JBS Canada. There are people who have vehicles, but are not that comfortable going into a big city with their own vehicle, and they would just prefer taking public transportation, he said. Idriss estimates about 1,000 people moved to the community to work and many find getting out of town difficult. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

olesia luciw-andryjowycz: Articulating a growing rightist effort to equate communism with Nazism in eastern Europe, Ukrainian Canadian Congress Alberta chapter president, Olesia Luciw-Andryjowycz, told the Edmonton Journal that the hammer and sickle was akin to having a swastika on a bottle of cognac, according to Rabble. This is not the first attempt by provincial NDP members to ban Russian vodka. Alberta MLAs Deron Bilous and Jessica Littlewood argued that a hammer and sickle logo on a bottle of vodka was offensive. In response to the 2014 upheaval in Ukraine, a minister in the NDP government in Manitoba discussed a provincial ban on Russian vodka. In 2014 the right-wing nationalist Euro-Maidan movement ousted Viktor Yanukovych who was oscillating between the European Union and Russia. At the same time, NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo tabled a motion in the Ontario legislature calling on government-run liquor stores to suspend sales of Russian Standard vodka. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

syrian refugees: Between January and April of this year, 75 Syrians have settled in Nova Scotia, 40 in New Brunswick, 35 in PEI, and 15 in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to CTV. Nabiha Atallah is the manager of communications and research for the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia. They have jobs and are taking English classes, all while hoping they can be reunited with the rest of their family, who remain in a Jordanian refugee camp/ The Syrian refugee effort is still going pm across the country, although numbers have slowed here in the Maritimes. We are receiving refugees from other parts of the world as well, said Atallah. We did so well with the large number of Syrian refugees who came in 2015/16. In our opinion, we could increase our numbers. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

housing crisis: Ahmed Hussen, the federal minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, told a news conference Monday he believes Ford's vocabulary is inaccurate, according to National Observer. I'm very concerned by Premier Ford and provincial minister Lisa Mac Leod really making statements that are difficult to understand when it comes to how they're describing asylum seekers, Hussen told reporters in Halifax. Last week, a spokesman for Premier Doug Ford used the term in a statement sent to the media, saying the recent influx of asylum seekers has resulted in a housing crisis in Toronto and threats to services that Ontario families depend on. ; On Monday, an emailed statement sent to The Canadian Press from Ford's office repeated the illegal border crossers terminology. These are people who we have a legal obligation to give a fair hearing to, and so we're applying Canadian law, we're applying international law and that requires all levels of government to work together. However, according to the federal Customs Act, those seeking asylum in Canada have that right to do so under the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. The act of crossing the border at a point other than an official port of entry is illegal. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.