mortgage payments: Prior to the pandemic, Arabs and West Asians had the highest poverty rates while West Asians and Filipinos had the highest rates of job loss, according to 2016 census data, according to CTV. Southeast Asian and Korean groups both reported that 40 per cent have experienced a work disruption during COVID-19, followed by Black participants 38 per cent South Asian 37 per cent Latin American 34 per cent Arab 33 per cent and Chinese 31 per cent . Newsletter sign-up Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox The survey also asked participants about the impact of COVID-19 on their ability to meet financial obligations such as rent or mortgage payments, utilities and groceries. The survey released Monday found that 42 per cent of Filipino-Canadians and 47 per cent of West Asian-Canadians have experienced temporary or permanent job loss or reduced work hours amid the pandemic, compared to 34 per cent of white participants. Most visible minority groups surveyed reported a strong or moderate negative financial impact from COVID-19. The data was collected from more than 36,000 Canadians through an online crowdsourcing questionnaire between May 26 and June 8. The highest negative financial impacts were reported among Arabs, West Asians and Filipinos. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

refugees: Only 10 percent of government-assisted refugees ended up living in Vancouver from 2010 to 2013, compared to 28 percent in Surrey, 22 percent in Coquitlam, and 16 percent in Burnaby 21.8 percent including New Westminster numbers . Vancouver is the number one destination for refugee claimants, but this data likely reflects the fact that many refugee claimants live in temporary accommodation in shelter or with relatives until they receive a decision on their claim, the report states, according to Georgia Asian. Iran supplies the most government-assisted refugees The top five source countries of government-assisted refugees to B.C. over that period were Iran 24 percent Iraq 18 percent Somalia 12 percent Afghanistan 10 percent and Bhutan eight percent . This is just one of many intriguing facts in a new 40-page report by the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. called Refugee Newcomers in Vancouver Changing Faces and Neighbourhoods 2000-2013. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

research group: Yet those who know him well say the common Kenney caricature a rumpled, social conservative, partisan spear carrying culture warrior with a permanent five o'clock shadow almost entirely misses the mark, according to National Observer. He's one of the warmest, funniest, most engaging people ... whereas on television he probably comes across as more associated with the Harper years and a certain style of politics, says Mark Cameron, a former policy director in Harper's Prime Minister's Office who now heads an environmental research group. Kenney, the 48 year old star lieutenant to former prime minister Stephen Harper, was one of the highest profile and most media accessible ministers during a decade of Conservative rule that wasn't characterized by either trait. Political reporters know Kenney as the guy who always had a point of view and was willing to share it and vigorously defend it a rare trait in any government and pure gold during the buttoned down Conservative reign. Kenney announced Wednesday he is taking that direct engagement back home to Alberta, where he plans to seek the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservatives while openly gunning for a merger with their bitter right of centre rivals, the Wildrose Party. What people are reading The future of the Conservative Party and how Trump's America strong-armed Canada Global LNG terminal survey casts doubt on industry as safe bet'Trudeau takes a pass on meeting this week with Trump That's definitely his hallmark, that he's open, he's engaged and he likes to state his opinion and argue it openly, as opposed to always couching behind message lines, says Cameron. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

soccer games: There were soccer games for the kids to play on the field and the adults pitched in to prepare traditional cuisines to enjoy, according to CTV. Ethiopia's culture is over 3,000 years old. Hundreds of people celebrated at the annual Ethiopian Summer Festival at Swangard Stadium Saturday. The country is where coffee was discovered. Many colourful fashions were on hand as people gathered to celebrate and promote their culture. Traditional coffee ceremonies took place where the beans are roasted in a pan over flames and brewed to a rich dark drink enjoyed by many on this cloudy chilly day. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

base: The social conservative base is enormously powerful, Livesey told Solomon Wood and the audience of 100 participants on the Zoom webinar, part of Conversations, sponsored by Canada's National Observer, according to National Observer. The reason leadership rivals Peter Mac Kay and Erin O'Toole have taken the positions they're doing which are ludicrous in terms of ever trying to get elected is because the base has this enormous social conservative element. Answering questions from Canada's National Observer editor-in-chief Linda Solomon Wood, columnists Bruce Livesey and Sandy Garossino spent an hour tackling wide-ranging questions about why today's Canadian conservative movement has moved so far to the right, its hopes for retaking power in the face of an increasingly progressive populace, and how evangelical Christians and Big Oil got a stranglehold on the right. In order to win the leadership, you've got to pander to them. Livesey an award-winning investigative journalist with experience on CBC's flagship shows The Fifth Estate and The National, Global News' 16 9, and PBS's Frontline most recently did an analysis on the state of the Conservatives for the National Observer entitled, How Stephen Harper is destroying the Conservative party. Video of Sandy Garossino and Bruce Livesey on Canada's Conservative Party Linda Solomon Wood interviews Bruce Livesey and Sandy Garossino about the future of the Conservative Party What people are reading Global LNG terminal survey casts doubt on industry as safe bet'Trudeau takes a pass on meeting this week with Trump Alberta to redefine minerals,' excluding 500 sand projects from environmental scrutiny But that's precisely what has lost them repeated elections, and will only worsen their chances over time, he said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

muslim community: This festival showcases the best of London, the best of Canada in its diversity, he said, according to CTV. Immediately after speaking at Sunfest, Trudau was whisked away to give a speech at a fundraiser put on by London's Muslim Community. The mood was celebratory for the prime minister, who also came to open the festivities of the 25th annual Sunfest. This was very much a campaign-style stop as Trudeau touted his government's record over the past four years, celebrating the economy, jobs, reconciliation and the environment. His speech attempted to establish him as moderate, claiming the middle ground, which is imperative during an election. We moved forward on putting a price on pollution, which is way too much for some, including the provincial premiers who got themselves elected from the Rockies to the Bay of Fundy almost. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

conspiracy: QAnon began as a single conspiracy theory, according to CTV. But its followers now act more like a virtual cult, largely adoring and believing whatever disinformation the conspiracy community spins up. Now the group's followers, who call themselves believers, have found a niche on social media and within the Republican Party. Its main conspiracy theories claim dozens of politicians and A-list celebrities work in tandem with governments around the globe to engage in child sex abuse. But followers of the group have expanded from those beliefs and now allege baseless theories surrounding mass shootings and elections. Followers also believe there is a deep state effort to annihilate U.S. President Donald Trump. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

amreen durrani: Within hours it was top of Twitter's trending list in Pakistan thanks to users such as one named Amreen Durrani, who tweeted These Afghans will continue to be unthankful and will conspire against Pakistan, according to Rabble. I would strongly recommend to Kick OutAll Afghans. With the fighting at Torkham in June 2016 barely over and two soldiers dead, a new hashtag appeared Kick OutAll Afghans. The border clashes were among several events over the past three years that have punctuated a sustained campaign of hatred that has poisoned attitudes to Afghan refugees among the general public in Pakistan. The 1.3 million Afghan refugees who remain in Pakistan already face police harassment and government deadlines to depart. The digital mob, which has been raised in support of a slew of xenophobic hashtags, has coincided with what rights groups have called the forced return of some 600,000 Afghan refugees during 2016. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

downtown halifax: I just told him very politely, sir, next time when you take a cab, please put a mask on', and he started saying, go back to where you came from', says Dhunna, according to CTV. Dhunna says the passenger responded by lashing out, using offensive language and racial slurs and telling Dhunna to go back where he came from'. So I told him, you can go, you can get away from my car now', and he said that immigrants are taking our jobs away'. I said, I am a Canadian citizen, and we still need immigrants, Canada still needs immigrants', recalls Dhunna. Kuldip Dhunna says he was driving a passenger to a hotel in downtown Halifax on Thursday, when the passenger began coughing. The encounter was caught on Dhunna's dashcam. Another daughter, Simran, posted it to Twitter, where it has nearly 200,000 views in less than 48 hours. His daughter Shivani shared it on her Instagram page, where it has been viewed over 50,000 times. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

foot ascent: Police, standing on a ladder and a ledge nearby, tried to talk the climber into descending, according to NOW Magazine. The climber made about a 25-foot ascent from the monument's observation point, National Park Service spokesman Jerry Willis said. About 100 feet aboveground, the climber alternately sat and lay by the bottom edge of the statue's robes for more than two hours on Wednesday, news helicopter video showed. Visitors were forced to leave Liberty Island hours before its normal 6 15 p.m. closing time, he said. The message referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a part of the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier and farther below, at least six people were taken into custody after unfurling a banner that read Abolish I.C.E., Willis said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

fraser river: All Fraser River populations of salmon Chinook, sockeye, coho, pink, and chum must transit the estuary twice in their lifetimes once as they migrate to the ocean as juveniles and again as adults when they return to their natal streams to spawn, according to Georgia Asian. Species like Chinook and chum also spend extended time rearing in the estuary as they prepare for their ocean migrations. Equally significant is the Fraser River's estuary, which serves as a vital habitat for fish, bird, and mammal species that are linked across thousands of kilometers of the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Twice, as an expert intervener in successive National Energy Board hearings, Raincoast Conservation Foundation examined information put forth by Trans Mountain in their assessment of the effects to salmon from an oil spill in the Fraser River and found serious deficiencies with several aspects of their assessment. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

hong: He added that the government will not permit the export of sensitive military items to the region, according to CTV. We are also suspending the Canada-Hong Kong extradition treaty, and updating our travel advisory for Hong Kong, Trudeau said. After studying the legislation and its impact, Canada will treat exports of sensitive goods to Hong Kong in the same way as those destined for mainland China, Trudeau said, speaking from an Outaouais food bank. The announcement came after the controversial national security law was promulgated in Hong Kong late Tuesday, bypassing the local legislature. The system set out Hong Kong's economic and administrative independence from China after it was no longer a British colony. Protesters have marched in the streets of Hong Kong to oppose the legislation, which many believe will stop pro-democracy political activity and mute criticism in civil society effectively crushing the one country, two systems agreement. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

infrastructure projects: This week, I decided to highlight three significant stories worth reading from outside of Canada, according to Georgia Asian. Even though they didn't appear in the Canadian media, they all have ties to three major infrastructure projects being built in British Columbia the Site C dam along the Peace River, the LNG Canada project near Kitimat, and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. That's because every day, there are new reports published around the world. Video of Climate teach-in 2 Solutions This video by 350.org details the falling cost of solar panels. 1. The board will also pay 1.3 cents for power from batteries. Solar energy far cheaper than other electricityPV magazine recently reported that the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners is expected to approve a 25-year contract to buy electricity from solar energy for 1.997 cents per kilowatt hour. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

soka gakkai: Nichiren Daishonin, a 13th century Buddhist reformer, revealed this phrase is the law that surrounds the universe and life, according to NOW Magazine. Translated as Mystic Law of cause and effect through the Buddha's teaching, it's how SGI services are started. If you are a member of a religious community that would like to be featured, please reach out to Alyson Hansen at what Nichren Buddhism and Soka Gakkai International SGI is centered around. Attendees hold their prayer beads and chant the phrase over and over. The beads represent your body or your life. said Shea-Ra Nichi, distinctive religious group leader DRGL . It really just means your holding your life in your hand. The beads are wound around hands in an infinity symbol. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

landrace strains: ByCannabis Now Published on July 4, 2016 Share Tweet8 Comments The history of the humble marijuana seed begins with landrace strains, according to NOW Magazine. Adapted to survive in the specific environmental conditions of their native lands, these pure varieties birthed a horticultural quest to explore and develop all of the multifaceted dimensions of our favorite flower. How to Grow Weed 12 Best Marijuana Seed Companies Never doubt the power of bomb cannabis genetics you get when purchasing from the best marijuana seed companies. This quest initially driven by seed breeders in Holland has now resulted in a plethora of strains, each boasting individual combinations of the more than 80 known cannabinoids. When forced indoors at the start of America's War on Drugs in the 1960s, these highly-skilled growers adopted new ways to grow the plant inside using artificial light sources. Like cannabis itself, cannabis breeders have shown incredible adaptability and resilience. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

time trump: Let us also send our deepest thanks to our wonderful veterans, law enforcement, first responders and the doctors, nurses and scientists working tirelessly to kill the virus, according to Rabble. This is the only time Trump mentions the coronavirus pandemic, which hit a record number of cases nationwide on Friday, during the entire speech. The speech laid out Trump's consistently grim vision for an America in which he is not its President as he engaged in his usual amount of fact-bending and breaking to serve his rhetorical and political purposes.I went through the transcript -- and pulled out the lines you need to see.1. And away we go!Read More2. Uh, was there some sort of movement to tear down Mount Rushmore I was unaware of or.... 3. I am here as your President to proclaim, before the country and before the world, this monument will never be desecrated. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

david conversation: In August 2019, organizers of Vancouver's Indian Summer Festival invited two daring scholars for a bold conversation, according to Georgia Asian. Renowned author Arundhati Roy and U.S.-based journalist David Barsamian discussed Roy's latest book, My Seditious Heart, a collection of her all published political essays, some of which are highly critical of the Indian state. Here, they're photographed in Kak was in Vancouver last year to talk about his film about photographers in Watch David Barsamian's conversation with Arundhati Roy in Vancouver in 1 of 3 2 of 3Now in its 10th year, an annual event celebrating diversity of India in Canada isn't just about entertainment and parties. The talk occurred just when India's right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janta Party BJP government had revoked special rights given to the disputed region of Kashmir and heavily deployed its armed forces there. Breaking the deafening silence in Canada over what is going on in India, Roy and Barsamian discussed a range of inconvenient issues, including Kashmir, which remains under lockdown in the name of national security. Roy pulls no punches when writing against growing attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents under the BJP, which is turning India into a near-Hindu theocracy. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

ohid yaqub: The Department of Health and Human Services said it had secured 500,000 treatments of the drug through September, representing 100% of Gilead's July production capacity and 90% of its capacity in August and September, according to CTV. To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. The U.S. government announced Monday that it had an agreement with Gilead Sciences to make the bulk of their production of remdesivir available to Americans during the next three months. Ohid Yaqub, a senior lecturer at the University of Sussex, called the U.S. agreement disappointing news. That ended Tuesday and Gilead this week announced the price of the treatment going forward. Newsletter sign-up Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox It so clearly signals an unwillingness to co-operate with other countries and the chilling effect this has on international agreements about intellectual property rights, Yaqub said in a statement Until now, Gilead had donated treatment courses to the U.S. and other countries. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

regis korchinski-paquet: Every additional second of this reality represents the further exposure of Indigenous, Black, racialized, poor and disabled people to harm, death and trauma, according to Rabble. But amid our sadness, anger and fear is excitement about unprecedented social and political willingness to create something new. He joins Rodney Levi, Chantel Moore, D'Andre Campbell, Regis Korchinski-Paquet and hundreds of other deceased victims in the archives of police brutality and neglect -- more proof we shouldn't have needed that police routinely inflict the violence they supposedly exist to counter; that they serve and protect the colonial, racial, ableist status quo; and that their murderous MO is seemingly impervious to public scrutiny and rage. This moment is born out of the unrelenting activism of Indigenous and Black communities, who have mobilized in grief, rage and love for years against state violence. As a social worker, I join my critical peers in challenging this assumption. Heavily present in our post-police society imaginings are, apparently, social workers and mental health practitioners -- pitched as non-violent substitutes to the police in answering crisis situations, and more generally as staples in a society organized around collective well-being. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

umer shahid: Cousineau made the point in her reasons for decision in connection with a complaint, according to Georgia Asian. The complaint was filed by a black woman against a supposedly ethnically diverse company in Surrey. Racism can clearly operate between groups of people who are racialized in Canada, states tribunal member Devyn Cousineau. Christine Lado, originally from South Sudan, has claimed that she was singled out for public criticism and unfair scrutiny because of her race. The discrimination allegedly happened in the production site of Naturally Homegrown Foods Ltd., maker of Hardbite chips. Lado alleged that her South Asian supervisor, Umer Shahid, treated other workers better because they are South Asian like him. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

vancouver funk: I have always been part of the Canadian family, I have always chosen Canada and for me today, it seems more like Canada has chosen me and I belong again, she said following the ceremony at Canada Place in Vancouver, according to National Observer. Funk, 37, was born in Mexico to Canadian parents and they moved back to Canada when she was just two months old. Funk, who is a third-generation Canadian, became a first-generation Canadian Saturday after she regained her citizenship that was stripped from her just over a year ago by an arcane law. Since then, Canada has been home and she holds no other citizenship. What people are reading Walk to pile of bones Ontario's incoming tenant law toughened further in committeeUVic's oily governing boards lay bare fossil fuel's deep entrenchment in Canadian society Losing her citizenship meant she couldn't leave Canada and couldn't vote. She was unaware of a law that requires people born overseas between 1977 and 1981 to parents who were also born abroad to apply to maintain their citizenship by the age of 28, and missed the deadline. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

wealth: These findings move Canada from the middle of the OECD pack, to ranking as the fourth most unequal advanced capitalist country, still well behind the U.S. but almost tied with the Netherlands and Germany, according to Rabble. In the one competition where we should never want to be a contender, we are now a medal hopeful!Where do these new figures come from To measure income inequality governments can access tax records. The top 1% own a quarter of all personal wealth in the country, while well over half is held by the top 10 per cent. Measuring wealth is not so easy. Fewer than three-quarters responded, so how representative this survey is remains a matter of conjecture. Statistics Canada conducts a survey of financial security SFS every three years and in 2016 a representative sample of 12,000 families were asked about their assets and liabilities. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

city toronto: The board subsequently approved a motion calling on all three levels of government to support the measure in order to curb virus spread in the city, according to NOW Magazine. Toronto Public Health TPH has done new data analysis of geographic neighbourhoods hardest hit by the virus that shows the infection rate is almost as four times as high among people living in overcrowded housing. Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa recommended the move in a report that was presented to the Toronto Board of Health at a virtual meeting on Thursday. In the report, de Villa said the facility would be for people who live in large, crowded households where adequate space is not available to follow isolation or quarantine guidelines. Toronto has already created self-isolation sites for people experiencing homelessness and have become infected. She notes that Chicago and New York have created a similar programs using thousands of hotel rooms. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian cartoonists: Unfortunately, none of the readers of newspapers in the cartoonist's home province of New Brunswick got to see it, according to Rabble. Not one editor ran it. He is one of North America's most accomplished and cutting-edge cartoonists, and last week he delivered one of his best -- a devastating juxtaposition of Donald Trump choosing to golf past the bodies of a migrant father and daughter who drowned trying to get into the United States. Twenty-four hours later, Brunswick News Inc. terminated the cartoonist's contract. Although he refuses to link his termination to that particular cartoon, the president of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists said the timing was no coincidence. De Adder worked for the Irving newspaper chain for 17 years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian press: That woman, of course, is Kim Campbell, according to National Observer. The former Progressive Conservative prime minister spoke to The Canadian Press earlier in the week about women in politics, including presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and what it is like to be the only woman whose portrait is hanging in the gallery of Canadian prime ministers. Here in Canada, a woman has already risen to the highest office in the land, Obama told the House of Commons. Every once in a while, Campbell said, someone on Twitter decides to tell her she was only prime minister for about five minutes. It was actually four months, from June 25 to Nov. 3, 1993, and if anyone is really counting, she points out her 131-day term was neither the shortest nor the second-shortest as far as Canadian prime ministers go. What people are readingUVic's oily governing boards lay bare fossil fuel's deep entrenchment in Canadian society As Ford government marks two years, climate controversy has taken a backseat to COVID-19'We see you and we hear you' O'Regan repeats his olive branch on Trans Mountain My husband's reaction to people who say that is 'I suppose your wife was busy that weekend!' Campbell said by telephone from Edmonton. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

councillor ford: That is the upshot of yet another logic-defying scrum with Councillor Ford, the mayor's brother and campaign manager, according to NOW Magazine. Mayor Ford returned on Monday from a 60-day leave of absence to deal with his substance abuse issues. Namely, he believes doesn't necessarily have to do with race, and that Rob Ford is a victim of it. On Tuesday he attended at an East York Canada Day parade where he was angrily confronted by a shirtless jogger named Joe Killoran, who asked the mayor about his homophobic and racist comments, general dishonesty, and alleged conflicts of interest in a video that has since gone viral. Doug's unfounded allegation came after reporters asked him when the public can expect the mayor to fully address his bigoted comments, which by now are well documented, including in a Toronto Star article that quoted the mayor as rattling off a string of ethnic slurs and boasting, I'm the most racist guy around. Speaking to reporters at City Hall on Wednesday, Doug accused Killoran of uttering a racial slur at the mayor, even though video of the encounter doesn't show Killoran using any racist remarks. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.