A decision was issued today by the Honourable Mr. Justice Zinn of the Federal Court in
file IMM-11316-12:
CONSTRUCTION AND SPECIALIZED WORKERS' UNION, LOCAL 1611 ET
AL. v. THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION CANADA ET
AL.
Summary: The application filed by the Applicants is dismissed.
The Applicants challenged a decision made under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker
Program which is administered by the Respondents. The Applicants were granted public
interest standing by the Court to bring this application for leave and judicial review.
Specifically, they challenged the decision of an officer of Human Resources and Skills
Development Canada to issue positive Labour Market Opinions [LMOs] under section
203 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227
[Regulations]. The officer issued the LMOs to HD Mining International Ltd. [HD
Mining] for 201 workers from China to do the work of extracting a bulk sample from HD
Mining’s coal properties near Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on the basis that the
employment of these foreign nationals would likely result in “a neutral or positive effect
on the labour market in Canada.”
The Court held that the officer did not fetter his discretion when assessing the LMO
application from HD Mining, or make any unreasonable assessment when considering the
factors set out in subsection 203(3) of the Regulations. Further, as counsel for the
Applicants conceded, it is not necessary that an applicant meet every one of the six
factors listed in subsection 203(3); rather, the decision-maker must examine and assess
each and then perform a weighing exercise to decide whether the LMO will issue. This is
exactly what the officer did. In particular, the officer had noted that even if the job
creation and skill transfer factors did not weigh in favour of a positive opinion, all of the
others did and the LMO would still issue.
A copy of the decision can be obtained via the Web site of the Federal Court: http://cas-ncr-nter03.cas-satj.gc.ca/rss/Bulletin%20IMM-11316-12.pdf
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Nigel S. Wright current Chief of Staff of the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada
Nigel S. Wright
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nigel Wright | |
|---|---|
| Chief of Staff, Prime Minister's Office | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2011 | |
| Prime Minister | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Guy Giorno |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Conservative Party of Canada |
| Profession | business executive |
Nigel S. Wright is the current Chief of Staff of the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada.[1] He was appointed in 2011 to replace Guy Giorno, and is the third Chief of Staff for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Wright was formerly the Managing Director of Onex Corporation.[2][3]
References [edit]
- ^ Jane Taber (September 24, 2010). "Onex executive Nigel Wright becomes Harper’s chief of staff". Globe and Mail (Toronto). Retrieved March 3, 2011.
- ^ "Bay St. exec named PM's new chief of staff". CBC News. September 24, 2010.
- ^ Austen, Ian (January 7, 2011). "In Canada, Doubts About Prime Minister’s Top Adviser". New York Times. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Antibiotic Resistance Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Antibiotic Resistance
Other format
Background:
Before penicillin was discovered in 1941, there was no cure for pneumonia or gonorrhoea. Death from infection following childbirth or trauma was commonplace. The experience of most people in developed economies today, however, is that bacterial infections can be cured easily with a short course of antibiotics. Unfortunately, the way we use these powerful compounds threatens to undermine the successes we have achieved. Bacteria are extremely adaptable and responsive to change, able to rapidly transform (mutate) to overcome external threats to their survival. The widespread use of antibiotics in health care and agriculture has produced antibiotic resistant bacteria. As resistance can be rapidly passed from one bacterium to another, "super bugs" now exist that are resistant to many, if not all current antibiotics. The scope and scale of resistance to most classes of antimicrobials is alarming. The situation is particularly acute in health care facilities, where antibiotic resistant bacterial infections result in:
- Increased wait times as a result of lengthened hospital stays, and hospital wards and facilities closed due to isolation of infected patients.
- Increased cost for the health care system due to increased hospital stays, increased diagnostic tests and more expensive treatments.
- Increased morbidity (illness) and mortality (death) for Canadians infected with antibiotic resistant organisms, especially among at-risk populations such as the very young, very old, immunosuppressed and chronically ill.
Antibiotics have been the biggest therapeutic success in history and continue to save millions of lives but most of the antibiotics produced by the pharmaceutical industry during the last 40 years, with the exception of the oxazolidinones, have been minor modifications of compounds to which bacteria have already developed resistance. Consequently bacteria have rapidly adapted to evade these new drugs.
It is now estimated that one out of nine patients admitted to hospital each year – 250,000 Canadians – develop hospital acquired infections and of these patients, 8,000 die. This is greater than the number of fatalities from traffic accidents, AIDS and breast cancer combined. Many of these infections are resistant to available antibiotics and compounding the problem are infections acquired in other health care settings such as residential and long term care facilities and increasingly in the community at large.
Novel Alternatives to Antibiotics Initiative
Antibiotic resistance has been a research priority of the CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity (III) since its inception and a variety of strategic research initiatives have been launched to address this global health problem, including the Safe Food and Water initiative and the more recent Novel Alternatives to Antibiotics (NAA) initiative. The NAA Funding Opportunity was designed to augment the existing research funding available through the CIHR open competitions by attracting applications focused on novel approaches to antibiotic resistance, including research areas such as phage therapy or probiotics in which Canada had little or no research capacity. The Funding Opportunity, launched in partnership with 26 private and public sector partners resulted in the funding of seven Seed Grants, two Fellowships, one Proof of Principle Award, two Collaborative Health Research Projects and eight Emerging Team Grants for a total investment of more than $13 million. Several of the funded projects were in the previously underserved area of bacteriophage research.
Canada UK Partnership
As a consequence of the NAA initiative, a partnership was initiated with the UK. In July 2007, the Canadian High Commission in London hosted a series of meetings between III, the Wellcome Trust and the UK MRC to explore opportunities for international partnership. The result was a Canada/UK workshop, organised by the UK MRC, III, and the Canadian High Commission which took place in London on February 6th and 7th, 2008. More than 40 participants were invited with roughly half being from the UK and half from Canada. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together researchers with different perspectives on the problem of antibiotic resistance in order to address topics such as immune modulation, molecular determinants of resistance, clinical aspects, and systems biology approaches. The objective was to assess whether there would be genuine gains through facilitating the creation and support of UK/Canadian partnerships between researchers with complementary expertise and whether such collaborations would result in improved mechanisms to address the problem of antibiotic resistance. The full workshop report.
Canada UK Catalyst Grant
The enthusiasm generated at the workshop translated into the joint launch by the III and the UK MRC of a one year Catalyst Grant Funding opportunity in December 2008. The intent was to promote the development of UK-Canadian basic and translational research collaborations in the area of antibiotic resistance and to provide the funds necessary for strategy development in preparation for potential funding opportunities for larger scale consortium type in the future. The following two projects were successful in this competition.
| Canadian Principle Investigator | UK Principle Investigator | Project Title |
|---|---|---|
| CLARKE, Anthony University of Guelph | DOWSON, Christopher University of Warwick, UK | Bilateral bacterial cell wall biosynthesis network |
| WRIGHT, Gerard McMaster University | PIDDOCK, Laura University of Birmingham, UK | Antibiotic Resistance Research Pipeline |
Canada UK Consortium Grant Funding Opportunity
In follow up to the successful outcomes of the Catalyst Grant program, III and the UK MRC launched the Team Grant: Canada-UK Partnership on Antibiotics Resistance RFA in September 2010. Through this initiative the research strengths in both countries will be combined to provide true value-added collaborations that will advance our approach to antibiotic resistance along the translational pipeline from biomedical research to clinical practice. As a result of this partnership, two large teams/consortia have received funding through a four year combined investment of $4 million and £2 million.
Canada-UK Team in Novel Antibiotic Targets in Cell Wall Biogenesis:
- A.J. Clarke
University of Guelph - N. Strynadka
UBC - E. Brown
McMaster University - L. Burrows
McMaster University - R.C. Levesque
Université Laval - G.S. Besra
University of Birmingham - C. Dowson
University of Warwick - D.I. Roper
University of Warwick - A.J. Lloyd
University of Warwick - T.D.H. Bugg
University Warwick - S.J. Foster
University of Sheffield - W. Vollmer
University of Newcastle
Canada-UK Team in Bacterial Resistance to Beta-Lactam Antibiotics:
- G. Dmitrienko
University of Waterloo - W. Lubell
Université de Montréal - J. Pitout
University of Calgary - N. Strynadka
UBC - D. Pillai
UofT - S. Siemann
Laurentian University - T. Walsh
Cardiff University - J. Spencer
Bristol - C. Schofield
Oxford - C. Fishwick
Leeds - D. Low
Mount Sinai Hospital - J. Lui
University of Waterloo
Dr. Gary Dmitrienko of the University Waterloo, working with Professor Tim Walsh of the University of Cardiff (UK), is studying the hard-to-treat gram-negative bacterial infections, like E. coli NDM-1, that cause some hospital-acquired infections. The team is investigating the Gram-negative bacteria that are resistant to carbapenem, currently the most powerful beta-lactam antibiotic, in hopes of developing a new treatment for these infections. The team will design, make, and test molecules that will block carbapenem-resistance mechanisms like NDM-1 and therefore enable carpanenems to kill resistant Gram-negative bacteria. They will also monitor the spread, particularly in hospitals, of carbapenem-resistant bacteria to help identify the most important sub-types to target.
Dr. Anthony Clarke of the University of Guelph, working with Professor Chris Dowson of the University of Warwick (UK), will study bacterial cell walls in the search for new antimicrobial targets against which new drugs can be developed. The group is focusing on peptidoglycan, the key polymer that holds the bacterial cell wall together, in order to develop new targets and small molecule probes that will inhibit peptidoglycan production and help kill the bacterium. The team proposes to consolidate research capacity across the two countries by making use of the technical expertise at the PG Synthesis Facility, centered at the University of Warwick, and the High Throughput Screening facility, located at McMaster University.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
2011 National Household Survey: Immigration, place of birth, citizenship, ethnic origin, visible minorities, language and religion Statistics Canada
New data from the National Household Survey (NHS) show that Canada was home to about 6,775,800 foreign-born individuals in 2011. They represented 20.6% of the total population, compared with 19.8% in the 2006 Census. The country's immigrant population, the ethnic backgrounds of its people, its visible minority population, and its linguistic and religious diversity showed that Canada is an ethnocultural mosaic. A detailed analysis is available in the reportImmigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada.
Immigration
In 2011, many of the 6.8 million foreign-born individuals have lived in Canada for many years, while others were relatively new to the country.
Of this total, around 1,162,900 foreign-born people arrived in Canada between 2006 and 2011. These recent immigrants made up 17.2% of the total foreign-born population and 3.5% of the total population in Canada.
Among the G8 countries, Canada had the highest proportion of foreign-born population (20.6%), followed by Germany (13.0% in 2010) and the United States (12.9% in 2010). Outside the G8 nations, Canada's proportion of foreign-born was lower than that of Australia (26.8% in 2010), one of the major immigrant-receiving countries.
Among the recent immigrants who arrived between 2006 and 2011, the largest share, 56.9% or about 661,600 individuals, came from Asia (including the Middle East). In contrast, immigrants born in this region accounted for 8.5% of the foreign-born population who settled in Canada prior to the 1970s.
Most of the 1.2 million immigrants who arrived in Canada between 2006 and 2011 settled in a census metropolitan area (CMA). Just over 6 in 10 (62.5%) of these recent immigrants chose to settle in the three largest CMAs — Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver. In comparison, just over one-third (35.2%) of Canada's total population lived in these three CMAs.
Ethnic origin
Ethnic origin is another aspect of the nation's ethnocultural diversity. Ethnic origin refers to the ethnic or cultural origins of the respondent's ancestors.
More than 200 ethnic origins were reported by respondents to the 2011 NHS. Of these, 13 different ethnic origins had surpassed the 1-million mark. People reported these origins either alone or in combination with other ethnic origins.
The ethnic origin most often reported was Canadian, cited by about 10,563,800 people, either alone or with other origins. It was followed by English, French, Scottish, Irish and German. The other ethnic origins that surpassed the 1-million mark were: Italian, Chinese, First Nations (North American Indian), Ukrainian, East Indian, Dutch and Polish.
Just over 1,369,100 people reported a First Nations (North American Indian) ancestry, alone or with other origins, while around 447,700 people reported Métis ancestry, alone or with other origins, and around 72,600 people reported Inuit ancestry, alone or with other origins.
Visible minority population
In 2011, nearly 6,264,800 people identified themselves as a member of the visible minority population. They represented 19.1% of Canada's total population, compared with 16.2% in the 2006 Census.
This increase in proportion was largely because of the increasing number of immigrants from non-European countries. Visible minorities accounted for 78.0% of the immigrants who arrived between 2006 and 2011. In contrast, they made up 12.4% of immigrants who arrived before 1971.
Combined, the three largest visible minority groups — South Asians, Chinese and Blacks — accounted for 61.3% of the visible minority population. They were followed by Filipinos, Latin Americans, Arabs, Southeast Asians, West Asians, Koreans and Japanese.
In 2011, 1,567,400 individuals identified themselves as South Asian, the largest visible minority group. They represented one-quarter (25.0%) of the total visible minority population.
The second largest group was Chinese, who numbered just over 1,324,700. They made up 21.1% of the visible minority population. Just under 945,700 individuals identified themselves as Blacks, the third largest group. They made up 15.1% of the visible minority population.
Knowledge of languages
Most (93.5%) of the foreign-born population was able to converse in English and/or French. The remaining 6.5% reported that they did not know either official language.
In 2011, three-quarters (74.5%) of Canada's foreign-born population were able to conduct a conversation in more than one language in 2011, compared with 36.6% of the total population.
Of the roughly 6.8 million immigrants in Canada, 54.6% could speak two languages, while 19.9% had knowledge of at least three languages.
In many cases, immigrants who could speak more than one language reported knowledge of English or French, in tandem with a non-official language.
Among all immigrants, 61.2% were able to converse in English or French and one or more non-official language(s), while 9.9% were able to converse in both English and French as well as one or more non-official language(s). Another 2.6% could speak English and French but not a non-official language. A small proportion (0.8%) said they knew only non-official languages.
Religions in Canada
The NHS collected information on religious affiliation, regardless of whether respondents practised their religion.
The largest faith in Canada was Christianity. About 22,102,700, or two-thirds of Canada's population (67.3%), reported that they were affiliated with a Christian religion.
Roman Catholics were the largest Christian religious group in 2011. About 12,728,900 people identified themselves as Roman Catholic, representing 38.7% of Canada's population as a whole.
Consistent with changing immigration patterns, there were growing proportions of the population who reported religious affiliations other than Christian. These religions included Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist. In 2011, about 2,373,700 people, or 7.2% of Canada's population, reported affiliation with one of these religions. This was up from 4.9% a decade earlier, as recorded in the 2001 Census.
In 2011, people who identified themselves as Muslim made up 3.2% of the population, Hindu 1.5%, Sikh 1.4%, Buddhist 1.1% and Jewish 1.0%.
Roughly 7,850,600 people, or nearly one-quarter of Canada's population (23.9%), had no religious affiliation. This was up from 16.5% a decade earlier, as recorded in the 2001 Census.
Immigration has contributed to a higher share of the population having affiliation with Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist religions as well as to a higher share of the population having no religious affiliation. Of the immigrants who came prior to 1971, 2.9% were affiliated with Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist religions, whereas 33.0% of immigrants who came between 2001 and 2011 reported affiliation to one of these religions. As well, 16.0% of immigrants who came before 1971 had no religious affiliation, compared with 22.0% among those who came between 2001 and 2005, and 19.5% among those who came between 2006 and 2011.
Citizenship
Over three-quarters (78.3%) of the total population were Canadian citizens by birth. Another 15.8% were Canadian by naturalization (that is, the process through which immigrants acquire Canadian citizenship), while the remaining 6.0% did not have Canadian citizenship.
Additional analysis can be found in the National Household Survey in Brief Series article "Obtaining Canadian Citizenship".
Second generation: Canadian-born children of immigrants
Second generation includes individuals who were born in Canada and had at least one parent born outside Canada. In 2011, this group consisted of about 5,702,700 people, accounting for 17.4% of the total population.
For over half (54.8%) of this group, both parents were born outside Canada. For the remaining 45.2%, one parent was born in Canada.
Additional analysis can be found in the National Household Survey in Brief Series article "Generation Status: Canadian-born Children of Immigrants".
Note to readers
The National Household Survey User Guide provides information on the methodology, collection, processing, evaluation and data quality of the National Household Survey (NHS).
Estimates and trends from other data sources suggest that certain population groups may be overestimated or underestimated in the NHS. Information on the quality of NHS data on immigration, place of birth, citizenship, ethnic origin, visible minorities, language and religion as well as explanations of concepts, classifications, questions and comparability with other data sources can be found in the series of reference guides for these topics.
National Household Survey
This is the first release of data from the NHS. The second release will be on June 26 and the third release on August 14.
The analytical document Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada presents the results of the NHS on immigration, place of birth, ethnic origin, visible minorities, language and religion. In addition, there are two companion articles in the National Household Survey in Brief Series entitled "Obtaining Canadian citizenship" and "Generation status: Canadian-born children of immigrants."
A second analytical document Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit, also released today, analyzes findings from the NHS on Aboriginal peoples. In addition, there is a companion analytical article in the National Household Survey in Brief Series for this topic entitled "Aboriginal peoples and language."
Data and highlights on key topics found in these analytical products are also available for various standard levels of geography in the National Household Survey Focus on Geography Series.
Various data and reference products are also available from the 2011 National Household Survey website. A wide range of data for standard geographic areas is available in the National Household Survey Profile and National Household Survey Data Tables. TheNational Household Survey User Guide and a series of reference guides provide information about the NHS.
A brief overview of immigration and ethnocultural diversity in Canada is presented on video.
Users are also invited to Chat with an expert on May 10, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5178.
The report Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada (99-010-X2011001) is now available from the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications.
Additional analysis is also available in the National Household Survey in Brief Series (99-010-X2011003): "Obtaining Canadian Citizenship" and "Generation Status: Canadian-born Children of Immigrants."
Census tract level data will be available at a later date.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
National Airlines Flight 102
National Airlines Flight 102 was a cargo flight operated by National Airlines between Camp Bastion—a British military base in Afghanistan—and Al Maktoum Airport in Dubai. On 29 April 2013 a Boeing 747-400 operating the flight, shortly after taking off from a refueling stop at Bagram Airfield—a US military base in Afghanistan—crashed, killing all seven crew.[1][2]
At the time of the crash the airline had been operating between Bagram Air Base and Dubai for a month.[3] The airline said that the accident aircraft had originated in Camp Bastion,[5] and then refueled at Bagram.[6] The aircraft had taken off from Bagram's runway 03 at 15:30 Afghanistan time (11:00 am UTC) and was climbing through 1,200 feet (370 m) when its nose rose sharply. According to an unconfirmed claim, a crew member was heard on VHF air-band radio reporting that some of the load of five heavy military vehicles in the cargo hold had shifted; the aircraft then stalled and crashed.[3] The crash site was off the end of runway 03, within the perimeter of the airfield. All seven crew, all of whom were U.S. citizens,[4] died: four pilots, two mechanics and a loadmaster.
Although Taliban spokespersons claimed responsibility for the destruction of the aircraft, reports based on alleged communications from the crew after takeoff suggest that the crash may have resulted from a catastrophic load shift, which caused the aircraft to experience a high-aft center of gravity condition, become unstable, stall and crash.[3] A car driver in the vicinity of the runway end recorded the stall and the crash; the video is available online.[3][7] CNN stated that a government official speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the video was authentic.[6]
Contents |
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 747-428BCF registration N949CA, S/N 25630. It was manufactured in 1993 as a passenger aircraft and later modified for service as a freighter. At the time of the crash the aircraft was flying on behalf of the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command.[3][4]Accident
Accident location shown within Afghanistan
Although Taliban spokespersons claimed responsibility for the destruction of the aircraft, reports based on alleged communications from the crew after takeoff suggest that the crash may have resulted from a catastrophic load shift, which caused the aircraft to experience a high-aft center of gravity condition, become unstable, stall and crash.[3] A car driver in the vicinity of the runway end recorded the stall and the crash; the video is available online.[3][7] CNN stated that a government official speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the video was authentic.[6]
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority are investigating the crash.[4] Richard Quest of CNN said that while the investigation will be hosted by the Afghan authorities, the expertise will come from the NTSB and possibly investigation authorities from Europe.[8] The NTSB reported in an April 30 press release that representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Boeing Company will also provide technical expertise and aid in the investigation.[9]Reactions
The crash interrupted the New Zealand Defence Force's (NZDF) withdrawal from Afghanistan, as it was only hours away from using another National Airlines aircraft to fly equipment out of the country; after the crash the NZDF indefinitely postponed using National Airlines for its airlift requirements.[10]References
- ^ "Crash: National Air Cargo B744 at Bagram on Apr 29th 2013, lost height shortly after takeoff". 29 April 2013.
- ^ "Seven killed in US cargo plane crash at Afghan base". Bbc.co.uk. 2013-04-29. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
- ^ a b c d e Simon Hradecky (Monday, 29 April 2013). "Crash: National Air Cargo B744 at Bagram on Apr 29th 2013, lost height shortly after takeoff". The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
- ^ a b c Yan, Holly; Alsup, Dave (2013-05-01). "Cargo plane crashes in Afghanistan, killing 7 Americans". CNN.com. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
- ^ "Information Related to Flight NCR102." National Air Cargo (Archive) Retrieved on May 6, 2013.
- ^ a b "Video of Bagram plane crash legitimate, U.S. official says." CNN. May 6, 2013. Retrieved on May 6, 2013.
- ^ Boeing 747 stall and crashes, YouTube. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
- ^ Quest, Richard. "Multiple factors to examine in 747 probe." CNN. May 1, 2013. Retrieved on May 1, 2013. 00:50-1:04. "So, the investigation i-handled?? Afghan authorities that will host the investigation. But, clearly, the expertise for handling this will come from, uh, the NTSB in the United States and possibly the European investigating authorities."
- ^ "NTSB to assist Afghan authorities with investigation into Bagram cargo plane crash". NTSB Press Releases. National Transportation Safety Board. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
- ^ "Plane crash stalls Afghan withdrawal". 3 News NZ. May 2, 2013.
External links
- "Information Related to Flight NCR102." National Air Cargo (Archive)
- "STATEMENT FROM NATIONAL AIR CARGO." EVA International Media. May 2, 2013. (Archive)
- Dashcam footage from vehicle - LiveLeak
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