AKCanada

Victoria Day Parade
Victoria Day Parade

Victoria, B.C. – People of all ages packed Douglas Street this morning to enjoy the Island Farms Victoria Day parade.

The American marching bands were a big hit as they are every year, with the high school students playing and dancing for the crowd.
“They’re my favourite,” said 86-year-old Richard Begg, tapping his toes and snapping his fingers. The senior hasn’t missed a parade in the eight years he’s lived at John Alfred Manor on Douglas Street, and has a prize seat every year.
“I just go down the elevator.”
It’s not quite as easy for others, and some avid parade goers plan their strategy to get a premiere spot.Last year, Cynthia Johnson saw people parking their vehicles on side street, backing up to Douglas and opening up the back of their SUVs for a spot to sit. Her family did the same this year, giving Johnson the perfect perch to cheer on the parade.
Johnson clapped and shouted out encouragement to the people in the parade, and soon others around her were doing the same.
“I want to show appreciation for the people who participate and cheering makes it a lot more fun for people,” she said. “If you walk up and down the street, the people having the most fun are the ones cheering.”
The 30-year-old likes the feeling of community parades bring out in people, something that can be lacking in day-to-day life.
“It is a time when people come together.”
Many families had three generations watching the parade together, sitting on deck chairs and snacking on picnics made specially for the occasion.
Some floats were elaborate concoctions, while other entries were as simple as a girl walking with her dog, balloons on the dog’s collar.
It’s a chance for community groups to strut their stuff too.
“I didn’t know the Shriners still existed,” said a woman as the fez-wearing group marched by.
The entrants are judged in several categories, with results expected early this afternoon.
Thousands of people lined downtown Victoria streets today as the city’s largest parade made its way from Mayfair Mall down Douglas Street.
The annual Island Farms Victoria Day Parade featured more than 100 entries including local and American high school bnads, floats, clowns and dancing groups.
Now in its 112th year, the parade draws more than 100,000 viewers live and on television. The parade is being broadcast on CHEK-TV.

The parade features 23 marching bands from the U.S., seven more than last year. There will be 127 parade entries in total, including a delegation from Marioka, Japan.

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G20_Logo
G20_Logo

Getting home will become a lot more complicated for residents of 33 University Ave.

The 28-storey financial district condominium is the only residential building slated to be stuck inside a fenced security perimeter when the G20 summit touches down in Toronto next month.

The only way in and out will be through police checkpoints.

“It’s definitely an inconvenience,” said Duyen Briggs, who lives at The Empire Plaza at University Ave. and Wellington St. “I guess that week I’ll feel like I’m going to be blocked inside my house for a while.”

As security details for the G20 summit continue to trickle out, downtown residents and businesses are beginning to understand how their lives will be affected.

Empire Plaza residents discovered over the weekend their homes will be enclosed within a security fence expected to go up about two weeks before the summit opens at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on June 26.

Residents will have to apply for advance security clearance to receive a special ID card to gain express access to their building.

The general public will be allowed to enter the fenced-in area — the borders of which haven’t yet been disclosed — but will be subject to on-the-spot security checks by police and will have to explain why they need to enter the area.

Councillor Adam Vaughan, whose ward will be home to the summit, said anyone living or working behind the fence should preregister with police to receive a swipe card with photo ID to bypass the public line, where the queue for admission could be several hours long.

Todd Reid, an Empire Plaza resident, said he will get the accreditation if it means skipping the long lines.

“If the wait’s only five or 10 minutes, I can deal with that,” he said. “It’s hard to say. We’re pretty much still in the dark.”

The building’s property manager said there are still many unanswered questions, and what he does know, he’s had to piece together from different sources.

“We’ve somewhat been left to fend for ourselves to try to get as much information as we can,” said Wes Posthumus, president of Post Real Property Inc.

“There hasn’t been one decisive document that says, ‘Hey, this is what it’s going to be like, this is what it’s going to look like, this is what you’re going to be subject to during that 10-day or whatever period of time.”

Among the many questions residents have is how — or whether — they’ll be able to access the underground parking garages.

While the Empire Plaza is currently the only residential building behind the fence, security plans can change and more buildings could be affected, Vaughan said.

“We’ve been working very hard to make sure that the residents of our ward have as much freedom during the G20 as possible,” he said.

Police say three security zones will surround the summit:

A heavily restricted “red zone” will include the convention centre and nearby hotels. Only summit attendees and venue employees will be able to get in.

The fenced security perimeter, which includes The Empire Plaza and contains 15,000 to 30,000 residents and workers who will be vetted by police at checkpoints.

A traffic zone will comprise the area from Yonge St. to Spadina Ave. and King St. to Lake Ontario. Pedestrians will be able to come and go, but drivers will be met by officers at most major intersections who will ask them where they’re going and what they’re doing there.

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Canada - Ontario Immigration Agreement
Canada - Ontario Immigration Agreement
Recently, Canada Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Dr Eric Hoskins the Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration signed an extension to the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA). “In extending the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement, we signal our commitment to continue to collaborate to attract, retain and integrate immigrants into communities in Ontario while exploring new ways to improve immigrant outcomes,” said Immigration Minister Kenney. “The extension of this agreement prolongs our support for immigrant settlement programs, including language training and programs for newcomer youth.”
“Ontario is pleased to sign this one-year extension as we negotiate a successor agreement, so that newcomers to the province can continue to receive the services they need to settle and succeed,” said Ontario Immigration Minister Hoskins. In the period 2010-2011 three hundred and twenty million dollars in funding will be provided to Ontario for 2010–2011on top of the annual settlement funding of $108 million. The Canadian Government had to the following to say about the extension of the Canada- Ontario Agreement: …”The Government of Canada will continue to work in partnership with the province of Ontario, settlement service provider organizations, local municipalities and other stakeholders to make a real difference in the lives of Ontario immigrants.”… It is hoped that the agreement will result in increased immigration so helping Ontario meet its “…overall social, cultural and economic goals…”.

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irish immigration
irish immigration

Like the many Irish migrants who arrived years before, Seamus Blake left his tiny coastal village in Ireland five weeks ago in search of greener pastures in Toronto.

No potato famine or decades-long political conflict drove him here.

Instead, a steady influx of young Irishmen and women like Blake, 24, is arriving here in desperate search of work, fleeing their country’s 14 per cent jobless rate, an after-effect of the 2008 global financial crisis and economic recession.

After spending a month at a backpackers’ hostel in Kensington Market, Blake moved into an apartment last week and, armed with a one-year work permit, started his job search. Hostel operators catering to young travellers in Toronto say as many as half of their residents over the past 18 months are visitors from Ireland looking to start a new life here.

Blake, 24, who graduated from Leeds University with a master’s degree in financial mathematics last year, arrived a year after his older brother David landed in Vancouver, also with a work permit.

“At the moment, there doesn’t seem to be any jobs for new graduates in Ireland,” said a despondent Blake, a native of tiny Liscannor, on Ireland’s west coast. “From what I heard, Canada’s economy has already bounced back and it’s full of opportunities.”

Latest statistics show the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada from Ireland — the class most recent newcomers arrive under — jumped from 1,514 in 2004 to 2,604 in 2008. Community leaders say those figures don’t begin to reflect the recent surge in Irish arrivals.

According to the London-based National Economic and Social Research Institute, some 18,400 Irish nationals emigrated in the year ending April 2009, mostly to Commonwealth countries. The exodus is expected to last for at least two more years.

Karl Gardner, deputy head of the Embassy of Ireland, said Irish people have a long tradition of adventure and migration. While the island’s population stands at 4.5 million, there are an estimated 75 million people of Irish descent around the world, including 4.35 million in Canada.

“We have always travelled,” Gardner said from Ottawa. “The sense is it is something that we do.”

Eamonn O’Loghlin, executive director of the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce in Toronto, receives several emails and phone calls a week these days from his countrymen, some his “lost friends and relatives,” exploring prospects in Canada.

“I try to be realistic and tell people that the job market is tight here as well, but it is easier if you have the education, skills and network in business,” said O’Loghlin, who followed his Canadian wife, Madeleine, to Canada in 1975 and never left.

O’Loghlin has met at least 60 new arrivals in the last year helping them connect with his group’s 250 members in GTA. The trade group plans a Welcome to Canada Information Night on June 1 to offer tips about living in Canada, jobs and accommodation. It will start a Facebook group and an employment website later this month to assist new Irish migrants.

Sandra McEoghain, founder of the four-year-old Irish Association of Toronto, said many of her 345 members are recent arrivals ages 24 and 35 here on work permits.

“There’s advertising in Ireland about Canada and some people are falling for that. People realized Canadian banks did really well during the recession and think there have to be more opportunities here,” said the Toronto business system analyst, 38, who came as a skilled immigrant in 2002. “Some of them have to leave fast and it’s much quicker to get a work visa.”

But it is not easy to settle in a new country, even if you share the same language and similar heritage. Most report having problems finding affordable accommodation and jobs without Canadian references.

It took Brian Byrne five months to land a job at an engineering consulting company, after sending out dozens of resumes and doing survival jobs in drywalling and masonry.

Although Irish credentials are generally recognized here, the 33-year-old native from Kilkenny said he had to adapt to the Canadian resume style, pick up colloquial English and spend time building a professional network that ultimately led him to his present job. “It is a full-time job looking for jobs,” sighed the manufacturing engineer.

For Brian Keane, who has a university degree and 11 years’ experience in construction management, his “leap of faith” to leave home turned out to be one of the best decisions he’s made in his life.

“I have guilt for not feeling homesick,” joked the 35-year-old Dublin native, who came here in December after he lost his senior management job in early fall. “I really like the Canadian lifestyle and the people are so friendly, outgoing, welcoming and helpful.

“My advice for those who’d like to move to Canada is: Don’t think twice, but plan it!”

Like other new arrivals surveyed for this story, Keane said he can see himself staying in Canada for good.

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