[URBAN NOTE] Une belle dame sans pitié

Several motnhs ago I was eating a quick dinner at one of the several affordable Vietnamese restaurants in the Ginger downtown when I heard, from several tables away, four people talking loudly. This conversation--compressed for brevity, I should note, but still acucurate--was a mixed-sex group, three woman against one man.

- She tried to stab you! one of the women said with incredulity.

- Well, he shrugged, yes, I know, but that's how she deals with things. It happened to her boyfriend. Besides, she's having a hard time.

- Oh? she said skeptically.

- Yes, her sister died recently, she was a nice girl.

- I hadn't heard about that, another said.

- No one was surprised, but it was sad. Anyway, I went down to her parents' place for the wake and we began talking--I mean, you can't let something like that get in the way of being human--and it was nice.

- God.

- So I unblocked her on my IM and we've begun messaging and we're actually planning to meet up again--

- So she can stab you! the first woman said with exasperation.

Thinking back, I can only imagine that was some sort of intervention. I just hope that I, a theoretically neutral third-party observer, wasn't expected to intervene on their behalf.

[BRIEF NOTE] "Ottawa to ease immigration rules for workers, students"

Steven Chase's article "Ottawa to ease immigration rules for workers, students" comes from today's edition of The Globe and Mail.

The Harper government is creating a new fast-track immigration route for skilled foreign workers and students who've already proved employable in Canada: an effort to prevent an erosion of talent as global competition heats up for higher-value labour.

Unlike existing programs, the Canadian Experience Class immigration stream will make work experience in this country a key criterion for vetting applicants. It will also allow temporary foreign workers and students living here to apply from within Canada rather than having to leave first.

It's expected to grant permanent resident status to 12,000 to 18,000 economic immigrants in the first year, a figure that's forecast to rise to 25,000 annually over time. But it's not expected to increase the number of economic immigrants, which last year totalled 50,000.

The goal is to improve the quality of immigrants and retain the most valuable workers and educated students: arrivals who've already proven they can integrate into society and meet labour market needs.

“If we're going to compete internationally for the best and for the brightest, we need to improve the way that we attract and retain those who want to work in their fields and contribute to Canadian society,” federal Immigration Minister Diane Finley explained at a Waterloo, Ont., news conference.

[. . .]

Canada is suffering from a major immigration approval backlog and the new program is part of Ottawa's solution. The concern is that skilled foreign workers and highly educated students who've been trained and educated in Canada will leave permanently if more effort isn't made to keep them.

To be eligible, foreign workers must have two years of legal work experience in Canada. Foreign students must have completed a program of study lasting at least two years at a Canadian university or college and have one year of work experience.

NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow said the new program is elitist and unfair to unskilled or lower-skilled labourers who comprise the vast bulk of foreigners in Canada on temporary work permits.

“They're good enough to work here, but we don't want them to become Canadian citizens,” she said. “That's 90 per cent of the 165,000 temporary foreign workers who are working in Canada right now.”

This is the logical continuation of the trend identifed by Brian Ray at Migration Information ("Canada: Policy Changes and Integration Challenges in an Increasingly Diverse Society") for Canadian immigration policy to emphasize the permanent settlement of skilled immigrants who could presumably integrated into Canada's society and economy--assuming tha problems with accreditation and the like could be settled, of course. This policy may also leave in limbo the fates possible for immigrants who qualify for this new program, as well.

[BLOG-LIKE POSTING] "Go north!" ("But where north?")

Two years ago, there was a proposal to amend Canada's national motto.

Canada's current motto is "From sea to sea," referring to how its land mass touches both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

But if northern members of Parliament and territorial leaders get their way, the motto would become "From sea to sea to sea," adding a reference to the Arctic Ocean.

"I really do think this is something Canadians can rally around," said Dennis Bevington, the newly elected NDP member of Parliament for the federal riding of Western Arctic.

He intends to introduce a private member's bill proposing the change.

The leaders of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon are backing the change.

Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie said an expanded motto would be more inclusive.

"It is much more reflective of this federation, of this great country of ours, Canada, to ensure that all Canadians and the global community recognize that Canada is made up of a country from sea to sea to sea," said Fentie.

[. . .]

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be receptive to the change, given that he stressed Canada's claim over the Arctic during his first major news conference after being elected on Jan. 23.

Harper has promised to spend $5.3 billion over five years to defend northern waters against possible sovereignty claims by Americans, Russians and Danes.

"A Mari usque ad Mare" or "From sea to sea," has been Canada's official motto since 1921. It is taken from the Old Testament of the Bible, Psalm 72, Verse 8: "He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth."

Part of this is because of nationalism, part of this nationalism in turn motivated on part by the poitential for economic bonanzas when global warming hits. Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway, and Denmark (through Greenland) all have Arctic frontage, and large continental shelfs which, in turn, can be used to define sovereign frontiers within which newly exploitable oil and natural resources or shipping routes can be contained when global warming hits. Canadian (and other countries') activity in the Arctic these past few years has concentrated on defining the geological and oceanographic features of the Arctic Ocean, the eager research of these specialists from Canada (and other countries, doubtless) hopefully telling their countries good news.

Like others, The Times's Lewis Smith has reported on the preliminary results of these studies, produced by the International Boundaries Research Unit's Maritime jurisdiction and boundaries in the Arctic region project.

Martin Pratt, director of research at Durham’s International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU), was prompted to try to define the Arctic rights boundaries for the first time after Russia’s controvertial seabed flag-planting stunt last year.

Russia was the first country to make an official play for the Arctic seabed when it lodged its claim to a huge tract that included the Lomonosov Ridge in 2001. The Russians were told by the United Nations that they needed more convincing data on the geology of the sea floor before the claim could be accepted.

In 2007 the Russian Government ordered one of its submarines — thought to have been carrying out detailed mapping of the seafloor — to plant a flag on the seabed to stake its claim to the area, in what was regarded by many observers as a provocative action.

Russia is likely to find some of its claims contested by the United States, Canada and, through its control of Greenland, Denmark. It is already in dispute with Norway over parts of the Barents Sea. Iceland is the sixth country within the Arctic circle.

Mr Pratt said that the carving up of the Arctic’s natural resources was likely to be less of a free-for-all than many people expected because sufficient international rules were already in place to help to determine who had a right to which area.

“It’s not going to be so much a dash as a fairly well-defined march,” he said. “There are clearly set out regulations by the United Nations as to what they are entitled to. It’s not quite the free-for-all that has been suggested.”

The issue is Slashdotted here