Canada
column for Sunday, May 13/12
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THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By
Jim Fox
Continuing
violent student protests have prompted the U.S. Consulate to warn Americans
about visiting Quebec.
The
advisory from the consulate in Montreal urges U.S. citizens visiting or living in
the province to “exercise caution” to avoid injury.
Over the past three months, students have been protesting a plan by the
Quebec government to raise tuition fees from the lowest in Canada at $2,168 a
year by $1,625 over five to seven years.
A
proposed deal reached between student leaders and the government last weekend
was overwhelmingly rejected by student associations.
“While the majority of the protests have been peaceful, some participants
have incited violence by throwing rocks and engaging in other acts of
vandalism,” the advisory said.
About 170,000 university and community college students are boycotting
classes in the protest.
Police
are investigating whether militant students were responsible for setting off
smoke bombs in the subway system and disrupting travel for 200,000 people
during the morning rush hour on Thursday.
The consulate said there are “no indications foreigners or U.S. citizens
are being threatened or targeted,” but they should “remain alert while on the
streets.”
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Canada’s
economic rebound continued last month with strong job creation.
Statistics Canada said the economy added 58,200 jobs in April as
Canadians found work in most regions of the country and in most goods-producing
industries.
Stagnant job figures also got a jump in March, with the creation of 82,000
positions, most of them in Central Canada.
Much
of the latest growth was full-time jobs and all within the private sector, as
governments continue to cut back on employment levels.
Even as Canada has added 214,000 new jobs over the past year, the unemployment
rate edged up one-tenth of a point to 7.3 percent last month as more people sought
employment.
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News
in brief:
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The federal government is critical of Canadian environmental charities accepting
money from foreign donors to finance their campaigns against oil and gas
projects. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver accuses “environmental and
other radical groups” of trying to use such “special-interest” money to hijack
hearings on a pipeline that would transfer Alberta oil sands bitumen to a port
on the British Columbia coast for shipping to Asia.
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Mexican police have arrested two men and three women for the robbery-related
deaths of a Canadian graduate student and her boyfriend last December. The
burned and partially buried bodies of Ximena Osegueda, 39, a student at the
University of British Columbia, and her Mexican companion, Alejandro
Santamaria, 38, were found on a beach near Huatulco. Police said gang members took
the couple’s bank cards, phones and car.
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Facts and figures:
Canada’s
dollar is slightly lower at $1.0039 in U.S. funds while the U.S. greenback is
worth 99.60 cents Canadian, before bank exchange fees.
The Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is steady at 1 percent while the
prime-lending rate is 3 percent.
Stock
markets are lower, with the Toronto exchange index at 11,706 points on Friday and
the TSX Venture index 1,346 points.
Lotto
6-49: (May 9) 2, 6, 15, 19, 24 and 38; bonus 9. (May 5) 5, 6, 30, 32, 45 and 46;
bonus 41. (May 2) 18, 19, 33, 40, 44 and 47; bonus 10. Lotto Max: (May 4) 3, 5,
6, 25, 37, 43 and 45; bonus 21.
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Regional briefs:
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The amount of debris from Japan's earthquake and tsunami is growing on the
beach at Haida Gwaii on the north coast of British Columbia. It includes a
container holding a motorcycle as well as building materials, fishing gear and
a rusty fishing vessel. It’s estimated there are more than 1.65 million tons of
tsunami debris drifting across the Pacific Ocean toward Canada's West Coast.
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Ontario isn’t planning its own long-gun registry, now that the federal one has
been disbanded, but is requiring stores to keep records of people who buy the
weapons. The federal government wants provinces to stop keeping any records. Quebec
has started a legal challenge preventing the destruction of the previous registry
records.
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Nova Scotia residents held memorial services to remember the 26 workers who
died in the Westray mine disaster 20 years ago. The massive underground
methane-gas explosion at the coal mine in Plymouth was among the worst in
Canadian history. The gas erupted into flames, with a fireball racing through
the tunnels. Premier Darrell Dexter said the incident led to more-stringent
safety regulations.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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