Canadian housing market show 0.6% growth The Canadian housing market has slowed its decline to 3.1 per cent year over year, with a 0.6 per cent increase in home sales last month, according to BMO Chief Economist Doug Porter, citing recent data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. Porter notes that since the implementation of new mortgage [...]
Lavoie, Codilla and Yager triump at WBC Western Championships Friday night the Cascades Casino in Langley played host to the WBC Western Championships. When the dust settled, three more B.C. pugilist qualified themselves for the first-ever WBC Canadian championships in July. In the light middleweight (154 pounds) WBC Western Championships, Remy Lavoie from North Burnaby Boxing [...]
Christine Sinclair a powerhouse for Portland Thorns FC, earns Player of the Month honours Burnaby soccer legend and team Canada captain Christine Sinclair continues to be a trailblazer in women’s soccer, now becoming the first-ever Player of the Month in the newly formed National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). The NWSL began play in their first [...]
NDP pledge to hike taxes could affect investment, leading to fewer BC jobs BC jobs and investment could be heading for a rough ride over the next few years with a new NDP government, according to figures compiled by a leading Canadian economist. Jack Mintz, head of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, [...]
BC Soccer Premier League Match of the Week features battle of 1st and 3rd place teams With an action-packed weekend coming up in the EA Sports BC Soccer Premier League, a highly anticipated match between U18 Mountain FC Girls and Coquitlam Metro-Ford SC is featured in this Match of the Week. Mountain has been playing terrific [...]
Canada should concentrate on training its own citizens, not using temporary foreign workers Canada has become too dependent on the temporary foreign workers program and has failed to address the lack of skilled workers through domestic-made solutions, says a new report into foreign workers in Canada. Kevin McQuillan, the author of All The Workers We [...]
Langley candidate Mary Polak accuses Hauptman of leaking campaign strategy to NDP The B.C. provincial election became even weirder Tuesday as the campaign manager for Liberal incumbent Mary Polak resigned over “hateful attitudes” by party members toward gays, followed by allegations from the candidate that he leaked campaign strategy to the NDP. Todd Hauptman resigned Tuesday [...]
Energy regulator orders Enbridge to fix pump station emergency shutdown systems The National Energy Board (NEB) has given Enbridge Inc. until 2016 to comply with rules tied to its emergency shutdown system requirements. After an October 2011 inspection, the NEB found 117 of its 125 pump stations were not complying with regulations. The NED inspection [...]
Expert suggests investing income tax refund in RESP With the average income tax refund at approximately $1,700 according to the Canada Revenue Agency, families with young children ought to be looking at making contributions to a Registered Education Savings Plan to secure their education. Parents with young children can defer paying down the mortgage, springing [...]
Same-sex marriage – does love really conquer all? By Douglas Allen ABC’s television show Modern Family is amazing entertainment. It is brilliantly written and acted, and well-deserving of its numerous Emmy and Golden Globe awards. It is also post-modern propaganda. The show is centered around Jay Pritchett and his immediate family members. Jay is a 60-something wealthy [...]
CBC TV is a mess and no longer fulfills original mandate The CBC popped back on Canadians’ radar last week. A Harper Government bill to give it more control over crown corporations has upset defenders of public broadcasting. Infographics exhorting me to join the fight to “save” the CBC are flooding my social media networks. [...]
Overlooking additional costs of Canadian tax compliance Canadians spent anywhere from $19.2 billion to $24.8 billion on tax preparation, filing and remittance to comply with the Canadian tax code in 2011, according to a report by the Fraser Institute. “At this time of the year as Canadians file their income tax returns, they clearly see [...]
Witnesses to Burnaby shooting not cooperating with police RCMP are asking for the public’s help after a Burnaby shooting involving about 10 people put one man in hospital with serious injuries. The incident happened early Friday morning on the front patio of a restaurant in the 7600 block of Edmonds Street in southeast Burnaby. Police say a [...]
Earl Silverman committed suicide Friday in Calgary In the end, Earl Silverman lived for nothing and died for something, the way he wanted it, I guess. That was always his tag signature at the end of emails: Live for nothing; die for something. Those emails were sent to comfort male victims of domestic violence, to [...]
Earl Silverman operated only safe house for me in Canada Earl Silverman, the tireless crusader for the rights of abused men, died Friday of apparent suicide. Silverman, who himself was a victim of female perpetrated-domestic abuse, founded the only men’s shelter in Canada. The Men’s Alternative Safe House was forced to close last month after [...]
Imam says comments made at Edmonton Islamic school were taken out of context An Edmonton Islamic school is receiving criticism for controversial comments made last fall by an imam about homosexuality. In an exchange posted to YouTube, the imam was allegedly speaking to a group of students at the publicly-funded Edmonton Islamic Academy after regular school [...]
Wealthy Canadians ordered to pay $22.2 million in back taxes Wealthy Canadians with money stashed overseas have come forward in droves to confess their misdeeds after secret lists began circulating with the names of people apparently evading taxes in foreign banking havens. The Canada Revenue Agency has seen the number of voluntary disclosures of foreign, [...]
Entrepreneurs are not their companies, which sometimes have to fail By Warren Bergen Jody Sherman founded several companies. Some got bought out for modest success and others failed. Ecomom was his last startup. Management and staff tried hard but Ecomom didn’t work and it burned. When Sherman saw no hope for Ecomom, he saw [...]
Body language same for sighted and blind paralympic athletes For insight into the body language of pride and shame, scientists studied the behaviours of judo matches at the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The competitors represented 30 countries, including Algeria, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United States. The research report in the journalProceedings of the National [...]
Canada should concentrate on training its own citizens, not using temporary foreign workers Canada has become too dependent on the temporary foreign workers program and has failed to address the lack of skilled workers through domestic-made solutions, says a new report into foreign workers in Canada. Kevin McQuillan, the author of All The Workers We [...]
CBC TV is a mess and no longer fulfills original mandate The CBC popped back on Canadians’ radar last week. A Harper Government bill to give it more control over crown corporations has upset defenders of public broadcasting. Infographics exhorting me to join the fight to “save” the CBC are flooding my social media networks. [...]
The least Ambassador Gary Doer can do is pick up the phone The working stiffs of Canadian diplomacy, members of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers, were walking a picket line in Washington, D.C., yesterday – which raised some eyebrows in the Imperial Capital and must have created some minor discomfort for the Canadian ambassador, a former [...]
Same-sex marriage – does love really conquer all? By Douglas Allen ABC’s television show Modern Family is amazing entertainment. It is brilliantly written and acted, and well-deserving of its numerous Emmy and Golden Globe awards. It is also post-modern propaganda. The show is centered around Jay Pritchett and his immediate family members. Jay is a 60-something wealthy [...]
Justin Trudeau still defining himself on the public stage By James Anderson To a great many voters, Justin Trudeau evokes memories of his famous father, a man who ruled Canada for almost 16 tumultuous years, a period during which Canada saw rates of inflation so high that the government felt it necessary to impose wage [...]
Christy Clark setting herself up to lose her own riding in BC Election 2013 Christy Clark’s world is a simple place. She says something borderline outrageous. Her opponent is supposed to rush to the microphones and cameras and say something outrageous in return. That way, Christy Clark ends up looking like the moderate one. Lather, [...]
Alison Redford says construction company donations had no effect on awarding of contracts New documents that reveal large political donations to the Alison Redford Progressive Conservative party from a coalition of construction companies should be investigated as possible bribes, says a national democracy watchdog group. The correspondence, obtained by the Alberta Federation of Labour under [...]
Cal Wenzel video – Mayor Nenshi suggests election finance laws were broken The secretly taped video that shows Calgary home builders in a room listening to Cal Wenzel talk about supporting candidates they feel will vote in their favour was finally released in its entirety Tuesday night. Mayor Naheed Nenshi fought back Wednesday morning, calling [...]
Manning Centre denies $1.1 million donation to be used in next election As the fallout from the Cal Wenzel video continued Wednesday, the incoming chair of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy said the conservative training facility does not function to further their donors’ personal ambitions. On a secretly taped video released earlier this week, [...]
‘Revolution’ documentary is anticipated follow-up to Rob Stewart’s ‘Sharkwater’ Canadian filmmaker Rob Stewart was in Calgary yesterday promoting a follow-up film to his award-winning documentary Sharkwater. Stewart spoke to The Beacon News about his latest film Revolution. Stewart’s mission is simple, if a little ambitious – save humanity. The Canadian conservationist has expanded the scope of his [...]
Giving value to the arts and culture By Shawna Stirrett Traditional arts groups such as orchestras, ballets, operas and theatres that neglect to think about how they fit into the broader social context and respond accordingly will fail. This might not happen today or the next day, but the writing is on the wall. While [...]
Barkerville exhibit captures Chinese experience during Cariboo Gold Rush An exhibit depicting the lives of Chinese immigrants during the Cariboo Gold Rush will travel to China next year thanks to a $20,000 grant from the B.C. government. The Barkerville exhibit is put together from archives kept in the historic gold rush town, which capture the [...]
Easter tradition evolves as children grow By Kelly McKenzie It’s my late husband’s fault. Little did he know that his two simple trails would blossom into a 20-year Easter tradition between the two families. On the morning of the first occurrence, I awoke to a sunlit bedroom and the sensation of John falling into [...]
Anti-bullying app makers claim to have prevented 11 suicides Beacon Staff Reporter A new smartphone anti-bullying app called TipSoft has found a user-friendly, confidential way for students to provide information to authorities regarding bullying, drugs, weapons, potential suicides, and other issues at school. The TipSoft app allows administrators to easily manage incidents in a single cloud-based application. Some [...]
Students’ educational outcome in poorer countries as good or better with one parent A new global study says children achieve a better educational outcome in the developed world if they have two parents, but that doesn’t hold true in poorer countries. The World Family Map Report found that in the majority of middle- and higher-income [...]
Corporations are discovering that First Nations are ready to do business By Frank Busch Most, if not all, Canadian large-scale resource development projects are situated on or pass through the traditional territories of First Nations. In fact, in B.C., most of these territories remain subject to Aboriginal land claims. That fact was a recurring [...]
New First Nations institutions will reform financial transactions By Frank Busch As transparency and accountability in First Nations have taken centre stage in the Canadian public eye, many politicians and decision makers on both sides are still grasping at age-old arguments over treaties and land claims. The question is; what do we do in the [...]
Judge orders money repaid to Poundmaker First Nation school A judge has sentenced the chief and seven members of the Poundmaker First Nation for stealing treaty land entitlement money. Chief Duane Antoine and his brother, former chief Teddy Antoine, of the Poundmaker First Nation were handed 20-month suspended sentences, and were ordered to pay back $2,500 they stole. [...]
Big Pharma sales reps generally don’t discuss harmful side side effects By Alan Cassels It sometimes takes a long time to discover environmental hazards and, once discovered, even longer to do something about them. The dangers of second-hand tobacco smoke, leaded gasoline and asbestos were all deemed bad for our health many years ago, [...]
Obese airline passengers shouldn’t be discriminated against By Arya Sharma Last week the wires were active with suggestions that people with obesity pay more for airline travel. This discussion was prompted by a Samoan airline announcing that they would begin charging passengers by the pound. It was also stimulated by Bharat Bhatta, an economist [...]
You can practice good mental health fitness by observing some simple rules By Dr. Paul Martiquet We often spend time concerning over this physical ailment or that one; there is a cold or flu going around to watch for (yes, get the flu shot) or we need to lose a few pounds. Physical health, as [...]
Surrey Party for the Planet is BC’s biggest celebration for Earth Day Surrey styles itself as a green city and to prove it takes environmental protection seriously, it will be hosting the huge Surrey Party for the Planet on Saturday. In celebration of Earth Day, Surrey will kick off its free-for-all Surrey Party for the Planet [...]
SnowDays Festival celebrates winter with a fun-filled month of new activities Beacon Staff Reporter The second annual SnowDays Festival of the Banff National Park will be held from Jan. 12 to Feb. 10 and it is time to grab skis, skates and scarves. The SnowDays festival will welcome visitors to celebrate the winter with a [...]
PURE Philanthropy attracts global fund-raising and social change strategists Beacon Staff Reporter Toronto will host PURE Philanthropy in February, bringing in some of big names in philanthropy for this unique summit-style conference. Speakers from Canada and the United States, including John Tory, Mallika Chopra (founder of Intent.com and daughter of Deepak Chopra), Hugh Evans (recently [...]
