Canada: Amputee gets seatbelt ticket

GlobalToronto

Canadian gov't loses $3 billion

GlobalToronto

Canada's auditor general says he can't figure out where $3 billion, earmarked for anti-terrorism initiatives, went to. He also raises red flags, in his latest report, about Canada's search and rescue system.

Toronto: Costo de Vida

www.seetorontonow.es

Tomado de: http://www.canadaimmigrants.com/spanish/Torontocosto.asp

POPULATION IN 2011: 5,583,064 (StatsCan)

PRIVATE DWELLINGS (occupied by usual residents): 1,989,705 (StatsCan)

PRECIOS DE VIVIENDA
 

Tipo	Precio	Ingreso Requerido
Casa sola de dos pisos	$618,000	$129,800
Casa sola de un piso	$530,400	$110,700
Condominio	$332,400	$71,200
* Basado en un enganche de 25% y un préstamo a 25-años a una tasa fija de cinco años -no incluye cuotas de mantenimiento. Source: RBC. Mayo 2012

Type	March 2011	March 2012
Casa o condominio horizontal terminado no absorbido	$924,856	$833,256
Source: CMHC. Abril 2012

RENTAS PROMEDIO (DEPARTAMENTO)
 

Bach Studio	Una Recámara	Dos Recámaras	Tres Recamaras
$819	$977	$1,149	$1,349
Source: CMHC. Octubre 2011

GASTO PROMEDIO DE UN HOGAR EN 2008
 

Concept	Amount ($)
Personal taxes	18,488
Shelter	17,185
Transportation	10,676
Food	8,132
Personal insurance payments and pension contributions	5,734
Recreation	3,549
Household operation	4,053
Health care	1,824
Education	2,435
Tobacco products and alcoholic beverages	1,331
Source: StatCan 2011

TRANSPORTE PUBLICO
 

	Boleto	Pase mensual
Regular	$3.00	$126.00
Anciano/estudiante	$2.00	$104.00
Tarifas especiales para ancianos, niños y estudiantes & horas especiales
Fuente: Toronto Transit Commission. 2012

SEGURO PARA AUTO
 

Automóvil	Seguro Anual
2010, JEEP, WRANGLER UNLIMITED SAHARA 4DR 4WD
Desjardins General Insurance	$1,397
Belairdirect	$1,445
Dominion of Canada	$1,740
Source: Kinetix.ca  August 2010

SALARIO MINIMO EN 2012

• $10.25 por hora

SALARIOS GOBIERNO DE ONTARIO

• In 2010, 2,601 burocratas ganaron mas de $100,000.00.

Puesto	Salario anual	Rank
Canadian Blood Services Chief Executive Officer	$685,646.42	1st
Ontario Power Authority Chief Executive Officer	$573,500.99	2nd
Canadian Red Cross Chief Executive Officer	$268,240.92	60th
COSTI Immigrant Services Executive Director	$151,336.35	512th
Crown Corporations
Ontario Pension Board	$632,613.68	1st
Liquour Control Board President & CEO	$431,402.54	14th
Ontario Lottery & Gambling Chief Financial Officer	$298,022.87	44th
Ministries
Community Safety & Correctional Services Chief Coroner	$412,205.64	1st
Source: Ontario Finance

INGRESO FAMILIAR
 

Tipo de Familia	Median Family Income
	2000	2005
No inmigrante	$90,569	$92,453
Imigrante	$68,565	$66,377
Diferencia	$22,004	$26,076
Source: Statistics Canada, 2008.

IMPUESTOS SOBRE BIENES Y SERVICIOS
 

• En Toronto, the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is 13%.
   

IMPUESTONS FEDERALES SOBRE EL INGRESO EN 2012
 

Income	Tax Rate
On the first $42,707 of taxable income, +	15%
On the next $42,707 of taxable income (on the portion of taxable income between $42,707 and $85,414), +	22%
On the next $46,992 of taxable income (on the portion of taxable income between $85,414 and $132,406), +	26%
Taxable income over $132,406.	29%
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. 2012.

IMPUESTOS PROVINCIALES SOBRE EL INGRESO EN 2012

Ingreso	Impuesto
Basic Personal Amount	0%
On the first $39,020 of taxable income, +	5.05%
On the next $39,023, +	9.15%
On the amount over $78,043	11.16%
Source: Ontario Government. 2012.

ONTARIO: CRIMENES REPORTADOS A LA POLICIA 2009
 

Crime	Number
Homicide	178
Serious Assault	15,684
Robbery	12,210
Total Violent Crime	131,437
Total Violent Crime Rate (per 100,000)	1,006
Source: Statistics Canada 2010

Escape from North Korea caught in new doc

Read on CBC News >>

Via terror plot suspect a 'very good boy,' mom says

CBC News

The mother of one of the two suspects accused of trying to carry out an al-Qaeda-supported plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train for almost a year doesn't believe the charges against her son, saying he is a "very good boy" and a genius who loves to study.

"It surprised me. I didn't believe it. I am certain my son cannot commit such an act," Raoudha Esseghaier, mother of Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, told Radio-Canada from her home in Tunisia "I know it because I've raised him and I know him by heart."

• Jason Kenney wants to know why Via terror suspect wasn't deported
• Via terror plot suspect says Criminal Code 'not a holy book'

Raoudha said her son, who had been doing doctoral research at the Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique in Varennes, Que, runs experiments and does research.

"He is a very good boy. He loves his studies. Chiheb is a genius. Since his childhood, believe me, he's been passionate about his studies," she said. "When he was four, he knew how to read and count. Since his childhood, he is studying. Even when we would say, 'come play,' he would answer 'no, I don't want to. I prefer to study.'"

His father, Mohammed Rached Esseghaier, questioned the evidence against his son

"When someone wants to derail a train, he needs equipment, something, or, at least, a plan with [targets] spelled out. But they have not found anything."

• Via terror plot suspects deny allegations
• Charges against Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser

But the father did admit that in the last few years his son had changed and that the changes did not please him.

Earlier this week, Esseghaier, a Montreal resident who is from Tunisia, appeared in court, where he said that the Criminal Code should not apply to him because it's "not a holy book."

He, along with Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto, are facing terrorism related charges in an alleged plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train. Esseghaier has been remanded into custody until his next appearance on May 23.

Watched for almost a year

CBC News reported this week that the RCMP had been following Esseghaier since May 2012. At that time, two undercover surveillance officers watched him on an Air Canada flight to Cancun, where he was to attend a biomedical conference.

Esseghaier's behaviour on the plane was "bizarre," and he had an altercation with a female flight attendant after he went to the washroom, sources say.

Sheriffs from Calgary and Edmonton would join the striking corrections workers

News Canada

www.edmontonjournal.com

Alberta Justice has released a statement saying striking corrections workers in the province are beginning to return to work, saying that workers feel 'intimidated' by their own union.

"It has been our hope that the job action would be resolved quickly," reads the statement, "and this appears to be happening."

"Some of you have returned to work, and others have said they would like to return to work but feel intimidated," the release continues.

"We are aware of these union pressure tactics, which include misinformation being distributed. We can report, however, that picketing activities have substantially declined throughout the province."

However, as CBC's Briar Stewart reports, around 70 corrections officers are still picketing outside the Edmonton Remand Centre — and don't appear to be leaving any time soon.

Their numbers have also been bolstered by corrections officers from Saskatchewan who arrived by bus earlier in the day to support the striking workers. Several Edmonton sheriffs have also now joined the picketers outside the centre.

Sheriffs from Calgary and Edmonton said they would join the striking corrections workers on Monday, said Clarke McChesney, the chair for Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) Local 003.

He said he expects other sherrifs across the province will join them.

Earlier Sunday, AUPE said that corrections workers at remand centres in Medicine Hat and Red Deer have decided to return to work.

CBC News has also learned that Calgary police are in meetings all day, as they prepare for the possibility of strike action continuing on Monday.

Thirteen striking guards at Edmonton’s remand centre — where Friday’s strike action first began — have now been served with court papers ordering them to return to work.

So far the guards at that centre are refusing to obey the orders, which were delivered around 1:30 a.m. MT Sunday morning.

RCMP officers have now been called in from Saskatchewan to help maintain order at correctional facilities.

However, a lawyer for the provincial government said Saturday that the centres are still understaffed.

Robin Southcombe is an inmate at the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre northeast of Edmonton.

She describes the mood at that facility as “tense” on the women's side, but says that things are much worse on the men’s side of the prison, where inmates had been kicking and punching the walls and windows of their cells.

"They had to pull out a lot of men on the units because ... they're trying to start riots on each unit,” she said Saturday. “But the women are doing OK. We have one RCMP and some other lady here who's in white but I don't know, we've never seen them before."

Southcombe says that RCMP officers have now had to go in unit by unit and shackle inmates in their cells.

"Right now I feel, really, it's like on eggshells right now, it's very on edge."

She says the male prisoners have been acting out in response to delays in the delivery of meals and medicine.

The last time Alberta prison guards walked off the job was for nine days, nearly a quarter century ago. And for now, the guards union is saying this strike will continue until their concerns are addressed.

[Video] Nutty squirrel hobby

GlobalToronto

Political Correctness & Canadian Muslims: Being Had For Dinner In Ottawa

The Investigative Project on Terrorism

By David B. Harris
Special to IPT News

Canadians are on their guard against the growing Islamist threat. After all, the last month alone brought the Boston Marathon bombing, and arrests in Canada of suspected Iranian-linked al-Qaeda bomb-plotters targeting Canada-US passenger train routes. Add to that, repeated stories of Islamist radicalism in Canadian neighborhoods and young Canadian Muslim terrorists abroad.

Against this backdrop, the last thing to be expected at this fraught time would be a public event in Canada's capital showcasing a radical Islamist, boasting a master of ceremonies from the tax-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, involving a respected mental health foundation, and including the wife of the highest office-holder in the land. Nonetheless, this is what is being planned for Ottawa, this weekend.

The Ottawa Muslim Women's Organization (OMWO) holds its 12^th Annual Festival of Friendship Dinner Sunday evening. The master of ceremonies will be major local CBC personality Lucy van Oldenbarneveld, whose name – along with the official CBC logo – appears on event advertising. Proceeds are to benefit the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health, an arms-length fundraiser for the public Royal Ottawa Hospital. In an email pitching the dinner and attributed to former Liberal Member of Parliament Marlene Catterall, the presence of Her Excellency Sharon Johnston, wife of the Governor General of Canada, is a selling point.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College in London, Ontario, an institutional affiliate of the University of Western Ontario. Mattson, a convert from Christianity to Islam, was president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The United States government designated ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in the successful Holy Land Foundation terror-funding prosecution. ISNA is included in a key Muslim Brotherhood document as one of the "organizations of our friends." Other evidence abounds of ISNA's Brotherhood inspiration and connections.

From the captured Muslim Brotherhood plan for Canada and the United States that was accepted as evidence in a US criminal court:

"The process of settlement is a 'Civilization-Jihadist Process,' with all the word means. The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in American [sic] is kind of a grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house …"

The Brotherhood's motto is "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."

A joint statement of representatives of the moderate American Muslim Congress, Center for Islamic Pluralism, American Islamic Forum for Democracy and the International Quranic Center condemned "groups like ISNA, in which radicals are camouflaged as moderates." The statement especially warned Jews against linking up with ISNA because of the risk of "legitimizing a radicalism that, regardless of ISNA's rhetorical claims, is fundamentally hostile to Jews and suppresses the intellectual and social development of Muslims."

Mattson has been criticized as an "apologist for Wahabbism," the Islamist strain that fuels the Islamic-supremacist theology of Saudi Arabia, the country that gave us Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists. Mattson once astonished scholars by telling CNN that Wahabbism was simply "analogous to the European protestant reformation."

According to the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., Mattson responded to a question on behalf of "Muslim youth," with the assurance that "probably the best work of Tafseer [Quranic commentary] in English is by Maulana Abul A'la Maududi." The Center quotes Maududi's Jihad in Islam:

"Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which Nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State. It must be evident to you from this discussion that the objective of Islamic 'Jihad' is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of State rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single State or a few countries; the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution."

Mattson's chair endowment benefits from substantial contributions from two notable groups: the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) and the Virginia-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).

As I pointed out in Canadian Senate committee testimony in 2011, MAC has "boldly declare[d] on its website its allegiance to the tradition of Hassan al Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood – the organization causing dread in Egypt and beyond."

MAC runs a number of Canadian Muslim schools, including Ottawa's Abraar Islamic School. The school itself has had a mixed history: A good academic record, but in 2005, then-principal Aisha Sherazi was dragged before the media to explain why teaching staff supervised an Abraar student's producing of anti-Jewish hate material. Two teachers were suspended. In 2000, the Ottawa Muslim press reported that Imam Siraj Wahhaj "headline[d]" an Ottawa Muslim community fundraising event. Imam Wahhaj was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

Then there was the Huron University College Islamic Chair's second funding source: the International Institute of Islamic Thought. Word that this organization was helping to fund the Huron chair triggered a joint April 2011 letter from an associate professor of economics of the University of Western Ontario – with which, as mentioned earlier, HUC is formally affiliated – and about two dozen former faculty, alumni and others. They appealed to college Interim Principal Trish Fulton to reject the sponsored chair and keep clear of IIIT money.

"… Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, a co-founder and former president of the IIIT, was cited as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the trial of Sami al-Arian, an Islamist activist who served a 57-month prison sentence in the United States for conspiring to channel funds to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a designated terrorist group in the United States and Canada," wrote Professor John Palmer.

"Jamal Barzinji, founding member and current vice-President of the IIIT, has likewise been implicated in funding for terrorists. In a sworn affidavit filed in 2003, a senior special agent with the United States Customs Service testified: 'I believe that Barzinji is not only closely associated with PIJ as evidenced by ties to Al-Arian..., but also with HAMAS.'"

IIIT's troubling history extends beyond the FBI's raiding of the place in 2002. In a strange take on tolerance and social cohesion, the institution was said to have been the site of a meeting, years ago, to manufacture the neologism, "Islamophobia." According to various Muslim moderates, including one who said he attended the IIIT meeting, this terminology was developed by fundamentalists as a calculated means of smearing as bigots and silencing Muslims and non-Muslims who might dare discuss the building threat of radical Islam.

Referring to IIIT scholar Mahmoud Ayoub, a Mattson connection, Point de Bascule observes in terms that would arrest the attention of any self-respecting women's organization:

"The manual of sharia Umdat al-salik (Reliance of the traveller) is officially endorsed by Ayoub's IIIT. Section o1.1-2 of the manual specifies that certain types of honour killings must not be punished under Islamic law: "Not subject to retaliation (is) a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring."

According to the 2011 Bascule analysis:

"Mahmoud Ayoub has been involved with the Libyan World Islamic Call Society (WICS) at least since 1983. WICS was set up by Muammar Gaddafi in 1972 to spread Islam in non-Muslim countries. WICS has also been known to hide its financing of terrorism behind charitable activities. In Canada, WICS is based in London, Ontario."

IIIT's record has disturbed even prospective beneficiaries of its largesse. In 2008, an outcry resulted when IIIT wanted to fund a chair at Philadelphia's Temple University to the tune of $1.5 million. The attempt foundered on Temple's concerns about possible IIIT extremist links and suspicions that such a gift could be part of a long-term Islamist influence operation.

Struck by the haste with which Huron University College, on the other hand, seemed to want to get the $2 million dollar MAC-IIIT Islamic chair endowment – a significant addition to HUC's $12 million budget – columnist Barbara Kay asked Huron's Fulton whether MAC and IIIT values were compatible with the college.

"We don't probe deeply into values held by donors," Fulton said.

Too true. HUC took the money and ran, establishing an academic chair with Islamist lucre and influence.

But few of even the most overwrought of Muslim and non-Muslim counter jihadists could have imagined that influencers would have been so brazen as to have compounded the sins of the HUC chair's founding by appointing Mattson to it.

For now, Canadians must live with an HUC Islamic chair that seems to have been maneuvered into existence with inappropriate funding sources and the aid of some senior – and troubling – London-area Muslims. These include lawyer Faisal Joseph, who is said to have played a part in HUC's surprisingly restrained "due diligence" assessment of IIIT. Joseph had previously attended – with Imam Munir El-Kassem and the IIIT's Ayoub – a 2008 conference in Libya of the extremist-flavored Gaddafi World Islamic Call Society.

El-Kassem has been a fixture of the Libyan-funded Canadian branch of the WICS organization. The branch's charitable status was revoked by the federal government, owing to what Postmedia News summarized as WICS' "transferring [of] money from Gadhafi's 'Jihad fund' to bank accounts of known terrorists." El-Kassem, is imam of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario (ICSWO), yet another group contributing to Mattson's Islamic chair. He has been quoted speaking glowingly about the "leadership" of Louis Farrakhan, the notoriously racist and anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader. This, when the imam is not sniping in the media at genuine Muslim moderates like the University of Western Ontario's Professor Salim Mansur. Or, as some might think, playing apologist for the Taliban.

Despite all this, El-Kassem is making a name for himself in the more gullible reaches of some interfaith and outreach fringes, and even policing. The apparently uninformed London police chief, Bradley S. Duncan, rewarded the imam with – astonishingly – an appointment as police chaplain.

People will see different things in the Ottawa Muslim Women's Organization invitation to Dr. Mattson. Was this the result of inattention? An attempt to spin Mattson as a moderate and insinuate her into elite national-capital media, government and other circles?

Whatever the details, the participation of various interests in the OMWO exercise invites questions.

Will pertinent CBC personnel be disciplined for the failure of professional due diligence and associated misuse of corporate resources involved in the Corporation's role in this enterprise? Will the CBC ombudsman enter the fray? Will master of ceremonies van Oldenbarneveld and CBC apologize to Christians, Jews, moderate Muslims and others who have struggled against the tendencies represented by Mattson's record of activity, associations and sponsors – especially at a time of preoccupation with the dangers of Islamic radicalism? Will the Ottawa Muslim Women's Organization join in the apology?

Will similar apologies come from the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health for managerial misjudgment involved in allowing the Foundation's good name to enhance the credibility of the ill-conceived OMWO event?

Will the Office of the Governor General explain itself, and how the Governor General's spouse could have been drawn into such a situation?

Will compromised institutions launch internal reviews to determine whether Islamist fellow-travelers within their organizations may have worked from inside to encourage involvement in this year's Mattson-tainted Festival of Friendship Dinner?

And there remains, of course, a question about double standards.

Would van Oldenbarneveld, the CBC, the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health or the Office of the Governor General of Canada ever agree to become involved in a dinner sponsored by, say, an "Ottawa Christian Women's Organization," if the proposed keynote speaker had formerly headed a foreign unindicted co-conspirator radical Christian fundamentalist organization, been an apologist for Christian extremists, and been seated in a chair in Christianity funded by domestic and foreign Christian supremacist groups with connections to intolerant, divisive ideology – and far worse?

----------------
David B. Harris is a Canadian lawyer with three decades' experience in intelligence affairs, and serves as Director of the International Intelligence Program, INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc. He is on the advisory board of the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow (MFT), although opinions expressed here are his alone.

Iran denies involvement in Canadian terror plot

CANADIAN POLICE SAY SUSPECTS WERE PLANNING TO ATTACK PASSENGER TRAIN IN TORONTO AREA

BREAKING NEWS-Canada: Alleged terror plot thwarted by arrests in Ontario, Quebec

CBC News

Canadian police and intelligence agencies say they have arrested two men and thwarted a plot to carry out a major terrorist attack on a Via passenger train.

The two accused are Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser. They have been charged with conspiracy to carry out a terrorist attack and "conspiring to murder persons unknownn for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group."

In a statement, RCMP said while they believe the individuals accused had the "capacity and intent" to carry out an attack, they believed there was "no imminent threat" to the public, rail employees, train passengers or infrastructure.

The two men are expected to appear in court tomorrow.

Highly placed sources tell CBC News the alleged plotters have been under surveillance for more than a year in Quebec and southern Ontario.

• RCMP are holding a LIVE update on the plot investigation at 3:30 p.m. ET

The investigation was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

According to a Reuters report, U.S. law enforcement and national security sources said the alleged plot targeted a railroad between Toronto and New York City.

The arrests Monday morning were co-ordinated and executed by a special joint task force of RCMP and CSIS anti-terrorism units, combined with provincial and municipal police forces in Ontario and Quebec.

The RCMP are expected to hold a press conference Monday afternoon to announce the arrests and provide details of the alleged plot, and give an overview of the extensive police and intelligence operation.

Law enforcement officials say the terror suspects arrested today have no connection to the two brothers accused of last week's Boston Marathon bombings.

They also say there is no tie to the former London, Ont., high school friends who joined al-Qaeda and died earlier this year while helping to stage a bloody attack on an Algerian gas refinery.

Alleged plot recalls Toronto 18 case

Sources say the alleged plot disrupted by Monday's arrests was potentially more dangerous than the bombings and hostage-takings planned by the so-called Toronto 18.

Police have made a number of arrests in southern Ontario and Quebec following a joint operation between Canadian and U.S. authorities. (CBC)

That plot was broken up in the summer of 2006, when police arrested 18 people in a massive anti-terrorism sweep in southern Ontario.

Eleven of the 18 were subsequently convicted of aiding the group in various plots, ranging from blowing up the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill and the Toronto Stock Exchange with trucks laden with explosives to beheading the prime minister and other politicians.

The group never got a chance to execute any of its plans before being arrested when one of its members took delivery of what they thought were three tonnes of explosive fertilizer to be used in truck bombs. Undercover agents had replaced the shipment with harmless chemicals.

Four are serving sentences of 18 years to life in prison, while the other seven received terms ranging from 30 months to just over seven years.

More recently, three Canadian citizens were arrested in August, 2010 — two Ottawa men and a London, Ont. doctor — and charged with knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity.

One of them, Hiva Alizadeh, was also charged with possession of more than 50 circuit boards allegedly to be used as remote detonators for bombs.

The cases involving those three have yet to go to court.