Taliban claim to have captured Canadian

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs says Colin Rutherford, seen in this undated photo posted on his Facebook page, was travelling through Afghanistan as a tourist. (Facebook)Taliban insurgents claim they have captured an Ontario man who is missing in Afghanistan.The Taliban published a statement Sunday that claimed a Canadian "spy" had been captured in Ghazni city, in the eastern part of the country.The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Colin Rutherford is missing in Afghanistan. They said he was travelling through the country as a tourist.

"This morning, through an interpreter, CBC contacted a Taliban spokesperson who claims they have taken Rutherford because he was working as a spy and tracking down Taliban fighters," CBC's Peter Akman said Monday.The Taliban claim to have confiscated some documents from the Ontario man that they say prove he was working as a secret agent, Akman said."The Taliban say Rutherford is being kept somewhere safe and it's expected they'll soon release a video of him," Akman.Rutherford's Facebook page lists Toronto as his city of residence and shows videos of his travels through Asia, including the disputed Kashmir region.

The police chief in Ghazni province confirmed that Rutherford was living in the region for almost a month and that he was seen dressed in local clothing several times.Canadian officials are said to be working with Afghan authorities to assist the man's family in securing Rutherford's safe release.

Canadian Oscar Wins of the past

This list includes Oscars® presented to Canadians and Canadian-born actors, actresses, producers, directors, writers, animators, and Canadian-produced films or co-productions. The Awards are listed according to the year they were presented. Co-productions, American, and foreign films are indicated in parenthesis.


1930:
Actress: Mary Pickford, Coquette (US)

1931:
Actress: Norma Shearer, The Divorcée (US)

Sound Recording: Douglas Shearer, The Big House (US)

1932:

Actress: Marie Dressler, Min and Bill (US)

Short Subject (Novelty): Wrestling Swordfish (US), Mack Sennett (p)

1936:
Interior Decoration: Richard Day, Dark Angel (US)

Sound Recording: Douglas Shearer, Naughty Marietta (US)

Scientific or Technical Award: Douglas Shearer


1937:

Academy Award of Merit: Douglas Shearer

Interior Decoration: Richard Day, Dodsworth (US)

Scientific or Technical Award: Douglas Shearer

Sound Recording: Douglas Shearer, San Francisco (US)

1938:

Honorary Award: Mack Sennett

Scientific and Engineering Award: Douglas Shearer

Scientific and Engineering Award: Douglas Shearer

1939:

Honorary Award: Deanna Durbin

1941:

Documentary: Churchill’s Island, Stuart Legg (p/d)

Sound Recording: Douglas Shearer, Strike Up the Band (US)

1942:

Interior Decoration: Richard Day, How Green Was My Valley (US)

Scientific or Technical Award: Douglas Shearer

1943:

Interior Decoration (colour): Richard Day, My Gal Sal (US)

Interior Decoration (b+w): Richard Day, This above All (US)



1945:



Special Effects: Douglas Shearer, Thirty Seconds over Toyko (US)



1947:



Honorary Award: Harold Russell

Supporting Actor: Harold Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives (US)



1948:



Special Effects: Douglas Shearer, Green Dolphin Street (US)



1949:



Supporting Actor: Walter Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (US)



1951:



Short/Cartoon: Gerald McBoing McBoing (US), Stephen Bosustow (exp)



1952:



Art Direction (b+w): Richard Day, A Street Car Named Desire (US)

Sound Recording: Douglas Shearer, The Great Carcuso (US)



1953:



Short Documentary: Neighbours, Norman McLaren (p/d/an)



1955:



Art Direction (b+w): Richard Day, On the Waterfront (US)

Short/Cartoon: When Magoo Flew (US), Stephen Bosustow (p)



1957:



Short/Cartoon: Mister Magoo’s Puddle Jumper (US), Stephen Bosustow (p)



1959:



Irving G. Thalberg Award: Jack L. Warner



1960:



Scientific or Technical Award: Douglas Shearer



1964:



Scientific or Technical Award: Douglas Shearer



1965:



Picture: My Fair Lady (US), Jack L. Warner (p)



1968:



Live-Action Short: A Place to Stand, Christopher Chapman (p/d)



1973:



Animated Short: A Christmas Carol (US), Richard Williams (d/an)



1976:



Feature Documentary: The Man Who Skied down Everest, Budge Crawley (p/d)

Honorary Award: Mary Pickford



1978:



Live-Action Short: I’ll Find a Way, Yuki Yoshida (p), Beverly Shaffer (d)

Animated Short: The Sand Castle, Gaston Sarault (p), Co Hoedeman (d/an)



1979:



Animated Short: Special Delivery, Derek Lamb (p), John Weldon and Eunice Macauley (d/an)



1980:



Animated Short: Every Child, Derek Lamb (p), Eugene Fedorenko (d/an)



1982:



Animated Short: Crac!, Hubert Tison and Frédéric Back (p), Frédéric Back (d/an)

Picture: Chariots of Fire (UK), Jake Eberts (exp)



1983:



Feature Documentary: Just another Missing Kid, John Zaritsky (p/d)

Make-up: Michèle Burke, Quest for Fire

Short Documentary: If You Love This Planet, Edward Le Lorrain (p), Terre Nash (d)



1984:



Live-Action Short: Boys and Girls, Seaton McLean (p), Don McBrearty (d)

Short Documentary: Flamenco at 5:15, Adam Symansky and Cynthia Scott (p), Cynthia Scott (d)



1985:



Animated Short: Charade, John Minnis (d/an)



1987:



Feature Documentary: Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got, Brigitte Berman (p/d)

Make-Up: Stephan Dupuis, The Fly (US)

Picture: Platoon (US), Pierre David (production executive)

Scientific or Technical (Scientific and Engineering Award): IMAX Systems Corporation



1988:



Animated Short: The Man Who Planted Trees Hubert Tison and Frédéric Back (p), Frédéric Back (d/an)



1989:



Honorary Award: National Film Board of Canada

Special Achievement Award: Richard Williams, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (US)

Special Effects: Richard Williams, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (US)



1990:



Picture: Driving Miss Daisy (US), Jake Eberts (exp)



1991:



Picture: Dances with Wolves (US), Jake Eberts (exp)



1994:



Supporting Actress: Anna Paquin, The Piano (Australia)



1995:



Animated Short: Bob’s Birthday, Alison Snowden, David Fine, and David Verrall (p), Alison Snowden and David Fine (d), Alison Snowden, David Fine, and Janet Perlman (an)

Original Screenplay: Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction (US)



1997:



Scientific and Technical (Scientific and Engineering Award): William Reeves for the original concept and development of particle systems used to create computer-generated visual effects



1998:



Director: James Cameron, Titanic (US)

Editing: James Cameron, Titanic (US)

Picture: Titanic (US), James Cameron (p)

Scientific and Technical (Scientific and Engineering Award): Dominique Boisvert, Réjean Gagné, Daniel Langlois, and Richard Laperrière of Softimage

Scientific and Technical (Scientific and Engineering Award): William Reeves for the development of the Marionette Three-Dimensional Computer Animation System

Scientific and Technical (Technical Achievement Award): Kim Davidson and Greg Hermanovic of Side Effects Software



1999:



Irving G. Talberg Memorial Award: Norman Jewison

Scientific and Technical (Scientific and Engineering Award): Dominique Boisvert, André LeBlanc, and Phillippe Panzini for the development and implementation of Flame and Inferno software

Scientific and Technical (Technical Achievement Award): Ed Zwaneveld and Frederick Gasoi of the NFB and Mike Lazaridis and Dale Brubacher-Cressman of Research in Motion



2000:



Animated Short: The Old Man and the Sea (Canada/Japan/Russia), Bernard Lajoie (p)

Musical Score: The Red Violin (Canada /UK/Italy)



2002:



Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Arthur Hiller

Musical Score: Howard Shore, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (US)



2003:



Animated Short: The ChubbChubbs (US), Eric Armstrong (an)

Art Direction (Sets): Gordon Sim, Chicago (US)

Feature Documentary: Bowling for Columbine (US), Michael Donovan and Charles Bishop (p)

Picture: Chicago (US), Don Carmody (co-p)

Scientific and Technical (Academy Award of Merit): Alias/Wavefront

Sound: David Lee, Chicago (US)



2004:



Foreign-Language Film: Les Invasions barbares (Canada/France), Denise Robert and Daniel Louis (p), Denys Arcand (d)

Musical Score: Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (US)

Song: Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (US)



2005:



Animated Short: Ryan, Steve Hoban, Marcy Page, and Mark Smith (p), Chris Landreth (d)

Make-Up: Valli O’Reilly, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (US)



2006:



Original Screenplay: Paul Haggis, Crash (US)

Picture: Crash (US), Paul Haggis (co-p)



2007:



Animated Short: Torill Kove, The Danish Poet

China emulating Canada in corrections program

A snippet from an article in the China Daily:

"Official statistics indicate that Canada, which has the highest use rate in the world of non-jail punishments, has 79.76 percent of its convicted criminals in such programs. "

This was found in an article on corrections reform in China. Why is it that as a Canadian I have never heard this statistic?

Lyme tick Disease- Immigrant to Canada

So the weather's ideal and you're raring to enjoy the great outdoors — but you're feeling fatigued, and you're suffering from chills, fever, headache, muscle and joint pain. Maybe swollen lymph nodes, too.
Can't figure out why you're coming down with conditions you'd expect to feel in the winter?
Could be you're in the early stages of Lyme disease — a condition first identified in the mid-1970s. The disease was named after the town where the first cases were diagnosed — Lyme, Conn. The illness is caused by the bite of two species of ticks — blacklegged ticks (sometimes called deer ticks) and western blacklegged ticks.

Lyme disease was unknown in Canada up until the 1980s. Initially, it was identified only at Long Point and Point Pelee, Ont. — which is the farthest south you can get in Canada. Since then, Lyme disease has become established in parts of southern and southeastern Quebec, southern and eastern Ontario, southeastern Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as well as much of southern British Columbia.
In January 2011, the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg discovered 24 people were wrongly told they didn't have Lyme disease when they in fact have the illness. The mistake was found during a quality control review at the lab.

If Lyme disease is not treated with antibiotics soon after infection, patients can suffer arthritis and neurologic problems. In August 2008, the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, a patient advocacy group, said levels of Lyme disease are being underreported across the country — an assertion rejected by medical authorities including the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada. CanLyme called for improved diagnostic testing, saying annual infection rates ranged from 2,000 to 20,000.

Lyme disease has become the most common vector-borne illness in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it receives reports of 20,000 cases a year. But the agency estimates that that represents only about 10 per cent of the total. Lyme disease became a nationally reportable disease in Canada in 2010. Doctors are now required to report all cases to the Public Health Agency of Canada through their provincial public health system.Recent studies suggest that the incidence of Lyme disease in Canada is increasing, the federal agency said.

How do ticks pass on the disease?


Blacklegged ticks live for about two years. They have three feeding stages: larvae, nymph and adult. When a young tick feeds on an infected animal, it picks up a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. It's normally carried by mice, squirrels, birds and other small animals.The bacterium then lives in the gut of the tick. If you are the tick's next meal after it's ingested infected blood, you could show symptoms in three to 30 days.Most cases are reported in late spring and summer, when the young ticks are most active and people are outdoors more often. Ticks often feed on deer but don't infect them very often. Deer are important to the tick population because they provide them with a lot of food — and a mode of transportation over long distances, which is important in maintaining the tick population.

Health Canada estimates that about 10 per cent of blacklegged ticks in any infected area carry the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.

What are the symptoms of Lyme disease?


The first sign that you may be infected is a circular rash surrounding the spot where the tick bit you. It'll show up between three and 30 days after the tick helped itself to your blood. The rash may be followed by symptoms like fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle and joint pain and swollen lymph nodes.
If left untreated, the disease can progress to a second phase, which can last several months. Symptoms in the second phase include migraines, weakness, multiple skin rashes, painful or stiff joints, abnormal heartbeat and extreme fatigue.

Still not seeking treatment? Well, it's highly unlikely that you will die, but you may suffer symptoms such as chronic arthritis and neurological symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, numbness and paralysis.

Is there a cure?

Lyme disease is generally easy to treat with antibiotics in its early stages. But if left too long, treatment may involve several rounds of antibiotics.

How do I protect myself?

Make yourself a difficult meal for a tick.
Nova Scotia zoologist Andrew Hebda notes that ticks aren't very active. They can't leap at you as you walk by. But if you brush up against them, they can latch on to you. Hebda recommends that you stay on trails and avoid deep bush.

Health Canada offers several tips, including:

If infected ticks are in your area, wear long-sleeved shirts that fit tightly around the wrist, and long-legged pants tucked into socks or boots. Light-coloured clothing makes it easier to see if there are any ticks on your clothes.Wear shoes that cover your entire foot - avoid sandals in areas where ticks might be. Use insect repellents that contain DEET to repel ticks. Repellents can be applied to clothing as well as exposed skin.

How easy is it spot a tick?


Adult ticks are about two- to five-millimetres long and are not too difficult to spot. But in their nymph form, they are the size of a poppy seed. At this stage, the nymph requires a blood meal to reach adulthood."Basically look for freckles that move," Hebda said.

What should I do if I find a tick?

If the tick is embedded in your skin, Hebda says, using tweezers, carefully remove it without detaching its mouth. It's virtually impossible to identify species of ticks without the mouth part. Health Canada labs will not analyze ticks if they are missing the mouth.
"If you can't remove it," Hebda says, "see your family physician."

Do ticks tend to seek out specific areas of the body?

Blacklegged ticks need about 48 hours for a proper feeding. Hebda says they tend to seek out more secluded parts of your body, like "behind the knees and points further north."Hebda adds, despite the risk, there's absolutely no reason you should avoid the woods or stay away from trails.
"When you come in, just wipe yourself off and take a gander, see if there's anything moving."

What other steps can I take to minimize the risk?

There are several steps you can take to make sure your yard does not become a haven for ticks that might be able to infect you with Lyme disease.

Keep grass on your property well cut to reduce the amount of habitat suitable for ticks.

Remove leaves and brush around your house and at the edges of lawns.

Create a barrier of wood chips between lawns and wooded areas to restrict the migration of ticks. Ticks love cool, damp areas. They hate hot, dry places.

Check your pets regularly for ticks.

Keep the ground around bird feeders clean.

Stack wood neatly and in dry areas.

Keep playground equipment, decks and patios away from the edge of your yard and away from trees.

Discourage deer: if they come on your property, don't feed them. Construct barriers to prevent them from coming on to your property.

Are there other illnesses that can be passed on by ticks?

Yes. Ticks can pass on more than just Lyme disease. These include:

Human granulocytic anaplasmosis — a disease that is often difficult to diagnose because symptoms can be non-specific. Most people experience headaches, fever, chills, myalgia and an overall sensation of not feeling well.

Human babesiosis — a malaria-like infection first identified in the U.S. on Nantucket Island in Massachusettes. Powassan encephalitis virus — a potentially deadly disease named for the Ontario town where it was first diagnosed. There have been as many as 27 cases across North America since 1958.

Tick-borne illnesses normally present themselves between June and September.

Canadian uses expertise to help New Zealand

Ontario-born Mark Quigley, 34, has been helping out with his earthquake expertise. Ever since the Christchurch earthquake struck on Tuesday, it's been almost a non-stop whirlwind for Canadian Mark Quigley, a lecturer in geomorphology and tectonics.There have been media appearances, flights to view the extensive damage, not to mention dealing with the personal wreckage the quake wreaked upon his life.

The London, Ont.-born native, now living in Christchurch, is being called on for his earthquake expertise as a lecturer at the University of Canterbury, located in a city suburb."Every aspect of my life gets raveled up in these things because we live here, because our friends are here, because my work is here and because I'm a scientist with the ability to provide lots of information," said Quigley over the phone, as he got ready for a national TV hit.

While many Canadians expressed desire to help the island country cope with the aftermath of the 6.3-magnitude quake that left more than 100 dead and more than 200 missing, Quigley has been able to use his expertise to lend a hand."I've had to make decisions that potentially affect people's lives," said Quigley. He admits that it's been "incredibly stressful," though also rewarding career-wise.When Quigley, 34, is not doing several broadcast appearances a day, he's helping assess the potential for further damage.

On Wednesday, he took part in a reconnaissance flight of Christchurch and surrounding regions to view things and document areas that might be prone to landslides. His group's findings — and the resulting recommendations of evacuations for some communities — were reported to the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management.

On Friday, he's scheduled to go out with a small team to inspect faults.Among their sightings during the flight were boulders nearly the size of cars that had bounced down hills into urban areas. One boulder ripped right through a house.All the while Quigley's also been dealing with the personal impact of the quake. His 1910 timber-framed house is safe to sleep in but has no power, no water and suffered extensive damage. "And we're not even in the worst area," he says.

While Quigley escaped his university without problems following the quake, his partner, Candice, had a far more terrifying experience.
In a sushi restaurant in the hard-hit downtown core when the quake struck, she watched through the window as buildings collapsed on the other side of the street. Patrons struggled to get out of the restaurant, but it took a while because the door had become wedged shut."I've learned …psychologically how damaging aftershocks are to people's psyche," said Quigley.
But he adds that the aftershocks can also be useful.

"These aftershocks all give us insight into what is happening, which part of the fault ruptured, how is stress being transferred through the crust, all these sorts of things."

Kudos to NEO Company of the Canadian Armed Forces

Now this is a great use of our armed forces!

By James Cudmore

About 200 Canadian troops are on constant stand-by to help evacuate Canadian citizens from foreign countries.The so-called NEO Company Group, or Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations company, is in a perpetual state of high-readiness, prepared to deploy anywhere in the world within 72 hours.The ad hoc unit is currently stationed at CFB Gagetown New Brunswick, and is centred around a company of infantry soldiers from G Company, 2nd, Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment.

In September last year, soldiers from the unit deployed to Hawaii, to participate in a mock evacuation of Canadian citizens from a hostile situation in an unnamed foreign country. Some of the soldiers training on that mission had previously participated in the very real evacuation of Canadian citizens from Haiti in 2004.
Soldiers from the NEO Company Group are trained to enter a foreign country either with or without the permission of that nation's government.

They can deploy either by land, sea or air, and work to quickly reconnoitre safe gathering-areas for Canadian citizens, before ushering them out of the country.The unit has specialist soldiers, such as engineers and communications troops, who can help evaluate air fields and ports, and communicate with ships and aircraft waiting to carry Canadian citizens to safety.Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations are also a specialty of the relatively new Canadian Special Operations Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ont.

Elite soldiers from Canada's Joint Task Force 2 special operations regiment would likely also have a role in any such operations. It's believed soldiers form that unit assisted in the rescue of Canadian citizens from Lebanon during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. According to military doctrine, the soldiers support Canadian diplomats who have the lead role in aiding Canadian abroad.
Typical military tasks for those sorts of operations include reconnaissance, establishing safe areas and bases, securing airfields and ports, searching for missing citizens, and providing security. Most evacuation operations take place with the tacit approval of the government of the nation being evacuated. In hostile environments, soldiers can be expected to use weapons to protect themselves and the Canadian citizens they're deployed to help. In some circumstances, special operations forces soldiers may also work undercover to help find missing Canadians and spirit them to safety.

Canadians who make a difference in the World

Cirque du Soleil to perform at Kremlin

Cirque du Soleil will invest $57 million in a new show to be performed in the Kremlin in Moscow. The company based in Montreal and Las Vegas is testing the market in Russia with Zarkana, a highly acrobatic show geared to a country where people love the circus.The $57 million that Cirque du Soleil will invest in the production in the Kremlin, Russia's seat of power, is the most the company has invested in a non-permanent show.

"Zarkana, for us, is a test to see if the market can bear a permanent show," president Daniel Lamarre said in a statement from Moscow."(The show) will tell me much more about the clientele in Moscow. If we have the success that I think we will have, this will definitely confirm the means for a permanent presence."Zarkana, with music arranged by Elton John, will debut at Radio City Music Hall in New York in June before beginning an engagement at the Kremlin Palace.

In the past two years, Cirque brought two large-scale touring shows to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan and sold more than 510,000 tickets. It is currently touring Russia with arena show Saltimbanco.In 2009, Cirque founder Guy Laliberté spent 10 days at the International Space Station after paying for a trip in a Soyuz space capsule.About 20 per cent of Cirque du Soleil's 1,000 artists are from Russia, which has a strong circus tradition.

Zarkana will premiere at the Kremlin Palace in February 2012 and run for nine weeks. Cirque de Soleil plans a permanent presence in Russia by 2015 and could invest an additional $30 million to $50 million.

The Acadian Expulsion

Hockey manners

Yukon First Nation adopting own justice system

The Teslin Tlingit Council in southern Yukon has signed a historic agreement to run its own justice system, allowing the self-governing First Nation to enact its own laws and set up its own court.
Teslin Tlingit Chief Peter Johnston signed the Administration of Justice Agreement with federal Indian and Northern Affairs Minister John Duncan and Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie at a ceremony Monday in Teslin."The Teslin Tlingit Council now has the legislative, executive and judicial powers over its self-government jurisdictions, enabling us to further enshrine the Tlingit way of life into everything we do," Johnston said in a release.

"We look forward to working with Canada, Yukon and our citizens to continue advancing our social, economic and constitutional visions."
Peacemaker court to be created

The agreement allows the First Nation to enact its own laws in a variety of areas, including wildlife protection, control of the First Nation's settlement land, controlling overcrowding of homes, local zoning and planning, adoption, the solemnization of marriages and wills and inheritances, according to the release.The First Nation will establish a "peacemaker court" to prosecute violations of its legislation, impose penalties and resolve disputes based on traditional Teslin Tlingit processes.
As well, the First Nation will set up its own corrections programs and services for those who receive sentences from the peacemaker court.

The Teslin Tlingit will not take over criminal law cases or matters under federal jurisdiction, such as national security, according to federal officials.

Agreement sets precedent in Yukon

Teslin is located about 150 kilometres southeast of Whitehorse, on the shores of Teslin Lake near the Yukon-British Columbia border. The Teslin Tlingit Council's traditional territory spans about 1,100 square kilometres.The Teslin Tlingit becomes the first among Yukon's 11 self-governing First Nations to sign a justice agreement with the territorial and federal governments.As part of the Umbrella Final Agreement, which was signed by the federal, Yukon and First Nation governments in 1993, the parties have committed to reaching justice agreements with each self-governing First Nation.

The Teslin Tlingit's justice system will not only apply to its own citizens — regardless of where they are in Yukon — but also to non-citizens who are visiting or residing on Teslin Tlingit traditional lands.

First Nation to have greater say

The agreement calls for startup funds of $252,000, as well as continuing implementation funding of $395,000 a year.
Tlingit elders who spoke at Monday's signing ceremony said the First Nation's younger people will have to pay much more respect to their elders and to the community, now that the First Nation will have a greater say over how people will be sentenced under the new legislation.The First Nation has already drafted legislation governing the peacemaker court and local corrections procedures. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will apply to the peacemaker court, according to federal officials.

The Teslin Tlingit Council's new legislation is expected to come into effect in the next six months.

Canada and our Black History

The first known Canadian of African descent was Matthew da Costa, a linguist and explorer, who arrived in Port Royal in 1606. He served as an interpreter between the French and the Mi'kmaq and accompanied Samuel de Champlain on his explorations.


- The practice of slavery was extensive throughout Canada during most of our nation's early history. There were nearly 300 slaves in Louisbourg during the 1740s, for example, and many of these served as domestic slaves in the households of both the middle class as well as wealthy families.

- Slaves at Louisbourg worked in a variety of skilled and unskilled trades. Female slaves, such as Marie Marguerite Rose, helped with domestic chores, including child rearing. She served the family of Jean Lippinot, an officer in the French forces, and after being their domestic slave for 18 years, eventually gained her freedom at the age of 39. Marie then married Jean Laurent, a local Mi'kmaq, and together they ran a tavern next door to the Lippinot home.

- More than 3,500 Black Loyalists came to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick at the end of the American Revolution in 1782. Although many left for Sierra Leone because of the hardships they experienced and because of the unfulfilled promises of receiving suitable land for farming, the majority of these Black Loyalists stayed in Canada. The Black Loyalists and their descendants contributed substantially to the culture, economy and history of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

- At the end of the 18th century, Birchtown, Nova Scotia, with a population of 2,500, was the largest metropolitan concentration of free blacks outside of Africa. While Birchtown is no longer an urban centre, it is the site of important ongoing archaeological and historical research.

- Thornton Blackburn came to Canada in 1833 as an escaped slave. Settling in Toronto, Blackburn would later prove to be quite the entrepreneur, creating in 1837 what became the first taxi service in Toronto, a successful business that would run for some 30 years.

- William Peyton Hubbard was Toronto's first black politician, elected as an alderman for the area now encompassing Ward 20 (Trinity-Spadina) in 1894. He was active in politics for many years, and remains Toronto's longest serving city councillor, holding the position of acting mayor in 1904.

- The civil rights movement in Canada paralleled and, in some respects, predated that of the United States. Viola Desmond was a black businesswoman who refused to sit in the balcony of a New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, theatre, but instead sat downstairs, an area designated exclusively for whites. Her action occurred nine years before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

- Nova Scotia and Ontario allowed public schools to be segregated along racial lines until the 1960s. Schools for blacks had few of the resources of other schools and, not surprisingly, the students often received less than adequate education.

- Africville was a black settlement located on the north end of Halifax along the Bedford Basin. It was founded by black refugees of the War of 1812 and it survived until the Nova Scotia government expropriated the land and relocated the residents in the mid 1960s. Today, Africville stands as a symbol of the vitality of black culture and spirit of community in the struggle for justice and equality.

Visit www.blackhistorycanada.ca for more information about African Canadian history.

Another Canadian Child Star

Wikileaks exposes Baby Smuggling investigated by RCMP

WikiLeaks: RCMP probed baby-smuggling ring


By Thane Burnett, QMI Agency



Hidden in bureaucratic language and straight facts in newly released dispatches from overseas cables leaked by WikiLeaks is a chilling story of baby snatching that may run from Egypt to Canada.
Diplomats and police agencies began to take notice of a possible illegal pipeline of kids to this continent, after one smuggling gang was busted using fraudulent papers to bring children to new homes in the U.S.
Egypt does not allow for adoptions.

The cables point out that on Sept. 17, 2009, an Egyptian judge sentenced 11 members of a baby-smuggling ring to 2-5 years in jail.

It came after a year-long investigation by Egyptian authorities.
And the leaked documents mention an RCMP investigations team “who arrived in Cairo (in July 2009) specifically to begin an investigation of the baby-smuggling network with regards to Canada.” The American diplomatic cable goes on to add that “further close co-operation with the RCMP will be important in identifying cases that may have used Canada as a means to enter the United States.”
The RCMP have so far not said publicly whether any investigation led to charges, or may be still ongoing. Calls to the RCMP Friday were not immediately returned. A spokesman for Foreign Affairs said the department doesn't comment on leaked documents.
"Furthermore, these are not Canadian documents," the spokesman said.
The depth of the human trafficking was, according to the cables, substantial and deep.
“The profile developed … with regards to the baby-smuggling network showed that the smugglers had been utilizing all available avenues to move babies to the United States,” the leaked cables report.The Canadian Embassy, the documents point out, “undertook a comprehensive review of almost 300 cases, identifying about a dozen that were suspect and subsequently referred those to (the Egyptian State Security Investigative Services).”

In some of the investigated cases, Coptic priests — according to the cables — were involved in the babies and children being taken out of Egypt. An official with the Canadian Coptic Association told one Canadian newspaper those cases were not smuggling, and involved an effort to find homes for kids living alone on Egyptian streets.

One Coptic priest involved apparently stopped an application to get an American visa at the point he was going to be fingerprinted and questioned. He then tried for, and got, a visa to come to Canada.But the leaked documents point out the Canadian embassy then cancelled his entry documents, after finding out Egyptian officials were looking for him. The cables are part of a mountain of sensitive American diplomatic cables slowly being made public by WikiLeaks.

Human Trafficking in Canada

Human Trafficking in Canada

Incendies -its point about war criminals

It is morning now and I am still thinking about INCENDIES.
There are so many great elements and lessons from this movie that I will be thinking about it for weeks.

In this blog, however, I am moved to comment on a tangental thought about Canada that was not necessarily inherent or intentional in the work- but nevertheless something that is troubling me.

Canada has a reputation for being an asylum for the worst of the war criminals. It has been rumoured throughout my lifetime that Canada was a haven for Nazi war criminals. There have always been undercurrents that our refugee programs cannot filter out the good from the bad because of the record keeping in foreign and war torn countries and that we are home to many people who committed heinous acts in their former lives in other countries. Certainly, the United States has accused us of such things. I am not sure that this is true but I do believe that we should not be blind to our own weaknesses and mistakes.

In the movie, a war lord claims to have many connections in Canada and the plot supports his claim. What makes this more troubling is that it is such a minor part of the movie- so assumed and taken for granted.

Canada is a great country and its future is assured unless we destroy ourselves through being naive.

Incendies

I just saw a movie that made me very proud to be Canadian. It is called INCENDIES and it was made in Quebec.

"A deeply affecting film, my pick for the best of 2010 — it premiered at the TIFF and Venice festivals last fall, prior to this week's strategically delayed commercial opening — it's also Canada's submission for Best Foreign-Language Film at the Academy Awards on Feb. 27.

Set in Canada and the Middle East, it's the latest from Quebec's Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique), whose journey from daring auteur into mature storyteller over the past 15 years has been wondrous to behold.
A detective story, thriller and family drama in one, Incendies is freely adapted from Lebanese-born Quebec playwright Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed stage work of the same name. The English version of the play is called Scorched.
Villeneuve says Incendies refers to an inferno that leaves “something totally destroyed, totally transformed ... destruction that you cannot change afterwards.”

I think this film does what really great art does and that is to translate and transform your world view to greater understanding not in bits and pieces but suddenly and completely.

If you can- please see it and support a profoundly great picce of Canadian art.

The Patient's association of Canada

Fact: The fourth leading cause of death in North America is an infection you get while you are in a hospital. That statistic does not include medical errors, medication mistakes or miscellanous other problems- just preventable infections. Patients certainly need advocates
The Patients' Association of Canada, which officially launches the week of Feb.14, has been established to provide a national voice for patients in public discussions about the country's health-care system and how it can be improved. President Sholom Glouberman, a longtime health care consultant and philosopher-in-residence at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto, outlines his experiences as a patient, how that led to the formation of the Patients' Association and what the group hopes to achieve. The following question-and-answer interview has been edited and condensed.

Sholom Glouberman, founder of The Patients' Association of Canada, says patients' need to help to decide what services they have or how the services are delivered. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Question: Describe your experience with the health-care system as outlined in your book "My Operation."

Answer: I had an operation to take out part of my colon because there was a polyp in it that couldn't be removed with a colonoscopy and the polyp was going to become malignant, though it wasn't malignant when they took it out. I ended up spending almost two weeks in the hospital, and the experience of being in a hospital was very, very different from what I had expected. I was much more passive and much less involved in my care than I thought I would be, and it was a very strange and very disorienting experience. And I thought that there were many parts of it that could be made better if patients were more involved in planning the services that are provided.

Question: Wasn't it actually several months of being in and out of hospital before your medical issues were rectified?
Answer: I think that there were probably consequences of the operation that lasted for several years, but the first four months were particularly bad because I had an open wound that had to be healed. So it took quite a long time.

Question: What were the problems you encountered in terms of lack of communication with hospital staff and continuity of care?

Answer: The thing that was really interesting was that people would put things into the medical record and no one else would read them. When I finally got to the record, I discovered all kinds of things that hadn't been told to me.

The other one, of course, was that the way in which the system is set up for the patient is not really to provide continuity of care for the patient. It's to make sure that all the parts of the system are arrayed correctly in order to give care — for example, how nursing is organized. I was in hospital for almost two weeks and I think that I had probably as many as 20 different nurses. I don't think people were ill-willed or anything. It's just that the patient is seen pretty much as an object and not as somebody who is a person who is there who is participating in the care.

Question: How did this experience lead to the formation of the Patients' Association of Canada?

Answer: I discovered that one of the things that wasn't told to me was that I had had my appendix taken out. That sort of got me — that while they did the [colon] operation, my appendix was taken out and no one had told me. And then later I discovered that there was some regurgitation in the valves of my heart that they hadn't told me about because their main concern was the operation. But they really do have to tell you things like that because if you have regurgitation in your heart you have to take antibiotics before you go to the dentist, for example.

I decided this is the kind of stuff where we really have to think about how one goes about communicating with patients and how one goes about making the system more responsive, and recognizing that patients do have experiences as people in hospitals and there are lots and lots of ways quite easily to make that experience better.

I got put on a hospital committee because of my objections and I realized because I've been in health care for a very long time that it wasn't of any use to be on a hospital committee if you stood alone. So I got a bunch of other people who were also quite knowledgeable about health care who had had strong large-hospital experiences and we used to meet before and after the meetings. We called ourselves the Group for the Realistic Improvement of the Patient Experience — GRIPE.

And then after a while, we decided that what we really wanted was to make sure that patients became part of the health-care system in ways in which they hadn't been before. Because everybody else decides for patients. Patients don't really get to decide what services they have or how the services are delivered.

We thought that patients should begin to have that kind of role, so we formed the organization, Patients' Association of Canada, and started to meet and think about what were the elements of the patient experience that could be improved and how to do that and how patients could begin to play a role in health care.

Question:. Is your membership Canada-wide?

Answer: There are two distinct groups of people. One group of people are experts in health care like me. Another group are people who have had a patient experience either with themselves or with their families, and sometimes both. The vast majority are from Ontario because our meetings are in Ontario, but we have membership in Quebec and in Alberta and in British Columbia as well.

We have a (Canadian Health Services Research Foundation) grant …to look at issues related to the patient voice across the country. The grant is to look at governing bodies at boards of hospitals and to see how the citizen members of the boards can help the hospitals take on more of the responsibility for governing quality and patient safety.

Question: In what way do you see health care needing to change?

Answer: There are three different levels of where we think patients can be more involved. The first one is at the clinical level, right at direct intervention with the doctor having patients feel more capable of asking the right questions and preparing them for dealing with the system in all kinds of ways.

We also think that patients have a lot to say about how services are planned. A good example of that is how people are met when they come into an emergency room. The people who meet them should really be trained to deal with the anxiety that most people have when they come into the emergency room, and that rarely happens. And so planning that service is something that patients can really be part of.

The third is at the large policy level. We think that patients do have a perspective on what policies the country should follow and various provinces should follow, so we're looking to have patients also be involved in large policy-making bodies.
Question: What are the barriers to achieving these goals?
Answer: The biggest barrier is that the entire health-care system has come into being as a result of the ways in which acute infectious diseases were treated in the 19th century. In the 19th century, most people at that time died of acute infectious diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis and cholera. And what happened as a result is that doctors became professionalized and scientific, and hospitals began to be built to deal with the acute episodes of those diseases.

The vast majority of people now don't die of those diseases. Most people die of chronic diseases. When you have an acute infectious disease, you really don't have to be part of the treatment. Doctors understand the protocols, they understand the science of it, they understand how to treat the disease. But if you have a chronic condition like heart disease or if you have diabetes, the system is not very good at dealing with it. Making a system like that change is very hard. It takes quite a lot of effort and it's going to be very slow.

Question: Do association members feel that as patients they hadn't been listened to or were not part of the solution?
Answer: I think that the big sense that you have is that there are lots of things that could be made better quite easily if the patients' voice were heard, and it's been very hard to make that voice heard. So we're promoting that voice — that the perspectives patients have on many features in the health-care system are very different to the perspectives of the people who provide the care. And there's not very much interest very often in what people experience in health care.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2011/02/15/f-patients-rights-glouberman.html#ixzz1EPTYJSzD

Canadian diamond fetches record price

78-carat rock mined in Northwest Territories sells for over $6M

CBC News

The Ekati Spirit, a 78-carat diamond mined from BHP Billiton's Ekati mine in the Northwest Territories, was auctioned for more than $6 million in Antwerp, Belgium, this week. (BHP Billiton) A huge rough diamond, billed as the most significant find in the 13-year history of Canada's Ekati mine, was auctioned off in Belgium this week for more than $6 million. The 78-carat diamond from BHP Billiton's Ekati mine in the Northwest Territories was sold in Antwerp on Monday, Valentine's Day.

The company would not disclose the buyer of the diamond, called the "Ekati Spirit." BHP Billiton invited a select group of about 70 buyers to the sale of the diamond, which was found in October 2010.
"The diamond is a breathtaking example of the stunning gem-quality diamonds produced at Ekati and potentially the most valuable stone in the mine's 13-year history," BHP said in a news release. The diamond, which measures 21 by 18 by 13 millimetres, is not the largest to come from the mine, however. Two years ago, a 182-carat diamond was found, but it lacked the clarity, carats and colour of the one sold Monday.

A pear-shaped, 10.22-carat gem from Ekati had held the Canadian record of $1.2 million at auction.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2011/02/16/consumer-ekati-diamond.html#ixzz1EJjFFYjS

A Little Canadian - Born this way

About Louis St. Laurent: Canadian Prime Minister

Fluently bilingual, with an Irish mother and a Québécois father, Louis St. Laurent was an apolitical lawyer when he went to Ottawa in 1941 to be Minister of Justice and Mackenzie King's Quebec lieutenant "temporarily" until the end of the war. St. Laurent did not retire from politics until 1958.
The post-war years were prosperous in Canada, and Louis St. Laurent expanded social programs and began many mega-projects. While the influence of Britain on Canada was gradually decreasing, the influence of the United States on Canada grew.

Prime Minister of Canada:

1948-57

Highlights as Prime Minister:

•Newfoundland joined Canada 1949
•Trans-Canada Highway Act 1949
•Canada was a founding member of NATO 1949
•Canada contributed troops to UN force in Korea 1950-53
•Canada played a role in resolving Suez Crisis 1956
•St. Lawrence Seaway started construction 1954
•introduced equalization payments to distribute federal taxes to provincial governments 1956
•introduced universal old age pensions
•provided funds for hospital insurance
•created Canada Council 1956

Birth and Death:

•Born on February 1, 1882 in Compton, Ontario
•Died on July 25, 1973 in Quebec City, Quebec

Education:

•BA - St. Charles Seminary, Sherbrooke, Quebec
•LL.L - Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec

Professional Background:

•Corporate and constitutional lawyer
•Law professor
•President of the Canadian Bar Association 1930-32
•Counsel, Rowell-Sirois Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations

Political Affiliation:
Liberal Party of Canada
Riding (Electoral District):
Quebec East

Political Career of Louis St. Laurent:

•In 1941, at the age of 59 and at the request of Mackenzie King, Louis St. Laurent agreed to be Minister of Justice until World War II was over.
•Louis St. Laurent was first elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in 1942.
•He was Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 1941 to 1946 and again in 1948, and Secretary of State for External Affairs from 1946 to 1948.
•He was elected Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 1948.
•In 1948, Louis St. Laurent was sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada.
•The Liberals won the general elections of 1949 and 1953.
•The Liberals lost the general election in 1957 and Louis St. Laurent became Leader of the Opposition. John Diefenbaker became Prime Minister.

•Louis St. Laurent resigned as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 1958.

What Emily does for love- the world's coldest Canadian

One Cold Canadian

Who is the coldest Canadian

DaVinci Robotic Surgery first in Canada

Peering into health care's crystal ball: The robot will see you now

LONDON, Ont. — Doctors here have performed a Canadian first, using a robot to help perform throat surgery without having to cut the patient open. Dr. Anthony Nichols and Dr. Kevin Fung, part of a team at the London Health Sciences Centre, used robotics to go through the mouth and throat to reach a cancerous lesion on a patient's larynx.

The medical team performed the minimally invasive laryngectomy, or removal of a small portion of the voice box, Dec. 3 on patient Gildard (Gil) Legere, 72."I feel great," said the now cancer-free resident of Sarnia, Ont., who stayed in the hospital for a week but who was able to eat chocolate pudding the following day.
Normal hospital stays after traditional, open throat surgery last about two weeks, so Legere said he didn't hesitate when offered the chance to be a guinea pig for the surgery in Canada, "They told me I had cancer and I couldn't get rid of it," said Legere, who says his wife thinks his voice is a now a little lower. "What was there to decide?"

Perhaps best of all for patients: the new surgery reduces the need for radiation or chemotherapy. In Legere's case, he would have had to undergo the taxing treatments five days a week for seven weeks.

Instead, doctors tackled the cancer from the inside.
"As a surgeon, you actually feel like you're standing inside somebody's larynx," Fung said of the high-tech procedure that features 3D and high-definition video. "So the capacity to see is unbelievable.
"We have very precise movements where we're not limited by the line of sight. We have different cameras where we can actually see around corners. We can really operate in a completely different way than we're used to."

Throat surgery is considered a four-handed operation, with one surgeon cutting and the other sitting at the patient's head, working the mouth retractor and the suctioning. The DaVinci robot provides three thin arms holding a camera and two surgical tools. A surgeon sits at a separate console looking into an eyepiece resembling binoculars. The doctor puts his or her hands into an apparatus, which then mirrors the movements of the fingers.

Even better, it can scale movements down for higher precision, reacting by, say, one centimetre for every four centimetres a surgeon moves. And it eliminates hand tremors. In some ways, it was just luck that gave Legere a chance to be a Canadian first.

Both Nichols and Fung had recently returned from a weeklong training course in September at the University of Pennsylvania, where they learned how to perform the surgery, when they met Legere.

They considered him an ideal candidate.
The advantages of the surgery, which can be offered only to patients whose mouths can open wide enough and who are otherwise suitable for surgery, are numerous: it sidesteps radiation therapy, it's cheaper, it cuts down on hospital stays, it doesn't dramatically change the sound of the voice and it doesn't leave any scarring.

The successful throat surgery is only the latest in Canadian and world firsts performed at the London Health Sciences Centre, which has used surgical robots since 1999, including for double-bypass surgery.
Dr. John Yoo, chief of head and neck surgery at LHSC, predicts more operations will be performed using robotics. Since performing the first robot-assisted throat surgery in Canada in December, the LHSC has performed another and has two more planned.

"There is an ever-increasing incidence of the kinds of cancers where robotic surgery could be applicable," Yoo said. "I think the application of the robot will increase over time." 

Embracing winter in Ottawa

Canadians learned long ago, if you cannot beat winter, join it. In Ottawa, they positively embrace it — with a smorgasbord of winter activities, including Winterlude, a three-week-long, outdoor extravaganza which celebrates life in the big chill.

Ottawa has long been overshadowed as a popular Canadian travel destination by its seemingly more glamorous neighbours, Toronto and Montreal. But recent figures from the Conference Board of Canada predict that Canada's capital city will outpace the competition in 2011. Winterlude - which attracts more than a million visitors a season - is one of Ottawa's biggest tourist draws.

The festivities kick off on 4 February with a lavish firework display outside the Canadian Museum of Civilization (www.civilization.ca/cmc/home), which also has stunning views of the Ottawa cityscape from the Quebec-side of the Ottawa River. The National Capital Commission's (NCC) Guy Laflamme, one of the festival's organizers, said the opening will be "bigger than ever" featuring "a huge cascade of pyrotechnical effects" pouring from the Alexandra Bridge into the icy river.

Post-fireworks, revellers will be able to warm up during a dance party at the museum. Too bone-chilling? The museum will offer hot chocolate, access to its exhibits, circus performances and the IMAX theatre - all for free. In fact, the museum will be offering fun-filled shelter during all of the Winterlude weekends: 4 to 6 February, 11 to 13 February and 18 to 20 February.

The beating heart of the festival, now in its 33rd year, is Ottawa's Rideau Canal, a Unesco World Heritage site which cuts an elegant swathe through the city. In winter, it freezes to become the world's largest skating rink, known as the Rideau Skateway - 8km/5 miles of unfettered, tree-lined, ice.

Getting started could not be easier. After renting skates from the Skateway kiosks (or buying second-hand ones cheaply from Ottawa sports shops), take advantage of the free skating lessons offered on the canal during Winterlude weekends.

Pierre Pierre Blais, code-named "Tin Tin", is one of a large First Aid contingent patrolling the ice. Any injuries, he said, tend to affect the wrists and the upper body, so he recommends helmets and wrist guards for those wobbly on their blades. It is answering people's questions about the Skateway - not injuries - which keeps him and his team busy, he happily added.

An army of snowploughs and maintenance engineers work 24 hours a day to ensure the ice is in tip top shape while the NCC's Ice Safety Committee monitors the ice on an hourly basis.

Once hunger strikes, festival-goers flock to booths selling Beaver Tails. And mischievous locals will try to convince you that you are about to tuck into the appendage of the large rodent with the notorious bucked-teeth.

"They'll carry the gag right up to the end!" said Grant Hooker, who has been serving Beaver Tails (www.beavertailsinc.com) at Winterlude for thirty years.

In reality, the treat is a cinnamon and sugar pastry stretched into the shape of a beaver's tail.

The bringing together of cold skaters and a tasty hot, buttered pastry was "a marriage made in heaven", Hooker said proudly.

The Beaver Tail even won the heart of United States President Barack Obama when he visited a "Beaver Hut", where he was served an aptly named "Obamatail".

Confederation Park, just opposite City Hall, will stage Winterlude's famous international ice carving competition in its "Crystal Garden". Stunning, intricate creations by world-class carvers include those from the ice city of Harbin, in China. On weekends, the park's ice-laden Rogers Crystal Lounge gives new meaning to "glittering nightlife" as it also hosts dance parties - including one that emphasises Canada's rich First Nations (aboriginal) heritage.

Back on the Quebec-side, at Jacques Cartier Park, the Snowflake Kingdom is North America's biggest snow playground, with giant snow slides, obstacle courses and horse-drawn sleigh rides.

If the festival has you thirsty for more cold weather activities, head over to Gatineau Park (Quebec-side), just 15 minutes from downtown Ottawa, which has more than 200 km of cross country ski trails - one of the biggest networks in North America. From 18 to 20 February, the park also stages the Gatineau Loppet, a three-day international cross-country ski race which plays host to 3,000 skiers from about 20 countries.

Some visitors also try their skills on the increasingly popular snowshoe trails. "If you know how to walk, you know how to snowshoe!" advised Gatineau Park spokesman, Louis-Rene Senechal. "All you have to do is grab your snowshoes, drive up to the park, step on the trails and go!"

Be on the lookout for white-tailed deer or a hare - or listen out for the hoot of an owl or the gentle persistent beat of a woodpecker. But do not worry - the bears will still be sleeping.

More information:

Winterlude guide: www.canadascapital.gc.ca/winterlude

Cluny MacPherson

Cluny MacPherson (1879 in St. John's, Newfoundland - 1966) was a medical doctor and the inventor of the gas mask. MacPherson received his medical education from Methodist College and McGill University. MacPherson started the first St. John's Ambulance Brigade after working with the St. John's Ambulance Association.

MacPherson served as the principal medical officer for the first Newfoundland Regiment of the St. John's Ambulance Brigade during World War I. MacPherson began researching methods of protection against the poison gas and invented the MacPherson respirator (gas mask) in 1915, which was the first general issue gas countermeasure to be used by the British Army.

After suffering a war injury, MacPherson returned to Newfoundland to serve as the director of the military medical service and later served as the president of the St. John's Clinical Society and the Newfoundland Medical Association. MacPherson was awarded many honors for his contributions to medical science.

Happy Valentine's Day Canadians!

Artificial intelligence scientist gets $1M prize

Geoffrey Hinton's research has led to 'major advances' in artificial intelligence that can be applied to monitoring industrial plants for improved safety, creating better systems for voice recognition and reading bank cheques, a government news release said. A scientist who studies ways to help machines learn like humans has received Canada's top science and engineering prize.

Geoffrey Hinton, a computer science professor at the University of Toronto, has been awarded the 2011 Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, the federal government announced Monday morning in Ottawa.The award named after Gerhard Herzberg, who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, includes a $1-million research grant over the next five years.

Hinton's research is focused on understanding how collections of brain cells called neural networks can learn by changing their interactions with one another."Really the payoff so far has been [that] in trying to understand the brain, we've come up lots of ways in which these systems can learn," he said in an interview posted on Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's website.
The research has generated sets of instructions called algorithms that can be used to help computers learn to recognize spoken words, automatically read bank cheques and monitor industrial plants for improved safety.

"The payoff has been technological…but the main goal is to understand how the brain does it and we still haven't solved that one."

Industry Minister Tony Clement and Suzanne Fortier, president of NSERC, also announced the winners of several other prizes Monday including:

•McGill University astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi, who received the $250,000 NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, given to a scientist whose research has led to a "a recent outstanding advance." Kaspi and her research team study neutron stars, very dense objects that may be formed by the collapse of a supernova, a star explosion. In the process, they have tested and strengthened the validity of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity; found missing links between two classes of dense stellar objects called pulsars and magentars; and found that fastest-rotating neutron star ever.

•Electrical engineer Guy Dumont and anesthesiologist Mark Ansermino, both from the University of British Columbia, who received a $250,000 Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering. Their team has been working on intelligent devices and systems that help anesthesiologists monitor patients' vital signs during operations. The devices and systems have already been tested in hospital clinical trials.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011/02/14/science-herzberg-hinton-artificial-intelligence.html#ixzz1DyDLGMuG

New heart pump could cut stroke risk

A Quebec woman is the first Canadian to test a new heart pump that is expected to significantly reduce the risk of stroke, making her Valentine's Day especially sweet.In December, doctors at McGill University Health Centre installed a C-Pulse cuff on 54-year-old Lauza Legere's aorta to pump oxygen through her body.
The cuff moves blood by rhythmically squeezing her aorta, something Legere's body wasn't doing properly since her August heart attack. Dr. Renzo Cecere of McGill University Health Centre in Montreal implants a C-Pulse heart pump in Lauza Legere at the Royal Victoria Hospital on Dec. 21, 2010. Heart pumps are often temporarily implanted inside the aorta, the body's largest artery, but the C-Pulse is placed outside. The cuff then inflates and deflates with each heartbeat.

"I feel much better than before," Legere said in a telephone interview, explaining that before she got the pump it was hard to even take a breath. "I stopped every two or three words because I was out of breath. I wasn't able to walk. With the pump, it helps my heart to get the oxygen that I wasn't able to have."
The C-Pulse cuff offers many advantages over traditional heart pumps. There is no need to make incisions into the heart or any major blood vessels during the implantation of the device, which is run by an external battery and mini-computer. Both are worn on the outside of the body.
Patients also don't need to take anti-clotting medications after surgery to reduce the risk of stroke. That's largely because the pump has no contact with the patient's blood, eliminating the risk of clotting within the pump.
In addition, the device can be stopped and disconnected for a short period so the patient can take a shower or go for a brief swim. MUHC's Dr. Renzo Cecere, who performed the surgery, says Legere is the first person in Canada to get the device, which reduces blood clots that can cause strokes.
He is conducting trials on the pump and hopes to implant 12 devices in the next 18 months."We believe that a device like this is able to improve the blood flow at the level of the muscle of the heart, thereby improving the squeezing function, the pumping function of the heart," said Cecere, director of the Mechanical Heart Assist Program and surgical director of the MUHC's transplant program.
Cecere said there are likely thousands of patients who could benefit from the pump."This would be an effective therapy as a so-called bridge to transplant. Alternatively, some patients would receive this as what we call destination therapy — this is their last and only option," he said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2011/02/14/health-heart-pump-quebec-lauza-legere.html#ixzz1DyC8652z

Quebec Inuit teens survive 4 days lost in tundra

Friends separated after losing their way hunting for polar bears

A 15-year-old Inuit boy is recovering in a Montreal hospital and risks losing some of his toes from frostbite after he and a friend were lost on the tundra in northern Quebec for four days. Isajah Nastapoka, who goes by the name of Wille, and 17-year-old Kasudluak Kasudluak, who was found in good shape, were separated while hunting for polar bears earlier this month near their village of Inukjuak.

They had few supplies, and it was –35 C. Nastapoka and Kasudluak left Inukjuak on a snowmobile, but got lost. They travelled 30 kilometres before the snowmobile ran out of gas. They had no food or water, and the temperature plummeted as night fell.

Nastapoka's mother, Martha, said she telephoned for help. "I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. I was worried. Scared … you can freeze easily your hands and feet, and nose and ears in a matter of minutes if you're exposed to the wind," she said.
Dr. François Provost, who works at the Inukjuak dispensary and co-ordinated the search, said he kept in radio contact as local Inuit rangers fanned out on snowmobiles."After three days, I have to say my worries for them were very high. I thought maybe the cold had taken them. The chances to survive in those situations are extremely low," said Provost. But a bush pilot spotted their abandoned snowmobile and searchers followed the tracks. They found the boys had tried to walk to find help and became separated. Provost soon heard an excited voice on the radio."The team was always talking to each other, and then suddenly we hear that voice, saying, 'We found them, we found one!'" said Provost.

When they found Nastapoka four days after he went missing, he had walked 80 kilometres south.
Suffering from hypothermia, he had taken off his jacket and was lying down in a hole he had dug in the snow.
Nastapoka was flown to a hospital, where he saw his mother, who was overcome with emotion. "I was crying, sobbing and thanking everyone, and thanking God … I couldn't talk. I was too happy, we were all crying and screaming, and thanking every one," she said.

Kasudluak was later found still walking, having faced his own ordeal. He said at one point, he fought off a pack of wolves, shooting one. The hole Wille Nastapoka had dug himself in the snow to hide from the wind. Nastapoka was airlifted to Montreal, where doctors are trying to save as much as they can of his blackened, frostbitten toes. The soft-spoken teen had little to say about his ordeal, but remembered how it felt.
"Scared, a little bit," he said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2011/02/14/inuit-quebec-wilderness-survival.html#ixzz1DxyuSHjc

Toronto as a world map

Maple syrup and Mounties? You will find them in Toronto, but you may have better luck sniffing out kimchi, Polish sausages and obscure Italian opera recordings. Half of this city’s population was born outside of Canada, and with more than 140 languages and dialects spoken, it is one of the most multicultural cities on the planet.

Beyond the typically North American downtown core lies a vibrant patchwork of diverse neighbourhoods, each faithfully importing a microcosm of the old world. Korea, Poland, Greece, Italy, China and India are heavily represented. There is even a Malta Village (and you thought the original Malta was tiny).

The beauty is that you can easily span the globe - or a decent portion of it - within a couple of days.

Here is a glance at the big four neighbourhoods:

Gerrard India Bazaar (Gerrard Street between Greenwood and Coxwell; www.gerrardindiabazaar.com)

It is nasal bombardment, in a good way: wafts of curry drift in the breeze, cinnamon sings on the sidewalk and many shop owners keep a stick of incense perpetually burning.

With all those flirtatious aromas flitting about, a thorough feeding is both encouraged and inevitable. In addition to both northern and southern India, delicacies from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are handy, as are restaurants catering to halal diets and vegetarians.

On the cheaper side, street vendors push two items: grilled corn rubbed with lime and spices, and Kashmiri tea, a creamy pink concoction sprinkled with crushed pistachios.

Window browsing may yield simultaneous shopping therapy and colour therapy, as sari-clad mannequins strike sassy poses and endless rows of brightly-hued bangles wink at buyers.

Both the food and the fashion whoop it up at Diwali, the annual festival of lights, which takes place from 6 - 7 November, 2010 (www.gerrardindiafestivals.com).

Little Italy (College Street between Bathurst and Shaw; www.littleitalyintoronto.ca)

Plain old streetlights simply would not do. Little Italy marks its territory with boot-shaped lights attached to each lamppost.

It is no wonder that pride is abundant in these parts: after World War II a wave of immigration graced Toronto with the largest Italian population outside of Italy. By day, dapper older gentlemen stroll along the Italian Walk of Fame, treading on plaques dedicated to Dean Martin, Connie Francis and friends. Hushed conversations are had on street corners. Espressos are sipped. "Italia"-emblazoned onesies are bought.

But - the lights were a hint - Little Italy is a night owl at heart, especially in summer. After dark, throngs of slick partygoers hit the area's overflowing outdoor patios to sip martinis, nibble on pizza and whisper "amore" while spoon feeding each other gelato from a Colosseum-sized bowl - or was that "no more?"

Chinatown (Spadina Avenue, between Queen and College)

There are, in fact, six Chinatowns throughout Toronto but this, the downtown version, is the linchpin.

Densely populated by shops whose wares spill onto the street for perusal by bumper-to-bumper pedestrian traffic, Chinatown is a magnet for bargain-seekers. Ten dollar haircuts, discounted long-distance phone cards and dirt-cheap T-shirts are frequently used as bait. Meanwhile, prices for fruit and veggies (including flamboyant produce like Sweet Dragon Fruit and Fuzzy Squash) are unrivalled in western grocery stores.

Like the India Bazaar, Chinatown has grown to encompass far more communities than its namesake. Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese restaurants now happily reside beside established dim sum joints and dumpling houses.

Greektown on the Danforth (Danforth Avenue between Broadview and Jones; www.greektowntoronto.com)

Akropolis, Athens, Zorba, Athena, Omonia: the businesses on "the Danforth" have no qualms about trotting out the most clichéd Greek terms.

Greek retail shops are few and far between nowadays, but the Danforth's gastronomic forte still leans toward moussaka. Large, airy restaurants dominate - edifices that could accommodate the whole family or even a big fat wedding.

The neighbourhood basks in the limelight every August during Taste of the Danforth - a boisterous street party rife with souvlaki and bouzouki music.

What is a kirpan?

A kirpan is a small sword, worn in a sheath on a belt or strap. The word kirpan comes from two words which translate as mercy and bless. The kirpan is supposed to be a weapon of defence only.
Giani Atma Singh Aziz holds kirpans prior to a news conference by Swiss knife maker Victorinox in New Delhi Sept. 1, 2004. The company launched a series of Kirpans in India to mark the 400th anniversary of the installation of the Granth Sahib, Sikhism's holy scripture, at the Golden Temple. (B. Mathur/Reuters)

It is usually worn under clothes. The blade is typically about 8 cm long, but ceremonial kirpans are the length of a standard sword. The kirpan is one of the five Ks of Sikhism.

What are the five Ks?

They are articles of faith that an initiated Sikh is supposed to wear at all times. There are no exceptions.
The five 'kakar' all begin with the letter 'k,' hence the name:

•kes: uncut hair

•kanga: a wooden comb worn in the hair

•kara: a metal bangle or bracelet worn on the wrist

•kachhera: loose, long underwear, about knee-length

•kirpan

Which Sikhs wear a kirpan?

Sikh women hold ceremonial kirpans during a religious procession in the northern Indian city of Allahbad, Nov. 13, 2005. Both female and male Sikhs may be initiated, and then required by their faith to wear a kirpan. (Jitendra Prakash/Reuters)

The Sikh faith stipulates that from the time of baptism or initiation, Sikhs, male and female, must wear a kirpan and the other four Ks. They are known as Khalsa Sikhs and comprise an estimated 25 to 30 percent of all Sikhs in Canada, Gian Singh Sandhu, the founding president of the World Sikh Organization of Canada, told CBC News.

A Sikh may become a khalsa at any age.
What is the khalsa?

In the Sikh faith the khalsa is the army of God. It is not a conquering army, nor does the khalsa only defend Sikhs. The khalsa is required to defend any victims of aggression or injustice.Sikh youth light oil lamps inside the complex of the holy Sikh shrine of the Golden Temple to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, in Amritsar, India Jan. 11. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, declared wearing a kirpan a commitment of faith in 1699. (Munish Sharma/Reuters)

What are the origins of the requirement to carry a kirpan?

The requirement dates to 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, declared that every Khalsa Sikh must wear the five Ks to symbolise their commitment to their faith.
That was a time of Mughal conquest and conversion to Islam in south Asia.

Can Sikhs change the requirement to wear a kirpan?

Montreal teenager Gurbaj Singh Multani displays his kirpan in Ottawa March 2, 2006 after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 8-0 that a total ban of the kirpan in schools violates the Charter of Rights because it infringes on the Charter's guarantees of religious freedom. In 2001 Multani was barred from wearing his ceremonial dagger to school. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

No. Guru Gobind Singh was the last human guru and he declared the Sikh holy book, the Granth Sahib, the next guru, thereby ruling out any change.

What happens if a kirpan is used as an offensive weapon?

According to Gian Singh Sandhu, someone who misuses a kirpan would be ostracized and "looked down upon."
"The community doesn't take it lightly," he added. And of course there may be criminal charges as well, depending on the circumstances and applicable laws.
How many stories since 1940 did a search of the Facts on File World News Digest for the term 'kirpan' find?

One. The story, from 2006, is about the Supreme Court of Canada's 8-0 decision that, "a Montreal school board's prohibition on Sikh ceremonial daggers in schools abridged the freedoms of orthodox followers of the religion."

CBC News has a detailed timeline on that case.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/02/10/f-kirpan-faq.html#ixzz1Dg3BqBjs

Top court upholds secret evidence law

In ruling stemming from Toronto 18 trial, court says security concerns may let accused walk free
CBC News

Allowing an accused criminal to walk free is a "lesser evil" than disclosing top-secret national security information, the Supreme Court of Canada held Thursday in a ruling stemming from a high-profile terrorism case.

The court was asked to decide whether portions of the Canada Evidence Act, which give the Federal Court — and not the trial judge — authority to decide what material can be withheld if national security is at stake, are constitutional.In upholding the law, the court said Thursday the provisions sometimes force the choice between protecting national security and prosecuting crimes. Even though withholding information could harm a person's right to a fair trial, the law allows that in some situations the appropriate remedy would be stopping the prosecution all together, the court said.
"If the end result of non-disclosure by the Crown is that a fair trial cannot be had, then Parliament has determined that in the circumstances a stay of proceedings is the lesser evil compared with the disclosure of sensitive or potentially injurious information," the court said in its ruling.

Toronto 18 terror case

The issue arose in the terrorism case known as the Toronto 18, when Ontario Superior Court Justice Fletcher Dawson struck down provisions of the Canada Evidence Act.
Prosecutors in the case — as is common in terrorism cases — argued that disclosing certain information to the defence could hurt national security.

Dawson struck down portions of the act that gave the Federal Court power to determine privilege because he said they interfered with the Superior Court's jurisdiction to apply the constitution.
The Supreme Court acknowledged the legislation deprives judges of the ability to order the disclosure or even their own inspection of material that is withheld on national security grounds.
But it said there are other remedies available to the judge to protect an accused's right to a fair trial, such as a stay of the entire proceeding.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/02/10/bc-scoc-secret-evidence.html#ixzz1Da1naP6u

Métis land claim appeal reaches top court

The Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal involving a massive Métis land claim.
The high court has granted the Manitoba Métis Federation leave to appeal lower court rulings that struck down a claim potentially worth billions of dollars.

The federation says the Métis were cheated out of land, including present-day Winnipeg, promised to them after Manitoba joined Confederation in 1870. Some 5,600 square kilometres of land was distributed, but the Métis say the process took too long, some prime land was gobbled up by settlers and Métis were pressured to sell their land after receiving it.

Lower courts have ruled that the Métis lawsuit was filed too long after the land transaction, and have rejected the idea that the federal government failed to live up to its side of the agreement.Federation president David Chartrand says the group doesn't want land now, but instead seeks compensation that could total billions of dollars.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/02/10/scoc-metis-appeal.html#ixzz1Da1D7Z9k

Making sense of the TMX-LSE merger

by Don Pittis

So, what is Canada giving up if we sell — sorry, "merge" — our stock markets with the London Stock Exchange? I would say a lot of people, including people in the business, have no idea. But to many other Canadians, as I have discovered in the wake of this deal, the implications of the merger of the TMX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Toronto Venture Exchange, and the LSE are even more confusing.

Let's tackle the simple issues first. Stock markets involve people standing in a room shouting at each other, right? Wrong. With a few rare exceptions, stock exchanges are as virtual as a game of Star Craft II. It always surprises me how many otherwise well-informed people (including young TV producers trying to illustrate "stock exchange" in a news story) think differently. Not only are stock markets now completely inside computers; they have gone through a second transition that is more important to this week's deal: stock exchanges have become themselves publicly traded companies.

The facade of the former Toronto Stock Exchange building on Bay Street. Stock markets are no longer the brick-and-mortar institutions of old. (Chris Young/Canadian Press) These two changes, virtualization and corporatization, have created a great gap in the way Canadians understand the takeover, whoops, "merger," of all our biggest stock exchanges in the multi-billion-dollar deal announced on Wednesday (which still needs government approval).

There are two diametrically opposed ways of viewing exactly what markets and marketplaces are.

To most Canadians — those only distantly connected to the world of finance — a market is a physical place where we go to buy and sell physical things. For those people, markets are real, not virtual. They are local institutions owned by the community.  The best parallel might be a weekly farmers market, where real people bring products they have grown or made and others come to buy them. A farmers market has a single location so people can find it. It is run by a group of local Canadians, which we might call the Farmers Representative Council. The council decides on a membership fee or charge to use the market stalls. The FRC also decides on opening hours and various rules like whether or not dogs are allowed in the market.

This is very much how financial exchanges used to run as well. And when the Toronto Stock Exchange began life in the mid-1800s this was the way it operated.

But not any more.

Markets are money

The year 1997 was when the Toronto Stock Exchange went virtual. Only three years later, it transformed into a for-profit company. Nowadays, the TSX, like many other big stock markets, is no different from other publicly traded companies. And this the basis for the other completely opposite way of looking at a marketplace the way the financial world views it. From this financially sophisticated perspective, it is as if the Farmers Representative Council had been sold to a group of unknown strangers. According to the calculus of public companies, it doesn't really matter who owns the market. The owners don't have to be local, and they don't have to be Canadians. The only thing that matters is that a single share is worth a price, and anyone who wants to offer a little more than the going rate can buy it. When it is time to make rules or decisions, every share gets a vote.

Location is also now out the window. From previous takeover deals, we've already found out it doesn't really matter where companies like Stelco or Inco or Potash keep their head offices. In the case of stock markets, it is even less important than in the case of businesses with factories and mines. With stock markets, virtual trades can be made from any computer almost anywhere.

Other physical aspects of stock markets are gone, too. Stock certificates, for example, have become virtual, largely replaced by bits and bytes on computers. Xavier Rolet, CEO of the London Stock Exchange, and Thomas Kloet, CEO of TMX Group, are smiling, but most Canadians don't really understand what the proposed merger of their respective institutions means in this day of virtual stock markets. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

So, now that we see the two ways of looking at Canada's markets, we come back to the real question: what difference does it make to Canadians who owns them? What we discover is that it depends which group you ask. If you ask many Canadians, they will say, "We don't want Toronto, Montreal and Calgary to lose their markets. We don't want foreigners to buy up and control our local institutions."

If, on the other hand, you ask financial specialists, their answer will be clear: "It is not up to Canadians to decide who owns our markets. It's up to the people who own the shares." Here, we are seeing the exact same divide and the same difference of opinion that occurred over the sale of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. As Canadians, we feel like we own the Toronto, Montreal and Calgary stock markets. But is that feeling virtual or real?

And we are seeing the same hard questions as in the Potash case: are corporations institutions, or are they private possessions? In my opinion, it is clearly in the interest of Canadians to control and retain the head offices of important companies within Canada. As I said before in the case of Potash, keeping brick-and-mortar head offices at home creates spin-offs — from legal work to the sale of hot lunches — that make the Canadian economy strong.
In the case of the TMX-LSE merger, there are other reasons to be concerned. If provincial governments think a single Canadian regulator will shrink their influence and power, just wait until the really import decisions are being made by the London-based Financial Services Authority. Bleating from provincial capitals will sound like peeps to them.

But here is the hard part: we may want to keep the company, but it is not ours to keep. How do we decide when it is right and fair to treat someone else's private property as our own institution?
If only the government had made it clear exactly why it turned down the Potash purchase! Then, we could examine the criteria for demonstrating that the Potash sale was not a "net benefit" to Canada and see if they apply this time. But despite many requests from those of us paid to ask those questions, the government never answered.

It well may be that the real and unspoken reason the Potash deal failed was because it was politically unpopular. The Conservatives did not want to be seen as "the party that sold out Canada." If that is the case, the only answer is to ignore the experts and listen to ordinary Canadians.

So, if you are planning to make a noise, now is the time. London may not hear you.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2011/02/09/f-vp-pittis-tmx-lse-merger.html#ixzz1DZwC63fd

Lonely Planet's top 10 Canadian adventures

No matter your ability, no matter your taste, Canada has an adventure tailored to you, in accessible locations. From rank beginner to seasoned veteran you can find your thrills on the edge of, and sometimes within, city limits.

1. Ski Whistler

One of North America's best ski resorts, perhaps best in the world, Whistler-Blackcomb - the principal venue for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games - contains nearly 200 longer-than-average marked trails and the highest vertical drop (1,609m) of any ski field on the continent. Wander round the back of Blackcomb to Ruby Bowl and it gets even better. It has Whistler-Blackcomb's best powder, falling in continuous steeps for more than 600m.

2. Killer whale watching

When salmon spawns in full swim along Canada's west coast during August, a host of creatures follow hungrily behind, including pods of orcas. Whale-watching boats tail along viewing these beautiful animals, but the most intimate way to watch the so-called killer whales is from a kayak. The 250 resident killer whales cruise about picking off salmon as they head for the Fraser River near Vancouver. Orca downtime is spent rubbing bellies against the pebbly beach in Robson Bight, the only spot in the world where they are known to do this. Along the way you might also see Steller sea lions, Dall's porpoises, bald eagles and perhaps even a minke whale, before you bed down to the sound of orcas swimming and surfacing past your tent. And, fear not, resident killer whales eat only fish.

3. Storm watch on Vancouver Island

Each winter, Vancouver Island's west coast becomes a front-row seat to the most spectacular storms on the North American west coast. With nothing but the Pacific Ocean between the island and Japan, these well-travelled storms - driven here by a persistent low-pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska - roar ashore, bringing high winds and waves that hit pack a punch. Wander the beaches to experience the storms' full fury, follow the aptly named Wild Pacific Trail for a cliff-top view, take a storm-watching tour from the town of Tofino or simply observe the action from the windows of your hotel room.

4. The Trans Canada trail

You would need at least a couple of years to hike the entire Trans Canada Trail which is well on its way to becoming the world's longest recreational path. Beginning at North America's most easterly point, the completed length is around 21,500km, half as long as the earth is round. If you walk at a decent clip of about 30km a day it will take almost exactly two years to finish. If you are in a hurry, grab a bike or horse for this multi-use path.

5. Raft the Shubenacadie tidal bore

The Bay of Fundy gets the world's highest tides, rising up to 15m daily. As a result of these extreme tides, a tidal wave or bore flows up the feeder rivers when high tide comes in. At the mouth of the Shubenacadie River in Nova Scotia this has led to the creation of tidalbore rafting trips, with powered Zodiacs riding the collision of water as the river's outflow meets the blasting force of the incoming Fundy tides. Wave heights are dependent on the phase of the moon, and will dictate whether your experience is mild or wild. Be prepared to get very wet.

6. River canoeing/kayaking

Nahanni National Park Reserve, Canada's first World Heritage-listed site, is a wild place that embraces its namesake, the epic South Nahanni River. Untamed and pure-blooded, the river tumbles more than 500km through the jagged Mackenzie Mountains, including a 125m drop over 200m-wide Virginia Falls. Paddling trips on the South Nahanni begin where planes can land, and for 188kms the river meanders placidly through broad valleys, and another 252km to Blackstone Territorial Park, first through steep-sided, turbulent canyons and then along the broad Liard River. Moose, wolves, grizzly bear, Dall sheep and mountain goats patrol the landscape.

7. Polar bears in Churchill

Churchill is on the bears' migration route between winters spent hunting on the frozen bay and summers spent on land, and through October they pass by this Manitoba town. You can take day tours in purpose-built buggies, or you can stay in transportable "tundra lodges". Where you hope not to see a polar bear is in town itself. Local authorities maintain a 24-hour vigil from September to November, with gunshots fired at night to shoo away any town-bound bears. Nuisance makers and repeat offenders are taken to cinderblock cells of an old military base, aka "Polar Bear Jail", until winter.

8. Red-sided garter snakes

At the Narcisse Snake Dens the ground will be covered with thousands of snakes, awakened from hibernation by the warming air. The males emerge all together from deep cracks in the bedrock, where they have been sleeping in wriggling masses safely hidden from Canada's frosty winter fingers. Once peak numbers are on the surface in early May, females emerge one by one over the course of several weeks, triggering frantic "mating balls" where 100 males at a time furiously weave around any receptive female they find.

9. Wired for fun in Whistler

Stepping out into thin air 70m above the forest floor might seem like a normal activity for a cartoon character, but ziplining turns out to be one of the best ways to encounter the Whistler wilderness. Attached via a body harness to the cable you are about to slide down, you soon overcome your fear of flying solo. By the end of your time in the trees you will be turning midair summersaults and whooping like a banshee. The 10-line course is strung between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains and operates in both winter and summer seasons. Another course runs a gentle web of walkways and suspension bridges for those who prefer to keep their feet on something a little more solid.

10. Toronto's pillow fighting league

With a stable of female fighters and a rising profile it will not be long before more people hear the cries of Boozy Suzy, Olivia Neutron Bomb, Carmen Monoxide and Eiffel Power. There are 22 registered fighters and these everyday ladies come from all walks of life to don costumes, masks and new personas before tearing each other apart with pillows in the ring. Home to the Pillow Fight League, Toronto walks the line between American cultural osmosis and staunch northern independence. Torontonians embrace both worlds with verve and open-mindedness: enlightened, multicultural and uniquely Canadian.