The man accused of plowing a rental van into pedestrians on a crowded Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 people in <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/canada-10-dead-15-injured-after-van-ploughs-into-crowd-on-toronto-sidewalk-132406">Canada's deadliest mass killing</a> in decades, left a "cryptic message" on social media before his attack, police said on Tuesday.

Suspect Alek Minassian, 25, was charged with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder in the incident.

One possible clue to his motive emerged on Tuesday as Facebook confirmed Minassian wrote a post before the incident that referenced an "incel rebellion." The term is shorthand used in some online message boards for "involuntary celibacy", a loose social media movement of men who blame women for their celibacy.

Canadian authorities have declined to say whether anger toward women had motivated the attack.

The post also voiced admiration for a man who killed six college students before taking his own life in California in 2014 and who cited the "cruelness of women" for his virgin status.

"The accused is alleged to have posted a cryptic message on Facebook minutes before" the attack, Graham Gibson, a Toronto police detective sergeant, told a news conference. The majority of the victims were women, ranging in age from their mid-20s to early 80s, Gibson said.

He said the question of whether the attack was driven by anger against women was "going to be part of our investigation."

Facebook has since deleted Minassian's account, a representative said. "There is absolutely no place on our platform for people who commit such horrendous acts," she said in an email.

Minassian kept his shaved head down during a brief court appearance in Canada's largest city, speaking quietly with a defence lawyer and stating his name in a steady voice when asked to do so.

The incident had the hallmarks of deadly vehicle assaults by Islamic State supporters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was no reason to suspect any national security connection.

Trudeau called on all Canadians to stand united with Toronto as flowers and scrawled messages in multiple languages piled up at a makeshift memorial in the city's north end, an ethnically diverse neighbourhood of towering office buildings, shops, restaurants and homes.

"We cannot as Canadians choose to live in fear every single day as we go about our daily business," Trudeau told reporters outside of parliament in Ottawa.

The prime minister said the incident had not changed the country's threat level or security preparations for a G7 summit in Quebec in June.

Minassian had briefly served in Canada's armed forces in late 2017 but asked to be voluntarily released after 16 days of training, defence ministry spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said.

The suspect's two-story red-brick home in a suburb north of Toronto was a crime scene Tuesday, taped off and surrounded by police vehicles. Officers went in and out of the house.

SOUTH KOREANS AMONG VICTIMS

Details about the dead began to emerge on Tuesday, with a South Korean foreign ministry representative saying that two of that country's citizens were killed and one injured in the attack. The representative spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

A Jordanian citizen was also killed, said an official at the country's embassy in Ottawa.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp identified one of the victims as Anne Marie D'Amico, an employee of asset manager Invesco Canada. In a statement, Invesco confirmed that one of its employees had been killed but did not name her.

It could be days before all the victims are publicly identified, said Ontario Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer said, adding that the extent of their injuries was making some identities difficult to determine.

"It ranges from scrapes and bruises to terrible injuries that I won't get into discussing here," Gibson added.

The attack shook the usually peaceful streets of Toronto, which recorded 61 murders last year.

The drama started at lunchtime on a warm spring day, when the driver drove his vehicle into the crowds. The street was soon covered in blood, empty shoes and bodies.

Last October, eight people died in New York when a man driving a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists on a bike path. The Islamic State militant group encourages its supporters to use vehicles for attacks.

Alek Minassian, the suspect, wrote a Facebook post before the attack that referenced an 'incel rebellion'. The term is shorthand for 'involuntary celibacy', a loose social media movement of men who blame women for their celibacy

The man accused of plowing a rental van into pedestrians on a crowded Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 people in Canada's deadliest mass killing in decades, left a "cryptic message" on social media before his attack, police said on Tuesday. Suspect Alek Minassian, 25, was charged with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder in the incident. One possible clue to his motive emerged on Tuesday as Facebook confirmed Minassian wrote a post before the incident that referenced an "incel rebellion." The term is shorthand used in some online message boards for "involuntary celibacy", a loose social media movement of men who blame women for their celibacy. Canadian authorities have declined to say whether anger toward women had motivated the attack. The post also voiced admiration for a man who killed six college students before taking his own life in California in 2014 and who cited the "cruelness of women" for his virgin status. "The accused is alleged to have posted a cryptic message on Facebook minutes before" the attack, Graham Gibson, a Toronto police detective sergeant, told a news conference. The majority of the victims were women, ranging in age from their mid-20s to early 80s, Gibson said. He said the question of whether the attack was driven by anger against women was "going to be part of our investigation." Facebook has since deleted Minassian's account, a representative said. "There is absolutely no place on our platform for people who commit such horrendous acts," she said in an email. Minassian kept his shaved head down during a brief court appearance in Canada's largest city, speaking quietly with a defence lawyer and stating his name in a steady voice when asked to do so. The incident had the hallmarks of deadly vehicle assaults by Islamic State supporters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was no reason to suspect any national security connection. Trudeau called on all Canadians to stand united with Toronto as flowers and scrawled messages in multiple languages piled up at a makeshift memorial in the city's north end, an ethnically diverse neighbourhood of towering office buildings, shops, restaurants and homes. "We cannot as Canadians choose to live in fear every single day as we go about our daily business," Trudeau told reporters outside of parliament in Ottawa. The prime minister said the incident had not changed the country's threat level or security preparations for a G7 summit in Quebec in June. Minassian had briefly served in Canada's armed forces in late 2017 but asked to be voluntarily released after 16 days of training, defence ministry spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said. The suspect's two-story red-brick home in a suburb north of Toronto was a crime scene Tuesday, taped off and surrounded by police vehicles. Officers went in and out of the house. SOUTH KOREANS AMONG VICTIMS Details about the dead began to emerge on Tuesday, with a South Korean foreign ministry representative saying that two of that country's citizens were killed and one injured in the attack. The representative spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. A Jordanian citizen was also killed, said an official at the country's embassy in Ottawa. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp identified one of the victims as Anne Marie D'Amico, an employee of asset manager Invesco Canada. In a statement, Invesco confirmed that one of its employees had been killed but did not name her. It could be days before all the victims are publicly identified, said Ontario Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer said, adding that the extent of their injuries was making some identities difficult to determine. "It ranges from scrapes and bruises to terrible injuries that I won't get into discussing here," Gibson added. The attack shook the usually peaceful streets of Toronto, which recorded 61 murders last year. The drama started at lunchtime on a warm spring day, when the driver drove his vehicle into the crowds. The street was soon covered in blood, empty shoes and bodies. Last October, eight people died in New York when a man driving a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists on a bike path. The Islamic State militant group encourages its supporters to use vehicles for attacks.

Anger against women reason for Toronto van attack? 

A driver ploughed his white Ryder rental van into a crowd in Toronto on Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 along a roughly mile-long (1.6-km) stretch of sidewalk thronged with lunch-hour pedestrians, police said.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) identified the suspect as Alek Minassian, 25, without identifying its source for that information. Citing government officials, it said Minassian was not associated with any organised militant group.

Officials declined to answer questions about what motivated the driver to steer his vehicle toward people just before 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) in the northern section of Canada's biggest city. They said the driver was in custody and officials stopped short of calling it a deliberate act.

But at least one witness described the driver as appearing to deliberately target victims, according to media reports.

"This is going to be a long investigation," Toronto Deputy Chief Peter Yuen told reporters after disclosing the death toll.

"The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point," Canada's public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, told a news conference.

"The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved," Goodale said.

A Reuters witness saw at least two tarp-covered bodies at the site of the incident. Five people remained in critical condition at Sunnybrook Health Services Centre on Monday afternoon, the hospital said.

The CBC aired a video it said was shot by a bystander that showed police arresting a suspect at the scene as he shouted: "Kill me" and pointed an unidentified object at an officer. The video later showed what appeared to be the same man lying on the floor, being handcuffed.

Ryder System Inc spokeswoman Claudia Panfil confirmed that one of the company's rental vehicles had been involved and said the company was cooperating with authorities.

There has been a string of deadly vehicle attacks in the United States and Europe, including an Oct. 31 attack in New York that killed eight. The Islamic State militant group encourages its supporters to use vehicles for attacks.

'IT'S UNPRECEDENTED'

The incident was one of the most violent in recent Canadian history.

A former Canadian university student pleaded guilty last month to killing six men praying in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017.

In September, a Somali refugee was charged with attempted murder over allegations he ran down four pedestrians with a car and stabbed a police officer outside a sports stadium in Edmonton, Alberta.

"It's unprecedented," said John Flengas, acting superintendent of Toronto's paramedic services. We've never seen anything like this in the city of Toronto."

The incident occurred about 30 km (18 miles) from the site where Toronto is hosting a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers from Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, but had no noticeable effect on that event's security.

A man who gave his name as Ali told CNN he saw the van and that the driver appeared to have been targeting people.

"This person was intentionally doing this, he was killing everybody," the man said. "He kept going, he kept going. People were getting hit, one after another."

He said a number of the victims were older people and that he saw at one point a stroller fly into the air.

At least one person was struck outside an Anglican church, north of where the van came to rest in front of a condominium tower.

Some of the victims were struck in a public square popular with office workers on lunch breaks. Aerial photos of the scene posted on social media showed a food truck parked just a few feet away from where emergency workers transferred people onto stretchers.

The driver is in custody. Officials have so far stopped short of calling the attack a 'deliberate act'

A driver ploughed his white Ryder rental van into a crowd in Toronto on Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 along a roughly mile-long (1.6-km) stretch of sidewalk thronged with lunch-hour pedestrians, police said. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) identified the suspect as Alek Minassian, 25, without identifying its source for that information. Citing government officials, it said Minassian was not associated with any organised militant group. Officials declined to answer questions about what motivated the driver to steer his vehicle toward people just before 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) in the northern section of Canada's biggest city. They said the driver was in custody and officials stopped short of calling it a deliberate act. But at least one witness described the driver as appearing to deliberately target victims, according to media reports. "This is going to be a long investigation," Toronto Deputy Chief Peter Yuen told reporters after disclosing the death toll. "The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point," Canada's public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, told a news conference. "The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved," Goodale said. A Reuters witness saw at least two tarp-covered bodies at the site of the incident. Five people remained in critical condition at Sunnybrook Health Services Centre on Monday afternoon, the hospital said. The CBC aired a video it said was shot by a bystander that showed police arresting a suspect at the scene as he shouted: "Kill me" and pointed an unidentified object at an officer. The video later showed what appeared to be the same man lying on the floor, being handcuffed. Ryder System Inc spokeswoman Claudia Panfil confirmed that one of the company's rental vehicles had been involved and said the company was cooperating with authorities. There has been a string of deadly vehicle attacks in the United States and Europe, including an Oct. 31 attack in New York that killed eight. The Islamic State militant group encourages its supporters to use vehicles for attacks. 'IT'S UNPRECEDENTED' The incident was one of the most violent in recent Canadian history. A former Canadian university student pleaded guilty last month to killing six men praying in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017. In September, a Somali refugee was charged with attempted murder over allegations he ran down four pedestrians with a car and stabbed a police officer outside a sports stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. "It's unprecedented," said John Flengas, acting superintendent of Toronto's paramedic services. We've never seen anything like this in the city of Toronto." The incident occurred about 30 km (18 miles) from the site where Toronto is hosting a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers from Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, but had no noticeable effect on that event's security. A man who gave his name as Ali told CNN he saw the van and that the driver appeared to have been targeting people. "This person was intentionally doing this, he was killing everybody," the man said. "He kept going, he kept going. People were getting hit, one after another." He said a number of the victims were older people and that he saw at one point a stroller fly into the air. At least one person was struck outside an Anglican church, north of where the van came to rest in front of a condominium tower. Some of the victims were struck in a public square popular with office workers on lunch breaks. Aerial photos of the scene posted on social media showed a food truck parked just a few feet away from where emergency workers transferred people onto stretchers.

Canada: 10 dead, 15 injured after van ploughs into crowd on Toronto sidewalk

A driver ploughed his white Ryder rental van into a crowd in Toronto on Monday, killing nine people and injuring 16 along a roughly mile-long (1.6-km) stretch of sidewalk thronged with lunch-hour pedestrians, police said.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) identified the suspect as Alek Minassian, 25, without identifying its source for that information. Citing government officials, it said Minassian was not associated with any organised militant group.

Officials declined to answer questions about what motivated the driver to steer his vehicle toward people just before 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) in the northern section of Canada`s biggest city. They said the driver was in custody and officials stopped short of calling it a deliberate act.

But at least one witness described the driver as appearing to deliberately target victims, according to media reports.

"This is going to be a long investigation," Toronto Deputy Chief Peter Yuen told reporters after disclosing the death toll.

"The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point," Canada`s public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, told a news conference.

"The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved," Goodale said.

A Reuters witness saw at least two tarp-covered bodies at the site of the incident. Five people remained in critical condition at Sunnybrook Health Services Centre on Monday afternoon, the hospital said.

The CBC aired a video it said was shot by a bystander that showed police arresting a suspect at the scene as he shouted: "Kill me" and pointed an unidentified object at an officer. The video later showed what appeared to be the same man lying on the flood, being handcuffed.

Ryder System Inc spokeswoman Claudia Panfil confirmed that one of the company`s rental vehicles had been involved and said the company was cooperating with authorities.

There has been a string of deadly vehicle attacks in the United States and Europe, including an October 31 attack in New York that killed eight. The Islamic State militant group encourages its supporters to use vehicles for attacks.

'It's unprecedented'

The incident was one of the most violent in recent Canadian history.

A former Canadian university student pleaded guilty last month to killing six men praying in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017.

In September, a Somali refugee was charged with attempted murder over allegations he ran down four pedestrians with a car and stabbed a police officer outside a sports stadium in Edmonton, Alberta.

"It`s unprecedented," said John Flengas, acting superintendent of Toronto`s paramedic services. We`ve never seen anything like this in the city of Toronto."

The incident occurred about 30 km (18 miles) from the site where Toronto is hosting a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers from Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, but had no noticeable effect on that event`s security.

A man who gave his name as Ali told CNN he saw the van and that the driver appeared to have been targeting people.

"This person was intentionally doing this, he was killing everybody," the man said. "He kept going, he kept going. People were getting hit, one after another."

He said a number of the victims were older people and that he saw at one point a stroller fly into the air.&nbsp;

At least one person was struck outside an Anglican church, north of where the van came to rest in front of a condominium tower.&nbsp;

Some of the victims were struck in a public square popular with office workers on lunch breaks. Aerial photos of the scene posted on social media showed a food truck parked just a few feet away from where emergency workers transferred people onto stretchers.

Canadian officials said the driver was in custody but stopped short of calling it a deliberate act. At least one witness however described the driver as appearing to deliberately target victims

A driver ploughed his white Ryder rental van into a crowd in Toronto on Monday, killing nine people and injuring 16 along a roughly mile-long (1.6-km) stretch of sidewalk thronged with lunch-hour pedestrians, police said. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) identified the suspect as Alek Minassian, 25, without identifying its source for that information. Citing government officials, it said Minassian was not associated with any organised militant group. Officials declined to answer questions about what motivated the driver to steer his vehicle toward people just before 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) in the northern section of Canada`s biggest city. They said the driver was in custody and officials stopped short of calling it a deliberate act. But at least one witness described the driver as appearing to deliberately target victims, according to media reports. "This is going to be a long investigation," Toronto Deputy Chief Peter Yuen told reporters after disclosing the death toll. "The investigation is at a stage where no further information can be confirmed at this point," Canada`s public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, told a news conference. "The police are conducting obviously their thorough investigation to determine what happened and why it happened, the motivations involved," Goodale said. A Reuters witness saw at least two tarp-covered bodies at the site of the incident. Five people remained in critical condition at Sunnybrook Health Services Centre on Monday afternoon, the hospital said. The CBC aired a video it said was shot by a bystander that showed police arresting a suspect at the scene as he shouted: "Kill me" and pointed an unidentified object at an officer. The video later showed what appeared to be the same man lying on the flood, being handcuffed. Ryder System Inc spokeswoman Claudia Panfil confirmed that one of the company`s rental vehicles had been involved and said the company was cooperating with authorities. There has been a string of deadly vehicle attacks in the United States and Europe, including an October 31 attack in New York that killed eight. The Islamic State militant group encourages its supporters to use vehicles for attacks. 'It's unprecedented' The incident was one of the most violent in recent Canadian history. A former Canadian university student pleaded guilty last month to killing six men praying in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017. In September, a Somali refugee was charged with attempted murder over allegations he ran down four pedestrians with a car and stabbed a police officer outside a sports stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. "It`s unprecedented," said John Flengas, acting superintendent of Toronto`s paramedic services. We`ve never seen anything like this in the city of Toronto." The incident occurred about 30 km (18 miles) from the site where Toronto is hosting a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers from Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, but had no noticeable effect on that event`s security. A man who gave his name as Ali told CNN he saw the van and that the driver appeared to have been targeting people. "This person was intentionally doing this, he was killing everybody," the man said. "He kept going, he kept going. People were getting hit, one after another." He said a number of the victims were older people and that he saw at one point a stroller fly into the air. At least one person was struck outside an Anglican church, north of where the van came to rest in front of a condominium tower. Some of the victims were struck in a public square popular with office workers on lunch breaks. Aerial photos of the scene posted on social media showed a food truck parked just a few feet away from where emergency workers transferred people onto stretchers.

Canada: 9 dead, 16 injured after van ploughs into pedestrians on Toronto sidewalk

A Toronto police officer who refused to shoot the man suspected of plowing a van into crowds of pedestrians on Monday, killing 10 people, was praised for restraint in the face of a suspect who claimed to have a gun.

Video footage showed the police officer staring down the suspect at gunpoint in the middle of a street, while the man pointed what appeared to be a gun and shouted "Kill me." The video, obtained by CBC News, showed the suspect repeatedly pulling an object from his side and aiming at police.

The arrest was praised as a welcome example of police restraint in the midst of chaos, coming just minutes after a white rental van plowed into a lunchtime crowd in north Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in one of the most violent incidents in Canadian history.

As the suspect shouted "Kill me," the officer replied, "No, get down." When the suspect said, "I have a gun in my pocket," the officer responded: "I don't care. Get down."

Toronto police identified the man arrested as Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, a neighbourhood close to Toronto.

"It's quite apparent that the suspect was trying to be executed. He was really looking for 'suicide-by-cop,'" Gary Clement, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent with 34 years experience of policing, told Reuters.

The Toronto Police Service declined to name the officer involved in the stand-off, but Clement said he appeared to be a "very seasoned and mature officer."

"I would say this individual met the right police officer," Clement said. "Nobody knows how they're going to react. In this situation a lot of it comes down to muscle memory. This guy reacted in a very mature manner."

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said the officer's behaviour reflected the "high caliber of training that takes place.

"They are taught to use as little force as possible in any given situation," he said.

It helped that the officer had a clear view of the suspect, who was out of the van and pacing between the sidewalk and the arresting officer, Clement said.

The non-violent end to the standoff won plaudits on social media.

"Wow, at how these Canadian cops brought in this suspected killer," said Twitter user Stuart A. Thompson in a posting.

Police in the United States have been criticized for being too quick to pull the trigger after a series of high-profile police shootings and deaths of suspects during arrest.

Witnesses in Toronto expressed horror at the murders.

Young Lee, a 56-year-old attorney, looked out his third-floor office window on Yonge Street and was shocked to see medics attempting to resuscitate two of the victims.

"I've never seen violence like this here in Toronto," Lee said. "I felt a mix of rage and a lot of sympathy for the victims."

As the suspect shouted 'Kill me,' the officer replied, 'No, get down.' When the suspect said, 'I have a gun in my pocket,' the officer responded: 'I don't care. Get down.'

A Toronto police officer who refused to shoot the man suspected of plowing a van into crowds of pedestrians on Monday, killing 10 people, was praised for restraint in the face of a suspect who claimed to have a gun. Video footage showed the police officer staring down the suspect at gunpoint in the middle of a street, while the man pointed what appeared to be a gun and shouted "Kill me." The video, obtained by CBC News, showed the suspect repeatedly pulling an object from his side and aiming at police. The arrest was praised as a welcome example of police restraint in the midst of chaos, coming just minutes after a white rental van plowed into a lunchtime crowd in north Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in one of the most violent incidents in Canadian history. As the suspect shouted "Kill me," the officer replied, "No, get down." When the suspect said, "I have a gun in my pocket," the officer responded: "I don't care. Get down." Toronto police identified the man arrested as Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, a neighbourhood close to Toronto. "It's quite apparent that the suspect was trying to be executed. He was really looking for 'suicide-by-cop,'" Gary Clement, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent with 34 years experience of policing, told Reuters. The Toronto Police Service declined to name the officer involved in the stand-off, but Clement said he appeared to be a "very seasoned and mature officer." "I would say this individual met the right police officer," Clement said. "Nobody knows how they're going to react. In this situation a lot of it comes down to muscle memory. This guy reacted in a very mature manner." Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said the officer's behaviour reflected the "high caliber of training that takes place. "They are taught to use as little force as possible in any given situation," he said. It helped that the officer had a clear view of the suspect, who was out of the van and pacing between the sidewalk and the arresting officer, Clement said. The non-violent end to the standoff won plaudits on social media. "Wow, at how these Canadian cops brought in this suspected killer," said Twitter user Stuart A. Thompson in a posting. Police in the United States have been criticized for being too quick to pull the trigger after a series of high-profile police shootings and deaths of suspects during arrest. Witnesses in Toronto expressed horror at the murders. Young Lee, a 56-year-old attorney, looked out his third-floor office window on Yonge Street and was shocked to see medics attempting to resuscitate two of the victims. "I've never seen violence like this here in Toronto," Lee said. "I felt a mix of rage and a lot of sympathy for the victims."

'Kill me,' shouted Toronto van attacker, pointing gun at cop. But the officer didn't shoot

Canada's government got just 24 hours notice that it would be thrust into a political and economic crisis by an ultimatum from a pipeline operator, government sources said, leaving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scrambling for options in a dispute that could damage his re-election chances.

The Kinder Morgan Canada pipeline issue has pitted Ottawa against the Pacific province of British Columbia and could turn into a constitutional crisis, derail Trudeau's energy strategy and dent business confidence.&nbsp;

Trudeau broke off a foreign trip to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday with the premiers of two provinces locked in a standoff over the pipeline after the company set a May 31 deadline to resolve the impasse or it would walk away.

Federal officials had been talking to the company since February when British Columbia's left-leaning coalition, which includes the Green party, made clear it would delay the planned expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to the coast.

But the government had no idea that Kinder Morgan Canada was about to drop a bombshell.

"Kinder Morgan's announcement on Sunday was unexpected," said a senior government official who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the situation. "We had 24 hours'&nbsp;notice."

The move by Kinder Morgan Canada, which was spun off by its US&nbsp;parent last year, puts pressure on Trudeau to solve the problem without alienating voters in British Columbia or presiding over an investment failure ahead of 2019 elections.&nbsp;

A second federal government source said the prime minister and senior cabinet members had worked behind the scenes for weeks, pressing British Columbia to change its position.

"If we're talking of things going awry, British Columbia knew this was federal jurisdiction," said the source.

The operator wants to almost triple the capacity of the existing pipeline. Ottawa, which approved the project in 2016, insists it has jurisdiction. British Columbia's government, elected in 2017, disagrees, citing the risk of a spill.

"I do believe we have a mandate to defend the coast," provincial Premier John Horgan told reporters on Friday.

Trudeau won power in 2015 partly thanks to extra seats his Liberals won in British Columbia as well as increased support from environmentalists. Cracking down too hard would cost him support in both camps, leaving him with a weak minority government in the October 2019 elections.

Long-standing tensions over the pipeline meant Liberals in British Columbia were already nervous about softening support before Kinder Morgan Canada's ultimatum, said a Liberal party official.

The Liberals also have to pick up seats in the province of Quebec, which has a strong green tradition.

"It wouldn't really take a lot to tip the government into minority territory," said pollster Nik Nanos of Nanos Research.

"If you're looking at hard political calculus, the prime minister realistically has to tilt in favor of the environment because if he doesn't that will kill him in Quebec."

During Sunday's meeting, Trudeau will lay out the various financial, regulatory and legal options, said the second government source.

"It's not a matter of getting angry, or being mean or nice about it - he will lay out the facts," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The federal and Alberta governments both say they could take a stake in the pipeline to keep the project alive, with Alberta's premier saying her province could even buy it outright. Kinder Morgan Canada has said it was open to discussions but did not elaborate.

The first government source there was a "huge gray zone" of possible government help, citing the past bailout of the auto industry in 2009, federal loan guarantees for a hydro-electric project and Ottawa's investment in an offshore energy project.

Toronto-Dominion Bank Deputy Chairman Frank McKenna, a member of Alberta's pipeline advisory taskforce, said he raised the issue with Trudeau in a recent call and that Ottawa has to "provide deal certainty ... a backstop".

"That could be something in the nature of an indemnity agreement or a guarantee against potential losses that would come from political instability and not based on normal construction risk," said McKenna, a former premier of New Brunswick. TD Bank is Kinder Morgan Canada's biggest lender.

"At the end of the day this pipeline can't be allowed to fail, it would be a huge blow to the leadership of the country and to the image of the country."

The Kinder Morgan Canada pipeline issue has pitted Ottawa against the Pacific province of British Columbia and could turn into a constitutional crisis

Canada's government got just 24 hours notice that it would be thrust into a political and economic crisis by an ultimatum from a pipeline operator, government sources said, leaving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scrambling for options in a dispute that could damage his re-election chances. The Kinder Morgan Canada pipeline issue has pitted Ottawa against the Pacific province of British Columbia and could turn into a constitutional crisis, derail Trudeau's energy strategy and dent business confidence. Trudeau broke off a foreign trip to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday with the premiers of two provinces locked in a standoff over the pipeline after the company set a May 31 deadline to resolve the impasse or it would walk away. Federal officials had been talking to the company since February when British Columbia's left-leaning coalition, which includes the Green party, made clear it would delay the planned expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to the coast. But the government had no idea that Kinder Morgan Canada was about to drop a bombshell. "Kinder Morgan's announcement on Sunday was unexpected," said a senior government official who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the situation. "We had 24 hours' notice." The move by Kinder Morgan Canada, which was spun off by its US parent last year, puts pressure on Trudeau to solve the problem without alienating voters in British Columbia or presiding over an investment failure ahead of 2019 elections. A second federal government source said the prime minister and senior cabinet members had worked behind the scenes for weeks, pressing British Columbia to change its position. "If we're talking of things going awry, British Columbia knew this was federal jurisdiction," said the source. The operator wants to almost triple the capacity of the existing pipeline. Ottawa, which approved the project in 2016, insists it has jurisdiction. British Columbia's government, elected in 2017, disagrees, citing the risk of a spill. "I do believe we have a mandate to defend the coast," provincial Premier John Horgan told reporters on Friday. Trudeau won power in 2015 partly thanks to extra seats his Liberals won in British Columbia as well as increased support from environmentalists. Cracking down too hard would cost him support in both camps, leaving him with a weak minority government in the October 2019 elections. Long-standing tensions over the pipeline meant Liberals in British Columbia were already nervous about softening support before Kinder Morgan Canada's ultimatum, said a Liberal party official. The Liberals also have to pick up seats in the province of Quebec, which has a strong green tradition. "It wouldn't really take a lot to tip the government into minority territory," said pollster Nik Nanos of Nanos Research. "If you're looking at hard political calculus, the prime minister realistically has to tilt in favor of the environment because if he doesn't that will kill him in Quebec." During Sunday's meeting, Trudeau will lay out the various financial, regulatory and legal options, said the second government source. "It's not a matter of getting angry, or being mean or nice about it - he will lay out the facts," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The federal and Alberta governments both say they could take a stake in the pipeline to keep the project alive, with Alberta's premier saying her province could even buy it outright. Kinder Morgan Canada has said it was open to discussions but did not elaborate. The first government source there was a "huge gray zone" of possible government help, citing the past bailout of the auto industry in 2009, federal loan guarantees for a hydro-electric project and Ottawa's investment in an offshore energy project. Toronto-Dominion Bank Deputy Chairman Frank McKenna, a member of Alberta's pipeline advisory taskforce, said he raised the issue with Trudeau in a recent call and that Ottawa has to "provide deal certainty ... a backstop". "That could be something in the nature of an indemnity agreement or a guarantee against potential losses that would come from political instability and not based on normal construction risk," said McKenna, a former premier of New Brunswick. TD Bank is Kinder Morgan Canada's biggest lender. "At the end of the day this pipeline can't be allowed to fail, it would be a huge blow to the leadership of the country and to the image of the country."

Canada's Trudeau faces election risk after ultimatum from pipeline operator

The death toll for the Canadian bus crash, carrying 28 people, rose to 15 on Sunday. The bus was also carrying players of a junior league hockey team have died too.&nbsp

The bus collided with a semi-trailer truck in rural Saskatchewan province leaving three critically injured - &nbspin the accident involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus, which was heading north for a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police inspector Ted Monroe had said at a news conference late Friday that there were "fatalities among the passengers on the bus" and "a number of serious injuries".

"It is a significant accident, we had a tractor-trailer and a bus collide," Monroe told reporters, declining to go into further detail about the victims.

Police said the crash took place about 28 kilometers (18 miles) north of Tisdale, Saskatchewan as the bus was travelling on highway 35.

"This is much bigger than anyone can begin to imagine," Broncos team president Kevin Garinger told the Canadian broadcaster CBC. "We are just in utter disbelief and shock at the loss that's fallen upon us."

The Broncos team is comprised of 24 players, all from Canada, with the youngest aged 16 and the oldest 21. 
Earlier on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also issued a statement to offer his condolences for the departed.

"An entire country is in shock and mourning today as we learn more about the tragic bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos that claimed the lives of 14 people and injured many more", as per the official statement.

He extended his support to the victims' families by saying, "To the entire Humboldt community: We are here for you. As neighbours, as friends, and as Canadians, we grieve alongside you."&nbsp

The bus collided with a semi-trailer truck in rural Saskatchewan province leaving three critically injured as well

The death toll for the Canadian bus crash, carrying 28 people, rose to 15 on Sunday. The bus was also carrying players of a junior league hockey team have died too. The bus collided with a semi-trailer truck in rural Saskatchewan province leaving three critically injured - &nbspin the accident involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus, which was heading north for a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported. Royal Canadian Mounted Police inspector Ted Monroe had said at a news conference late Friday that there were "fatalities among the passengers on the bus" and "a number of serious injuries". "It is a significant accident, we had a tractor-trailer and a bus collide," Monroe told reporters, declining to go into further detail about the victims. Police said the crash took place about 28 kilometers (18 miles) north of Tisdale, Saskatchewan as the bus was travelling on highway 35. "This is much bigger than anyone can begin to imagine," Broncos team president Kevin Garinger told the Canadian broadcaster CBC. "We are just in utter disbelief and shock at the loss that's fallen upon us." The Broncos team is comprised of 24 players, all from Canada, with the youngest aged 16 and the oldest 21. Earlier on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also issued a statement to offer his condolences for the departed. "An entire country is in shock and mourning today as we learn more about the tragic bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos that claimed the lives of 14 people and injured many more", as per the official statement. He extended his support to the victims' families by saying, "To the entire Humboldt community: We are here for you. As neighbours, as friends, and as Canadians, we grieve alongside you."

Death toll rises to 15 in Canada bus crash

Police in Canada confirmed on Saturday that 14 people died when a bus carrying a junior ice hockey team collided with a semi-trailer truck in rural Saskatchewan province.

Fourteen more were injured -- including three critically -- in the accident involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus, which was heading north for a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police inspector Ted Monroe had said at a news conference late Friday that there were "fatalities among the passengers on the bus" and "a number of serious injuries".

"It is a significant accident, we had a tractor-trailer and a bus collide," Monroe told reporters, declining to go into further detail about the victims.

Police said the crash took place about 28 kilometers (18 miles) north of Tisdale, Saskatchewan as the bus was travelling on highway 35.

"This is much bigger than anyone can begin to imagine," Broncos team president Kevin Garinger told the Canadian broadcaster CBC. "We are just in utter disbelief and shock at the loss that's fallen upon us."

The Broncos team is comprised of 24 players, all from Canada, with the youngest aged 16 and the oldest 21.

"It's a horrible accident, my God," said Darren Opp, president of the Nipawin Hawks hockey team. "It's very, very bad."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sadness at the tragic incident involving such young athletes.

"I cannot imagine what these parents are going through, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy, in the Humboldt community and beyond," Trudeau wrote on Twitter.

The Saskatchewan league is a feeder system for higher levels of hockey with many graduating to play at US and Canadian colleges and major junior league level, while some go on to the National Hockey League. Former NHL players like defenseman Chris Chelios, goaltender Ron Hextall, forward Rod Brind'Amour and hall of fame goaltender Glenn Hall all played in the SJHL. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Friday's fatal smash brought back memories of a single vehicle bus crash in December 1986, also in Saskatchewan, that killed four members of the Western Hockey League Swift Current Broncos.

A memorial was placed on the side of the highway at the site of the crash, about four kilometers east of Swift Current.

The Swift Current Broncos expressed their condolences.

"Humboldt Broncos weighing heavy in our hearts and minds tonight," the team said on Twitter.

Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, who survived when the Swift Current bus skidded off the highway in snowy conditions, also sent a message of support.

"Sending all my thoughts and prayers to those impacted with the @HumboltBroncos bus crash," Kennedy said.

A bus carrying a group of Canadian junior hockey players collided on Friday with a semi-trailer on a rural highway in Saskatchewan, killing 14 people, Canadian media reported citing police

Police in Canada confirmed on Saturday that 14 people died when a bus carrying a junior ice hockey team collided with a semi-trailer truck in rural Saskatchewan province. Fourteen more were injured -- including three critically -- in the accident involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus, which was heading north for a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported. Royal Canadian Mounted Police inspector Ted Monroe had said at a news conference late Friday that there were "fatalities among the passengers on the bus" and "a number of serious injuries". "It is a significant accident, we had a tractor-trailer and a bus collide," Monroe told reporters, declining to go into further detail about the victims. Police said the crash took place about 28 kilometers (18 miles) north of Tisdale, Saskatchewan as the bus was travelling on highway 35. "This is much bigger than anyone can begin to imagine," Broncos team president Kevin Garinger told the Canadian broadcaster CBC. "We are just in utter disbelief and shock at the loss that's fallen upon us." The Broncos team is comprised of 24 players, all from Canada, with the youngest aged 16 and the oldest 21. "It's a horrible accident, my God," said Darren Opp, president of the Nipawin Hawks hockey team. "It's very, very bad." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sadness at the tragic incident involving such young athletes. "I cannot imagine what these parents are going through, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy, in the Humboldt community and beyond," Trudeau wrote on Twitter. The Saskatchewan league is a feeder system for higher levels of hockey with many graduating to play at US and Canadian colleges and major junior league level, while some go on to the National Hockey League. Former NHL players like defenseman Chris Chelios, goaltender Ron Hextall, forward Rod Brind'Amour and hall of fame goaltender Glenn Hall all played in the SJHL. Friday's fatal smash brought back memories of a single vehicle bus crash in December 1986, also in Saskatchewan, that killed four members of the Western Hockey League Swift Current Broncos. A memorial was placed on the side of the highway at the site of the crash, about four kilometers east of Swift Current. The Swift Current Broncos expressed their condolences. "Humboldt Broncos weighing heavy in our hearts and minds tonight," the team said on Twitter. Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, who survived when the Swift Current bus skidded off the highway in snowy conditions, also sent a message of support. "Sending all my thoughts and prayers to those impacted with the @HumboltBroncos bus crash," Kennedy said.

Fourteen killed in Canadian hockey team bus crash: Police

Canada will send helicopters and support troops to join a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, government officials said on Monday, though they gave few details on timing or numbers.

The government said in a statement that Canada&#39;s involvement in Mali would last for 12 months. The country&#39;s contribution will include both Chinook helicopters for transport and logistics and Griffon helicopters to provide armed escort and protection.

Shortly after coming to power in late 2015, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated it would send up to 600 troops to Mali, where UN&nbsp;peacekeepers are fighting Islamist militants.

Ottawa later put the plans on hold amid fears of casualties, angering allies who said they felt let down. More than 80 people deployed through the UN&nbsp;have been killed in Mali since 2013, making it the world&#39;s deadliest peacekeeping operation.

Earlier this month four UN&nbsp;peacekeepers were killed by a roadside bomb in central Mali. 
&nbsp;

The government said in a statement that Canada`s involvement in Mali would last for 12 months

Canada will send helicopters and support troops to join a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, government officials said on Monday, though they gave few details on timing or numbers. The government said in a statement that Canada's involvement in Mali would last for 12 months. The country's contribution will include both Chinook helicopters for transport and logistics and Griffon helicopters to provide armed escort and protection. Shortly after coming to power in late 2015, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated it would send up to 600 troops to Mali, where UN peacekeepers are fighting Islamist militants. Ottawa later put the plans on hold amid fears of casualties, angering allies who said they felt let down. More than 80 people deployed through the UN have been killed in Mali since 2013, making it the world's deadliest peacekeeping operation. Earlier this month four UN peacekeepers were killed by a roadside bomb in central Mali.

Canada to send helicopters, troops to aid UN's Mali mission

Canada will send peacekeepers backed by helicopters to the troubled west African nation of Mali before autumn, a government source said on Friday.

Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan is to provide details of the number of troops on Monday, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity about what will be Canada&#39;s first mission to Africa since Rwanda in 1994.

Jihadists have ramped up their activities in central Mali in recent months, targeting domestic and foreign forces in violence once confined to the country&#39;s north.

Four UN peacekeepers were killed and four were wounded in late February when a mine exploded under their vehicle in central Mali.

Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of Mali&#39;s desert north in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.&nbsp;

In June 2015, Mali&#39;s government signed a peace agreement with some armed groups, but the jihadists remain active, and large tracts of the country are lawless.

In November, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would boost its support for UN peacekeeping missions by mobilizing a rapid response force of 200 soldiers,

The Canadian &quot;quick reaction force&quot; would include 200 troops backed by tactical helicopters and Hercules transport aircraft.

Canada has told the United Nations it is willing to join the peacekeeping mission in Mali, and will send peacekeepers backed by helicopters

Canada will send peacekeepers backed by helicopters to the troubled west African nation of Mali before autumn, a government source said on Friday. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan is to provide details of the number of troops on Monday, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity about what will be Canada's first mission to Africa since Rwanda in 1994. Jihadists have ramped up their activities in central Mali in recent months, targeting domestic and foreign forces in violence once confined to the country's north. Four UN peacekeepers were killed and four were wounded in late February when a mine exploded under their vehicle in central Mali. Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of Mali's desert north in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013. In June 2015, Mali's government signed a peace agreement with some armed groups, but the jihadists remain active, and large tracts of the country are lawless. In November, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would boost its support for UN peacekeeping missions by mobilizing a rapid response force of 200 soldiers, The Canadian "quick reaction force" would include 200 troops backed by tactical helicopters and Hercules transport aircraft.

Canada to send peacekeepers to Mali: Official

People who pursue happiness often feel like they do not have enough time in the day, which paradoxically makes them feel unhappy, a study has found.

Researchers from Rutgers University in the US and University of Toronto Scarborough in Canada conducted four studies in which they investigated how the pursuit of happiness as well as the state of being happy influenced people&#39;s perception of time.

Pursuing happiness caused the participants to think of time as scarce.

In the studies, some participants were either instructed to list things that would make them happier or asked to try to make themselves feel happy while watching a dull movie about building bridges, thus demonstrating happiness as goal pursuit.

The other participants came to think of happiness as a goal that they had already accomplished, achieved by watching a slapstick comedy (rather than the bridge movie) or listing items showing that they are already happy. 
Afterwards, all participants reported how much free time they felt they had.

The findings showed that a person&#39;s perception of time scarcity is influenced by their pursuit of happiness.

The feeling that time was scarce lessened for participants who maintained that they had attained their goal of being happy to some degree.

&quot;Time seems to vanish amid the pursuit of happiness, but only when seen as a goal requiring continued pursuit,&quot; researchers said.

&quot;This finding adds depth to the growing body of work suggesting that the pursuit of happiness can ironically undermine well-being,&quot; they said.

The findings, published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review, imply that while happiness can impair positive emotions, it need not necessarily do so.

Instead, if someone believes they have achieved happiness, they are left with the time to appreciate this, for instance by keeping a gratitude journal.

The research further underscores that people have different concepts about happiness, which in turn may well influence how they perceive the time they have to achieve happiness.

&quot;Because engaging in experiences and savouring the associated feelings requires more time compared with merely, for instance, buying material goods, feeling a lack of time also leads people to prefer material possessions rather than enjoying leisure experiences,&quot; researchers said.

&quot;By encouraging people to worry less about pursuing happiness as a never-ending goal, successful interventions might just end up giving them more time and, in turn, more happiness,&quot; they said.

Given the influence that time availability has on people&#39;s decision-making and well-being, it remains essential to understand when, why, and how they perceive and use their time differently in their pursuit of happiness and other goals.

Pursuing happiness caused the participants to think of time as scarce

People who pursue happiness often feel like they do not have enough time in the day, which paradoxically makes them feel unhappy, a study has found. Researchers from Rutgers University in the US and University of Toronto Scarborough in Canada conducted four studies in which they investigated how the pursuit of happiness as well as the state of being happy influenced people's perception of time. Pursuing happiness caused the participants to think of time as scarce. In the studies, some participants were either instructed to list things that would make them happier or asked to try to make themselves feel happy while watching a dull movie about building bridges, thus demonstrating happiness as goal pursuit. The other participants came to think of happiness as a goal that they had already accomplished, achieved by watching a slapstick comedy (rather than the bridge movie) or listing items showing that they are already happy. Afterwards, all participants reported how much free time they felt they had. The findings showed that a person's perception of time scarcity is influenced by their pursuit of happiness. The feeling that time was scarce lessened for participants who maintained that they had attained their goal of being happy to some degree. "Time seems to vanish amid the pursuit of happiness, but only when seen as a goal requiring continued pursuit," researchers said. "This finding adds depth to the growing body of work suggesting that the pursuit of happiness can ironically undermine well-being," they said. The findings, published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, imply that while happiness can impair positive emotions, it need not necessarily do so. Instead, if someone believes they have achieved happiness, they are left with the time to appreciate this, for instance by keeping a gratitude journal. The research further underscores that people have different concepts about happiness, which in turn may well influence how they perceive the time they have to achieve happiness. "Because engaging in experiences and savouring the associated feelings requires more time compared with merely, for instance, buying material goods, feeling a lack of time also leads people to prefer material possessions rather than enjoying leisure experiences," researchers said. "By encouraging people to worry less about pursuing happiness as a never-ending goal, successful interventions might just end up giving them more time and, in turn, more happiness," they said. Given the influence that time availability has on people's decision-making and well-being, it remains essential to understand when, why, and how they perceive and use their time differently in their pursuit of happiness and other goals.

Pursuit of happiness can make you unhappy: Study

US President Donald Trump slapped steep trade tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum Thursday, drawing sharp protests from allies at home and abroad as the contentious move raised the specter of a global trade war.&nbsp;

Signaling a sharp departure from a decades-long US-led drive for more open and less regulated trade, Trump declared that America had been &quot;ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices.&quot;

&quot;It&#39;s really an assault on our country,&quot; he said, in announcing the tariffs of 25 per cent on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminum.

Trump said the tariffs -- which will come into effect after 15 days -- will not initially apply to Canada and Mexico, and that close partners on security and trade could negotiate exemptions.

&quot;Many of the countries that treat us the worst on trade and on the military are our allies, as they call them,&quot; he complained.

The tariffs, worth billions of dollars, sparked immediate protests from top trading partners the European Union and Brazil, with retaliatory action expected from China and other economic powers.

Leaning on a little-used and decades old national security clause in US trade law, Trump said he was fulfilling a campaign promise.

&quot;I&#39;ve been talking about this a long time, a lot longer than my political career,&quot; he said. &quot;We&#39;ve been treated very badly by our past administrations, by presidents that represented us that didn&#39;t know what they were doing.&quot;

The mercurial 45th president compared his action to those of predecessors George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley.

Real friends

Canada, America&#39;s neighbor to the north, was its single-largest source of steel last year, followed by Brazil, South Korea, Russia, Mexico, Japan and Germany.

Regarding alumina and aluminum, Canada was also by far the largest supplier followed by China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

Trump had indicated he would be flexible toward &quot;real friends,&quot; and during the signing confirmed Canada and Mexico would be permanently exempted if the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement is successful.

The US leader had also added Australia to a list of likely carve-outs, as a &quot;great country&quot; and &quot;long term partner.&quot;

But he singled out Germany for criticism, reviving a longstanding gripe that European NATO allies do not pay their fair share.

&quot;We have some friends and some enemies where we have been tremendously taken advantage of over the years on trade and on military,&quot; he said.

The EU&#39;s top trade official Cecilia Malmstroem insisted the entire bloc &quot;should be excluded&quot; from the tariffs as a &quot;close ally,&quot; vowing to &quot;seek more clarity&quot; from Washington.&nbsp;

Britain meanwhile said it would &quot;work with EU partners to consider the scope for exemptions outlined today,&quot; saying &quot;tariffs are not the right way&quot; to tackle the problem of global over-capacity in steel.

Major producer Brazil immediately vowed to take &quot;all necessary steps&quot; in order to &quot;protect its rights and interests&quot; in response to the US move.

China had also warned it was ready to respond -- although Trump struck a more conciliatory tone in his announcement, pointing to negotiations under way to trim Washington&#39;s soaring bilateral trade deficit with Beijing.

Partners promise backlash&nbsp;

Last week Trump stunned the world -- and his own aides -- with an off-the-cuff announcement of his plan, even before White House lawyers judged the legality of the tariffs.&nbsp;

The metals are used in everything from cars to construction, roads to railways.&nbsp;

While the full economic impact remains unknown, the political fallout was swift with the top Republican in Congress Paul Ryan publicly denouncing Trump&#39;s move, and vowing to push him to narrow its focus to &quot;countries and practices that violate trade law.&quot;

More than 100 Republican lawmakers had written to Trump expressing &quot;deep concern&quot; about the policy, which threatens to sour already vinegared trans-Atlantic relations.

The European Union has promised tariffs on items from steel to peanut butter, bourbon and denim -- most of which are produced in states that Trump needs to win reelection.

Even as Trump approved the tariffs, 11 partners in the Asia-Pacific were in Santiago, Chile, to sign a multilateral trade deal embraced by president Barack Obama but rejected by Trump.&nbsp;

The White House was left scrambling to catch up following Trump&#39;s shock move last week, as top economic advisor Gary Cohn -- who opposed it -- quit in protest.

&quot;He may be globalist, but I still like him,&quot; Trump joked earlier Thursday, alluding to an ideological clash within his administration that the &quot;nationalists&quot; appear to have decisively won.

Signaling a sharp departure from a decades-long US-led drive for more open and less regulated trade, Trump declared that America had been 'ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices'

US President Donald Trump slapped steep trade tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum Thursday, drawing sharp protests from allies at home and abroad as the contentious move raised the specter of a global trade war. Signaling a sharp departure from a decades-long US-led drive for more open and less regulated trade, Trump declared that America had been "ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices." "It's really an assault on our country," he said, in announcing the tariffs of 25 per cent on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminum. Trump said the tariffs -- which will come into effect after 15 days -- will not initially apply to Canada and Mexico, and that close partners on security and trade could negotiate exemptions. "Many of the countries that treat us the worst on trade and on the military are our allies, as they call them," he complained. The tariffs, worth billions of dollars, sparked immediate protests from top trading partners the European Union and Brazil, with retaliatory action expected from China and other economic powers. Leaning on a little-used and decades old national security clause in US trade law, Trump said he was fulfilling a campaign promise. "I've been talking about this a long time, a lot longer than my political career," he said. "We've been treated very badly by our past administrations, by presidents that represented us that didn't know what they were doing." The mercurial 45th president compared his action to those of predecessors George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley. Real friends Canada, America's neighbor to the north, was its single-largest source of steel last year, followed by Brazil, South Korea, Russia, Mexico, Japan and Germany. Regarding alumina and aluminum, Canada was also by far the largest supplier followed by China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Trump had indicated he would be flexible toward "real friends," and during the signing confirmed Canada and Mexico would be permanently exempted if the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement is successful. The US leader had also added Australia to a list of likely carve-outs, as a "great country" and "long term partner." But he singled out Germany for criticism, reviving a longstanding gripe that European NATO allies do not pay their fair share. "We have some friends and some enemies where we have been tremendously taken advantage of over the years on trade and on military," he said. The EU's top trade official Cecilia Malmstroem insisted the entire bloc "should be excluded" from the tariffs as a "close ally," vowing to "seek more clarity" from Washington. Britain meanwhile said it would "work with EU partners to consider the scope for exemptions outlined today," saying "tariffs are not the right way" to tackle the problem of global over-capacity in steel. Major producer Brazil immediately vowed to take "all necessary steps" in order to "protect its rights and interests" in response to the US move. China had also warned it was ready to respond -- although Trump struck a more conciliatory tone in his announcement, pointing to negotiations under way to trim Washington's soaring bilateral trade deficit with Beijing. Partners promise backlash Last week Trump stunned the world -- and his own aides -- with an off-the-cuff announcement of his plan, even before White House lawyers judged the legality of the tariffs. The metals are used in everything from cars to construction, roads to railways. While the full economic impact remains unknown, the political fallout was swift with the top Republican in Congress Paul Ryan publicly denouncing Trump's move, and vowing to push him to narrow its focus to "countries and practices that violate trade law." More than 100 Republican lawmakers had written to Trump expressing "deep concern" about the policy, which threatens to sour already vinegared trans-Atlantic relations. The European Union has promised tariffs on items from steel to peanut butter, bourbon and denim -- most of which are produced in states that Trump needs to win reelection. Even as Trump approved the tariffs, 11 partners in the Asia-Pacific were in Santiago, Chile, to sign a multilateral trade deal embraced by president Barack Obama but rejected by Trump. The White House was left scrambling to catch up following Trump's shock move last week, as top economic advisor Gary Cohn -- who opposed it -- quit in protest. "He may be globalist, but I still like him," Trump joked earlier Thursday, alluding to an ideological clash within his administration that the "nationalists" appear to have decisively won.

Trump signs sweeping tariffs; Canada, Mexico exempted

Two weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned from a blunder-struck trip to India, Emmanuel Macron arrives in New Delhi hoping to avoid the missteps of his ally.&nbsp;

Trudeau and Macron are often compared internationally because of their broadly similar political views, as well as youth and good looks. But the French leader will be eager to make a different impression on his Indian hosts.

Trudeau, already facing suspicions in India that Canada was too soft on Sikh separatists back home, was seriously embarrassed when a former militant was invited to a dinner with him in Mumbai.

Even before this revelation, India&#39;s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given Trudeau a cool reception, but he is expected to be much more welcoming for Macron after a warm meeting between the two in Paris last year.

Macron will &quot;spend a lot of time with Narendra Modi,&quot; a source in the French presidency said, adding that they had &quot;formed a close relationship&quot; during Macron&#39;s first nine months in power.

They will meet Saturday for talks before Macron attends a solar power summit on Sunday designed to showcase India and France&#39;s commitment to fighting climate change, which both leaders have made a priority.

Travelling with his wife Brigitte, France&#39;s 40-year-old president is set to make the almost obligatory visit to the monument to love, the Taj Mahal, a few hours drive from the Indian capital on Sunday.

On Monday, he heads to the chaotic Hindu holy city of Varanasi on the banks of the river Ganges, which the Indian premier has promised to modernise and clean up.&nbsp;

Having seen Trudeau pilloried on social media and in the Canadian press for donning traditional Indian clothing at every opportunity, Macron is likely to be far more conservative in his dress-sense.As well as discussing climate change and ways to build closer diplomatic ties, the two biggest issues between the countries in recent years -- defence and nuclear energy sales -- will also take centre-stage during private talks.

In September 2016, India finally inked a deal to buy 36 French-made Rafale fighter jets, much less than the 126 that were once discussed, but France and its manufacturer Dassault Aviation hold hopes of further sales.&nbsp;

Macron will also vaunt the quality of Airbus helicopters and Scorpene submarines in a country that buys 90 percent of its equipment from abroad, making it the world&#39;s biggest arms buyer.

Obstacles holding up the long-delayed sale of six nuclear reactors will also be discussed.

Macron has travelled widely since his election last May, presenting himself as the dynamic new face in the European Union who is driving reform efforts in the 28-member bloc.

The centrist has invested time and energy in building relationships with the world&#39;s nationalist strongmen, including US President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

France, like much of Europe and the West, sees India as a natural diplomatic and economic partner in Asia because of its role as the world&#39;s biggest democracy and its huge yet still untapped business potential.

The United States and leading European Union members have spent years wooing successive governments in New Delhi, seeing the country as a counter-weight to China in the region.

Macron is set to announce plans to allow Indian navy ships to use French bases in the southern Indian Ocean where New Delhi remains wary of Chinese expansion in an area that it sees as its strategic backyard.&nbsp;

Trudeau and Macron are often compared internationally because of their broadly similar political views

Two weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned from a blunder-struck trip to India, Emmanuel Macron arrives in New Delhi hoping to avoid the missteps of his ally. Trudeau and Macron are often compared internationally because of their broadly similar political views, as well as youth and good looks. But the French leader will be eager to make a different impression on his Indian hosts. Trudeau, already facing suspicions in India that Canada was too soft on Sikh separatists back home, was seriously embarrassed when a former militant was invited to a dinner with him in Mumbai. Even before this revelation, India's Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given Trudeau a cool reception, but he is expected to be much more welcoming for Macron after a warm meeting between the two in Paris last year. Macron will "spend a lot of time with Narendra Modi," a source in the French presidency said, adding that they had "formed a close relationship" during Macron's first nine months in power. They will meet Saturday for talks before Macron attends a solar power summit on Sunday designed to showcase India and France's commitment to fighting climate change, which both leaders have made a priority. Travelling with his wife Brigitte, France's 40-year-old president is set to make the almost obligatory visit to the monument to love, the Taj Mahal, a few hours drive from the Indian capital on Sunday. On Monday, he heads to the chaotic Hindu holy city of Varanasi on the banks of the river Ganges, which the Indian premier has promised to modernise and clean up. Having seen Trudeau pilloried on social media and in the Canadian press for donning traditional Indian clothing at every opportunity, Macron is likely to be far more conservative in his dress-sense.As well as discussing climate change and ways to build closer diplomatic ties, the two biggest issues between the countries in recent years -- defence and nuclear energy sales -- will also take centre-stage during private talks. In September 2016, India finally inked a deal to buy 36 French-made Rafale fighter jets, much less than the 126 that were once discussed, but France and its manufacturer Dassault Aviation hold hopes of further sales. Macron will also vaunt the quality of Airbus helicopters and Scorpene submarines in a country that buys 90 percent of its equipment from abroad, making it the world's biggest arms buyer. Obstacles holding up the long-delayed sale of six nuclear reactors will also be discussed. Macron has travelled widely since his election last May, presenting himself as the dynamic new face in the European Union who is driving reform efforts in the 28-member bloc. The centrist has invested time and energy in building relationships with the world's nationalist strongmen, including US President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. France, like much of Europe and the West, sees India as a natural diplomatic and economic partner in Asia because of its role as the world's biggest democracy and its huge yet still untapped business potential. The United States and leading European Union members have spent years wooing successive governments in New Delhi, seeing the country as a counter-weight to China in the region. Macron is set to announce plans to allow Indian navy ships to use French bases in the southern Indian Ocean where New Delhi remains wary of Chinese expansion in an area that it sees as its strategic backyard.

Macron heads to India, seeking to avoid Trudeau errors

Canada will retaliate against any U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products, officials said on Thursday, as Ottawa faced what could be one of the biggest economic threats since Donald Trump became president.

Trump unveiled the tariffs on Thursday but did not make clear whether they would apply to Canada and Mexico, which together with the United States are trying to renegotiate the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

&quot;Should restrictions be imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum products, Canada will take responsive measures to defend its trade interests and workers,&quot; Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement, calling any trade restrictions &quot;absolutely unacceptable.&quot;

She did not give details, and Canadian officials were not immediately available for comment on what measures she might have in mind.

Canada sends 75 percent of its goods exports to the United States and would be vulnerable if a trade war erupted. Canada is also the largest supplier of both steel and aluminum to the United States.

Canada buys more American steel than any other country, accounting for 50 percent of U.S. exports, and the steel and aluminum industry is highly integrated, Freeland said.

Trump unveiled the tariffs on Thursday but did not make clear whether they would apply to Canada and Mexico, which together with the United States are trying to renegotiate the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

Canada will retaliate against any U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products, officials said on Thursday, as Ottawa faced what could be one of the biggest economic threats since Donald Trump became president. Trump unveiled the tariffs on Thursday but did not make clear whether they would apply to Canada and Mexico, which together with the United States are trying to renegotiate the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. "Should restrictions be imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum products, Canada will take responsive measures to defend its trade interests and workers," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement, calling any trade restrictions "absolutely unacceptable." She did not give details, and Canadian officials were not immediately available for comment on what measures she might have in mind. Canada sends 75 percent of its goods exports to the United States and would be vulnerable if a trade war erupted. Canada is also the largest supplier of both steel and aluminum to the United States. Canada buys more American steel than any other country, accounting for 50 percent of U.S. exports, and the steel and aluminum industry is highly integrated, Freeland said.

Canada vows to retaliate against any US steel tariffs

Amidst questions over invitation of Khalistani terrorist for Justin Trudeau&#39;s reception in India, reports have emerged that the Indian Government authority was also denied access to the guest list, reports CTV News.

On that note, the Prime Minister&#39;s Office in Canada does not allow even the security services to track their guest list.

Earlier, Canada&#39;s Public Safety Minister hailed the security services in relation to the visit.

Opinion: <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/opinion-khalistan-is-history-amarinder-singh-should-state-to-trudeau-33592" target="_blank">Khalistan is history, Amarinder Singh should state to Trudeau</a>

&quot;All Canadians can be assured that our police and our security agencies have done their job in relation to this visit and they have done it very well&quot;, said Ralph Goodale, Canada&#39;s Public Safety Minister, in the assembly, as quoted by CTV News.

Pro-Khalistan&nbsp;terrorist <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/canadian-pm-justin-trudeau-cancels-dinner-invite-to-convicted-khalistani-terrorist-jaspal-atwal-33681" target="_blank">Jaspal Atwal was invited to dine</a> with Prime Minister Trudeau at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel. The invite was later rescinded.

Prime Minister Trudeau also received backlash over his wife Sophie Trudeau&#39;s photo with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal.

Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai however took responsibility for inviting Atwal to Trudeau&#39;s reception dinner in New Delhi.

Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986. (ANI)

Pro-Khalistan terrorist Jaspal Atwal was invited to dine with Prime Minister Trudeau at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel. The invite was later rescinded

Amidst questions over invitation of Khalistani terrorist for Justin Trudeau's reception in India, reports have emerged that the Indian Government authority was also denied access to the guest list, reports CTV News. On that note, the Prime Minister's Office in Canada does not allow even the security services to track their guest list. Earlier, Canada's Public Safety Minister hailed the security services in relation to the visit. Opinion: Khalistan is history, Amarinder Singh should state to Trudeau "All Canadians can be assured that our police and our security agencies have done their job in relation to this visit and they have done it very well", said Ralph Goodale, Canada's Public Safety Minister, in the assembly, as quoted by CTV News. Pro-Khalistan terrorist Jaspal Atwal was invited to dine with Prime Minister Trudeau at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel. The invite was later rescinded. Prime Minister Trudeau also received backlash over his wife Sophie Trudeau's photo with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal. Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai however took responsibility for inviting Atwal to Trudeau's reception dinner in New Delhi. Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986. (ANI)

Indian government was denied access to guest list for Trudeau's reception

According to the Xinhua News Agency, a senior Chinese official had a favourable reception last month when he visited Ottawa to try to reframe the stalled trade talks with Canada.

China&rsquo;s official state news agency said that Song Tao &mdash; who heads the Communist Party Central Committee&rsquo;s International Liaison Department &mdash; briefed Canadian officials on Beijing&rsquo;s plan to displace the United States as the world&rsquo;s superpower.

It intends to do so by &ldquo;building of a community with a shared future for mankind,&rdquo; which Xinhua added is &ldquo;not only important to China but bears profound interest for the rest of the world.&rdquo;

If the Xinhua report is accurate, Canada is blithely considering a Chinese Communist proposal to sell out the liberal values that define global institutions like the United Nations and World Trade Organization in favour of a made-in-China model that will serve Beijing&rsquo;s authoritarian nationalist aspirations.

It&rsquo;s time to realize that decisions being made now are going to radically change the values of global diplomacy and justice for the next century or more.

Based on my past experience as a counsellor at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, I argue strongly that Canada needs to seriously rethink its approach to China in order to meet the challenge of China&rsquo;s rise.&nbsp;

A good start is to recognize the yawning need for regulations that monitor Western civil servants and politicians who, after they retire from government, go into lucrative businesses and consultancies funded by China-related sources.

Conflict of interest?

When former officials enrich themselves with Beijing&rsquo;s money once they&rsquo;re no longer managing China-related policy, it raises huge questions about whether they&rsquo;d been compromised in defending Canada&rsquo;s national interests vis-&agrave;-vis China while in office.

A post-retirement second career, trading on their China-related &ldquo;friendships&rdquo; cultivated in government service, is simply not appropriate.

Multi-ethnic nations like Canada should of course encourage citizens of Chinese origin to seek political office &mdash; we need legislatures that reflect our diversity.

But the sole legitimate function of a politician is to serve the purposes of their nation of citizenship. Ethnic Chinese politicians with divided loyalties who spend a lot of time in China for vaguely defined purposes should not have a voice in policy-making that might benefit the Chinese Party State in Canada.

And, obviously, Canadian political parties should not be accepting funding from foreign sources, indirectly or otherwise.

Most Western nations&rsquo; think tanks that advise on China relations routinely accept funding from PRC-related sources.

And our media often provide an influential platform to apologist pundits whose grants and China travel are on Beijing&rsquo;s dime through &ldquo;exchanges.&rdquo;

Canada must counter Chinese subversion

There&rsquo;s no doubt Canada urgently needs a lot more expertise on China so we can better realize our interests within that country, but we should pay for it ourselves.

We also need to get more resources to our police and security agencies to counter Chinese subversion. Any accredited diplomat who menaces or harasses people in Canada &mdash; including ethnic Chinese democracy activists or members of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities &mdash; in ways that are incompatible with their diplomatic status should be declared persona non grata and sent home.

Likewise, Chinese state security agents who enter Canada under false pretenses for the same purposes should be tracked down and criminally charged.

Getting serious about defending against subversion is another important national security concern. Ottawa must expend more energy combating Chinese political, military and economic espionage, and put more resources into identifying people who transfer Canadian secrets and restricted technologies to agents of the Chinese state.

Celebrate democracy

Beyond our own borders, democracy in Taiwan and Hong Kong should be celebrated, but we shun their progressive leaders who share our values because China tells us to &mdash; or else.

Canadian leaders should continue to meet with the Dalai Lama periodically, as a legitimate expression of our concern over the situation of Tibetans in China. We must apply our human rights standards equally to all peoples regardless.&nbsp;

Finally, it is shocking that there is even a debate over whether Beijing, through the China Communications Construction Company, should be allowed to purchase Canada&rsquo;s largest publicly traded construction company, Aecon Group.

This in itself reveals serious flaws in Canada&rsquo;s China policy. Aecon helped build the CN Tower, Vancouver&rsquo;s Skytrain, the St. Lawrence Seaway and is about to work on the Darlington nuclear power plant.

The growing public outcry against the sale has led the federal government to announce recently that it will order a full national security review.

But we&rsquo;ll never know what the review reveals since it will be assessed by cabinet in secret.

If Ottawa, bowing to Chinese government pressure, allows this sale anyway, expect the new version of Aecon to enter unrealistically competitive bids on critical Canadian infrastructure projects.

What&rsquo;s more? Expect the Chinese military to have the blueprints of all past and future Aecon projects in perpetuity for their own use, or to share with their North Korean allies.

The Aecon purchase is just one small piece, but a large indicator, of a grander, co-ordinated Chinese Communist plan. Let&rsquo;s come to our senses and just say &ldquo;no.&rdquo;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

A high-ranking Chinese official was reportedly just in Canada getting China-Canada trade talks back on track. If true, that means Canada is blithely selling out liberal values.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, a senior Chinese official had a favourable reception last month when he visited Ottawa to try to reframe the stalled trade talks with Canada. China’s official state news agency said that Song Tao — who heads the Communist Party Central Committee’s International Liaison Department — briefed Canadian officials on Beijing’s plan to displace the United States as the world’s superpower. It intends to do so by “building of a community with a shared future for mankind,” which Xinhua added is “not only important to China but bears profound interest for the rest of the world.” If the Xinhua report is accurate, Canada is blithely considering a Chinese Communist proposal to sell out the liberal values that define global institutions like the United Nations and World Trade Organization in favour of a made-in-China model that will serve Beijing’s authoritarian nationalist aspirations. It’s time to realize that decisions being made now are going to radically change the values of global diplomacy and justice for the next century or more. Based on my past experience as a counsellor at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, I argue strongly that Canada needs to seriously rethink its approach to China in order to meet the challenge of China’s rise. A good start is to recognize the yawning need for regulations that monitor Western civil servants and politicians who, after they retire from government, go into lucrative businesses and consultancies funded by China-related sources. Conflict of interest? When former officials enrich themselves with Beijing’s money once they’re no longer managing China-related policy, it raises huge questions about whether they’d been compromised in defending Canada’s national interests vis-à-vis China while in office. A post-retirement second career, trading on their China-related “friendships” cultivated in government service, is simply not appropriate. Multi-ethnic nations like Canada should of course encourage citizens of Chinese origin to seek political office — we need legislatures that reflect our diversity. But the sole legitimate function of a politician is to serve the purposes of their nation of citizenship. Ethnic Chinese politicians with divided loyalties who spend a lot of time in China for vaguely defined purposes should not have a voice in policy-making that might benefit the Chinese Party State in Canada. And, obviously, Canadian political parties should not be accepting funding from foreign sources, indirectly or otherwise. Most Western nations’ think tanks that advise on China relations routinely accept funding from PRC-related sources. And our media often provide an influential platform to apologist pundits whose grants and China travel are on Beijing’s dime through “exchanges.” Canada must counter Chinese subversion There’s no doubt Canada urgently needs a lot more expertise on China so we can better realize our interests within that country, but we should pay for it ourselves. We also need to get more resources to our police and security agencies to counter Chinese subversion. Any accredited diplomat who menaces or harasses people in Canada — including ethnic Chinese democracy activists or members of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities — in ways that are incompatible with their diplomatic status should be declared persona non grata and sent home. Likewise, Chinese state security agents who enter Canada under false pretenses for the same purposes should be tracked down and criminally charged. Getting serious about defending against subversion is another important national security concern. Ottawa must expend more energy combating Chinese political, military and economic espionage, and put more resources into identifying people who transfer Canadian secrets and restricted technologies to agents of the Chinese state. Celebrate democracy Beyond our own borders, democracy in Taiwan and Hong Kong should be celebrated, but we shun their progressive leaders who share our values because China tells us to — or else. Canadian leaders should continue to meet with the Dalai Lama periodically, as a legitimate expression of our concern over the situation of Tibetans in China. We must apply our human rights standards equally to all peoples regardless. Finally, it is shocking that there is even a debate over whether Beijing, through the China Communications Construction Company, should be allowed to purchase Canada’s largest publicly traded construction company, Aecon Group. This in itself reveals serious flaws in Canada’s China policy. Aecon helped build the CN Tower, Vancouver’s Skytrain, the St. Lawrence Seaway and is about to work on the Darlington nuclear power plant. The growing public outcry against the sale has led the federal government to announce recently that it will order a full national security review. But we’ll never know what the review reveals since it will be assessed by cabinet in secret. If Ottawa, bowing to Chinese government pressure, allows this sale anyway, expect the new version of Aecon to enter unrealistically competitive bids on critical Canadian infrastructure projects. What’s more? Expect the Chinese military to have the blueprints of all past and future Aecon projects in perpetuity for their own use, or to share with their North Korean allies. The Aecon purchase is just one small piece, but a large indicator, of a grander, co-ordinated Chinese Communist plan. Let’s come to our senses and just say “no.” (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Canada-China back on trade talks combating political, military and economic espionage

Rattan Singh Kalsi kept photos of all his grown children in his room at the seniors&rsquo; home, but one of them towered over the rest.

The photo anchored a kind of shrine to his daughter, Indira, who had died more than 30 years earlier, just as she was entering adulthood.

Indira had grown up in Canada and Rattan had bought her a plane ticket so she could see India, the country their family had come from, and spend time with the relatives she might not get to see once the responsibilities of work and adult life set in.

Naturally, Rattan, who had been middle-aged at the time of Indira&rsquo;s death, was heartbroken when she was killed in the bombing of the plane. He never recovered. He was not responsible for what had happened, but he blamed himself and lived in quiet anguish for the rest of his life.

Not long before he died, he shared his story. I was there to record it, and it was unbearably sad for both of us.

Rattan had left behind a request to scatter his and his wife&rsquo;s ashes (she had died some years earlier) over the same patch of ocean where the remains of the plane carrying their daughter had splashed down.

Bomb planted in Canada

All 329 people on board Air India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985, were killed, including 280 citizens or permanent residents of Canada.

They were lost to a bomb that exploded while their plane was in Irish airspace, en route from Canada to India. The bomb had been planted in Canada in an act of terror planned by extremists allegedly advocating for a separate Sikh state in the Punjab.

It was Canada&rsquo;s worst mass murder, yet it is barely remembered in this country.

Today, Canadians commonly regard the bombing as an Indian tragedy, or at most an Indo-Canadian tragedy. They typically dwell on the terrorism, but rarely on the grief and hardship of fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, children, friends and neighbours left behind.

Why hasn&rsquo;t this tragedy claimed a prominent place in Canadian history and public memory? Some now call it Canada&rsquo;s 9/11, but until the attack in New York City some 16 years later, they didn&rsquo;t call it much at all.

The Canadian families of the dead wonder year after year why no one but them seems to care, or why their grief is seen as less worthy than that of others who are more openly taken into the nation&rsquo;s heart.

Yes, there was a long criminal trial, a public inquiry and an apology from the federal government for failing to prevent the bombing and for the mistreatment of the families thereafter.

The bombing was belatedly declared &ldquo;a Canadian tragedy,&rdquo; so Air India is part of the official record, but it does not appear to be part of the Canadian family album.

&lsquo;Broad indifference&rsquo;

I have no personal connection to the tragedy, but our country&rsquo;s broad indifference to it came to me as a surprise. A course I was teaching at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., 25 years or more after the bombing, called for a section on Air India Flight 182, but when I went to look up the scholarly research, I was astonished by how little there was.

The absence of research was consistent with the broader and more troubling fact that the bombing has never resonated as deeply with Canadians as the scale of the tragedy would suggest.

The mismatch between the tragedy itself and its significance in the public memory may have many explanations, including racism.

It could be that the bombing is regarded as an Indian issue, since it was apparently motivated by political conflicts rooted there, or as an Irish event, since the plane that had taken off in Canada exploded in Irish airspace. It may be that since most of the Canadian victims were of Indian ancestry, that their fellow Canadians discounted them as outsiders or minorities.

Whatever the reason, a great wound had been left to the families to tend to on their own, and history had closed it over, leaving barely a scar for the public to see. The wound represented not only the grief of losing one&rsquo;s loved one, but the heartache of not being recognized as Canadians, and the loss not being viewed by the Canadian government and fellow citizens as a loss worthy of public mourning.

Since then, I have made it a personal and academic mission to haul this tragic event into the Canadian living room for a broader discussion, partly for the sake of the memory of those who died, and partly for the sake of those who have had to carry on without them.

Memorializing Air India

In 2016, toward the end of the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, my colleagues and I organized a two-day conference at McMaster featuring family members, scholars and artists in the hope of bringing the bombing closer to its rightful place in the Canadian consciousness.

Last year, we published an anthology, Remembering Air India: The Art of Public Mourning that creates a different sort of public record of the bombing than official responses.

In the course of my research, I have had the difficult honour of interviewing dozens of relatives of those who perished on Air India Flight 182. They have taken me inside their pain, and I find their grief substantial, complex and palpable even after three decades.

My work has led me to understand what our country lost in the bombing, and also what we have lost by failing to include the tragedy and its living victims in our collective memory.

At the annual commemoration of the bombing in Toronto every year, Air India families come up to me and ask who I lost. To me, it&rsquo;s distressing that they have come to expect that only other family members would care enough to come to a memorial service.

Slowly, I am assembling an Air India Flight 182 archive, the first of its kind, featuring families&rsquo; scrapbooks, poems, dance, kids&rsquo; paintings and recordings and transcripts of interviews with family members, to be housed at the McMaster University library and made available online for users around the world.

My hope is that it will preserve the memory of those who passed away, document the pain of their families and create resources for research that may finally connect this &ldquo;Canadian tragedy&rdquo; to Canada itself.

It&rsquo;s high time.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

There's an alarming lack of knowledge among Canadians about Air India Bombing of 1985 which killed 280 Indo-Canadians.

Rattan Singh Kalsi kept photos of all his grown children in his room at the seniors’ home, but one of them towered over the rest. The photo anchored a kind of shrine to his daughter, Indira, who had died more than 30 years earlier, just as she was entering adulthood. Indira had grown up in Canada and Rattan had bought her a plane ticket so she could see India, the country their family had come from, and spend time with the relatives she might not get to see once the responsibilities of work and adult life set in. Naturally, Rattan, who had been middle-aged at the time of Indira’s death, was heartbroken when she was killed in the bombing of the plane. He never recovered. He was not responsible for what had happened, but he blamed himself and lived in quiet anguish for the rest of his life. Not long before he died, he shared his story. I was there to record it, and it was unbearably sad for both of us. Rattan had left behind a request to scatter his and his wife’s ashes (she had died some years earlier) over the same patch of ocean where the remains of the plane carrying their daughter had splashed down. Bomb planted in Canada All 329 people on board Air India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985, were killed, including 280 citizens or permanent residents of Canada. They were lost to a bomb that exploded while their plane was in Irish airspace, en route from Canada to India. The bomb had been planted in Canada in an act of terror planned by extremists allegedly advocating for a separate Sikh state in the Punjab. It was Canada’s worst mass murder, yet it is barely remembered in this country. Today, Canadians commonly regard the bombing as an Indian tragedy, or at most an Indo-Canadian tragedy. They typically dwell on the terrorism, but rarely on the grief and hardship of fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, children, friends and neighbours left behind. Why hasn’t this tragedy claimed a prominent place in Canadian history and public memory? Some now call it Canada’s 9/11, but until the attack in New York City some 16 years later, they didn’t call it much at all. The Canadian families of the dead wonder year after year why no one but them seems to care, or why their grief is seen as less worthy than that of others who are more openly taken into the nation’s heart. Yes, there was a long criminal trial, a public inquiry and an apology from the federal government for failing to prevent the bombing and for the mistreatment of the families thereafter. The bombing was belatedly declared “a Canadian tragedy,” so Air India is part of the official record, but it does not appear to be part of the Canadian family album. ‘Broad indifference’ I have no personal connection to the tragedy, but our country’s broad indifference to it came to me as a surprise. A course I was teaching at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., 25 years or more after the bombing, called for a section on Air India Flight 182, but when I went to look up the scholarly research, I was astonished by how little there was. The absence of research was consistent with the broader and more troubling fact that the bombing has never resonated as deeply with Canadians as the scale of the tragedy would suggest. The mismatch between the tragedy itself and its significance in the public memory may have many explanations, including racism. It could be that the bombing is regarded as an Indian issue, since it was apparently motivated by political conflicts rooted there, or as an Irish event, since the plane that had taken off in Canada exploded in Irish airspace. It may be that since most of the Canadian victims were of Indian ancestry, that their fellow Canadians discounted them as outsiders or minorities. Whatever the reason, a great wound had been left to the families to tend to on their own, and history had closed it over, leaving barely a scar for the public to see. The wound represented not only the grief of losing one’s loved one, but the heartache of not being recognized as Canadians, and the loss not being viewed by the Canadian government and fellow citizens as a loss worthy of public mourning. Since then, I have made it a personal and academic mission to haul this tragic event into the Canadian living room for a broader discussion, partly for the sake of the memory of those who died, and partly for the sake of those who have had to carry on without them. Memorializing Air India In 2016, toward the end of the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, my colleagues and I organized a two-day conference at McMaster featuring family members, scholars and artists in the hope of bringing the bombing closer to its rightful place in the Canadian consciousness. Last year, we published an anthology, Remembering Air India: The Art of Public Mourning that creates a different sort of public record of the bombing than official responses. In the course of my research, I have had the difficult honour of interviewing dozens of relatives of those who perished on Air India Flight 182. They have taken me inside their pain, and I find their grief substantial, complex and palpable even after three decades. My work has led me to understand what our country lost in the bombing, and also what we have lost by failing to include the tragedy and its living victims in our collective memory. At the annual commemoration of the bombing in Toronto every year, Air India families come up to me and ask who I lost. To me, it’s distressing that they have come to expect that only other family members would care enough to come to a memorial service. Slowly, I am assembling an Air India Flight 182 archive, the first of its kind, featuring families’ scrapbooks, poems, dance, kids’ paintings and recordings and transcripts of interviews with family members, to be housed at the McMaster University library and made available online for users around the world. My hope is that it will preserve the memory of those who passed away, document the pain of their families and create resources for research that may finally connect this “Canadian tragedy” to Canada itself. It’s high time. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Startling indifference from Canadians about Air India bombing

President Donald Trump has made comprehensive immigration reform in the United States one of his key legislative goals.

He&rsquo;s proposed bringing the U.S. immigration system &ldquo;into the 21st century&rdquo; by providing a path to citizenship for some undocumented migrants and by fully securing the country&rsquo;s southern border.

Central to his plans is a merit-based, Canada-style immigration system that would replace the current American system that focuses on family reunification and a diversity lottery.

But is merit-based immigration the simple solution for the complex set of immigration-related issues facing the United States?

Canada&rsquo;s &ldquo;merit-based&rdquo; system provides some lessons for the United States. Despite the relative success of the Canadian merit-based system, Canada&rsquo;s experience shows there&rsquo;s no magic bullet.

What does &ldquo;merit-based&rdquo; mean?

&ldquo;Merit-based&rdquo; immigration systems are based on the principle of selecting newcomers according to their skills, education, adaptability, language proficiency and overall human capital.

These metrics, proponents argue, allow immigrants to fill specific labour market needs. But they also act as predictors of how a newcomer might adapt to a new social, economic and cultural environment.

Yet the notion of merit is complex, contextual and highly politicised.

All immigration selection programs are rooted in implicit and explicit definitions of merit, whether they&rsquo;re based on economic criteria, ideas of cultural compatibility or family relationships. From that standpoint, all immigration programs are &ldquo;merit-based&rdquo; systems.

Current U.S. political debates tend to pit the programs of some countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand against the U.S. system as it exists today.

As several analysts and researchers have shown, however, family ties and social links can also be considered a form of merit, and may have positive impacts on immigrants&rsquo; future contributions to their new home.

Consequently, when it comes to immigration, there is no objective definition of what &ldquo;merit&rdquo; really means.

Merit-based systems have also been criticized for reinforcing global human capital inequalities and for indirectly sorting candidates based on ethnic and cultural origins.

But proponents see merit-based systems as yielding better integration outcomes. They also argue that they allow for better management of immigration levels, build public trust and are more responsive to labour market dynamics.

Trump says the system will help ensure economic growth, economic mobility for both native-born Americans and immigrants and will close the door to unwanted immigrants.

Canada&rsquo;s &ldquo;merit-based&rdquo; system

Canada implemented a points system in 1967 in order to move away from origin-based selection of immigrants. Fifty years later, in 2017, Canada admitted 296,346 permanent legal immigrants. About 52 per cent of them entered through different categories of the &ldquo;economic&rdquo; class of the immigration program, Canada&rsquo;s own version of a &ldquo;merit-based&rdquo; immigration system.

Under this system, economic immigration candidates are evaluated and ranked using a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). It&rsquo;s a 100-point selection grid that considers factors such as age, education, work specialization, work experience in Canada and abroad as well as arranged employment in Canada.

Would-be immigrants to Canada are also evaluated for adaptability, measured by elements such as past experiences in Canada, but also by the presence of relatives in the country and their spouses&rsquo; language proficiency.

So even when measuring for &ldquo;merit,&rdquo; the Canadian immigration system does include a recognition of the importance of family ties and social networks.

What&rsquo;s more, not all of the 159,125 individuals who entered Canada through the economic class in 2017 were selected using the economic criteria.

Between 2006 and 2015, only 41 to 49 per cent of these individuals were selected directly based on their potential for contributing to the Canadian economy. The rest of the economic class is comprised of close family members of the main applicant, like spouses and children.

Nonetheless, Canada&rsquo;s experience overall with its immigration program has been positive. Among other benefits, it&rsquo;s been credited with building the Canadian public&rsquo;s support for relatively high immigration levels.

But merit-based immigration programs demand investment into the system, and they may have unintended consequences. Canada&rsquo;s merit-based program provides three important lessons for U.S. policymakers and citizens:

Lesson 1: &ldquo;Merit-based&rdquo; is only the beginning

A central argument by proponents of merit-based immigration is that it will lead to better immigrant integration outcomes.

While that&rsquo;s largely true, a constellation of social and state actions also affect how immigrants fare in their newly adopted homes.

Two are especially important: Immigrant integration services and efforts to find jobs for immigrants.

Canada funds immigrant integration programs that range from language training to information on jobs, bridging programs to jobs and job training. While Canada offers specific social programs for refugees, several services are also available to all classes of permanent immigrants.

Indeed, Canada plans to spend just over $1 billion on immigrant integration services in 2018.

Experience and research have shown these programs are critical to helping merit-based immigrants succeed economically and socially. They also increase immigrants&rsquo; overall sense of belonging to their new society and encourage social participation.

But integration services are not enough: Canada&rsquo;s experience shows that while immigrants selected based on their economic criteria fare better in the labour market than others, many of them still endure economic difficulties.

Underemployment, trouble entering the labour market and the need to go back to school, despite having university degrees, are all too common experiences for Canadian immigrants even if they meet the &ldquo;merit-based&rdquo; criteria.

Skills-based immigration programs can easily run amok if the labour market can&rsquo;t accommodate foreign education and skills credentials. As a consequence, both Canada&rsquo;s federal and provincial governments have had to invest in educating employers &mdash; and are still working to create and enforce standards for foreign skills recognition.

Canada&rsquo;s experience proves that a merit-based system demands much more than simply choosing &ldquo;the right&rdquo; immigrants. Governments must invest in supporting them once they&rsquo;ve been admitted.

Lesson 2: Immigrants &amp; labour market needs

Matching the demands of the labour market to new immigrants is a challenge. That&rsquo;s due in part to the difference between the speed at which labour markets evolve and how quickly an immigration system can operate to bring job-ready candidates to any given country and employer.

The challenge is compounded by popular and political ideas about who is an &ldquo;ideal&rdquo; economic immigrant &mdash; for example, a doctor or an engineer &mdash; and the actual labour needs of the country.

In the last 30 years, those types of disconnects have been a constant test in Canada but also in other countries.

In the early 1990s, the Canadian government&rsquo;s preferred solution was to select immigrants based on predictions about their capacity to adapt to a changing labour market. To do so, they used human capital as the main merit criterion. That had several unintended effects, including the underemployment of many immigrants and labour shortages in several technical sectors.

Since then, the Canadian government has made a move towards a more demand-based model, and provides provinces and territories as well as employers with a bigger say in the selection system.

More recently, the system was again amended to reintroduce human capital factors because the immigrants selected by the demand-driven model were not considered skilled enough.

Canada&rsquo;s experience is one of a tug of war between planning for long-term labour needs and short-term labour supply.

Despite these adjustments, current Canadian programs still struggle to address the needs of labour markets that are increasingly divided between the need for high-skilled versus low-skilled workers, like those in short supply in the service sector.

Consequently, Canada relies increasingly on temporary immigration to meet market demands. In the last 10 years, the number of so-called temporary foreign workers has grown tremendously, as have concerns about worker abuses and overall precarity.

And despite reforms aimed at providing temporary workers a path to permanent residency, the need for those low-skilled labourers runs counter to the long-term social and economic objective of Canada&rsquo;s merit-based system.

What is &ldquo;best&rdquo; for the economy, and what types of immigrants are most needed, often eschews simple answers.

Lesson 3: The need for bureaucrats

Trust in the bureaucracy is critical to a successful merit-based system. Any immigrant-selection system relies on a comprehensive, technical method of assessing would-be newcomers, the gathering of information on the labour market and on global migration trends, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of programs.

On the ground, considerable work is required to assess individual applications based on merit criteria. While technology makes these tasks easier than before, well-trained public servants and well-funded public infrastructure are needed. 
In Canada and elsewhere, government workers use research, field expertise and discretion to assess applicants. The need for accurate data along with the complexity of these programs often make elected officials dependent on the expertise and advice of public servants.

Bureaucrats are uniquely positioned to see the negative consequences of selection programs, and to propose innovative solutions based on their hands-on experience.

What&rsquo;s more, experiments that have involved employers in immigrant selection programs remain inconclusive. While they remain important partners, bureaucrats still have the advantage over employers in assessing immigrants.

The move to merit-based systems often politicize not only overall immigration levels, but also the very definition of &ldquo;merit.&rdquo;

The cacophony of partisan advice and political opinion on these often highly technical assessments of immigrants means it&rsquo;s crucial to have reliable data on immigration and unbiased analysis. The trust of Canadian elected officials in the country&rsquo;s immigration bureaucracy is one of the secret ingredients of its success.

Hardly a &lsquo;magic bullet&rsquo;

A merit-based immigration might address some of America&rsquo;s immigration challenges.

But it could also have negative consequences, especially as long as state-funded integration services remain comparatively limited and not accessible to all immigrants in the U.S..

The U.S. government will also need work to ensure that the immigrants it selects will respond to the actual labour market needs of its diverse economy. The distrust the Trump administration clearly harbours towards the American federal bureaucracy might also create considerable challenges to the design and implementation of a merit-based system.

Canada&rsquo;s experience shows that selecting immigrants based on economic merit is not a silver bullet. Finding the &ldquo;right&rdquo; immigrants is the only one step in a large group of government actions that support immigrants and the country overall.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Canada's experience shows that selecting immigrants based on economic merit is not a silver bullet; finding the "right" immigrants is the only the first step.

President Donald Trump has made comprehensive immigration reform in the United States one of his key legislative goals. He’s proposed bringing the U.S. immigration system “into the 21st century” by providing a path to citizenship for some undocumented migrants and by fully securing the country’s southern border. Central to his plans is a merit-based, Canada-style immigration system that would replace the current American system that focuses on family reunification and a diversity lottery. But is merit-based immigration the simple solution for the complex set of immigration-related issues facing the United States? Canada’s “merit-based” system provides some lessons for the United States. Despite the relative success of the Canadian merit-based system, Canada’s experience shows there’s no magic bullet. What does “merit-based” mean? “Merit-based” immigration systems are based on the principle of selecting newcomers according to their skills, education, adaptability, language proficiency and overall human capital. These metrics, proponents argue, allow immigrants to fill specific labour market needs. But they also act as predictors of how a newcomer might adapt to a new social, economic and cultural environment. Yet the notion of merit is complex, contextual and highly politicised. All immigration selection programs are rooted in implicit and explicit definitions of merit, whether they’re based on economic criteria, ideas of cultural compatibility or family relationships. From that standpoint, all immigration programs are “merit-based” systems. Current U.S. political debates tend to pit the programs of some countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand against the U.S. system as it exists today. As several analysts and researchers have shown, however, family ties and social links can also be considered a form of merit, and may have positive impacts on immigrants’ future contributions to their new home. Consequently, when it comes to immigration, there is no objective definition of what “merit” really means. Merit-based systems have also been criticized for reinforcing global human capital inequalities and for indirectly sorting candidates based on ethnic and cultural origins. But proponents see merit-based systems as yielding better integration outcomes. They also argue that they allow for better management of immigration levels, build public trust and are more responsive to labour market dynamics. Trump says the system will help ensure economic growth, economic mobility for both native-born Americans and immigrants and will close the door to unwanted immigrants. Canada’s “merit-based” system Canada implemented a points system in 1967 in order to move away from origin-based selection of immigrants. Fifty years later, in 2017, Canada admitted 296,346 permanent legal immigrants. About 52 per cent of them entered through different categories of the “economic” class of the immigration program, Canada’s own version of a “merit-based” immigration system. Under this system, economic immigration candidates are evaluated and ranked using a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). It’s a 100-point selection grid that considers factors such as age, education, work specialization, work experience in Canada and abroad as well as arranged employment in Canada. Would-be immigrants to Canada are also evaluated for adaptability, measured by elements such as past experiences in Canada, but also by the presence of relatives in the country and their spouses’ language proficiency. So even when measuring for “merit,” the Canadian immigration system does include a recognition of the importance of family ties and social networks. What’s more, not all of the 159,125 individuals who entered Canada through the economic class in 2017 were selected using the economic criteria. Between 2006 and 2015, only 41 to 49 per cent of these individuals were selected directly based on their potential for contributing to the Canadian economy. The rest of the economic class is comprised of close family members of the main applicant, like spouses and children. Nonetheless, Canada’s experience overall with its immigration program has been positive. Among other benefits, it’s been credited with building the Canadian public’s support for relatively high immigration levels. But merit-based immigration programs demand investment into the system, and they may have unintended consequences. Canada’s merit-based program provides three important lessons for U.S. policymakers and citizens: Lesson 1: “Merit-based” is only the beginning A central argument by proponents of merit-based immigration is that it will lead to better immigrant integration outcomes. While that’s largely true, a constellation of social and state actions also affect how immigrants fare in their newly adopted homes. Two are especially important: Immigrant integration services and efforts to find jobs for immigrants. Canada funds immigrant integration programs that range from language training to information on jobs, bridging programs to jobs and job training. While Canada offers specific social programs for refugees, several services are also available to all classes of permanent immigrants. Indeed, Canada plans to spend just over $1 billion on immigrant integration services in 2018. Experience and research have shown these programs are critical to helping merit-based immigrants succeed economically and socially. They also increase immigrants’ overall sense of belonging to their new society and encourage social participation. But integration services are not enough: Canada’s experience shows that while immigrants selected based on their economic criteria fare better in the labour market than others, many of them still endure economic difficulties. Underemployment, trouble entering the labour market and the need to go back to school, despite having university degrees, are all too common experiences for Canadian immigrants even if they meet the “merit-based” criteria. Skills-based immigration programs can easily run amok if the labour market can’t accommodate foreign education and skills credentials. As a consequence, both Canada’s federal and provincial governments have had to invest in educating employers — and are still working to create and enforce standards for foreign skills recognition. Canada’s experience proves that a merit-based system demands much more than simply choosing “the right” immigrants. Governments must invest in supporting them once they’ve been admitted. Lesson 2: Immigrants & labour market needs Matching the demands of the labour market to new immigrants is a challenge. That’s due in part to the difference between the speed at which labour markets evolve and how quickly an immigration system can operate to bring job-ready candidates to any given country and employer. The challenge is compounded by popular and political ideas about who is an “ideal” economic immigrant — for example, a doctor or an engineer — and the actual labour needs of the country. In the last 30 years, those types of disconnects have been a constant test in Canada but also in other countries. In the early 1990s, the Canadian government’s preferred solution was to select immigrants based on predictions about their capacity to adapt to a changing labour market. To do so, they used human capital as the main merit criterion. That had several unintended effects, including the underemployment of many immigrants and labour shortages in several technical sectors. Since then, the Canadian government has made a move towards a more demand-based model, and provides provinces and territories as well as employers with a bigger say in the selection system. More recently, the system was again amended to reintroduce human capital factors because the immigrants selected by the demand-driven model were not considered skilled enough. Canada’s experience is one of a tug of war between planning for long-term labour needs and short-term labour supply. Despite these adjustments, current Canadian programs still struggle to address the needs of labour markets that are increasingly divided between the need for high-skilled versus low-skilled workers, like those in short supply in the service sector. Consequently, Canada relies increasingly on temporary immigration to meet market demands. In the last 10 years, the number of so-called temporary foreign workers has grown tremendously, as have concerns about worker abuses and overall precarity. And despite reforms aimed at providing temporary workers a path to permanent residency, the need for those low-skilled labourers runs counter to the long-term social and economic objective of Canada’s merit-based system. What is “best” for the economy, and what types of immigrants are most needed, often eschews simple answers. Lesson 3: The need for bureaucrats Trust in the bureaucracy is critical to a successful merit-based system. Any immigrant-selection system relies on a comprehensive, technical method of assessing would-be newcomers, the gathering of information on the labour market and on global migration trends, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of programs. On the ground, considerable work is required to assess individual applications based on merit criteria. While technology makes these tasks easier than before, well-trained public servants and well-funded public infrastructure are needed. In Canada and elsewhere, government workers use research, field expertise and discretion to assess applicants. The need for accurate data along with the complexity of these programs often make elected officials dependent on the expertise and advice of public servants. Bureaucrats are uniquely positioned to see the negative consequences of selection programs, and to propose innovative solutions based on their hands-on experience. What’s more, experiments that have involved employers in immigrant selection programs remain inconclusive. While they remain important partners, bureaucrats still have the advantage over employers in assessing immigrants. The move to merit-based systems often politicize not only overall immigration levels, but also the very definition of “merit.” The cacophony of partisan advice and political opinion on these often highly technical assessments of immigrants means it’s crucial to have reliable data on immigration and unbiased analysis. The trust of Canadian elected officials in the country’s immigration bureaucracy is one of the secret ingredients of its success. Hardly a ‘magic bullet’ A merit-based immigration might address some of America’s immigration challenges. But it could also have negative consequences, especially as long as state-funded integration services remain comparatively limited and not accessible to all immigrants in the U.S.. The U.S. government will also need work to ensure that the immigrants it selects will respond to the actual labour market needs of its diverse economy. The distrust the Trump administration clearly harbours towards the American federal bureaucracy might also create considerable challenges to the design and implementation of a merit-based system. Canada’s experience shows that selecting immigrants based on economic merit is not a silver bullet. Finding the “right” immigrants is the only one step in a large group of government actions that support immigrants and the country overall. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: What Canada's Merit-based immigration can teach Trump administration

As the controversy over invitation to <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/khalistani-terrorist-should-never-have-been-invited-to-our-event-canada-33696">Punjab&nbsp;pro-Khalistani terrorist&nbsp;Jaspal </a>Atwal continued, the ministry of external affairs(MEA) said it was seeking information on how a visa was granted to Atwal.

Canadian minister of infrastructure <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/canadian-pm-justin-trudeau-cancels-dinner-invite-to-convicted-khalistani-terrorist-jaspal-atwal-33681">and communities Amarjeet Sohi</a> was photographed with Jaspal Atwal in Mumbai on February 20th. Atwal, a former member of banned terrorist group international sikh youth federation, was invited for dinner with PM Justin Trudeau in Delhi today.

Jaspal Atwal was convicted of attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986, he was one of four men who allegedly ambushed and shot at Sidhu&#39;s car.

&quot;There are two aspects to it, presence and visa. The Canadian side has already clarified that the invitation has been withdrawn,&quot; MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

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Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986, he was one of four men who ambushed &amp; shot at Sidhu&#39;s car. (Pic: Invite to Jaspal Atwal for dinner with Canadian PM <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JustinTrudeau?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JustinTrudeau</a>, Source: CBC News) <a href="https://t.co/dqZpWEwgls">pic.twitter.com/dqZpWEwgls</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/966509089277861888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&quot;About the visa, I don&#39;t know how it happened. We have ascertained information from our Commission,&quot; the spokesman added.

As the issue blew up both sides quickly went on damage control mode, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said: &quot;We take this extremely seriously, he should never have received an invitation. As soon as we received the information we rescinded it.&quot; The Canadian PM added&nbsp;that a member of Parliament had included Atwal.

&quot;Let us not presume things and decide how he managed to come. This is something which we are trying to find out. In due course, we will be able to come up with a reason that how he managed to come in India,&quot; the ministry of external affairs spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai has taken responsibility for inviting&nbsp;Jaspal Atwal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau&#39;s reception dinner in New Delhi, which is scheduled to take place later on Thursday.

&quot;I alone facilitated his request to attend this important event. I should have exercised better judgment, and I take full responsibility for my actions,&quot; Sarai said in a statement, which Canadian journalist Abigail Bimman shared on Twitter.

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.<a href="https://twitter.com/randeepssarai?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@randeepssarai</a> takes responsibility for inviting Jaspal Atwal and apologizes. Full statement here. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cdnpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/4nVdkBuxWz">pic.twitter.com/4nVdkBuxWz</a>
&mdash; Abigail Bimman (@AbigailBimman) <a href="https://twitter.com/AbigailBimman/status/966614335199080448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

As the issue blew up both sides quickly went on damage control mode

As the controversy over invitation to Punjab pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal continued, the ministry of external affairs(MEA) said it was seeking information on how a visa was granted to Atwal. Canadian minister of infrastructure and communities Amarjeet Sohi was photographed with Jaspal Atwal in Mumbai on February 20th. Atwal, a former member of banned terrorist group international sikh youth federation, was invited for dinner with PM Justin Trudeau in Delhi today. Jaspal Atwal was convicted of attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986, he was one of four men who allegedly ambushed and shot at Sidhu's car. "There are two aspects to it, presence and visa. The Canadian side has already clarified that the invitation has been withdrawn," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986, he was one of four men who ambushed & shot at Sidhu's car. (Pic: Invite to Jaspal Atwal for dinner with Canadian PM #JustinTrudeau, Source: CBC News) pic.twitter.com/dqZpWEwgls — ANI (@ANI) February 22, 2018 × "About the visa, I don't know how it happened. We have ascertained information from our Commission," the spokesman added. As the issue blew up both sides quickly went on damage control mode, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said: "We take this extremely seriously, he should never have received an invitation. As soon as we received the information we rescinded it." The Canadian PM added that a member of Parliament had included Atwal. "Let us not presume things and decide how he managed to come. This is something which we are trying to find out. In due course, we will be able to come up with a reason that how he managed to come in India," the ministry of external affairs spokesman said. Meanwhile, Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai has taken responsibility for inviting Jaspal Atwal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's reception dinner in New Delhi, which is scheduled to take place later on Thursday. "I alone facilitated his request to attend this important event. I should have exercised better judgment, and I take full responsibility for my actions," Sarai said in a statement, which Canadian journalist Abigail Bimman shared on Twitter. .@randeepssarai takes responsibility for inviting Jaspal Atwal and apologizes. Full statement here. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/4nVdkBuxWz — Abigail Bimman (@AbigailBimman) February 22, 2018 ×

Canadian MP Randeep Sarai takes responsibility for inviting Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal to India

Canadian journalist Candice Malcolm told WION&nbsp;Thursday that &quot;Canadians are surprised that Trudeau&#39;s reception (in India) hasn&#39;t been very welcoming.&quot; &nbsp;

She added that &quot;Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not meet Trudeau at the airport and that it looks like the trip is more like a family vacation for Trudeau as opposed to official business.&quot;&nbsp;

The story that the <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/canada-seems-to-think-india-is-snubbing-trudeau-govt-says-no-33354" target="_blank">Indian government might be &quot;snubbing&quot; Trudeau</a> has been picked up by both the Indian and international media.

Trudeau after all tends to generate a large amount of buzz wherever he goes but that hasn&#39;t been the case here in India.

The problem is that the Canadian prime minister has four Sikh MPs in his cabinet, some of whom India says have links to Khalistani terrorists. And Trudeau has in the past said that they are entitled to support the idea of a free Khalistan.&nbsp;

Things got worse on Thursday when it was discovered that a convicted Khalistani terrorist had been invited to a dinner -- to be held Thursday night -- hosted by the Canadian high commissioner to Delhi.&nbsp;

Canadian officials ran to do some damage control; the invite was rescinded and the Canadian PMO said Jaspal Atwal should <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/khalistani-terrorist-should-never-have-been-invited-to-our-event-canada-33696" target="_blank">never have been invited</a>.&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a> Canadian Minister Kirsty Duncan speaks about dinner reception invite to Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal, says, &#39;this person of course shouldn&#39;t have been invited.Invitation has now been rescinded. We are looking into how it happened.&#39; Refuses to answer further questions. <a href="https://t.co/oR1QD9Q69C">pic.twitter.com/oR1QD9Q69C</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/966587001339367424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&quot;This story that an extreme, radical and convicted criminal being invited as part of Trudeau&#39;s entourage is very disturbing, very upsetting for Canadians. The judgement of our PM is being called into question as to why he would invite such an individual,&quot; Malcom told WION&#39;s Ramesh Ramachandran.&nbsp;

&quot;I don&#39;t think it&#39;s necessarily expected,&quot; Malcom said when she was asked about the alleged &quot;cold shoulder&quot; given to Trudeau. (The Indian government has refuted the allegation, saying it is not possible for the prime minister to accompany every visiting head of state.) &nbsp;

&quot;When our PM goes somewhere, it&#39;s expected that people get excited. But in India, his political activities in Canada are catching up with him and it&#39;s totally reasonable for the Indian government to have issues with the way that Trudeau is acting by having partisan political events with his Liberal Party that include Khalistani radicals and separatists that are causing problems in India,&quot; Malcolm added.&nbsp;

Malcolm was asked why Trudeau might be reluctant to call out the Khalistani leaders on their separatism.&nbsp;

&quot;Canadians can express their own political views but as the PM, Trudeau has a higher responsibility and it&#39;s irresponsible for him to be pandering and seemingly associating with extremists and terrorists by going to events where he is pictured with so-called murderers or extremists and terrorists. This is very divisive and our PM should have better judgement and should stay away from those types of events,&quot; she answered.&nbsp;

She also offered an answer as to why that might be the case, saying: &quot;Justin Trudeau has a large Sikh constituency in Canada. He relies on Sikh votes, especially in Toronto and Vancouver. Most Sikhs in Canada are not extremists, not terrorists. They don&#39;t believe in this idea of an independent Khalistan but some members do. And Trudeau doen&#39;s seem to have the right judgement in drawing that distinction. And it&#39;s not right for Canadians to get involved in other countries&#39; internal politics. Canadians wouldn&#39;t like world leaders, say PM Modi, spending time and supporting Quebec separatists in our country. So we should have that respect for India and Trudeau and the Liberal Party should stay away from extremists like the Khalistani groups.

Canadian journalist Candice Malcolm spoke with WION's Ramesh Ramachandran

Canadian journalist Candice Malcolm told WION Thursday that "Canadians are surprised that Trudeau's reception (in India) hasn't been very welcoming." She added that "Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not meet Trudeau at the airport and that it looks like the trip is more like a family vacation for Trudeau as opposed to official business." The story that the Indian government might be "snubbing" Trudeau has been picked up by both the Indian and international media. Trudeau after all tends to generate a large amount of buzz wherever he goes but that hasn't been the case here in India. The problem is that the Canadian prime minister has four Sikh MPs in his cabinet, some of whom India says have links to Khalistani terrorists. And Trudeau has in the past said that they are entitled to support the idea of a free Khalistan. Things got worse on Thursday when it was discovered that a convicted Khalistani terrorist had been invited to a dinner -- to be held Thursday night -- hosted by the Canadian high commissioner to Delhi. Canadian officials ran to do some damage control; the invite was rescinded and the Canadian PMO said Jaspal Atwal should never have been invited. #WATCH Canadian Minister Kirsty Duncan speaks about dinner reception invite to Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal, says, 'this person of course shouldn't have been invited.Invitation has now been rescinded. We are looking into how it happened.' Refuses to answer further questions. pic.twitter.com/oR1QD9Q69C — ANI (@ANI) February 22, 2018 × "This story that an extreme, radical and convicted criminal being invited as part of Trudeau's entourage is very disturbing, very upsetting for Canadians. The judgement of our PM is being called into question as to why he would invite such an individual," Malcom told WION's Ramesh Ramachandran. "I don't think it's necessarily expected," Malcom said when she was asked about the alleged "cold shoulder" given to Trudeau. (The Indian government has refuted the allegation, saying it is not possible for the prime minister to accompany every visiting head of state.) "When our PM goes somewhere, it's expected that people get excited. But in India, his political activities in Canada are catching up with him and it's totally reasonable for the Indian government to have issues with the way that Trudeau is acting by having partisan political events with his Liberal Party that include Khalistani radicals and separatists that are causing problems in India," Malcolm added. Malcolm was asked why Trudeau might be reluctant to call out the Khalistani leaders on their separatism. "Canadians can express their own political views but as the PM, Trudeau has a higher responsibility and it's irresponsible for him to be pandering and seemingly associating with extremists and terrorists by going to events where he is pictured with so-called murderers or extremists and terrorists. This is very divisive and our PM should have better judgement and should stay away from those types of events," she answered. She also offered an answer as to why that might be the case, saying: "Justin Trudeau has a large Sikh constituency in Canada. He relies on Sikh votes, especially in Toronto and Vancouver. Most Sikhs in Canada are not extremists, not terrorists. They don't believe in this idea of an independent Khalistan but some members do. And Trudeau doen's seem to have the right judgement in drawing that distinction. And it's not right for Canadians to get involved in other countries' internal politics. Canadians wouldn't like world leaders, say PM Modi, spending time and supporting Quebec separatists in our country. So we should have that respect for India and Trudeau and the Liberal Party should stay away from extremists like the Khalistani groups.

'Canadians surprised Trudeau's reception hasn't been welcoming'

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/canadian-mp-randeep-sarai-takes-responsibility-for-inviting-khalistani-terrorist-jaspal-atwal-33716" target="_blank">Canadian MP Randeep Sarai takes responsibility for inviting Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal to India</a>

As the controversy over invitation to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/khalistani-terrorist-should-never-have-been-invited-to-our-event-canada-33696">Punjab&nbsp;pro-Khalistani terrorist&nbsp;Jaspal&nbsp;</a>Atwal continued, the ministry of external affairs(MEA) said it was seeking information on how a visa was granted to Atwal.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/i-never-said-give-guns-to-teachers-says-trump-33729" target="_blank">&#39;I never said give guns to teachers,&#39; says Trump</a>

President Trump today denied that he said teachers should be given guns to protect students from shooters. &quot;I never said give teachers guns,&quot; the president tweeted.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/china-saudi-arabia-turkey-blocked-us-move-to-place-pak-on-terror-financing-watch-list-report-33707" target="_blank">China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey blocked </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/china-saudi-arabia-turkey-blocked-us-move-to-place-pak-on-terror-financing-watch-list-report-33707" target="_blank">US</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/china-saudi-arabia-turkey-blocked-us-move-to-place-pak-on-terror-financing-watch-list-report-33707" target="_blank"> move to place Pak on terror-financing watch list: Report</a>

A report in the Wall Street Journal(WSJ) said three countries -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/us-moves-motion-to-place-pakistan-on-a-global-terrorist-financing-watchlist-at-fatf-32787">China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey</a>&nbsp;blocked the US efforts to place Pakistan on the &nbsp;Financial Action Task Force(FATF) watchlist.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/pak-army-on-modernisation-path-under-general-bajwa-33721" target="_blank">Pak army on </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/pak-army-on-modernisation-path-under-general-bajwa-33721" target="_blank">modernisation</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/pak-army-on-modernisation-path-under-general-bajwa-33721" target="_blank"> path under General Bajwa</a>

Pakistan Army has formulated a training policy for next three years starting from July 1st, 2017. The latest move is being seen as Pakistan&#39;s attempt to create a territorial army.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/delhi-chief-secretary-assault-case-aap-mlas-sent-to-judicial-custody-for-14-days-33728" target="_blank">Delhi Chief Secretary assault </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/delhi-chief-secretary-assault-case-aap-mlas-sent-to-judicial-custody-for-14-days-33728" target="_blank">case :</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/delhi-chief-secretary-assault-case-aap-mlas-sent-to-judicial-custody-for-14-days-33728" target="_blank"> AAP MLAs sent to judicial custody for 14 days</a>

Canadian MP Randeep Sarai takes responsibility for inviting Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal to India As the controversy over invitation to Punjab pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal continued, the ministry of external affairs(MEA) said it was seeking information on how a visa was granted to Atwal. 'I never said give guns to teachers,' says Trump President Trump today denied that he said teachers should be given guns to protect students from shooters. "I never said give teachers guns," the president tweeted. China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey blocked US move to place Pak on terror-financing watch list: Report A report in the Wall Street Journal(WSJ) said three countries - China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey blocked the US efforts to place Pakistan on the Financial Action Task Force(FATF) watchlist. Pak army on modernisation path under General Bajwa Pakistan Army has formulated a training policy for next three years starting from July 1st, 2017. The latest move is being seen as Pakistan's attempt to create a territorial army. Delhi Chief Secretary assault case : AAP MLAs sent to judicial custody for 14 days

WION Evening news brief, February 22, 2018

By Saumyajit Ray*

The recent visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to India comes right on the heels of the decision by major Canadian gurudwaras (the Sikh place of worship) banning the entry of Indian diplomats in their official capacity. In April last year, during the India visit of Canada&rsquo;s Defense Minister, Harjit Sajjan, Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh accused Canadian Sikhs (including Sajjan) of being Khalistan sympathizers. This is over and above the hobnobbing that politicians of all hues in Canada indulge in with Sikh separatists in that country and the periodic yet regular glorification of dead Sikh extremist leaders during public functions in Canadian gurudwaras.

Though Prime Minister Trudeau is slated to meet the Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today. The no-nonsense Capt. Amarinder Singh, a scion of the Patiala royal family with impeccable nationalist credentials, has sent a strong message - Sikh leaders in India are unwilling to take their community back to a tragic and violent past that transformed the once-prosperous state into a vast killing field, snuffing out thousands of lives, and driving a wedge between Hindus and Sikhs for more than a decade.

If Canadian leaders do not wish to accept this truth and are bent upon flogging a dead horse, then relations between the two countries are bound to sour despite decades of strong business and cultural ties. The India of 2018 is not the India of 1985.

But is the Khalistan movement in Canada really a dead horse? Going by the glorification of dead Khalistan activists, it is not. Going by the plethora of Canada-based websites espousing Khalistan, it is not. And, going by the funds raised by Khalistan sympathizers for the election efforts of Canadian politicians cutting across party lines, it is not. But then under no stretch of imagination can such concerted Sikh activity in Canada be termed a &ldquo;movement&rdquo;.

The Khalistan cause does not have a widespread following in Canada, not even in areas with high Sikh populations like that of British Columbia, where Sikhs are nearly 5% as against the national percentage 1.4%. &nbsp;Nor do all gurudwaras in Canada give credence to pro-Khalistan sentiments. Many of them do not subscribe to the ban on the entry of Indian diplomatic officials in their official capacity in their precincts).&nbsp;

At the height of the Khalistan movement in the mid-1980s, led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from India and Jagjit Singh Chauhan in Britain (both long dead), Canada was indeed a hotbed of Sikh separatism and consequent anti-Indian activity. There is no doubt that the federal government of Canada and the various provincial governments had allowed Canadian soil to be used for activities directed at weakening and undermining the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India. This may have been an unintended consequence of Canada&rsquo;s official policy of multiculturalism, but it created mayhem in India, another multicultural and officially faith-neutral country.

Canadian Sikhs had pumped millions of dollars into the murderously violent Khalistan insurgency in Punjab and the rest of north India, before and after the tragic and ill-conceived Operation Bluestar. That had razed the Akal Takht, the highest seat of Sikh temporal and spiritual authority, and damaged the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), the holiest of Sikh shrines. Though the government of India, under the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, succeeded in liberating the Golden Temple premises from the clutches of Sikh militants. It had scarred the Sikh collective psyche forever, expanding and deepening the alienation that the Sikh community everywhere (including expatriate Sikhs in Canada) suffered from. Less than six months after that notorious military action in Amritsar, Indira Gandhi herself paid with her life when she was gunned won by her own Sikh bodyguards at her official residence in New Delhi. It took more than a decade after that to get things back to normal in the beleaguered state of Punjab.&nbsp;

But for many Sikhs in Canada, the Khalistan cause was not a lost one. Even though the stories of woe and injustice in Punjab had stopped trickling into Canadian Sikh congregations, the dream of an independent Sikh state&mdash;expressed best in the slogan Raj karega Khalsa (the Khalsa shall rule)&mdash;lived on among Sikhs in Canada and the United States. Sikhs were and continue to be major sources of voter support and election funds for both liberals and conservatives in the two countries. And party leaders there, especially in Canada, have not been averse to support Khalistan from official platforms. Quite a large number of Sikhs have entered Canadian politics and hold official positions, and it is at them that Capt. Amarinder Singh had raised his finger, accusing them of keeping alive the Khalistan issue.&nbsp;

It is too early to predict whether discontent with India and the unfulfilled dream of a Sikh state among Canadian Sikhs have the potential of reviving the Khalistan &ldquo;movement&rdquo;. But there is no doubt that they have carved out for themselves a distinct identity&mdash;quite separate from the greater Indian immigrant identity&mdash;in that country.&nbsp;

It is evident that they have taken the advantage of Canadian official multiculturalism to cultivate such an identity, but in Indian eyes, it is nothing but collective attempts at reviving separatism. In India, though Sikhism remains as strong and vibrant as ever, Khalistan is history. Punjab and the rest of India look forward to the likes of Captain Amarinder Singh to cremate it for all times to come.&nbsp;

*Saumyajit Ray teaches at&nbsp;Centre for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies, School of International Studies, JNU.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;

It is evident Khalistanis have taken advantage of Canadian official multiculturalism to cultivate an identity, but in Indian eyes, it is nothing but collective attempts at reviving separatism.

By Saumyajit Ray* The recent visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to India comes right on the heels of the decision by major Canadian gurudwaras (the Sikh place of worship) banning the entry of Indian diplomats in their official capacity. In April last year, during the India visit of Canada’s Defense Minister, Harjit Sajjan, Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh accused Canadian Sikhs (including Sajjan) of being Khalistan sympathizers. This is over and above the hobnobbing that politicians of all hues in Canada indulge in with Sikh separatists in that country and the periodic yet regular glorification of dead Sikh extremist leaders during public functions in Canadian gurudwaras. Though Prime Minister Trudeau is slated to meet the Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today. The no-nonsense Capt. Amarinder Singh, a scion of the Patiala royal family with impeccable nationalist credentials, has sent a strong message - Sikh leaders in India are unwilling to take their community back to a tragic and violent past that transformed the once-prosperous state into a vast killing field, snuffing out thousands of lives, and driving a wedge between Hindus and Sikhs for more than a decade. If Canadian leaders do not wish to accept this truth and are bent upon flogging a dead horse, then relations between the two countries are bound to sour despite decades of strong business and cultural ties. The India of 2018 is not the India of 1985. But is the Khalistan movement in Canada really a dead horse? Going by the glorification of dead Khalistan activists, it is not. Going by the plethora of Canada-based websites espousing Khalistan, it is not. And, going by the funds raised by Khalistan sympathizers for the election efforts of Canadian politicians cutting across party lines, it is not. But then under no stretch of imagination can such concerted Sikh activity in Canada be termed a “movement”. The Khalistan cause does not have a widespread following in Canada, not even in areas with high Sikh populations like that of British Columbia, where Sikhs are nearly 5% as against the national percentage 1.4%. Nor do all gurudwaras in Canada give credence to pro-Khalistan sentiments. Many of them do not subscribe to the ban on the entry of Indian diplomatic officials in their official capacity in their precincts). At the height of the Khalistan movement in the mid-1980s, led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from India and Jagjit Singh Chauhan in Britain (both long dead), Canada was indeed a hotbed of Sikh separatism and consequent anti-Indian activity. There is no doubt that the federal government of Canada and the various provincial governments had allowed Canadian soil to be used for activities directed at weakening and undermining the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India. This may have been an unintended consequence of Canada’s official policy of multiculturalism, but it created mayhem in India, another multicultural and officially faith-neutral country. Canadian Sikhs had pumped millions of dollars into the murderously violent Khalistan insurgency in Punjab and the rest of north India, before and after the tragic and ill-conceived Operation Bluestar. That had razed the Akal Takht, the highest seat of Sikh temporal and spiritual authority, and damaged the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), the holiest of Sikh shrines. Though the government of India, under the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, succeeded in liberating the Golden Temple premises from the clutches of Sikh militants. It had scarred the Sikh collective psyche forever, expanding and deepening the alienation that the Sikh community everywhere (including expatriate Sikhs in Canada) suffered from. Less than six months after that notorious military action in Amritsar, Indira Gandhi herself paid with her life when she was gunned won by her own Sikh bodyguards at her official residence in New Delhi. It took more than a decade after that to get things back to normal in the beleaguered state of Punjab. But for many Sikhs in Canada, the Khalistan cause was not a lost one. Even though the stories of woe and injustice in Punjab had stopped trickling into Canadian Sikh congregations, the dream of an independent Sikh state—expressed best in the slogan Raj karega Khalsa (the Khalsa shall rule)—lived on among Sikhs in Canada and the United States. Sikhs were and continue to be major sources of voter support and election funds for both liberals and conservatives in the two countries. And party leaders there, especially in Canada, have not been averse to support Khalistan from official platforms. Quite a large number of Sikhs have entered Canadian politics and hold official positions, and it is at them that Capt. Amarinder Singh had raised his finger, accusing them of keeping alive the Khalistan issue. It is too early to predict whether discontent with India and the unfulfilled dream of a Sikh state among Canadian Sikhs have the potential of reviving the Khalistan “movement”. But there is no doubt that they have carved out for themselves a distinct identity—quite separate from the greater Indian immigrant identity—in that country. It is evident that they have taken the advantage of Canadian official multiculturalism to cultivate such an identity, but in Indian eyes, it is nothing but collective attempts at reviving separatism. In India, though Sikhism remains as strong and vibrant as ever, Khalistan is history. Punjab and the rest of India look forward to the likes of Captain Amarinder Singh to cremate it for all times to come. *Saumyajit Ray teaches at Centre for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies, School of International Studies, JNU. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Khalistan is history, Amarinder Singh should state to Trudeau

India and Canada had historically enjoyed good relationships. On 15th August 1947, when India got Independence, many shop owners in Canada displayed banners on their establishments to celebrate this. Over the years, Canada became one of the biggest hubs of Indian community abroad, particularly the Punjabis.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

However, on 18th May 2017, when Mr Tejinder Singh Dhillon, a retired CRPF officer reached Vancouver Airport along with his wife, he was stopped by the immigration officials on the pretext that he belongs to a country which has indulged in &ldquo;Terrorism, Systematic or gross human rights violation, or Genocide&rdquo;. This diatribe was targeted towards suppression of the Khalistan movement by the Indian Government. Both were interrogated for over 12 hours by junior officials who used derogatory language and, finally, told them to leave the country even after a friend and ruling Liberal Party politician Surender Purewal intervened. This was an unexpected move but the seeds were sown much earlier.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

In November 2015, when the Liberal Party government under&nbsp; Juatin Trudeau took over, he appointed four hardliner Sikh as ministers in the government, which included Harjit Singh Sajjan as Defence Minister and Amarjit Sohi as Minister of Infrastructure. All four of these ministers have been known to be sympathetic to the Khalistan movement.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Another incident made the pro-Khalistan sentiment of the current government further evident when on 30th April 2017, PM Trudeau attended a Khalsa Day Celebration in Toronto where Khalistan Flags were openly hoisted and banners with photographs of known terrorists like Bhindrawale were displayed. Not only this, in the event, Mr Trudeau even felicitated some of the people who were known as notorious Khalistan supporters.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

India&rsquo;s reaction is obvious. No country will accept that its perpetrators are felicitated by the head of state of another PM and the effect is seen over the visit of Mr Trudeau to India. Unlike his hug diplomacy, Mr Modi did not break the protocol and went to receive him at the tarmac. None of the senior ministers were also present and the minister sent to receive him was Mr Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer&rsquo;s Welfare. Protocol-wise he is much junior to receive the head of state of a country like Canada.&nbsp; The second message was indirectly conveyed when he visited Taj Mahal at Agra and the visit was totally ignored by Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath. And further to add, none of the ministers is accompanying him during his Gujarat Visit.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Earlier in April 2017, when Harjit Singh Sajjan, the Defence Minister of Canada visited India and then to his hometown in Hoshiarpur, he was not accompanied by any central or state minister. It was widely accepted that this was not liked by the Punjab CM Amarinder Singh who had been openly accusing the ministers in Trudeau cabinet for their wholehearted support to Khalistan separatists. The Canadian reaction was also immediate when Amarinder Singh was denied meeting with Punjabis in Toronto and Vancouver.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

India wants to convey its message loud and clear, we would not like you to harbour the elements deemed dangerous for the sovereignty of the nation. Canada and Punjab in India had been inseparable for so many decades. More than 3.5% of the Canadian population comes from Punjab and, over the last so many decades, Punjabis have contributed significantly to the development of the North American country. Their role in the future of Canada is also clearly visible to the global community and this is the reason that despite all odds, Trudeau visited India to take the first step towards re-defining the relationship.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Both the countries have a long way to go especially in the fields of nuclear energy, bilateral trade which is still hovering around 6-7 Billion US $ annually. There is a large scope in the field of bilateral cooperation in defence, agriculture, industries, IT and renewable energy on which both countries can mutually progress. Khalistan had been an issue of the past and claimed more than 21,000 lives. This needs to be buried forever which can be done by the strong will of both the leaders.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

On one hand, while Trudeau needs to curb the anti-India and pro-Khalistan activities in his regime, Modi also must understand the might of Punjabi community settled in Canada. Petty incidents like the ones mentioned above can sometimes derail the process and it is the responsibility of both leaders to get this moving.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

While Trudeau needs to curb the anti-India and pro-Khalistan activities in his regime, Modi also must understand the might of Punjabi community settled in Canada.

India and Canada had historically enjoyed good relationships. On 15th August 1947, when India got Independence, many shop owners in Canada displayed banners on their establishments to celebrate this. Over the years, Canada became one of the biggest hubs of Indian community abroad, particularly the Punjabis. However, on 18th May 2017, when Mr Tejinder Singh Dhillon, a retired CRPF officer reached Vancouver Airport along with his wife, he was stopped by the immigration officials on the pretext that he belongs to a country which has indulged in “Terrorism, Systematic or gross human rights violation, or Genocide”. This diatribe was targeted towards suppression of the Khalistan movement by the Indian Government. Both were interrogated for over 12 hours by junior officials who used derogatory language and, finally, told them to leave the country even after a friend and ruling Liberal Party politician Surender Purewal intervened. This was an unexpected move but the seeds were sown much earlier. In November 2015, when the Liberal Party government under Juatin Trudeau took over, he appointed four hardliner Sikh as ministers in the government, which included Harjit Singh Sajjan as Defence Minister and Amarjit Sohi as Minister of Infrastructure. All four of these ministers have been known to be sympathetic to the Khalistan movement. Another incident made the pro-Khalistan sentiment of the current government further evident when on 30th April 2017, PM Trudeau attended a Khalsa Day Celebration in Toronto where Khalistan Flags were openly hoisted and banners with photographs of known terrorists like Bhindrawale were displayed. Not only this, in the event, Mr Trudeau even felicitated some of the people who were known as notorious Khalistan supporters. India’s reaction is obvious. No country will accept that its perpetrators are felicitated by the head of state of another PM and the effect is seen over the visit of Mr Trudeau to India. Unlike his hug diplomacy, Mr Modi did not break the protocol and went to receive him at the tarmac. None of the senior ministers were also present and the minister sent to receive him was Mr Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare. Protocol-wise he is much junior to receive the head of state of a country like Canada. The second message was indirectly conveyed when he visited Taj Mahal at Agra and the visit was totally ignored by Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath. And further to add, none of the ministers is accompanying him during his Gujarat Visit. Earlier in April 2017, when Harjit Singh Sajjan, the Defence Minister of Canada visited India and then to his hometown in Hoshiarpur, he was not accompanied by any central or state minister. It was widely accepted that this was not liked by the Punjab CM Amarinder Singh who had been openly accusing the ministers in Trudeau cabinet for their wholehearted support to Khalistan separatists. The Canadian reaction was also immediate when Amarinder Singh was denied meeting with Punjabis in Toronto and Vancouver. India wants to convey its message loud and clear, we would not like you to harbour the elements deemed dangerous for the sovereignty of the nation. Canada and Punjab in India had been inseparable for so many decades. More than 3.5% of the Canadian population comes from Punjab and, over the last so many decades, Punjabis have contributed significantly to the development of the North American country. Their role in the future of Canada is also clearly visible to the global community and this is the reason that despite all odds, Trudeau visited India to take the first step towards re-defining the relationship. Both the countries have a long way to go especially in the fields of nuclear energy, bilateral trade which is still hovering around 6-7 Billion US $ annually. There is a large scope in the field of bilateral cooperation in defence, agriculture, industries, IT and renewable energy on which both countries can mutually progress. Khalistan had been an issue of the past and claimed more than 21,000 lives. This needs to be buried forever which can be done by the strong will of both the leaders. On one hand, while Trudeau needs to curb the anti-India and pro-Khalistan activities in his regime, Modi also must understand the might of Punjabi community settled in Canada. Petty incidents like the ones mentioned above can sometimes derail the process and it is the responsibility of both leaders to get this moving. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Why India and Canada need to look beyond Khalistan

In the wake of the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the death of Colten Boushie, there have been loud calls for reform to address Canada&rsquo;s blatant systemic racism in the criminal justice system.

Boushie, 22, died after being shot by Stanley in the back of the head as he sat in an SUV on a farm near Biggar, Sask.

The Canadian justice system works against Indigenous people at every level, from police checks and arrests to bail denial and detention, sentencing miscarriages and disparities and high incarceration rates.

These trends are also well-documented in countries like the United States, Australia and New Zealand. It is clear that the problem lies in our justice systems.

Around the time that Canada started receding its formal &ldquo;Indian assimilation&rdquo; policies in the 1950s, including the end of the residential school requirement, penitentiary and child welfare systems started to quietly assume a new role in the lives of Indigenous people.

In fact, prior to the 1960s, Indigenous people only represented one to two per cent of the federal prison population. The rates have consistently increased every year since.

The Office of the Correctional Investigator reports the incarceration rate of Indigenous people is now at 26.4 per cent of the federal prison population, while they comprise only four per cent of the Canadian population. Incidentally, the Canadian crime rate has fallen in the last 20 years.

Placed in segregation

Not only are Indigenous people more likely to be imprisoned, but they are also more often subjected to some of the most restrictive levels of punishment, including segregation, forced interventions, higher security classifications, involuntary transfers, physical restraints and self-harm.&nbsp;

Kinew James died of a heart attack after the emergency call button in her cell was routinely ignored at the Saskatoon Regional Psychiatric Centre.

Eddie Snowshoe committed suicide after 162 days in solitary confinement at the Edmonton maximum security institution.

Renee Acoby accumulated an additional 21 years of charges in prison, spent more than half of her time in segregation, and was eventually given a dangerous offender designation for a series of prison hostage-takings. She is now effectively behind bars for life.

Addressing these deeply problematic prison realities is currently at the forefront of the government of Canada&rsquo;s criminal justice review, including two House of Commons studies and one by a Senate committee.

In considering remedies, two important issues are at play.

Imprisoned more often

First, Indigenous people are more often criminalized and imprisoned for acts that are linked to poverty, lack of educational and employment opportunities, lifestyles of substance use, mental health concerns and histories of sexual abuse, violence and trauma &mdash; in other words, colonialism.

Second, prisons are characterized by authoritarianism, power imbalances, restriction of movement and activities, isolation, lack of freedom of association and enforcement of sometimes arbitrary and trivial demands. Prison environments often reflect and even perpetuate the very trauma and violence experienced by Indigenous people.&nbsp;

The federal government would do well to consider community options.

According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, it costs upwards of $343,810 to incarcerate one woman for a year and $223,687 to incarcerate a man. The community placement option, on the other hand, is priced at $85,653 per year per person, and parole costs as little as $39,084.

There are already existing remedies in the Correctional and Conditional Release Act, Sections 81 and 84, that allow for agreements in the community where Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners can serve their sentence and parole in a supported way.

If we want to alleviate the conditions that foster conflict and harm in the first place, we also need to ensure that basic national standards and human rights are being met for Indigenous people.

The private members&rsquo; Bill C-262, which outlines the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, just passed its second reading.

Approving this bill would ensure some of the most basic rights for Indigenous communities, including the provision of clean water, electricity, employment, education and adequate social and health services.

In its calls to action, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has recommended that the federal, provincial and territorial governments make a commitment to eliminate the over-representation of Indigenous people in custody over the next decade.

If the federal government takes up this call, prisons would no longer be part of the solution. As noted by Romeo Saganash, NDP&rsquo;s critic for Intergovernmental Indigenous Affairs, &ldquo;there will be no reconciliation without justice.&rdquo;&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Colten Boushie's death and the subsequent acquittal of his killer has fuelled loud calls for reforms to Canada's criminal justice system and its treatment of the Indigenous. Why has it taken so long?

In the wake of the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the death of Colten Boushie, there have been loud calls for reform to address Canada’s blatant systemic racism in the criminal justice system. Boushie, 22, died after being shot by Stanley in the back of the head as he sat in an SUV on a farm near Biggar, Sask. The Canadian justice system works against Indigenous people at every level, from police checks and arrests to bail denial and detention, sentencing miscarriages and disparities and high incarceration rates. These trends are also well-documented in countries like the United States, Australia and New Zealand. It is clear that the problem lies in our justice systems. Around the time that Canada started receding its formal “Indian assimilation” policies in the 1950s, including the end of the residential school requirement, penitentiary and child welfare systems started to quietly assume a new role in the lives of Indigenous people. In fact, prior to the 1960s, Indigenous people only represented one to two per cent of the federal prison population. The rates have consistently increased every year since. The Office of the Correctional Investigator reports the incarceration rate of Indigenous people is now at 26.4 per cent of the federal prison population, while they comprise only four per cent of the Canadian population. Incidentally, the Canadian crime rate has fallen in the last 20 years. Placed in segregation Not only are Indigenous people more likely to be imprisoned, but they are also more often subjected to some of the most restrictive levels of punishment, including segregation, forced interventions, higher security classifications, involuntary transfers, physical restraints and self-harm. Kinew James died of a heart attack after the emergency call button in her cell was routinely ignored at the Saskatoon Regional Psychiatric Centre. Eddie Snowshoe committed suicide after 162 days in solitary confinement at the Edmonton maximum security institution. Renee Acoby accumulated an additional 21 years of charges in prison, spent more than half of her time in segregation, and was eventually given a dangerous offender designation for a series of prison hostage-takings. She is now effectively behind bars for life. Addressing these deeply problematic prison realities is currently at the forefront of the government of Canada’s criminal justice review, including two House of Commons studies and one by a Senate committee. In considering remedies, two important issues are at play. Imprisoned more often First, Indigenous people are more often criminalized and imprisoned for acts that are linked to poverty, lack of educational and employment opportunities, lifestyles of substance use, mental health concerns and histories of sexual abuse, violence and trauma — in other words, colonialism. Second, prisons are characterized by authoritarianism, power imbalances, restriction of movement and activities, isolation, lack of freedom of association and enforcement of sometimes arbitrary and trivial demands. Prison environments often reflect and even perpetuate the very trauma and violence experienced by Indigenous people. The federal government would do well to consider community options. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, it costs upwards of $343,810 to incarcerate one woman for a year and $223,687 to incarcerate a man. The community placement option, on the other hand, is priced at $85,653 per year per person, and parole costs as little as $39,084. There are already existing remedies in the Correctional and Conditional Release Act, Sections 81 and 84, that allow for agreements in the community where Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners can serve their sentence and parole in a supported way. If we want to alleviate the conditions that foster conflict and harm in the first place, we also need to ensure that basic national standards and human rights are being met for Indigenous people. The private members’ Bill C-262, which outlines the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, just passed its second reading. Approving this bill would ensure some of the most basic rights for Indigenous communities, including the provision of clean water, electricity, employment, education and adequate social and health services. In its calls to action, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has recommended that the federal, provincial and territorial governments make a commitment to eliminate the over-representation of Indigenous people in custody over the next decade. If the federal government takes up this call, prisons would no longer be part of the solution. As noted by Romeo Saganash, NDP’s critic for Intergovernmental Indigenous Affairs, “there will be no reconciliation without justice.” (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Why are indigenous Canadians in prison?

Canada&#39;s Justin Kripps and Germany&#39;s Francesco Friedrich won gold medals after a dramatic dead-heat in the men&#39;s Olympic two-man bobsleigh.

Latvia&#39;s Oskars Melbardis took bronze behind the Canadian and German crews who were involved in the first dead-heat in the event since Nagano in 1998.

Ahead of the final run at the Olympic Sliding Centre, the fastest five pilots were separated by less than a quarter of a second in blisteringly quick conditions due to low temperatures.

Kripps, who tops the world bobsleigh driver rankings, had run three good heats, consistently placing first or second, and he needed to pull out another one to secure his first Olympic gold medal.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
19FEB Bobsleigh -2-man 
2/19 봅슬레이 - 남자 2인승 
 
Gold???? Canada / KRIPPS Justin &amp; KOPACZ Alexander 
Gold???? Germany / FRIEDRICH Francesco &amp; MARGIS Thorsten 
Bronze???? Latvia / MELBARDIS Oskars &amp; STRENGA Janis 
 
Congratulations! 축하합니다???? <a href="https://t.co/JxcxYCTrTh">pic.twitter.com/JxcxYCTrTh</a>
&mdash; PyeongChang 2018 (@pyeongchang2018) <a href="https://twitter.com/pyeongchang2018/status/965587750983380992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Four-times world champion Friedrich set the fastest time but Kripps, in the final run of the competition, exactly matched his mark of three minutes 16.86 seconds.

&quot;It&#39;s great. It&#39;s two more people who are as happy as we are,&quot; Kripps told reporters. &quot;They&#39;re amazing competitors, we&#39;ve been friends and rivals for years so I couldn&#39;t be happier.&quot;

Germany equalled Switzerland&#39;s Olympic record of five golds in the event.

&nbsp;

Germany equalled Switzerland's Olympic record of five golds in the event

Canada's Justin Kripps and Germany's Francesco Friedrich won gold medals after a dramatic dead-heat in the men's Olympic two-man bobsleigh. Latvia's Oskars Melbardis took bronze behind the Canadian and German crews who were involved in the first dead-heat in the event since Nagano in 1998. Ahead of the final run at the Olympic Sliding Centre, the fastest five pilots were separated by less than a quarter of a second in blisteringly quick conditions due to low temperatures. Kripps, who tops the world bobsleigh driver rankings, had run three good heats, consistently placing first or second, and he needed to pull out another one to secure his first Olympic gold medal. 19FEB Bobsleigh -2-man 2/19 봅슬레이 - 남자 2인승 Gold???? Canada / KRIPPS Justin & KOPACZ Alexander Gold???? Germany / FRIEDRICH Francesco & MARGIS Thorsten Bronze???? Latvia / MELBARDIS Oskars & STRENGA Janis Congratulations! 축하합니다???? pic.twitter.com/JxcxYCTrTh — PyeongChang 2018 (@pyeongchang2018) February 19, 2018 × Four-times world champion Friedrich set the fastest time but Kripps, in the final run of the competition, exactly matched his mark of three minutes 16.86 seconds. "It's great. It's two more people who are as happy as we are," Kripps told reporters. "They're amazing competitors, we've been friends and rivals for years so I couldn't be happier." Germany equalled Switzerland's Olympic record of five golds in the event.

Bobsleigh: Canada, Germany in golden dead-heat

While speaking at a question-answer&nbsp;session in IIM Ahmedabad, Gujarat,&nbsp;Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended questions on gender equality, bilateral ties, NAFTA, Canada&#39;s immigration system and his relations with US President Donald Trump.&nbsp;

Trudeau said that there was a huge potential for growth in trade relations between India and Canada than compared to America.&nbsp;

He said Canada and India already trade over $ 8 billion in goods and $ 2 billion in services.&nbsp;

Talking about his entry into politics, Trudeau said&nbsp;&quot; Citizens are not fools. Citizens can tell whether someone is genuine in their approach or just trying to live up to some lofty familial expectation.&quot;

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Citizens are not fools. Citizens can tell whether someone is genuine in their approach or just trying to live up to some lofty familial expectation: Canadian PM <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JustinTrudeau?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JustinTrudeau</a> at IIM Ahmedabad <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gujarat?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Gujarat</a> <a href="https://t.co/5BgYWVFHsy">pic.twitter.com/5BgYWVFHsy</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/965528974507077632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Referring to the gender parity in his cabinet he said: &quot;gender balance in terms of&nbsp;opportunities is not the right thing to&nbsp;do but a smart thing to do in terms of growth&quot;.&nbsp;

He said one can become a feminist if he/she believes in equal opportunities between men and women.

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Any comments about how a man looks isn&#39;t even an eyelash worth of the systemic discrimination women face. As a man in business &amp; politics I had lots of advantage but I didn&#39;t go near discrimination, sexism, superficiality &amp; judgement that women go through daily: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JustinTrudeau?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JustinTrudeau</a> <a href="https://t.co/dTj02qRFl4">pic.twitter.com/dTj02qRFl4</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/965537594791682049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Speaking on his similarity with US President Donald Trump he said they both were working towards the upliftment of middle class in their countries and that their policies worked well for the economy of the two countries.&nbsp;

On Immigration policies, he said that the countries should welcome the refugees who flee their countries to evade persecution.

He said &quot;More countries need to do more to welcome immigrants not because that is the right thing to do, because refugees who flee the persecution in their country for a better life in another, are extremely grateful to the country that welcomes them. They work very hard and contribute tremendously to the growth of the country that welcomed them. That is the Canadian story.&quot;

Referring to the importance&nbsp;of democratic independent media he said: &quot;the media is &#39;frustrating&#39; at times but it&#39;s essential to empower and support media as It fulfils an important duty of telling the government&nbsp;what it&rsquo;s doing wrong&quot;.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on a seven-day visit to India. He arrived here along with his wife and three children.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/canada-seems-to-think-india-is-snubbing-trudeau-govt-says-no-33354" target="_blank">Trudeau on Monday visited</a> Mahatma Gandhi&#39;s Sabarmati Ashram, Akshardham Temple, and&nbsp;Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.&nbsp;

He is scheduled to meet the chief minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh on February 21.&nbsp;

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Canadian Prime Minister <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JustinTrudeau?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JustinTrudeau</a> to meet Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh on February 21 in Amritsar <a href="https://t.co/xsykDQFyPE">pic.twitter.com/xsykDQFyPE</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/965559599788167169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Trudeau said that there was a huge potential for growth in trade relations between India and Canada than compared to America

While speaking at a question-answer session in IIM Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended questions on gender equality, bilateral ties, NAFTA, Canada's immigration system and his relations with US President Donald Trump. Trudeau said that there was a huge potential for growth in trade relations between India and Canada than compared to America. He said Canada and India already trade over $ 8 billion in goods and $ 2 billion in services. Talking about his entry into politics, Trudeau said " Citizens are not fools. Citizens can tell whether someone is genuine in their approach or just trying to live up to some lofty familial expectation." Citizens are not fools. Citizens can tell whether someone is genuine in their approach or just trying to live up to some lofty familial expectation: Canadian PM #JustinTrudeau at IIM Ahmedabad #Gujarat pic.twitter.com/5BgYWVFHsy — ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2018 × Referring to the gender parity in his cabinet he said: "gender balance in terms of opportunities is not the right thing to do but a smart thing to do in terms of growth". He said one can become a feminist if he/she believes in equal opportunities between men and women. Any comments about how a man looks isn't even an eyelash worth of the systemic discrimination women face. As a man in business & politics I had lots of advantage but I didn't go near discrimination, sexism, superficiality & judgement that women go through daily: #JustinTrudeau pic.twitter.com/dTj02qRFl4 — ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2018 × Speaking on his similarity with US President Donald Trump he said they both were working towards the upliftment of middle class in their countries and that their policies worked well for the economy of the two countries. On Immigration policies, he said that the countries should welcome the refugees who flee their countries to evade persecution. He said "More countries need to do more to welcome immigrants not because that is the right thing to do, because refugees who flee the persecution in their country for a better life in another, are extremely grateful to the country that welcomes them. They work very hard and contribute tremendously to the growth of the country that welcomed them. That is the Canadian story." Referring to the importance of democratic independent media he said: "the media is 'frustrating' at times but it's essential to empower and support media as It fulfils an important duty of telling the government what it’s doing wrong". Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on a seven-day visit to India. He arrived here along with his wife and three children. Trudeau on Monday visited Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram, Akshardham Temple, and Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He is scheduled to meet the chief minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh on February 21. Canadian Prime Minister #JustinTrudeau to meet Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh on February 21 in Amritsar pic.twitter.com/xsykDQFyPE — ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2018 ×

Huge potential for growth in trade relations between India and Canada: Justin Trudeau at IIM Ahmedabad

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in India on Saturday for his seven day trip to the country.&nbsp;

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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a> Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Delhi with his family for a week-long visit to India <a href="https://t.co/swiAyKZHMN">pic.twitter.com/swiAyKZHMN</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/964865200619950080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The 46-year-old Canada PM is also accompanied by his family.&nbsp;

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Before marking his trip Trudeau took to Twitter to disclose his plans for the&nbsp;visit.&nbsp;

He tweeted &quot;Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries&quot;.&nbsp;

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Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries. ???????????????? <a href="https://t.co/Jg6UmL9y4S">pic.twitter.com/Jg6UmL9y4S</a>
&mdash; Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) <a href="https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/964552997370871808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The&nbsp;trip aims at boosting strategic ties including the creation of jobs and developing cordial relations between the two countries.&nbsp;

Trudeau&nbsp;will also be accompanied by his cabinet colleagues including Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains, Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan, Science and Sports Minister Kirsty Duncan and Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi.

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All packed up and ready to go! Looking forward to the week ahead in India with <a href="https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JustinTrudeau</a> and my colleagues, promoting Canada as a great place to do business and deepen the strong ties between our two countries. Wheels up! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cdnpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/2ZtskKUDc1">pic.twitter.com/2ZtskKUDc1</a>
&mdash; Navdeep Bains (@NavdeepSBains) <a href="https://twitter.com/NavdeepSBains/status/964549006373408768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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He is the second youngest prime minister in Canada.

&nbsp;

The trip aims at boosting strategic ties including the creation of jobs and developing cordial relations between the two countries

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in India on Saturday for his seven day trip to the country. #WATCH Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Delhi with his family for a week-long visit to India pic.twitter.com/swiAyKZHMN — ANI (@ANI) February 17, 2018 × The 46-year-old Canada PM is also accompanied by his family. × Before marking his trip Trudeau took to Twitter to disclose his plans for the visit. He tweeted "Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries". Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries. ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/Jg6UmL9y4S — Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 16, 2018 × The trip aims at boosting strategic ties including the creation of jobs and developing cordial relations between the two countries. Trudeau will also be accompanied by his cabinet colleagues including Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains, Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan, Science and Sports Minister Kirsty Duncan and Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi. All packed up and ready to go! Looking forward to the week ahead in India with @JustinTrudeau and my colleagues, promoting Canada as a great place to do business and deepen the strong ties between our two countries. Wheels up! #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/2ZtskKUDc1 — Navdeep Bains (@NavdeepSBains) February 16, 2018 × He is the second youngest prime minister in Canada.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives in India with family

Canada is a blessed nation with stunning geographical beauty, abundant natural resources, huge territory, scanty population, remarkable ethnic and linguistic diversity and wonderful people. But for its extreme weather, Canada would have been the most habitable nation on the planet.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Indians started trickling into Canada in the late 19th century and currently comprise over 3.6 percent of her population. Industrious, law-abiding, educated and affluent, they have carved out a niche for themselves. Canada prides itself in being a salad-bowl instead of a melting-pot, and Indians constitute a vibrant hue, in the Canadian tapestry.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

India and Canada enjoy remarkable synergies including complimentary economies. Both nations are members of G-20. Despite ebbs and flows in the ties for a variety of reasons, a buoyancy has sought to be injected through high-level exchanges in the last decade or so.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Prime Minister Modi paid a highly successful visit to Canada in April 2015. He was addressing an audience of over 10,000 in Toronto, when a CEO of a leading Canadian conglomerate, with sizeable investments in India, got so swayed by the electrifying atmosphere, that he said to the author, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t understand Hindi, but listen, I am buying whatever your Prime Minister is selling!&rsquo;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

It is remarkable that cash-rich Canadian Pension Funds and giants like Brookfield Asset Management, encouraged by the Indian growth story, have invested some CAD 12 to 15 billion (precise figures are difficult to compute) in the last 3 to 4 years, in sectors like infrastructure, real estate, renewable energy, financial services, distressed assets, modern logistics facilities and e-commerce. Early conclusion of the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) which has been under discussion for several years, should spur greater investment in both directions. Indian companies have so far invested some $ 2 billion in Canada in the IT, software, steel and natural resources sectors.

&nbsp;

Cooperation in Economic, Energy and Educational sectors are emerging as the 3 key elements or the 3Es of India Canada engagement. While investments are growing, trade remains sluggish at a mere US$ 6 billion last year, with $ 2 billion in Canada&rsquo;s favour. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), under negotiation for a while, should give it a fillip but is nowhere in sight.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Since 2015, we have been sourcing Uranium from Canada regularly. Canada has huge reserves of hydrocarbons but, currently, it is proving uneconomic for India to import or exploit them. Canada also has strengths in renewable energy, an area in which we can step-up collaboration. A number of small and medium size Canadian companies, which have successfully developed clean-tech and green-tech applications are expanding their footprint in India.

&nbsp;

Canada is one of the global hubs of vocational and higher education. Of late, Indian students have been making a beeline to the country. Since 2015, India has emerged as the second largest source of international students for Canada. 2017 saw an unprecedented 60% increase in the number of Indian students to a total of 125,000. They pumped-in some CAD 5 billion into the host nation&rsquo;s economy.

&nbsp;

Additional areas in which we can enhance cooperation to mutual benefit include, agri-tech, IT, innovation, S&amp;T, aviation and outer space, infrastructure especially railways, cold-climate warfare, cyber-security, counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and tourism.

&nbsp;On the flip side there is the Khalistani issue which hangs over the bilateral ties. Goes without saying that getting it out of the way, will go a long way in deepening mutual attraction and trust.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

It is in this background that the important 7-day state visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking place from 17 to 24 February. He would be accompanied by an impressive official and business delegation, and would be travelling to New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Agra. Several officials, business, public and cultural engagements are being scheduled for the guest who last came to India as a 12-year old, with his father (Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau) in 1983.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

PM Trudeau will witness a different India &ndash; aspirational and confident &ndash; but as welcoming as in 1983, for we accord considerable weightage to our relationship with Canada and stand ready to qualitatively strengthen it.&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

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Cooperation in Economic, Energy and Educational sectors are emerging as the 3 key elements or the 3Es of India Canada engagement.

Canada is a blessed nation with stunning geographical beauty, abundant natural resources, huge territory, scanty population, remarkable ethnic and linguistic diversity and wonderful people. But for its extreme weather, Canada would have been the most habitable nation on the planet. Indians started trickling into Canada in the late 19th century and currently comprise over 3.6 percent of her population. Industrious, law-abiding, educated and affluent, they have carved out a niche for themselves. Canada prides itself in being a salad-bowl instead of a melting-pot, and Indians constitute a vibrant hue, in the Canadian tapestry. India and Canada enjoy remarkable synergies including complimentary economies. Both nations are members of G-20. Despite ebbs and flows in the ties for a variety of reasons, a buoyancy has sought to be injected through high-level exchanges in the last decade or so. Prime Minister Modi paid a highly successful visit to Canada in April 2015. He was addressing an audience of over 10,000 in Toronto, when a CEO of a leading Canadian conglomerate, with sizeable investments in India, got so swayed by the electrifying atmosphere, that he said to the author, ‘I don’t understand Hindi, but listen, I am buying whatever your Prime Minister is selling!’ It is remarkable that cash-rich Canadian Pension Funds and giants like Brookfield Asset Management, encouraged by the Indian growth story, have invested some CAD 12 to 15 billion (precise figures are difficult to compute) in the last 3 to 4 years, in sectors like infrastructure, real estate, renewable energy, financial services, distressed assets, modern logistics facilities and e-commerce. Early conclusion of the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) which has been under discussion for several years, should spur greater investment in both directions. Indian companies have so far invested some $ 2 billion in Canada in the IT, software, steel and natural resources sectors. Cooperation in Economic, Energy and Educational sectors are emerging as the 3 key elements or the 3Es of India Canada engagement. While investments are growing, trade remains sluggish at a mere US$ 6 billion last year, with $ 2 billion in Canada’s favour. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), under negotiation for a while, should give it a fillip but is nowhere in sight. Since 2015, we have been sourcing Uranium from Canada regularly. Canada has huge reserves of hydrocarbons but, currently, it is proving uneconomic for India to import or exploit them. Canada also has strengths in renewable energy, an area in which we can step-up collaboration. A number of small and medium size Canadian companies, which have successfully developed clean-tech and green-tech applications are expanding their footprint in India. Canada is one of the global hubs of vocational and higher education. Of late, Indian students have been making a beeline to the country. Since 2015, India has emerged as the second largest source of international students for Canada. 2017 saw an unprecedented 60% increase in the number of Indian students to a total of 125,000. They pumped-in some CAD 5 billion into the host nation’s economy. Additional areas in which we can enhance cooperation to mutual benefit include, agri-tech, IT, innovation, S&T, aviation and outer space, infrastructure especially railways, cold-climate warfare, cyber-security, counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and tourism. On the flip side there is the Khalistani issue which hangs over the bilateral ties. Goes without saying that getting it out of the way, will go a long way in deepening mutual attraction and trust. It is in this background that the important 7-day state visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking place from 17 to 24 February. He would be accompanied by an impressive official and business delegation, and would be travelling to New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Agra. Several officials, business, public and cultural engagements are being scheduled for the guest who last came to India as a 12-year old, with his father (Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau) in 1983. PM Trudeau will witness a different India – aspirational and confident – but as welcoming as in 1983, for we accord considerable weightage to our relationship with Canada and stand ready to qualitatively strengthen it. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Economy, energy, education are 3 pillars of Indo-Canadian relationship

Leading consulting and business solutions company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS), announced that it has been named as one of the top three employers in North America by the Top Employers Institute, an independent organisation that certifies employers around the world for excellence in creating a total work environment for their employees.

This is the fourth consecutive year that TCS has been certified as a top employer in the U.S. and the third consecutive year for TCS in Canada.

The annual, international research undertaken by the Top Employers Institute recognises leading employers that provide excellent employee conditions, nurture and develop talent throughout all levels of the organisation and strive to continuously optimise employment practices.

The criteria in assessing TCS` strong employee offerings included talent strategy, workforce planning, onboarding, learning and development, performance management, leadership development, career and succession management, compensation and benefits, and company culture.

&quot;Our employees are TCS` strongest asset, and we are committed to enabling their growth and development through the best programs available to build digital skills, enable career advancement and retain the best talent,&quot; said North America, UK and Europe, TCS president, Sury Kant.

&quot;TCS is proud to be certified as one of the top three employers in North America in 2018,&quot; Kant added.

The company has been among the top two recruiters of U.S. and Canadian IT services talent over the past five years.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2018, TCS was recently listed as one of the top regarded companies and one of the world`s best employers in the Forbes 2017 Global 2000 list.

&quot;Optimal employee conditions ensure that people can develop themselves personally and professionally. Our comprehensive research concluded that?TCS provides an outstanding employment environment, and offers a wide range of creative initiatives, from secondary benefits and working conditions, to performance-management programs that are well thought out, and truly aligned with the culture of their company,&quot; said global business director for the Top Employers Institute, Dennis Utter. &nbsp;

The certification — to Tata Consultancy Services — was handed out by Top Employers Institute, an independent organisation that certifies employers around the world

Leading consulting and business solutions company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS), announced that it has been named as one of the top three employers in North America by the Top Employers Institute, an independent organisation that certifies employers around the world for excellence in creating a total work environment for their employees. This is the fourth consecutive year that TCS has been certified as a top employer in the U.S. and the third consecutive year for TCS in Canada. The annual, international research undertaken by the Top Employers Institute recognises leading employers that provide excellent employee conditions, nurture and develop talent throughout all levels of the organisation and strive to continuously optimise employment practices. The criteria in assessing TCS` strong employee offerings included talent strategy, workforce planning, onboarding, learning and development, performance management, leadership development, career and succession management, compensation and benefits, and company culture. "Our employees are TCS` strongest asset, and we are committed to enabling their growth and development through the best programs available to build digital skills, enable career advancement and retain the best talent," said North America, UK and Europe, TCS president, Sury Kant. "TCS is proud to be certified as one of the top three employers in North America in 2018," Kant added. The company has been among the top two recruiters of U.S. and Canadian IT services talent over the past five years. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2018, TCS was recently listed as one of the top regarded companies and one of the world`s best employers in the Forbes 2017 Global 2000 list. "Optimal employee conditions ensure that people can develop themselves personally and professionally. Our comprehensive research concluded that?TCS provides an outstanding employment environment, and offers a wide range of creative initiatives, from secondary benefits and working conditions, to performance-management programs that are well thought out, and truly aligned with the culture of their company," said global business director for the Top Employers Institute, Dennis Utter.

Indian company among top 3 employers in North America

In a bid to boost bilateral trade and investment, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau will visit India from February 17-23 at the invitation of PM Modi.

PM Trudeau will also discuss energy, science and higher education with various delegates during his stay in India.

The Canadian prime minister will also aim to further cooperation in security and counter-terrorism and exchange views on global and regional issues of mutual interest during his visit.

PM &nbsp;Trudeau&#39;s visit comes three years after PM Modi&#39;s visit to Canada in April, 2015.&nbsp;

Prime M Stephen Harper was the last Canadain prime minister to visit India in November, 2012.

The Canadian prime minister&#39;s visit assumes importance with a large Indian diaspora present in Canada which is a crucial link for both countries.

PM Trudeau's visit comes three years after PM Modi's visit to Canada in April, 2015.

In a bid to boost bilateral trade and investment, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau will visit India from February 17-23 at the invitation of PM Modi. PM Trudeau will also discuss energy, science and higher education with various delegates during his stay in India. The Canadian prime minister will also aim to further cooperation in security and counter-terrorism and exchange views on global and regional issues of mutual interest during his visit. PM Trudeau's visit comes three years after PM Modi's visit to Canada in April, 2015. Prime M Stephen Harper was the last Canadain prime minister to visit India in November, 2012. The Canadian prime minister's visit assumes importance with a large Indian diaspora present in Canada which is a crucial link for both countries.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau to visit India in February

US President Donald Trump has proposed to end the visa lottery system in favour of reducing backlogs of highly-skilled workers, a plan which may benefit thousands of Indian IT professionals who are currently having several decades of waiting period to get their Green Cards.

If passed by the Congress and signed into law, such a move is expected to significantly reduce the green card backlogs for highly skilled immigrants from India.

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme, which the Trump administration wants to terminate, awards up to 50,000 individuals per year a visa for a green card, which allows permanent residency and is a path to US citizenship.

Trump has been against diversity visa as he believes that this does not attract the best and the brightest to the US.

In recent past, several of the home grown terrorists including prime accused of New York terrorist attacks came either on diversity visa or chain migration.

&ldquo;Eliminate lottery and reallocate the visas to reduce the family-based &lsquo;backlog&rsquo; and high-skilled employment &lsquo;backlog&rsquo;,&rdquo; according to the White House framework on immigration reform and border security released by the Trump administration.

The programme provides green cards for up to 50,000 immigrants each year from countries with low rates of emigration to the US. It is one of the ways that green cards are issued under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The other significant sources of green cards are for family-sponsored immigrants, employment-based immigrants, refugees and people granted asylum.

Diversity visas are allocated geographically.

Nationals of countries from which 50,000 or fewer immigrants came to the US over the previous five years combined are eligible for diversity visas.

Immigrants from any one country may not receive more than seven per cent of diversity visas issued annually.

Given that there are hundreds and thousands of Indian IT professionals waiting in queue to get their green cards because of the current country quota, the relocation of diversity visa numbers to green cards is expected to hugely benefit them.

Immigrants from 18 countries are not eligible for diversity visa because they sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the US over the previous five years combined.

The countries are Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, the UK and Vietnam. 
&nbsp;

The proposal to end visa lottery, if passed, is expected to significantly reduce the green card backlogs for many IT professionals and highly skilled immigrants from India.

US President Donald Trump has proposed to end the visa lottery system in favour of reducing backlogs of highly-skilled workers, a plan which may benefit thousands of Indian IT professionals who are currently having several decades of waiting period to get their Green Cards. If passed by the Congress and signed into law, such a move is expected to significantly reduce the green card backlogs for highly skilled immigrants from India. The Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme, which the Trump administration wants to terminate, awards up to 50,000 individuals per year a visa for a green card, which allows permanent residency and is a path to US citizenship. Trump has been against diversity visa as he believes that this does not attract the best and the brightest to the US. In recent past, several of the home grown terrorists including prime accused of New York terrorist attacks came either on diversity visa or chain migration. “Eliminate lottery and reallocate the visas to reduce the family-based ‘backlog’ and high-skilled employment ‘backlog’,” according to the White House framework on immigration reform and border security released by the Trump administration. The programme provides green cards for up to 50,000 immigrants each year from countries with low rates of emigration to the US. It is one of the ways that green cards are issued under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The other significant sources of green cards are for family-sponsored immigrants, employment-based immigrants, refugees and people granted asylum. Diversity visas are allocated geographically. Nationals of countries from which 50,000 or fewer immigrants came to the US over the previous five years combined are eligible for diversity visas. Immigrants from any one country may not receive more than seven per cent of diversity visas issued annually. Given that there are hundreds and thousands of Indian IT professionals waiting in queue to get their green cards because of the current country quota, the relocation of diversity visa numbers to green cards is expected to hugely benefit them. Immigrants from 18 countries are not eligible for diversity visa because they sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the US over the previous five years combined. The countries are Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, the UK and Vietnam.

Trump proposes to terminate visa lottery, move likely to benefit Indian IT workers

Russia slowly picking up the pace, on Monday, Russian free dance duo grabbed a silver medal for the Olympic Athlete from Russia.&nbsp;Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova took their first silver of the Games&nbsp;at the Gangneung Ice Arena.&nbsp;Till Sunday Russia had won just a bronze.

On the other hand, ice dance stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir inspired Canada to the figure skating team title to secure the Winter Games heavyweights&#39; first gold at Pyeongchang 2018 on Monday.&nbsp;

Competing in their third Olympics, Virtue and Moir earned a maximum 10 points for their short&nbsp;programme&nbsp;and matched that in the concluding free with an exhilarating four-and-a-half minute performance to the music of Moulin Rouge.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
12FEB Figure Skating - Team Event 
 
????Gold CAN???????? 
????Silver OAR 
????Bronze USA???????? 
 
Congratulations.???? <a href="https://t.co/I3FL4dWwMG">pic.twitter.com/I3FL4dWwMG</a>
&mdash; PyeongChang 2018 (@pyeongchang2018) <a href="https://twitter.com/pyeongchang2018/status/962924020667596800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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For defending champions Russia, competing in South Korea as OAR after Russia&#39;s state-sponsored doping ban was difficult.

The USA team was third.

&nbsp;

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir inspired Canada to the figure skating team title to secure the Winter Games heavyweights' first gold, Russia received silver and the USA bronze

Russia slowly picking up the pace, on Monday, Russian free dance duo grabbed a silver medal for the Olympic Athlete from Russia. Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova took their first silver of the Games at the Gangneung Ice Arena. Till Sunday Russia had won just a bronze. On the other hand, ice dance stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir inspired Canada to the figure skating team title to secure the Winter Games heavyweights' first gold at Pyeongchang 2018 on Monday. Competing in their third Olympics, Virtue and Moir earned a maximum 10 points for their short programme and matched that in the concluding free with an exhilarating four-and-a-half minute performance to the music of Moulin Rouge. 12FEB Figure Skating - Team Event ????Gold CAN???????? ????Silver OAR ????Bronze USA???????? Congratulations.???? pic.twitter.com/I3FL4dWwMG — PyeongChang 2018 (@pyeongchang2018) February 12, 2018 × For defending champions Russia, competing in South Korea as OAR after Russia's state-sponsored doping ban was difficult. The USA team was third.

Winter Olympics: Canada grabs first gold, Russia picks up pace

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