We were charged 3,500 Uk pounds per family to do an LMO work permit which lasts 1 year.  We were told that then to extend when it needed renewing they would do free of charge if we applied for residency with them for a further 1,500.  We did and then when it came to renewing they wanted a further 2,500.  We tried to argue it out and you couldn’t win. I had it in writing and that meant bugger all.  Do not believe everything you are told and to be honest you can do all the paperwork yourself.  the residency is simple enough and they even give you advise if you ring the Canada office.

We applied for residency in the so called “fast track” option which should take 9-12 months.  We had been in Canada for 12 months and hit the problem where we had to apply for our own work permits which we got extended for a further 2 years but it was scary and got declined twice.  We have now been here almost 2.75 years and still not been requested for a medical.  We are still with the lawyers office and they are not willing to help us with anything now apart from if we pay for a new work permit with them but Canada Services HRSDC make it so difficult to renew and they are making it harder and harder.  It is a great worry.

If you are still in England and considering the LMO process I urge you to stay put and apply from home.  We had to sell everything and lost a lot of money to move to Canada.  We have lived in horrible situations whilst been here and finally bought a home to find that we may have to leave in a few months to go back to England until we get an answer on our residency so then as you can see we would have to sell everything again or arrange something and when back in England where do we live and what life do we have.  Been like a Gypsy for about 4 years now has been a big shock and waste of our life.  Its is  a shame and due to the stress and worry of the applications we have not really been able to enjoy our time in Canada.  We would have been better staying with our families in the UK and spending additional time with them before leaving.

So many things run through your mind.  Is there a problem, Are they going to decline it?  What can be the reason but no one can tell us anything and we are still within the new processing times so we just keep getting fobbed of with the same excuse.  Since we have been working in Canada now for over 2 years we can now apply for residency through the experience class so either way we should qualify.  There’s no points on the experience class.  Just experience, that’s it!  (Well pretty much)  We have a job and have been employed for 3 years,  We have now submitted an extra application for the experience class just to cover ourselves in case further delays are added.  Experience class processing times are currently showing 15 months compared to the present 27 months for the skilled worker applications.  Both files could still hit delays but what else can you do when further delays are added.  I would have hoped that Canada would look after their foreign workers.  They advertise that they want skilled workers and then don’t help them to settle and stay.  It is wrong and I hope to see changes where they do more to help people moving their entire families to make a new start and work for THEIR country!

After being a worker in Canada for 24 months however you can apply for experience class which the processing times are currently showing as 15 months so we are putting an additional application in to run along side the other one (Which is costing $1100 just to submit it) just in case the original application hits further delays.  There’s nothing we can do and if the work permits are not extended then leaving the country is the only option other than to request visitors status which costs extra money and does not allow you to work or have any health coverage.  The system is just rubbish.  Once you are hear and working they should make it easier for you to stay especially if you have a residency application in that has come across significant delays.  I can not see this being rectified before we run out of time and our whole family are going to suffer.  The grandchildren will not see their grandparents and vice versa and they are the only grandchildren.  Our family is going to be split and torn apart until something happens.

College’s started as institutions that were focused on delivering their services to the immediate needs of the community and to fill the gap in specific fields such as technologists and technicians that universities were not able to offer. College’s formed as a solution provider to high demand and economic growth as well as to support community enhancement by training leaders and skilled workers.

I find that Colleges in Ontario are good examples of a system that favors universalism of education and training as they do an excellent job of supporting diversity, and provide infrastructure that fosters growth through many funding practices. They are also favorable educational institutions because they are able to support career development through partnerships in the real world and highly specialized educational programs that can be modified and designed in a much shorter period of time. This allows these institutions to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of the market and be as current as possible in various fields.

As I continue to explore the differences between the institutional types and their practices, I find many advantages on how training and the education experience occurs in Colleges from a perspective of a local as well as an international student.

In my personal experience when I was an International student I did not consciously think of important advantages that my College experience had to offer.
Some of the advantages that my College experience was able to offer included the feeling of belonging to a family. Colleges provide a community experience that enables a student to feel at home and have a relationship with faculty and have a less intimidating experience. The smaller class sizes and the much lower student to faculty ratio were very important in this experience and we continuously find that in university it’s quite the opposite. The small class sizes provided a climate of collaboration and approachable faculty who knew me by my name and interests (or identity).

In addition to the community feeling I find that Colleges have a curriculum that is continuously monitored, flexible and developed to meet the needs of the particular industry for which they train the students. Colleges seem to have a high intensity community focus because they participate in various community events. The programs have a lot more operational flexibility therefore making them easy to adapt to changing needs of the society. This type of flexibility is very difficult to find in a university setting maybe because of its large-scale operation and process that is not as efficient as some of the College programs. The large-scale operation is very similar to a large corporate organization, which has many levels of decision makers making it difficult to come to conclusions and implement more frequent changes. We still have very large College’s in Ontario that could have the same problem but I find that empowerment and decision-making process goes hand in hand at these institutions, which gives them a much greater flexibility.

As a measure of the quality of the experience, College’s have a very extensive quality measure and mandate that is in place through the provincial system. The Colleges are accountable to all its stakeholders from the province, to its students and organizations such as Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario and Ontario Colleges Quality Assurance Service. These organizations ensure that A) Student Satisfaction, B) Graduate Employment, C) Employer Satisfaction and D) Graduation Rate are all measured so that standards are met and a quality experience is offered at the College level. A key measure is the student satisfaction rate that is measured through an assessment of the services, education and the facilities available at the College. The system that is present in College’s mimics the approach that most corporate organizations take for accountability and quality assurance through the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Does this work for an educational institution that is designed to fulfill the publics’ interest and the interests of a community? Maybe it does! Colleges are continuously getting better at what they do and are performing really well in these measures. Ontario’s College’s have a Graduate Employment Rate at 88%, Graduate Satisfaction at 87%, Employer Satisfaction at 90%, and Student Satisfaction at 78%. In addition to all those categories we find that over 90% of students find a job within six months of graduation.

Colleges were developed as change agents and during the 80’s and 90’s they were able to give access to marginalized students as well as open education as a right for all and not reserved for the elite. Universities continue to discuss this concept however; some sort of elitist reservation is still present in the candidate screening process. Isn’t access the overall objective of all educational institutions? Shouldn’t Universities have a similar mandate? What I find very difficult to understand is that College’s are trying to be degree-granting institutions following in the footsteps of Universities. They have done so well in the last few decades but I wonder if granting degree’s to level the playing field or compete with universities is the right strategy for such successful institutions? I hope that they don’t end up going backwards and start to discontinue all the good things the College experience is known for by trying to be degree-granting institutions.

If we have a need to grant degree’s to meet a particular standard and College’s are turning to “Applied Degrees” we need to ensure that the degrees are meeting the standards that have the same prestige that universities enjoy while also preserving the benefits of a College education. We run a risk of losing some of the benefits of such institutions if the focus changes from an education system that is very inclusive, flexible, continuously improving and monitored to provide a high quality educational experience to degree-grating schools. Colleges in Canada are unique because they are able to impact direct economic growth through training individuals who are either looking for a second career and immigrants who need assistance to transition in to the Canadian system or accreditation (although this is a different discussion altogether).

International students probably face the same challenges that new immigrants face as they come to a new country to get an education and potentially to contribute to the economy after they complete their programs. The College system has an excellent support mechanism built in to their International Development departments, which focuses on support and success for their international students while at the College. The departments provide support in ensuring counseling services are available for personal and educational matters. These are separate (although work together with) from the Colleges’ central counseling services department. The individuals in this structure have a specialized knowledge in international education and therefore are able to provide a superior and customized service.

As an international student about a decade ago I found it very difficult to look for some way to fund my education. Colleges are now implementing a lot friendlier policies that support international students by providing them with entrance scholarships, some basic bursary as well as additional support in connecting students with employers so that they can establish themselves in Canada. This mechanism is important for our immigration policies to work and for Canada to be able to have a “Brain Gain” factor. Overall, if the strategy is to provide leaders for the society and gaining international talent to remain in Canada after completion of their education it is critical that the education institution understands how to best provide a service to make that happen. Seneca College and Humber College for example offer many scholarships to international students who have a strong academic background. They also have various support programs that encourage international students to find a job and establish themselves in Canada.

International students also get support in applying for an off-campus work visa so that they start building important connections in their field. Seneca provides career guidance as well as support functions that are unique because they are focused towards international students that are career oriented. Colleges’ have become institution of best practice because they are able to integrate the needs of students, corporations as well as the country by providing support at all levels. They can train and produce excellent talent; they assist international students to support brain gain for the country as well as train skilled workers to our much-needed growing economy. This kind of support is the right approach to student diversity and brain gain and should be mimicked all across education institutions in Canada and not just Ontario and its Colleges.

Premier Dalton Mcguintys’ recent announcement offering scholarship to seventy-five PHD international students is an excellent way to impact the education system in Canada but what stuns me is how little information was made available when making this announcement. International students pay at five times multiple in College fees and I would imagine that a break in this fee or some incentive to attract scholars at an undergraduate level would have had an impact and supported a much larger number than the 75 at $40,000/year scholarships. We have a robust system to support international students at the undergraduate level but very little is being done to encourage international brain gain.

A challenge I feel we face is that our education institutions, immigration officials and education policy makers don’t necessarily work very closely together to carefully design policies that would show the best return on investment. There needs to be mechanisms that include the Canadian population for e.g. minority groups being offered similar incentives in working together with the international students to enable a much bigger win within our economy and communities. This would reduce the impact of brain drain and any backlash from the community. The premier shouldn’t have been too quick to announce his policies especially because there was very little detail provided. This would be problematic because the resources that are being put forth for this type of investment belong to the taxpayer. There is very little risk assessment, return on investment or impact to community assessments taken into consideration before implementing policies that impact our community. I don’t look at this investment as a wrong approach however; some careful planning and better communication would improve how the general public perceives policies.

Overall Colleges’ are headed in the right direction because they are continuously improving education quality and leading the way in satisfaction rates at all levels with their stakeholders. They are attracting a large number of international students and some of these institutions are doing an excellent job of following through with their students after they arrive in assisting them to become contributors of their communities. Many of these students end up living in Canada and to provide them with the right tools as well as training so that they become leaders is the right strategy that many of the College’s in Ontario are already implementing. Policies that are favorable to all three levels of governing bodies may work in the best interest of Canadians as well as the international students. These are some observations and my own personal reflection of the system. Some policies seem to work and some don’t but I feel that we don’t share best practices across education institutions and with a much-needed collaboration we could make Canada the #1 place for education. We have a very good infrastructure, support functions and leadership programs that if shared could have a much stronger impact in society.

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Only in English could a slim chance and a fat chance mean the same thing, but a wise man and a wise guy be the opposite.

Only in English can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another.

Only in English can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are the same.

You’ve heard of a horseless carriage and a strapless gown, but have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown?

Did you know that your house can burn up while it burns down or that you fill in a form by filling it out?

If the human race is a race, why is no one in a hurry to reach the finish line?

Can you tell me why when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible?

Why is it that when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up a story, I finish it?

Only in English!

Consider the Apostrophe:

It’s is not, it isn’t ain’t, and it’s it’s, not its, if you mean it is. If you don’t, it’s its. Then too, it’s hers, it isn’t her’s. It isn’t our’s either, it’s ours, and likewise yours and theirs.

If you think that the homographs of “-ough” wouldn’t confuse you, try wrestling with the following sentence:

A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.

Only in English!

Why do we park in the driveway but drive on the parkway?

If Olive oil is made from olives, what’s baby oil made from?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Why do we ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Only in English!

Still set on learning English? Let’s see if this will change your mind.

Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The farm was used to produce produce.

The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

When shot at the dove dove into the bushes.

Still not convinced? Here are a few more dandies.

To help with the planting the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The buck does funny things when the does are nearby.

Upon seeing a tear in the painting I shed a tear.

The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

There is neither an apple nor a pine in pineapple, no egg in eggplant and no ham in hamburger.

Did you know that quicksand works slowly, that sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which really aren’t sweet at all, – are meats?

Only in English!

If you are still not deterred, consider the following: English as spoken in the United Kingdom is different from that spoken in the United states, India, Australia and Canada. While Americans can fruits and vegetables, the British put them in tins. As an Englishman said to me once, “in America they eat what they can and what they can’t they can”. In Canada I once heard a boy ask the grocer for “a tin of can milk”!

Since you are still determined to learn English I wish you good luck and Godspeed.

And now as I want to shut down my computer – I have to hit “start”.

Only in English!

Nevertheless there are several factors that may cause differences in the two conditions on the candidates had different mothers. For example, factors of pollution and chemical exposure.

In early 2005, the study found some evidence that male fetuses of mothers exposed to phthalates (commonly used as plastic softeners, found in hair spray, as well as wood products) have a penis smaller than average size. This is evidence of chemical substances that can do â? Feminisasiiâ? to the fetus.

A community in Ontario, Canada, who live in areas of high soil content will hexachlorobenzene (HCB) has a birth rate twice more girls than boys. Although it can not be said that the HCB is the cause. However, as phthalates, HCB also has the ability to â? Merusakkâ? hormone testosterone (male sex hormones).

According to researchers from the University of Ottawa, Constanze Mackenzie number of male births began to decline sharply around the year 1993. The ratio of boy births than women in those countries, like America, Canada and Denmark are carried out in 30 years. Suspected cause is exposure to pesticides that contain chemicals that can mimic the hormone estrogen in character (female sex hormone). So who determines the sex of birth is a lot of factors.

Administration by oxytocin nasal (a hormone produced naturally by the pituitary gland) has allowed young people to combat their introversion. It may be a major step in the treatment of the timid, more sickly!

The human species is naturally social. Individuals must constantly to confront others. However, some interactions may be a source of stress, such a hiring or a tryst. This stress can create anxiety that can be said of shit or, to the contrary, completely paralyse the victim.

These embarrassing moment could be brought to disappear, or at least, to do this less rare, according to studies conducted at Concordia University (Canada). The injection of oxytocin by nasal spray could help combat shyness!

Oxytocin ? What is it ?

 Oxytocin is a pituitary hormone involved in several behaviors. Produced for example during childbirth, which it owes its name (” rapid delivery ” in Greek), it is also at work in friendly and romantic relations or cooperative actions. Swiss researchers had already shown, in 2005, that oxytocin promotes the relationship of trust. The researchers have thus hypothesized that this peptide could alter the perception that people had of themselves and could promote positive social interactions.

The experience in question:

Image by jurvetson via Flickr

A hundred voluntary students aged 18 to 35 years took part in this experience. To be eligible, candidates had to meet various criteria, for example not be smoking, do not use recreational drugs, do not take drugs and do not suffer from a mental disorder.

Guinea Pigs are administered by nasal oxytocin or, for the other half a placebo. After a period of 90 minutes, all participants had to answer a questionnaire on their level of neuroticisme (the tendency to experience negative emotions), extroversion, open to new experiences, the degree of altruism as well as some other data.

The analysis shows that those who have inhaled oxytocin showed more positive, warm, open, or still more altruistic. In one sentence: oxytocin promotes extroversion. However, the peptide hormone does not affect self-esteem and avoid feeling depressed.

However one should not cry victory too soon. If it improves the social performance, oxytocin nasal spray does not yet turn a sickly timid in a host of cabaret. Or then perhaps at very high dose, but there is always the risk of side effects, as have already been measured its vasoconstrictor role and there for Nephrotoxicity. Large introverts will still have to take their evil grin !

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and using the Internet.

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia’s childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said the evidence clearly supported the conviction.

“It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honorless crime,” Maranger said. “The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor … that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.”

In a statement following the verdict, Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson called honor killings a practice that is “barbaric and unacceptable in Canada.”

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father’s first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn’t call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, “We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn’t commit the murder and this is unjust.”

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, “I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother.”

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, “I did not drown my sisters anywhere.”

Hamed’s lawyer, Patrick McCann, said he was disappointed with the verdict, but said his client will appeal and he believes the other two defendants will as well.

But prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis welcomed the verdict.

“This jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family in the most troubling of circumstances,” Laarhuis said outside court.

“This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy,” he said to cheers of approval from onlookers.

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

Shafia’s first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar’s room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.

Shafia’s first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and “made life a torture,” while his second wife called her a servant.

The prosecution presented wire taps and mobile phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing allegation. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

“There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this,” Shafia said on one recording. “Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows … nothing is more dear to me than my honor.”

Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

Shafia’s lawyer, Peter Kemp, said after the verdicts that he believes the comments his client made on the wiretaps may have weighed more heavily on the jury’s minds than the physical evidence in the case.

“He wasn’t convicted for what he did,” Kemp said. “He was convicted for what he said.”

The Coastal regions of Kenya is one place where graying is becoming a recipe for instant death and interestingly, it is normally the blood relatives that turn around and unleash brutalities on their greying fathers and mothers. A man survived death at the hands of his own two sons when all his children at the instigation of his wife, were persuaded to believe that their own 69 year old father with a heavy gray hair was indeed, a witch practicing dark arts.

He was rounded up recently by his own sons who tied him with a firm sisal rope before they started beating him like he was no longer a human being. He was so brutally beaten up that he lost nearly all his teeth and had several fractures around his body. He pleaded with his sons to spare his life but they would never listen, they constantly accused him of being a gray-haired witch who must die. They completely lost cognizance of the fact that the man they were intent on killing was the very one who gave them life.

When their bloody father was convinced he was going to be killed, he just allowed them to beat him until his death. Somehow, they stopped beating and dragged him to a nearby hut with the intention of setting him ablaze in the middle of the night. He was securely tied but by some good fortune, he disentangled the rope from his limbs and escaped in good time to the local authorities who came and effected arrest of the entire family members to who were promptly charged with attempted murder.

Along the coastal districts of Kenya, about 20  men and women with gray hair have so far been reportedly lynched by their own relatives and the number of those killed could even be more because some killings have gone unreported. Many more are fleeing from their families who are the very ones tormenting them. The problem has become so serious that government and other civil society organizations are beginning to set up camps for the horrified gray haired men and women being accused of witchcraft.

Gray hair used to be a sign of honor and wisdom among African societies. Today, you can only move about with your grey hair in the coastal districts of Malindi at your own peril. What is happening to our world? I think the end of the world has come close because, as I begin to gray myself, this story is sending a chill through my spine-will my two sons soon round me up and accuse me of being a witch? This is one story that has kept me thinking very pensively and the more I think about it, the more I get very confused!

Read more: http://trifter.com/africa/kenya/why-men-and-women-with-gray-hair-are-endangered-species-in-kenya-today/#ixzz1kwikx4Wo

Kingston’s jury stated that the three men convicted of husband and wife Shafia Tooba Mohammad Mohammad Yahya and his eldest son, Hamed Mohammad Shafi. All three pleaded guilty to four counts of first degree murder.

Three victims were sisters determined to know Zainab Hamed (19), Sahar (17) and Geeti Shafia (13). The fourth woman died Rona Amir Mohammad, who is also the first woman Shafia.

Four bodies were found in the Rideau Canal in June 2009. His remains are in a car submerged in the channel. The four would have been required to be in a car being pushed into the canal.

The prosecutor said, angry with the two older daughters Shafia were due to dating men. Shafie, who is an immigrant from Afghanistan, calling the action as un-Islamic, not to mention the latter’s daughter also began to open the hood.

for life

Prosecutors are based on a series of records that indicate the level of anger Shafia not even mention the death of his daughter as a prostitute. “The real reason behind this murder was to attack the concept of honor,” said Robert Justice Shafia judge and two other defendants.

After the verdict was read, Shafia who spoke through an interpreter said: “We are not criminals, we are not murderers, we do not do this crime and injustice.”

For this offense, punishable by three to life imprisonment. Because of its appeal, which could lose the right to parole after 25 years.