Author: Nancy Miller

News Politics

Lincoln Alexander Was A Model For Young People

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Lincoln Alexander was the lieutenant-governor of Ontario from 1985 to 1991.

He was the first black person to hold that post in the country’s history. He was also Canada’s first black Member of Parliament.

Lincoln Alexander died on Oct. 19, at the age of 90. He was given a state funeral, which is a high honour.

Alexander died in Hamilton, Ont., where he had lived for many years.

Throughout his career, Alexander supported youth leadership and he fought racism.

Alexander, born in 1922, was the child of a railway porter and a maid who came separately to Canada from the Caribbean to find a better life.

Their son, Lincoln, became one of Canada’s most inspiring leaders.

His firsts were many. He was the first black person elected to Canada’s House of Commons and the first black person to be named a lieutenant-governor.

He was the first black partner in a Canadian law firm and first black Minister in the Federal Government.

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News

Ikea Criticized For Airbrushing Women From Its Saudi Arabia Catalogue

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Ikea is a large chain of stores around the world that sells furniture and home accessories.

Recently the company came under fire for removing all of the images of women from the pictures in the Saudi Arabia edition of their catalogue.

In the Ikea catalogue, families are shown using and enjoying Ikea’s products. In the Saudi Arabia version of the book, none of the families show women in them.

In other editions of the catalogue, women are featured in the photos.

The images of women were digitally removed from the pictures in the catalogue. This is known as airbrushing or photoshopping.

Ikea said they shouldn’t have removed the images; they regret having done it.

Ikea prints more than 60 versions of its catalogue and sends them all over the world.

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Arts News Sports

Pianos And The Pan American Games

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The Pan American Games are coming to Toronto, Ontario in 2015.

The Games are like the Olympics, but only athletes from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean compete.

It is different from the Olympics because it celebrates culture as well as sports. And that’s where the pianos come in.

The Games don’t start for another three years, but last July a Pan Am project called Play Me, I’m Yours, put 41 painted pianos around Toronto.

The pianos stood for the 41 countries and protectorates belonging to the Pan American Sports Organization. (Protectorates are countries that have their own government but also get protection from stronger countries.)

Each piano was decorated by an artist who lives in Canada but was born in one of the 41 countries.

The pianos were placed in public parks, streets and squares.

Play Me, I’m Yours invited everybody to play. It didn’t matter if you were piano teacher or could only play Chopsticks.

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News Politics

Rob Ford’s Problems Follow Him To Chicago

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford went to Chicago, Illinois in the U.S. this week.

He went to promote goodwill between the two cities and also to make some business deals. But he couldn’t shake the scandal that he’d left behind in Toronto.

The mayor has been accused of using city staff to help with his personal hobby of coaching football.

He has also been accused of charging the cost of his car and other expenses to the city, even when they are used for football.

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Arts Entertainment News

CUT! It’s A Wrap For TIFF 2012

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The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival ended last Sunday.

For 10 days, movies from more than 60 countries were shown around the city.

Thirty-eight of them were premieres, or films that were shown in Toronto for the first time. And all the big players–famous actors, directors and producers–came out to see them, and to be seen.

A film festival is an event about movies: watching movies, making movies and acting in movies. And of course, it’s about the business of movies. Many big movie deals are made during TIFF. Storytellers meet writers. Writers meet producers. Producers meet directors. Directors meet actors. And later–often years later–a movie is made

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Health Kids News

Gloomy Underpass Transformed Into Awesome Kids’ Park

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An “underpass” is a road or a tunnel that goes beneath another road. Toronto has some dark and gloomy underpasses.

Dark and gloomy, that is, until this summer.

That’s when an organization called Waterfront Toronto built something incredible.

Where there used to be garbage and weeds, there is now a fun playground with a safe, rubbery floor, a skateboard and scooter park and a basketball court.

There are also swings, climbers, a teeter-totter and benches for people to relax on.

Underpass Park covers 2.5 acres underneath three on- and off-ramps that lead to the DVP in East Toronto.

Before the park was built, Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford said he wasn’t sure the space could be transformed.

But when he came to open the park on Aug. 2, he loved it.

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News

Flotilla A Highlight Of Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

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When someone’s done the same job for 60 years, she deserves a party. And that’s what happened in London, England this week.

The party for Queen Elizabeth II lasted four days.

On the first day, she attended the Royal Derby, a big horserace held every year.

The second day, more than a million guests lined the River Thames and watched the Queen and members of her family float along in the royal barge, majestically surrounded by a flotilla of 1,000 boats. A flotilla is a group of small boats together on the water.

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News Politics

Girls Rule

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Queen Elizabeth II is the queen of 54 Commonwealth countries. 16 of these countries are called Commonwealth Realm countries and Canada is one of them.

When Elizabeth steps down or dies, her son, Prince Charles will become King. If he steps down or dies, his first-born son, Prince William will become King–even though Princess Anne is the Queen’s only daughter and is next in age to Prince Charles.

In other words, because she is female, the crown wouldn’t go to Princess Anne.

Since the beginning of the British monarchy, men have been chosen first to become the next ruler.

A woman can only be chosen when there are no men in the monarch’s direct line, (like a brother or a brother’s sons).

That is how Elizabeth became queen. Her father, King George VI, had two daughters and no sons.

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News Politics

Europeans Say No To Spending Cuts

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Two countries in Europe had important elections last weekend – France and Greece. Both elections went against the conservative parties in power.

Experts are saying this could be a sign that more countries in Europe will protest against spending cuts by voting out current governments.

In France a new party and a new president were elected.

Francois Hollande is the head of the Socialist Party, and he was elected president, over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. (Incumbent means “currently in power.”)

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Environment News

Japan’s 2011 Tsunami Sends Balls 8,000 Kilometres To Alaska

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In March 2011, Japan was hit by the largest earthquake ever recorded.

It caused a tsunami–a huge wave that started out in the ocean. The tsunami swept onto the north-east coast of Japan and back into the sea, carrying away everything in its path.

Now, after travelling across the Pacific Ocean for more than a year, a soccer ball and a volleyball have washed up onto Middleton Island, off the coast of Alaska.

The man who found them plans to send them back to the two Japanese teenagers who lost them during the tsunami.

The balls were found two weeks apart and both balls had names on them. The soccer ball also had a school name and several messages.

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