Tag: Ontario

Health

Toronto Kids Need More Exercise

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Ninety-nine percent of children living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) don’t get enough exercise, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Toronto and Dalhousie University tracked the physical activity of 856 grade five and six students in the GTA for one week.

The students wore accelerometers – tiny devices that are similar to pedometers, but which measure all types of motion – for about 16 and a half hours a day.

The information recorded by the devices showed that, on average, boys got about 35 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Girls got about 24 minutes of activity per day.

Experts* recommend that children aged five to 17 should get 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity each day.

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Animals News Science

Giant Pandas Arrive In Toronto

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Two giant pandas arrived in Toronto on March 25 to begin a 10-year visit to Canada.

The pandas will spend five years at the Toronto Zoo, and then move to the Calgary Zoo for another five years. They are on loan to Canada from the Chinese government.

The pandas travelled by plane from their native China, along with several kilograms of bamboo shoots, boxes of apples and their favourite toys. The trip took 15 hours.

The pandas were greeted at the airport by a large crowd, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Zhang Junsai, the Chinese ambassador to Canada. A high school band played “O Canada” as the pandas’ crates were unloaded.

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Entertainment News

Canada Loses Its Troubador – Stompin’ Tom Connors Dead At 77

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Some people say that Canada has two national athems: “O Canada” and “The Hockey Song” by Stompin’ Tom Connors.

The Canadian icon passed away on March 6, at the age of 77, leaving a hole in the heart and soul of the country.

Connors was a folk musician and a fierce Canadian patriot. He made his way up and down the country, documenting every square inch of every little Canadian town in his songs. He got his nickname because as he played and sang on stage, he stomped his cowboy booted left foot in time to the music.

The songs Stompin’ Tom wrote and sang were songs that Canadians connected with and which drew them together. They were simple, singable and relatable. Songs like “The Hockey Song,” which recounts a hockey game, inning by inning. Or “Bud the Spud,” about a trucker driving a load of PEI potatoes across Canada. Or Sudbury Saturday Night, which tells the tale of ordinary folks enjoying themselves in an Ontario town.

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News Politics

Canadian Senators’ Expenses Being Reviewed

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Senators are people who are chosen to help make the laws in Canada.

But right now, some of the senators are getting attention because of money they are spending on travel, and on apartments or houses to live in while they sit in the Senate in Ottawa, Ont., Canada’s capital city.

Senators can get as much as $22,000 each year from Canadians or their living expenses, as long as their main residence is at least 100 kilometres away from Ottawa.

But people say that some of the senators are claiming money to pay for their homes even though they are not living in them when they claim to be.

In other cases, people say the homes that are being paid for by Canadians are the main place of residence, or where the senators live most of the time — not just when they have to help make laws in the Senate.

If that is the case, these people say, the senators should be paying the cost themselves.

The senators who are being questioned about whether Canadians should be paying their housing and travel expenses include former TV news personalities Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy.

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Environment News Science

City Services Gearing Up To Battle Climate Change

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Cities need to watch the weather closely in the future to make sure that city services are always in good working order, according to a new report being studied by the City of Toronto.

That’s because the changing climate–including severe weather and warmer temperatures–may affect cities’ infrastructure. In this case, “infrastructure” refers to services that support the city, such as roads, public transit and energy plants.

The report, requested by the Toronto Environment Office, summed up the past 10 years of serious weather events in and around Toronto.

In the last decade, several records were broken due to the weather. For instance, there was one day in which there was an unusually high demand for power during a very hot summer. This kind of high demand can put a strain on the city’s ability to provide power.

An all-time record 409 mm (millimetres) of rainfall was set at Trent University during this time. Four hundred and nine millimetres is equivalent to 14 billion litres of water in five hours.

Also, in the past 10 years, Toronto had its earliest ever official heat wave.

These kinds of weather events will likely continue and could affect the infrastructure of Toronto and other cities.

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News Politics

Rob Ford Wins His Legal Case, Remains As Toronto’s Mayor

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Rob Ford has won his appeal and will remain as Toronto’s mayor.

Last November, Ford was removed from office – in other words, told by a judge that he could no longer be mayor.

The judge said Ford broke a “conflict of interest” law after he voted on an issue that he, himself was involved in. The judge said Ford must step down as mayor.

However, Ford appealed the judge’s decision. That means he asked the court to look over the case and reverse the decision.

Three judges from the Ontario Divisional Court did just that. They ruled that Ford never broke the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

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Kids News

More Canadian Kids Taking French Immersion

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More Canadian students are signing up for French immersion, according to a report by Statistics Canada.

Even though the number of students in Canada is going down, the number of students taking French immersion has gone up by 12 per cent in the last five years. That information is based on the 2011 census.

The trend is particularly strong out west. Over the past 12 years, the number of students in British Columbia and Alberta taking French immersion has risen steadily. The number in Saskatchewan and Ontario are also climbing.

French immersion is when a student whose first language is not French, studies in French.

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News Politics

Kathleen Wynne Ontario’s Next Premier

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Ontario’s next premier is Kathleen Wynne.

She won the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Since the Liberals are in power in the province, she will automatically become the premier as well.

Wynne’s closest competitor for the job was Sandra Pupatello.

The Liberals held a “leadership convention” to choose a new leader after Dalton McGuinty stepped down as leader and Ontario premier last October.

The convention was held on the weekend; Wynne was voted in on Saturday.

Liberal party members voted in Toronto, in three votes or “ballots.” Wynne won in the third ballot with 1,150 votes over Pupatello, who had 866 votes.

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News

Head Of Canada’s Largest School Board Resigns Over Plagiarism

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Last week, thousands of children in Toronto learned an important lesson about the seriousness of plagiarism, from the head of the largest school board in Canada.

Plagiarism is when you copy someone else’s work and claim the ideas or writing as your own.

When you use someone else’s writing in a school report, for instance, you must let the reader know where the passage came from.

That’s known as “citing the source” or “giving attribution.”

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News

“Idle No More” A Growing Movement

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For nearly a month Theresa Spence, Chief of the community of Attawapiskat, has been protesting the way First Nations people are treated in northern Ontario.

Spence has not eaten any solid food for about 30 days. This type of protest is called a “hunger strike.”

During a hunger strike, people stop eating in order to make a peaceful protest about something they believe in. Spence is consuming only liquids, like water and broth.

Spence said she will not end her hunger strike until Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with her to discuss First Nations rights.

Last week, Harper said he will meet with First Nations leaders on Jan. 11.

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