Tag: Canada

News Politics

New Rules To Become A Canadian Citizen

People who were not born in Canada may have to follow new rules to become Canadian citizens.

A new bill has been put forward that increases the length of time people must be physically in Canada before they can apply for citizenship.

They can’t say they live in Canada and then spend too much time outside the country.

The government says they want people to have direct experience of what it’s like to live in Canada, before they become a citizen.

The new rules extend the age for being able to speak and understand one of Canada’s official languages.

Previously, people 18 to 54 had to speak English or French and pass a Canadian knowledge test with the help of an interpreter.

News Sports

Determination, Team Spirit Helps Canada Win Its First Medals In Sochi

On Saturday, Mark McMorris won Canada’s first medal at the 2014 Olympics–a bronze in snowboarding.

That was quickly followed up by two more medals for Canada: Justine Dufour-Lapointe won Canada’s first gold and her sister, Chloe, earned Canada’s first silver medal.

McMorris is a native from Regina, Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan is known for having very flat terrain, yet McMorris was determined to be a world-class snowboarder.

News Sports

Spectacular Opening Ceremony Kicks Off 2014 Winter Olympics

The eyes of the world are on Sochi, Russia, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are taking place.

Last Friday, the official opening ceremony took the audience on a Russian journey. It began with the Russian alphabet, with each of the 33 letters highlighting a famous Russian person or achievement.

Later, the athletes flooded into the stadium, grouped according to country. Canada, with 220 athletes, has one of the largest teams in this year’s winter Olympics. The Canadians came into the stadium, a sea of red, behind flag-bearer Hayley Wickenheiser.

“It’s an amazing feeling being able to carry the flag and lead in this awesome powerful Team Canada,” Hayley Wickenheiser told CBC News. “I’m a very, very proud Canadian right now. It’s great to be Canadian in moments like this; you realize how lucky we are to live where we live. I hope everyone back home is proud and enjoys the games.”

News Sports

Canadian Athletes Working Through Injuries To Compete In Sochi

The 2014 Winter Olympics begin today in Sochi, Russa. Canadians will be cheering for their favourite athletes.

But several Olympic contenders are receiving a little more attention than others.

They are recovering from major injuries and needed to add extra training so they’ll be fit enough to compete.

At least two slopestyle contenders from Canada are among this group.

Slopestyle is an event in which skiers or snowboarders try to perform the most difficult tricks while flying as high into the air as possible.

News Politics

How Would You Change The Senate?

What would you do with the Canadian Senate? Change the way Senators are chosen? Get rid of it? Keep it as-is?

The Senate is a legislative body of the government that has almost the same powers as the House of Commons.

However, members to the House of Commons are elected; the prime minister appoints Senators.

And these tend to be people from his own party, who have done good things for his party.

Once they are in the Senate, they almost always vote as their party does in the House of Commons.

The Senate was started this way in 1867 when Canada was formed.

It was supposed to be a place for “sober second thought”—thinking carefully about the laws sent to it by the House of Commons and sometimes improving them.

News

New Rules Will Protect Clothing Makers

From now on, many companies that want to sell clothing to the Ontario government will have to provide the names of the people who made the clothing.

The names and addresses will be put onto a website so if anyone wants to check them, they can.

The new rules apply to companies selling more than $5,000 of clothing to the government.

If they do not give the information, they may not be allowed to sell the clothing.

Last year, unsafe workplaces in Asia made the news. In one incident, there was a fire in a clothing factory in Bangladesh.

It turned out that some Canadian companies were buying products from the Bangladesh factory even though it wasn’t a safe place. In other workplaces, reports came out about children in factories doing the work, which is against the law.

Animals News

US Group Says Canadian Lobster Traps Are Endangering Whales

Canada has failed to protect the North Atlantic Right Whale by allowing the use of old-fashioned methods to catch lobsters and crabs, according to an environmental group in the United States.

Many Canadians who fish for lobsters and crabs use nets, traps and ropes that can tangle up whales and accidentally capture other sea creatures, they say.

The magazine on earth is published by The Natural Resources Defense Council in the US.

In a recent article they said Canada has no regulations to protect the endangered right whale from the old-fashioned fishing methods.

News

Genie (And Her “Army”) Marching Towards Tennis Stardom

Eugenie “Genie” Bouchard from Montreal, Quebec, recently made tennis history for her country.

She made it to the semi-final round of a tournament called the Australian Open.

Bouchard is the 30th ranked female tennis player in the world.

On Monday she played against Ana Ivanovic, the 14th ranked female tennis player in the world.

Ivanovic had just recently beaten the world-number-one ranked female tennis player, Serena Williams. With that huge win, Ivanovic seemed poised to beat Bouchard.

However, Bouchard had other plans.

News Technology

$40 Tablet Comes To Canada And The U.S.

Many people use tablet computers, like the Apple iPad or the Samsung Galaxy.

The small, flat computers, which you operate by swiping their surface with your fingers, are very expensive. They can cost as much as $800.

But one company, Datawind, says they have a tablet that sells for just $40.

Datawind’s tablet is called Ubislate, and it is already widely used in India.

Datawind has just launched Ubislate (pronounced oo-bee-slate) in Canada and the U.S. There is a lot of interest as well as debate over whether it offers enough speed, screen clarity and features.

Ubislate can’t do everything the expensive tablets do, but Toronto Star technology reporter Raju Mudhar used the tablet for a few days and said that what it does, it does well.

News Sports

Heatwave In Australia Affects Major Tennis Tournament

How hot was it?

It was so hot, you could fry an egg on the tennis court at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne.

And in fact, someone did.

Tennis player Novak Djokovic sent around a picture of an actual egg on a tennis court, frying in the heat. The picture quickly went viral, meaning that many people saw it.

If it was that hot for an egg, imagine people playing top-level tennis in that heat.

Some of the players took baths in ice water to offset the effects of the heat, as the temperature climbed to 43-degrees Celsius.

Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard is emerging as a rising star, advancing to the fourth round of the tournament.

She is the first Canadian in 22 years to reach the quarter-finals in a major tennis tournament.