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Protesters Have The World’s Attention (Editorial)

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There is a park in downtown Toronto called St. James Park.

This week it is filled with “campers.”

Colourful, domed vinyl tents crowd next to each other in the mud.

The campers are cold because there is no heat at night, there is no electricity, and winter is coming. But they persist.

Why are they there? They are camping in St. James Park in Toronto for the same reason they are camping in Zuccotti Park in New York, or outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England.

For the same reason people are camping in 80 other cities around the globe.

It is a protest.

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Gifts
Arts Kids

Grade-One Students In Canada Getting “Gifts”

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This month, every child in Grade one in Canada will receive a free book.

That will be every grade-one child, including those who are home-schooled, or in any school in the country, private or public, French-speaking or English-speaking.

The book giveaway is the product of a partnership between TD (the bank) and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC).

The bank pays more than $1-million to have 500,000 books printed and sent out to grade-one students across the country. This is the program’s eleventh year.

This year the books the kids will get is Gifts (Cadeaux, translated into French), by author Jo Ellen Bogart and plasticine artist Barbara Reid.

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Lighter News

Give Yourself Up – And Get A Mani-Pedi?

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If you turn yourself in to police and admit you were part of last year’s Stanley Cup riot, you could get a free manicure or pedicure.

Last June, there was a major riot in Vancouver after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to Boston. Crowds swarmed the streets, smashing store windows and stealing things.

So many people were involved that the police are still trying to identify who did what.

Vancouver’s Eccotique Salons has an unusual promotion to help the police identify and arrest the rioters. They are offering a $50 “Calm Down And De-Stress Gift Certificate” to any rioter who gives himself up to police.

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News Politics

Occupy Wall Street Heading To Toronto

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The “Occupy Wall Street” movement is heading for Toronto and 950 other cities around the world.

In September, a poster in Adbusters magazine called for people to gather in New York to protest against big companies that make a lot of profit.

Although the protest was rather vague and unfocussed, young people came – and they kept coming.

They met in the “financial district” in New York, NY. The financial district is where many big companies have their headquarters, and where many stockbrokers (people who trade stocks) work.

It’s where a lot of profit is made.

Wall Street is a famous street that defines New York’s financial district.

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Politics

First Female Premier For NL; Liberal Majority In PEI

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The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has its first female premier.

Kathy Dunderdale made history on Tuesday as she led her Progressive Conservative party to its third majority in a row.

A “majority” means the PCs have more seats in the legislature than the other parties combined.

A majority means that if there is a vote in the legislature, the PCs will win it (assuming all of them vote, and vote the same way) – even if everyone else in the legislature votes against it.

Having a majority often lets a government do more of the things it wants to do, because its projects won’t get voted down by the other parties.

Dunderdale has been Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador since Dec., 2010. She is only the sixth female premier in Canada’s history.

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News

Inventor, Innovator, Genius – Steve Jobs’ Legacy

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Steve Jobs changed forever the way the world views, and interacts with, technology.

Jobs passed away last week, at the age of 56, from cancer.

Jobs helped to invent many products including the Macintosh computer, the iPhone, the iPod and the iPad. Along with Steve Wozniak, he founded computer company Apple.

It may be difficult for young people, who may have never known computers and phones before Steve Jobs changed them, to understand the massive impact he made.

A 1984 video of Jobs unveiling a brand-new product called the Macintosh computer, gives some idea.

To us today, the technology seems horribly outdated, clunky and… can you believe it? the images on the tiny computer screen aren’t even in colour!

But listen to the audience in the video as Jobs walks over to a small bag and takes the computer out. It has a handle! It’s small enough to carry! It has graphics, not just text! The audience gasps, cheers and claps because no one has ever seen anything like it.

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News Science

Canadian Nobel Winner Allowed To Keep Award

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A Canadian-born scientist recently won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

The Nobel Prize in Medicine is one of five Nobel Prizes given out each year for achievement in various scientific fields.

This year, a very unusual situation occurred – one that required a special emergency meeting of the Nobel Prize committee.

When the Nobel Foundation announced that it was giving the award to three scientists: Bruce Beutler, Jules Hoffmann and Canadian Ralph Steinman, it didn’t realize that Steinman had died from cancer three days earlier.

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News Politics

Ontario Students Elect The NDP (Adult Voters Re-Elect Liberals)

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If it was up to Ontario’s students, the province would have woken up to an NDP minority government.

More than 321,000 students under the voting age, cast ballots in a “parallel election.” In that “election,” the NDP won, with 26.6% of the votes and 41 seats in the legislature.

The Liberals came in a close second, with 39 seats (25.8%), the Ontario PCs third with 24 seats (21.1%) and the Green party took fourth place with 3 seats (16.6% of the votes cast).*

Across the province, candidates had dropped in on classrooms to talk about the issues and present their platforms to kids.

One grade 5 student in Toronto said he enjoyed listening to the candidates, learning about the electoral process and voting.

“It was great,” he said. “I now know what they stand for and why they’re politicians. I feel like I understand the parties a lot better.”

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News Politics

Fourth Straight Majority For NDP In Manitoba

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Manitoba had a provincial election on Wednesday.

The province’s New Democratic Party made history yesterday by winning its fourth straight majority.

A “majority” is when a party has more seats in the legislature than the other parties combined. (Seats in the legislature means the number of Members of Provincial Parliament, or MPPs, in the provincial government.)

Greg Selinger, the leader of the Manitoba NDP, will remain the province’s premier, a position he has held since 2009.

Selinger defeated the Progressive Conservatives. Its leader, Hugh McFadyen, said he will step down as soon as his party can find someone to replace him.

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News

Saudi Women To Vote, Run For Office

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History was made in Saudi Arabia last week when King Abdullah announced that starting in 2015, Saudi Arabian women will be able to vote and to run for office.

It is a big step in a country that does not grant women equal rights to those enjoyed by men.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world in which women are banned from driving an automobile.

Last July a woman, identified only as Shema, was found guilty of driving and sentenced to 10 lashes.

(Many women defy the ban by driving in spite of the fact it is not legal in the country. By driving, they are protesting what they feel is an unfair rule.)

Last week, the king surprised the country by stopping the punishment for Shema. She will not have to endure any lashes.

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