Gabby Kalaw fell short in his first run for the Vancouver park board, but Rod Belleza was reelected to the Richmond school board.

Filipino Canadians have mixed results in B.C. municipal elections

Gabby Kalaw fell short in his first run for the Vancouver park board, but Rod Belleza was reelected to the Richmond school board.

By Carlito Pablo, November 20, 2011

The breakthrough that many in the Filipino-Canadian community in Vancouver were hoping for on election night on November 19 didn’t materialize.

Surrey man shot in face in Richmond
By 24 HOURS

A 23-year-old Surrey man is in serious but stable condition after being shot in the face outside a Richmond hotel overnight Sunday.

The Indo-Canadian man was shot during a dispute between two groups of men outside the Holiday Inn at 10720 Cambie Rd, said Richmond RCMP Sgt. Roger Morrow.

2011: Regina's Syrian and Muslim community marched in Victoria Park to rally against the Syrian regime.

Protests in Damascus by women demonstrators against Turkeys annexation of the Sanjak of Alexanderetta in 1939. One of the signs reads: "Our blood is sacrificed for the Syrian Arab Sanjak." Date 1939 Source http://www.syrianhistory.com/content/protests-damascus-women-demonstrators-against-annexation-sanjak-alexanderetta-1939

Regina’s Syrian community protests regime
Regina’s Syrian and Muslim community marched in Victoria Park to rally against the Syrian regime.
CTV Regina
Date: Saturday Nov. 19, 2011 6:44 PM CST

The occupiers have packed up and left, but Victoria Park was home to another protest Saturday afternoon.

The Assad family. Hafez al-Assad and his wife, Mrs Anisa Makhlouf. On the back row, from left to right: Maher, Bashar, Basil, Majid, and Bushra Assad.

Regina’s Syrian and Muslim community marched in Victoria Park to rally against the Syrian regime.
The Syrian people have been demanding the removal of president, Bashar Assad, for months and the government has reacted with violence.
The United Nations estimates that since mid-March, over 3,500 Syrian protesters have been killed.

President Amin al-Hafez amidst Damascene women in 1964

Karen refugees are studying English at the Karen Learning Education and Opportunities. (CBC)

Burmese refugees see struggle paying off

CBC News Posted: Nov 14, 2011 8:34 AM ET Last Updated: Nov 14, 2011 12:44 PM ET

Burmese refugees are struggling to adapt to life in Ottawa, five years after the city became their home, but their new sense of freedom makes it worthwhile, they say.

Karen refugees began arriving in the city in the fall of 2006 from camps in Thailand, where some had lived for more than a decade.

Ottawa is now home to 300 Karen. They fled the military regime in Burma, or Myanmar, where the Karen people make up seven per cent of the population, the largest minority ethnic group.

David Matas (born 1943) is the senior legal counsel of B'nai Brith Canada. He has maintained a private practice in refugee, immigration and human rights law since 1979. David Matas was born in Winnipeg his grandparents were immigrants from the Ukraine and Romania. Wiki/(TOM HANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES)

Government slammed door on refugees
Museum curator remembers those who weren’t allowed into Canada
By: Carol Sanders
Posted: 11/4/2011 1:00 AM | Last Modified: 11/4/2011 1:49 PM | Updates

While Canada’s proudly welcomed 700,000 refugees since the Second World War it has silently kept the door shut on certain groups over the years, says the curator of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

“It has been a little bit quiet about the people we don’t allow,” Armando Perla told a conference at the University of Manitoba Thursday.

War resisters, homosexual refugees and Roma refugees from Eastern Europe haven’t always received a warm welcome, said the refugee from El Salvador who’s working on the refugees exhibit for the new museum.

If history’s taught the world anything, it’s that human rights and refugee protection go hand in hand, said lawyer David Matas.