Dan Bahdur Gurung, a refugee from Bhutan, is one of hundreds from that country making Lethbridge home. (CBC)

Lethbridge becoming magnet for Bhutan refugees

Pie chart showing 2001 distribution of all religions in Lethbridge according to the federal census.

CBC News Posted: Apr 18, 2012 12:39 PM MT Last Updated: Apr 18, 2012 12:07 PM MT

By the end of the year 5,000 refugees from the small South Asian country of Bhutan will call Canada home, with hundreds of them settling in Lethbridge.
Dan Bahdur Gurung, a refugee from Bhutan, is one of hundreds from that country making Lethbridge home. (CBC)

Dan Bahdur Gurung, his wife and two children landed in Canada seven months ago.

So far his daughter is the only one who understands English. The rest of the family is struggling to adjust.

Nearly 20 years ago the Gurungs were among 100,000 people forced from Bhutan into refugee camps in neighbouring Nepal.

Now those people are slowly being resettled around the world. Canada is one of seven countries that agreed to take refugees from the camps.

“It’s probably becoming one of the larger ethnic communities in Lethbridge,” said Sarah Amies, who works with Lethbridge Immigrant Services.

Over the last three years the agency has welcomed more than 500 Bhutanese refugees to the city.

For most of them, integration is a challenge. But it helps to be in a smaller centre, Amies said.

“It’s closer, it’s less difficult to get around, there’s English language available, settlement services,” she said.

According to Gurung, the biggest frustration is the language barrier.

He said he doesn’t get enough English lessons. But until he learns the language his future here is uncertain, he said.

(…)
Adhikr said he wishes there were more services available, especially English classes.

(…)

“This is not a Christian country or a Christian city. It is a secular multicultural country and secular multicultural city with people from numerous religions as well as spiritual people, agnostics and atheists,” Solo said.

Atheist Ashu Solo threatens human rights complaint after Saskatoon councillor’s dinner blessing

Betty Ann Adam, Postmedia NewsApr 21, 2012 – 5:02 PM ET | Last Updated: Apr 23, 2012 10:06 AM ET

Richard Marjan/Postmedia News

“It made me feel like a second-class citizen. It makes you feel excluded,” atheist Ashu Solo complained after a Saskatoon city councillor said grace at a volunteer appreciation dinner.

SASKATOON — A Christian prayer by a city councillor at a City of Saskatoon volunteer appreciation dinner discriminated against non-Christians, says a volunteer who intends to complain to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

Ashu Solo, a member of the city’s cultural diversity and race relations committee, was among the guests at the dinner Wednesday, where Coun. Randy Donauer said a blessing over the food in which he mentioned Jesus and ended with “amen.”

“It made me feel like a second-class citizen. It makes you feel excluded,” said Solo, who is an atheist.

“It’s ironic that I’ve now become a victim of religious bigotry and discrimination at this banquet that was supposed to be an appreciation banquet for the service of volunteers like me.”

Ashiqur Rahman stands outside the court room at his manslaughter trial in the 2009 death of his baby daughter, Aurora Breakthrough, at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax on Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. (Andrew Vaughan / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

No proof baby died from being shaken, hit: defence

The Canadian Press

Date: Monday Apr. 23, 2012 1:08 PM ET

HALIFAX — There are enough medical uncertainties about the death of a seven-week-old girl in Halifax to acquit her father of manslaughter and aggravated assault, the man’s defence lawyer argued Monday.

Donald Murray was delivering his closing arguments in the case of Ashiqur Rahman, who has pleaded not guilty in the July 2009 death of Aurora Breakthrough.

Jane Gomes, Rahman’s ex-girlfriend and the child’s mother, has told the Nova Scotia Supreme Court that she saw Rahman slap and shake the baby.

Medical examiner Marnie Wood concluded the death was the result of “non-accidental trauma.”

But Murray argued Monday that evidence from pathologists and medical experts didn’t prove she died as a result of being shaken or hit.

He told Judge Felix Cacchione that after the baby died, some medical experts said she may have had a congenital heart condition that played a role in a cardiac arrest on July 23, 2009.

(…)

“The objective medical facts do not exclude death as possibly having been the result of a natural disease process unrelated to the infliction of trauma,” Murray said.

“This alone suggests that no unlawful act causing death has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

He said even if Wood were correct, there was no concrete evidence to show that Aurora suffered some trauma — such as being shaken — on the day she was rushed to hospital.

City of Brandon concerned over new immigrant language standards

Megan Batchelor

New beefed-up language requirements for immigrants could spell trouble for Manitoba’s meat processing industry.

Brandon’s immigration officials say Maple Leaf processing plant drives new immigrants to the city.

As of July 1, new federal requirements mean immigrants will have to pass an English proficiency test in order to qualify for the provincial nominee program.

Maple Leaf relies heavily on low-skilled immigrant workers. Foreign workers will have to pass a level four English test within 18 months of arriving as a foreign temporary worker.

Jason Kenney steps in to postpone deportation of Guinean family fearing abuses

Robert Hiltz, Postmedia News Apr 23, 2012 – 10:25 AM ET

(…)
A Guinean family living in Montreal was granted a last-minute respite from deportation Sunday when Immigration Minister Jason Kenney stepped in to postpone the family’s expulsion from Canada.

Keita Mansare was worried her daughters would be subjected to forced marriages and genital mutilation in their native Guinea, according to the family’s lawyer Salif Sangare.

Kenney did not give a reason for using his discretionary powers as minister and his office could only confirm that the minister had indeed intervened. According to CBC News, Mansare and two of her children were originally scheduled to be removed Sunday. Her other three children were to be deported Tuesday.

“I’m really happy and I don’t know how to thank him [the minister] and the people of Canada,” Zenab Mansare, one of Keita Mansare’s daughters, told LCN Television Sunday.