A man was arrested at the scene after a string of violent assaults in Vancouver on Dec. 7, 2012. (CTV)
Read more: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/man-charged-with-attempted-murder-after-3-women-assaulted-1.1071785#ixzz2EW7sAliK

Alta. man charged in 3 random attacks on Vancouver women
CBC News Posted: Dec 8, 2012 2:34 PM PT Last Updated: Dec 8, 2012 5:57 PM PT

Vancouver police say a 35-year-old man has been charged with three counts of attempted murder following random assaults on three women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Nicholas Osuteye, of Alberta, was arrested near BC Place Stadium on Friday.

Dickenson is a refugee claimant and single mother from Haiti who arrived in Windsor in 2007.  Claire Dickenson is due to deliver her fourth baby the day after Christmas.  (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE / The Windsor Star)

Some local refugees and their kids fall through health insurance gap after federal policy changes
Claire Dickenson is photographed in her home in Windsor on Friday, November 30, 2012. Dickenson is concerned about not having health care coverage after her refugee claim was denied. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE / The Windsor Star)

Beatrice Fantoni
Nov 30, 2012 – 9:44 AM EST
Last Updated: Dec 02, 2012 – 5:18 PM EST

Claire Dickenson is due to deliver her baby the day after Christmas, but without any health coverage, she’s expecting a hefty medical bill after Boxing Day.

Dickenson is a refugee claimant and single mother from Haiti who arrived in Windsor in 2007. Her asylum claim was refused in 2009. She’s since been waiting for approval to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds with her three children, plus the baby on the way.

Nick Kozak/for the Toronto Star
Naznin Lakha of Oakville, Ont., an Indian Muslim who came to Canada from Uganda as a political refugee in 1973, delivers Santa Claus Fund boxes as a way to give back.

Santa Claus Fund: A Muslim refugee’s first Christmas started a tradition of giving
Published on Saturday November 24, 2012

Josh Tapper
Staff Reporter

They were untrammeled but destitute, a family of seven political refugees living in a Vancouver motel at the onset of their first Canadian winter.

Before arriving in October 1972, Naznin Lakha’s family had been given 90 days to flee their homeland of Uganda, gripped at the time by the repressive rule of Idi Amin. They were ethnic Indians and religious Muslims emigrating from a predominantly black, Christian African country.

A man has his fingerprint scanned on a new biometric check at London’s Heathrow airport.

Biometics plan to take effect in 2013 for visitors from 30 countries
By Tobi Cohen, Postmedia News December 7, 2012

A man has his fingerprint scanned on a new biometric check at London’s Heathrow airport.

OTTAWA — Starting next year, visitors from some 30 countries will be required to submit a photograph and fingerprints if they want to come to Canada, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced Friday as details of Canada’s new biometrics program were published in the Canada Gazette.

The new rules will apply starting in 2013 to individuals from Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Vietnam, Yemen and the Palestinian territory who are seeking to come to Canada as tourists or on study or work permits.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews speaks in Parliament.
Photo: Chris Wattie/Reuters

Nathalie Des Rosiers

New immigration rules are a return to group detentions that marred Canada’s past
Nathalie Des Rosiers 
Published: December 7, 2012, 11:45 am
Updated: 1 day ago

The following column was contributed by Nathalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association:

Mass detentions are incompatible with a system of justice based on fairness, as mass arrests are. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has decided to use controversial new provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to recently declare “irregular” the arrival of a group of people from Romania via Mexico and the United States. This designation exposes all members of the group – except the 35 people under age 16 – to mass detention, possibly for a period of six months, unless the minister decides otherwise.