Azkar Khan says many members of the Pakistani community in Regina are upset over changes to a Saskatchewan immigration program. (CBC

New immigration rules slammed
CBC News Posted: May 12, 2012 2:52 PM CST Last Updated: May 12, 2012 3:00 PM CST
Azkar Khan says many members of the Pakistani community in Regina are upset over changes to a Saskatchewan immigration program. (CBC)

Anger and frustration were evident at a meeting Friday night in Regina where members of the local Pakistani community voiced their unhappiness with changes to a Saskatchewan immigration program.

The province announced changes to the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program on May 2.

Among other things, the changes put a limit on how many additional family members may apply to immigrate until the original family has settled.

The people at the Regina meeting said the changes came without warning, catching some families who had already been making plans off guard.

Azkar Khan, who recently moved to Regina, said people at the meeting shared concerns that the changes, announced just over a week ago, will create unfairness.

“If I submit my two applications on 30th of April and my friend who is also eligible has those applications ready, but somehow couldn’t make it to the office, now the rules are changes for him,” Khan said.

(…)
“This is about the community and I can see other people are upset,” Khan added. “They’re crying. Because they made this move. It’s not easy to relocate in Canada.”

A rally was being organized for Monday to protest the changes.
With files from CBC’s Dani Mario

The Ummah Mosk gets provincially-funded gymnasium

Finishing touches on new Halifax Mosque delayed again
Provincially-funded gymnasium will be open to the public when complete
CBC News Posted: May 8, 2012 4:57 PM AT Last Updated: May 8, 2012 6:39 PM AT
The Ummah Mosque should be complete by the fall. (CBC)

The Halifax Ummah Mosque and Community Centre is facing more delays as it tries to finish the final stage of construction.

The building on Chebucto Road is nearly complete except for the basement, which will be the home of a provincially-funded gymnasium.

Worshippers fundraised most of the $6.2 million project, but the province chipped in $700,000 to pay for the gym.

The project is already two years overdue.

The project manager is struggling to find a bricklayer to finish the gym. (CBC)

The project manager is struggling to find a bricklayer to finish the gym. (CBC)

“Most of it is already wired and ready to go,” said Project manager Peter Scott. His biggest hurdle right now is finding a bricklayer to complete the stage. He said he’s desperate to find a contractor to finish the project.

“I think at the moment it’s just the time of year everybody’s busy on housing, all are committed to contracts,” he said.

(…)
The latest deadline for completion was this month, but Scott estimates it will take up to six weeks to finish the work once he finds a contractor.

Scott says he expects the building to have its official opening in the fall.

Tory MPP Rob Milligan said Wednesday that the East End Madrassah (EEM) should lose its permit to rent from the Toronto District School Board until a York Regional police investigation into a lesson allegedly containing hate language is wrapped up.

Yank Islamic school’s permit: Tory MPP
By Terry Davidson, QMI Agency

Tory MPP Rob Milligan

Jewish group says Islamic school needs to do more
Islamic school probed for teachings about Jews

TORONTO – An Islamic school that has been renting space at a Toronto public school to allegedly teach its students to hate Jews should have its permit revoked until a police investigation is finished, says Ontario’s PC education critic.

Tory MPP Rob Milligan said Wednesday that the East End Madrassah (EEM) should lose its permit to rent from the Toronto District School Board until a York Regional police investigation into a lesson allegedly containing hate language is wrapped up.

The Islamic school rents teaching space on Sundays at David and Mary Thompson collegiate in the city’s east end.

Islamic school apologizes for anti-Semitic material on website
CBC News Posted: May 8, 2012 1:23 PM ET Last Updated: May 8, 2012 4:51 PM ET
A Toronto Islamic school that is under police investigation after anti-Semitic teachings were found on its website is apologizing “unreservedly” for its curriculum material, which is now being reviewed.

The Toronto District School Board is also reviewing a complaint that the East End Madrassah was teaching children that “treacherous” Jews “conspired to kill” the Islamic prophet Mohammed. It also contrasted Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.”

The complaint came from the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which found the material on the school’s website.

The East End Madrassah, a Sunday school run that rents space in a Scarborough school, is run by a Thornhill, Ont., mosque. It has since taken the material off the website, but copies are still available online.

Omar Khadr image from video leaked to CBS

Sgt. 1st Class Christopher J. Speer was killed by terrorist Khadr

Convicted terrorist Khadr coming home: Toews

10:10 pm, April 19th, 2012
4:37 pm, April 19th, 2012

MARK DUNN | QMI AGENCY

OTTAWA – Convicted al-Qaida terrorist and killer Omar Khadr is coming home.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Thursday the government won’t block the transfer of Khadr from a cell in the Caribbean to a Canadian prison.

Toews squelched speculation the government was considering using a clause in the International Transfer of Offenders Act to keep the 25-year-old, Toronto-born Khadr out of Canada on national security grounds.

Fine arts student Sooraya Graham, 24, took this photograph as a class assignment in hopes of humanizing women who wear the niqab.

Photo of Muslim woman holding bra causes tensions The Canadian Press Date: Fri. Apr. 13 2012 7:54 PM ET KAMLOOPS, B.C. — An art student who wears Muslim headdress is defending her right to freedom of expression after a photo she snapped was removed from public display at a British Columbia university. The large black and white print depicts a woman in full Islamic scarf and cloak holding a flower-embossed bra while folding laundry. Sooraya Graham produced the image and presented it earlier this year for a class assignment as part of her fine arts degree at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. Not long after it had been hung in the school hallway, she overheard a woman who also wears a head scarf saying she had peeled the artwork off the wall. That decision inadvertently put the photograph into greater public view, and has now generated debate about cultural misconceptions, community representation and censorship.