#Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec

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The first of our one-day polls, folks!

Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists

Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec

Image: University Baptist Church, Austin, Texas (AWAB)

[rabbitcruiser]

Samuel de Champlain returned to on July 11, 1616.

[walaw717]

Sir Alexander Mackenzie (or MacKenzie, Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair MacCoinnich; 1764 – 12 March 1820) was a Scottish explorer known for accomplishing the first east to west crossing of America north of Mexico in 1793, which preceded the more famous Lewis and Clark Expedition by 12 years. 

The Mackenzie River is named after him, the longest river system in Canada and the second longest in North America.  Mackenzie was born in Luskentyre House in Stornoway on Lewis. He was the third of the four children born to Kenneth 'Corc' Mackenzie (1731–1780) and his wife Isabella MacIver, from another prominent mercantile family in Stornoway. When only 14 years old, Mackenzie's father served as an ensign to protect Stornoway during the Jacobite rising of 1745. He later became a merchant and held the tack of Melbost; his grandfather being a younger brother of Murdoch Mackenzie, 6th Laird of Fairburn. 

Educated at the same school as Colin Mackenzie, he sailed to New York City with his father to join an uncle, John Mackenzie, in 1774, after his mother died in Scotland.[6] In 1776, during the American War of Independence, his father and uncle resumed their military duties and joined the King's Royal Regiment of New York as lieutenants. By 1778, for his safety as a son of loyalists, young Mackenzie was either sent, or accompanied by two aunts, to Montreal. By 1779 (a year before his father's death at Carleton Island]), Mackenzie had a secured apprenticeship with Finlay, Gregory & Co., one of the most influential fur trading companies in Montreal, which was later administered by Archibald Norman McLeod. In 1787, the company merged with the North West Company. 1789 Mackenzie River expedition to the Arctic Ocean.

On behalf of the North West Company, Mackenzie traveled to Lake Athabasca where, in 1788, he was one of the founders of Fort Chipewyan. He had been sent to replace Peter Pond, a partner in the North West Company. From Pond, he learned that the First Nations people understood that the local rivers flowed to the northwest. Acting on this information, he set out by canoe on the river known to the local Dene First Nations people as the Dehcho, (Mackenzie River) on 3 July 1789, following it to its mouth in the hope of finding the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. As he ended up reaching the Arctic Ocean on 14 July, it is conjectured that he named the river "Disappointment River" as it did not lead to Cook Inlet in Alaska as he had expected. The river was later renamed the Mackenzie River in his honor. 

1792–93 Peace River expedition to the Pacific Ocean

In 1791, Mackenzie returned to Great Britain to study the new advance in the measurement of longitude. Upon his return to Canada in 1792, he set out once again to find a route to the Pacific. Accompanied by two native guides (one named Cancre), his cousin, Alexander MacKay, six Canadian voyageurs (Joseph Landry, Charles Ducette, Francois Beaulieux, Baptiste Bisson, Francois Courtois, Jacques Beauchamp) and a dog simply referred to as "our dog", Mackenzie left Fort Chipewyan on 10 October 1792, and traveled via the Pine River to the Peace River. From there he traveled to a fork on the Peace River arriving 1 November where he and his cohorts built a fortification that they resided in over the winter. This later became known as Fort Fork. 

Mackenzie left Fort Fork on 9 May 1793, following the route of the Peace River.He crossed the Great Divide and found the upper reaches of the Fraser River, but was warned by the local natives that the Fraser Canyon to the south was unnavigable and populated by belligerent tribes. He was instead directed to follow a grease trail by ascending the West Road River, crossing over the Coast Mountains and descending the Bella Coola River to the sea. He followed this advice and reached the Pacific coast on 20 July 1793, at Bella Coola, British Columbia, on North Bentinck Arm, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. Having done this, he had completed the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, 12 years before Lewis and Clark. He had unknowingly missed meeting George Vancouver at Bella Coola by 48 days. 

He had wanted to continue westward out of a desire to reach the open ocean, but was stopped by the hostility of the Heiltsuk people. Hemmed in by Heiltsuk war canoes, he wrote a message on a rock near the water's edge of Dean Channel, using a reddish paint made of vermilion and bear grease, and turned back east. 

The inscription read: "Alex MacKenzie / from Canada / by land / 22d July 1793" (at the time the name Canada was an informal term for the former French territory in what is now southern Quebec and Ontario). The words were later inscribed permanently by surveyors. The site is now Sir Alexander Mackenzie Provincial Park and is designated a First Crossing of North America National Historic Site. In 2016, Mackenzie was named a National Historic Person.

  In his journal Mackenzie recorded the Carrier language for the first time. In 1801 the journals of his exploratory journeys were published. He was knighted for his efforts in the following year and served in the Legislature of Lower Canada for Huntingdon County, from 1804 to 1808. 

In 1812 Mackenzie, then aged 48, returned to Scotland, where he married 14-year-old Geddes Mackenzie, heiress of Avoch. 

They had two sons and a daughter. Her grandfather, Captain John Mackenzie of Castle Leod (great-grandson of George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth), purchased the estate of Avoch with money left to him by his first cousin and brother-in-law, Admiral George Geddes Mackenzie. Lady Mackenzie's father was a first cousin of the father of George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Mackenzies lived between Avoch and London. He died in 1820 of Bright's disease, at an age of 56 (his exact date of birth unknown). He is buried near Avoch on the Black Isle.

[fortheking16]

CBOQ “Baptist Heroes of Canada” - Canadian Baptist Historical Society

CBOQ “Baptist Heroes of Canada” – Canadian Baptist Historical Society

By Gordon L. Heath“Who are some heroes among the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ)”?CBOQ “Baptist Heroes of Canada”

[septembersung]

I can forgive Protestants and Protestantism for most things.

I can forgive Protestants for the Know-Nothing Party and their murderous Philadelphia Nativist Riot, the Intolerable Acts, Bloody Monday and the Orange Riots in New York City in 1871 and 1872. I forgive them for the “Blaine Amendments” which forbade tax money be used to fund Catholic parochial schools.

I can also forgive them for the KKK and for funding the Mexican atheist genocidal maniac Plutarco Ares Calles in his efforts to kill Catholics during the Cristero Wars. I can forgive them for calling any, and all, popes, the “Anti-Christ(s)” and “Whores(s) of Babylon.”

I also forgive them for supporting Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy by which the Church gained many of her modern martyrs. In addition, I forgive them for the Recusancy Acts and the fictitious, so-called “Popish Plot.” I forgive them also for the fact that as a Catholic, I shall never sit upon the British Throne though literally everyone else is allowed to do so.

I can forgive Protestants for The Troubles in Ireland and Oliver Cromwell and his engineered Potato Famine and the slaughter and military occupation of that country. I forgive them for the enslavement of 50,000 men, women and children who were forcibly removed from Ireland and sent to Bermuda and Barbados as indentured servants―America’s first slaves.

I forgive them for the Canadian Gavazzi Riots and the Orange Order and Ontario Regulation 17 that doomed Catholic schools in Quebec. I won’t even mention the American Protective Association and their Canadian counterparts, the Protestant Protective Association as I’ve chosen to forgive. I also forgive Protestants for forcibly converting Catholic convicts and political prisoners to Anglicanism in Australia something that Moslem terrorists have been doing for 1400 years.

I forgive Protestants for 500 years of venom and vitriol spouted by every street preacher and door-knocker―the seething anti-Catholic hatred that is at the core of primitive Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism and Jehovah’s Witnesses―but not them exclusively. Indeed, it makes up a great deal of traditional Anglicanism, Methodism and many other forms of “mainstream” Protestantism.

I forgive Protestants who refuse to refer to Catholics as “Christians.”

I also forgive them for intentionally ignoring the 1500 years that occurred prior to Martin Luther when everyone in Western Europe who was a Christian was, by necessity, a Catholic.

I forgive them for Bismarck’s Kulturkampf, the inspiration for the current assault upon religious liberty in America and Europe. Don’t worry, Jack Chick and your ignorant and poisonous “Chick Tracts” and for calling Catholics, “Mackerel Snappers”―all is forgiven.

I forgive Martin Luther for foisting a desecrated and greatly redacted Bible upon the world pretending that God “would have wanted it that way.” Luther removed seven books and parts of three others from the Old Testament―the fullness of which is called the Septuagint and was used by Christ himself when he walked among us.

And I also forgive Martin Luther for accepting funding from Suleiman the Magnificent, the Sultan of the Muslim Ottoman Empire as he “struggled” to succeed from the Catholic Church. Luther schemed to throw Christendom under the bus for fun and profit as he urged his fellow Protestants to side with the Muslim Turks in defeating the Catholic Church and, with it, Europe. Suleiman even extended his munificent kinship to any and all Protestants in Hungary and Romania now that they were no longer “Christian” (i.e., loyal to the pope). The sultan urged Luther and Protestants to unite under the Muslim banner to defeat both the emperor and the pope. Please recall that Suleiman the Terrorist wanted nothing less than to wipe Christianity from the planet―talk about politics and their strange bedfellows!

But all is forgiven … I swear it.

I forgive Protestants for the ridiculous 700 Club television show and their tiresome attacks on the One, True, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. I also forgive Protestants for taking 500 years to realize that Sola Scriptura is a great deal of nonsense and that even Luther had a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary―the first Christian, the Mother of God and, indeed, the second most often quoted individual in the Gospels.

I also forgive Protestants for their cognitive dissonance in simultaneously insisting that: 1) everyone is allowed to interpret the Bible as they wish and they are all equally correct and 2) Catholics are wrong in the way they interpret the Bible no matter how they do it.

I forgive Protestants for their anti-Catholicism, which is what historian John Highham called “the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history,” and what historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. has called, “the deepest-held bias in the history of the American people.”

I also forgive Protestants for their support of the violence towards Catholics during the so-called “Enlightenment” and for the development of Freemasonry and the Brazilian “Religious Question” and the Columbian La Violencia and the Michelade Massacre of 1567. By the way, Freemasonry’s exotic magicalism greatly contributed to the development of Mormonism, Unitarianism, Seventh-Day Adventism, Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witness’ Arianistic perspectives.

For all of this, I have nothing but forgiveness for them.

I forgive Protestants for making Fr. Nicholas Copernicus put the brakes on his heliocentric theory and data until after his death even though his friend, Pope Paul III, urged him to publish while the scientist was still alive. Apparently, Fr. Copernicus hoped to avoid upsetting Luther and Melanchthon who were both contemptuous of the priest’s heliocentric paradigm and feared that his theories would further alienate Protestants against the Church from which they originally sprang.

This isn’t an empty Christian platitude―I truly forgive them for the Great Tragedy, that is, their sixteenth century split with Rome.

I also forgive them for John Calvin’s, Ian Paisley’s and the Westboro Baptist Church’s reductive, tiresome and poisonous bluster and posturing. I further forgive Protestants for their support and schadenfreude as they stood back and did nothing during Spain’s Red Terror and during Hitler’s repression of the Catholic Church especially for The Night of Long Knives. But my forgiveness isn’t limited to only this opprobrium. Indeed, I also forgive Dutch Protestants’ explicit support of the Tokugawa Shogunate when they slaughtered tens of thousands of Japanese Catholics in the sixteenth century.

I forgive them one and all for the 500 years of anti-Catholic stereotypes typical in their literature as in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum, Paul Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian.

I forgive them for their support/coddling of the rabidly fundamentalist atheist “Americans United for Separation of Church and State” which was originally an explicitly anti-Catholic organization called “Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State.”

I forgive all Protestants for crucifying European history with their insidious and indecorous “Black Legend” which poisoned the minds of hundreds of millions of people who would rather believe lies about the Inquisition rather than risk reading a book on the subject.

I even forgive Protestants for the countless false prophecies concerning the end of the world that have proved time and time again to be absolutely false. As an aside, I also forgive them for ignoring Scriptures that specifically explain how to distinguish between one of God’s real prophets and a false one:

You may wonder how you can tell when a prophet’s message does not come from the Lord. If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and what he says does not come true, then it is not the Lord’s message. That prophet has spoken on his own authority, and you are not to fear him. (Deut. 18:21-22)

In addition, I forgive Protestants for ignoring Christ’s own words (the red-letter words) when he commissions St. Peter as the Church’s leader:

And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build My church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. (Matt. 16:18)

And like the previous passage, Protestants will ignore the salient fact that Christ’s One, True, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church will never fail. Not even the Gates of Hell will prevail against it. If follows that if an organization that claims to be inspired by the Holy Spirit actually fails miserably, that means the Holy Spirit wasn’t truly with them such as the Anabaptists, the Shakers and the Puritans. 11 Protestant churches close every day in America. It’s impossible to determine how many close every day around the world. There are 41,000 Protestant churches around the world currently and that means at least 40,999 are completely wrong. This doesn’t include the many tens of thousands of Protestant churches that have failed in the past 500 years. God clearlyisn’t dictating different messages to intentionally sow discord, confusion and lies … however, this does remind me of another lesser spirit who enjoys doing exactly this (John 8:44).

But what I can’t forgive them for, not yet at least, is their insipid restorationism―the idea that God somehow made a mistake 2000 years ago when he gave control of his, One, True Church to the Catholic Church and the papacy whose progenitor was St. Peter as testified by Christ not once but twice in the New Testament (Matt. 16:18-19, John 21:15-17).

Restorationism is the belief that Christianity should be restored to how it was during the Apostolic Era using nothing but Scriptures―a project doomed to failure. Their goal to re-establish Christianity in its original form has been a part of Christianity for 2000 years and, indeed, St. Francis of Assisi hoped to “get back to the basics” also but he didn’t make the mistake of believing that God had made a mistake in putting St. Peter and his successors in charge. Rather, he hoped to refocus the Church―not to change dogma and authority.

This is not something that can be generously glossed over as their previous genocide of Catholics on multiple continents or even the desecration of our holiest places over the past 500 years. The trillions of Protestant lies about Catholics are as naught in comparison to this blasphemy.

To suggest that God was somehow mistaken in anything he does is scurrilous impiety and profane heresy.

Luther’s “Ecce ego sto!” sounds more and more like Lucifer’s “Non servium!”

Restorationism is anathema. God makes no mistakes (Ps. 19:7-10). He doesn’t mumble or backpeddle like Allah (Ps. 12:6-7). He’s not confused or addlebrained (Neh. 9:6). He needs no assistance from anyone or anything (Col. 1:6). His decisions are final and perfect in their love and justice (Prov. 16:10). He doesn’t need to explain himself (Rom. 1:20). He accepts no counsel (Ps. 33:11).

When God bestowed stewardship upon Peter and his successors, God didn’t mean “well … you can be in charge until people in the sixteenth century come to know better.”

Restorationism is beyond comprehension. God isn’t imperfect and thus, anyone who worships an imperfect God isn’t worshiping the Trinity (Ps. 18:30).

Muslims also celebrate a restorationism of sorts in that they believe Islam is what Allah always had in mind but was simply not sure how to implement it successfully until the advent of Mohammad. They believe that both Jews and Christians have become corrupted along with their sacred scriptures, which are “untrustworthy” due to Allah’s machinations. And that only they have a perfect and complete understanding of God’s “true plan.”

Sound familiar?

But if this is true, as in the case of Protestantism, then how did God’s message get garbled in the first place? Wouldn’t God have known his message was going to get hinky? If he’s omniscient and omnicompetent he would. A lesser god would easily fall into this error.

How was he so foolish in trusting the wrong people initially? How could mere mortals come to realize something that he couldn’t (Job 38:1-41:34)?

But, more importantly, how can we ever trust this imperfect deity now that new messengers, none of whom are divine, have come along? Perhaps this deity is confused once again. It’s a slippery slope and one that is easily proven wrong.

I don’t see a difference in what these Christian restorationists believe and that which Islamic restorationists proffer. It’s not odd that Protestants had received Muslim financial, political and ideological support 500 years ago―birds of a feather, as it were.

But the main reason I condemn restorationism is that it’s a non-starter. If someone believes in evil grand conspiracy theories, they make themselves out to be the hero/champion that God has been looking for. It’s up to them and no one else! They are the thin holy line that separates Order and Chaos―between Heaven and Hell. And as they are assured of their sanctified state, anything and everything they think, say and do is acceptable. After all, this is what “God wanted” all along…

[denisehil0]

More GTA businesses open up and the Hockey Hall of Fame; In The News for June 24

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of June 24 …

What we are watching in Canada … 

TORONTO — Ontario’s two most heavily populated regions will see more businesses open their doors today as Toronto and Peel move into the next stage of the province’s COVID-19 recovery plan.

The two regions officially enter Stage 2 of the pandemic reopening framework, joining nearly all the rest of the province that began ramping up activities over the past two weeks.

Windsor-Essex remains the only region not cleared to move to the next phase, due to stubbornly high COVID-19 case numbers on farms in the region.

Businesses given the green light to resume operations in Toronto and Peel today include hair stylists, pools and tour guide services.

Restaurants are also allowed to reopen their patios for dine-in service, though no one is yet allowed to be served indoors.

In all cases, the Ontario government says proper physical distancing measures must be maintained to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases.

—

Also this …

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be among some 600 prominent politicians, business leaders and journalists featured at one of the world’s largest tech conferences.

The two-day Collision conference begins today and Trudeau is to take part in a question and answer session with a Financial Times editor on Thursday.

The conference — billed as Collision from Home this year — is taking place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Collision website, more than 32,000 people from 140 countries are expected to join the conference.

Trudeau’s session, which was recorded in advance, focuses on Canada’s response to the pandemic, with particular emphasis on the role of science and innovation in fighting the deadly novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and attempts to find treatments and an eventual vaccine.

Among the other featured speakers are Microsoft president Brad Smith, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Netflix chief production officer Greg Peters and Canadian author Margaret Atwood.

Trudeau is taking a break today from his daily pandemic briefing outside Rideau Cottage to quietly celebrate St. Jean Baptiste Day, Quebec’s Fete nationale.

—

ICYMI (In case you missed it) …

Sale of T-shirts on Walmart Canada’s website with the words “All Lives Matter” printed across the front has drawn furor from social media users.

The company is also selling T-shirts with “Blue Lives Matter” and “Irish Lives Matter” printed across them.

In a statement, Walmart Canada says it stands against any form of racism or discrimination and promotes listening, seeking to understand and embracing individual differences.

It says a third-party marketplace has a number of items with variations on the phrase “lives matter,” and it will review those items to ensure compliance with Walmart’s terms and conditions.

But several social media users called out the company, with one Twitter user identified as Farzana Khan asking Walmart to remove the T-shirts, calling them “disgusting.”

Another user, Beth MacDonnell, also called for their removal asking “who approved this?” 

—

What we are watching in the U.S. …

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Several hundred people gathered in Marion Square, in the historic South Carolina city of Charleston, today to watch the removal of a statue of former vice-president and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun.

Just before 1 a.m. local time, workers using cranes began to bring the statue down from its 30-metre monument in downtown Marion Square.

In the wake of protests and unrest, city council members voted Tuesday to remove the statue and place it permanently at “an appropriate site where it will be protected and preserved.”

The city council voted 13-0 Tuesday evening on a resolution to remove the statue.

—

What we are watching elsewhere in the world …

BEIJING — China appears to have tamed a new outbreak of the coronavirus in Beijing, once again demonstrating its ability to quickly mobilize vast resources by testing nearly 2.5 million people in 11 days.

But elsewhere in the world, cases were surging. India reported a record daily increase of nearly 16,000 new cases. Mexico also set a record with more than 6,200 new cases.

In the U.S., increases over the past few days have jumped to near the level of the outbreak’s previous peak in April. Several states set single-day records, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas.

Worldwide, more than 9.2 million people have contracted the virus, including more than 477,000 who have died.

—

Today in 1880 … 

“O Canada,” with music by Calixa Lavallee and French lyrics by Judge A.B. Routhier, was performed for the first time at the Skaters’ Pavilion in Quebec City.

—

In sports …

TORONTO — Former Calgary Flames star Jarome Iginla headlines the list of first-time eligible players for selection to the Hockey Hall of Fame today.

The class of 2020 will be unveiled this afternoon after the selection committee meets.

Iginla had 1,300 points in 1,554 career NHL games and helped Canada win gold at the Olympics in 2002 in Salt Lake City and 2010 in Vancouver.

At the latter Winter Games, Iginla made the pass to Sidney Crosby for the golden goal in overtime against the United States.

Other players eligible for the first time include Marian Hossa and Shane Doan.

Fans of the Senators will be anxious to see if longtime Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson gets the nod in his fourth year on the ballot.

Former Canadian women’s team forward Jennifer Botterill and goalie Kim St-Pierre also are eligible this year.

—

In entertainment …

New seasons of “Transplant” and “Jann” are among the shows bound for CTV as Bell Media navigates COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns and vows to increase representation and diversity in its content.

The company announced its upcoming lineup on Tuesday, including a second season of the hit homegrown medical drama “Transplant,” starring Hamza Haq as a Syrian doctor building a new life in Canada. An air date hasn’t been announced.

And the Canadian comedy “Jann,” from singer-songwriter-actress Jann Arden, will premiere a second season this fall and has been renewed for a third.

New shows on the CTV docket include “Filthy Rich,” starring Kim Cattrall as the wife of a wealthy patriarch, played by Gerald McRaney, whose sudden death reveals his secret life.

There’s also Chuck Lorre’s new comedy “B Positive,” starring Thomas Middleditch and Annaleigh Ashford as an unlikely duo who bond during his search for a kidney donor.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2020.

The Canadian Press

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[atlanticcanada]

Duped women go after charming alleged con man: 'Everything he said was a lie'

It started with a chance encounter in a coffee shop. He was charming and attractive, and everything he said mirrored her life.

The relationship developed into a romance but the seduction ended months later in apparent deception, an elaborate scheme by an alleged serial con man to whom she lost thousands of dollars.

"Everything he said to me was a lie," says Andrea Speranza, an athletic 49-year-old with long brown hair. "I couldn't understand how he could make love to me with the sole purpose of ripping me off."

She has since found multiple alleged victims of Marcel Andre Vautour, a man with a criminal record, warrants for his arrest and several aliases.

His suspected victims say he targets busy career women between the ages of 45 and 50, leaving a trail of broken hearts and empty bank accounts across the country.

The Canadian Press has spoken with three women across the country who say they fell victim to his romantic schemes, and one man who was promised a job and ended up losing tens of thousands of dollars. Each alleged victim has positively identified photos of the same person.

Vautour did not respond to requests for comment by phone, email or social media. None of the new allegations against him have been proven in court.

Speranza says she's sharing her story to prevent more people from falling victim to his alleged scams.

"I want to stop him from hurting more people," Speranza says. "I'm going to catch a criminal."

Originally from Ontario, Speranza had a hardscrabble childhood.

Despite her hard upbringing, she graduated from university and moved to Nova Scotia, where she became a firefighter and one of the first female captains in Halifax.

Speranza has dedicated her life to helping others, running an award-winning camp that educates girls about emergency services careers.

When she met a man who called himself March Hebert last summer, they seemed like kindred spirits.

He told her a story about his difficult family life, saying his parents struggled with addictions. But he turned his life around, worked on offshore oil rigs, and purchased hundreds of acres in rural Nova Scotia to build a youth-at-risk facility.

"It was almost like everything about my life he was saying back to me," Speranza says.

She says she now realizes it wasn't a chance encounter. He targeted her, she says, using a well-honed script and asking pointed questions to develop a plan.

It started off very casually -- she wasn't looking for a relationship. But she was attracted to his desire to help youth and to give back to the community.

The five-foot-eight, 185-pound man with green eyes and a disarming smile eventually persuaded her to hang out. They went hiking and kayaking, and attended charity events.

He told her she was beautiful. She made him a better person. She was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was falling hard and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

"Everything was just perfect," she says. "He was super accommodating and helpful and complimentary. Nothing I could say or do was wrong."

Speranza now believes he targeted her to invest in his apparently fabricated youth-at-risk facility. When she instead offered to help him apply for grants, she believes he implemented an exit strategy.

He said he suffered from Crohn's disease and one day he called her to say he'd been hospitalized.

She recalls him saying he was OK, but his wallet had been stolen. He needed money to buy costly medication. Then he had to go to Toronto to get his dog from his ex, and borrowed money for a train ticket and hotel room. He promised to pay her back.

She gave him $5,000.

"He ghosted me after that," Speranza says, adding that he never repaid her. "I pride myself on good decisions. But I had no inkling whatsoever."

She filed a police report and encouraged another alleged victim she met, Jean-Baptiste Joachin, to do the same.

The French citizen had met Vautour at a hostel in Quebec City and had travelled with him to Halifax, where he was promised a job on an offshore rig.

Joachin allegedly paid Vautour thousands of dollars for training courses. He also opened up Canadian bank accounts and credit cards, which Vautour had access to.

By the time Vautour skipped town last fall, Joachin had lost $30,000.

"He completely blindsided me," Joachin said. "Everything he told me was bullshit."

Halifax police spokesman John MacLeod confirmed the force has received two complaints of fraud based on case file numbers provided to The Canadian Press by Speranza and Joachin. But he said one incident had been closed while the second was deemed a civil matter.

Meanwhile, Speranza has discovered more alleged victims in other provinces through social media. They exchanged photos of the fraudster to confirm his identity, and have shared information about their cases.

Together, they've pieced together a string of allegations against Vautour across the country.

The Canadian Press has contacted police forces, court houses and justice departments in several provinces and has confirmed he's a wanted man with a criminal past.

Documents obtained from Quebec's Justice Department show Vautour pleaded guilty in 2005 to unauthorized use of credit card data and received a suspended sentence of one year's probation.

In 2015, Quebec courts issued an arrest warrant for Vautour for fraud.

Victoria Law Courts confirmed a warrant for the arrest of Vautour was issued in 2001, and executed in 2009. He pleaded guilty in August 2009 to obtaining by false pretence and served a six-month conditional sentence in the community, followed by two and half years of probation.

Meanwhile, West Kelowna RCMP said they are aware of a recent incident and have a police file open on the matter. But spokesman Jesse O'Donaghey said specific details are not released until charges are laid by Crown counsel.

The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed Vautour is currently the subject of two arrest warrants. Const. Rob Carver said the charges pending from 1998 include possession of goods obtained by crime over $5,000 and personation.

Records from the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick indicate Vautour was charged in 1996 with stealing a Volkswagen Jetta in Dieppe.

Despite efforts by law enforcement, some alleged victims have launched their own investigations -- even hiring a private investigator.

They've tracked down more than 20 phone numbers, 10 email addresses and multiple physical addresses used by Vautour in Canada and overseas.

The alleged victims have even narrowed down his method.

They say he told them all variations on a theme: He had a successful career either working on offshore rigs, as a remotely operated underwater vehicle operator, or running companies.

He claimed he made it big investing in precious metals, cryptocurrency and cannabis, the alleged victims say. He said he owned a white convertible Porsche, a Ford F-350 truck, a baby blue Aston Martin. He even had pictures to show off his upscale possessions.

"He had money and was well-travelled," says Jodi McMullin, a woman from the Okanagan area of B.C. who met him on a dating site in January 2018.

The whirlwind romance moved quickly, and they began planning a future together.

He told her he had been working in Vietnam and wanted to stay with her in Canada. But he had tax issues, and needed help cashing a business cheque.

The businesswoman offered to help him out. When she had doubts, he was always ready with an explanation.

"Every time I questioned him on something, he had a response right away," she says. "There was never any hesitation."

She provided him with her bank account number, and he deposited a cheque and then pressured her to transfer him the money, she says.

McMullin acquiesced and then left for a wedding in the U.S. When she returned, the cheque -- which she later learned was a fake purchased online -- bounced, she says.

"He ended up stealing just over $45,000 from me," she says. "My trust is shot. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about it."

Speranza is determined to bring the man she knew as March to justice, launching https://ift.tt/2HDhAYa in the hopes of preventing romance fraud and encouraging more potential victims to come forward with anecdotes, stories and possible charges against Vautour.

"This man ruins people's lives and I am in the business of saving people's lives," the firefighter says. "I have to stop him."

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/2Hu6V2I

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Ottawa May Use War Act To Enact Curb On Liquor,” Toronto Star. January 29, 1942. Page 38. ---- Hepburn Reveals Measure of Curtailment Is Being Considered ---- PROPOSAL FAVORED --- ‘I have received a letter from Hon. J. T. Thorson, minister of national war services, saying the government is considering curtailment of liquor under the War Measure Act,’ Premier Hepburn said Wednesday. He was addressed Toronto board of control and explained that if Ottawa took this action, Ontario revenues would be affected.

‘I don’t want to make any new commitments for mothers’ allowance or anything else until the situation is clarified. I have also made a definite commitment that Ontario is not going to invoke any new taxation this year,’ the premier added.

Department of national war services recently wrote all provincial governments seeking ‘information on their attitude’ toward proposals made to the government last fall by the Canadian Temperance Federation, it was authoritatively said last night at Ottawa, according to a Canadian Press dispatch.

‘To make the comfort of mothers and old people depend on revenue from other broken homes is to put them in a cruel position.’ So Rev. L. I. Hunter, president Toronto conference of the United Church of Canada, commented on Premier Hepburn’s suggestion that curtailment of liquor sales might force refusal of increases in old age pensions and mothers’ allowances.

Gave Wrong Answer ‘If it is true that the government is considering a measure of prohibition, then it is to be highly commended,’ said Mr. Hunter, ‘for taking an important step toward an all-out war effort. Restrictions on all other commodities, while liquor has been in a preferred class, have created an absurd situation. Premier Hepburn, however, gave the wrong answer to the board of control. He should have said: ‘I think we can accede to your request. Evidently there is a measure of prohibition under consideration. This will mean that more people will be able to provide for their old age. Consequently fewer people will be receiving pensions and allowances.’

Four measures of liquor curtailment sought by the committee which approached the federal government are: the closing of beverage rooms; drastic reduction of the hours of sale in liquor stores; banning of all liquor advertising; and restrictions be placed on wet canteens in such areas after the beverage rooms have been closed. This was stated by Rev. J. R. Mutchmoor, who was one of the committee.

Want Restriction ‘It would appear the federal government is considering a restriction rather than a prohibition, which is what we are pressing for,’ said Rev. J. B. McLaurin, secretary of the board of missions of the Baptist convention of Ontario and Quebec. ‘We would welcome any restriction, as we are pushing for a drastic reduction, rather than prohibition of liquor. What we want is a more moral community and the prevention of waste caused by liquor. We want to do away with the beverage saloons which are corrupting the moral life of the community. Some of us want total prohibition but restrictions are accepted as the best means for the moment.’

‘I’ll be awfully glad if the restrictions referred to come to pass,’ said Rev. G. Oswald Smith of the People’s church. ‘It would be a wonderful thing in every way. I don’t know of anything that is hurting the war effort more than the beverage rooms. They are demoralizing young people. To close the beverage rooms would be a great forward step in this war, as in the last.’

Suggests Gambling Tax ‘I have served on a local mothers’ allowances board,’ said Rev. Gordon Domm, Bathurst Street United church. ‘I know the fine services rendered. What a sorry pass we have come to if such a ministry is to be curtailed for no other reason than that people do not consume enough strong drink. Is our premier so hard up for revenue? I suggest another source: I have reason to believe that enough money is worse than wasted in gambling joints so that an adequate tax on them would take care of all the social services our premier is so worried about.’

‘Only this morning I was told of the experience of a visitor from the United States, who patronized one of our gambling places this week. ‘Things are so wide open,’ she said, ‘that with the exception of two or three states, there’s nothing like it over there.’ This evil, in its own way, is probably even worse than beverage rooms.’

‘News that the dominion government is considering worthwhile restrictions on the liquor traffic is encouraging,’ said Rev. Caleb Harris, Indian Road Baptist church. ‘It must be gratifying to all truly loyal citizens to feel that the disgraceful conditions and tremendous waste caused by this traffic can no longer be ignored. While a dominion-wide measure is necessary to fully cope with the evil, it is to be hoped that our provincial government will aid in enforcing such restrictions as may be made by the federal parliament.’

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American Baptist Churches USA

Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec

Image: First Baptist Church of Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii (ABCUSA)

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Samuel de Champlain returned to Quebec City on July 11, 1616.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Some Canadian businesses want to let Americans back in. Most Canadians don’t. (Washington Post) In normal times, this would be the high season for Eric Brown’s Ontario fishing lodges. In these times, he wonders if his business can survive. Brown says Americans make up 95 percent of the business at his Totem Resorts in Sioux Narrows. Travel restrictions on the U.S.-Canada border, he said, have “absolutely devastated us.” As restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus drag into a fourth month, Brown and other business operators are pushing officials to consider ways to let at least some tourists in. But they’re running into resistance from the broader population, which appears to have little appetite for lifting the restrictions. Amid a general sense here that Canada has handled the coronavirus better than the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in June there was “broad consensus” among provincial leaders to keep current measures along the 5,500-mile frontier in place. A national survey by Destination Canada, a crown corporation that markets Canada as a tourist destination, found that just 24 percent of people in Quebec somewhat or strongly agreed with welcoming U.S. visitors—and they were the most enthusiastic province. In British Columbia, the figure was 6 percent.

U.S. leads world with record number of new COVID-19 cases (Foreign Policy) The United States recorded its highest number of new coronavirus cases in one day on Wednesday, with over 51,000 new cases reported. Brazil is not far behind, as it recorded roughly 44,000 new cases. Together the two countries accounted for almost half of all new coronavirus cases reported worldwide yesterday.

COVID-19 deaths are down (NYT) The coronavirus trends in the United States are pretty dark right now. But there is one important bright spot: The percentage of virus patients who die from it has continued to decline. Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. have been falling for most of the last 10 weeks—to about 600 a day recently, down from more than 2,000 in late April—even though the overall caseload was holding fairly steady for much of that period and has lately been spiking.

White House Downplays Russia Bounty Story As Afghan Middleman Named (Foreign Policy) A new report pinpoints a key figure in the alleged Russian-backed bounty program to further incentivize Taliban-linked forces to kill U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, the New York Times named Rahmatullah Azizi as a central player in attempts to launder money from Russia into Afghanistan in order to make payments to militant groups. Efforts to detain Azizi were made at least six months ago. Security forces instead found roughly $500,000 in cash in one of his Kabul properties. In an echo of America’s historical missteps in Afghanistan, Azizi was also once a beneficiary of U.S. largess: a former recipient of U.S. contractor cash for road building in the early days of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The White House continues to dismiss the story as a case of thinly-sourced intelligence. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said on Thursday that the CIA official in charge of verbally presenting the daily intelligence brief to President Donald Trump had refrained from bringing up the Russian bounty story as she was not confident in it. He also said U.S. and coalition forces took protective measures at the time of receiving the intelligence.

Coronavirus hinders farm work (Reuters) The novel coronavirus delayed the arrival of seasonal immigrants who normally help harvest U.S. wheat, leaving farmers to depend on high school students, school bus drivers, laid-off oilfield workers and others to run machines that bring in the crop. As combines work their way north from the Southern Plains of Texas and Oklahoma, farmers and harvesting companies are having a hard time finding and keeping workers. Any delays in the harvest could send wheat prices higher and cause a scramble to secure supplies to make bread and pasta.

LAPD funding slashed by $150M, reducing number of officers (AP) City leaders voted Wednesday to slash the Los Angeles Police Department budget by $150 million, reducing the number of officers to a level not seen for more than a decade amid nationwide demands to shift money away from law enforcement agencies during America’s reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice. Other cities around the country also have cut police budgets or are moving to do so, including an effort in Minneapolis to disband the city’s force. New York City lawmakers approved an austere budget Wednesday that will shift $1 billion from policing to education and social services in the coming year. In California, liberal Berkeley passed a budget Wednesday that cuts $9.2 million from police, while Oakland leaders last week slashed $14.6 million from law enforcement and they are considering steeper reductions.

A star is born (WSJ) Pandemic-related politics helped propel a gun-toting restaurateur to an upset win against a five-term Republican congressman in a Colorado primary, underlining the unpredictability the coronavirus outbreak is injecting into elections this year. Lauren Boebert defeated five-term Rep. Scott Tipton on Tuesday night, winning by about 9 percentage points. Ms. Boebert, 33 years old, owns gun-themed Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado, a small town about a three hours’ drive west of Denver. In her restaurant, Ms. Boebert encourages servers and patrons to openly carry firearms. Ms. Boebert has tweeted that she is never without her Glock on her hip. An outspoken supporter of President Trump, Ms. Boebert dismissed the president’s endorsement of her opponent by telling local media she wasn’t sure Mr. Trump knew Mr. Tipton’s voting record. Her restaurant sells shirts that say “God, guns, Trump” in all capital letters.

Death Cafes help ease grief, loss in the time of coronavirus (AP) Panic attacks, trouble breathing, relapses that have sent her to bed for 14 hours at a time: At 35, Marissa Oliver has been forced to deal with the specter of death on COVID-19′s terms, yet conversations about her illness, fear and anxiety haven’t been easy. That’s why she headed onto Zoom to attend a Death Cafe, a gathering of strangers willing to explore mortality and its impact on the living, preferably while sipping tea and eating cake. Death Cafes, part of a broader “death-positive” movement to encourage more open discussion about grief, trauma and loss, are held around the world, in nearly 100 countries. While many haven’t migrated online in the pandemic, others have. Inspired by Swiss sociologist and anthropologist Bernard Crettaz, who organized his first “cafe mortel” in 2004, the late British web developer Jon Underwood honed the model and held the first Death Cafe in his London home in 2011. The idea spread quickly and the meetups in restaurants and cafes, homes and parks now span Europe and North America, reaching into Australia, the Caribbean and Japan. J. Dana Trent served as a hospital chaplain in a death ward at age 25 after graduating from divinity school, assisting in 200 deaths in a year. The ordained Southern Baptist minister used her experiences in the hospital for a 2019 book, “Dessert First: Preparing for Death While Savoring Life,” which offers a view of how “positive death” can be achieved. “COVID has certainly brought death to the forefront. It has brought the death-positive movement to the forefront, but we’re still scared,” Trent said. “What I’m grateful for is that COVID has awakened society to the possibility of death. None of us is getting out of here alive.”

24 shot to death in attack on drug rehab center in Mexico (AP) Gunmen burst into an unregistered drug rehabilitation center in central Mexico and opened fire Wednesday, killing 24 people and wounding seven, authorities said. Police in the north-central state of Guanajuato said the attack occurred in the city of Irapuato. Three of the seven wounded were reported in serious condition. Guanajuato is the scene of a bloody turf battle between the Jalisco cartel and a local gang, and the state has become the most violent in Mexico.

British judge denies Venezuela access to gold in bank vault (AP) A British judge on Thursday refused to give Venezuela control of over $1 billion in gold sitting in a Bank of England vault, ruling that it is unlawful to give it to President Nicolás Maduro since Britain does not recognize him as president of the Latin American nation. Maduro has demanded the gold to help his cash-starved nation fight the coronavirus pandemic. But the central bank for the United Kingdom, whose government recognizes Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as his country’s legitimate leader, had refused to hand it over to Maduro’s socialist administration. Guaidó has sought to preserve the gold stash at the Bank of England to keep it out of the hands of the Maduro government, which it contends is illegitimate and corrupt.

Latin America Seen Heading for Deepest Slump Since at Least 1901 (Bloomberg) The World Bank projects the recession in Latin America and the Caribbean will be the worst downturn since reliable data began in 1901, setting back progress on fighting inequality and poverty. The development institution expects a gross domestic product contraction of more than 7% for 2020, making it worse than any crisis of the past century, including the Great Depression, the 1980s debt crisis and the global financial of 2008-2009, President David Malpass said. The drop in commodity exports based on a plunge in demand in advanced economies, coupled with the collapse of tourism, is hammering the region. “It hits the poor and vulnerable the hardest through illnesses, job and income losses, food supply disruptions, school closures and lower remittance flows,” he said. “The poverty rate, which had been falling since the early 2000s, will go up significantly as tens of millions of people lose their jobs,” he said.

With friends like these (Foreign Policy) The NATO alliance can’t afford another rift between its members, but it has one anyway. This week, France announced it would temporarily suspending its role in a NATO operation patrolling the Mediterranean after an incident between French and Turkish warships in June. NATO announced last month it would open an investigation into the matter. French officials accused Turkish ships of targeting one of its frigates with fire control radars after it tried to inspect a ship off the Libyan coast suspected of smuggling arms. Turkey denies the charges.

Germans bemoan slow progress on Brexit trade deal (Foreign Policy) German Chancellor Angela Merkel said progress on post-Brexit trade talks with the United Kingdom had been “very limited” and that the European Union should prepare “for the possibility that a deal doesn’t materialize.” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also said talks between the two sides were moving “very sluggishly and slowly,” and criticized the Westminster government, saying the delay was “partly because we don’t know if the British want an agreement or not.”

Russia extends ban on international flights until August (Reuters) Russia has extended a moratorium on international flights until Aug. 1, the RBC business daily reported on Thursday. Russia, which has so far recorded more than 660,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, in March grounded all international flights, except for those repatriating Russians and those transporting foreign citizens home. Last month it announced a partial reopening of its borders, saying it would allow people who needed to work, study, get medical treatment or look after relatives to travel abroad.

Landslide at Myanmar jade mine kills at least 162 people (AP) At least 162 people were killed Thursday in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, the worst in a series of deadly accidents at such sites in recent years. “The jade miners were smothered by a wave of mud,” a statement from the fire service said.

Israeli annexation in “weeks” (Foreign Policy) Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank will happen “in the coming weeks or months,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said yesterday, before adding that he is not “versed in the details” as a July 1 date for a vote on annexation came and went without any government action. As international pressure builds against the move, the Vatican made the rare decision to summon the ambassadors of both Israel and the United States to express “the concern of the Holy See regarding possible unilateral actions that may further jeopardize the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the delicate situation in the Middle East.”

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‘EVERYTHING WAS A LIE’: Duped women go after charming alleged con man

‘EVERYTHING WAS A LIE’: Duped women go after charming alleged con man ‘EVERYTHING WAS A LIE’: Duped women go after charming alleged con man https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

It started with a chance encounter in a coffee shop. He was charming and attractive, and everything he said mirrored her life.

The relationship developed into a romance but the seduction ended months later in apparent deception, an elaborate scheme by an alleged serial con man to whom she lost thousands of dollars.

“Everything he said to me was a lie,” says Andrea Speranza, an athletic 49-year-old with long brown hair. “I couldn’t understand how he could make love to me with the sole purpose of ripping me off.”

She has since found multiple alleged victims of Marcel Andre Vautour, a man with a criminal record, warrants for his arrest and several aliases.

His suspected victims say he targets busy career women between the ages of 45 and 50, leaving a trail of broken hearts and empty bank accounts across the country.

The Canadian Press has spoken with three women across the country who say they fell victim to his romantic schemes, and one man who was promised a job and ended up losing tens of thousands of dollars. Each alleged victim has positively identified photos of the same person.

Vautour did not respond to requests for comment by phone, email or social media. None of the new allegations against him have been proven in court.

Speranza says she’s sharing her story to prevent more people from falling victim to his alleged scams.

“I want to stop him from hurting more people,” Speranza says. “I’m going to catch a criminal.”

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Originally from Ontario, Speranza had a hardscrabble childhood.

Despite her hard upbringing, she graduated from university and moved to Nova Scotia, where she became a firefighter and one of the first female captains in Halifax.

Speranza has dedicated her life to helping others, running an award-winning camp that educates girls about emergency services careers.

When she met a man who called himself March Hebert last summer, they seemed like kindred spirits.

He told her a story about his difficult family life, saying his parents struggled with addictions. But he turned his life around, worked on offshore oil rigs, and purchased hundreds of acres in rural Nova Scotia to build a youth-at-risk facility.

“It was almost like everything about my life he was saying back to me,” Speranza says.

She says she now realizes it wasn’t a chance encounter. He targeted her, she says, using a well-honed script and asking pointed questions to develop a plan.

It started off very casually — she wasn’t looking for a relationship. But she was attracted to his desire to help youth and to give back to the community.

The five-foot-eight, 185-pound man with green eyes and a disarming smile eventually persuaded her to hang out. They went hiking and kayaking, and attended charity events.

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He told her she was beautiful. She made him a better person. She was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was falling hard and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

“Everything was just perfect,” she says. “He was super accommodating and helpful and complimentary. Nothing I could say or do was wrong.”

Speranza now believes he targeted her to invest in his apparently fabricated youth-at-risk facility. When she instead offered to help him apply for grants, she believes he implemented an exit strategy.

He said he suffered from Crohn’s disease and one day he called her to say he’d been hospitalized.

She recalls him saying he was OK, but his wallet had been stolen. He needed money to buy costly medication. Then he had to go to Toronto to get his dog from his ex, and borrowed money for a train ticket and hotel room. He promised to pay her back.

She gave him $5,000.

“He ghosted me after that,” Speranza says, adding that he never repaid her. “I pride myself on good decisions. But I had no inkling whatsoever.”

She filed a police report and encouraged another alleged victim she met, Jean-Baptiste Joachin, to do the same.

The French citizen had met Vautour at a hostel in Quebec City and had travelled with him to Halifax, where he was promised a job on an offshore rig.

Joachin allegedly paid Vautour thousands of dollars for training courses. He also opened up Canadian bank accounts and credit cards, which Vautour had access to.

By the time Vautour skipped town last fall, Joachin had lost $30,000.

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“He completely blindsided me,” Joachin said. “Everything he told me was bullshit.”

Halifax police spokesman John MacLeod confirmed the force has received two complaints of fraud based on case file numbers provided to The Canadian Press by Speranza and Joachin. But he said one incident had been closed while the second was deemed a civil matter.

Meanwhile, Speranza has discovered more alleged victims in other provinces through social media. They exchanged photos of the fraudster to confirm his identity, and have shared information about their cases.

Together, they’ve pieced together a string of allegations against Vautour across the country.

The Canadian Press has contacted police forces, court houses and justice departments in several provinces and has confirmed he’s a wanted man with a criminal past.

Documents obtained from Quebec’s Justice Department show Vautour pleaded guilty in 2005 to unauthorized use of credit card data and received a suspended sentence of one year’s probation.

In 2015, Quebec courts issued an arrest warrant for Vautour for fraud.

Victoria Law Courts confirmed a warrant for the arrest of Vautour was issued in 2001, and executed in 2009. He pleaded guilty in August 2009 to obtaining by false pretence and served a six-month conditional sentence in the community, followed by two and half years of probation.

Meanwhile, West Kelowna RCMP said they are aware of a recent incident and have a police file open on the matter. But spokesman Jesse O’Donaghey said specific details are not released until charges are laid by Crown counsel.

The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed Vautour is currently the subject of two arrest warrants. Const. Rob Carver said the charges pending from 1998 include possession of goods obtained by crime over $5,000 and personation.

Records from the Court of Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick indicate Vautour was charged in 1996 with stealing a Volkswagen Jetta in Dieppe.

Despite efforts by law enforcement, some alleged victims have launched their own investigations — even hiring a private investigator.

They’ve tracked down more than 20 phone numbers, 10 email addresses and multiple physical addresses used by Vautour in Canada and overseas.

The alleged victims have even narrowed down his method.

They say he told them all variations on a theme: He had a successful career either working on offshore rigs, as a remotely operated underwater vehicle operator, or running companies.

He claimed he made it big investing in precious metals, cryptocurrency and cannabis, the alleged victims say. He said he owned a white convertible Porsche, a Ford F-350 truck, a baby blue Aston Martin. He even had pictures to show off his upscale possessions.

“He had money and was well-travelled,” says Jodi McMullin, a woman from the Okanagan area of B.C. who met him on a dating site in January 2018.

The whirlwind romance moved quickly, and they began planning a future together.

He told her he had been working in Vietnam and wanted to stay with her in Canada. But he had tax issues, and needed help cashing a business cheque.

The businesswoman offered to help him out. When she had doubts, he was always ready with an explanation.

“Every time I questioned him on something, he had a response right away,” she says. “There was never any hesitation.”

She provided him with her bank account number, and he deposited a cheque and then pressured her to transfer him the money, she says.

McMullin acquiesced and then left for a wedding in the U.S. When she returned, the cheque — which she later learned was a fake purchased online — bounced, she says.

“He ended up stealing just over $45,000 from me,” she says. “My trust is shot. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it.”

Speranza is determined to bring the man she knew as March to justice, launching http://www.stopthemarchmadness.com in the hopes of preventing romance fraud and encouraging more potential victims to come forward with anecdotes, stories and possible charges against Vautour.

“This man ruins people’s lives and I am in the business of saving people’s lives,” the firefighter says. “I have to stop him.”

Click for update news Bangla news https://ift.tt/2UJiSoh world news

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Behind Quebec’s Ban on Face Coverings, a Debate Over Identity

New Post has been published on http://usnewsaggregator.com/behind-quebecs-ban-on-face-coverings-a-debate-over-identity/

Behind Quebec’s Ban on Face Coverings, a Debate Over Identity

That difference has now been crystallized by the new law, which no one even knows how — or whether — to enforce.

“French Canadians in Quebec behave like psychologically embattled people,” said Patrice Brodeur, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Montreal. “They are a majority in the province, but a minority on the continent. That means they are often blind to the ways in which they end up being the victimizer, imposing itself on minority groups.”

The face-covering law, titled the State Religious Neutrality Law, is the current Quebec government’s effort to address an angry debate that has blistered social ties and dominated provincial politics for more than a decade. And it is not likely to settle the argument.

Just on Tuesday, a motion to debate removing a large crucifix that is prominently displayed in Quebec’s National Assembly was blocked by the governing party, the same party that created the face-covering law — illustrating yet again how fraught and emotionally charged the subject of religious symbols is in the province.

Photo

Runners making their way past the Mount Royal Cross in Montreal. The cross was installed in 1924 by the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, which promotes Quebec’s sovereignty. Credit Cole Burston for The New York Times

The debate centers on how traditionally white, Catholic and French-speaking Quebec can absorb and respect the religions and cultures of immigrants arriving to the province, while protecting its own identity.

Rejecting multiculturalism, the Quebecois speak instead of “interculturalism” — a concept of protecting both French culture and minority rights. But until now, that concept has never been codified.

The first try came in 2008 by a government commission, which was created to respond to a so-called “accommodation crisis,” when conflicts between members of religious groups and local institutions made regular headline news. One involved the Y.M.C.A. in Montreal, which replaced windows in its exercise room with frosted glass at the request of the synagogue next door so that Orthodox students would not see women exercising.

Continue reading the main story

Run by two well-respected academics, the commission issued 37 recommendations focused on increasing integration, reducing intolerance and secularizing the state. Controversially, it suggested that all state officials in positions of “coercive power” — like police officers and judges — be barred from wearing any religious symbols, and that the large crucifix hanging prominently in the provincial legislative chambers be removed.

The government voted unanimously to keep the crucifix, and the report was shelved.

The debate resurfaced in 2013, when a new provincial government suggested expanding the ban on religious symbols to all state employees.

Though cast as a bill on secularism, much of the debate stuck on voiles — the word used in Quebec for both hijabs and niqabs, because Muslims are the largest non-Christian religious group in the province, though only around 3 percent of the population according to the most recent census. (As for those who cover their faces, local estimates peg the number of women in the entire province of Quebec — population 8.39 million — who wear the niqab or burqa at 50 to 100.)

The role of women has played prominently in the debate.

“Quebec for the last 50 years has been fighting against the power of religion in public institutions,” said Diane Guilbault, the vice president of the advocacy group For the Rights of Women in Quebec. “Suddenly, this battle has become racist. Why? We were against religious symbols long before the first veils came here.”

For second-wave feminists like Ms. Guilbault, the memory of a powerful Roman Catholic Church that pushed Quebec women to stay home, produce the country’s highest birthrate and be excluded from public life is still potent.

In Quebec, unlike the rest of Canada, the Catholic church ran all hospitals, schools and social services until the 1960s, when a social movement known as the Quiet Revolution pushed it out. Women gained the right to vote in provincial elections only in 1940, two decades after most of the rest of the country.

“We are very proud of what we’ve accomplished over 50 years,” said Ms. Guilbault, 62. “We don’t want to go back.”

Photo

Protesters in Montreal waiting for a subway train, their faces covered to show their objection to the new law. Credit Cole Burston for The New York Times

While Ms. Guilbault does not support the new law, she does think the niqab and burqa should be banned. “They are a symbol of the banishment of women,” she said.

Support for the law within Quebec is strong — 91 percent among French speakers, according to an online Angus Reid poll conducted last month that is often cited by the provincial government.

Continue reading the main story

But denunciation of the new law from across the country has been vocal and swift. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that while Quebec makes its own laws, he believed women could make up their own minds on what to wear.

The premiers of Ontario and Alberta both slammed the law, with the Alberta leader, Rachel Notley, saying that it “smacks of Islamophobia.”

Human rights advocates and lawyers fear that the law will further isolate Muslim women and flame anti-Muslim hate crimes, which have risen in recent years in Quebec and across the country. The most heinous was the murder of six Muslims in a Quebec City mosque last January.

“The message is this community is dysfunctional and needs to be corrected,” said Salam Elmenyawi, the president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, which represents 70 mosques and Islamic organizations. “This is institutional discrimination.”

The provincial justice minister, Stéphanie Vallée, who has said that the goal of the law is to ensure identification, communication and security, held a news conference on Tuesday to address the confusion and increasing protests the law has drawn.

People will have to show their faces only at preliminary contact with government workers, she clarified. They then can cover themselves again.

“No one will be thrown off public transit, be refused emergency health care or be chased out of a library,” she said, according to the local news media. “We do not have the intention of setting up an uncovered-face police.”

The agency that runs the Montreal subway and bus system said its workers would not enforce the law until it had been analyzed further. Some people think it will never be enforced.

“In winter, if a woman is wearing a full veil with her two kids and is waiting for the bus, will the driver not accept her?” said Gérard Bouchard, a retired history and sociology professor who was co-chairman of the commission on religious accommodation a decade ago. “No, this is nonsense. We can’t do that. Quebeckers are not hard people.”

Continue reading the main story

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Vashikaran | ਅਧੀਨ

vashikaran Vashikaran is the terms of solving love problems with its perfect Mantras. Love Problems belongs to heart and heart is not controlled. Our vashikaran Specialist is the very experienced astrologer for controlling feelings of human hearts. We offered our vashikaran services in all Canada cities. City Province Language of origin Explanation Airdrie Alberta Scottish Gaelic Named for Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, in Scotland. Possibly originally from gaelic An Àrd Ruigh meaning a level height or high pasture. Barrie Ontario greek Named for Sir Robert Barrie, who was in charge of the naval forces in Canada and frequently had to portage from Lake Simcoe to Georgian Bay Calgary Alberta Scottish Gaelic Named for Calgary, Mull, which originated from the Scottish Gaelic "Cala ghearraidh", meaning "beach of the meadow (pasture)" Charlottetown Prince Edward Island German Named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, consort of George III of England Chicoutimi Quebec Innu The name means "The end of the deep water" in the Innu/Montagnais language Edmonton Alberta English Named for Edmonton, London Fredericton New Brunswick English Named for the second son of King George III of the United Kingdom, Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York Grande Prairie Alberta French Named for its location, literally it means "great meadow" or "big prairie". Greater Sudbury Ontario English Named for Sudbury, Suffolk in England; "Greater" added in 2001 when the city of Sudbury was amalgamated with six suburban municipalities. Halifax Nova Scotia English Named for George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, President of the Board of Trade Hamilton Ontario English Named for George Hamilton, the city's founder Iqaluit Nunavut Inuktitut Inuktitut word meaning "many fish" Lethbridge Alberta English Named for William Lethbridge. Markham Ontario English Named by William Berczy to honour Sir John Markham Medicine Hat Alberta English / Blackfoot Translation of Blackfoot Saamis, a type of headdress worn by medicine men. Mississauga Ontario Anishinaabe Named for the Mississaugas who originally inhabited the area Moncton New Brunswick English Named for Lieutenant Colonel Robert Monckton, who capture nearby Fort Beauséjour Montreal Quebec Middle French Named for "Mont Réal", or Mount Royal, a geological feature located within the city Ottawa Ontario Odawa The Ottawa Valley was the traditional home of the Algonquin people (Anishinaabe) who called the Ottawa River the Kichi Sibi or Kichissippi' meaning "Great River" or "Grand River". Despite the name of the city, the Ottawa people, another First Nation who lived far to the west along Georgian Bay and Lake Huron never lived in the area, but rather maintained a trade route along the Ottawa River for a relatively short time. Quebec City Quebec Algonquin French transcription of the Algonquin word "kébec", which means "where the river narrows" Red Deer Alberta English / Cree Mistranslation into English of the Cree name for the Red Deer River, Waskasoo Seepee, which means "Wapiti River" or "Elk River", North American elk (aka Wapiti) are often confused with European Red Deer. Regina Saskatchewan Latin Named by Princess Louise, wife of the then-Governor General of Canada the Marquess of Lorne in honour of Queen Victoria; Regina is the Latin word for queen. Richmond Hill Ontario English Named by Benjamin Barnard after the folk song The Lass of Richmond Hill, referring to Richmond, North Yorkshire Richmond British Columbia English Named by Hugh McRoberts for Richmonds Farm in Australia St. Albert Alberta French Named by Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché after Father Albert Lacombe and his patron name saint Albert of Louvain. St. John's Newfoundland and Labrador English, Basque or Spanish Named for the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, which was the date of landing by John Cabot. The name by Basque fishermen for the bay of St. John's was similar to the Bay of Pasaia in the Basque region, and one of the fishing town called St. John (in Spanish, San Juan) Sault Ste. Marie Ontario French Named for the rapids in the St. Mary's River. Thunder Bay Ontario English, French Named for the bay on which the city is located, which was originally labelled Baie du Tonnerre on French maps in the 17th century. The name was chosen by referendum in 1969. Toronto Ontario Iroquoian Derived from word "tkaronto", meaning "place where trees stand in the water" Vancouver British Columbia English, Dutch Named for Captain George Vancouver, an officer of the British Royal Navy. Vaughan Ontario English Named for Benjamin Vaughan, a British commissioner who signed the peace treaty with the United States in 1783. Victoria British Columbia English Named for Queen Victoria Whitehorse Yukon English Named for the White Horse Rapids, which were said to look like the mane of a white horse Winnipeg Manitoba Cree Western Cree word meaning "muddy waters" Yellowknife Northwest Territories Dene Suline Named for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation

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The Culture, Traditions, and Heritage of Canada

Canada is a very large and diverse country in North America, the second largest country in the world with a total area of 6.2 million square miles (9.9 million km2). The country, which consists of 10 provinces and 3 territories, is located in the far northern part of the North American continent, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans and northward into the islands of the Arctic Ocean. Canada borders only one other country—its southern neighbor, the United States of America—with which it shares the world’s longest land border between two countries.

Records show that the region now known as Canada has been inhabited for thousands upon thousands of years by various indigenous peoples. In the late 1400s, British and French colonial expeditions explored the region, and later settled on Canada’s Atlantic coast. During the French and Indian War of 1763, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America to the British. In the decades that followed, the population grew steadily, the territory was further explored and additional self-governing colonies were established under the British Crown. On July 1, 1867, three such colonies federated, forming a federal dominion which established Canada. Today Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth of England as its official head of state.

Canada, which takes its name from the Iroquoian word Kanata, meaning “village,”is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, one that for centuries now has welcomed immigrants from every corner of the globe. Its current population of roughly 35 million is made up of people with a variety of ethnic, religious and linguistic backgrounds, all of whom add to the wonderful culture that makes Canada such a popular place to live and visit.

The culture of Canada, similar to that of any country in the world, is a product of its history, geography, political system, etc. As a settler nation, Canada has been shaped and molded by waves of migration that have collectively combined to form a unique and pleasing blend of customs, rituals, traditions and cuisine; cultural characteristics that have marked the socio-cultural development of the nation. To gain a deeper understanding of Canada and the culture that defines it, below we will discuss a variety of the country’s most significant cultural traits, including language, religion, the arts, cuisine, sport, holidays and celebrations.

Culture of Canada: Language

Canada is a bilingual country, with both English and French listed as official languages. In matters of law and government, English takes precedence in all the provinces save for Quebec, with English versions of all statutes serving as the final arbiter in disputes over interpretation.Twenty years ago, the proportion of Canadians reporting English as their first language or mother tongue was just under 60 percent, while those reporting French as their mother tongue was around 25 percent. Today the numbers show there is an even greater percentage of English speakers in the country (and Fewer French speakers), largely due to the large influx of Americans taking up residence in Canada.

It is estimated that about 17 percent of all Canadians are bilingual—English and French—though these numbers are a regionalized phenomenon and do not necessarily represent the country as a whole. In those provinces with the largest number of native French speakers, such as Quebec and New Brunswick, the percentage of bilingual people is 38 percent and 33 percent respectively. On the other hand, the province of Ontario, which accounts for more than 30 percent of the total population, the English-French bilingual rate is only about 12 percent. These numbers are in part the result of the immigration patterns over time, which have seen the majority of immigrants gravitating toward Ontario, and in part because all official and commercial services in Ontario are conducted strictly in English, even though French is available by law, if not by practice. Simply put, for those living outside of Quebec and New Brunswick, English-French bilingualism is gradually becoming less important in their everyday lives.

In addition to the two official languages of Canada, there are also many minority languages spoken in the country. These languages can be traced back to the immigration patterns in Canada—patterns that have changed drastically over the years. Following World War II, for example, the majority of Canadian immigrants hailed from Europe, and only 54 percent of these people had a non-official mother tongue (something other than English or French). Of those that did not speak either French or English as their first language, about 25 percent reported that Italian, German or Greek was their mother tongue. In contrast, since 80 percent of all Canadian immigrants arriving between 1991 and 1996 spoke a language other than English or French, with over half of them hailing from countries in Asia and the Middle East. Chinese was the first language of just under 25 percent of these immigrants, while Arabic, Punjabi, Tamil, and Persian together accounted for about 20 percent.

Today the minority languages of Canada continue to reflect the immigration patterns of the country. Perhaps the biggest change has been the large number of Spanish-speaking immigrants who have recently settled in the country—over three-quarter of a million speakers who now represent the largest linguistic minority in Canada. After Spanish, the most prevalent minority languages in Canada today are Italian (661,000 speakers), German (622,650), Chinese (472,080), Punjabi (456,090), Cantonese (434,720), Arabic (365,000), Dutch (350,500), Tagalog (324,120), and Hindi (299,600). Studies show that while the number of non-official European-language speakers (except for Spanish) is gradually dwindling in Canada, languages such as Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic and Punjabi are on the rise.

Canada First People Camp Many indigenous languages are still spoken in Canada, although they account for only a small portion of non-official language speakers. These languages are of great political and cultural importance in Canada, as First Nation groups assert greater and more compelling claims on political and cultural sovereignty. Of these languages, only Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway are prevalent enough to be considered viable to survive in the long term.

Culture of Canada: Religion

In Canada, as with many developed countries, religious affiliation is much more prevalent than religious observance, although official statistics vary by ethnic and religious group. The majority of Canadians claim some type of religious affiliation, most often Christianity, although the number of people claiming no religious affiliation has steadily risen since the 1980s. Nonetheless, Canada is home to practitioners of many different faiths and belief systems.

While there is no official religion in Canada, the preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms refers to "God", and the monarch carries the title of "Defender of the Faith” Moreover, Christianity seems to be recognized, if not promoted in Canadian statute, with such practices as swearing on a Bible during legal proceedings, and with official functions opening with a Christian prayer of some kind being very common.

According to the latest available census data, 67 percent of the Canadian population self-identifies as Christian—38 percent Roman Catholic and 29 percent Protestant. The most prevalent Protestant denominations in the country, listed in order, are United Church of Canada, Anglican Church of Canada, Baptist, Lutheran and Presbyterian.

Those with no religion affiliation whatsoever comprise the second-largest religious bloc in Canada, representing 24 percent of the total population. These individuals include both Agnostics (people who claim no religious affiliation) and Atheists (people who do not believe in God or a higher power).

Due to its wide diversity of people, Canada is also home to several minority world religions that are practiced by small, yet significant proportions of the population. In order of prevalence, these minority religions include: Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Additionally, there are several aboriginal religious practices that still continue among the groups that claim this indigenous lineage.

Over the last several decades, religious observance among the Canadian people has gradually declined, a trend similar to that found in many other industrialized countries. This appears to be mostly a Christian phenomenon, as practitioners of some of the other world religions tend to make special efforts to maintain their religious observances as part of the process of retaining their original ethnic or cultural identity. Some Christian religious groups have grown in membership, such as evangelical Christianity, but as a whole, the trend in Canada has been toward increasing secularism in both the public and private lives of the Canadian people.

Most of the religious officials in Canada are associated with the mainstream religions/churches they represent, although there are some ethnic differences. For example, specialist religious practitioners, such as healers, are common in Portuguese communities such as the one in Toronto, as they are in many of the minority African faiths that are practiced sparsely in the country.

Most Canadians believe in the Christian model of the afterlife, of heaven and hell. Burial practices vary by religious group, but for the most part funeral observances and burying procedures are the responsibility of the deceased’s family.

Culture of Canada: The Arts

Just as they are in the United States and Western Europe, most artists in Canada are “self-supporting,” although only a small minority draws their entire income from their artistic efforts. There are, however, several tax-funded programs, at all levels of the Canadian government, designed to support the arts and provide financial assistance to artists of all types. The Governor General’s Awards are presented each year to artists, writers, musicians, and other performers. There is also a federal National Art Gallery, and most provinces have one major tax-funded art gallery, usually in the provincial capital.

Canadian Literature

Unlike Europe and the United States, Canada does not have a single national literary tradition, but participates instead in the wider English world of literature. Of course there are many internationally renowned authors from Canada, but in general there is no single canon yet of Canadian literature as a whole. One exception to this rule is the province of Quebec, where there is a venerable “national” literature renowned for its social criticism and experimentation.

In the last 30 years, the number of published Canadian writers has increased dramatically, and as a cultural point, the Canadian community buys and reads more books than those in most other industrialized nations. Nonetheless, no special preference has yet to be given to Canadian literature.

Graphic Arts

Canada boasts a legion of artists working across many different artistic disciplines. Most of the country’s smaller cities (and all of the larger ones) have many art galleries where citizens can peruse and purchase art, including several galleries funded by tax payers. Several artist cooperatives exist in cities across the country, providing artistic and financial support for members. Be that as it may, there is no single model for artistic presentation operating across the country.

Performance Arts

There are hundreds of theaters and performing arts centers scattered throughout Canada. Larger cities, such as Toronto, have one or more professional theaters in which elaborate plays and operas are staged, while most of the smaller cities feature community theater companies. Several specialist companies or events, such as the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and the Shaw Festival also exist in the country. Held annually, both of these Ontario-based festivals consistently draw thousands of people, including scores of international visitors from around the world.

Toronto, Canada is recognized as one of the world leaders in the arts. The city has the distinction of hosting more theater openings per year than any other city in the English-speaking world.Its theaters include large commercial venues offering mostly musical theater, several large venues for other kinds of musical performance, and a diverse range of theaters and theater companies offering both new works original to the company and works from almost every linguistic and cultural tradition.

As is the case throughout the world, attendance at theater productions in Canada tends to follow class lines, with most events catering to the country’s most affluent members. There are, however, a few exceptions. Small community theaters tend to draw a wide cross section of Canadians, particularly those hosting new, experimental or political types of theater.

Culture of Canada: Cuisine

Poutine Attempting to identify a particular cuisine of Canada is not an easy proposition, as the multiethnic and multicultural makeup of Canada has resulted in a wide range of food preferences and cooking styles. When most people think of Canadian cuisine, they no doubt focus on items such as Canadian bacon and maple syrup, and while these foods are seen as uniquely Canadian, they only scratch the surface of this delicious and rather quirky gastronomy.

Canadians are fiercely proud of their culinary traditions—traditions steeped in imagination and an endless number of delicious ingredients and spices. From the smoked deli meat of Montreal to the world-renowned potatoes of Prince Edward Island, Canadians have a colossal choice of local foods with which to experiment, many of them available year-round.

The culinary styles of Canada were once merely a fusion of those brought to the country by the English and French, but today they reflect the best the world has to offer, with influences from Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. So what makes a food uniquely Canadian? Being invented here is a start, but it can also be the result of tweaking recipes from other parts of the world to suit the palates of the new Canadian people.

One truly Canadian food is “poutine,” thought to be invented in Quebec during the 1950s. In its original form, poutine consisted of a mixture of French fries generally slathered in gravy and cheese curds. Since its inception, however, the recipe has been regularly embellished and adapted in many odd and tasty ways, from the gourmet versions with lobster and foi gras added, to the quirky “donut” version of the recipe. Many restaurants and snack shops throughout Canada specialize in this traditional—and traditionally delicious—Canadian food.

Although neither sushi nor pizza can be labeled as Canadian dishes, when you put them together you have something that is truly unique to the country of Canada: Sushi pizza. It’s true. Sushi pizza, which is extremely popular in the city of Toronto, has become an absolute staple for the city’s sushi lovers.

Like their U.S. neighbors to the south, more and more Canadians are striving to eat a healthier diet these days, one often consisting of more ethnic foods, while balancing their love for baked goods and other comfort food items. In addition to Canadian bacon, maple syrup, Poutine and sushi pizza, a few of these favorite foods include:

Ketchup Chips. Chips slathered in ketchup are just one of the guilty-pleasure snacks enjoyed by Canadians.

Butter Tarts. A butter tart is a classic Canadian dessert made with butter, sugar, syrups and eggs, all filled in a buttery pastry shell that often includes raisins and nuts.

Beaver Tails. Before you shriek in disgust, Canadian Beaver Tails are merely a trademarked type of pastry widely distributed throughout the country. The fried dough treats are shaped to resemble a real beaver’s tail and are often topped with chocolate, candy and fruit.

Game Meat. Game meat makes up a significant part of the average Canadian’s diet, and is abundant in the country’s restaurants and butcher shops. Among other popular Canadian game meat is wild boar, bison, venison, caribou and rabbit.

Culture of Canada: Sport

Boxing Day in Toronto, Canada Sports are very popular in Canada, from both a participation and spectator standpoint. Canadians hold many sports dear, particularly the country’s two national sports: ice hockey and lacrosse.

Referred to as simply “hockey” in Canada, ice hockey is the most popular and prevalent winter sport activity, and Canada’s most successful sport in terms of international competition. Many Canadian boys (and some girls) learn hockey at a very young age. Competitions are held for almost every age group, including high school and college, where participants dream of one day skating for their favorite team in the National Hockey League (NHL), which draws millions of Canadians spectators each year.

Similar to hockey, lacrosse is a sport with Native American origins and the official summer sport of Canada.

Canadian football is also popular in Canada, the second-most popular spectator sport in the country after hockey. Thousands compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) each year, and its annual championship, the Grey Cup, is the country’s largest annual sports event.

Other sports gaining in popularity in Canada, particularly from a participation perspective, include Association football (soccer), golf, swimming, basketball, baseball, volleyball, skiing, cycling and tennis. As you might expect based on its colder climate, Canada has enjoyed greater success at the Winter Olympic Games than it has at the Summer Olympics.

Culture of Canada: Holidays and Celebrations

The people of Canada enjoy a number of important holidays and celebrations. Some of these are uniquely Canadian, while others have their roots in English and French traditions.28 Some of the most significant holidays and celebrations include:

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Celebrated every August 15th by the Canadian religious group known as the Acadians, this feast day is one of the most important observances of their religious calendar.

Boxing Day. Deriving its name from the 19th century English, Boxing Day occurs on December 26, when it was customary to give boxes or money to servants and family. The day used to be known as St. Stephens Day.

Canada Day. Canada day is the celebration of the nation’s birthday. The first Canada day (once known as Dominion Day) was celebrated on July 1, 1867.

Icelandic Festival. Also known as "Islendingadagurinn," the Icelandic Festival, a Viking-themed carnival day, has been celebrated in Canada since 1890.

Remembrance Day. Celebrated every November 11th, Remembrance Day is a holiday designed to honor the war veterans of Canada who were lost during the two World Wars.

Click on one of the following links to learn more about the culture, language, education system, health & safety, economy, government, history, religion, gastronomy, visas, local services, climate, locations in Canada.

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“O Canada”, today the national anthem of Canada, was first performed in Quebec City, during a Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day banquet on June 24, 1880.