Meena Srinivasan Memorial Awards for Indian Artists

Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute is pleased to announce a onetime grant initiative named: Meena Srinivasan Memorial Award (MSMA) for emerging Indian Artists, performing in the area of Carnatic Music. Meena Srinivasan was a passionate supporter of Indian Carnatic music.


With a purpose of leveraging the promotion of Indian arts and culture in Canada, the MSMA grant is aiming at assisting a talented young Indian artist with travel subsidies to visit Canada to participate in cultural events or competitions.


Number and Scope of Awards:One awardswill be offered in in support of Carnatic Music.


Value: CAD$ 1,500 (each award)

• These funds to be spent in supporting the international round trip (India-Canada-India) economy airfare costs of the artists.

Number of Awards:1
Application Requirements:

Please provide the following supporting documentation with the application form:

 A Letter of Invitation from the host institution/organization
 Curriculum Vitae (no more than 3 pages)
 Itinerary for prospective stay in Canada;

 Two copies of audio/video on DVD/CD (5-15 minutes)

 Proof of Indian citizenship (Copy of passport or other document);

Evaluation Criteria: Applications will be evaluated on the basis of:
• Event/Host Institution (3 points)

• Evidence of training on the subject (3 points)

• The applicant’s competence and potential for progress (4 points)

• The applicant’s current and potential contribution to Indian arts through performance, exhibition and/or other forms of dissemination (4 points)


Disbursement of Funds:

The funds will be released to the awardees upon producing a copy of their appropriate Canadian visa for the travel along with a confirmed travel plan

Application Deadline:

Please submit your completed electronic application form to the Shastri Institute’s India Office to rati@sici.org.in by February 24, 2013


Application Form:
Carnatic Music Application Form.doc


Contact:
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Rati Talwar
5 Bhai Vir Singh Marg
New Delhi,
INDIA-110 001
Telephone: 91-11-2374-6417/3114

Please note that only selected candidates will be notified and the Institute takes no responsibility for missing applications or materials in mail, by post, electronic or via courier.

Funding:

*The MSMA is being funded by the family and friends of late Meena Srinivasan, who was based in Montreal, Canada. Meena was a carnatic vocalist; she also initiated many young children into the world of classical carnatic music. Her family and friends would like to make her legacy live on through music and dance.*

Idle No More spreading beyond Canada's borders

First Nations activists in Washington, D.C., to give interviews to American media The Canadian Press, Jan 1, 2013 5:36 PM ET


Alex Rogers wears a grass dance headdress near a railway blockade line in Sarnia, Ont. last month. The Idle No More movement has spread as far afield as Texas and New Zealand. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press) Facebook



The Aboriginal movement known as Idle No More continued to gain strength beyond Canada's borders onTuesday as activists embarked on a public relations blitz in the United States.

Pamela Palmater, one of the leaders of the movement, travelled to Washington, D.C. to give interviews to the U.S. media. She said the goal of the media campaign was to raise awareness internationally and force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to act.
"The idea is to put pressure on the Canadian government to pay attention and come to the table," Palmater said by phone. "I was invited to come down and do some media about Idle No More, basically answer questions about why it's spreading into the United States."


In addition to recent events held across Canada, rallies have already been staged as far off as Texas, Hawaii and New Zealand with plans for more in the coming days.'Idle No More feels that any acts that are not in line with peace and solidarity only detract attention from our ultimate mission.'

—Idle No More official statementPalmater said Chief Theresa Spence's hunger strike, now in its fourth week, is part of a much larger protest movement.


The initial spark was the federal government's omnibus budget legislation but it has now become about broader issues like inequality and treaty rights, she said.Palmater noted an evolution in the form protests have taken over the past few weeks, toward increased civil disobedience.


"We did letter writing and phone calls and trying to talk to MPs and, you know, we took that route and it didn't work," she said. "Then we had to move up to peaceful marches and rallies, and that didn't work. So now we're doing all these flash mob round dances, which are more about working hand in hand with Canadians and also keeping the focus on the media. But now you see blockades."



Rail lines disrupted

There have been several disruptions at rail lines over the past week, including one on the main line between Montreal and Toronto on Sunday evening which delayed Via Rail passengers. Protesters have also blocked a CN line in Sarnia, Ont.
There was even a call to set up blockades at Canada-U.S. borders on Saturday, though that move hasn't been endorsed by organizers.It wasn't clear whether local activists would follow through.

A statement released last week on the Idle No More website urged peaceful forms of protest.

"Idle No More feels that any acts that are not in line with peace and solidarity only detract attention from our ultimate mission," the statement said.Palmater echoed that sentiment on Tuesday."We're trying our best to avoid things that would inconvenience Canadians," she said.
Meanwhile, Spence's hunger strike continued to gain support from across the country. A group of activists travelled from the Maritimes to bring supplies to her protest site, located on an island in the Ottawa River across from Parliament Hill.

Demonstrators block Toronto traffic

Dozens of demonstrators took to the streets of downtown Toronto on Tuesday afternoon in support of Idle No More and stopped traffic at one of the city's busiest intersections.
Actor Tantoo Cardnial was part of the Toronto rally and said she got into acting to tell the world the stories of Canada's aboriginal peoples.
"The blueprint of who we are as a civilization — that was attacked by the church, by the government, by corporations," Cardinal said.
Spence is in support of the treaty rights and the "Canadian people have to understand there are two signers in the treaties," she said.

"Those treaties were signed in a sacred way— they were signed through ceremony, through prayer … and it's a sacred agreement."Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan has offered to meet with her but Spence has turned that proposal down. The federal government says it has made an effort to consult with aboriginal leaders and work on pressing issues on reserves like education, clean drinking water and housing.
It points to a meeting held last January with First Nations leaders as proof it is serious about improving their relationship.


© The Canadian Press, 2013

Canadian Politics in 2013

More headaches for Harper, Trudeaumania 2.0 on horizon for new year Derek Abma, Global News : Friday, December 28, 2012 4:18 PM


The stage is set for what should be an interesting year in Canadian politics. The federal Liberals are scheduled to choose a new leader in the spring, with most indications showing Justin Trudeau – son of the late iconic Liberal prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau – likely to get the gig. Surveys have also shown Trudeau’s leadership would put the Liberals back in contention for forming the next government in 2015 after years in the political wilderness.



It remains to be seen whether some of the big political stories to emerge in the latter part of 2012 will continue to have an impact in 2013. For example, as 2012 drew to a close, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was defending its previous commitment to purchase a fleet of F-35 fighter jets while, at the same time, saying it was reassessing its options in the wake of a new report that showed the cost of such military equipment – at about $45 billion over 42 years – would go far beyond anything that was previously stated.



Liberals and Trudeau

Darrell Bricker, CEO of polling firm Ipsos’ public affairs division, highlights the Liberal leadership race as something to watch for in 2013. “Putting a new leader in place and giving the Grits an opportunity to get back in the game will be probably one of the biggest things that’s going to happen,” he said, “simply because of the person (Trudeau) who’s likely to win. And it will be all eyes on that probably for at least early in the new year through to the actual convention (in April).”



Native issues


Bricker also said there is potential for the Idle No More movement of First Nations protests to become a major political story in 2013 if it becomes confrontational as past native protests have in Oka, Que., and Caledonia, Ont. That, combined with other protest movements, the Liberal leadership decision or anything that’s generally about opposing the Harper government could set the political tone for 2013, Bricker said.
“If you ask me what the biggest story is going to be of the year it’s how the opposition to the Conservative government sorts itself out,” Bricker said, noting that further stinginess in next federal budget in an effort to eliminate the deficit is sure to raise the ire of some.



F-35s
Bricker downplayed the prominence the F-35 issue will have in 2013 because “nobody’s really that interested in it.” “Nobody really knows what the right answer is; different people agreeing and disagreeing with different parts of it, the military having one point of view,” he said. “It’s a complicated issue and, as a result, people just kind of tune out.”



He said the F-35 issue is certainly not for the Tories what the sponsorship scandal was for the Liberals, in which more than $100 million that was supposed to raise the federal government’s profile in Quebec was found to go to companies that did little work for it. “The sponsorship scandal was one that was pretty easy to understand. Guys getting wads of money in envelopes in Italian restaurants – I understand that,” Bricker said. Don Boudria, a former Liberal cabinet minister in Jean Chretien’s government who’s currently a lobbyist for Hill & Knowlton Strategies in Ottawa, also predicted native issues will emerge as a major issue in 2013 as more attention is garnered by the Idle No More protests and hunger strike by Theresa Spence, an Ontario First Nations chief who is demanding a meeting that involves Harper, other high-ranking officials and native leaders to discuss treaty rights. “(Harper is) going to start to the year with a black eye on aboriginal issues,” Boudria said.

Strengthening Tory brand

Bruce Hicks, a political science professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, said Canadians can expect the Harper government to continue looking for ways to sell its Conservative vision of the country to voters in order to strengthen its grip on power. Promotion of the monarchy and its unconditional support for Israel are some previous examples of this, he said.

“The Conservative party is really a marketing creation of taking what is the Conservative-Canadian Alliance-Reform agenda and making it more it more marketable to the average Canadian,” Hicks said. But he added that the longer any government stays in power – the current one is approaching seven years – the more likely it is to face a scandal from which it cannot recover. Such was seen with the previous Liberal dynasty under Jean Chretien and Paul Martin with the sponsorship scandal, and more recently with the Quebec Liberals under Jean Charest with his government’s perceived lack of diligence against corruption in public construction activity.



“The longer a government is in, there will be somebody that has been doing something wrong, and that’s going to come out,” Hicks said. “Some people misbehave. That’s just human nature.” Hicks said the F-35 scandal had the potential to become that big issue that sank the Tories, but he added they’ve already probably taken as much political damage as they’re going to on this file. “They are handling it now the way it should be handled, which is to say, ‘We’re not entirely committed to it, we’re rethinking it,’ and therefore planting the seeds of a policy shift.” Hicks agreed that the Liberals’ leadership convention in April is bound to be one of the major political events of 2013 because of its potential to decide the next prime minister.



“Could somebody emerge on the opposition that grabs people’s attention and catapults an opposition party into government?” he said. “I guess that’s what the Liberals are hoping will happen with someone like Justin Trudeau, or I guess a faction of them hope that will happen with Marc Garneau. And, of course, the NDP are hoping that’s going to happen with Thomas Mulcair.”

Harper's popularity at risk?

Boudria said 2013 could be the year in which Harper’s popularity takes a major hit.

“The NDP has a new leader. The Liberals will have a new leader,” he said. “Meanwhile, the Conservatives have a leader who’s been there for a decade, or close. At some point, the welcome mat, to the extent that it’s still there for the prime minister, is going to disappear very quickly. . . . He’s going to be the only political party leader with, shall I say, battle scars.” As someone who was part of a Liberal government that had divided loyalties between Chretien and Martin, Boudria said once there’s a sense of declining public approval for the leader, a party gets dissent among its MPs.


“There develops a kind of free thinking in the backbench. . . . There’s going to be a view that, ‘Well, you know if I could have my own independent opinion on such and such a topic, I would be more popular than my party, the prime minister or both.”

Canada Passport Fees to increase in new year

Passport office unable to maintain operations without fee hikes, says agency

By Terry Pedwell, Thursday, December 20, 2012 12:00 AM



OTTAWA - The cost of getting a Canadian passport is going up significantly in the new year.

Without the fee increases, Passport Canada would not be able to maintain current operations, let alone offer security-enhanced travel documents, the agency says. New regulations posted this week confirm the cost of a five-year passport will increase to $120 from $87.And starting in July 2013, a 10-year passport will also be offered at a cost of $160.
By March 2014, Passport Canada will also charge an additional $45 to replace a passport that's lost or stolen, something that's currently free. Approximately 55,000 Canadian passports are reported lost or stolen annually, the agency said.As well, anyone ordering or wanting to receive their passport outside of Canada will see fees nearly double.
The agency said it's currently losing nearly $5 every time it issues a passport, and has been financing its deficit by using previously accumulated surpluses that will run out next year. Passport fees in Canada have not increased for nearly a decade, the agency noted.

"Passport Canada is quickly reaching a point where not only will new advancements such as the ePassport be impossible, but the organization's ability to maintain current operations and deliver its mandate will be jeopardized," the agency said in a statement posted on the Canada Gazette website.
"Passport Canada must secure a fee increase to introduce the 10-year ePassport, keep pace with technological advancements and maintain its current level of service for Canadians."

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced in October that Canada would adopt new passports that include chip technology and watermark images designed to prevent fraud.The ePassport looks like a regular passport booklet, but contains an electronic chip that holds all of the personal information listed on the second page of the document.The chip - already being used in dozens of other countries - can be read by border authorities to confirm the passport is valid.

Canada is the only G8 country that doesn't currently issue ePassports to the general public, although it has been issuing chip-enhanced diplomatic and special passports since 2009.The new passports will also contain watermarks depicting iconic images from Canadian history.Canadians ordering passports from outside the country will see the biggest jump in fees. It will cost $190 to apply for, or receive, the five-year document in another country, up from $97. The fee will be $260 for the 10-year version requested under the same circumstances.

The cost of a child's passport is also going up to $57, an increase of $20, if ordered domestically. It'll cost $100 if the child's application is processed outside Canada.The increases may be too much of a burden for seniors or low-income Canadians, Passport Canada acknowledged in the regulations."Consultations have demonstrated that some segments of the Canadian population may be more sensitive to an increase in passport fees," the agency said in its cost-benefit analysis.


The solution suggested? Alternative travel documents, or none at all."Canadians unsatisfied with the passport fee increase may also choose an alternative travel document, such as a NEXUS card," the agency said."Or (they may) decide not to travel."
The NEXUS card can only be used as valid identification for travel between Canada and the United States.
It currently costs American citizens US$110 to renew a passport in the United States, or US$135 for a new one.In the United Kingdom, an adult passport will set back residents there the equivalent of about $117.


© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2012.

Life in Canada gets more costly in 2013

A new year means new hits to the bank accounts of Canadians.
Employment Insurance and Canada Pension premiums are going up. Workers who make more than $47,400 will pay $891, up $51 from last year, and employers will pay $1,247 in EI premiums, up $72. Workers and employers will both pay an extra $49 in CPP premiums, with workers paying $2,356 in 2013.
The price of mailing a letter is going up as well. Starting January 14, Canada Post will charge Canadians 63 cents to mail a standard letter (weighing up to 30 grams) in Canada, up two cents.
That same day, standard domestic letters weighing between 30 and 50 grams will go up five cents, to $1.10.
Letters bound for the U.S. – that weigh up to 30 grams – will also cost $1.10. Other countries will cost $1.85.
Domestic registered mail will be hiked up to $8.50.
Canadians and small businesses can save money by buying "PERMANENT" stamps. Until January 14, one PERMANENT stamp will cost 61 cents. But after the price hike takes effect, you'll still be able to use only the PERMANENT stamp to mail a 63-cent letter.
In other words, it doesn't matter how much you paid for the PERMANENT stamp. It'll always be worth the current rate for mailing standard domestic letters, so you won't have to buy those 1-cent stamps to compensate for price hikes.
Canada Post says the increases are necessary to maintain service costs.
Leaving the country to escape domestic financial worries will leave you digging deeper too. The cost of a five-year Canadian passport will increase to $120, from $87, on July 1.
The children's passport, for ages 3 to 15, will cost $57 instead of $37.
On the same date, the federal government is introducing a 10-year passport that will cost $160.
Without the fee increases, Passport Canada would not be able to maintain current operations, let alone offer security-enhanced travel documents, the agency says.
By March 2014, Passport Canada will also charge an additional $45 to replace a passport that's lost or stolen, something that's currently free. Approximately 55,000 Canadian passports are reported lost or stolen annually, the agency said.
As well, anyone ordering or wanting to receive their passport outside of Canada will see fees nearly double
The agency said it's currently losing nearly $5 every time it issues a passport, and has been financing its deficit by using previously accumulated surpluses that will run out next year. Passport fees in Canada have not increased for nearly a decade, the agency noted.

"Passport Canada is quickly reaching a point where not only will new advancements such as the ePassport be impossible, but the organization's ability to maintain current operations and deliver its mandate will be jeopardized," the agency said in a statement posted on the Canada Gazette website.
The ePassport looks like a regular passport booklet, but contains an electronic chip that holds all of the personal information listed on the second page of the document.
By March 2014, Passport Canada will also charge $45 to replace a lost or stolen passport. There is currently no fee for that.
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2012