Haiti mourns uncounted dead

             Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after a powerful earthquake flattened the president's palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. Officials feared thousands, perhaps more than 100,000, may have perished, but there was no firm count. Death was everywhere in Port-au-Prince. Bodies of tiny children were piled next to schools. Corpses of women lay on the street with stunned expressions frozen on their faces as flies began to gather. Bodies of men were covered with plastic tarps or cotton sheets. The sheer terror in the eyes of the survivors showed the desperation and sorrow they felt after the tragedy. President Rene Preval said he believes thousands were killed in Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake, and the scope of the destruction prompted other officials to give even higher estimates. Leading Sen. Youri Latortue told The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead, although he acknowledged that nobody really knows. "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed," Preval told the Miami Herald. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them." Even the main prison in the capital fell down, "and there are reports of escaped inmates," U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva. Life is already so fragile in Haiti, and to have this on such a massive scale, it's unimaginable how the country will be able to recover from this.


            This is an unbelievable tragedy and i cannot begin to imagine how much turmoil and despair must be occurring in the already fragile nation of Haiti. I can start to imagine how I would feel if my entire community was turned to rubble in a mere matter of minutes. Everything I knew, my school, my home, my family gone. It is impossible to comprehend how much sorrow these people must be feeling right now. The government of this already fragile governed island nation has also been largely effected by this disaster. All of the islands parliament buildings were reduced to rubble by the earthquake leaving the government scrambling to land on its feet and deal with this disaster. At this point in time Haiti needs a strong government to pull them back together but with the destroyed facilities they are finding it extremely hard to do so. I feel that unless the Haitian government can rebound back from this disaster it will leave much of this part of the island in extreme poverty for the time being and cause negative feelings towards the government. I feel extremely bad for the people on this island knowing that helping their cause will be hard to do.

Toronto's newest bishop once a vietnam refugee

            Vincent Nguyen has known since he was a little boy, playing the organ in church in his native Vietnam that he has wanted to be a Catholic priest. He knew this path would be hard to follow, for this job was few and far between in his native land of Vietnam. He was always determined to become a priest, but his path to this was long and hard and full of interruptions. He first went through his career as an electrical engineer. "I was good at math and science," Nguyen says, "so I studied electrical engineering." It might seems like an odd path into the priesthood, especially for a man who will become Canada's first bishop of Asian descent tomorrow, but the move was made on the advice of an advisor with the Toronto diocese when Nguyen was still in high school. Nguyen will be an auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese of Toronto, responsible for Scarborough and the Durham Region. "The idea was that boys aspiring to the priesthood should also explore their other loves, as a way to ensure that those who commit to being a priest are more comfortable with the choice they've made." This is what Nguyen said pertaining to his journey in becoming a priest and gives his advice to others who are following in his footsteps. He believes if you are truly meant to be a priest god will call upon you only after you have done something else that you love. His ordination tomorrow will also mark the first time in some 30 years that Nguyen and his eight siblings have been in one place at the same time. Two of his brothers live in Canada, while the rest of his siblings are still in Vietnam. They've been arriving over the last couple of days. This will mark a dream come true for Nguyen after a hard life of fighting for what he wants.


              I believe that this is a very heart-warming story of a man achieving his lifelong dream after a life of hardship and hard work. Imagine growing up your whole life knowing what you want to be, but realizing how far out of reach that goal is, and how lucky you would have to be to fulfill that goal. This man is a true warrior and was willing to fight for his entire life in order to do what he has always dreamed of doing. He didn't care wither it would take him 5 or 50 years to achieve this goal, he would never give up and he would do anything that needed to be done. We can all learn from this inner strength and determination and learn what it truly means to fight for what you believe in. I also believe this is a great showcase of Canadian multiculturalism. Religion is one of the most sacred things in our world today and for an immigrant to be able to hold such a prestigious position in a Canadian church shows how much immigrants are appreciated and accepted into our everyday lives. This is a great story of self accomplishment and we can all learn from his inner strength.

Arrest in B.C. pipeline bombing

         RCMP have arrested one man and are conducting a massive search of a rural Alberta farm in connection to a series of bombings of B.C. gas pipelines. Insp. Tim Shields says a man in his 50s or 60s was taken into custody around 8 a.m. this morning on a farm about 25 kilometers east of the B.C.-Alberta boundary. The lawyer for convicted gas well bomber Wiebo Ludwig says Ludwig's family members have told him that it is Ludwig's rural Alberta farm that is being searched by about a dozen officers. Police did not release the name of the suspect, saying he has not been formally charged. "It was a peaceful, low-profile arrest, as low key as we could make it," Shields says. Shields then went on to say that soon after the man was taken into custody, a dozen Mounties began searching "a very large property" in Hythe, about an hour away. Shields said the man lives on the property."Evidence in the fall led to a redefinition, where a person of interest became a suspect and we focused considerable energy on the suspect." Ludwig and Richard Boonstra were charged and convicted in two gas well bombings in Alberta. Two EnCana gas wells and one owned by Suncor Inc. were hit in 1998, and another blast cratered a road leading to a Norcen Energy well site. Ludwig, who served two-thirds of a 28-month sentence for the bombings, wrote an open letter to the bomber last fall appealing for peace. There have been six pipeline bombings in the Tomslake area since October 2008 targeting the Calgary-based company, Encana. A letter to local media called the EnCana bombing an act of terrorism and demanded that the company stop operating in the region to avoid any further attacks.


           I feel that this is a very frightening story because it promotes the idea of terrorism in Canada. It is also very frightening that they have chosen to deal with something so vital to society not to mention extremely dangerous, in oil. They could have been doing it to cause an explosion or to cut off gas lines, both of which would cause huge distress. Terrorism is something Canadians here about a lot being close neighbors of the United States, but we never expect it to happen in our country, for we act with a peaceful demeanor and treat the people with great respect. No one would ever think someone would target Canada except for the terrorists themselves. This thought is frightening because being naive such as this leaves us vulnerable for a terrorist attack, and if a large attack happened we would suffer large damages. Another factor is the men arrested looked like normal members of society and had no resemblance to terrorists. This means that anyone could be a terrorist and you should always be aware. I believe this is a good wake up call for the people of Canada.

1,000 New GM jobs in works for Oshawa

           General Motors will build a replacement for the Chevrolet Impala and produce a Cadillac sedan at its Oshawa car complex, creating up to 1,000 new jobs during the next few years, industry officials say. Since GM has been faltering over the past two years and needs to go to extremes to create jobs for their employees. A senior official for the Canadian Auto Workers said later the addition of those vehicles should generate between 750 and 1,000 jobs in an extra shift at GM's Oshawa complex. They feel that they have the appropriate facilities to make this change effective and can thrive making an entire new shift creating these Cadillac vehicles. An official at the site claims that this plan is not official as of right now, but he feels it makes a lot of sense and would create more jobs for the company, producing a car that is in higher demand. In his eyes this shift is a win-win situation. The manufacturers association's disclosure follows recent auto production announcements by GM in Ingersoll and Toyota in Woodstock that will boost employment in southern Ontario's recession-ravaged manufacturing sector. The Oshawa car complex is one of the few GM manufacturers that are still producing this model and it is planned that it will be totally out of commission by the end of the year 2011. GM has also announced that it will be creating several new flexible assembly lines in the next couple of months, creating thousands more jobs. GM also has many more plans for several other Manufacturing units across the country.


           I feel that these measures being taken by GM are a great sign of the rehabilitation of the Canadian economy and the auto industry which was hit especially hard by the depression. When the depression struck the auto industry was struck extremely hard and GM was on the brink of going out of business. For GM to now have the power and resources to start to do their part to restore the economy are a very calming sight and are showing the final stages of the full recovery. This was one of the worst recessions our country has had in a very long while and it is gladdening to see that it is recovering and that our economy is strong enough to build itself back up and prosper once again. It is also great to see an influential company; which has control over so much of the auto industry back at its best and supplying the people of Canada with vehicles. This article makes it very apparent that the recession is coming to an end and strong companies such as GM will once again prosper.