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June 2013 Techline - 4x4 QuestionsPosted in How To: Tech Qa on June 1, 2013
Why Turbo
I've noticed that many of the new cars, and some trucks, are coming with turbocharged engines from the factory these days. Do you know why more of them don't use superchargers? It seems to me that the supercharger could deliver the same, if not more, power without the lag and all of the added complexity of a turbo.
Harrison Jenkins
Via email
The turbocharger vs. supercharger debate is an ongoing one in the tuner world. While it can be a complex topic, there are a few seemingly simple reasons that the OEs are more drawn to turbochargers as opposed to superchargers. First, it's important to understand that both are basically performing the same task. Each works to increase the air being fed into the engine. The idea behind forced induction is that the more air that you can pack in, the more fuel you can burn. How the two differ greatly is where each sources energy.
Most superchargers are belt-driven. This belt rides on a pulley, which is often part of an accessory-drive loop that draws its power from the engines crankshaft. Since the crankshaft is the power source, the supercharger creates a more linear power feel when accelerating, whereas turbochargers are sometimes slower to spool, which creates that feeling of lag. While I agree that superchargers can be an easier packaging solution at times, they have one major negative in the eyes of the OEs.
Given that most superchargers draw energy from the crankshaft, it's removing a certain about of power potential and efficiency from the engine. One of the biggest reasons that the turbocharger has surpassed the supercharger with the OEs is that it uses energy that would otherwise be wasted on a naturally aspirated engine. A turbocharger is fed by the heat and pressure that's blasting from your vehicles exhaust. As the exhaust passes through the compressor wheel it spins a turbine shaft on the opposite side. This process causes the turbine wheel to increase the volume of air being fed into the engine. Since the turbo essentially uses wasted energy to create more power, it holds an edge over the supercharger.
Complex tuning, direct injection, variable vane, and compound turbocharging all continue to change the way we look at the turbocharger. Without question, superchargers still have a place in the OE and aftermarket sector. The fact is, though, that a turbocharger creates similar power gains with less energy draw. This makes them a better fit for OEs looking to capture more power and efficiency. A great example of this technology is the Ford F-150 EcoBoost V-6. It's a twin-turbo six-cylinder that delivers V-8 power, while retaining V-6 fuel efficiency in most situations.
I recently read the "Low Cost Junkyard Engine Swaps" story in the August '12 issue, and it got me thinking about my truck. I have a '98 Chevy Silverado 1500 Z71 with over 150,000 miles. There is a misfire in the number-five cylinder. I would like to make it better on gas, yet still have a good amount of horsepower. Would it be better to rebuild it or just swap in a new engine?
Tristian Clendenen
Via email
With the exception of a turbocharged-diesel engine, trying to grab high horsepower and great fuel-economy numbers out of an older V-8 engine is an uphill battle. Swapping in a late-model V-8 engine would give you a bit more power and efficiency, but I doubt the fuel economy gains would be enough to justify the time and expense required for the swap. Rebuilding your V-8 will likely be the most inexpensive route. Assuming you don't mind putting in a little time under the hood and have a good machine shop nearby, rebuilding your Chevy's V-8 could be an affordable and fun learning experience. Depending on the type, a factory replacement engine can also be very cost-effective and most include some type of warranty.
Aggressive All-Terrains
I have been driving myself crazy trying to figure out what, for lack of a better term, aggressive all-terrain tires to buy. I have yet to find much of anything as far as professional reviews go, and the message boards are useless, as most posts are to the extreme. Examples of the tire style that I am referring to are the Kelly Safari TSR, Cooper Discoverer S/T MAXX, Pro Comp Xtreme A/T, Mastercraft Courser C/T, and Goodyear DuraTrac. These types of tires seem to be a mystery.
I think these tires would make for some good articles. Since most of my crew use their hunting trucks as daily drivers, it would be great to have a tire that performs decent off-road, but will last longer than most mud-terrains. My hunch is that most hunters don't really need mud-terrains and the more aggressive all-terrains will fit the bill.
Via email
Hybrid or "aggressive" all-terrain tires that you are referring to are widely popular these days. While the majority of 4x4 enthusiasts seem to prefer the appearance of a mud-terrain tire, many don't necessarily all need the off-road benefits of the more aggressive mud cleats. The hybrid all-terrains like the ones you mentioned are part of a wave of tires that are working to bridge the gap between the traditional all-terrain and mud-terrain radial. These tires provide deeper tread blocks which tend to extended farther down the sidewall and increased spacing over a traditional all-terrain tire.
Collectively, the staff has tested nearly all of the aforementioned hybrid all-terrains, along with others such as the Falken WildPeak A/T and Mickey Thompson ATZ. As you have alluded to, some do work very well in the mud. I think a shootout between the modern-day all-terrains sounds like a great idea and will look into that more as time allows.
Gear Charting
I enjoyed reading your article "Ratio Right" in the March '13 issue and have a question. You mentioned a "chart" when choosing the correct gear ratio in a 4X4. What chart and how do I get one? I have a '13 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with 4.10 gears and want to put 35s on it.
Tony Hahn
Via email
The type of chart I was referring to is similar to the gear ratio guide chart that can be found at www.4wheelparts.com. They are intended to calculate your RPM range given a certain tire size and gear ratio. None of them are perfect, as each application is a little different. For your '13 Wrangler the 4.10:1 gears should be a good combo with 35s. A 4.56 ratio would give you a bit more pep, but I would try the 4.10s first and see if they fit your needs and wheeling style. You'll also need a tire calibrator like the ProCal module offered from American Expedition Vehicles (www.aev-conversions.com). The ProCal module allows you to input the new gear ratio and tire size data. This will adjust your shift points (if you have an automatic transmission) and recalibrate the speedometer accordingly.
Tight Steering
I have a Jeep Cherokee XJ with a Currie 4½-inch short-arm lift and all of the company's corresponding steering and sway bar components. Off-road it is plenty capable. Considering I drive it mostly on-road, the Jeep's street manners and overall handing is very important. Currently, I really like how tight my steering and suspension feels, as there is little-to-no play in the wheel and no wander on the highway.
I remember driving my friend's old and new Broncos in the '90s, and as I recall they felt like they had a lot of play in the steering and suspension. I have been considering purchasing a classic Bronco and was wondering if upgraded with better steering and suspension components will it be as "tight" as something like my XJ. Or is this something I would only be able to find in a later-model vehicle?
Jeff Logandro
Via email
Steering and brakes are the two most important parts of any vehicle. If one doesn't feel right or work correctly, it can be a bad day for a lot of people. Worn steering and suspension components, improper alignment, and bad tires can all play a role to make a steering system feel loose. Depending on what year of Bronco you are searching for, you will have few steering upgrade options. If you are considering a '90s Bronco as a "classic," then you will likely purchase one with a TTB (Twin-Traction Beam) frontend.
One thing that you may have experienced with your friends Bronco is the cycling of the TTB frontend. As the TTB cycles it pivots differently over the conventional solid-front axle like you have in your XJ. The TTB frontend is a type of independent suspension that uses axle beams connected at the center of the frame. As the suspension cycles, the wheels camber can change dramatically, depending on the amount of suspension travel. Desert-racers embrace the TTB, as it allows for tremendous vertical wheeltravel potential. On-road, the handling of a modified TTB Bronco may feel much different than your modified Cherokee. Can you make it feel tight and on-center? Sure. Will a TTB frontend feel the same as your solid-axle Cherokee? Not quite.
Driveline Brakes
I am building an '85 Chevy ½-ton on 2½-ton Rockwell axles. I am in college and on a budget. I have been researching the brakes for it and I think I am going to go with driveline brakes. I found a couple of companies that make third-member brackets that will let me use Toyota calipers, which are pretty inexpensive. Are there any serious drawbacks to running this style of brake? I don't drive my truck very long distances on the street, but it will be a street-driven truck, not a trailer queen!
Kyle Bartlett
Via email
I am actually in the process of examining the brake choices for my 2½-ton Rockwell project (Rescued Wrangler), so your email has great timing. Driveline or pinion-style brakes are an excellent option for the 2½-ton Rockwell axle. The 6.72:1 gear-reduction third member has plenty of strength to stop even a full-size Chevy such as yours and there are a fair amount of low-buck and high-end aftermarket brake options.
The main drawback of running a driveline brake versus a traditional outboard or wheel-mounted brake on the Rockwell axle is that the rotor is spinning 6.72 times faster than if was mounted outboard. This means if your wheel is rotating at 55 mph, your rotor is actually spinning at 370 mph! I don't know of any Toyota calipers designed to stop a rotor spinning that fast. It wouldn't take long for the heat created by the stopping force to warp the rotor. It just isn't a safe idea for an on-road rig. I understand that the sticker shock of wheel-mounted disc brakes is a lot to take in, but if you plan to operate your truck on the street, it's the safest option.
Slider Thoughts
I have a new-to-me '08 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. I am stoked on the Jeep and excited about wheeling it more. It currently doesn't have any kind of body armor or sliders. After researching the topic on multiple forums, it seems like a lot of guys use body-mounted armor, while only some use frame-mounted sliders. I don't want to tear up the body or buy the wrong armor. Could you tell me the difference and what you would suggest?
Greg Pierce
Via email
Both armor types have pros and cons. Mounting armor directly to your rig's body will offer more ground clearance and is often a bolt-on install. Body-mounted armor is often comprised of a thick-steel plate, but can sometimes be optioned in a lighter aluminum set. The main drawback of body-mounted armor is that the armor is usually tougher than the sheetmetal that it is mounted to. Continuous use on the trail and hard impacts can actually damage the body over time. I've witnessed a few Wrangler Unlimited models come down hard on their body-mounted sliders, which caused a fair amount of damage to the surrounding body panels.
Frame-mounted sliders tend to work better at protecting the body as they are mounted below and separately from it. Typically, they are comprised of DOM tubing and are offered in both weld- and bolt-on configurations. While frame-mounted sliders tend to be more durable, they also typically absorb more ground clearance. Some companies such as EVO Manufacturing (www.evomfg.com) offer body-mounted armor and weld-on sliders that work independently from each other.
If you are looking to hit more hardcore trails and think your Jeep might be packing on the pounds with additional armor, I suggest frame-mounted sliders. If light-wheeling and a lightweight build plan are more in your future, then there are plenty of excellent body-mounted armor/slider combos such as the kind from Synergy Suspension (www.synergysuspension.com) and Poison Spyder Customs (www.poisonspyder.com) that work great.
Where To Write
Address your correspondence to: Four Wheeler, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245. All letters become the property of Four Wheeler, and we reserve the right to edit them for length, accuracy, and clarity. The editorial department can also be reached through the website at www.fourwheeler.com. Due to the volume of mail, electronic and otherwise, we cannot respond to every reader, but we do read everything.


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Michel Bourez takes his first ASP WCT event win over Josh Kerr after topping Kelly Slater and Nat Young on the final day.
See the best moments from the quarterfinals through the finals on an action-packed last day at Surfer's Point.
The last day of competition saw a clash between Kelly Slater and Joel Parkinson, as well a Michel Bourez get his first WCT win.
Josh Kerr was awarded a $10,000 prize in the inaugural ASP GoPro Challenge Margaret River, winning best video out of the five selected
Gabriel Medina missed back-to-back victories to start the 2014 WCT season, but tells Todd Kline he's still happy with his performance.

subset: commoncrawl


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Update: Bone Marrow Drive Huge Success!
Organizers of Eastern Maine Medical Center's Bone Marrow Drive are calling Saturday's event a huge success. The goal was to top last year's total of 200 people who joined the national registry and it was realized with 261 adults added at this year's drive!
Cancer Care's Barbara Clement says the need is great, both nationally and locally.
"Nationally, matches are about one in twenty thousand. So, it's really important for us to get as many people as we can on the national registry to be a match," Barbara told us. "Here locally, we have folks in our own community who are in need of bone marrow donors. In our facility, we have about 75 patients a year diagnosed with either leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma that could be potentially in need of donors."
The Bone Marrow Drive was held as part of the EMMC Champion the Cure challenge, an annual event held at the Lafayette Family Cancer Center in Brewer to raise money for local cancer research.


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Jayasudha (Telugu:?????) was a famous South Indian actress from the 1970's and 1980's, with most of her films being Telugu films.
Jayasudha was born to a Telugu speaking family on December 17, 1958 in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Her aunt is the famous actress and director Vijaya Nirmala, who convinced Jayasudha's disapproving father, to permit his stage-struck daughter to act in films.
Jayasudha's mother, Joga Bai was also an actress of older days.
Jayasudha made her film debut when she was twelve years old as Jamuna's daughter in the Telugu film Panduntikaapuram. Her next break came in two Tamil films directed by the celebrated director K. Balachander: Arangettram and Apoorva Raagangal. The latter became a big hit. Her fame quickly spread, where Telugu film producers were offering her good film roles. While her debut role as heroine in the Telugu film Lakshmana Rekha (1975) got her attention, it was really the title role in Jyothi (1975) (remake of the Hindi film Mili starring Jaya Bhaduri) that made her a huge star in Telugu films. She was now called a successor to the great Telugu actress Savithri and performed many strong roles and showed excellent range.
Her roles varied from the cute looking teeny bopper who wore minis in Nomu (1974) to the battered wife of a sadist husband in Idi Katha Kadu, to that of a comedienne who discovers that her husband wants to murder her for her wealth in "Money." She performed showy roles in Telugu remakes of Hindi films, such as Yugandhar (1979) (the fighter role that Zeenat Aman originated in Don (1978 film)), Illalu (1981) (Reena Roy's dark-shaded role from Apnapan (1977)), etc. In commercial cinema, she received a huge break when she starred in Adavi Ramudu (1977), which broke box office records. She also showed innovativeness and lack of vanity in original Telugu films like Premabhishekam (1981) where she played a supporting role as a deglamorized prostitute, while Sridevi played the female lead.
She acted in 225 Telugu films, and in one year, she had 24 film releases. She accomplished all this, despite her illiteracy in Telugu, by having people read lines to her and she would remember and deliver her lines.
She became such a famous actress that she starred in a film Jayasudha (1982), named after her. Her fame also allowed producers to cast her sister Subhashini in supporting roles in some of the films that she starred in, such as Sivaranjani (1978) and Meghasandesam (1983). Subhashini's daughter Pooja is now a budding actress.
Jayasudha married Dr.Rajendra Prasad (of Vijayawada), who is a related to Former AP CM Mr.Nadendla Bhaskar Rao. The marriage ended in a divorce after couple of years.
Jayasudha again fell in love with producer Nitin Kapoor, cousin to actor Jeetendra. They married in 1985 and have two children, Sons Nihar (born in 1986) and Sreyanth (born in 1990). While she has friends in the industry, such as Radhika and Revati, her closest friend is Jayaprada, with whom she had acted with in huge hits Adavi Ramudu (1977) and Meghasandesam (1982). She converted to christianity after discovering Jesus in an water accident.


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Use the "pen tool".gepetto wrote:Well, faulty software is the least of my worries. I'm sure this is plain stupid, but my masks in AE only have four edges that I can move. So I can only select rectangles, trapeziums and the like with masks. How do I add dots to the goddamned thing?
Please give answers in the most simplistic, step-by-step and overall moronic way. It's my first shot at AE and the whole interface still makes me dizzy (not to mention my <10second limit for RAM previews).
Thanks in advance
First select it be pressing "G". note that there are 4 shapes :
the "Normal" that looks like a pen.
the "Add point" that looks like a pen and a little +
the "subtruct point" same as above only -
the "change point" pen that looks like a small arrow head. It turns angles to curves.
just point and cilck using the "normal pen tool" to start a new mask and creat as many point as you need. Kipping the mouse pressed and dragging it will create a curve, while just pressing creates an angle.
Remember 2 things -
1) Make sute the mask is closed
2) While you can allways add more points, removing them is a big no no, cause you will lose it not in that current frame but in thhe entire maks.
Happy masking...


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In the wake of the tragic movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., "The Dark Knight Rises" performed strongly at the box office during its opening weekend, although below earlier projections.
Sources in Hollywood estimated that the final installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy grossed around $160 million upon its debut. Before the tragedy, pre-release audience surveys had indicated that the film would likely collect between $180 million and $200 million during its first weekend in theaters.
Still, the movie's opening weekend take is the third-highest ever — not adjusting for inflation — behind only two 3-D films, "The Avengers" and the final entry in the "Harry Potter" series. In 2008, "The Dark Knight" debuted with $158 million and went on to become one of 12 films to gross over $1 billion worldwide.
Official weekend estimates were not made available Sunday because Warner Bros. and other major Hollywood studios did not release box office revenue figures out of respect for those involved in the shootings. The company that gathers box office data, Rentrak, also did not report weekend numbers.
As such, international grosses were also not released, and overseas ticket sales will be the true indication of the movie's ultimate financial success. On Friday, Warner Bros. said it would cancel the remaining red carpet premieres for "The Dark Knight Rises" abroad, which were to take place in Paris, Mexico City and Tokyo.
It is unclear how much Friday's events in Colorado affected opening weekend receipts for "The Dark Knight Rises." A number of moviegoers purchased their tickets to the film in advance of the weekend, though a handful of theater chains said they would honor buyer requests for refunds.
It does not appear that many cinema chains canceled screenings of "Dark Knight" this weekend, though a number of theater owners vowed to ramp up security at their locations in response to the shootings.
Those who saw the $250-million-plus production starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader loved it, assigning it an average grade of A. It remains to be seen if that strong word-of-mouth will convince those who stayed out of the theater this weekend to see the movie in the coming weeks.


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Well! I have a blog! It's been increasingly difficult to find any good time to update, but in the meantime, I present to you a home food project that is so unbelievably easy and satisfying to accomplish it's going to make you feel like a magician. If you follow my Twitter or Facebook you've probably heard me yammering about the weekend after Thanksgiving, but for those of you blog purists out there, I'm talking about making your own butter.
Did you know you can make your own butter? You can! And you don't even need any special tools! Seriously, this is probably just Food Science 101, but butter is just one of those things I have only considered buying from the store in stick form--I'd heard of churning your own butter, of course, but why bother, it seemed (most likely) cumbersome and thankless. And anyway, who the hell am I, Laura Ingalls Wilder?
Apparently, yes. I tried this two weekends ago, and it was such a fantastic trick, I did it again yesterday. And this time I took pictures!
What you will need:
- One quart of heavy cream (just the supermarket brand is fine)
- One large jar with a screw-top lid
- Some salt
So. Get the heavy cream out of the fridge and let it sit until it comes to room temperature. (This makes the process go faster, I think.) Pour it into your jar. Screw the lid on.
Shake that mother.
See, this is the part where I thought, "What a fun project for the kids! I should get them involved and they too will share in the wonders of food science and creation and it will be so wholesome we'll just be high-fiving and group hugging forever!"
(The reality of it is that Cal shook the jar for, like, five seconds, and when the cream didn't instantly transform into a blob of butter he handed it back to me, told me encouragingly to keep up the good work and let me know when it was ready, before scurrying down to get in his weekend allowance time of frying his eyeballs playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. CHILDLIKE WONDER, AM I RIGHT?)
Making butter doesn't take a long long time, but it takes at least 10 or 15 minutes of shaking that jar. And at first, you're going to feel like nothing is happening, because the cream is just going to get thick and a little frothy, at which point it's not going to feel like you're agitating much in the jar at all. (Truth be told--my arms got tired and I took a little break midway through. Probably it would have gone faster with a blender or food processor, but what's the fun in that? In the low-tech lies the fun. WE'RE SHAKING JARS ALL UP IN THIS PIECE.)
Just when you're about to give up and call the supermarket about the DEFECTIVE CREAM that they sold you, the contents of the jar start to...loosen up. Suddenly your silent thick jar contents will start to sound like sploosh sploosh SPLOOSH and you will look inside your jar to see that lo, butter is separating from the buttermilk. SCIENCE IS HAPPENING. Keep shaking for another few minutes, until you get a nice big butter core all teased out.
Pour the jar contents through a strainer, and save the buttermilk if you want (you'll end up with about a cup) to make other things. What other things? I don't know. Things. Or save it to bathe your prize-winning pig with, like in Charlotte's Web.
Rinse the butter with cold water (cold so you don't melt it) and squoosh it around to get the excess buttermilk and water out.
Mix in some salt if you like. Or other flavors! I thought a salt-rosemary butter would be super fancy, but I wanted the kids to eat it and was worried they'd protest against butter with "things" in it.
You'll end up with a tennis ball sized glob of soft, fluffy butter. Put a lid on it, stick it in the fridge, smear it on everything, unless you're one of those health food nuts that thinks a little butter is going to kill you--in that case, give the container to someone that you hate.
You made butter!
(Yes, that smug feeling afterwards is normal.)


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My image of a wagasa, or traditional Japanese paper umbrella, was chosen by National Geographic Traveler's blog, Intelligent Travel, for their Global Eye feature after an editor happened to see it on Flickr. Needless to say, I'm honored!
Check out the website for more excellent images and insight into authentic and sustainable travel.


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Nashville, Tenn. – The Tennessee Supreme Court has amended Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 43 and Rule 8, RPC 1.15, the Rules of Professional Conduct, to require attorneys who hold eligible client funds to participate in the Tennessee Bar Foundation's Interest On Lawyer's Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program. Additionally, the amendment requires that attorneys maintain their IOLTA accounts at a financial institution that pays the same dividend or interest rate as paid to other non-IOLTA accounts maintained at that institution. Lawyers maintaining pooled trust accounts must comply with the amended rules by January 1, 2010, although the amendments are effective immediately. This fall, attorneys will receive more information from the Tennessee Bar Foundation concerning compliance with the new requirements.
Prior to the establishment of IOLTA in Tennessee, lawyers were not permitted to earn interest on pooled trust accounts. The IOLTA program permits interest to be earned on attorney's pooled trust checking accounts and paid to the Tennessee Bar Foundation to fund grants to organizations that provide direct civil legal services to the poor, to organizations that work to improve the administration of justice and for law student financial assistance. The IOLTA program does not affect interest generated on single-client trust accounts whose interest is payable to those clients.
Since the IOLTA program was established by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1983, more than $14.4 million in grants has been awarded to organizations that work to improve the administration of justice in Tennessee. In 2008, more than $1.4 million in IOLTA grants were awarded to 55 law-related organizations in Tennessee.
As a consequence of the economic downturn, the Tennessee IOLTA program has seen a 45 percent decrease in monthly payments from the third quarter of 2007 to the third quarter of 2008.
In proposing the amendment to the Supreme Court rule, the Tennessee Bar Foundation and Tennessee Bar Association worked closely with the Tennessee Bankers Association to reach a compromise that would benefit both attorneys and financial institutions. The amendment adopted by the Supreme Court reflects the final compromise reached by the Tennessee Bar Foundation, Tennessee Bar Association, and Tennessee Bankers Association. The provisions in this amendment ensure that most banks will be able to participate in the IOLTA program.
"Thousands of Tennesseans have benefited from the legal assistance and scholarships that are made possible through IOLTA grants," said Janice Holder, Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. "These amendments will bolster funding for the IOLTA grants and ensure that more Tennesseans have access to essential legal services. We commend the Tennessee Bar Foundation, Tennessee Bar Association, and the Tennessee Bankers Association for working together to reach a compromise that best serves both attorneys and banks."
Tennessee joins the 38 other states that have adopted mandatory IOLTA programs. According to the American Bar Association IOLTA Clearinghouse, other states that have adopted mandatory IOLTA programs have seen an increase in income of approximately 60 percent. Twenty-three other states have made provisions for interest rate comparability in their IOLTA programs.


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In this field activity, students document examine the role of a tree in its ecosystem and as part of the environment in a human community. Students measure the tree's dimensions, examine co-residing organisms, leaf litter, and soil, and research the tree's history, using interviews or archival resources. A measuring stick, sturdy string, and an outdoor thermometer are required. An art project concludes the exploration. This activity is supported by a textbook chapter, "A History of Forest use in the Pacific Northwest," part of the unit, A New World View, in Global Systems Science (GSS), an interdisciplinary course for high school students that emphasizes how scientists from a wide variety of fields work together to understand significant problems of global impact.


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Preheat the oven to 275 F and a line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a clean glass bowl, use an electric hand beater (or, alternatively, an electric mixer and the whisk attachment) to whip the egg whites to "soft peaks". (Take care to assure that all of the utensils and the bowl are very clean. Greasy residue on a bowl can greatly inhibit this process. The whites will start to gain volume but still seem somewhat yielding in texture.)
Beat in the cream of tartar and then start to add the 1 cup of sugar in small increments. When all of the sugar has been incorporated, whip until "stiff peaks" form. The texture of the whites should be firm and they should look glossy.
Use a spatula to transfer the whipped whites to the sheet tray in the form of a circle, roughly the size of the width of the trifle bowl. Put the sheet tray in the center of the oven and bake the meringue until firm and a very pale, light brown color. At this point, you can turn off the oven and leave the meringue sit in the oven until you are ready to serve the dessert.
In a medium glass bowl, combine the grapefruit juice, tangerine zest, 1/4 cup of sugar and gin. Whisk to blend, then stir in the orange and tangerine sections. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.
Remove the meringue from the oven and set aside.
Put the citrus mixture into the bottom of the trifle bowl and stir in the pomegranate seeds. Cover with the meringue lid and serve immediately.


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How to
Use the Activities
Inquiry Question
Activity 1: Architecture in Your Own Neighborhood
Have students pick out one building, park, or other place they especially like (old or recent) and ask them to make a sketch of the place or of design elements (style, decoration, landscaping, etc.) that they think make it special. If the place is a building, have them make notes on construction materials, the number of stories, and the kinds of doors and windows, etc. Does it have any decorative details on the front or anywhere else on the outside? Why do they think the architect chose to include those specific elements in the building? If the place is a park or other outdoor area (fairgrounds, drive-in theater, etc.), have students make notes about what buildings are there. Are they designed to look alike? Do the topography and vegetation look the same as the surrounding area or have features been added or subtracted? Do those features say something about the use of the place? Do they say something about the people who live or work in the area or about the people the place was meant to serve? What are the chances of that place surviving more than 100 years like the Chautauqua tower, or almost 100 years like some of the features of the amusement park? What economic or social factors could cause its destruction?
Sometimes people decide to modify a building to meet new needs rather than demolish it. This can sometimes lead to very interesting combinations; theaters may become churches and churches may become apartment buildings. When old buildings are preserved and new uses found for them it is called adaptive reuse. Through adaptive reuse of the historic structures, the amusement park owners and the National Park Service have been able to keep unusual buildings and use them to fit the ever-changing recreational needs of park visitors. The old Chautauqua tower has been repaired, not redone, and now serves as an art gallery. The amusement park era buildings are also being slowly and gently preserved and serve as classroom spaces. If you were to come to Glen Echo today you could ride the 1921 Dentzel carousel; learn to swing dance in the Spanish Ballroom; or learn to play the flute, paint or draw in the Candy Corner. Are there any examples of adaptive reuse in your community? What do you think about adaptive reuse of old buildings?
Activity 2: An Old Fashioned Independence Day
Try to assign specific roles to as many class members as possible, and have other students pretend to be a typical audience of a Chautauqua. After the performance, discuss why people would have participated in such activities. Have them research to see if this kind of program was ever held in their own community. Could city parks serve the same role as the Chautauquas once did? Ask what people do now to celebrate the Fourth of July. How are current celebrations alike and different from the celebration of 1892? Ask them to discuss what other alternatives were available for entertainment in those days. Remember that in 1892 there was no recorded music, and moving pictures had yet to be invented. Which type of celebration, old-fashioned or contemporary, do they think would be the most fun?
Activity 3: Recreation and Segregation
After students have completed their research, have them present their findings to the class and then discuss what they could do to promote more interaction within the community. Have them draw up a list of potential activities that would make the community more pleasant for all and which would also provide fun and cultural knowledge for people of different backgrounds.


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America is deeply engaged in a debate about marriage.
But it's not the most urgent dialogue worth having about an institution that has served to order society for millennia.
What the current discussion about expanding matrimony obscures is the bigger picture about traditional marriage, namely, that it's in decline — and that this decline has dramatic and devastating consequences for society, children in particular.
The connection between marriage and improved economic outcomes is not novel.
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In 1965, as President Lyndon B. Johnson was declaring "war on poverty," a highly controversial report by Labor Secretary Daniel Patrick Moynihan identified the deterioration of the family in the African-American community as one of several major catalysts for growing economic and social inequality.
At the time, more than half of all black women and about two-thirds of Hispanic and Anglo women were married; and just over 20 percent of black infants and between 2 and 3 percent of Anglo infants were born to single mothers.
Half a century later, those numbers have not declined — they have exploded.
According to government statistics, 40.7 percent of all 2012 births were out of wedlock, including 72.2 percent in the African-American community; 53.5 percent of Hispanic children; and 29.4 percent of Anglo children.
Revisiting the Moynihan report last year, the Urban Institute found that "the social trends that concerned Moynihan have worsened for blacks and nonblacks alike," suggesting that the "factors driving the decline [of marriage] do not lie solely within the black community but in the larger social and economic context."
The numbers themselves are alarming and they raise serious questions about why marriage is disintegrating.
But it is the bounty of research correlating family structure to the economic mobility of children — or lack thereof — that makes concerns about the declining marriage culture a public policy crisis.
A report by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project looked at the impact of single parenthood on a child's economic opportunities. It found that both "children of divorced mothers or [those] who were born to unmarried mothers are less likely to be upwardly mobile in relative terms than are children of continuously married mothers."
It seems obvious that two-parent households advantage children, as they tend to have greater resources both financial and social (time, energy, attention) that make kids more likely to graduate and get well-paying jobs and less likely to be incarcerated or become single parents.
But the impact of family structure has ripple effects that extend well beyond individual households, according to new comprehensive data by Harvard economist Raj Chetty. Chetty and his co-authors found that "family structure correlates with upward mobility not just at the individual level but also at the community level, perhaps because the stability of the social environment affects children's outcomes more broadly."
The Brookings Institution warns that marriage has become "a mechanism through which advantage is protected and passed on," as wealthier, committed parents tend to get and stay married and raise their children together, while less affluent women are more likely to have children outside of marriage and raise them on their own, often in communities of similar structure, where they enter vicious cycles of downward mobility for themselves and their progeny.
Marriage is not a silver bullet. Encouraging more single mothers to wed the fathers of their children will not magically reduce poverty. Nor is the decimated marriage culture the only factor limiting economic mobility, which is also affected by racial and economic segregation, school quality and low levels of social capital.
But attempts to redistribute income and expand the welfare state, including those called for in Moynihan's report 50 years ago, have not had the success that lawmakers expected.
As Ron Haskins, director of Brookings' Center on Children and Families, told The Washington Post, "We are not going to have an effective solution to the growing inequality and poverty in the U.S. unless we can do something about family structure."
In the war on inequality, supporting policies that promote more stable family environments may not be a bad place to start.


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International News
Prisons Emerge as Hotspots for AIDS Pandemic
July 26, 2010
A toolkit to help governments prevent and treat HIV among prisoners was rolled out by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime during the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna. "Health care in prisons should be at least equivalent to that in the community," UNODC stated.
Nigeria forbids the distribution of condoms among its prison population, reported Emika Chima of the Society of Family Health. "It is prohibited because if you do that you're encouraging sodomy, that's the stance," he said. "In Nigeria, officially, same-sex practices don't exist."
Nevertheless, the Open Society Institute reported that efforts to extend HIV prevention and treatment to inmates can be very successful. A needle-exchange and methadone program introduced by Moldova in the late 1990s now reaches 75 percent of inmates, OSI said.
U.S. research suggests that care for HIV-positive injecting drug users is more effective when begun before a prisoner is released. Methadone programs initiated behind bars also were more effective than post-release referrals to such programs, research indicates.
"This isn't just about prisoners," said Brown University researcher Samuel Dickman, who conducted the study. "This is about communities prisoners return to."
Adapted from:
This article was provided by CDC National Prevention Information Network. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update.
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The Old St. Pat's World's Largest Block Party will be held on June 28 & 29 at Madison & DesPlaines in the West Loop. This is a not-to-be missed annual summer tradition in Chicago. The outstanding talent lineup includes Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Phil Vassar, Gretchen Wilson plus many others! Tickets can be purchased at www.worldslargestblockparty.com
Want more? Discuss this article and others on RedEye's Facebook page.


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MINOOKA – In a sea of red shirts and glowing flames, friends and family of Madison Angus listened Thursday night to those who loved her share their thoughts and memories at Minooka Community High School Central Campus during a candlelight vigil.
"She was so unique, honest, loving and caring," her little sister, Meghan, said to the crowd. "Madison was loved by everyone who laid eyes on her, even though she didn't know that."
The grassroots effort was put together by her friends, Haley McCabe, Carly Larsen, Natalie Yard, Tara Babic and Brenna Perinar who all graduated with Angus from Minooka High School on May 18.
Angus, 18, died in a car crash Monday night. Her 2005 Pontiac G6 had been traveling west on Tryon Street when she lost control a quarter-mile north of Pawnee Lane on her way home from work.
"We thought it was the appropriate thing to do, to honor her and get all of her friends together," Larsen said.
McCabe told the crowd how she first met Angus when they were in fourth grade, and Angus was the "new girl".
"I guess fourth grade is a good place to begin. Our teacher made us take Madison under our wings," she said. "I can't thank that teacher enough."
She said Angus' family became her family and even when she was just 9, Angus had her life planned out.
"She was an 18-year-old trapped in a 9-year-old's body," McCabe said. "She had plans for us to move to an apartment in Chicago."
"The memories are endless," she continued.
Yard told the tear-filled crowd that Madison was the epitome of a good friend.
They shared good times as well, like the favorite moment when Angus scored a touchdown during her junior year Powder Puff game.
The crowd laughed at times, and sobbed at others as people took turns reminiscing about Angus' life and how it touched theirs.
Sheila Angus, her oldest little sister, promised to do her best for her two younger sisters, and thanked the people for coming out.
"I look around and see people she talked about. I'm sad because she was a bad driver, I'm happy because you all came out to support us," she said. "I will do my best for my two younger sisters. I know it wasn't just me who lost her. We all lost her."
Michael Sayles, Carley Deddo and Morgan Majetic decided to help the family with funeral expenses by selling red T-shirts and tank tops that say "You Had Me At Roll Tide" on the front, paying homage to the University of Alabama where Angus was to attend this fall. The back has a capital A and says "In Loving Memory of Madison C. Angus" along with her date of birth and date of death on the back.
"Carley and Morgan had the idea once we realized how expensive a funeral would be," Sayles said. "We wanted to help the family."
He said they hope to raise enough money to cover half of the funeral expenses for the family.
"Madison was a good friend of mine. We wanted to make it as easy for the family as possible," Deddo said. "Madison was the most giving, selfless person I know. She would do it for anyone else."
In addition to selling the shirts, they plan on ordering wrist bands, with the proceeds going to the family.
Friends also took a collection for the family for anyone who wanted to donate.
Shirts are still available to order over the phone with a credit card or in person at Sharp Sports in Shorewood, 815-729-9509.


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This program provides jobs for eligible students who demonstrate financial need and are enrolled at least half-time at Saddleback College. If eligible, the SFASO refers you to an employer on campus. The number of hours that you may work depends upon your need for financial assistance, your class schedule, and your academic progress.
You may apply specifically for work-study, or a job may be allocated to you as a part of your financial aid award.
Once you have been found eligible, and have indicated that you want to work, the SFASO will try and match your own qualifications and desires with jobs that employers have listed. Sometimes this is difficult, but often the SFASO has the rewarding experience of matching students with jobs they like and enjoy.
Important Reminders:
- You must apply for financial aid and receive an award which includes work-study before you can go to work under the FWSP. Funds are limited, so you must file the FAFSA application no later than March 2, and complete your file by the priority deadline date of July 1 to be considered. Funds are awarded on a first serve basis.
- You may not begin work without authorization from the SFASO.
- Once assigned to a job, you may not earn more than the amount authorized on your award letter.
- A work-study student has the same obligations of any other employee. You must satisfy the requirements of your employer in order to be retained in a work-study job.
- You may not work during your scheduled classes.


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By: Kelly Toughill in Halifax
Thousands of families will soon get a second chance to bring parents and grandparents to Canada.
That's the good news recently announced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
The bad news is that there is no chance Canada will keep its promise to issue 10,000 permanent resident visas to extended family members in 2017.
Officials won't even finish collecting the new applications until December and it will take months to process those applications after they arrive.
Problems with the parent and grandparent sponsorship program are a classic case of great intentions gone wrong. In this case, families who followed the rules were suddenly shut out of the system, and other families were given false hope that they could reunite with ailing relatives.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet have changed Canada's immigration system significantly in the last 16 months. They reversed a much-criticized law that allowed the government to strip people of their Canadian citizenship. They set up new programs to help businesses recruit tech workers and to support Francophone immigration outside Quebec. They made it easier for entrepreneurs to come to Canada, and eased rules for workers who want to move to struggling Atlantic Canada. They shortened the wait time to sponsor a spouse and made the forms easier to read and understand. They helped international students by setting up a new, speedy immigration program in Atlantic Canada, giving students extra points for Canadian degrees and making it easier for international students to become citizens after they get permanent resident status.
Those changes were greeted with relief and even gratitude across Canada.
Changes to the parent and grandparent program were supposed to be another feel-good tweak to the system. Instead, the changes angered the very consitutuency the government was trying to please.
Under the Conservative government, Ottawa set a quota each year for the number of Canadian families that could sponsor a parent or grandparent for permanent resident status. The Liberal government doubled the quota from 5,000 to 10,000, but initially kept the same process: applications opened in early January and closed when the quota was reached – always within days.
To win one of the coveted visas, most families hired experienced immigration lawyers or consultants and paid stiff fees for private couriers to wait in line outside the Mississauga processing centre the night before the program opened.
Just three weeks before the program was expected to open this year, the government announced it was scrapping the first-come, first-served system. Instead, then-Immigration Minister John McCallum invited families to fill out an online form and promised to hold a lottery to decide who could formally apply. He called the new process "more fair and transparent."
The announcement came after thousands of families had already prepared applications that require medical exams, police certificates and expensive translations, not to mention lawyers' fees. Many families wasted months of work and thousands of dollars on applications they would never get to file.
The larger problem, though, was the online form set up to register for the lottery; families could fill out the form without figuring out if they were actually eligible to sponsor a parent or grandparent.
Most know that only Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor a parent or grandparent for permanent resident status. But many don't know that you must be able to support that parent and that the only acceptable proof of your financial ability is past income tax forms. Many also didn't realize that parents and grandparents must be healthy to immigrate to Canada.
When immigration lawyers and regulated consultants saw the online form, many immediately warned of coming pandemonium. Some dismissed those warnings as sour grapes, suggesting that lawyers were just mad that clients might be able to sponsor relatives without their high-priced help.
It turns out the lawyers were right.
Almost 100,000 families registered for the lottery, but only a fraction of the 10,000 that were invited to apply actually managed to do so.
Immigration consultants shared stories of clients showing up on their doorstep with expectations that Canada was going to immediately fly their relatives here because the family had "won the lottery." Many had no idea they still had to pull together the complex and expensive application in 90 days. In June, an immigration official told a conference that only 700 of the 10,000 families had filed applications, and that 15 percent of those applications were incomplete.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada still doesn't know how many of the 10,000 families invited to apply will actually get to bring their relatives to Canada. A spokesperson said this week that 6,020 of the 10,000 families invited to apply last February actually filed applications. However, immigration officers still don't know how many of those application are complete or valid. Those numbers are expected later this fall.
In the meantime, Ottawa has quietly launched a second lottery. The notice was posted Friday afternoon before Labour Day. The new invitations were sent out on Sept. 6. Families must finish the applications by Dec. 8, and it will take several months after that deadline for permanent resident visas to be issued.
Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen vigorously defended the new application process in early summer, when the problems first became public. Hussen could not be reached for comment this week, but a spokesperson for the department suggested the new process might change.
"This is the first year that we're using the new random selection intake process, and we are actively monitoring this model to see how we can make improvements in future years," communications advisor Faith St.-John wrote in an email.
Kelly Toughill is an associate professor of journalism at the University of King's College and founder of Polestar Immigration Research Inc.
Commentary by Andrew Griffith in Ottawa
The just-concluded National Metropolis Conference is an annual forum for researchers, policy makers and immigrant-service organizations. This year the conference was held in Montreal.
Here are some of the themes covered and my take on them:
Integration – The Search for a New Metaphor: This session, prompted by the Canadian Index for Measuring Integration (CIMI) discussions on the meaning and definition of integration (and my Integration and multiculturalism: Finding a new metaphor – Policy Options) drew a good crowd (60-70 persons).
I opened with my critique of the "two-way street" metaphor by emphasizing that it did not capture the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of immigration, presenting my preferred metaphor, harmony/jazz, where harmony represents the underlying framework of laws and institutions, and jazz the improvisation involved in resolving accommodation demands.
Mort Weinfeld of McGill University drew from the personal experience of his parents and talking to cab drivers, noting that integration of the second generation is key. His preferred metaphor is the roundabout, with multiple points of entry and exit, with traffic moving smoothly.
Richard Bourhis of UQAM provided a Quebec perspective, looking at how Quebec language policies were characteristic of an assimilationist approach.
Elke Winter of the University of Ottawa drew from her analysis of European policies and practices and noted a third dimensions, that of outside actors and transnational forces (e.g., other countries, home communities of immigrants), and that integration was more a three-way than two-way process.
The presentations prompted considerable discussion, although no one jumped to the defence of the 'two-way street.'
Thinking about next year, this is a topic that merits further exploration, perhaps involving some literary descriptions or metaphors.
Citizenship – Factors Underlying a Declining Naturalization Rate: In the only session on citizenship, Prof. WInter opened the workshop with an overview of how Canadian citizenship has evolved over the last 150 years, setting out four phases: colonized citizenship (pre-1947), nationalizing citizenship (1947-76), de-ethnicising citizenship (1977-2008) and re-nationalizing citizenship (2009-15) with a possible fifth phase emerging under the Liberal government. She presented some preliminary findings from an interview-based study.
I followed with my usual presentation of citizenship statistics, showing the impact of previous policy and administrative changes along with an assessment of the 2014 Conservative changes and Liberal partial repeal of these changes (currently in the Senate).
Jessica Merolli of Sheridan presented the key MIPEX naturalization indicators and data from the European Social Survey comparing immigrant/non-immigrant attitudes on issues such as self-sufficiency, interests in politics, LGBT acceptance and others and how over time in the country of immigration differences declined. The most striking exception was with respect to interest in politics, where immigrants, no matter how short or long the time, were more interested than non-immigrants.
Questions of note included do we need a citizenship knowledge test given that it presents barriers for some groups, and the impact that the physical presence requirement has on families when one parent has to work abroad given difficulties in obtaining well-paying work in Canada.
Minority Voice, Identity and Inclusion – Media and Literary Expressions: A mix of a case study (Punjabi media by Syeda Bukhari where she noted the ethnic media was getting more sophisticated in comparing what politicians said to English and ethnic media and thus holding them to account) and the overall contribution ethnic media provides to integration (Madeline Ziniak, current chair of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association (CEMA)).
Myer Siemiatycki of Ryerson University gave a fascinating presentation regarding the person and poetry of Julian Tuwin, a Polish Jew (or Jewish Pole) whose loyalty and identity were attacked by both sides.
Negotiating "fit" – Connections Between Employer Mindsets/Practices and Labour Market Success of Newcomers: Kelly Thomson of York University provided an overview of the issue of "fit" and presented a case study of foreign-trained accountants. Aamna Ashraf of the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group (near Toronto) presented the results of a study on soft barriers, with focused and practical recommendations. Madeline Ng of Autodata and Nancy Moulday of TD Bank presented how their respective organizations encourage and facilitate diversity in their workforces.
Fitting In: Identity and belonging among second generation Canadians: Elizabeth Burgess-Pinto of MacEwan University organized this roundtable discussion focussing on the second generation. A number of second generation (and generation 1.5) participants shared their experiences, challenges and identities.
Andrew Griffith is the author of Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Resetting Citizenship and Multiculturalism and is a regular media commentator and blogger (Multiculturalism Meanderings). This commentary was adapted slightly from his blog post on the conference. He is the former Director General for Citizenship and Multiculturalism and has worked for a variety of government departments in Canada and abroad.
Commentary by Ujjal Dosanjh in Vancouver
Dear Minister Ahmed Hussen,
Many of us cheered when you were recently made the Immigration Minister. We felt that as an immigrant Canadian you would surely bring to your position a new and hopefully more compassionate perspective on what it may mean to be Canadian. But our cheers were short lived. You have brought disappointments to some hearts, mine included.
On Monday March 6, 2017 you deported Len Van Heest, a Canadian for the last 59 years. Yes, a Canadian but without the citizenship papers. At the age of seven months and in diapers, he legally landed in Canada with his family. At sixteen he was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. He has several convictions for assault, mischief and uttering threats – all stemming from and related to his mental illness, the bipolar disorder. His last offence was in 2012.
Mr. Minister, obviously as a minor under the old law, Van Heest would have been unable to apply for his citizenship on his own – assuming that he even realized or knew in his mental state about the need for him to do so. His parents may not have applied their minds to this issue before he became a 'criminal' and therefore barred from receiving Canadian citizenship.
Power and discretion
Mr. Minister, you had the legal power and discretion to stop Van Heest's deportation. You chose not to because you didn't see it as fit and proper to do so. His deportation means that you must have felt the mentally ill Van Heest was responsible for not applying for citizenship that he had to before he had reached a certain age. It also implies that you and your officials felt it was just and fair for Canada to hold a mentally ill man responsible for piling up a criminal record that disqualified him from ever applying for Canadian citizenship, even though he had entered Canada as an infant. The mentally ill Van Heest – criminal or not – is the product of Canada.
Citizen or not, he is undeniably Canadian. If he is a criminal, he is a Canadian criminal.
Regressive changes
Minister, above all Van Heest's deportation was made possible by the regressive legislative changes the Harper regime had made lowering a convicted immigrant's prison sentence threshold for making him/her "inadmissible" to Canada and therefore deportable. It is unacceptable that your government has neither changed, nor is it planning to change this unfair law that makes someone like Van Heest – a Canadian for all practical purposes – deportable.
But on the other hand, you recently testified in support of your government's Bill C-6 that will amend Harper government's law that enabled Canada to revoke the Canadian citizenship of convicted terrorists holding dual citizenships. Under Bill C-6 the revoked citizenships of convicted terrorists including that of Zakaria Amar – the ring leader of the Toronto 18 who wanted to commit mass murder and behead the Canadian Prime Minister – would be reinstated, re-bestowed upon them.
Dual citizenships
Mr. Minister, you passionately and eloquently argued: "When you are a Canadian citizen you shouldn't feel less valued just because you have dual citizenship with another country." You also said an individual whose citizenship was already revoked will have it reinstated.
Mr. Minister, I support your government's view that one Canadian is like another despite some holding dual citizenships. A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. But in my view a Zakaria Amar is much less deserving of Canadian citizenship and compassion than a Len Van Heest.
Minister, I am deeply troubled and disappointed at your missing compassion and eloquence in defence of Van Heest; mentally ill Van Heest; a 59 year long Canadian; and so what if not so on paper.
Van Heest's was and is exactly the kind of case in which you should have used your ministerial power and discretion to keep or allow anyone into Canada. In my humble opinion, you made a serious error of judgement by deporting Van Heest. You have the power to allow him back into Canada. You should use it.
My Dear Minister, It is never too late to do the right thing.
Ujjal Dosanjh is a former Attorney General and Premier of British Columbia and former federal Minister of Health. He describes himself as a "A child of Indian peasants working to make the world a better place."
News Analysis by NCM Newsroom
Days after being sworn in as prime minister on November 4 last year, Justin Trudeau listed priority tasks for his ministers.
Like that of his colleagues, the list for John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, drew much from the Liberal party's election promises.
While resettling Syrian refugees was the number one priority, McCallum was told that his overarching goal was "to reopen Canada's doors to welcome those who want to contribute to its success."
The wording was clever. While it tried to highlight the previous Conservative government's reluctance to open Canada's door to refugees, it retained the essence of what the country's need for immigrants has always been: It's the economy, stupid.
And, McCallum has stuck to the time-tested script. Tabling this year's report on immigration targets in parliament, he said the government is boosting the base number of immigrants to be admitted next year to 300,000. The previous annual targets from 2011 to 2015 was 260,000, but it swelled to 300,000 this year on account of the Syrian arrivals. The last time this base figure was reached was way back in 1913.
Attempting to give this annual setting of targets a more long-term view, the minister told reporters that it "lays the foundation for future growth." What was unsaid is that last year's election rhetoric for letting in more refugees was a one-off political gesture meant to to induce a feel-good across the country and reinforce the "Canada is back" mantra.
Although the 2017 intake targets includes 40,000 refugees and protected persons, it is down from nearly 56,000 this year. Also slightly down is the number of people who would be let in on humanitarian or compassionate grounds: 3,500 against this year's 3,600.
And when it comes to government-assisted refugees, the numbers are far lower. The number for 2017 is 7,500, down from nearly 20,000 admitted so far this year, and still fewer than the nearly 10,000 admitted in 2015.
Like the previous government, the targets focus on boosting entries for those in the "economic" class. It has been increased to 172,500 from 160,600. In the family class, the number of sponsored spouses, partners, children, parents and grandparents will climb to 84,000 from 80,000.
Signalling left, turning right
While people in the settlement sector would bemoan the cuts to refugee intake given the continuing crises around the world, others would call it pragmatism. Those less charitable to the Liberals would say they are back at their game of signalling left, turning right.
The Liberals know that Canadians will not continue to be supportive of refugee resettlement. Reports about the government being caught off guard by the large number of children each Syrian family had in tow would cast doubts about the whole manner of bringing them in, starting from the vetting process.
Keeping both public perceptions and capacity constraints in mind, the government has astutely kept in abeyance its own economic growth council's recommendation to raise annual immigration levels to 450,000 over the next five years.
However, it is doubling down on bringing in economic immigrants. Early on, Ottawa indicated that it would be more positively inclined towards international students becoming permanent residents, with McCallum terming them as "the perfect immigrants."
The Express Entry immigration selection system, the key change to the economic immigration stream made by the previous government, is now being seen as a tool to also promote family reunification. The idea is to give candidates with family members already in Canada additional points.
Discounting citizenship
The unsettling thing about the emphasis on immigration levels is the indifferent attitude towards the very feature that makes our system unique: one of the shortest paths to citizenship, that over 80 per cent of immigrants eagerly choose to take. At least until recently.
The number of citizenship applicants has plummeted for the second year in a row after the more than a doubling in the application fee from $300 to $630. For a while it was $200, after being at $100 for a long time.
Evidently, citizenship applications are down. Only 36,000 citizenship applications were received from January to June this year, a little more than one-third of the number for the same period last year, according to data obtained for policy analysis by Andrew Griffith, a retired immigration department director-general. In 2015, a total of 130,000 applications were submitted compared to an average of 200,000 in the previous years.
While $630 itself is a hefty sum, the actual cost incurred could be much more if one includes the fee (around $200) for a language proficiency test that many applicants would need to take, and further for the Canadian passport (minimum $120). And, in the case of persons from source countries like India that do not allow for dual citizenship, the expenses add up. The fee to process the giving up of Indian citizenship and obtaining a new visa would take the costs to well over $1,500.
Imagine a family of four needing to spend $6,000 when struggling economically to put roots in a new country. No one is suggesting that citizenship should come cheap, but forcing those on the cusp of becoming citizens to bear the whole cost of the process is rather unfair. Especially when the government is ready to waive or subsidize fees for refugees. How much more do new Canadians need to do to become citizens of a country they cheerily chose?
More importantly, isn't ultimate citizenship the whole point of welcoming new immigrants in the first place?
Whereas the Liberals were critical of all the changes to immigration rules made by the Harper government, they were coy about reviewing the citizenship fee during the election campaign. Now that they hold the reins and are reviewing Bill C6 to amend the Citizenship Act, there is still no mention of any adjustment to the fee.
While tax-paying permanent residents are already an underclass unable to vote even in local elections, this disenfranchisement is now set to grow and become a permanent feature of our polity. It calls into question our own understanding of democracy and surely not something we should be proud of.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by all NCM columnists and contributors are the author's alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of New Canadian Media.
by Our National Correspondent
Dr. Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) was appointed Chair of the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU) earlier this month. New Canadian Media conducted an interview with him by e-mail.
Q: You obviously bring a strong international outlook to the new position given your own early background and education in Egypt. How do you think your immigrant background will help as Chair of the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU)?
A: Together the presidents of Atlantic Canadian universities share a diverse range of experience and we are stronger because of it. Having been an international student that immigrated to Canada, I would not claim to understand the needs and hopes of all international students. Everyone's experience is unique, but that does not prevent me from drawing on my experience when I approach an issue.
I believe the key to success for both international and Canadian students stems from good relationships. At the University of Prince Edward Island, we strive to keep this at the core of everything we do, and it is emphasized during new student orientation and mental health and well-being initiatives. Interactions with friends, family, professors, staff, employers, and strangers affect our day-to-day lives, and building good relationships with these people can make all the difference.
International students will almost always have smaller networks of people in their lives so providing those services and opportunities to build those relationships when they come to Canada is key.
Q: As you say in your news release, foreign students are a particular focus. How do you think the current population of international students is fitting into Atlantic campuses? Are they contributing to the overall campus experience or do they tend to keep to themselves?
A: The culture of Atlantic Canadian universities is one in which the larger community and the campus are integral to one another. The cultural and social influences of students and their communities impact each other positively and benefit the overall experiences and success of everyone.
International students play a very important role on Canadian campuses as they are ambassadors for their respective countries. In Atlantic Canada, we strongly believe that integrating our international students into our campus communities not only benefits international students, but also Atlantic Canadian students.
Q: What does your early experience in Canada as a student/researcher tell you about what more Canada – particularly the Atlantic universities – can do to make foreign students feel more welcome? What advice do you provide to international students that you run into?
A: Canada has been, and is, welcoming to students of all cultures, and international students arrive in Canada with great appreciation for our country and its diversity. Having been an international student myself, I can say that there were many Canadians who made me feel at home by demonstrating support, kindness, and sincerity.
I personally have worked with and supervised dozens of international students and I tell them all, "In Canada you have the opportunity to be yourself, talk about your culture, interact with your community, and embrace Canadian values while enriching them with those of your own home." This is advice that can truly help to make the best of an international student's experience while studying in Canada.
Q: In your view, should international students have a pathway to Canadian citizenship? Would that help the Atlantic region address its demographic challenges?
A: When I think of immigration and encouraging our international students to stay and pursue citizenship, I recognize the many benefits that would have for our region. As our governments are actively working to attract talent and youth to help build our economy and society, an obvious group of people to attract would be the international students who are currently studying, researching, and honing their skills here in Atlantic Canada. In addition, I have to think about it from the point of view that even if our international students decide to return to their home country, they will forever be linked to Atlantic Canada. This too will have positive results, because if our international students are looking for opportunities to build bridges globally, there is a good chance that their first thought will be Atlantic Canada.
Q: Your time in Canada appears to have taken you to institutions from coast-to-coast. Can you please share with our readers your views on Canadian multiculturalism?
Having arrived as an international student and lived in Canada for over 30 years, I have seen many examples of how Canadians welcome, appreciate, and support the benefits of multiculturalism. We consist of people from all over the world, and yet we are probably one of the best examples of embracing differences. This makes us unique as we pour an incredibly strong foundation that embraces and respects the values of everyone.
THE B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) on Monday launched a legal challenge to protect the rights of Canadians facing revocation of their Canadian citizenship due to allegations of misrepresentation.
The organizations argue that any Canadian facing the loss of their citizenship must have a full and fair opportunity to defend themselves in a hearing. However, this long-standing right to a hearing was taken away by the last government in Bill C-24.
Since it took office, the current government has set targets and initiated revocation proceedings to strip citizenship from between 40 and 60 Canadians per month, despite the fact that it denounced citizenship revocations by the minister alone, without a hearing, as "dictatorial" while in opposition.
Indo-Canadian Voice
Pretty oldish news, but important. If you have dual British and Canadian citizenship, as of September 30, 2016, you will need a Canadian passport to be allowed to fly back into Canada. So you have about a month to sort that out. From Metro Toronto: "'What is changing is that the Government of Canada is […]
Brits in Toronto
Commentary by Andrew Griffith in Ottawa
Some things never change. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) launches consultations on immigration and leaves out any questions on the related issues of citizenship policy.
Sigh … Immigration consultations are welcome and needed. They can and should help better inform future level plans and I would hope that there will be widespread participation with diversity of views.
It may well be that the Government believes that having passed Bill C-6 (to amend the Citizenship Act) it has no need to consult on citizenship. It is hard to believe that this is a mere oversight.
But consulting on immigration while being silent on where and how citizenship is part of the picture is, at best, a missed opportunity.
Values and tradition
Also interesting to note the question of "Canadian values and traditions" which should provoke some interesting discussion, and which is related to immigration, citizenship and multiculturalism.
Were there to be citizenship-related consultation questions, my initial suggestions would be -
Here is a preview of the questions available under Submit your views of immigration -
Andrew Griffith is the author of Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Resetting Citizenship and Multiculturalism and is a regular media commentator and blogger (Multiculturalism Meanderings). He is the former Director General for Citizenship and Multiculturalism and has worked for a variety of government departments in Canada and abroad.
by Howard Ramos in Halifax, Nova Scotia
In a country where over one in five people are immigrants and far more are children and relatives of immigrants, questions of who gets into Canada and how decisions are made on immigration matters are of central concern. For instance, does the immigration system profile people from particular countries or specific ethnic or racial backgrounds? How is family sponsorship evaluated? And why do some people get visas to visit while others don't?
Questions like these are tackled head-on by McMaster sociologist Vic Satzewich in his prize winning book Points of Entry: How Canada's Immigration Officers Decide Who Gets In. He offers a comprehensive overview of Canada's immigration system by looking at the overall social and political context driving immigration, the organizational structure of the Immigration department, and most interestingly, how immigration officers on the ground make decisions on individual applications and prospective immigrants. [We have excerpted a section of the Introduction to give readers a flavour of the kind of dilemmas visa officers face.]
Biases in the system
The professor visited 11 visa office abroad between 2010 and 2012 across all regions and also met with officials in Ottawa several times. In his visits he tagged along with visa officers to see how they do their jobs, reviewing field operating notes and discussing with them about how they make their decisions.
He was particularly interested in examining the discretion that immigration officers have in their decisions, and their role as, what he calls, street-level bureaucrats. Their discretion and ability to make on the ground decisions have led some to question whether there are biases and hidden agendas in Canada's immigration system.
Satzewich found no direct evidence of discrimination in approval and refusal rates across visa offices around the world, nor did he observe it through the practices of immigration officers. In fact, he found little variation in rates across regions and source countries, with officers very aware of the need for consistent application of policies. He drilled down into specific visa categories by looking at decisions made around spousal and partner sponsorship, decisions on those applying under the skilled worker program, as well as those seeking visitor visas.
Continual change
His analysis of the family pathway offers important insights on the Canadian government's concern with marriage fraud. His analysis is vivid and colouful, with descriptions of what goes into case processing and an explanation of how immigration officers identify anomalies they want to investigate and then ultimately the interviews they conduct with prospective immigrants and their sponsors.
His analysis of skilled workers offers a similar level of insight.
During his field research, Canada's immigration system was in a period of rapid and constant change. Former immigration minister Jason Kenney tweaked how the system worked on a regular basis, ultimately leading to fundamental changes to the immigration system. Satzewich tracked those changes and how it affected the system and on the ground decisions by immigration officers.
One significant change documented is the increased importance of visitor visas over permanent residency with the introduction of a super visa for parents and grandparents, the rise of temporary foreign worker applications, and a move towards attracting more international students.
Another important change was the previous government's move to rationalize the processing of immigrants and speed up the processing time.
Increased pressure
Rather than finding overt bias and discrimination in the immigration system, what Satzewich found was an increased pressure on immigration officers stemming from a move towards immigration processing targets, faster deadlines, increased use of impersonal evaluation criteria, the auditing of their decisions and a move away from interviews and discretionary autonomy.
Despite all the changes, Satzewich did not find a nostalgic longing for "old times" among the immigration officers he spoke with. In part, this is because of generational turnover, with fewer and fewer officers having worked in the immigration system when their on-the-ground decisions carried more weight in the evaluation of files.
His research ultimately shows that Canadian immigration officers are highly dedicated to their jobs and recognize the weight of the decisions they make on a daily basis.
Brenda points to the telephone on the wall and gestures to Maria that she should pick it up. She welcomes Maria and introduces herself as "the visa officer responsible for your case." She asks Maria in English if she can understand what she is saying. Maria nods in agreement, but Brenda asks her to please say "yes" or "no." Maria says "yes." Brenda needs a verbal response because she has to document her decision-making process by keeping notes of the questions asked, Maria's replies, and her own assessment of the answers. Brenda then asks if she is comfortable conducting the interview in English, and since Maria lived in the United States for several years, she says "yes" but asks that Brenda "speak slowly."
Brenda already knows a lot about Maria and her circumstances from the spousal application for immigration that she and her Canadian sponsor submitted eight months ago. Maria's husband wants her to join him in Saskatoon, and as part of the application, couples are asked to tell the story of their relationship. Brenda reviewed the application about a month ago, but something about the couple's story did not add up. Her program assistant contacted Maria to schedule the interview so that Brenda's concerns could be addressed.
Visa officers do not interview every applicant for admission to Canada. In fact, headquarters in Ottawa likes them to keep the number of interviews down and encourages them to make their decisions solely on the basis of the information in the application. Interviews take a lot of time, and time in a visa office is in short supply. Officers are trained to make their decisions to approve or refuse visa applications relatively quickly. Brenda has two or three dozen files stacked on the corner of her desk and on top of two filing cabinets in her office. Her program assistant is working on a couple dozen other files at various stages of processing. Globally, there are thousands of applications in what Citizenship and Immigration euphemistically calls its "inventory," which is its code word for "backlog." The more time Brenda spends on one file, the longer other applicants must wait for a decision.
Officers must also meet their yearly visa issuance targets. It is early December, and Brenda's office has not yet met its target for family class spousal visas. If Brenda fails to meet it, this will reflect badly on her and on her boss, the immigration program manager. Headquarters in Ottawa will also be unhappy because it will have to find another visa office to pick up the slack. All the other offices are also working hard to meet their own targets, so a last-minute request to increase a target because another office has not met its own quota means that something has gone awry. If no other office manages to fill the gap, the overall target for family class admissions will not be met, and the immigration minister will want to know why. The minister announced the targets the year before in Parliament and will be held accountable by the Opposition if the number of visas falls far below, or far above, them. Since politics are politics, Opposition colleagues can be rather unforgiving in their assessment of a cabinet minister's performance and will relish any opportunity to cast the minister as incompetent or as failing to control his or her department.
In a family class spousal sponsorship case, such as that of Maria, Brenda must be "satisfied" that the relationship between Maria and her husband in Canada is "genuine" and that its primary purpose is not for Maria to gain permanent resident status in Canada. Upon reviewing the file a month earlier, Brenda suspected that this might be a marriage of convenience. She uses the interview to figure out whether the relationship is real and whether its primary purpose is immigration.
After asking a few simple, factual questions – Maria's full name, date of birth, and other matters that already appear on the application – Brenda starts to focus more closely: "It says on your application that you lived in the United States for fifteen years and that you returned to Guatemala three years ago. Why did you return to Guatemala after living for so many years in the United States?" Maria explains that she missed her family and returned to Guatemala to be closer to them. This sounds odd to Brenda, who thinks to herself, "Why would someone voluntarily leave the United States to go back and live in Guatemala?" She suspects that Maria is concealing something, so she pointedly asks, "Were you deported from the United States?" After pausing for a moment to reflect on her answer, Maria admits that she was slated for deportation but chose to leave before the American authorities put her on the plane. She does not explain why she was going to be deported, but Brenda puts two and two together and surmises that Maria probably overstayed her original visa and then somehow caught the attention of US immigration authorities. For Brenda, Maria's original evasive answer to the question of why she left the United States confirms her concerns and prompts her to dig deeper.
She moves on. "How did you meet your husband?" Maria explains that they first met at the birthday party of a mutual friend when they were both living in Los Angeles. They dated a few times, but nothing really came of the dates. A few years later, they met again at another birthday party of a mutual friend, this time after she had returned to Guatemala.
Brenda also knows a fair amount about Maria's husband. She has access to the Field Operations Support System database, which contains information about the application history of everyone who has applied for admission to Canada in the past several years. Before the interview, Brenda pulled up the file for Maria's husband, which told her that he, too, is from Guatemala and that seven years ago he submitted a successful refugee claim in Canada. He had lived in the United States for several years but then crossed the border into Canada at Surrey, British Columbia. She suspects that he, too, was scheduled for removal from the United States and that rather than return to Guatemala, he decided to take a chance with the Canadian refugee determination system. When he crossed at Surrey, he must have uttered words to the effect that "I am a refugee." As soon as Canada Border Services Agency staff heard the word "refugee," a complex refugee determination process came into play. Ultimately, Maria's husband convinced the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board that he was genuinely in fear of his life in Guatemala, so he was granted permanent residence status in Canada.
After this, he returned to Guatemala to visit some old friends, where "by chance," he met Maria again. Since he planned to be in Guatemala for a month, they started dating, and this time they fell in love. Within two weeks, they were married at a small civil ceremony. A few close friends attended. Though his mother and two brothers lived in Guatemala, they were not at the wedding. Maria explains that they lived "far away" and could not travel to Guatemala City for the wedding. She adds that her mother and sister stayed away because they thought that her husband was not "good enough" for her.
As Maria explains the circumstances of how she met and married her husband, Brenda looks through a pile of thirty or forty photographs that the couple included in the application to support the story of their relationship. The photos show the marriage ceremony and the small reception that followed it. One shot shows about twelve guests seated at a large restaurant table, all happily toasting the bride and groom.
The other pictures are of the wedding night and the honeymoon. The wedding night photos show the couple in the bedroom. She is wearing lingerie; he is in a bathrobe with his chest exposed. They are lying on a bed, smiling directly into the camera and toasting with champagne. Brenda looks at these pictures and cracks a barely visible smile. She thinks to herself, "Why on earth would they have a photographer in their bedroom on their wedding night?" The honeymoon photos show the couple on a beach in Panama. Maria explains that they chose Panama because they got a good deal on a package offered by a local resort. Shortly after their honeymoon, Maria's husband returned to Canada and began the process of sponsoring her for permanent resident status.
Brenda then turns to the issue of children. "It says on your application that you have a child in the United States." "Yes, she is grown and goes to college." "Were you ever married before?" "No, this is my first marriage." Finally, Brenda moves on to questions about Maria's relationship with her husband. "It says on your application that you talk to your husband every day for about twenty minutes." Also included in the file are a stack of phone cards that Maria says she uses to call her husband in Saskatoon. The cards provide no information about the numbers that were dialed or the length of the calls. Since, in themselves, they are not evidence of much, Brenda asks, "So what do you talk about with your husband when you call?" Maria says that they talk about how much they love and miss each other, and how they can't wait to be together again. Brenda smiles, but then asks, "Okay, but you can't talk about love all of the time. What else do you talk about?" "We talk about our lives and our future life together, things like that." At this point in the interview, Brenda starts to drill down, to look for specifics. In her view, real couples talk about more than just love: genuine partners have some knowledge of each other's past and everyday lives and circumstances.
"Where does your husband work?" "A trucking company; I think its name is On Time Trucking, or something like that."
"What is the name of your husband's boss?" "I don't know."
"What are the names of some of the people he works with?" "He does not really have any friends at work."
"What are the names of his non-work friends?" "He sometimes talks about a guy named Sam, who lives in the same apartment building."
"What kind of apartment does he live in, and how many bedrooms does it have?" "I don't know."
"What is his favourite meal?" "Hamburgers."
"What does he like to cook for himself?" "Hamburgers."
"What was the last movie he saw?" "Friday the Thirteenth." "So, he likes scary movies?" "Uh huh."
This back-and-forth about Maria's knowledge of her husband and his life in Canada lasts about ten minutes, and then Brenda asks, "Are you looking forward to moving to Saskatoon?" "Yes, very much." "What is Saskatoon like?" "I don't really know, but it seems it is a lot like California." Brenda, visibly surprised by this answer, says, "Really? What makes Saskatoon like California?" Maria pauses for a moment and replies, "There is shopping there, it is clean, things like that." "Have you ever seen any pictures of Saskatoon in the winter?" "No."
The interview lasts for about an hour, and after the last question Brenda takes a few minutes to review the overall application and digest Maria's answers. She then tells Maria that she is not satisfied that her relationship with her husband is genuine, and that she believes that the primary reason for her marriage is to gain permanent resident status in Canada. She details the "concerns" that have led to her assessment. Maria listens with apparent surprise that her story is not believed and spends the next few minutes trying to address each of Brenda's concerns by repeating what she has already said. After listening intently, Brenda says, "Thank you, I am ready to make my decision."
In the end, what decision do you think Brenda made? Did she grant Maria her family class spousal visa, or did she refuse the application? Was Maria in a real relationship, or was it a fake? Did she get married primarily because she wanted to become a permanent resident in Canada or because she loved her husband and wanted to start a new life with him?
Canadian visa officers must answer these kinds of questions every day. They make decisions about who should, and should not, be issued a visa to enter Canada, both as permanent and temporary residents.
Excerpted with permission from Points of Entry: How Canada's Immigration Officers Decide Who Gets In, by Vic Satzewich, 2015, UBC Press, Vancouver and Toronto, Canada.
Howard Ramos is a Professor of Sociology at Dalhousie University. His research focuses on issues of social justice including the non-economic elements of immigration and examination of family and non-economic streams of immigration to Canada.
'Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Canada Border Services Agency should improve information sharing' AUDITOR General of Canada Michael Ferguson's audit of citizenship applications concludes that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada did not adequately detect and prevent fraud to ensure that only applicants who met selected eligibility requirements were granted Canadian citizenship. The report […]
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-- Canada's economic development minister Navdeep Bains at a Public Policy Forum economic summit