Meet Vancouver couple who struggles to make ends meet despite making $25,000 a month

PHOTO: FOTOLIA

Eric and Ilsa put lifestyle ahead of financial concerns but it has put them in a bit of a bind. He is 41 and a physician, she is 39 and a dentist.

They have five children, ranging in age from less than a year to 9, all of whom will go to private school. They have substantial earning power – although Ilsa is on mat leave at the moment – but Eric chooses to work for less money than he could.

They are living rent free in a relative’s house (they pay taxes, utilities and upkeep) and “regret not having bought a house years ago,” Eric writes in an e-mail. Houses in their Vancouver neighbourhood have doubled in price in the past two years. The house where they live is going up for sale soon, so they need to move quickly.

Last fall, they bought a building lot for $1.1-million and are planning to build a house large enough for their family and a live-in nanny. But with a combined income of $360,000 ($450,000 when Ilsa returns to work) and an $800,000 mortgage, can they afford the builder’s $1-million price tag? Who will lend them the money?

Christians unite in Syria fight to save their land

Johan Cosar inspects a rocket propelled grenade launcher at a Syriac Military Council base.(Photo: Martin Bader for USA TODAY)

Sophie Cousins, USA TODAY
Unlit Christmas lights adorn this small but largely isolated Christian town in northeastern Syria. But with only a few hours of electricity every day and most Christians gone the dark lights are a grim reminder of what used to be.

Tens of thousands of Christians have fled the Kurdish-dominated Hasaka province over the past three years because of an ongoing civil war, economic pressures and the rise of the Islamic State, which captured large swaths of Iraq and Syria earlier this year.

Canada has second-largest wage growth of any developed G20 country

Real wage growth among developed G20 countries. Source: ILO

Daniel Tencer | Huff
Canada has seen the second-largest wage growth of any developed G20 country in recent years, according to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

But it seems to be a case of Canada simply being among the least bad of a bad bunch. Wage growth in the developing world has stalled to nearly zero, the ILO report said.

In the six-year period from 2007 to 2013, covering a large part of the post-recession era, real wages in Canada grew by 5 per cent, or less than one per cent per year.

Only Australia came ahead of Canada, with wages there rising 8.9 per cent in that period. Both countries are resource exporters and benefitted from “a boom in commodities,” the report said.

By comparison, the U.S. saw real wages, meaning wages adjusted for inflation, grow by a mere 1.4 per cent.

DM Runs Shoplifting Life Of Controversial GOP Elizabeth Lauten

Elizabeth Lauten

Ashley Collman and Mia De Graaf and Kieran Corcoran | MailOnline

• Elizabeth Lauten resigned from her position working for a Republican after criticizing the first daughters in an inflammatory Facebook post
• Lauten called Sasha, 13, and Malia Obama, 16, 'classless' for their clothes and attitude at the annual White House turkey pardoning 
• Court records indicate Lauten, 31, was arrested for shoplifting from a department store at the age of 17 
• Was also ticketed for speeding and running a red light in Virginia at 19
• White House spokesman Josh Earnest responded to Lauten's comments on Monday, saying the first daughters should be off-limits to criticism

It has been revealed that Elizabeth Lauten, the former GOP staffer who called Sasha and Malia Obama 'classless,' was herself arrested for shoplifting as a teen. The GOP staffer who was forced to resign today after calling the first daughters 'classless' is now being exposed as a hypocrite.

Elizabeth Lauten, 31, stepped down from her job as communications director for a Republican representative after her Facebook diatribe against Sasha and Malia Obama's behavior and dress at the annual Turkey pardoning sparked outrage online.

Evidence has now emerged indicating Lauten didn't exactly practice what she preached when she was a teen, growing up out of the public eye in North Carolina.

Turkey Banning ‘Game of Thrones’ As A Way To ‘Protect’ Students

Peter Dinklage | HBO

MICHELLE GESLANI  | Uproxx
Military academies in Turkey will soon have to say goodbye to The Starks and Lannisters. That’s because the country’s armed forces has banned HBO’s Game of Thrones in an effort to provide “protection of students.”

According to local paper Hurriyet Daily News, the harsh ruling is part of a new set of regulations which looks to prohibit programs that show “sexual exploitation, pornography, exhibitionism, abuse, harassment and all negative behaviors.”

How Canada blocked Europe dirty oil label - Global Mail

BARBARA LEWIS
In the cafés and bars of Brussels, bitumen has been high on the menu. If you looked up from your table over past months, you might have found yourself confronted with photographs of giant shovels churning up the Northern Albertan landscape or even a chunk of dried-out oil sands as representatives of environmental non-governmental organizations sought to convince politicians, journalists and anyone else willing to listen that Canadian oil is dirty oil.

The street-level campaigning has of course been parallelled by legislative deliberation in the European Union institutions and a massive industry lobbying effort.

Environmental lobbyists say they have lost that battle as EU policy-makers shifted their stance, but they have won a larger war. In the European public mind, Canadian oil is indeed dirty oil.

The consolation for the industry is that it’s better to be dirty than bloody. Thanks to conflict between Ukraine and Russia that has Europe scrambling for energy alternatives, the distinction could be enough to provide a European future for Canadian oil.

Spotify Streams Into Canada Music Lovers

The Huffington Post Canada  | By Joshua Ostroff

"Canada is a big important music market that's way larger than its actual population," says Spotify's managing director and content chief Ken Parks of our land of Drake, Celine and Arcade Fire. "So it's a very important centre for music."

Still, it took Spotify what felt like forever to come to Canada after having dominated the music streaming scene in the U.S. and Europe. But the service finally arrived in the north last week, where it joined preexisting players like Rdio and fellow newcomer Google Play Music, which set-up shop last May.

"First you have to see what kind of rights you need, and then in a place like Canada you can't ignore the strong local scene, so we took our time," he says

Not only has Spotify set-up deals with Canadian indies like Arts & Crafts and Audiogram but they've also set-up partnerships with Canadian acts ranging from new kids like Kiesza and Shawn Mendes to old-schoolers like Bryan Adams.

Opinion | Why Canada Shouldn't Rely on Unpaid Caregivers

Nicole F. Bernier | HuffPost

The unexpected and largely unreported good news about homecare in this country is that the vast majority of Canadians who receive home help or homecare for a chronic health condition are getting all the services they need.

According to a recently released Statistics Canada article, 2.2 million individuals representing eight percent of Canadians 15 years and older, received homecare in 2012. Most of these individuals, 1.8 million, consider that over a one-year period they received all the services they required (such as personal care, transportation or household maintenance) to help with their daily activities. Only a minority, approximately 15 percent, said they had unmet homecare needs.

Fully meeting the needs of the vast majority of homecare recipients is a notable achievement for Canada, considering this country has no national homecare system, and considering that provinces, which have jurisdiction over homecare, are known for anemic budgetary expenditures in this area.

So how does Canada achieve so much with so little? Canada has a heavy reliance on informal, unpaid caregivers.

Canadian science departments graded C- for freedom of speech

Fred Chartrand/The Canadian press. A protestor wearing a Grim Reaper costume stands on Parliament Hill during a rally on Tuesday July 10, 2012 in Ottawa to protest the federal government's cuts to science policies.

Federal science departments received an average grade of C- for how well — or poorly, in most cases — their media policies give scientists the freedom to communicate their research, according to a new analysis released Wednesday.

All but one Canadian department received scores worse than those of American science agencies assessed under a comparable set of criteria in 2013.

“There has been a lot of concern in recent years about government scientists facing restrictions in how they can communicate to the public and media,” said Katie Gibbs, executive director of Evidence for Democracy, the non-partisan not-for-profit that produced the report.

“But there hadn’t been any kind of systematic assessment of the communications policies governing scientists in Canada. We thought this would be a useful addition to this discussion.”

Gibbs and Simon Fraser University’s Karen Magnuson-Ford, co-authors of the report and scientists themselves, assessed the media policies of 14 federal science-based departments against a rubric that included whether the policies safeguard against political interference, promote timely communication with reporters, and protect scientific free speech, among other criteria.

Canada Ranks Eighth World's Biggest Energy-Guzzling Countries

Canadians are the world’s eighth-largest energy consumers, sucking up about 7 per cent more energy than Americans, according to research from OilPrice.com.

On average, Canadians consume the equivalent of 7,333 kg of oil per year, compared to 6,793 kg per capita in the U.S. (That includes energy from all sources, expressed as kilograms of oil.)

“While many equate Canada's energy sector with the oil sands, it is, in fact, other forms of energy that account for the lion's share of consumption,” OilPrice.com reports.

“Over half (57.6 per cent) of Canada's electricity comes from hydro, with coal the second most popular choice at 18 per cent. Nuclear is third (14.6 percent), with oil and gas comprising just 6.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively.”

Inefficient use of energy can have a major economic cost, especially when prices rise. Scotiabank earlier this year estimated that the rise in gas prices seen in the first half of the year sucked $4 billion out of the rest of the economy. Spending on energy, as a percentage of household spending, hit a record high in Canada this year.

First Nations join Vancouver land deal valued at $307M

The $307-million deal includes the Jericho Lands, where a Canadian Forces garrison is currently sited, an area west of Heather Street between West 33rd and West 37th Avenues and a small parcel of land on Marine Drive at Burkehill Road in West Vancouver. (CBC)

In a deal valued at just over $307 million, three parcels of land—in Point Grey, Cambie and West Vancouver—are now held in joint ownership by a coalition of B.C. First Nations and the Canada Lands Agency.

The Jericho Lands are one of three parcels of land now jointly owned by three B.C. First Nations and the Canada Lands Agency. (Google Streetview)

The approximately 32 hectares of land were previously owned by the federal government and include the Jericho Lands (21 hectares), where a Canadian Forces garrison is currently sited, an area west of Heather Street between West 33rd and West 37th Avenues (nine hectares) that was formerly an RCMP headquarters, and a small parcel of land (two hectares) on Marine Drive at Burkehill Road in West Vancouver that was formerly owned by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The deal, announced Wednesday, makes the First Nations — the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh — 50 per cent owners of the land, with the nations given 28 per cent of the value as beneficial interest, and purchasing another 22 per cent for $68 million.

Ferguson Police Officer Shot While Chasing Suspect

FERGUSON, MO - AUGUST 30: Members of the Ferguson Police department wear body cameras during a rally August 30, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown, an 18-year-old unarmed teenager, was shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on August 9. His death caused several days of violent protests along with rioting and looting in Ferguson. (Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images) | Aaron P. Bernstein via Getty Images

A Ferguson Police officer was shot Saturday evening in North St. Louis County, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Police said.

The officer was shot in the arm, KMOV reported. Officials said the wounds were non-life threatening.

Tim Zoll of the Ferguson Police Department told KSDK News an officer was on patrol near a community center when he saw someone run from the back of the building. The officer chased after the suspect, who then turned and shot the pursuing officer. The suspect fled the scene.

A suspect had not been found. Police moved on the location of West Florissant and Stein and closed area roads to conduct a search.

Civilians took to the streets after news broke, but were asked by police to leave. Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson refuted claims that police had shot and killed someone.

HuffPost

Five Ways ISIS Makes $3 Million A Day

U.S. intelligence officials revealed last week that they believe the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is reaping as much as $3 million a day in revenue, making it one of the wealthiest terrorist groups in history.

The group desperately needs the money, for as one U.S. official recently told NBC: "Running a caliphate is not cheap." ISIS needs to pay, arm and feed its brigades. The group also rewards the families of killed militants with a pension, and it needs to cover the costs of governing the territory it has captured.

This is where the Islamic State is getting its money from:

1. WEALTHY DONORS
Just like other radical militant groups fighting in Syria, the Islamic State initially relied largely on cash gifts from wealthy sympathizers who were determined to support Sunni fighters in their revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Still Unshaken | Popular Canadian Stereotypes

O Canada! It's a land of snow and sleet, where sunshine only breaks through on days when Justin Bieber plays a concert.

Well ... not exactly.

Canadians are well-used to hearing what other countries believe to be true about our citizens, and while we're happy to take the good (why yes, we are that polite!), we've had just enough of the plain old incorrect. So now, if you don't mind, here are some serious untruths about Canada we've been hearing for far too long.
 

We Live In Perpetual Winter

 

 

 

You don't really believe that, do you? Despite the horrific ice storms and the snowstorms in September, we have a wide range of weather across the country. Heck, on the day of that snowstorm in Calgary, it was 20°C (that's 68°F) in Vancouver, a mere 971 kilometres away.

We All Know John From Toronto

John Kirk via Getty Images

 

Canadian universities tackle campus rape culture after Frosh Week

Last year, students at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax faced criticism after participating in a chant that promoted non-consensual sex with underage girls. (CBC

The pressure is on Canadian universities for a scandal-free year after a string of high-profile sexual assault cases and orientation week faux pas over the past academic year spotlighted what some say is a pervasive campus rape culture.

"Things don't change overnight. It's a slow progress," said Bianca Tétrault, officially McGill University's new "liaison officer (harm reduction)" and informally the person tasked with combating sexual assault on campus. "But that doesn't mean we should be deterred from it or that we should stop."

She was hired in April for a one-year contract after McGill students felt the university's response to three Redman football players being charged with sexual assault was lacklustre.

"Universities are a bastion of education and trying to create communities, but are also very much involved in creating and perpetuating rape culture, and it continues to be something that’s very much ignored," said Kai O'Doherty, a fourth-year student at McGill University.

O'Doherty and some other students banded together shortly after the incident became public knowledge to attempt to create the university's first sexual assault policy. They demanded McGill create a pro-survivor policy that provides clear channels for reporting assault and receiving support.

They're now working closely with Tétrault to write the policy and have it approved by the university's senate — a process O'Doherty estimates could take anywhere from six months to a couple years.
The new policy seeks to inject sexual assault information and training into all of McGill's departments and operations.

Canadian Pop Star Robin Thicke Gives Cops The Shoulder Treatment

TMZ reports Robin Thicke gave cops the same treatment Paula Patton's been giving him -- ignoring officers who asked him to stop blasting music on Labor Day ... and he ended up getting a ticket for it.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … the LAPD was called to Thicke's home in the Hollywood Hills late Monday night, into Tuesday morning, after neighbors complained about loud music.

We're told Thicke appeared to be drunk -- no big deal since he was partying at home -- but also had a "total disregard" for the cops. After agreeing to lower the volume, we're told Robin cranked it up again once the officers walked away. So they wrote him up for loud music.

A source close to Robin tells us he actually apologized to police.

We're told this was the 2nd night within the last week police went to Robin's house for noise complaints.

Paula who?
 

The Pain and Pleasure of Falling in Love

Grandma Greco’s Special Wings are juicy and laced with an invisible layer of tempestuous spice. Credit Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times        

The chicken wing was juicy and laced with an invisible layer of tempestuous spices, and the moment I bit into it, I turned into Nicolas Cage in “Moonstruck.” Words welled up inside. I needed to tell that chicken wing how I felt: “I’m in love with you.” At that instant, the spices reared back and smacked me across the lips. Delicious agony began to spread to the rest of my mouth. Sips of cold beer did nothing to diminish the impact. Hours later, I could still feel the sting.

I really wanted to adore the Bronx Beer Hall as much as I adored those hot wings, but like Cher’s character, fending off the advances of Mr. Cage’s operatic one-handed baker, the place seemed to specialize in making itself difficult to love. Hatched last year by two young brothers who dream of bringing fresh spirit to a distressingly sleepy stretch of Arthur Avenue, the hall can be found inside an old-school marketplace, where you may pick up a week’s supply of olives, pancetta and marinated anchovies while, if you’re lucky, an elderly gentleman plays an elegiac version of Andrea Bocelli’s “Con Te Partirò” at the lonesome piano by the entrance. Grab a seat at the bar, or at the cluster of tables, and you feel lucky to be surrounded by the bounty of this storied Italian-American neighborhood. You want to linger.

But what’s bizarre is how disconnected the beer hall seems to be from that bounty. Yes, the beers on tap — a black I.P.A. called Misfit Toy from Great South Bay Brewery on Long Island; a white lager from SingleCut Beersmiths in Astoria, Queens — tend to be proudly local and consistently guzzle-worthy. They tangle well with Grandma Greco’s Special Wings, even when the hot-tempered Ms. Greco throws a capsaicin tantrum on your gums. It’s a shame, then, that so much of the rest of the pub grub at the hall is confusingly awful.

 

I’m still trying to erase the memory of the One & Only Truffle Burger, a culinary experiment so botched that it almost made a vegetarian out of me. Like a Bronx-based, speck-and-fontina-topped spin on Daniel Boulud’s famously luxurious carnivore magnet at DB Bistro Moderne, this one involves strips of truffled osso buco that are squeezed inside a patty made from sirloin and filet mignon.

 

It sounds good on paper. Alas, there are serious infrastructure issues. When I ordered it, the bun was too crusty and tall; the meat arrangement was too mushy and loose. I took a bite, and the edges of the ground beef squished outward. Before long, the whole thing fell apart, and I spied a sad, strange-looking knob of veal shank in the middle, curled like a fossil. I reached for my beer to wash away the image — and what seemed to be an oceanic residue of salt.

 

How, I wondered, does such a burger honor the legacy of Arthur Avenue? And what’s the point of offering a six-option Sausage Fest if each meaty link has been cooked so long that it has the texture of sun-bleached sailing rope? Does this historic neighborhood really need crostini made with peanut butter, strawberries, balsamic glaze and truffle oil?

 

For me, crushing disappointment came in the form of a “cheese board.” Here we sat, just steps away from some of the finest Italian cheeses in the city, and yet one of the selections on the platter was a very soft, bland, suspiciously triangular wedge of the Laughing Cow-ish fromage that you’d usually spot at the supermarket.

 

It’s rare that a restaurant allows you to order food from an alternative menu. On my final foray into the Bronx Beer Hall, I opted for a terrific meatball parm sandwich and a Big Mike Combo, with Italian cold cuts and provolone, from Mike’s Deli, the Greco family’s counter a few yards away. (Which makes sense: David Greco is a partner in the beer hall.)

 

So why aren’t they serving more of the real stuff at the Bronx Beer Hall? Well, maybe only the white-haired fellow at the piano can figure out the logic behind that. I still happen to think it’s a lovely place to hang out, and with a few radical menu changes, it could become the drinking-and-noshing destination that it’s supposed to be.

 

In the end, the Bronx Beer Hall made me feel like Cher in “Moonstruck.” I wanted to smack someone and shout, “Snap out of it!” But I say that with love.

 

NYPost

How Inflation is Killing off the Canadian Middle Class

Some recent research finds that while inflation remains relatively low, the benefits of rising prices are going to business and the top one per cent while everyone else gets poorer. (CBC)

If it feels like you are getting poorer despite relatively low inflation, new research indicates that's because you are.

This week, new figures from Statistics Canada show annual inflation hit 2.4 per cent. That's up from 2.3 per cent last month, the ninth month in a row of a rising inflation rate. And while the things you buy are more than two per cent dearer (three per cent if you live in Ontario) than they were a year ago, wages have not been keeping pace.

Over the same period, StatsCan data shows that Canadian wages rose only 1.9 per cent. In Ontario, where prices were up three per cent, wages rose a mere 0.7 per cent. That means if you live in Ontario and spend what you earn, you are effectively 2.3 per cent poorer than you were only one year ago.

'If we value the prosperity and stability associated with middle-class society ... then we should really pay attention to what generates that middle-class affluence'-

Jordan Brennan, York University economist

And according to York University economist Jordan Brennan, that is bad for the Canadian middle class. Brennan represents a new kind of economist who rejects the traditional story that he learned in Economics 101 and once believed wholeheartedly.

"If we value the prosperity and stability associated with middle-class society — the things that we ascribe to Canadian citizenship — if we value those things, then we should really pay attention to what generates that middle-class affluence," says Brennan.  "And letting the free market rip does not seem to the main generator of that affluence."

Brennan says his latest research confirms what others have also discovered, that while inflation remains relatively low, the benefits of rising prices are going to business and the one per cent while everyone else gets poorer. 

Today's Canadian numbers confirm it. And in slightly different words, that's exactly what U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said earlier this week: that the returns of the U.S. economy are disproportionately going to capital, with less going to labour.

Popular Ontario City Mayor Gets Four Months of House Arrest for Fraud

London Mayor Joe Fontana with his wife Vicky, walk from the London, Ont., courthouse after hearing the verdict in his fraud trial on June 13, 2014.
(DAVE CHIDLEY/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Former Liberal cabinet minister Joe Fontana was sentenced Tuesday to four months of house arrest for a government fraud, avoiding time behind bars, but nonetheless leaving court with his reputation “in tatters.”

Fontana resigned as mayor of London, Ont., last month after he was found guilty of fraud, forgery and breach of trust by a public official. He said he would not seek public office again.

One act involving what the judge described as a “rudimentary and almost child-like” forgery of an expense document felled Fontana’s three-decade municipal and federal political career, leaving the one-time labour and housing minister crying outside the courthouse.

“I’m going to have to live with this for the rest of my life, but I’ve got a lot more to offer,” he said after he was sentenced, turning away from the cameras as tears started to fall.

Superior Court Judge Bruce Thomas was at a loss to ascribe motive to Fontana’s $1,700 fraud, saying “personal gain” appears to be the only reason, despite his significant salary, benefits and office budget.

“The reasons confound me,” Thomas said. “Perhaps it was simply because he could.”
Fontana’s lawyer said he didn’t agree that greed was a factor.

“I think it was just stupid,” Gord Cudmore said outside court. He said Fontana will not be appealing.
Cudmore had urged the judge to consider Fontana’s long career of public service and his good works.

 He submitted 45 character reference letters to that effect. Fontana has already spent the past two years being pilloried “in the Internet stocks,” Cudmore said.

“He has been ridiculed, humiliated and denounced,” he told the judge.

“In the last two years he has been defined by this charge, but I submit to you the definition of Joe Fontana is contained in that booklet [of letters] you have.”

The judge said Fontana’s offence is more serious than the amount of $1,700 would suggest, because it involved abuse of authority.

“It may be in our terms a small pebble … but its ripple effect stretches further and lasts longer than the mass of the deed would seem,” Thomas said.

WorldCup Final Preview: Best of Europe Vs. Best of South America

    

     
      

WSJ-  After four years and hundreds of qualification matches—plus 63 games of some import here in Brazil—it will come to this: Germany vs. Argentina, the best of Europe against the best of South America, playing the World Cup final in a continent where a European team has never won.

 

It's the world's best national team against the planet's best player, a three-time champion against a two-time winner.

 

So who is going to win?

 

It's nearly impossible to make an argument against Germany, especially after the Germans pummeled host Brazil into submission Tuesday in the semifinal. They have scored 17 goals in six matches, five more than any other team. They score once every 34 minutes, a rate that is double the average at this tournament. They score one goal for every 5.2 attempts on the net. The average for teams here has been one goal every 9.8 attempts.

 

Argentina's Lionel Messi Getty Images

           

In Miroslav Klose, the Germans have the all-time leading scorer at the World Cup. He is supposed to be over the hill at 36 years old. Instead he has two goals in four matches and seems as dangerous as ever.

What makes the Germans particularly frightening is that other than a 15- minute stretch against Ghana in the second group game, when they lost a lead and had to scramble for a draw, they have shown they can win playing whatever style they want.

 

Plan A with the Germans is to press relentlessly and attack. When they give up the ball they try to win it back within the first four seconds, then counter at warp speed, with their fullbacks like Philipp Lahm, sprinting forward to overwhelm the opponent.