Tag: Canada

Animals News Politics

Canada To Get Two Panda Bears

Canada is expecting two very special visitors from China.

Er Shun and Ji Li are two giant panda bears, which China will be lending to Canada. The pair will live in Toronto for five years, and then in Calgary for five years.

The giant panda is unique to China. They are more than just a native species, however. To the Chinese, panda bears are very symbolic.

If China lets one of its panda bears live in a country, it’s a sign that China feels warmly towards that country.

In this case, the offer came during a recent four-day visit to China by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

News Politics

Some Canadian Immigration Policies Changing

Last month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper outlined some new rules about immigration to Canada.

Immigration is when someone comes from another country to live in Canada.

People who want to immigrate because of their work must apply and say what work they want to do when they get here.

Harper presented the immigration rules in January at a special meeting in Switzerland.

He said Canada will still look at all people who want to come to Canada — including people who are in danger in their own homeland, and family members of people already here.

However, people with certain skills and money-making ideas will now top the list.

Breaking News News

Attawapiskat Residents Getting Some New Homes

Some Attawapiskat residents will soon be moving into new “modular” homes.

Attawapiskat is a remote community in northern Ontario. Last year, the government there declared a state of emergency because residents were living in conditions that were very unsafe.

Canada’s government promised to help fix the housing problems in Attawapiskat.

The first modular home has reached the first nations community, and the second is on its way.

Environment News Science

12-Million-Year-Old Plant May Soon Be Extinct

Cycads, a very rare type of plant, are in danger of becoming extinct because of poachers.

Poaching usually means to hunt animals illegally. In this case, trees are being taken from the wild.

They are then secretly sold for a lot of money – up to $100,000 each – to people who collect unusual plants.

The first cycads existed during the time of the dinosaurs, during the Jurassic period. The kinds of cycads that are alive today have been around for 12 million years.

They look like a cross between a fern and a palm tree, and they can take hundreds of years to grow to their full size.

Entertainment Kids News

Ontario Place Closing Until 2017

One of Ontario’s most famous landmarks is closing.

Ontario Place will shut down for five years, to be transformed “into an innovative provincial landmark,” according to its website.

The attraction opened in 1971; at the time, it cost $29 million. It was created by the Ontario government to help revitalize the city’s lakefront area. Ontario Place is located downtown, on the shores of Lake Ontario.

The provincial government built Ontario Place as a family-friendly amusement park for Torontonians and as a way to attract more tourists to the city.

A Uganda Little League Baseball team.
Kids News Sports

Canadian Little Leaguers Travel To Uganda

In the African country of Uganda, there are two million orphans. Nearly half of the children have lost their parents from AIDS, a terrible and widespread disease.

Many children are very poor. Many live in slums.

However, some children in Uganda have found something great that helps them in their lives: playing baseball.

Uganda’s Little League team is very good. So good, in fact, that last year they beat the team that had held the regional championship for 11 years, Saudi Arabia.

It was the first time that an African team had won the regional tournament.

Health News Sports

Skiing, Snowboarding Cause Most Winter Sports Injuries In Canada

Last winter, more than 5,600 Canadians ended up in the hospital with an injury from hockey, skiing or another winter sport.

That information comes from a new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Most of the injuries were from skiing and snowboarding. More than 2,300 Canadians went to the hospital after they had an accident in either of those sports.

Hockey (1,114 injuries) and snowmobiling (1,126) were next on the list of injury-causing sports.

News Science Technology

Toronto Teens Send Legonaut Into (Near-) Space

Two teenagers in Toronto, Ont. have taken a giant leap – for themselves, and for one little Lego man.

The teens launched a Lego figure into near-space.

They hooked a helium weather balloon, a home-sewn nylon parachute and four cameras to the figure. And then they went out to a soccer field and let their contraption go.

The cameras were set to take pictures every 20 seconds.

When their figure came back to Earth, they looked at the pictures the cameras had taken.

They were shocked to see their little Lego figure, clutching his Canadian flag, with a picture of the curved horizon of the Earth in the background.

News

On Second Anniversary, Haiti Still Recovering From Earthquake

Jan. 12 was a significant date for the people of Haiti. It was two years ago on that date that the country suffered a terrible earthquake.

More than a million people had their homes destroyed.

After two years, many people think that new homes, jobs and clean streets are not coming fast enough.

Haiti’s new President, Michel Martelly, is known as Sweet Mickey. He believes education is one of the most important things for the government to fix first.

Kids News Politics

Toronto Kids Learn Lessons At City Hall

Yesterday, some schoolkids in Toronto learned first-hand what democracy is all about.

Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, was proposing some cuts to the city’s budget.

He said many of the city’s services should go on the chopping block to balance the city’s budget, including closing down services at: 10 arenas, three daycares, three shelters, a city zoo and a farm on Toronto Island.

The city also proposed cutting services like swimming lessons at five swimming pools in Toronto schools. That could potentially lead to the pools being closed in the future.

The parents and kids at those schools went into action to try to prevent the budget cuts.