In the last two decades Richmond has become Vancouver’s new Chinatown, home to the second-biggest Asian community in North America; Asian Canadians now make up about 60% of Richmond’s population.
Stepping into one of Richmond’s shopping malls is a quick trip to the contemporary Orient. Yaohan Centre has a giant pan-Asian supermarket, and Aberdeen Centre is classic, over-the-top Hong Kong, right down to a showy multimedia water-fountain production in the foyer.
There are Sikh temples, the biggest Buddhist temple in North America, Chinese foot massage parlors and herb shops, but I go to Richmond to eat, especially at the Richmond Night Market, open weekends throughout the summer. You can smell the spicy lamb kebabs and sautéed noodles long before you reach the maze of 300 stalls lighted by strings of lights and hazed in plumes of smoke from grilled squid and prawns.

See the full article from “Los Angeles Times”

Avenue Zero is the first documentary to tackle this issue as it exists in Canada. The doc, which screens tonight through Jan. 31 at the NFB Cinema, is a revealing and provocative look at the plight of illegal immigrants who, for the most part, are hardly living the good life in these supposedly quaint parts. Many of the illegals, who have paid thousands of dollars to get here, discover soon enough our streets aren’t paved with gold as they had been led to believe.
Montreal director Hélène Choquette, formerly a photographer and camera operator, has covered a lot of turf in this probe and has uncovered some pretty grim pictures. Whether they’re Asian girls – not women – in suburban Vancouver massage parlours or Honduran boys – not men – selling drugs for Vancouver gangs, domestic workers in Toronto or teen prostitutes in Montreal, they have one thing in common: they are pretty much enslaved to their employers. Living conditions are, to say the least, brutal, with up to a dozen people living in squalid one-room apartments.

See the full article from “Montreal Gazette”

She said at least 70,000 of the city’s 500,000 residents are considered to be in a high-risk group for the disease.
Sri
said in the past, the red-light district had been concentrated in one
area. But, she said, new prostitution centers had recently sprouted up
across a broad area, such as a burgeoning red light district in the
northern part of the city, known as Jalak Alley in Gilingan.
Sri
said prostitution was rife across the city, with many places using
legitimate businesses as a front. She said many massage parlors,
billiard halls and brothels operating in private homes had cropped up.
Sri said the decentralized sex trade was far more difficult for
authorities to monitor and was a barrier for the city’s efforts, such
as ensuring condoms are readily available, to fight the spread of
HIV/AIDS.

See the full article from “Jakarta Globe”

… Longueuil mayoral candidate Caroline St-Hilaire, a former Bloc Québécois MP, on the campaign trail last week.Photograph by: PHIL CARPENTER, GAZETTE FILE, The Gazette
It’s hard to find people more unhappy with municipal politics than the anglophones of Longueuil who live in the former town of Greenfield Park.
Residents saw their town merged into Longueuil against their will in 2002. They fell just short of qualifying for demerger in 2004. Then they were forced into a new centralization plan with their larger borough neighbour, St. Hubert, in 2007. That move saw jobs and power move to St. Hubert.
But the last straw came in 2008, when permits were awarded to a peep-show strip joint on Churchill Blvd., and to a separate erotic-massage parlour “with extras,” also on Churchill, just a stone’s throw from the former town hall.

See the full article from “The Gazette (Montreal)”

Laval police bust suspected pimp
Thu, 2009-08-13 09:59.
Laval police are asking any young girls to come forward if they’ve been approached by a man in recent months asking them to work for him in an erotic massage network.
It’s alleged 40-year-old Fadi Mikho-Malo approached a 15-year-old girl at a depanneur  earlier this summer, handed her his business card and insisted she work for the erotic massage business.  When she told him her age, he said he knew and continued his attempts to recruit her. 
The frightened teen contacted police and cops moved in to make an arrest July 6th.
Malo has since been charged with pimping and invitation to sexual touching. 
Investigators in Laval believe Malo approached other teen girls, handing over his business card.  Police would like to speak to any teens who have the card but may be too scared to contact them.  

See the full article from “CJAD”