September 2015
Pinoy fiesta Vancouver
2015: Is this what it has
come to?
Hail to the queen
at west van's 2015
Harmony Arts Festival
Concerns and complaints from
community members could be the
start of the end of the once popular
cultural event.
From the colorful art exhibits to
music under the stars, the festival
celebrated its 25th anniversary
finale with a big bang.
>News PAge 6
>Entertainment PAge 14
Vol. 1 No. 6
METROVAN INDEPENDENT MEDIA
Canada in recession
www.metrovanindependent.com
Conservatives in BC
abandon Harper?
By Yul Baritugo
One of the startling result of a new poll
by Insight West is that aside from lagging
behind, Conservative voters in 2011 are
now looking elsewhere following a series
of scandals that have rocked the federal
Conservative Party.
The change of heart follows closely
several high profile cases including
robocalls or Conservative voter suppression
tactics, election overspending, partisan
appointments of Conservative supporters,
fraud, bribery, breach of trust and even
assault including the Mike Duffy trial where
the machinations of the Prime Minister’s
Office (PMO) were revealed by former
officials.
> News page 2
Iglesia ni Cristo
protest vs. Aquino
gov’t ends
Photo by Diones Lago
Summer frolic in North Van.
By Yul Baritugo
It’s now official. Canada's economy
recoiled for the second-straight quarter of
2015 -- knocking the country into recession,
fresh Statistics Canada data revealed. In
contrast, real GDP in the United States rose
to 3.7 percent.
The Bank of Canada had earlier hinted
of a recession although Statistics Canada’s
official data today finally reveals the real
state of the economy under Conservative
rule.
Central Bank Governor Stephen Poloz
said: “Additional monetary stimulus is
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required at this time to help return the
economy to full capacity and inflation
sustainable to target.”
The Conservatives, under Harper,
however scorned this policy direction opting
instead to stick to its pipe dream of having a
balanced budget by selling GM shares at a
loss, taking a huge amount of money from
worker-funded Employment Insurance, and
cutting government spending by enormous
job and program cuts.
The next issue for ordinary folks will
be how long it will last. If the currency
exchange rate projection reflects the state
of the economy, there are studies that
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suggest the currency slump could last a
decade. The exchange rate went down to
C$0.75 cents to a US greenback yesterday.
It is believed, it will still go down to around
C$0.60 cents to a US dollar if oil prices
continue to plummet.
The federal agency said real gross
domestic product (GDP), the sum total of
all goods and services produced in the
country, contracted at an annual pace of
0.5 percent in the second quarter of the
year, which followed a revised decline of
0.8 percent during the first three months
of 2015.
> NEWS page 3
The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) on Monday,
August 31, ended their 5-day protest against
the government's supposed interference
with internal church matters, saying they
have reached an understanding with the
Aquino administration.
"Nais po naming ipabatid sa inyong
lahat na nagkausap na po ang panig ng
Iglesia at ng panig ng pamahalaan at sa
pag-uusap na ito ay nagkapaliwanagan na
po ang dalawang panig. Kaya payapa na
po ang lahat," Bienvenido Santiago, INC
general evangelist, said in a video statement
posted online Monday morning (Sunday in
Vancouver).
> News page 3