The online guide provides important to-dos to survive in a new country

TORONTO,  February 2, 2023 – It can be exciting for newcomers to Canada who are coming from another country. They get to visit beautiful landmarks like Niagara Falls, the CN Tower, or The Parliament, among others. They get to try food characteristic of the place like poutine, Tim Horton’s, maple syrup, and ketchup chips, to name a few. The elation is intoxicating for the first few weeks, until it isn’t.

Navigating the Challenges of Living in a New Country

Enter Tuloy Canada, an online guide for newcomers from the Philippines and from other countries that provides valuable information on Canada’s geography, climate, employment leads and education opportunities, and government services. It also offers advice on how to navigate the Canadian job market, find affordable housing,  and understand the local culture.

Tuloy Canada provides resources so newcomers can maneuver through their new reality and do normal and necessary things like find a place to stay, search for a job that would enable them to pay bills and buy groceries, learn to navigate the transit system to get from one place to another, how to open a bank account and secure a social insurance number, health card, driver’s license, and how to find a school for those who have children.

ABS-CBN Managing Director for North and Latin America Jun Del Rosario affirms that the Tuloy Canada campaign “is part of our continuing mission to serve the Filipino wherever he may be.” Take the case of the Sim family, for instance.

Rain Sim (right) arrived in Canada with his wife, Melody (left), and their son, Jacob (center) last August and are adjusting to their life in a new country. (Photo courtesy of Rain Sim)

Rain Sim arrived with his wife Melody and their three-year-old son, Jacob last August. “It was a big adjustment,” Sim admits.  The couple had a comfortable life where they both worked managerial jobs and owned a car. They gave up that life to move to Canada where they now take the bus and are working entry-level jobs.

Del Rosario says that ABS-CBN will be coordinating with Immigration Canada and other government and non-government groups to provide more resources and to continually update information on the Tuloy Canada site.

Filipino newcomers in Canada can also get free gifts when they sign up, like a one-month free subscription to iWantTFC, so they can keep up with their favorite Filipino shows and still feel at home even if they are many miles away.

Tuloy Canada is an invaluable guide for those who are looking to make Canada their new home. Newcomers to Canada are encouraged to share their stories or provide feedback and other pertinent advice or tips by sending an email to  TFCMarketing@abs-cbn.com

The full report of ABS-CBN News on the Tuloy Canada program may be accessed here. Go to myTFC.com/TuloyCanada for more information.

Vancouver: The federal government is investing more than $46 million over the next five years to see what’s under Canada’s oceans and then protect it.
Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray said understanding of the marine environment is “relatively meagre” given that oceans cover 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface.
“It’s imperative that Canada better understand our oceans in terms of how they’re changing, how we can support their ecosystems and how we can sustainably manage resources,” Murray told a Vancouver news conference at the International Marine Protected Areas Congress Monday.
She said the research will “solidify Canada’s reputation as an ocean leader recognized around the world for (its) commitment to science, collaboration, technology and environmental sustainability.”
The funding will come from the government’s $3.5-billion Ocean Protection Plan.
Kate Moran, CEO of the University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada, said the $46.5 million will be used to gather data about the deep ocean for scientific research, government decision-making and to support Canada’s ocean industries.
Ocean Networks Canada will study currents, marine safety and incident response, ocean sound information to mitigate the harm of human noise on marine life and ocean monitoring for coastal communities, Moran said.
“This new funding strengthens important national priorities that make the connection between ocean science and communities a real one,” she told the news conference.

By Brieanna Charlebois
The Canadian Press

By Maan Alhmidi and Sharif Hassan
The Canadian Press

Canada is ready to help in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday, as authorities in those countries reported that more than4,000 people had died and thousands more were injured.
Rescue workers and residents searched the rubble of toppled buildings for survivors and officials feared the death toll would keep climbing.
Residents immediately rushed outside in rain and snow to escape falling debris, while those who were trapped cried for help. Throughout the day, major aftershocks hit. At night, workers were still pulling out bodies as desperate families waited for news on trapped loved ones.
Trudeau said the reports and images from Turkey and Syria were “devastating.”
“Canada stands ready to provide assistance,” he said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by these major earthquakes, and our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones.”
Trudeau told question period that the government is trying to determine “how it can best help in the short-term, knowing there will also be need for support in the long-term as communities rebuild from this terrible event.”
Ibrahim Cinaroglu, a member of the Turkish-Canadian Society, said four of his friends and their family members were among those killed in Turkey.
“We couldn’t reach them unfortunately through the phone or any other means, but we heard that they (have) died,” he said.
Cinaroglu said it’s mentally crushing.
“How can that happen to you or your beloved ones?” he said. “It is terrible right now.”
Cinaroglu called on the Canadian government and people to help.
Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that it is monitoring the situation and is in close contact with its humanitarian partners.
“We are assessing needs on the ground and stand ready to provide assistance.”
It said it has not yet received any requests for help from Canadians related to the earthquakes but noted there are 7,513 who are registered as being abroad in Turkey and 1,394 in Syria.

NORTH SAANICH, B.C.: She was once hailed as Canada’s best athlete and Elaine Tanner has the accolades to prove it as a teenage swimming prodigy known as “Mighty Mouse” at Olympic, Commonwealth and Pan American games.
But her most cherished medal came outside the pool. It’s a sterling silver Medal of Service, the forerunner to the current Officer of the Order of Canada medal.
When the Canadian government wanted it back, to switch for the replacement honour, Tanner, now 71, refused. She says she can’t let it let go because it tells the story of her life.
Tanner went to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics overwhelmingly favoured to win gold. Instead, with the weight of a nation on her 17-year-old shoulders, she came home with two silvers, in the 100 m and 200 m backstroke, and a bronze in the 4×100 m freestyle relay.
Tanner was devastated. At 18 she retired from competition. She suffered for years with panic attacks, eating disorders and depression.
Now, almost 55 years since Mexico, Tanner says from her Victoria-area home that she has turned losing gold into her greatest victory.
She says she hopes the way she emerged from the “black hole” that her life became after the Olympics can inspire other people facing hard times.
The service medal symbolizes that. She picked up the medal from a table covered with photos of her athletic achievements and explained the honour’s significance in her search for life’s gold.
“I thought my big quest in life was to win gold at the Olympic Games, but I realized that’s not the gold that hangs around your neck,” said Tanner.
“It’s the gold you mine within yourself. That’s my message.”
In 1970, Tanner became the youngest Canadian to be awarded the Medal of Service, created to recognize exemplary achievement and service to the nation.
The medal was introduced in 1967 and was awarded to 294 people before concerns about its modest appearance prompted a restructuring by the government in 1972, including the request to voluntarily return the award.
It meant too much to Tanner.
“My heart told me that this is the medal that was given to me by the government, actually by (former) governor general Roland Michener, and he pinned it on my dress, and I went, ‘This means the world to me,’ and I don’t want to hand it in,” said Tanner.
“I like it just the way it is,” she said from her living room overlooking a marina. “I’m so glad I kept it.”
Tanner had gone to Mexico City as a sporting and cultural phenomenon.
She got the “Mighty Mouse” nickname in 1965 after winning her first Canadian national swim title in the 100 m butterfly at aged 14.
“I must have been four-foot-nine and probably just under 90 pounds soaking wet,” said Tanner. “I was really small. I got up on the podium to receive my medal and the other girls were towering over me and a coach from Ocean Falls, the swim coach, yelled, ‘Way to go Mighty Mouse.’
“The crowd laughed, and the media picked it up and it just stuck.”
More national titles, world records, and gold medals at Commonwealth and Pan American games followed.
She was an unbackable favourite to win gold in Mexico City.
Instead, she placed second.
She may have been the first Canadian woman to win any Olympic swimming medal, but the headlines were “Tanner loses gold,” she said.
Tanner said she returned from the Mexico City an emotional and psychological wreck.
“Not only did I want to win for myself and my family, I had to win for Canada,” she said. “It was a heavy burden ? In my own little mind, I let everybody down.”
Crawling out of the “black hole” took years. “I struggled for so long,” said Tanner. “I really did.”
She is now a mental health advocate and children’s book author and hopes she can help others.

By Dirk Meissner
The Canadian Press

The federal defence minister says Canada “unequivocally supports” the United States government’s decision to shoot down a high-altitude surveillance balloon that was suspected of spying for China, noting the balloon violated Canadian airspace.

Fighter jets downed the balloon off the Carolina coast on Saturday afternoon after it had travelled over sensitive military sites across North America.

Anita Anand issued a statement hours later saying she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were briefed on the operation by the national security and intelligence advisor and the chief of the defence staff beginning on Friday night and continuing Saturday.

She said Canada has been closely engaged with its American counterparts on the decision and went on to thank the U.S. for its close collaboration.

A Pentagon official described the object as a manoeuverable surveillance balloon flying at an altitude of about 18,288 metres, with a “payload” or basket underneath.

On Friday, Anand’s office declined to comment on whether the balloon flew over Canadian airspace, but her Saturday statement says it “violated U.S. and Canadian airspace and international law.”

“Officials in the national security community have been working bi-nationally and Canada has been closely engaged with its U.S. counterparts on the decision and unequivocally supports the actions taken,” Anand said in the statement.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday he ordered U.S. officials to shoot down the balloon earlier this week and that national security leaders decided the best time for the operation was when it moved over water.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said the balloon was a civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research that “deviated far from its planned course” because of winds.

Anand noted Saturday that Norad, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, had been “tracking and analyzing the trajectory and actions” of the balloon.

“The co-operation between Canada and the United States through Norad ensures the security and defense of North American air sovereignty, and we thank its members for having the watch,” she said.

Pentagon officials have said one of the places the balloon was spotted was over the state of Montana, which is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement the decision to shoot down the balloon “safely” over U.S. waters was “taken in coordination, and with the full support, of the Canadian government.”

“And we thank Canada for its contribution to tracking and analysis of the balloon through Norad as it transited North America,” Austin said in the statement.

Global Affairs Canada said Friday that officials summoned Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu to express disapproval over the balloon.

U.S. officials also announced Secretary of State Antony Blinken was postponing a planned high-stakes weekend diplomatic trip to China.