Belinda Jin

AT&T Incorporation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW
THE PROFILOES OF AT&T INC
– SWOT ANALYSIS OF AT&T INC.
– AT&T INC. MERGED
– THE ACTIVITIES BETWEEN AT&T AND CONSUMERS
ANALYSIS THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CONCLUSION
WORKS CITED
WORKS CONSULTED
APPENDIXES

Introduction & Overview

“Rethink Possible. Connecting you to your world, everywhere you live and work.”                        –    AT&T

AT&T incorporation is the largest American multinational telecommunications holding company, incorporated in 1983. (Mint Global –Company Report of AT&T Inc., 2011).The headquarter of the company is located in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas in the United States. In 1984, AT&T Corporation was an American local telephone operation underan agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and was affiliate of the SBC Communications Inc. Later on, SBC communications acquired AT&T Corp. in 2005, and created the new AT&T Inc. Today, AT&T Inc. employs “more than 260,000 dedicated people working in all corners of the globe”; at the same time, the services and the products of the company reach all over the world with revenues of $126 billion in 2011 (General Electric, 2012 a).The mission of AT&T Incorporation is “to connect people with their world, everywhere they live and work, and do it better than anyone else”. (AT&T: Rethink Possible, 2012). In the process of fulfilling its objects AT&T faces the fierce competitions from both local and international telecommunications. However, in spite of the large numbers of market sharers or competitors, as a market leader, AT&T actually incorporates its rivals to wheel the United States Telecommunications industry thus to exert a competitive advantage of AT&T. In fact, AT&T not only occupies the stable leading position in the United States, but also enjoys the unique relationships with their consumers, government and society, which would directly increase its revenues; in turn, expand their influence in the US market.

What are AT&T’s sources of income? What kind of the role does each of the broad of directors play in AT&T? Many sources and reports exhibit the fact that the services and products of the company contribute revenues and each director from different areas controls the company. For example, the pie graph provided by AT&T Financial Reporting depicts that the revenue in 2011, come from 50% in wireless data/ management services, 45% in Wireline voice services, and the last 5% is from advertising solutions and other usages (Appendix A). Furthermore, the Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders and Proxy Statement show that the principal occupation and committee of the currents board of directors (Appendix B).

In fact, the management of AT&T is facing several challenges. For instance, how the operations of AT&T can help the company to archive competitive advantages among the intense competitions in United States telecommunications market, how can the board of directors successful operate AT&T in the telecommunication industry, and how can the activities run by AT&T critically promote and retain customer loyalty. By answering these questions, this paper will run through different types of sources, such as the Financial Report and Proxy Statement of the company, and to discuss the profitability of the company and critically examine the board of directors of AT&T Inc.

The profile of AT&T Incorporation

AT&T is a provider of telecommunications services in the United States operating through 33 subsidiaries (Mint Global –Company Report of AT&T Inc., 2011). Its extensive coverage in the U.S. market directly improves the company’s economic performance. According to AT&T Inc. 2011 Annual Report, that the 33 subsidiaries can be divided into four segments, which include wireless, wireline, advertising solution and others; in addition, each of them makes profits and greatly contributes to the company’s economic blossom (AT&T Inc., 2012).Among these major segments, most of the company’s income comes from wireless and wireline services, which account for more than 95% of the company’s revenue (Mint Global – Company Report of AT&T Inc., 2011, p.4).

The leading wireless services subsidiary is the AT&T Mobility LLC (AT&T Mobility), which includes services such as wireless communications service, long-distance service and roam service. These services provide values and convenience to millions of individuals, business and government users and at the same time a stronger relationship is building between AT&T Inc. Company and its own consumers. As of December 31, 2011, the company has more than 103 million wireless subscribers nationally. A report from the Mint Global – Company Report of AT&T Inc.(2011), summarized that the wireless business segment of AT&T provides approximately 50% of the total operating revenues (p.4) to the corporation. Also, the business report of The Top Ten Telecom Service Providers claims AT&T Mobility are only provided in the US and contributed 35% of the total company revenues in the financial year of 2007 (2008, p.41), which demonstrates that the wireless segment is the leading business in AT&T.

Similarly, AT&T’s wireline segment also contributed approximately 47% of the total in the financial year 2011 (Mint Global –Company Report of AT&T Inc., 2011, p.5).The Top Ten Telecom Service Providers, explains that the main source of income from wireline services are fixed-line voice and data services to retail, wholesale and business customers both domestically and internationally. For additional information, please refer to the pie graph in Appendix A, which clearly demonstrated that the services of wireline segment included data/ managed and voice services as well as the revenues generated from this segment. (Appendix A).

Besides wireless and wireline, AT&T Incorporation also earns money (makes profits) from business channels, such as advertising and publishing, but they only accounts5% the revenue earned in year 2011. The Mint Global Company Report summaries that the other segments of AT&T includes customer information services, advertising solutions, publishing, and investments in other companies such as Telefonos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. and America Movil, S.A. de C.V (Mint Global –Company Report of AT&T Inc., 2011, p.7). For advertising solutions and publishing, AT&T publishes Yellow & White Pages directories; sells directory advertising and internet-based advertising as well as the local search advertising. This segment sells advertising services throughout the United States, with its print directory operations primarily in. 22 different states (Mint Global –Company Report of AT&T Inc., 2011, p.8). During 2011, the Advertising Solutions segment provided approximately 3% of the total operating revenues. Other services contributed 1% of the company’s revenues in 2007 and included operations of the company’s business integration software and services subsidiaries (Schuk, 2011, p.41). All together, these segments contributed 5% of the total revenues in 2007 (Schuk, 2011, p.41).

Today, AT&T Inc. has become the largest telecom company in the world with revenues of $126 billion in 2011, partly due to the “acquisition of BellSouth in 2006” (The Top Ten Telecom Service Providers Positioning, performance and SWOT analyses, 2008, p.18). The reports from Hoover’s Company Records – In-depth Records, 2012, AT&T Inc. states that AT&T has been using acquisitions as a growth strategy to buy-out smaller rival T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom. The transaction valued at$39 billion in cash and stocks and as a result further expanded AT&T’s mobile data capabilities, service areas and subscriber numbers (LexisNexis Company Dossier, 2012, p.24). After the acquisition, AT&T had to pay Deutsche Telekom a break-up fee valued at about $6 billion, including $3 billion in cash, along with wireless spectrum licenses and a national roaming agreement worth another $3 billion (LexisNexis Company Dossier, 2012, p.24). In summary, AT&T’s 2011 Financial Statement displays the fact that the expensive acquisition of T-Mobile has substantially increase the company’s profits for 2011, and also represents that the acquisition has help the company to become the most recognized wireless carrier in the US (The Top Ten Telecom Service Providers Positioning, performance and SWOT analyses, 2008, p18).

SWOT Analysis of AT&T Inc.

As a market leader, the strengths of AT&T are clearly visible. As the leading telecommunication provider in the USA, AT&T has established a well-known and one of the most recognizable brands in the nation. The highly recognizable name allows the company’s products to be more noticeable in the highly competitive market and has the possibility of creating brand-loyalty through superior products and services. As well, the company currently has the biggest market shares in the United States, and with such large customer base the company can achieve higher profitability through operating efficiency and economy of scales. Furthermore, by acquiring competitors such as T-Mobile, AT&T is able to further increase their market shares, diverse their product lineups, and eliminating competitions. Last but not least, AT&T’s strong financial position in the US offers the opportunities to “further invest in new technologies and deployment of its IP network” (The Top Ten Telecom Service Providers Positioning, performance and SWOT analyses, 2008, p. 46).

Inversely, there are also weaknesses that exist in AT&T’s operations. For instance, although AT&T is the market leader in the USA, their operations are much limited in comparison. As US’s telecommunication and wireless service markets heading towards maturity, untapped foreign markets can be extremely attractive for large corporations. In addition, as AT&T has such large customer base, providing timely, quality customer services may be difficult and expensive for the company.

Opportunity wise, the telecommunication and wireless services are growing at an extremely fast pace in developing countries such as China and India. Similarly, acquiring the ownership interests in domestic and international corporations can help AT&T to further expand their influences in both of the domestic and foreign markets. From a technological perspective, AT&T has the financial resource and the technology to become a leader in 4G technology.

Aside from outside opportunities, external threats could hinder the operations of AT&T. The biggest threat faced by the company is the intensely competitive and increasingly saturated domestic market. Other telecommunication giants, such as Verizon Wireless are fiercely competing with AT&T for the position of the market leader. As well, the US market has reached its maturity and therefore does not offer huge potentials for long-term sustainable growth (Competitive Landscape, 2012, p. 64). Internationally, foreign political restrictions can increase the barrier of entry for AT&T. For example, until recently, Canada Government has not allowed foreign telecommunication companies to enter in Canada’s market. Even through this restriction has no longer exists; AT&T is still facing intense competition from Canadian firms.

A SWOT table is provided below:

AT&T Inc. Merged

The strengths of operations of AT&T are bringing the opportunities, and positively influence company growth; otherwise, AT&T would encounter the risks from the highly competitive market in the United States and impose challenges on the growth of AT&T in the future. The report of The Top Ten Telecom Service Providers Positioning, performance and SWOT analyse confirms that the US [telecommunications] market is a highly competitive market (2008, p.48); however, AT&T not only faces furious competitions from other local telecommunication companies, but also has to share the market with them, at the same time, confront the challenge of “competitions from international firms operating in the US market” (The Top Ten Telecom Service Providers Positioning, performance and SWOT analyses, 2008, p.48). Because of the strong competitions, AT&T Corporation was broken up and merged on SBC on November 18th 2005 with changed name to AT&T Incorporation. After that, AT&T Inc. has been trying to outspread in telecommunications industry, so it purchased BellSouth completed on December 29^th, 2006 with deal valued at more than $65 billion (Competitive Landscape, 2012, p.67). In 2011, “AT&T sought to merge with T-Mobile USA. Although the company has historically favored republicans in its political giving, people and political action committees can associated with AT&T” (The Mobile Enterprise: Moving to the Next Generation., n.d.).To sum up, the mergers of AT&T Inc. help the company to prosper; meanwhile, expand its shares in new markets, and therefore increase their size in existing markets.

The activities between AT&T and consumers

Likewise, the company of AT&T Inc. also provides high-quality services for its consumers as well as government, which strengthens the benign relationship among them. The strengthened relationship would create a win-win situation, and increase profits to the company. The conventional telecommunication of AT&T Inc., brings revolutionary smartphones, next-generation TV services, broadband network and some other services all together for both customers who are in the US and multi-national businesses located in the most countries, which can be the new solutions crossing through the worldwide for consumers and businesses by “driving innovation in the communications and entertainment industry” (AT&T: Rethink Possible, 2012).The official website of AT&T concludes that “AT&T is the only national U.S. TV service provider to offer a 100-percent IP-based television service” to the consumers, which focused on delivering the high-quality customer service that is AT&T heritage (AT&T: Rethink Possible, 2012).

Furthermore, AT&T might be best known for its consumer phone service; however, the use of its technology to track business, which cannot be underestimated. For the government, AT&T applies AT&T Government Solutions, which are a business unit within AT&T Corp (NYSE:T) and a provider of network-enabled solutions for the US federal government AT&T (Government Solutions announces selection as prime vendor for US DHS., 2012). This shows the relationship between the government and company. On the other hand, the operation conflicts are also coming off between AT&T and government. According to the news from August 31^st 2011, AT&T has ended its effort of buying T-Mobile USA, acknowledging that it could not overcome stiff opposition by the U.S. government to form the United States’ biggest cellphone service provider (Murph, 2011), which prove the news about when the deal of AT&T merger small rival T-Mobile USA fell apart amid strong government opposition in 2012, also displays the direct governmental manipulations or interventions toward company policy.

Board of directors of AT&T Inc.

Just like any other public corporations the board of directors of AT&T are elected by shareholders and they are mainly responsible for overseeing the performance of the upper management, ensuring that the management is acting upon the best interest of the shareholders, and establishing overall broad corporate policies to make sure the company is maximizing values for shareholders.

The 2012 Proxy Statement of AT&T Inc. provides several tables to present the basic information on the current board of directors of the company, as well as summarizes the common stock ownership of major shareholders. The Proxy Statement report states that there are 12 board of directors who are also shareholders that have attended the AT&T Inc. 2012 Annual Shareholder Meeting. These directors are Randall L. Stephenson, Gilbert F. Amelio, Reuben V. Anderson, James H. Blanchard, Jaime Chico Pardo, James P. Kelly, Jon C. Madonna, Lynn M. Martin, John B. McCoy, Joyce M. Roché, Matthew K. Rose, and Laura D’AndreaTyson (General Electric, 2012c).

Among the 12 board of directors, there are only 3 female directors: Martin, Tyson, and Roché, which means that women occupy 25% of the total seats on the board. As a matter of fact, this percentage of the female board member is much higher than most companies. What is more, even though there are only four outside directors among 12 nominees, namely Tyson, Pardo, Madonna, and Kelly, the qualifications of each director is preeminent and can greatly contribute to the operation of AT&T Inc. despite of the lower ratio compared to other companies.

For example, James P. Kelly is 68 year old, who was the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of United Parcel Service, Inc. from 1997 until 2002 in Atlanta, Georgia. During that period of the time, the company of United Parcel Service has “grew beyond its core package delivery business to become a global supply chain management concern” (Corporate Governance, 2012). In 2000, Mr. Kelly has been as a Director of BellSouth. Until the company was acquired by AT&T in 2006, Kelly became one of the boards of directors, who was working on both the Audit Committee and the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. At the same time, he has also directed another two companies, such as Dana Corporation (2002-2008) and Hewitt Associates Inc. (2002-2007) (Corporate Governance, 2012). As a board of director the qualifications of Mr. Kelly are positively boosting his achievement in management. For instance, “Kelly has extensive experience in the executive oversight of a complex, multinational organization and his vast experience in strategic planning, logistics, and consumer marketing, all issues that AT&T faces as a large, international company. His qualifications also include his six years of service as a director of a telecommunications company that we acquired” (General Electric, 2012c).

Next, Madonna, age 68, is the Chair of the Audit Committee. From 1990 – 1996, he worked as senior leader at KPMG (an international accounting and consulting firm in New York, New York). After that, Mr. Madonna jointed Travelers Group Inc. from 1997 to 1998 and President and Carlson Wagonlit Corporate Travel, Inc. from 1999 to 2000. After that, he was working in Digital Think Inc. which is an e-commerce company, from 2001 to 2004. Mr. Madonna served as a Director of AT&T Corp. from 2002 until now. At the same time, he has also served other four companies, such as Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. , Tidewater Inc., Jazz Technologies Inc. (2007-2008), Phelps Dodge Corporation (2003-2007); and Visa U.S.A. Inc. (2006-2007). (Corporate Governance, 2012).Mr. Madonna has such a wealth of work experiences, which give him strong executive leadership skills. Likewise, his rich experience in public accounting, which gained from a major accounting firm that he worked for, as well as his familiarity in international business and affairs, all strongly attribute to the Board of AT&T. His qualifications also include his service as a director across diverse, publicly traded companies, including his prior service on the board of a telecommunications company that we acquired (General Electric, 2012c).

Furthermore, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, who is one of the female directors in AT&T Inc., 64 year old. She has very sophisticated expertise in economic, management and business domain because she had been working as a professor of business at Dean of London Business School, London, England, from 2002 until 2006, and Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley from 1998 to 2001. Dr. Tyson. Also, Dr. Tyson has been a member of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and National Economic Adviser for the President of the United States. She has been taking up a position of director of at AT&T since 1999 and she is a member of the Audit Committee, the Corporate Development Committee and the Finance/Pension Committee. “The qualifications of Dr. Tyson to serve on the Board include her expertise in economics and public policy, her experience as an advisor in various business and political arenas, and her vast knowledge of international business and affairs, all strong attributes for the board of AT&T. Her qualifications also include her experience serving as a director of several publicly traded companies, as well as her prior service as a director of a telecommunications company that we acquired”(General Electric, 2012c).

The table that lists the Current Board Members is provided in the Proxy Statement and contains basic information, such as age, sex, number of years on the board, principal occupation, and committees of the directors regarding each director (Appendix B). In the table, it shows that all the directors’ ages are ranged from 51 to 72 years old. The Chairman of the Board, who is also the Chief Executive Officer and President of AT&T Inc., is Randall L. Stephenson. He is 51 years old as of 2012 which is also the youngest member of the board. In contrast, Lynn M. Martin is the oldest director currently serving on the board. The average age of all the directors is 64.8 year old and the average age of women directors is around 66.7,which can be an advantage directly reflects on the running of the company. Since the ages of all the directors are around senior year, ages display that all the directors may have professor experiences, which assists AT&T Inc. become more stable. For the longest serving board members, Martin, McCoy, Roche and Tyson all have been on the board for over a decade, dating even before the year 2000. Roche is the oldest director in AT&T who has been with the company since1998. On the other hand, Jaime, who is in charged with audit and corporate development is the youngest director and has been with the company for 4 years. The median number of years of serving on board is 8.5 years, but it also represents that the board of AT&T Inc. is stable, which would be one of the positive aspect on the growth of the company.

Likewise, the table also shows the different principal occupations and committees of each director. Generally speaking, the board can be divided into 7 different committees, and they include Executive, Human Resources, Public Policy, Finance and Pension, Corporate Governance and Nominating, Corporate development, and Audit. The table below lists all the committees as well as the corresponding board members who take charge of the committees (Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders and Proxy Statement, 2012):

Directors in different committees have different responsibilities and obligations. For example, the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee include 4 board members. According to Proxy Statement, these directors are responsible for identifying candidates who are eligible under the qualification standards set forth in the Corporate Governance Guidelines to serve as members of the Board. For example, Stephenson, Randall L., who is a Chairman, CEO, and President, of AT&T Inc. At the same time, he also is the chairman of the Executive Committee who has the authority to exercise all the power within committee. More importantly, other board directors as well as upper management are under his direct command (Corporate Governance, 2012). James H. Blanchard, the chair of Corporate Development and Finance Committee of the board of Directors of AT&T Inc. In his committee, all the members have the power to review and manage the financial status, capital structure, financing activities and pension matters of AT&T Inc. Also, Financial Committee shall annually evaluate the Committee’s own performance and share such evaluation with the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee (Corporate Governance, 2012).

In the end, after viewing the operation of AT&T Inc. and the qualifications of each director, some interlocks within the board can be discover and other major companies, such as National Lambda Rail , Apple and Google, Verizon and Sprint Nextel Corp, which can also bring benefits and assist the future growth of AT&T Inc. According to Digital Journal, July 25, 2012 the company National Lambda Rail (NLR) and AT&T Inc. jointly contribute the networking solution to “virtually connect major cancer centers, universities, medical schools, research hospitals, laboratories and other institutions across the United States” (The Caring Network: National Lambda Rail and AT&T Collaborate on High-Speed Network Connections for Leading Health Sciences Institutions, 2012, para5), which not just help institutions to be involved in illness prevention program, and also attract large amount institutions to participate in the program; thus increasing business consumers can raise the revenues for both NLR Inc and AT&T Inc. Furthermore, AT&T Inc. also has the connections with both Apple Inc. and Google Inc., which caused AT&T to add almost 1.3 million more wireless customers in the reported quarter, totaling 105.2 million in income. Moreover, “strong additions were attributable to the continued adoption of smartphones by Apple Inc. ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhones and Google Inc .’s ( GOOG ) Android based phones as well as increased sales of tablets and connected devices such as automobile monitoring systems and security systems” (Equity,2012, para7).

On the other hand, AT&T Inc. also shares market with its competitors, such as Verizon Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson (2012) in his article summarized that AT&T shares data plans with its competitor Verizon, which is “intended to stimulate the adoption of non-phone devices such as tablet computers and USB modems for laptops by making monthly service cheaper” (p.1). In addition, the advantages of market sharing can increase more consumers and weaken the local competition. Thus, AT&T Inc. establishes interactions and connection with other companies, which can benefit them with income increasing and competition alleviating in the United States market.

Conclusion

In conclusion, AT&T Inc. is successful in the United Stated Telecommunications Industry because it provides the innovative, reliable, high-quality products and services and excellent customer care, while all the above characteristics lay foundation for their healthy return. Besides, AT&T also has the powerful and effective management running through the whole corporation thus is capable of meeting various demands from different market consumers and competitors of both the local and the international markets. Furthermore, AT&T Inc. also merges and integrates some major companies to better adapt the tough competitions in the United States. What is more, it balances the operations and all types of committees’ settings can benefit the income and consumers at the same time. In fact, the composition of its consumers can be diverse such as business or government. However, they all work to influence the media industry in the face of formidable globalization in USA.AT&T Inc. has created significant advantages through their special operation systems, and they have developed to manage all kinds of dynamic activities through each committee. The data from AT&T Inc. Official Websites and Proxy Statement have provided specific table to show how AT&T Inc. manage to make profits and how board of directors serve the company as well as what kind of interlocks between AT&T Inc. and other companies, which are wonderful and useful sources for this assignment. The four segments of AT&T Inc. show that how AT&T Inc. earns revenue from consumers. By reviewing and comparing the 12 board of directors in the annual meeting of stockholders on April 27^th, 2012, each stockholder presented that they occupied different positions in the committee, which contributed to the overall the operations of AT&T Inc. Comparing the current AT&T Inc. with other major companies in the United States telecommunications industries, AT&T Inc. offers different services to consumers and other companies, which incorporate, integrate and globalize different kinds of consumers and business and if combined jointly, they also can forge AT&T Inc. a strong brand and make it a big winner in the telecommunication industry in the United States.

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Appendix A

 Appendix B

Table of Content

Part A: Narrative Chronology of the Policy Process
Part B: Stakeholder Profiles
Part C: International Comparison
Part D: Discourse Analysis/ Conclusion
Part E: Works Cited
Part F: Works Consulted

Part A: Narrative Chronology of the Policy of Same Sex Marriage

May 1999: The Supreme Court of Canada in Ontario publishes a landmark decision: same-sex couples should has equal rights treatment under the constitution of Canada, and challenges the opposite-sex definition of “spouse” in a section of the province’s Family Law Act (Library Parliament, 2010, p 6).

2000: The Supreme Court of Canada enacts Bill C-23, which “advocates for extending the marriage option to same-sex couples” and renew equality rights constitution (Library Parliament, 2010, p.12).

January 14, 2001: After the Supreme Court ruling in support of same-sex marriage in Canada, the first legal same-sex marriage wedding was performed at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, Ontario. Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell became the first legalized same-sex couples in Canada (Elliott, 2004, p.591).

June 2002: Poll by Strategic Counsel and Focus on Family Canada asked the question: “whether homosexual couples should be allowed to become legally married in Canada or not, Do you, personally, believe that homosexual couples should or should not be allowed to marry? … 46% of Canadians favoured same-sex marriage; 44% disagreed” (Robinson, 2005).

June 10 2003: Current Senator Hon. Gerry St. Germain announced and determined the decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal that “same-sex marriages should be legal under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and called upon Parliament to change the definition of marriage accordingly” (Official Report (Hansard), 2003).

May, 2003: The British Columbia Court of Appeal reversed the Supreme Court judgment and upheld the common-law rule barring same-sex marriage (Library of Parliament, 2005).

July 8, 2003: B.C. Court of Appeal passed the Supreme Court judgment and became “the second province to end marriage discrimination against gay and lesbian couples” in Canada (Equal Marriage, 2003, para1).

March 16, 2004: Quebec Court of Appeal decided to enable “same-sex couples to marry legally in the province with immediate effect”. Later on, in the same year, provinces of Yukon, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador also subsequently approved the judgment from the Supreme Court in July, September, November and December, respectively. (Library Parliament, 2010, p 14)

June 23, 2005: New Brunswick became the eighth province to legalize same-sex marriage when a Court of Queen’s Bench Charter ruling redefined civil marriage in the province in gender neutral terms. (Library of Parliament, 2005)

July 20, 2005: After both House of Commons and Senate passed Bill C-38 to the Canadian Royal Assent, The Civil Marriage Act Bill C-38 became a law in Canada. It represented Same-Sex marriage ( The rights in Canadian provinces and Territories) in Canada, which included the last four provinces and shows that the court in provinces of Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut territory, and the Northwest Territories also passed the same judgment regarding same-sex marriage. (Library of Parliament, 2005)

December 7, 2006: The House of Commons effectively reaffirmed the legislation by a vote of 175 to 123, defeating a Conservative government motion to examine the matter again. The result for this vote is that “The motion had asked the government to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages”. This was the third vote for supporting same-sex marriage taken by three Parliaments under three Prime Ministers in three different years (MPs defeat bid to reopen same-sex marriage debate, 2006).

Part B: Stakeholder Profiles

Bill C-38 is also known as “The Civil Marriage Act”. The bill itself intends to legalize same-sex marriage in Canada. Before Bill C-38 was officially passed by the House of Commons and the Senate on June 20, 2005 (Library of Parliament, 2005), there were 21 committee meetings that were held by the House of Commons Committee to discuss the legitimacy of Bill C-38. Besides the members of parliaments, various stakeholders were also invited to join the debates. The table below lists all the stakeholders that have presented in the committee meetings:

The stakeholders can be organized into three different groups – Government, NGOs, and Individuals. (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, 2004 – 2005).

Government

The governmental stakeholders, Department of justice and the Law Commission of Canada mainly provided statistical data regarding marriage, as well as identify the meaning of “marriage” from a legal point of view.

The goals of the Department of Justice are to approach and balance the Canadian justice systems as well as legally represent the Canadian government during the debates. (Department of Justice, 2011). In meeting 3, the Senior Counsel of Department of Justice, Lisa Hitch noted that the statistics that are tracked by the province annually shows that there are over 3,000 homosexual couples have been married in Canada from court decisions. Among them, 65% to 70% were Canadians. The specific statistics are clear to show that same-sex marriage has become more and more common in Canada. (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, May 12 2005).

Later on, during the 9^th meeting on June 1, 2005, the President of Law Commission of Canada, Nathalie Des Rosier, presented an important summary from a report called “Beyond Conjugality”. The report aims to “to determine the issues of concern to Canadian society, and the question of the diversity of family structures in relation to the legal framework emerged at that time”. In short, Nathalie, acting on behave of the Law Commission of Canada, suggested that “In fact, the idea was to extend access to marriage to same-sex spouses. This solution, which I’m submitting to you, is still the best”. (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, June 1 2005).

In the 21^st meeting, Lisa Hitch from the Department of Justice defined the meaning of marriage that “Marriage is for civil union of two persons to exclusion of all others”, which can protect people who believe that marriage has an opposite–sex requirement. Also, Hitch explained how ‘incapacity’ for marriage should be interpreted. (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, June 15 2005).

NGOs

On the other hand, some non-governmental, nonprofit organizations have also appeared and presented their positions regarding Bill C-38 in the committee meetings. There were a total of 31 NGO stakeholders and each of them provided different opinions regarding Bill C-38.

For example, Crossroads Christian Communications founder David Mainse and Lawyer Ian Purvis discussed the religious perspective of Bill C-38. Finally, they agreed with the position of Bill C-38 and think that “in order to reflect values of tolerance, respect and equality consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, access to marriage for civil purposes should be extended to couples of the same sex” (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, June 14 2005).

Furthermore, the nation-wide organization Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbian and Gay Persons (Canada) also presented in committee meetings. The mission of this organization is to provide support, education, and resources to individuals or families that dealing with sexual orientation and gender identity issues. Bill Siksay, a member of the PFLAG described his personal experiences in the meeting and advocated in favour for same-sex marriage. (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, May 31 2005).

Additionally, a member of the National Executive of the Chinese Canadian National Council and President of its Ottawa chapter, Jonas Ma, noted that “the Chinese Canadian National Council is a national non-profit organization … to promote the equality rights and full participation of Chinese Canadians in all aspects of Canadian society”. Representing the Chinese Canadian National Council in the committee meeting, Ma stated that the “Council has worked towards the protection of equality rights for all Canadians, including different minority groups such as the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities. There are also gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Chinese Canadians. Over the past decades, the council has worked with them, their families, and other supportive groups to promote the understandings and to fight against to the homophobia within our community and in the general public”. Hence, this statement clearly shows that the Chinese Canadian National Council is in support for Bill C-38. (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, June 6 2005)

Others/ Individuals

Besides government and NGOs, various individuals, often experts in the field of law and politics, were invited to the debate. Most of these individuals are professors from various universities, such as Université du Québec à Montréal, Osgoode Hall Law School, and McGill University. For example, in meeting 19, Professor Hugo Cyr from the Université du Québec à Montréal, representing 133 of his colleagues, wrote a letter to the Hon. Stephen Harper, Leader of the Opposition to Bill C-38. In the letter Mr. Hugo Cyr used engage tone to refute the leader of the Opposition’s opinion that “intends to propose amendments to limit the definition of marriage to only opposite-sex couples”. As an expert in Canadian law and political system, Hugo Cyr, also acting on behave of 133 of his colleagues, said to Steven Harper that, “As law professors, we strenuously disagree. You must be completely honest with Canadians about the unconstitutionality of your proposal, which will only guarantee that same-sex marriage ends up back before the courts as opposed to being resolved by Parliament”. He also commented that in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and the Yukon are now unanimously of the view that the definition of marriage that excludes same-sex couples is unconstitutional. (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, June 6 2005).

After that, the Osgoode Hall Law School professor Bruce Ryder also supported Bill C-38, and explained how the bill fulfills Parliament’s constitutional responsibilities to respect equality rights and to render uniform the definitions of marriage across the country and how the bill poses no threat to religions. (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, June 6 2005).

Also, Professor Katherine Young from McGill University proposed amendments to Bill C-38. She discussed an article she published in The Globe and Mail, which “is relevant to her discussion of academic freedom between same sex issues”. Moreover, she redefined the meanings of marriage to include same-sex couples. Young also commented that, “Modern western democracies have recognized that children are the most vulnerable group of all because they lack the maturity to give their informed consent” (Legislative Committee on Bill C-38, June 13 2005). Based on this view, with the new marriage legislation being proposed, people not only need to study about the longitudinal and the generations, but also compared with the children born through reproductive technologies or reared by two married social parents of the same sex with children reared by their married biological parents.

Beside those stakeholders, there is some other stakeholder Groups that did not make presentations during the legislative committee on Bill C-38, but have relevant interests in policy, such as HEU Lesbian and Gay Standing Committee and Service Canada. For HEU Lesbian and Gay Standing Committee, it is a hospital employees’ union organization, that “works to improve and enhance awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, two-spirited, intersex, queer and questioning members of union [, and] provides a networking support system to guarantee HEU members have a safe, positive and harassment-free workplace” (Pink Triangle Standing Committee).

On the other hand, Service Canada is a governmental body that is responsible for issuing marriage certificates within Canada (Service Canada, 2011). With the allowances of same-sex couples, Service Canada will have to adjust its marriage certificate requirements to reflect the change that was bringing upon by Bill C-38.

Part C: International Comparison between Canada and United States

Bill C-38 was proclaimed into law by the Canadian Royal Assent in July 20, 2005, which means that the same-sex marriage is now allowed by legislation. How about our neighbor country, the United States? Does the US have the same policy as Canada? What law does the US government have for gays and lesbians? Comparing the US with Canada, both of Canada and the United States are located in the North America and their governments are all based on a democratic system, but they hold different positions while they are facing the same-sex marriage issues. Therefore, the international Comparison section will examines the similarities and differences between the treatments of same-sex couples in Canada and the United States.

Firstly, Bill C-38 redefined the definition of “marriage” with the inclusions of same-sex partners in Canada. In contrast, the Defense of Marriage Act in the United States holds the opposite opinions to Bill C-38 (Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships, 2012, para 7). Moreover, homosexual marriage in Canada is legally allowed nationwide. Differently, only a small number of states in America currently allow same-sex marriage, such as   New York City, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. (Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships, 2012, para 2).

Secondly, the scope of same-ex marriage is different between Canada and the United States. In Canada, on January 14, 2001, the first legal same-sex marriage wedding was held at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto after an Ontario Court of Appeal’s ruling that decided to legalize same-sex marriage within the Ontario province (Douglas, 2004, p.591). Afterwards, other provinces like British Columbia, Quebec, and Yukon, also legalized homosexual marriage in each of their respective provinces. Even before Bill C-38 was officially passed, the trend was that the same-sex marriages were becoming legal throughout the whole Canada. However, in the United States, Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage becomes legal in 2004 because it was required under the equal protection clause of the state’s Constitution and Vermont became the first state in the nation to legalize same sex-marriage through legislative action without a judicial order to do so (The Vermont Legislature, 2002).

Part D: Discourse Analysis

Same-sex marriage has always been a controversial topic in Canada. The debates surrounding Bill C-38 highlights the fact that each major political party has very distinctive values and beliefs when compared with each other. On one side, we have the Liberal Party of Canada, which is the one responsible for introduction Bill C-38 legislation. In order to gain more supports, the Liberals have teamed up with the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Quebecois (Bloc) to fight for the passing of Bill C-38. On the other side is the Conservative Party of Canada (Tories), the major opponent to Bill C-38 and its supporters (Political Parties of Canada 2012).Therefore, the standoff can be divided as such:

Proponent(s): Most of the members of the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois

Opponent(s): Most of members of the Tories

The Liberals, NDP, and Bloc are all left-winged parties in Canada, and therefore they are more willing to “give up” traditional Christian values that used to dominates Western cultures and support individual freedom and choices.

The Conservatives, as the name suggests, has a strong respect for traditional values, in particular, Christian values or beliefs. These values are conflicting with Bill C-38 because gay rights are often not accepted in traditional Christian culture.

The Liberals, NDP, and Bloc support Bill C-38 because they put more emphasis on individual rights. They believe that all individuals should have the right to make their own choices, and everyone in the society should be treated equally, regardless of their sex-preferences. Therefore, they support that homosexual couples should have the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples.

The Conservatives believe that traditional Christian values should be preserved in society. As same-sex marriage was never acceptable in the past, therefore same-sex marriage should not be acceptable in present time as well.

Under these two very different perspectives, the debates for the passing of Bill C-38 are very intense. On one hand, withholding traditional values as morally acceptable guidelines is important; on the other hand, respecting equality and individual freedom is also essential in Canada. For the Liberals, NDP, the Bloc, and other supporters of Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act represents an achievement in the movement for individual freedom and equality as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For the Conservatives and other opponents of Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act represents a deviation from the traditional morals that Canada was founded on. While Bill C-38 has officially passed by the Parliament, the debates regarding the rights for gays, lesbians, and transvestites will carry on for many years. Steven Harper, the leader of the Conservatives in 2005, even promised to the media that he will revisit the Civil Marriage Act in the near future (Same-sex marriage law passes 158-133, 2005).

Conclusion

To sum up, the chronology of the policy, The Civil Marriage Act of Bill-C38, shows the process of law making and the reason Bill C-38 was officially passed by the House of Commons, the Senate and the Royal Assents. By review the presentations from the stakeholders in the community meetings, each stakeholder presented their takes on the issue to the committee, which contributed to the overall democratic legislative process for Bill C-38. Comparing the current same-sex marriage policy in Canada and United States, Canadian and United States’ governments recognize same-sex marriage differently. With the passing of Bill C-38, the Liberals and the Conservative party hold very distinctive opinions on Bill C-38. In the end, after Bill C-38 was passed, the same-sex marriage is now legally recognized nationally in Canada.

Works Cited

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Introduction and Overview

The development of telecommunication technology in the 21^st millennium has significant increased the speed and quality of which people communicate and gather information. The Internet as one of the new tools for telecommunication has become immensely popular around the global. As author Greenaway states in his (her) research, there is a growing “patterns of Internet use among rural and urban dwellers [in Canada]”. (Greenaway, 2004, para1).

Statistics provided by The Daily provided data to support Greenaway’s finding, as it reports that Internet usage in small-towns has increased from 58% in 2005 (Statistic Canada, 2007, para4) to more than 79% in 2010 (Statistic Canada, 2007, para1). As the Internet is becoming extremely popular in even some of the isolated areas in Canada, it would be interesting to investigate whether Internet usage in Canada’s urban areas is more than its rural counterparts.

Is Internet more popular in cities than rural towns? Many statistical studies and reports seem to support the fact that Internet usage in urban cities is higher than smaller towns. For example, a table provided by Statistic Canada shows that in 2007, 92.6% of urban civilians used E-mail for telecommunication, compared to 89.2% E-mail usage in rural areas (Appendix D). Furthermore, a different table of Statistic Canada shows that urban areas’ Internet usage is higher than rural areas in both 2005 and 2007 (Appendix D).

What are the reasons for this difference among urban and rural areas? The main causes for the disparity will be discussed later in this paper.

Synopsis of Major Statistic Reports

A publication of Statistic Canada relating to this issue provides several charts to show the difference in Internet usage between 2005 and 2007 within each province. These charts also provide information regarding 2005 and 2007 internet usage in Canada’s urban and rural areas in percentage form (Appendix A, D). These charts clearly demonstrated that there is an obvious increase of Internet use between the two year gaps. The tables illustrate that internet usage has grown in all provinces within Canada between 2005 and 2007. Interestingly, provinces such as British Columbia and Alberta that are considered highly urbanized have higher Internet usage percentage than provinces such as Newfoundland or New Brunswick (Appendix A). Moreover, this table also shows that Canada’s urban cities overall have higher interest usage percentages than less developed rural areas.

Data from the CANSIM 3580135 also provides similar results. Between 2005 and 2009, the CANSIM data confirms that internet usage has increased significantly in both urban and rural areas (Appendix B). The CANSIM also reports that population wise; British Columbia has more than 3.6 million Internet users province-wide in 2009, while the Atlantic Provinces only have 1.9 million Internet users in the same year (Appendix B). Furthermore, The CANSIM 3580130 table illustrates the fact that Internet usage percentage among urban and rural areas in recent years. For example, the data suggests that over 74.6% of urban residents have access to Internet in 2009, while only 61.9% of people livening in rural areas have access to Internet in 2009 (Appendix C). Last but not least, these tables also detailed how other factors, such as age, gender, and education affect on both urban and rural internet users and how urban and rural Canadians participate with internet activities (Veenhof et al, 2008, p29).

Findings and Discussions

The statistic findings from Statistic Canada and CANSIM illustrate three important trends in Canadian’s Internet usage:

First of all, internet usage percentage has increased in all parts of Canada from 2005 to 2009, as demonstrated by the charts in Appendix A and Appendix B.

In Appendix A, the Statistic Canada’s chart shows that internet usage percentage have increased in all provinces between 2005 and 2007. In particular, British Columbia have increased from an approximately 63% in 2005 to 80% in 2007. The CANSIM data in Appendix B also shows that Internet users in B.C. have increased from 3.31 million residents in 2005 to more than 3.68 million in 2009. Other provinces also had similar increase in Internet users between the four year gaps.

There are many reasons for the increase in popularity of the Internet in Canada. For example, the development of new internet technology, such as the wireless Internet and 3G network has allowed more convenient Internet access to Canadians. Furthermore, many public places, such as restaurants (eg: Starbucks and McDonald), hotels, and schools now provide free high-speed Internet access to the general public. This allows the Internet to be used more broadly, not limiting internet access to only homes or workplaces. Similarly, many portable electronic devices, such as tablets, gaming consoles, and smart phones all support Internet access. The advancement in portable electronic devices has allowed more convenient and timely access to the World Wide Web for Canadian residents (2010, p.1). Last but not least, traditional services, such as bill payments, flight bookings, and car rentals can all be done through internet in a speedy manner.

Next, provinces that are more modernized have higher Internet usage percentage, as demonstrated by the chart in Appendix D.

Canada Year Book (2011) reports that 85% of the populations in BC and AB have internet access, making them the national highest in terms of Internet usage percentage. People living in Vancouver, Victoria, and Edmonton, the most urban centers in these two provinces, have above 85% internet at home, which is higher than other cities and small towns (p.276). The main reason for both BC and AB provinces to have such high Internet usage percentage could be because that high-speed wireless Internet is more common in cities such as Vancouver or Edmonton. The Daily states that states that there are 88% of households that have access to high-speed Internet, “up from 80% two years earlier”(Statistic Canada, 2010, para12).

Lastly, urban cities in Canada have higher Internet usage percentage than rural areas, as demonstrated by the charts in Appendix A and Appendix C

The Daily also summarizes that in 2010, 81% of households had home internet access who are located in census metropolitan areas, compared with 71% of households outside of this areas in rural town (2011, para2), this also gives support to the fact that internet had already entered into urban Canadian family more than rural residents.

Also, researcher points out that the internet participations in urban Canada are greater than those in rural areas because of the high-speed internet services (Dewing, 2010, p.4). The Daily details that over 9 in 10 urban home users start using high-speed connections; in contrast, only over 7 in 10 in rural families. (Statistic Canada, 2008, para15) As urban cities have higher and more centralized population, high-speed internet providers can make a reasonable return from setting up high-speed Internet services for city users. In contrast, population in smaller rural towns is much less than the cities. Therefore, Internet service providers could be reluctant to set up faster Internet services in remote places because the return on investment would be marginal at best.

In terms of the summary table by Statistic Canada in Appendix D, it specifics that urban Internet users use Internet for communication more than rural users. There are 92.6% urban Canadians and 89.2% rural dwellers always check email when they use the internet to communicate with others, whereas 71.4% rural users use internet more for the purpose of gathering local information (eg: weather) than 69.3% urban users (Statistic Canada, 2008). The Daily suggests that there is a geographical “independent influence” on Internet usage (Statistic Canada, 2007, para2). As the city leads a busier lifestyle, instantaneous communication has become an integrated part of the urban society. Instant communications are often needed in jobs such as stock trading, which is often located in major cities. In contrast, rural towns are more isolated and focus mainly on agricultural production, hence the need for obtaining road and weather condition updates are higher in rural areas.

Conclusion

Official data from Statistic Canada and CANSIM have provided conclusive information that Internet is increasingly becoming more common in both urban and rural areas in Canada. However, a gap still exists between urban and rural areas in Internet usage. Notes from the Library of Parliament highlights the fact that 76% of urban Canadian used internet, while only 65% rural Canadians (Dewing, 2010, p.4). To shorten the urban and rural gap, fast, inexpensive high-speed internet needs to be extended to more isolated communities.
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Statistic Canada.( 2011). “Chapter#9 Information and communications technology”. Canadian Year Book 2011. Catalogueno.11-402-X. Retrieved 2012 May 27 from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-402-x/2011000/pdf/information-eng.pdf

Statistic Canada. (2011, May 25). “Canadian Internet Use Survey”. The Daily.Retrieved 2012 May 27 from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/110525/dq110525b-eng.htm

Veenhof,B., Wellman,B.,Quell,C.,&Hogan,B. (2008). How Canadians’ use of internet affects social life and civic participation. Index of downloadable Statistics Canada publiction. No.016. Retrieved 2012 May 27 from http://publications.gc.ca.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/Collection/Statcan/56F0004MIE/56F0004MIE.html

Appendixes A

Internet use by Individuals in the last 12 months from any location, by province, 2005 and 2007

 Appendix B

Canadian Internet use survey, Internet shopping, by type of internet shopper and region

 Appendix C

Canadian Internet use survey, Internet use at home, by internet activity, urban or rural distribution

 Appendix D

Selected activities of home internet users, by location of residence, Canada, 2007

尊敬的Dr　Mohamme 先生

您们好！

非常感谢此次沙特之行的盛情款待，您们的真诚与友好更加深了我们之间的友谊，也为我们后续的项目合作奠定了坚实的基础。从现场实地考察回来至今，我公司已迅速成立沙特项目攻关小组，研讨项目实施方案，且在短时间内提出初步的意见及方案，对此我们有信心、有信念来共同完成我们的项目合作。

此次商务考察，得知有200万套规格的政府民生工程，可谓规模宏大、事关国计民生，建设规模及建设周期上的要求都较高。针对此项目，我们经研讨有以下设想：

• 就市场而言：

1、从长远角度出发，合资办厂是必须的，亦是可行的，贵国的建设市场巨大，而此行业的厂尚少或规模小，有巨大的市场潜力；

2、贵公司在贵国的社会人脉关系良好，具备了发展此种行业必备的特点，有利于业务的拓展；

3、我司有专业技术亦有多年的发展经验，从设计、制造及现场施工，亦提供在贵国建筑行业发展此行业的技术支撑，从高、中、低建筑均可满足。

• 从现实条件看，亦有存在不利因素：

1、贵国此行业的从业人员少，专业技术人员欠缺，而培训一个专业的从业人员需1-2年。

2、此行业属劳动密集型企业，重体力、野外施工时间较长，涉及相关行业专业人员多，而贵国劳力缺，重体力劳力更缺。

综上所述，我司的意见：

一、办厂选址、规划、设计，可先行作准备；

二、贵公司先在贵国争取1000-3000幢的承包任务，我司作为贵司的配套供应商，并提供现场的安装施工技术指导及相应的人员培训，为设厂作准备。

我司针对此次考察项目特点，已着手进行设计及相关节点的研发，研发方向为低层钢构架结构，在近期建成样品房供贵司及贵国的相关人员确认。现就钢结构建筑的优势做以下简要分析：

• 、世界所需 建筑之趋 抗震性能好。日本是地震频发国，其建筑多采用钢结构，地震对日本造成的人员伤害较少，社会经济损失也较小。但就土耳其2011年11月地震而言，6级本为中强度地震，造成的损失却重大，人员致死600多人，市中心最出名的巴伊拉姆酒店倒塌，市区20多处建筑坍塌，造成不可以弥补社会创伤。
• 、速度快 由于钢构件可工厂化、机械化、减少劳工、受气候影响小。若是引入大量外籍劳工，势必增大社会管理成本；而采用钢结构为建筑主体材料，恰好解决该潜在问题。
• 、环保 相较传统建筑，约节省水1立方 / 平方， 钢材料可循环利用，多用于民宅、中高层建筑、大型公共建筑、工业厂房、桥、清真寺、等等。

附件1：建厂投资估算

附件2：厂区规划平面图

商祺！

福建鑫晟钢业有限公司

陈夏生

2012年10月12日

Dear Dr. Mohamme:

We would like to first of all express our thanks and gratitude for the exceptional warm reception that we received during our trip to Saudi Arabia. You and your people’s sincerity and friendliness have further improved our already profound friendship, and lay a solid foundation for our future cooperation.

Immediately after our trip from Saudi Arabia, my company have formed a special task team aimed specifically for the construction projects in Saudi Arabia. During the short time frame since the creation of the team, we have discussed extensively regarding the details and feasibility of our preliminary plan for the development and implementation of construction projects. We believe, that as business partners, our each unique expertises will bring synergy to our partnership and lead us to achieve our ultimate goals.

From this business expedition, we realized the importance of Saudi Arabia government’s civilian projects to the people living in the country. Judging from the sheer number of these projects alone, which numbered around two millions, we know that the level of standards and quality required to successfully complete these projects need to be exceptional high. Therefore, after our company’s numerous in-depth discussions, we propose the following assumptions and execution plans:

1. From a market perspective:
2. From a long-term point of view, a joint venture for a new factory is necessary, and also feasible. Saudi Arabia’s construction industry has huge market potentials for profit and growth, with currently only few businesses competing in the industry. Hence, the outlook in this industry is very positive;
3. Your company’s excellent business connections and relationships within the country, as well as your company’s own expertises make your business highly qualify to be successful within this industry;
4. Our company possesses many years of professional knowledge and experiences in the field of construction including design, manufacture, and on-site construction, etc. We will be a valuable asset for your country’s construction industry as we have the expertises in constructing buildings of various heights (i.e. high, middle, and low).
5. Based on current situation, we identified the following problems in the industry:
6. Saudi Arabia currently lacks adequate labour force as well as professionals within the construction industry. Training a professional staff usually takes 1-2 years.
7. The construction industry is heavily labour-focused, characterized by high labour intensity, long working hours in the construction site, and high demands for professional personnel. Saudi Arabia currently lacks adequate manpower for high intensity labour works.

Based on the points above, our company offers the following opinions:

1. At current phase we can start discussions regarding the general plan, design, and suitable sites for the new factory;
2. Your company should try to bid and win 1000-3000 contracts. Our company will act as a supplier by supplying necessary constructing materials to your company. In order to better prepare for the new factory, we will also provide on-site installation technical support and training for personnel.

From what we learned on this business trip, our company has already started to research on the materials suitable for the construction projects. We have decided that the best material suitable for our circumstance is the low-rise steel-frame structure. We will provide buildings build with the low-rise steel-frames as samples for you business and Saudi Arabian agencies for further review and inspection in the very soon future. The advantages of low-rise steel-frames are listed below:

• The current trend around the global is that buildings need to have great earthquake-resistance. Japan as a frequent earthquake country, uses low-rise steel-frames as primary construction materials for its buildings. Consequently, human and financial losses as a result of earthquakes are often minimized. In sharp contrast, the November 2011 earthquake in Turkey was only 5.6-magnitude in scale, but its effect was devastating. More than 20 buildings, including the famous Bayram Hotel, collapsed during the earthquake. More than 600 people were killed, and the financial loss to society was astounding.
• Low-rise steel-frames cost less time to manufacture. The steel-frame components can be industrialized, making mass-production a reality. As a result, labour hours and negative weather factors can be effectively reduced. If Saudi Arabia hires a large quantity of foreign workers, then the societal costs on managing this foreign labour force would be greatly increased. But if the country choose to use low-rise steel-frames as the primary construction material, the potential foreign labour force problem can be effective solved.
• Environmental-friendly. Compare to traditional buildings, low-rise steel-frames can reduce water usage by 1.1 cube/square. Low-rise steel-frames can be recycled and reused on residential buildings, tall buildings, large public buildings, industrial factories, bridges, and mosques, etc.

Attachment 1: New factory investment estimates

Attachment 2: Factory area layout plans

Date:               June 21, 2010

To:                   Dr. Phil George

From:             Belinda Jin

RE:                  Recommendations for how to improve multicultural communication in Canadian day-care centers.
Background:

This report examines communication problems related to cultural and language barriers in Canadian daycare centers. In terms of three different problems found in Canadian day-care centers:

• Parent/Teacher(Volunteer) Communication Barriers
• Child/Teacher(Volunteer) Communication Barriers
• Teacher/Volunteer Communication Barriers

Canada is a multicultural society. There are lots of people from other countries and culture living here. In Canadian kindergartens, preschools and day-cares, there are lots of parents who regularly participate in their children’s day-care activities, even though some of them do not speak English fluently or do not even speak it at all. Also, students often do volunteer work there to get experience with children.

Sometimes, when parents get involved with their children in Canadian multicultural day-care classrooms, there may be some communication problems between teachers and parents. For example, some parents and grandparents who are from different countries cannot speak English, therefore, parents and teachers sometimes finds it difficult to communicate with each other.

Another communication issue in day-care centres is between children and teachers, because most of the children are very young and cannot speak properly. So, if the volunteers and teachers want to fit into children groups and play with them, they need to learn about different ways to communicate with children. However, in case of emergencies, teachers and volunteers may have a hard time communicating with children.

On the other hand, when volunteers bring different cultural values and customs into day-care classrooms to work with kids, it may be hard for teachers and parents to understand. For instance, if an international student volunteers in a day-care centre, they may only speak English to the parents even though the parents are unable to speak English. Therefore, there may be a lack of proper communication between parents, teachers and volunteers when it comes to communicating and understanding each other.

Purpose:

The objective of this report is to make teachers, volunteers and parents who work in Canadian day-care centers aware of some of the multiculturalism-related issues. With this report, I will make recommendations to teachers, parents and volunteers. I will encourage them not only about how to work with children in day-care centers, but also how they can integrate into multicultural Canadian society, have more interpersonal and intercultural opportunities with others, and learn about cultural differences.

Research Methods:

Primary Research

I will connect with my work experience and intend to interview 3 teachers, 3 volunteers, and 3 parents at Family Place Daycare Centre in New Westminster, B.C. During the interview process, I will ask about the relationship between teachers, volunteers and parents, including questions such as: Who determines that relationship? How do they work there? How receptive is management to suggestions from volunteers and parents? How do teachers, parents and volunteers participate with children? I will also ask how they address cultural misunderstandings and communication problems, and what they think the best way to communicate in Family Place and other day-care centers is.

Secondary Research

I will be contacting Family Place (my workplace) and the preschool in Queens Park in New Westminster. Also, I will use the Volunteer Handout from Family Place Day-care and Queens Park Preschool.

I will obtain information about multiculturalism, child care and language barriers from the following sources:

• Article1: Culturally and Ethnically Diverse Communities: Building Blocks for Working Relationships
• Article 2 : Entering a New Peer Group in Ethnically and Linguistically Diverse Childcare Classrooms

Work Plan:

June 3, 2013

Mr. Iarod Harkington
267 Hale Avenue
Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B1

Dear Mr. Harkington:

You Request For You Payment

Thanks for letting us know about your request regarding the reinstatement of your payment. We agree that you are a hard worker, but we also learned that you did surf the internet a lot during your work hours. The decision for paying you a low salary is based on our computer statistics.

For your information, I sent you a memo before which explained about limitations on computer usage: you can only use your computer for work purposes. Furthermore, because the computer equipment belongs to Advertising Inflatable, it is reasonable and legal to record and track all the information on them. I believe your wage is fair according to the record of your computer.

Conversely, if you spend plenty of time working, your accomplishments will be automatically sent to us, which will result in a higher payment. The outcome of your work and your income will be proportional. In a nutshell, I can guarantee that you will be satisfied if you work harder in the future. Since you did many things unrelated to your job, we are sorry to say your current demand for reinstatement of your payment has been declined.

At last, thanks a lot for mentioning our computer system. It reminded me to inform everyone about the facts. I am looking forward to seeing your improved performance in the coming days. We have faith in you. Good luck!

Sincerely,

Belinda Jin
Manager of Human Resources Department

kjc

Enclosure

June 3, 2013
Mr. Arvin Bummel
212 Borealis Drive
Iqaluit, Nunavut XOA OHO

Dear Mr. Bummel:

Granting Your Refund

Thank you for contacting us about your clothing issue. We will grant you the refund as soon as possible.

First, I would like to express our gratitude for letting us know the flaw of our product. We will do our best to figure out the problem in order to provide better products for our customers in the future. Also, your refund consists of the price of your inventory list (pants: $69, shirt: $45) plus the taxes. The refund will be sent directly to your Master Card. In fact, the wool trousers and outfitter’s guide shirt you bought are among our best-selling items. However, the wool clothing may shrink when it is cleaned with water. We are deeply sorry that the cleaning information didn’t reach our customers well.
We will surely address this issue in the future.

Furthermore, we suggest that dry cleaning would better handle those tender clothes like wool products. Also, if you are still interested in our clothing, we recommend some of our machine-washable clothes in the same price range, which are the mountaineer shirt ($42) and camp pants ($74).

If you have any demands, please do not hesitate to let us know. It will be our pleasure to serve you in the coming days.

Sincerely,

Belinda Jin
Sales Manager

kjc

Enclosure

On Tuesday morning, after breakfast, I left my house and headed towards the school while carrying a big black garbage bag. I always dump my garbage on my way to the school because there is a dumpster located between my home and the school. I threw the bag into the dumpster, and then hurriedly left the garbage site.

Later that afternoon, I went back home from school as usual. There was a crowd of people gathering together and chatting with each other near the dumpster. “What’s happening there?” I was very curious so I brushed aside few people and walked inside the landfill.

Wow, a garbage bag?” I thought to myself. There was a big open garbage bag in front of the crowd. Suddenly, a dog’s head rolled out of the bag!! “Oh, my goodness!” “Eeeek!” I screamed in terror.

The decapitated head shocked everyone, including myself. What’s more strange was the fact that the landfill area has already been filled, yet this garbage bag is … is the only thing that still remained…! This region had just been run over by a road roller, but the garbage bag turned out to be intact. Perhaps, the dog’s soul was still lingering near the area. The crowd was scared, and someone called the police to investigate.

It was not until 4 pm when I finally got home. I felt a bit tired, so I went to bed to take a nap. I used quilts to cover my head and slowly I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was already 8 pm. The sun has already gone down and it was already dark outside. I still felt tired, but I did not want to do anything, so I walked to the living room and grabbed the television remote control from the table and turned on the television. The city news was on: “The weird incident of a dog’s head appearing in the landfill at the city of New Westminster today… there was a dead dog without its body found by staffs from the landfill and the dog’s head looked quite cruel” … “Here are the photos of the dog, dog’s owner please contact us at 604-xxx-xxxx…” The dog’s body and its severed head was shown in the news, but blurred out due to the graphic nature of the photo.

Oh, my god! I was talking to myself. I quickly stood up and turned off the TV. However, when I looked up, I saw the dog’s face appeared on the TV screen! The dog’s eyes were blinking and it seemed to be looking for something until it saw me. Suddenly, its eyes stopped blinking and stared at me intensively.

I was so scared that I nervously took a step back. I grabbed an ashtray from the coffee table and smashed the television as hard as I could. Bang!!!!!!!!!! The ashtray shattered into pieces with a loud sound. But, despite my best effort, the ashtray did not even cause a scratch on the TV screen. I was stunned, so I ran into the bathroom as fast as I could. I turned on the faucet to wash my face.

My brain still cannot processed what just happened, and I murmured to myself, “This cannot possibly be real” “This cannot be real”…Ah!!!”

After I cleaned my face, I looked up the mirror on the wall.

All of a sudden, I heard the sound of a dog barking: “Woof, Woof, Woof”

“Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The dog’s face appeared again, but this time was in the mirror! I quickly picked up a low stool from the corner of the bathroom and threw it into the mirror.

“Where should I stay now?” I do not know, since there are mirrors in both my bathroom and bedroom. Finally, I decided to go back to the living room. Fortunately, the TV screen had been restored to normal, and is currently playing the prime soap opera. Thus, I sat down on the sofa, watched television for a while before turning it off. Then, I took a little break and made my way to the kitchen to get a snack. I thought about what I should do, and went back to the living room. I laid down on the couch and my eyes began to give in, as everything in my perception began to disappear again. About an hour later, I opened my eyes…

“Woof, Woof, Woof” There was the sound again. I looked up and let out a loud scream, as I caught a clear glimpse of the dog’s face being reflected off the white surface of the coffee table.

The dog’s head was separated from its body and the body of the dog was nothing more than a pile of white bleeding bones. I could even smell the familiar kind of rancid odor with some blood from the garbage dump. I was petrified! I got up, crawled backwards and started to cry. In the end, I crouched in the corner, with my legs curved, holding a big cushion, and buried my face in it.

After a while, I stopped crying. The illusion of the dog seemed to have disappeared. I quickly stood up from the corner and ran to the door, but the handle of door could not be moved, which prevented me from opening the door.

“Woof, Woof, Woof”

I crawled back to the corner again but the dog relentlessly kept barking and roaring towards me.

“Woof, Woof, Woof”… “Belinda, no matter where you go, I am going to follow you, follow you!!!” “Woof, Woof, Woof, I will follow you, follow you!!! I will follow you, follow you… No matter where you will go, I’ll always follow you, follow you, follow you….Ahaha ….”

“No. No. No,” I pleaded. Do not follow me please…. I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to eat you, my dear dog! I’m sorry. It’s my fault! I’m sorry, my dog, please forgive me!!!!”

As if it understood me, the dog’s head slowly moved towards me, as I curled myself in the corner. Just as it approached me, it suddenly opened its mouth, revealing its canine fangs and pointed them straight at me. All of a sudden, it sprung towards me and I let out one last scream, as it took its revenge, by using its mouth to devour my body.

Media Release

The Speak Up program as a new project, is designed to complement Fraser Health’s mind check program, which enables young people with mental health or substance use concerns to seek help as early as possible.

This program is the largest corporate contribution to youth and young adult mental health ever received in Fraser Health. The addition of the Speak Up program is made possible by a $432,000 donation from Coast Capital Savings to Surrey Hospital & Outpatient Centre Foundation.

SURREY, BC, December 8, 2014, — Based on 2010 BC population statistics and the World Health Organization’s estimated prevalence of mental illness, there are 263,982 youth in Fraser Health, and approximately 85,000 of them will experience mild to severe mental health issues. Mental health and substance abuse problems are the most common health issues experienced by young people in their teens and early ‘20s. About 73 per cent of mental health and substance abuse issues begin by age 24 and often go unrecognized and untreated today. One in five youth in BC will experience a mental health disorder serious enough to cause significant distress and affect their ability to function at home, at school and with their peers. Studies indicate that the majority of young people struggling with mental health concerns seek information or assistance from friends, families, and/or the Internet and are often reluctant to use professional services.

Now, Fraser Health is adding an innovative Speak Up program to increase the mental health education and peer-support services available to the region’s youth and young adults. The “Speak Up” program is evaluated by establishing the Speak Up Gallery on the mindcheck.ca website, and a youth peer mentor network, which provide a unique online community designed to facilitate teens and young adults in sharing their experiences in different ways, including words, video, audio and art. Significantly, it is also increasing the education that Fraser Health will be able to provide to help youth understand that information and support is available if they have mental health or substance use questions or concerns. The expansion will enable this education to take place in all 49 high schools across Fraser Health, as well as four colleges/universities. (The school component previously ran in 25 high schools in Surrey and Delta only.)

To learn more about the Speak Up program visit https://championsforcare.com/

Surrey Hospital & Outpatient Centre Foundation (formerly Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation, https://championsforcare.com/) champions exceptional care for patients and families living south of the Fraser by raising funds for Surrey Memorial Hospital and the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre. Surrey Memorial is a recently transformed acute care hospital, and the outpatient centre is a state-of the-art facility for clinic visits, diagnostic tests and day surgeries. Together, they form BC’s largest health care campus outside of Vancouver and BC’s newest teaching centre. Our donors make a difference by helping the Foundation support innovative equipment and projects that help Fraser Health to attract the best doctors and health care professionals to work in Surrey.

For more information:

Belinda Jin
Surrey Hospital & Outpatient Centre Foundation
Director, Marketing & Communications
xxx-xxx-xxxx, ext. xxx
[email protected]

Introduction

Statistics provided by The Daily has show that more than 6.8 million foreign immigrants have moved to Canada since 2011 and these people identified themselves as visible minorities, which represented 19.1% of Canada’s total population (Statistic Canada, 2013 May). Among the recent minorities population in Canada, there are about 56.9% individuals who came from Asia (Jin & Kim, 2011, p.555). Asian immigrants comprise the largest visible minority groups in Canada, especially Chinese, who numbered over half of the visible minorities’ population. Needless to say, when crossing the borders, Asian immigrants have soared and brought their cultures, such as languages, norms, values, and beliefs into Canadian multicultural society, which itself is multicultural in nature. Based on this, professors Viswanath and Arora (2009) in their article, Ethnic Media in the United States, considered that the increasing presence of members from diverse ethnic identities is directly leading and influencing the growth of multicultural society (p.39). As such, Asian-oriented media firms that operates small ethnic media (weekly newspapers and networks) to help Asian audiences to meet the information and entertainment needs, in addition to construct and sell the commercial and cultural commodity to Asian audiences (Jin & Kim, 2011, p.551) have also grown as well. This means that ethnic media both serves and is promoted by ethnic minorities who struggle to integrate and thrive, at the same time, to maintain their own identity in their new “habitat”. In addition, this also shows the “rise in the ethnic population has stimulated the meteoric growth of ethnic media” for global migrations to perceive and understand their lives outside the home country, especially, for audiences who have different cultures, languages, gender consciousness, class status, religious beliefs, racial/ethnic identities, norms, and values to shape “how they interpret meanings out of media materials and how they weave the meanings into the fabric of their daily lives” (Shi, 2009,p.598). To deepen the understanding of the role of ethnic media plays in immigrants’ lives and its influence in Canadian multicultural society, this paper focuses on the case of Sing Tao Daily, a Cantonese newspaper in Canada, to explore the impact the immigrant presses brings to the Canadian multicultural society, in order to illustrate how the “rapid growth of commercially successful independent ethnic press with a distinct local [and national] focus”(Deuze, 2006, p.263), how the immigrant newspaper narrates a transnational, and how the growth of ethnic press be attributed to mainstream media in global market.

The Need for Ethnic/Diasporic Media

Shocking figures regarding increased visibility of minorities and their media has been demonstrating a fact that ethnic media is now a significant part of the media landscape in the western world. The President of The National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, Thomas S. Saras (2012) stated that many people in Canada are struggling to learn official languages as 40% of the population in Canada whose mother tongue is neither English nor French, therefore “the ethnic press and media of the country performs a unique function within the boundaries of the Canadian mass media” (para.1). In addition, editor Siri Agrell (2012) of the newspaper The Globe and Mail also claimed that ethnic channels has been bringing international programming to Canadian viewers, licensing contents are from China, Korea, Russia, Greece, Vietnam and various other countries, which displayed that ethnic media have been filling a gap in Canada. Likewise, it also showed that immigrants will have more comprehensive accounts of news from their home. As well, they are able to seek comfort with familiar voices from homeland and the new environment they are now living in so that they can become more engaged with other citizens in Canada. The article also elaborated that there are 32 ethnic communities in Canada with populations of more than 100,000. Due to the large amount of Canadian immigrants and distinctive ethnic groups, Canadian regulators believe their relationships with the newspapers vary accordingly and provide third language media publications to inform their readers who are in a language more readily understood than the official languages of Canada. This shows that the role and function of minority medias have become more crucial in societies undergoing radical transformations today (Deuze, 2006, p.276).

The Ethnic Press in Canada

Today, ethnic presses have become an enduring feature of every Canadian’s life because they provide the need for self-representation and for establishing communication links between different co-existing communities, which have led to the gradual and constant development of tools that satisfy their information needs. Since Chinese origin Canadians make up roughly one-fifth of the population of Vancouver – a sizable consumer market, it attracts media outlets such as Sing Tao Daily one of the few Chinese language newspapers in Canada and owned by the Sing Tao Group of Hong Kong and the Toronto Star. News coverage of Sing Tao Daily includes national, provincial, local news, international news, Hong Kong news, and news from other parts of China (both Mainland China and Taiwan) (Torstar, 2014, para.2). Ethnic presses like Sing Tao Daily have helped transform the media landscape by providing relevant information to reach Chinese newcomers in Canada, which would help them preserve their cultural identity and staying in touch with events from their homeland and Canada (Lindgren, 2011, p. 1). On the other hand, ethnic news also fulfilled the unique ideology role that offers a land of opportunity for these immigrants to “showcase and preserve diversity of culture, heritage and language within the great Canadian cultural mosaic” (Hustonin, 2012, p.V.). In summary, scholar Park (1922) in his article, The Immigrant Press and Its Control, also concluded that the immigrant press was an active force in shaping immigrants’ worldviews and “their relationship or sense of belonging with places and that the immigrants were embracing a sense of belonging to more than one place” (as cited in Cheng, 2005, p.145). Park’s statement directly confirmed the ideology role of the immigrant press on helping or hindering readers’ assimilation into western society.

In addition, professor Karim (2003) states that those ‘diasporic sites’ are mainly based on the “cultural border between the country of origin and the country of residence” (as cited in Shumow, p.1078). Understanding these cultural sites and how they are created, immigrant journalists who are playing in the “formation of their work, and the inherent transnational nature of these media outlets that allows them to shift their focus depending on the demands of international events and the needs of local audiences” (Shumow, p.1078). From this point of view, the works of immigrant journalists create diasporic media institutions to sustain their ethnicity band ease their transition into [multicultural] society (Viswanath& Arora, 2009, p.39). On the other hand, author Yu Shi (2009) in her article, Re-evaluating the alternative role of ethnic media in the U.S.: The case of Chinese language press and working-class women readers, stated that, “ethnic media are often regarded as media by and for ethnics in a host country with content in ethnic languages… can be published by big ethnic media groups and by small organic ethnic communities” (p.599). The statement from author Shi appealed that ethnic minority media provides alternative cultural ‘software’ to download into immigrants’ ‘hardware‘ to help them learn about Canadian culture, history, and social services. Meanwhile, ethnic minority media can also promote the privileges and the responsibilities inherent in Canadian citizenship to the immigrants (Karim, 1998 June, p.6). In addition, the statement also observed that the key of ethnic media is to develop a knowledge base and sense of ethnic identity in Canadian multicultural society.

Sing Tao Daily: The Best Source of Advertising Information

Otherwise, advertisements not only represent the most important means of financial support for ethnic newspapers (such as Sing Tao Daily and Ming Pao) and corporations in Canada, but they will also often improve immigrants’ lives in Canada. Statistics provided by 2007 Canadian Chinese Media Monitor show that Sing Tao Daily offered the best source of advertising information than any other ethnic presses in Canada. Although the advertisement sub – corpus is the smallest in terms of words, advertisements occupy a consistent part of each issue of Sing Tao Daily News because of their dimension, which ranges from one third of a page to a whole page. Based on this, professor Sherry Yu and Catherine Murray (2008) in their article, Ethnic Media under a Multicultural Policy: The Case of the Korean Media in British Columbia commented that the role of ethnic newspaper is to look for ways in which the translocal citizens can achieve a balanced sense of belonging to both Canada and their country of origin. The variety of products and services being advertised are obviously targeted at a readership with specific needs. By this way, Sing Tao Daily helps Asian immigrants in dealing with the different and often problematic aspects of immigrant status, which in turn promotes multicultural citizenship and social cohesion (p.101) between ethnic individuals. Thus, Karim (2010) believed that, “[c]ertain ethnic media provide extensive coverage of Canadian current affairs and other information that would help members of minorities remain informed about the larger society. [Also, the] type of coverage would presumably promote integration into the Canadian public sphere and encourage active citizenship” (p.263). Thus, ethnic presses bring Asian immigrants the perspective of beyond the nation-state and potentially lead to a cosmopolitan understanding of the self and one’s community (Georgiou, 2006, p.39). At the same time, political economists Vincent Mosco (1996) identified this as an array of structures and practices that functioned as instruments of transnational corporate and state power, which is centralized through the “transnationalized companies and their government supporters was to press for the introduction of commercial media systems to permit advertising and programming that would cultivate consumerism” (p.73). Consequently, even though sometimes ethnic media may colonizes between different minorities in a multicultural society, ethnic presses will benefit multicultural society since they can guide different groups to identify themselves as a member of a particular ethnic group in the multicultural society, in order to better understand cultural differences and even increase their knowledge in regards to their own culture.

A Case Study of Sing Tao Daily Newspaper

Historically, Chinese-language presses have developed into two-tiered systems, such as nationwide newspapers and regional/local ones since the 1970s. The term ethnic press is used to refer to newspaper addressed to a specific immigrant community and written in the language or one of the languages used by that community in their home country. Sing Tao Daily is Canada’s most widely read Chinese language newspaper, and it’s the only Chinese language newspaper located in 3 different Canadian cities in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. The news, lifestyle and leisure contents of Sing Tao Daily are published in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters to satisfy growing immigrants from both Mainland China and Hong Kong (Torstar, 2014, para.2). Also, the supplements of Sing Tao Daily are published in several weekly magazines to satisfy the needs of different Chinese audience groups. For example, Every Saturday Sing Tao Weekly is an entertainment and lifestyle magazine with mostly Canada local content. Like Sunday Star Magazine, it is a tabloid – sized entertainment and news magazine with mostly Hong Kong content from time to time.

Multimedia Publication

The image of Multimedia Publication not only displays the Sing Tao Daily Newspaper and its supplements, but also represents how immigrant communities seem to maintain strong and visible links to their place of origin and sense of cultural belonging in Canadian multicultural society. As ethnic newspapers, Sing Tao Daily plays a key role in shaping newcomers’ sense of place (Lindgren, 2011, p.1) by delivering the contents, such as ethnic and local news, into immigrants, which in turn offer convenience for different minorities and help them to better understand the new community when “ethnic news organizations put home country news ahead of local news coverage” (Hans, 2011, para. 1). The Sing Tao group helps and maintains a sense of cultural belonging for people with Chinese origin and keep newly arrived Chinese immigrants informed and connected. Additionally, Ohio State University’s school of Journalism & Communication Professors Viswanath and Hillard Fleishman Arora (2009) stated that, Sing Tao Canadian media group also involves in online publishing, printing, outdoor advertising, radio and magazine publishing, which is kind of a cultural transmission: the ‘multicultural channels’ and ‘ethnic newspapers’ setting “as community boosters” for Chinese audiences (p.47). They also believed that, “[ethnic] media transmit information on cultural and religious celebrations… [which] strengthen the ethnic identity in the multicultural community” (Viswanath & Arora, 2009, p.48). In summary, Sing Tao Daily transmits information about society in a way that helps newcomers adapt to their new home.

As the number of language scripts and translation capabilities of Sing Tao Daily grows, an increasing number of non-English speakers come to understand communities and issues through “the simultaneous consumption or ‘imagining’ of the stories in local newspapers” (Lindgren, 2011, p.1). This not only reveals that Sing Tao ethnic presses have access to community information which “almost instantaneously changes the dynamics of diaspora, allowing for qualitatively and quantitatively enhanced linkages” (Karim, 1998, p.12), but also demonstrates the newspapers’ contribution in “shaping perceptions of place in the formation of a nation”(Lindgren, 2011, p.1). Based on this, professor Lindgren (2011) pointed out that the role of Sing Tao Daily in shaping newcomers’ sense of place reflects a growing interest in the nature, practices and roles that ethnic media outlets play in highly diverse communities (p. 2).

The Third Language Press Sing Tao Newspaper Local News

Ethnic presses, like Sing Tao Daily Newspapers, are relatively small and widely scattered and allow for narrowcasting to target specific audiences rather than those that provide the means for mass communication which have generally been favored (Karim, 1998, p.8). This characteristic asserts that ethnic media is trying to reach their audiences and providing remarkable opportunities for diasporic communities. Additionally, University of Texas’s journalism professor Sang Y. Bai (2010) also stated that immigrants tend to depend on the diasporas media in their native languages to receive information about their new host country as well as about their local communities (p.386). This meant that ethnic media is serving the needs of certain ethnic minorities in the society, and it also can contend with how Canadian third language presses and channels depend on its ability to cohesively and effectively reach audiences in a balance between both commercial and cultural considerations (Huston, 2012, p.20). In fact, visiting scholar Schiller (1995) called this phenomenon “Transmigrants”, which identified that “immigrants whose daily lives depend on multiple and constant interconnections across international borders and whose public identities are configured in relationship to more than one nation-state” (as cited in Cheng, 2005, p.156). In other words, his statement illustrated that contemporary immigrants are becoming firmly rooted in their new countries but still maintain multiple links to their homelands.

On the contrary, Florida International University professor Moses Shumow (2014) deliberated this phenomenon as the process of ‘glocalization’ and also be considered as ‘local’ within ‘global’ (p.1077). This meant national identity always had to compete with ‘local’ and later with ‘global’ identities (Chakravartty & Zhao, 2008, p. 54). As well, it is imperative that ethnic presses in Canada establish their roots, share their identities, and have strong implications for “influencing the identities and practices of its readers” (Shi, 2009, p.598). As a matter of fact, ethnic presses service different cultural groups by collecting the newest international information to help them connect with societies. Indeed, it echoed that “the third language media integration in Canada diasporic groups find ‘a safe place’ to reconnect with their communities around the world, share their resettlement experiences and ‘reach out’, locally and globally”(Huston, 2012, p. 29). This emphasized ethnic presses on both the local and the national level, in relation to the global, in order to undermine “the polarized approach in showing how relationships between major national players may be moderated or intensified by local relationship power” (Chakravartty & Zhao, 2008, p.171). In a nutshell, professor Cheng (2005) believed that the notion of multiple homelands is one of the social realities and one of the key concepts for the intellectual community to understand contemporary social life (p.156). By examining whether the ethnic presses have become a help or hindrance in the assimilation process, the cultural impacts of Canadian editions of Sing Tao Daily enable Hong Kong immigrants to soak in an imported and mediated Hong Kong lifestyle and thereby become “culturally closed” (Cheng, 2005, p. 145). On the other hand, immigrant newspapers construct and narrate a transnational sense of belonging in Canada’s multicultural society.

Transnationalism Belonging into Multicultural Society

Sing Tao News Corporation Limited provides the business of media ownership and services; at the same time, it also owns the news media website singtao.com. Sing Tao Daily is Hong Kong’s second largest newspaper outlet and its publications have been published by 9 overseas news bureaus and circulated in 100 cities around the world. Sing Tao group’s widespread news outlets not only target the Chinese immigrants marketplace and help facilitate easy access to homeland news for Chinese language readers outside China, but also serve the purpose of integrating different minorities in a multicultural society and promote ethnic group cohesion (Liu& Wu, 2006, p.6). Reporter Amo (2009) pointed out that Sing Tao Daily is targeting a specific clientele with their news service.

Sing Tao Daily Newspaper Asian Business News

The idea is to create a one-stop shop for Asian business news. They’re attempting to attract business executives across North America (para.1). From this point of view, professor Gabriel A. Huston (2012) explained that “because of the geographic movement of large Chinese population, third language Chinese presses provide news, advertising, and community information, support cultural sustainability and offer a necessary public forum for their respective communities, with content that is largely produced in Canada for domestic and interested global third language audiences” (p.31). Huston’s statement showed that “the creation of common [Canadian] markets for [newspaper] can accompanied by concrete measures to promote production and favor the free circulation of cultural commodities to assimilate different cultural groups” (Canclini, 2005, p.101). This in turn will better integrates new immigrants into a multicultural society. On the other hand, as ethnic newspaper companies have controlled more of the newspaper market in today’s society, political economist Vincent Mosco in his book, The Political Economy of Communication, believed that they might grow into a conglomerate concentration as transnational corporations built with other media businesses that buy up media properties (p.113). Thus, professors Chakravartt and Zhao (2008) summarized and agreed that “local and transnational corporate entities that are skilled at navigating the global economy to their advantage” (p.171).

Moreover, author Karim logically considered that ethnic presses are the “transnations” of diasporic communities, which can be a significant aspect of the globalization processes (1998, p. 2). By understanding those cultural presses and how they are created as “transnations”, Karim also explained that the inherent transnational nature of these media outlets that allows them to shift their focus depending on the “demands of international events and the needs of local audiences” (as cited in Shrow, 2014, p.1078). On this basis, author Armand Mattelart (1994) in his book Mapping World Communications clarified this fact as “the world market became a space of transnational regulation of the relations between nations and people” (p.XV.). Mattelart’s statement not just appealed that ethnic presses can help to uncover some of the complexities inherent in transnational migration that challenge traditions and linear notions of immigrant assimilation and acculturation, it also recognized the globalization of the media industries sector that has resulted in the formation of an international civil society (Schiller, 2001, p.47). Furthermore, Herbert Schiller in his article, Transnational Media: Creating Consumers Worldwide explicated that globalization process has resulted in an international order organized by transnational economic interests that are largely unaccountable to the nation states in which they operate. The transnational corporate system of Sing Tao Daily has the product of a rationalized and commercialized communications infrastructure, which transmits massive flows of information and has extended its marketing reach to every corner of North America (Schiller, 2001, p.47). This statement exhibited that the growing economic imperatives and the social obligations of ethnic media have led ethnic cohesion and cultural maintenance in Canadian multicultural society, which should be encouraged in a multicultural environment.

Again, ethnic press, Sing Tao Daily, helps immigrants integrate into multicultural society, which also shows that ethnic media democracy in Western capitalist society. From the public sphere liberal perspective, writer Arjun Appadurai declared that as Sing Tao Daily News “increasingly link producers and audiences across national boundaries, and as these audiences themselves start new conversations…, we find a growing number of diasporic public spheres” (as cited in Karim, 1998, p.2). This meant that ethnic press evaluates the higher value citizen participation since it as a tool helps new Chinese immigrants to understand more of western culture in ways that will enhance their quality of life and their ability to solve problems (Shi, 2009,p.602). Otherwise, it also indicated ethnic presses help constituting a public sphere that “that realm of social life where the exchange of information and views on questions of common concern can take place so that public opinion can be formed” (Hackett & Zhao, 2005, p.11). Meanwhile, Carleton University Professor Karim (2010) also confirmed that ethnic presses in Canada can contribute to ethnic organizations and “help members of minorities integrate into the larger society” (p.261). As well, he explained that “[n]ewspapers are the most common form of ethnic media” (Karim, 2010, p.261) since ethnic newspapers have recently made the decision to refresh its image and editorial content by positioning itself as the newspaper of choice for the Chinese immigrants which directly help overseas Chinese “bridge the gap to mainstream America” and “improve their quality of life” (Shi, 2009, p.602). From this point of view, ethnic presses, including Sing Tao Daily, have constructed and narrated a new relationship with specific segments of Asian immigrants, especially relatively wealthy and educated middle-class immigrants (Shi, 2009, p.602) as they can “identify themselves as member of a pluralistic society” (Jin & Kim, 2011, p.553). As a matter of fact, Yu Shi, who is a professor from Pennsylvania State University, asserts that ethnic newspapers play an essential role in preserving ethnic cultures, maintaining individual and collective ethnic identities, and providing crucial information about Canadian society for immigrants (2009, p.604). Particularly, ethnic media has become sites that not just draw ethnic identities “mixed with images representing the experiences of individuals negotiating real life in the new country”, but also interact with individuals and groups as well as tie the relationship between ethnic communities in Canadian multicultural society (Jin& Kim, 2011,p.554).

Media and Globalization

The case of Sing Tao Daily News highlights “the commercial and consumerist approaches of transnational communities to develop links within their diasporas communities” (Karim, 1998 June, p.4). Also more specifically, it locates the diasporic phenomenon within the context of globalization processes to contribute to cultural maintenance (Karim, 1998 June, p. 2). Different group’s people have a chance to know about different norms and customs within a multicultural society, which would promote further cultural harmonization and avoid racism as well as various kinds of discrimination. As a result, they would become successful on the national and global stages and become targets for takeovers by global media conglomerates (Karim, 1998 June, p.15). According to Xinhua News remarks Chinese newspapers “intend to play an active role in supporting the multicultural policy of the [Canadian] government and promoting friendship and cooperation between China and Canada” (as cited in Liu &Wu, 2003, p.3). Based on this view, writers Liu and Wu (2006) illustrated that reading ethnic newspapers in Canada can be used to recognize ethnic group identification and increase the strength of association between social locations and their own culture (p.12). This meant that the influences of the ethnic newspapers are to provide information and entertainments to immigrants and to incorporate interactions between the newspapers’ discourses and the readers’ discourses (Shi, 2009, p.601). This also provides an in peace on immigrants’ culture, “their ethnics of communication, and the choice of their communicators … Information is life itself, a vital flow for staying in tune with the times, hence the permanent conflict between the need for transparency and the maintenance of an image” (Mattelart, 1994, p.220). As well, ethnic media holds symbolic cultural values and enhances people’s minds to understand Canada’s multiculturalism more efficiently and represents that part of society within certain ethnic and racial origins that have at most minor impacts on life chances or opportunities (Huston, 2012, p. 30). With mainstream media controlled by corporations and political interests, third language media became a serious competitor to mainstream media as they vie for Canada’s lucrative Asian markets. The opportunity for both Canadian mainstream media and ethnic presses is to build bridges through “forms of collaboration to gain more effective access to the markets that they are competing for, share ‘know-how’ and ultimately appreciate and come to better understand Canadian diversity and multiculturalism” (Huston, 2012, p.32). In other words, scholar Shumow (2014) also believed that immigrants are supposed to assimilate into, and see the process of adjusting and adapting to life in a new country as happening much more in fits and starts, particularly in a global city (p.1085). Therefore, ethnic presses not only help immigrants assimilate to new, unfiltered contends, but they also reflect on the dynamics of globalization by creating a participating culture that provides equal rights to interpret each ethnic group and community (Nandy, 2009, p.146).

Likewise, in the article Multicultural Policies and Integration via the Market, writer Canclini (2005) wrote ethnic media as “a key condition for the development of democratic forms of citizenship today [in Canada]. People need access to international information and must have the capacity to intervene in meaningful ways in global” (p.100). In addition, he discussed the multicultural “integration requires constitutional and political reforms that guarantee the right of diverse group in the context of globalization” (Canclini, 2005, p.101). Ethnic presses are kind of media delivery platforms that “human being are driven to communicate with those with whom they share similar sets of cultural meanings (Kairm, 2010, p.260). This connoted the cultural meaning of ethnic media that Chinese language newspapers help immigrants assimilate, and pick up the identity labels prescribed by the dominant ideology (Kairm, 1998, p.606). Still, Kairm (2010) confirmed that “ ethnic media has developed in Canada under official multiculturalism” (p. 262), which helps minority group to understand the ‘world’ around them and forming a bridge between their own cultural and other cultures in Canada. In like manner, the statement from author Kairm also identified the management of Canadian government in their multicultural society and “the relationship between political communication in ethnic media and the level of political participation of immigrants in Canadian society” (Yu & Ahadi, 2010, p.55). Based on this, professors Yu and Murray (2007) considered that ethnic media, just like the mainstream media, is not free from market pressure. Instead, they have given the absence of a government policy on subsidizing or mandating public and/or not-for-profit third language medias (p.105).

What seems to be happening is a dual development of increasing use and popularity of (minority) community media with a strong participatory or dialogical element, and marginalizing of such media with the dominant discourse and practices of mainstream media. Academic researcher Mark Deuze (2006) believed that the minority ethnic media heralds such sites of media production as ‘shaping a vigorous public sphere’ (p.266). From this point of view, ethnic media serves “the public sphere in modern democracies is the space between Government and society in which private individuals exercise formal and informal control over the state: formal control through the election of governments and informal control through the pressure of public opinion” (Yu&Murray, 2007, p.105). All in all, the role of ethnic media has been successful since it deeply relates to each ethnic community to “serve as community representative, to provide a public sphere for ethnic groups in Canadian society as in many other places” (Jin&Kim, 2011, p.553), which can help ethnic groups to better organize themselves and sustain their cultural heritages within the multicultural society of Canada and other countries.

Challenges of Ethnic Presses in Canada

Admittedly, even though ethnic presses actually live up to claims that they help newcomers understand their adopted communities, help groups retain cultural links with home countries and act as bridges between communities (Lindgren, 2011, p.2), some of the critics still argue that there are still many challenges facing ethnic communities in terms of obtaining information from ethnic media outlets. Unavailability of the eligible respondents, incorrect contact information from secondary source, and reluctance to participate or share company information (Media Directory, 2006- 2007) will also cause inconvenience for ethnic groups access information in a multicultural society; in addition, it also challenges mainstream newspapers. Alternatively, professor Shi also confirmed that many Canadian third language media enterprises are transnationalized, which is harder to identify transformation mechanisms and structures (2009, p.598). After that, Mahtani (2008) has confirmed that the shortcoming of “the ethnic media, like the mainstream media, is not exempt from the practices of misrepresenting and underrepresenting the immigrant voice” (as cited in Lindgren, 2011, p.10). Moreover, a report from a Chinese ethnic newspaper, Sing Tao Daily, noted that ethnic newspapers choose the middle class author’s emphasis to ‘help Chinese, including new immigrants, who understand more of the American culture in ways that will enhance their quality of life and their ability to solve problems’ since middle class audiences demand a more high-brow content (as cited in Shi, 2009, p.602). From this point of view, ethnic media mainly focuses on middle – class Asians and considers them as the only representation of Asians. Meanwhile, this practice will ignore the realities of many other Asian immigrants. Although ethnic media may not be deemed as helpful to newcomers (Yu&Ahadi, 2010, p.55), the ethnic media as multiple delivery platforms in North America have been touted as potentially powerful enabling and transnationalizing media affecting on both majority and minority groups in a multicultural environment.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, ethnic presses can be regarded as multiple delivery platforms in Canadian multicultural society because “understanding the role of ethnic news outlets as intermediaries that promote understanding among different religious, cultural and racial groups is a matter of some urgency”(Lindgren, 2011, p.10). In addition, they lead to a better understanding of how ethnic groups turn to the ethnic media for information and how ethnic media represents the immigrants’ voices. In turn, ethnic media allows immigrants to appreciate the positive aspects of globalization in Canada. When Asian immigrants misapprehend other cultures and the resulting misapprehension could potentially create a culture shock, ethnic media can help minorities better fit into Canadian society, enjoy activities from other cultures, and gain countless new experiences from interactions within this dynamic society. Based on this, professor Huston summarized that immigrants to Canada have relied on printed and digital information in their home languages to understand, adapt, integrate, and maintain a sense of community and culture. Ethnic media in Canada displays the Asianization of Canadian society since “Asian corporations bring third languages into the Canadian communication landscape setting a ‘cascade of interactions’ in our evolving intercultural self-identity and provides a platform for discussion, interactivity and engagement” (Huston, 2012, p.10) with immigrants in Canada. Thus, Writer Ball-Rokeach (1976) concluded that multicultural ethnic channels and Chinese ethnic newspapers have the same functions as any other types of ethnic media, which can play a large role in limiting the range of interpretations that “audiences are able to make, hence predicting media effects on audiences”(as cited in Liu & Wu, 2006, p.14). Therefore, in Canadian multicultural society, Canadian media should take the needs of different ethnic groups into account, as the role of ethnic media is vital in terms of enriching people’s lives and bridging in the distance between majority and the minority groups.

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