MDA Chapter Opens
VANCOUVER — A new branch of Canadian Magen David Adom for Israel (CMDA) has opened in Vancouver, making it the fifth city in Canada with a chapter, along with Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary. Chair Richard Wenner told the Jewish Independent that the chapter aims to raise more than $100,000 to buy a new ambulance for Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent to the Red Cross, in time for Israel’s 60th birthday in May.
Asper Bio Coming
TORONTO — Veteran Canadian journalist Peter C. Newman will write a book about the late Winnipeg businessman Izzy Asper, publisher HarperCollins announced last week. The unauthorized biography of Asper, the philanthropist and founder of CanWest Global Communications who died in 2003 at 71, will be published next fall. “Newman will be writing with the assistance of, but not the approval of, the Asper family,” HarperCollins said.
CJC Mourns Lawyer
VANCOUVER — Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific region, paid tribute last week to one of its former officers, lawyer Marvin Stark, a professor emeritus of business at Simon Fraser University, who died Jan. 8 in Vancouver. Stark, a member of CJC Pacific region’s officers committee for many years and vice-chair of its board of directors from 1992 to 1995, will be remembered “for his significant contributions to public policy issues and, in particular, aboriginal justice. He will be greatly missed,” the CJC said in a statement.
New Kosher Vitamins
MONTREAL — Pregnant women who keep kosher and want prenatal multivitamins with iron and calcium that are less likely to upset their stomachs now have a new option. Duchesnay, a Laval, Que., pharmaceutical firm, announced last week that its prescription-based PregVit Folic 5 and PregVit vitamins are now certified by the Toronto-based Kashruth Council of Canada and bear its COR hechsher. The vitamins have also been similarly certified as halal by the Islamic Society of North America, the company said.
Jews Closely Knit
VANCOUVER — Jews are the most closely knit ethnic group in the Vancouver area, a new federal report says. Multiculturalism on the Ground, a Heritage Canada study that looks at where cultural groups settle in major cities, found Jews live in a tight cluster on Vancouver’s west side, which it attributed to the fact many Jews want to be close to shuls, CBC News reported. The second-most-concentrated group are Iranians, located in the city’s North Shore area. Chinese people, the area’s largest group, are fourth on the list.