Vancouver posts record month as home prices rocket higher

Canadian home prices rose in February, driven by a surge in the already-strong Vancouver market, data showed on Monday in the latest sign of a growing divide in the country's real estate sectors.

Prices gained 0.6 percent from January, according to data from the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, the largest increase for the month of February since the 2008-09 recession.

Compared to a year ago, prices were up 6.5 percent, making for the largest annual increase since January 2012. The index measures price changes for repeat sales of single-family homes.

Although prices climbed on a monthly basis in six of the 11 metropolitan areas covered in the survey, it was the 3.2 percent jump in Vancouver that lifted the overall index, the report said.

Price fluctuations in the other markets essentially canceled each other out, the report said.

It was the fourteenth month in a row that prices in Vancouver have gained, while the region's Real Estate Board said it was the highest selling February on record.

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2016/3/14/Canadian-home-prices-rise-in-February-boosted-by-Vancouver.aspx

How can dogmatic pro-choicers reconcile their defence of woman’s right to choose, but not of a girl’s right to live?

There is something about aborting a fetus because she is a girl, as opposed to aborting a fetus for any of the other innumerable reasons women decide to terminate a pregnancy, that makes many people — including the staunchest of pro-choice advocates — acutely uncomfortable. Part of it, I think, has to do with the way that we think of the fetus. It is much harder to think of that baby as just a clump of cells when we know that she has a sex — something we obviously can’t ignore when we’re talking about sex-selective abortion.

But more than that, I think what distinguishes sex-selective abortion from abortion for nearly any other reason is that it is driven entirely by who that child is, or will become. Usually when we talk about abortion, the focus is the woman and her choices. In Canada, women can choose to terminate a pregnancy for any reason: some feel they are too young, or too old, or not suitably financially secure, or would prefer to focus on their careers, or simply don’t feel like having a child or being pregnant — now or ever. In all these cases, the woman’s quality of life is the deciding factor, not the baby’s, and there is some consensus that it’s better to end the pregnancy than bring an unwanted child to term. In cases of sex-selective abortion, the decision has nothing to do with the mother’s quality of life, and everything to do with who the mother wants that child to be.

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/robyn-urback-how-can-dogmatic-pro-choicers-reconcile-their-defence-of-womans-right-to-choose-but-not-of-a-girls-right-to-live

Prostitutes divided as France bans paying for sex

French MPs on Tuesday approved a new law that proponents say will protect sex workers by shifting the burden of the offense onto clients, but some prostitutes are crying foul.

The French union of sex workers (Strass, its acronym in France) called on members and supporters to protest the "repressive" bill outside the National Assembly, where lawmakers adopted the reform into law.

The legislation outlaws paying for sex, imposes fines for clients and overturns the existing ban on solicitation. In an unprecedented move, the bill also makes available €4.8 million per year to help sex workers quit the trade.

The comprehensive approach, which envisions an eventual eradication of prostitution, has earned support among other French organisations that assist and defend sex workers.

The law comes after more than two years of political wrangling, spurring heated debates – even among prostitutes – on the controversial topic.

more at http://www.france24.com/en/20160406-france-prostitution-law-sex-workers-divided