CANADA

• Same-sex couples can marry in Canada-On July 20, 2005, a law approved by the Candian Parliament went into effect allowing same-sex couples to marry on an equal basis with different-sex couples in all 13 provinces and territories in Canada. While courts had been ending marriage discrimination on a province by province basis since May of 2003, this law made Canada the fourth country in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry. Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain are the other three, but they all have residency requirements to obtain a marriage license. By contrast, there are no residency requirements anywhere in Canada, so qualified couples from anywhere in the world can marry there.
• Canada still attracts waves of Indian immigrants — more than 25,000 a year
• Between 1991 and 2001, the South Asian community in the Toronto area more than doubled from 235,500 to 473,800. In 2001, nearly one-quarter of Torontonians were Asian.
• Toronto was home to more than one-half (52%) of all South Asians in the country and accounted for 10% of Toronto's total population
• 2001 Census results for the South Asian community were just as profound. 76% of all new immigrants who arrived to Canada during 1991 and 2001 were from South Asian countries, with India (47%), Sri Lanka (13%) and Pakistan (12%) being the top three places of birth
• Canada has 3.0 residents per square kilometre, while India has 324 and South Asia has 273. The population of India alone has reached the one billion mark, which is 16% of the world's population.
• In Canada, 39 babies are born every hour; in India, every hour brings 1,800 babies?
• Canada: Men account for 80% of Canada's suicides, and that divorced men commit suicide twice_ San Grewal, Life Writer for the Toronto Star
• NRI are slightly less than one million, the second largest visible minority group in Canada, just behind the Chinese at slightly over one million people
• It is estimated that strong Muslim population in Canada is 600,000