In just over a month, the new UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place, located at the University of Prince Edward Island, will be bustling as top track and field athletes compete for the gold during the 2009 Canada Games.

This new multi-functional athletics facility was officially opened on Monday, July 13. Thanks to investments made by the federal, provincial and municipal governments, and UPEI, the benefits of the UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place will be enjoyed this summer and well into the future.

The Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Honourable Carolyn Bertram, Minister of Communities, Cultural Affairs and Labour, were joined by Clifford Lee, Mayor of Charlottetown, Joseph Spriet, President of the 2009 Canada Games Host Society, and Wade MacLauchlan, President of UPEI, to get a first-hand look at one of the Games' premier attractions, which is adjacent to the CARI complex on the university's campus.

'Hosting the Canada Games will benefit Prince Edward Island in many important ways including the national exposure it provides to our Island economy and the legacy of top flight recreational facilities that will serve our communities for years to come,' said Minister Shea, on behalf of the Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency). 'In addition, these facilities enhance our ability to attract and host other sport initiatives and the economic benefits that flow from those events.'

UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place, the venue for track-and-field competitions for the 2009 Games as well as the closing ceremonies, features a synthetic, 400-metre, eight-lane oval track; a water jump for steeplechase; a facility for long and triple jump, pole vault, discus and hammer throw, javelin throw and shot put; storage, washrooms, and spectator seating and viewing. The facility is situated on land provided by UPEI, and, through its name, it recognizes the university's alumni for their significant financial support of this athletics venue.

"The Canada Games has a long history of infrastructure legacy across the nation. This year the Province of Prince Edward Island was proud to contribute over $4 million for this 2009 Legacy Facility, the UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place," said Minister Bertram. "This new facility will contribute to the success of the Games and will carry on a tradition of making sports and recreation an important part of our one Island community."

"The City of Charlottetown is pleased to partner with the federal and provincial governments and the University of Prince Edward Island in developing this athletics facility,' said Mayor Lee. 'This complex will leave a lasting legacy in our community, and finally our athletes whose sport is track and field will now have a first class location to develop their skills."

The organization of the Canada Games is made possible through the dedication of the local Host Society, and the contribution and support of the federal, provincial and host municipal governments, and the Canada Games Council.

"The 2009 Canada Games Host Society is proud to unveil this state-of-the-art athletics facility to the rest of the country next month," said Mr. Spriet. "The opening of the UPEI Alumni Canada Place makes PEI a major player in the national athletics community and will continue to stand as an athletic pillar of excellence for our Island community long after the closing ceremony."

'UPEI is proud to host the Canada Games at this fine athletics facility on its campus,' says UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan. 'The UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place is a tremendous asset to sport and recreation for the entire Island community, with the potential to attract top athletics events from outside PEI. We are honoured to partner with government and our community to provide this high-profile platform for provincial and regional athletic competition and success.'

UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place was funded through the Canada-PEI Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (MRIF) with contributions from the Government of Canada, the Province of Prince Edward Island and the City of Charlottetown. The University of Prince Edward Island is responsible for maintaining and operating the facility.

A landmark publication compiled by two UPEI researchers showcasing immigrant entrepreneurs on Prince Edward Island, was officially launched recently by the Honourable Alan Campbell, Minister of Innovation and Advanced Learning.

The full-colour publication, titled Immigrant Entrepreneurs on Prince Edward Island, illustrates the personal stories, challenges and satisfactions of some 60 immigrants to PEI who have opened and currently operate their own businesses. It is the work of Dr Godfrey Baldacchino, Canada Research Chair (Island Studies) at UPEI, in collaboration with Crystal MacAndrew Fall, a graduate student who is researching immigrant entrepreneurship as her thesis topic, a component of her Master of Arts (Island Studies) at UPEI.

"The showcased entrepreneurs represent some of the vibrant cultural and business diversity that is enriching the island province", explains Dr. Baldacchino. "Some of them have targeted PEI specifically as a base because of both the benefits that it provides to start up businesses, as well as the envious quality of life it offers to families. Unlike most immigrants to PEI, entrepreneurs tend to settle down and stay on the Island, contributing to the long-term development of the province."

Dr. Baldacchino has already completed three other province-based research assignments related to migration issues over the past few years. He has also coordinated the setting up of a Migration Research Cluster at UPEI, with a clutch of social scientists from various disciplines--history, economics, sociology, anthropology and literature--who are aligned to support any research that the province may require as it unfolds its migration retention and repatriation strategy.

The new publication, for which the PEI Association for Newcomers to Canada acted as local community partner, has been financed largely by the PEI Government's Population Secretariat, with additional support coming from the Rural Secretariat of Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada, the UPEI School of Business, the Social Economy and Sustainability Network and the Atlantic Metropolis Centre. Copies can be obtained at no cost from Island Information Services, Jones Building, or from the Population Secretariat at PopulationSecretariat@gov.pe.ca or (902) 620-3656.

Dr. Dan McKenney, of the Canadian Forest Service, will give a public presentation called "Plant Hardiness Zones in Canada; Now and in the future!" on Monday, July 20, at 2 p.m. in the Wanda Wyatt Lecture Theatre (Room 104) of the KC Irving Chemistry Centre at UPEI.

Plant hardiness zones are part of the lexicon of Canada's horticulture, agriculture and forest industries. McKenney will review the history of Canada's plant hardiness zones, recent updates and new developments in mapping plant hardiness. He will also discuss implications of climate change, including what it might mean for P.E.I.

McKenney is chief of the Geospatial Tools and Economic Analyses Section of the Canadian Forest Service, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He has worked for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. He is an adjunct professor at the Department of Food Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Guelph and the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, and a sessional lecturer at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie.

The public talk is being organized by the UPEI Faculty of Science. Everyone is welcome.

Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre of Waterloo, Ontario, has been appointed the 2009 Visiting Scholar for the L.M. Montgomery Institute (LMMI) at the University of Prince Edward Island, announced Institute chair Mark Leggott.

Lefebvre will work with the LMMI's governing committee to facilitate and expand scholarship about L.M. Montgomery, P.E.I.'s most famous author, and her contemporaries.

His first task as Visiting Scholar is to give a talk about L.M. Montgomery to people attending the July 24 performance of Jan de Hartog's play, The Fourposter, at the Montgomery Theatre in Cavendish. The play tells the history of a marriage from the wedding night in 1890 to 1925, with all scenes taking place in the couple's bedroom. Starting at 7 p.m., Lefebvre will speak about Montgomery's own marriage and the way she depicts it in her journals, focusing specifically on confrontations and conversations that occurred in her bedroom. The proceeds from the performance, which begins at 7:30 p.m., will be donated to the LMMI.

He is looking forward to working with the LMMI on new projects that will benefit Montgomery's international community of readers.

"Through its conference series and its related publications, the L.M. Montgomery Institute has long been a hub of activity for Montgomery studies, which has become an established and interdisciplinary field," he says.

Lefebvre will co-chair the 2010 LMMI Conference, titled 'L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature,' with UPEI's Dr. Jean Mitchell, 2008 LMMI Visiting Scholar. He will also complete a critical edition of Montgomery's essays and interviews from the period 1909 to 1939. The collection will include over 50 pieces, most of which have not been reprinted since their initial publication in leading periodicals such as Saturday Night, The Canadian Magazine, Canadian Bookman, Everywoman's World, Maclean's, The Chatelaine, Family Herald and Weekly Star, Maritime Advocate and Busy East, and Toronto Star.

'What we see in these pieces is Montgomery at her best,' he says. 'We see her constructing and perfecting a public persona, a voice that differs from the one that is revealed in the five volumes of her published journals. These neglected pieces show Montgomery to be in total control of herself: as a rising celebrity writer, as a minister's wife, as a reluctant feminist, as an established voice in Canada and beyond.'

Lefebvre received his Ph.D. from McMaster University in 2006 and is currently completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, at the University of Alberta. He will take up the LMMI Visiting Scholar position in conjunction with a nine-month Leverhulme visiting fellowship at the University of Worcester, where he will study the transformation of books for young people into media cycles in Canada, the U.S. and England.

He has published internationally on Montgomery's fiction and life writing and on film, television and tourism adaptations of her work. His edition of Montgomery's rediscovered final book, The Blythes Are Quoted, will be published by Viking Canada in October 2009.

Lefebvre's term as Visiting Scholar runs from July 2009 to June 2010.

UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place will be the competition venue for some of the best young track and field athletes in Canada this weekend. From July 17 to 19, close to 600 athletes and 120 coaches from across the country will gather at the University of Prince Edward Island to take part in the Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships.

UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place officially opened on July 13. It features a synthetic, 400-metre, eight-lane oval track; a water jump for steeplechase; a facility for long and triple jump, pole vault, discus and hammer throw, javelin throw and shot put; storage, washrooms, and spectator seating and viewing.

'The Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships give us a great opportunity to showcase the exceptional athletics facilities we now have in our province,' says Ron Annear, UPEI Athletics Director. 'We are delighted to be able to host this exciting national event.'

During the three days of competition, athletes will be vying for a place on the national junior team. Only 40 to 50 will go on to represent Canada in the Pan American Junior Championships coming up in two weeks in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The championships this weekend will also act as the official test event for the 2009 Canada Games scheduled to begin on August 15.

Admission to the Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships at UPEI is free, and everyone is invited to experience some of the best track and field competition in the country. The main action takes place from 3 to 8 p.m. on Friday, from 12:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Spectators will be able to enjoy gold medal events on Saturday and all day Sunday.

This year's Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships are being organized by a group called Moncton 2010. Next year, from July 19 to 25, the City of Moncton will host the international junior championships.

The Centre for Life-Long Learning at UPEI will hold information sessions next week for people who are interested in learning about educational opportunities for adult learners.

The three information sessions take place from 7 to 8 p.m. as follows:

· Monday, July 20, Montague Curling Club;

· Tuesday, July 21, McDougall Hall, UPEI;

· Wednesday, July 22, Centre Belle-Alliance, Summerside.

People attending the sessions will have the opportunity to meet other adult learners and to learn about UPEI's Bachelor of Integrated Studies program; the Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) process; and programs offered by UPEI that are designed to fit into the busy work and home lives of adult learners.

Under the Bachelor of Integrated Studies program, mature students can earn their first degree, finish an uncompleted degree or add to an existing college diploma, while continuing their careers. Through PLAR, they can earn university-level undergraduate credits for learning they have gained from other sources, including work experience, non-credit and workplace courses, informal study, volunteering and hobbies.

'UPEI recognizes that many adults who are not currently students want and need to continue their education,' says Jeanette MacAulay, director of the Centre for Life-Long Learning. 'We are building educational opportunities that will meet the special needs of these mature students.'

For more information about the sessions, contact the Centre for Life-Long Learning at (902) 566-0336, lifelong@upei.ca or www.upei.ca/lifelonglearning.

As a marine ecologist, Dr. Pedro Quijon, of the UPEI Biology Department, is keenly aware of the importance of conserving the world's oceans especially now at a time when they are under more stress than ever.

He represents UPEI on the recently established Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe). The network brings together 65 researchers from 15 Canadian universities, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and several federal laboratories to develop science-based guidelines for the conservation and sustainability of Canada's three oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic.

CHONe's strategic focus is on three research themes: marine biodiversity, ecosystem function and population connectivity. Researchers working on the marine biodiversity theme will explore functional and species biodiversity in relation to a variety of habitats. Projects under the ecosystem function theme will look at how function and health are linked to biodiversity and several agents of disturbance. Finally, scientists studying population connectivity will examine how the dispersal of early life stages (eggs, larvae, juveniles) influences patterns of biodiversity and resilience, and how different geographic areas may naturally become 'sources' and 'sinks' for new recruits.

Dr. Quijon highlights the broad collaboration that is already taking place because of CHONe, and the relevance of having UPEI playing a role in an initiative of this magnitude. His participation in CHONe falls under the population connectivity theme. In late April he and UPEI graduate student Kevin Sorochan, joined Dr. John Dower, of the University of Victoria, to conduct their first survey of the Strait of Georgia, BC. Working from the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Vector, they collected samples of crab and fish larvae from about 48 stations along the Strait. With information gleaned from those samples and the characteristics of the water column, they will be able to accurately map the distribution of those larvae in this large coastal system and identify the areas where most larvae are produced and retained.

The data will be useful for identifying those areas of the Strait that should be given priority for protection, he says, with the ultimate goal of ensuring sustainability for the fish and crab fishing industries. This project is taking place on the west coast over two years, but its approach and results should be applicable to other areas--and fisheries--on the east coast and elsewhere. The knowledge gained should be useful to approach similar research problems in areas with well-known fishery concerns, such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Dr. Ian Whicher, head of the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba, will give a free public lecture called 'The Meaning and Integrity of Yoga' at the Confederation Centre Public Library on Tuesday, July 28, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Whicher says that classically envisioned yoga does not lead to the condemnation, abandonment or transcendence of life in the world but rather to enhanced engagement with the world--engagement that seeks to enrich human interactions within the world. Drawing from the Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, he will explore how yoga can culminate in a balanced integration of the spiritual and material dimensions of human life that incorporates clarity of awareness with the integrity of being and action.

Whicher earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, England. A long-time yoga practitioner, he is the author of several books including The Integrity of the Yoga Darsana (SUNY Press). He regularly gives talks about yoga throughout the world, including Canada, the U.S., Europe and India.

This talk is the first in a series of lectures for the general public presented by the UPEI Department of Religious Studies and the Confederation Centre Public Library.

For information about this event, please contact Dr. Joe Velaidum, Department of Religious Studies, UPEI, at jvelaidum@upei.ca.

Fifteen students from the University of Prince Edward Island will spend the next month learning about the history and culture of the Middle East at Misr International University (MIU) in Cairo, Egypt.

Led by Sherilyn Acorn-LeClair, coordinator of international student exchanges at UPEI, the students are participating in a Middle East Studies Program offered at MIU from July 24 to August 21. The program is a partnership between UPEI and MIU.

Each of the 15 students has received a $5,000 scholarship from MIU that will cover the cost of tuition, field trips, and transportation costs to and from accommodations and the airport. Students pay for their flight and living expenses.

Through their course work and field studies, the students will gain a greater insight into the overall understanding of the Middle East, particularly its potential and its challenges. They will enjoy a week of field trips, including the Alexandria Library, Islamic and Christian Cairo as well as museums, pyramids, the stock exchange and different cultural events. They will then attend classes for three weeks of intensive study about the region's history and culture.

They will take a maximum of two courses, which, upon successful completion, will be transferred back to UPEI. Possible choices include ancient Egyptian history, Middle East politics, economic development in the Middle East, contemporary Arabic literature, and Arabic language for foreigners.

The program began in 2008, with two UPEI students--Emily Gorman and Michael Deighan-spending a month in Egypt. They strongly recommended the program to students interested in culture, history and travel.

'We made friends that we have kept in touch with and hope to visit in the future,' said Gorman.

Deighan also hopes to return to Egypt in the future.

'It was definitely the most interesting place I've visited so far and I plan to go back soon to see everything I've missed,' he said.

For information about international student exchange opportunities at UPEI, please contact Sherilyn Acorn-LeClair at (902) 894-2837 or sdacorn@.upei.ca or visit the Internationalization website.