Mikä ihmeen Vapaa Sana? Katso tuonnempana alhaalla.

Kolumneja
Vuoden 2010 alkupuoliskolla kolumneja lehteen kirjoittaa Johannes Niemeläinen.

What is Vapaa Sana?
Vapaa Sana is a weekly tabloid published in Toronto in Finnish and partially in English. Published since 1931, the weekly claims to be the leading Finnish language media in North America. More

This website
At vapaasana,com the paper offers a selection of material published in the Vapaa Sana. Besides this side, the company maintains also (www) Finnishcanadian.com

Meille töihin?
Vapaa Sana ottaa vastaan Suomesta Centre for International Mobilityn harjoittelijoita. Lue tästä, mitä Vapaa Sana edellyttää.

Mikä ihmeen Vapaa Sana?
Vapaa Sana on riippumaton viikkosanomalehti, joka ilmestyy kerran viikossa Torontossa. Lehden nimi periytyy 1930-luvulta.Nimi johtaa joskus lehteä tuntemattoman pitämään Vapaata Sanaa ns hengellisenä lehtenä. Sitä se ei kuitenkaan ole.

Näillä sivuilla tarjoamme poimintoja sisällöstä, emme koko aineistoa. Vapaa Sana on tilauspohjainen lehti. Vuosikerta maksaa Kanadassa 100 dollaria ja GST-veron, nopeammin kirjepostina 150 dollaria.Tilaukset numeroon 1(416) 321 0808, klo 10-13 Toronton aikaa arkisin.

Yhtiömme
Kustannusyhtiö Vapaa Sana Press julkaisee viikkosanomalehtiä Vapaa Sana (Toronto) ja Canadan Sanomat (Thunder Bay). Yhtiön internetsivustot ovat www.vapaasana.com, www.canadansanomat.com ja www.finnishcanadian.com.

Yhtiön omistajapohja käsittää toistakymmentätuhatta kanadansuomalaista. Hallituksen puheenjohtaja on nyt John Majanlahti.

Kyselyjen johdosta ilmoitamme, että internetosoite vapaasana.net ei liity tämän kustannusyhtiön toimintaan.

Historiamme
Kesällä 2008 ilmestyi Lauri Toiviasen kirja Vapaan Sanan vaiheista. Tämän linkin takana voitte lukea myös VS:n 75-vuotisjuhlanumeron reportaaseja ja haastatteluja.

Torontoa uudelle?
Mitä kaupungin perinteinen suomalaiskenttä voi tarjota tulokkaalle? Kaupungin "vanhat suomalaiset" varmasti yllättävät nykysuomalaisen, mutta kokemus voi olla kiinnostavakin.

Vapaa Sana wrote about the outreach of the Expatriate Parliament
See editorials in English.

The Revell exhibition not to make it to Toronto?

2010 marks the centenary of the birth of Finnish architect Viljo Revell, the designer of the Toronto City Hall. An exhibition marking his work is under way at the Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki. The intention has been that the exhibition would move to Toronto later this year. The date and location could not be confirmed in early March though. The plan to mark Revell’s work with an exhibition here in Toronto has encountered financial uncertainties. - It is possible that the event may have to be called off, if financing cannot be arranged Maria Didrichsen, Head of Exhibitions at the Museum told Vapaa Sana. The situation is mainly attributed to the priorities of the City of Toronto. Other sources have been investigated as well, but with no results so far.
Viljo Revell died in 1964 at the age of 54, and never saw the completion of his major work, the City Hall here. Despite the fame and glory associated with being the winner amongst 530 contestants, Revell was not a happy man during his final years. For economic reasons many of his key solutions had been simply disregarded in the implementation.

The Canadian Friends of Finland Education Foundation kept its pledge

A donation of half a million Candian dollars was handed over to the University of Toronto in February 2010. The CFFE had made its pledge in May 2006. Read more.

Even if they were only a nuisance

The debate on whether the security surveillance papers of former NDP leader Tommy Douglas should be published or not is not one of indifference to the Finnish scene in Canada. The security wing of RCMP used to hire Canadians of Finnish extraction to keep an eye their fellow Canadians of Finnish extraction. Newly arrived Finnish immigrants of the immediate post-war era were not unwilling to participate. After all, they had been fighting the communists in Europe, why not here. And the fact that Canada had been on the other side in the war did not matter. (It was Canada who changed sides, not the Finnish immigrant..) Full publicity to the records of Tommy Douglas would open the door to full publicity to the whole collection of files. That would put the former informants in to an embarrassing situation. Vapaa Sana does not endorse full publicity to the old security documents, however wrong and against democratic principles the actions at the time were. Read the editorial.

Ottawa knows the Megan Leslie phenomenon

The input in Ottawa by MP Megan Leslie (NDP, Halifax) got wider acclaim in 2009 when she was elected “rookie of the year” by other MPs, in a magazine poll. Being of Finnish-Canadian extraction she has been active in promoting the Finnish heritage in the parliamentary circles. One of her interests is the Finnish “sauna tradition”. Read this Vapaa Sana feature about a sauna party hosted by Ambassador Risto Piipponen and his wife Marjatta in December 2009. Among the invitees, including Speaker of Parliament Peter Milliken, Megan Leslie was the sauna expert.

Read also this Vapaa Sana feature published in issue 03/09. - Most Canadians have social democratic values even though they do not know it, says Megan Leslie. Many of the goals of the Canadian New Democrats have been attained long ago in Finland, and part of the political consensus there.

A TV channel starts in Finland with private Canadian funding
Finnish media interested in finding the essence of the "family values" of the new channel.

Many of the 1950-60s emigrants
retained their Finnish identity in Canada
A fresh interview project : There was also political motivation to come to Canada in the 50s and 60s.

Finland and Canada are far apart on the climate issue. What do Finnish-Canadian businessmen say?
Canada does not get a good rating when three Finnish-Canadians active in business comment on the results of the Copenhagen climate conference.

Paul Siren
1917-2009
Paul Siren was one of the three Finnish-Canadian recipients of the Order of Canada medal. He died on May 31, 2009. Read a Vapaa Sana profile of this lifelong work for workers' rights.

Finnophile nights meet the demand

High hopes at the relaunch of the Finnophile pub events in Toronto. These events have been seen as the missing link possibly able to bring the connection between the generations of emigration.

The new professor of Finnish Studies at th U of T
The next Professor of Finnish Studies at the University of Toronto is Dr Pia-Maria Päiviö. The new professor has spent the last two years in Indiana, teaching Finnish at the University in Bloomington in Indiana. The position of professor of Finnish Studies became vacant following the retirement of professor Börje Vähämäki. Dr Päiviö also talked to Vapaa Sana. The continued existance of the Chair was secured for another five years in the talks between the Finnish Ministry of Education and U of T. Read more.

This high tech expert is an ambassador of Finnish values..

Riku Seppälä, 25, still an industrial engineering and management student at the Helsinki University of Technology, but already a high tech entrepreneur in Canada. - A company is being launched with a couple of friends, he explained. He also talks warmly about the Finnish educational system, worlds apart from some policies prevailing here in North America. Vapaa Sana talked with Riku Seppälä at a CFF event in Montreal. See the feature.