Jobs with the surprisingly low pay

It's no surprise that fast food workers, cashiers and amusement park attendants don't pull in a pretty penny on the job—but did you know most legislators, models and TV announcers earn fairly small paychecks, too?

Forbes combed through data gathered annually by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division of the Labor Department, to find the 10 most surprising low-paying jobs. The BLS culls its information from surveys it mails to businesses, and it releases its Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates Data each May. The report shares information about hundreds of occupations, including hourly and annual wages, total numbers of workers in the profession, and the states and metro areas that pay the best. To make the cut for our list, the average pay of employees in the profession had to be less than $50,000—when you'd think it would be more.

Marriage and family therapists are mental health professionals who typically diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders within the context of marriage, couples and family systems. The job requires graduate training (a master's or doctoral degree) in marriage and family therapy and usually at least two years of clinical experience, but on average they end up making just $47,530 a year. The bottom 10% of these professionals make a meager $23,870 a year, on average.

Stay away from New York, Wisconsin and Colorado if you're planning to pursue a career in the field. You're likely to make less than $36,200 in those states. Instead, head to Hawaii, Rhode Island or Alaska, where the average annual pay is over $66,000. (Pay is generally likely to be higher in states where the cost of living is higher.)

Other professions that you probably thought paid more than $50,000 a year: Radio and TV announcers and reporters. Announcers generally speak or read from scripted materials, such as news reports or commercial messages—but their voices and personalities earn them only $39,910 a year, on average. The mean pay is as little as $16,590 for the bottom 10% of them. You'll make less than $27,000 working as a radio or television announcer in Wyoming, Oklahoma and Vermont—but you'll earn $93,690, on average, in Washington, D.C.

Pay isn't much better for reporters and correspondents. Those pros gather news by interview, investigation, or observation and share it with the public. Reporting and writing stories for newspapers, magazines, radio, television or other mediums will put $43,780 in your wallet each year, or just $19,970 for the bottom 10%.

Reporters in D.C., New Jersey and Massachusetts make, on average, over $60,000 annually—while those in Arkansas, Iowa and South Dakota earn an average yearly pay of less than $28,000.

Embalmers, firefighters and private investigators also earn less than $50,000 a year, on average. You might expect to make more for a job that requires sanitizing and preserving the deceased—but apparently preparing bodies for interment will only earn you $44,280, and the bottom 10% make a measly $26,630.

You'll make an inadequate $47,730, on average, risking your life to help save others' by controlling and extinguishing fires in emergency situations. Ten percent of firefighters will only earn an average of $23,050 a year doing this important job.

Private investigators and detectives "gather, analyze, compile and report information regarding individuals or organizations to clients, or detect occurrences of unlawful acts or infractions of rules in private establishment," according to the BLS site. They do it all for a skimpy $47,830 annual paycheck—or $25,760 for the bottom 10%.

The list doesn't end there. Click here for a complete list of the 10 most surprising jobs that pay $50,000 or less.

Filipino workers killed in Alberta crash identified by police

The four Filipino workers killed by a suspected drunk driver Sunday in a crash near Innisfail, Alta., can now be identified.

Anthony Subong Castillon, 35, Joey Flores Mangonon, 35, Eden Dalu Biazon, 39, and Josefina Flores Velarde, 52, were killed when a Range Rover heading north in the southbound lanes of the QE II Highway slammed head-on into their vehicle.

Josephine Gaila Tamondong, 28, survived the crash and is in stable condition in an Edmonton hospital.

All five were workers from the Philippines who were living in Edmonton. Four, including three of those who died, worked at the Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel.

A 29-year-old man faces a number of charges in the crash.

Tyler James Stevens is charged with four counts each of impaired driving causing death, failing to provide a breath sample and criminal negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle causing death, plus one count each of impaired driving causing bodily harm and criminal negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.

Woman dead, police officer injured in south-side collision in Edmonton

EDMONTON - An 84-year-old woman is dead and a police officer is in hospital with serious injuries after a “catastrophic” two-vehicle crash in south Edmonton Thursday morning.

Police Chief Rod Knecht said the injured officer was on duty and driving an unmarked police car at the time of the crash.

“I am looking to meet with the family of the deceased as soon as possible, so I can personally express my condolences on behalf of the Edmonton Police Service and myself,” Knecht said. He said he also planned to visit the hospital to provide support to the injured officer and his family.

Knecht said he asked the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team to investigate the crash.

ASIRT has a mandate to investigate any incident where the actions of police cause serious injury or death.

“ASIRT is conducting an independent investigation into this incident,” executive director Clif Purvis said at the scene. “We are receiving the co-operation and assistance of the Edmonton Police Service.”

He said the injured officer is a six-year member of the force who works in a surveillance unit out of the southeast division. He was described as having serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The names of the woman and officer have not been released. Knecht said families are still being contacted.

The collision happened about 10:30 a.m. at the intersection of 76th Avenue and 75th Street.

Purvis said the officer was driving north on 75th Street in a Nissan Altima. The woman was southbound in a Volkswagen Jetta and appears to have been trying to turn left when the cars collided.

Feds move quickly to block Air Canada disruptions

Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt, came under fire Thursday after she again stepped in to prevent a labour disruption at Air Canada over the busy March break by referring its dispute with the unions representing its pilots and machinists to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

"Given our fragile economy, we've said before, a work stoppage is unacceptable," she told reporters in Ottawa.

Raitt said she would ask the CIRB to determine whether an airline such as Air Canada could be considered an essential service. She has used similar means in the past to head off a work stoppage at the Port of Montreal, at Marine Atlantic and at Air Canada last October to avoid a strike by flight attendants.

"The Canadian labour code is very clear that while the CIRB is considering the matter of what level of services an air carrier may have to provide in the case of health and safety matters, they cannot affect a work stoppage. So it applies to both a lockout and a strike," Raitt said.

Her decision effectively puts all strike action and lockouts on hold; no work stoppage can go forward while the disputes are being reviewed by the board.

"At this point in time, we're on the side of the Canadian public interest," Raitt said. "We want to make sure that if there's a work stoppage, the health and safety of Canadians has been considered by a third party to ensure that the cessation of services at Air Canada is something that's not going to hurt them individually."

Raitt encouraged both unions and the airline to continue talks between now and Monday — when Air Canada had planned to lock out its pilots — to negotiate a collective agreement.

"The best deal they're going to get is the one they do themselves," she said.

Earlier Thursday, Air Canada served notice that it would lock out its 3,000 pilots Monday, the same day another union — which represents thousands of ground crew and mechanics at the airline — is set to strike.

"We need to bring closure to the ongoing climate of labour uncertainty at Air Canada which is affecting our customers, destabilizing the company and our operations, and damaging the Air Canada brand," Duncan Dee, Air Canada chief operating officer, said in a statement about the decision to lock out its pilots.

A deadline passed Thursday at noon for what the airline had called its "best, last and final offer" to the Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA) — without a deal being reached.

The airline made its most recent offer Wednesday, which was less than a month after Raitt offered both sides a new mediator and a six-month process to help them settle contract negotiations — a gesture that was welcomed by the airline and union at the time.

Raitt expressed her disappointment that Air Canada and the unions have been unable to come to an agreement, and with the timing of the strike threats.

"Our government is concerned the work stoppages are going to have an effect on the Canadian travelling public. We all know that it's March break," she said.

She would not directly answer questions about the likelihood of back-to-work legislation if a work stoppage remains a possibility following the CIRB review.

Talks broke off late Tuesday between the airline and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents 8,600 Air Canada ground crew and mechanics.

The union had rejected a new labour agreement two weeks ago, but returned to the bargaining table this week. According to the union, talks broke off after the airline balked at a list of demands from the union.

Both the pilots' lockout and the strike action from the ground crew and mechanics were set to begin at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday.

The ACPA president said Thursday that it was "the minister's prerogative" to send the matters to the CIRB, but expressed concerns in how the process has played out.

"Air Canada needs to behave like the private-sector corporation it is and stop running to the government every time it has a problem, which as you can see, is often," Capt. Paul Strachan said in a conference call Thursday.

He said, however, that any concerns by people expected to travel over the popular March break period should not worry too much about being grounded due the process that lies ahead for the disputes.

"I think this process will take longer than March break," he said. "I don't think we'll see a completion before that, so I would say to the travelling public to travel in confidence.

"We've never wanted a work stoppage . . . and haven't called for any industrial action of any kind. We've always wanted a bargained settlement."

Strachan also said the union would be "looking at all options going forward," when asked about any legal response to Air Canada possibly being considering essential for health and safety.

George Smith, an industrial relations professor at Queen's University said he thought both Air Canada and IAMAW were being opportunistic by threatening a work stoppage during the busy March break. Smith, a former chief negotiator for Air Canada, said there is little risk for either side because Raitt has shown in the past that she will prevent a work stoppage, meaning the company will not suffer much economically and the union might be able to get a better deal through arbitration.

In June, she tabled back-to-work to put an end to a three-day strike at Air Canada by its sales and service agents. The parties ultimately decided to put their outstanding pension issues out for arbitration. The dispute last October with its flight attendants was also put out for arbitration after Raitt referred the matter to the CIRB, which eventually saw a previously rejected tentative agreement forced upon the employees.

Smith said Ottawa should not be making up public policy as it goes along, and a debate was needed to determine what level of intervention was acceptable and what form that should take.

"The feds are players as opposed to overseers in this process," he said. "This whole thing is a continued perversion of the normal collective bargaining process."

Opposition parties were swift in their criticism of the move by the Conservative government.

NDP MP Yvon Godin reacted angrily to Raitt's decision to use the labour board to effectively eliminate the ability of unions to strike.

"She is trying to find anything she could have in her hands to just go and beat the workers," Godin said. "It is not the job of the government to get involved in negotiations at that point."

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said the government has made a "farce" of collective bargaining in Canada with its constant interference in labour negotiations.

"The problem is we haven't had an even hand in terms of encouraging people to get to the bargaining table early and doing everything they can to get to an agreement," Rae said, adding that he suspects Air Canada and the government worked in concert to avert the strikes.

"In my opinion, it's improbable the company would have done this without consulting the government. It's clearly an effort on the part of the company to force the hand of the government, and even of the House of Commons."

Meanwhile, Air Canada's largest domestic competitor, WestJet, quickly moved to address any possible flight disruptions as a result of the Air Canada situations by announcing intentions to schedule additional flights to deal with potential backlogs.

"We recognize the travelling public is subject to uncertainty arising from the potential travel disruptions at Air Canada," Bob Cummings, WestJet's executive vice-president of sales and marketing, said in a statement. "With more than 60,000 seats departing each day, we are letting the public know that (we) are ready to welcome more guests on board."

Kony 2012 campaign defends Ugandan warlord video

Some Canadian experts are defending a controversial viral video campaign that has garnered more than 40 million views targeting a Ugandan warlord.

With a single tweet, San Francisco-based NGO Invisible Children launched its "Kony 2012" campaign, which seeks the capture of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, to the top of the Twitterverse.

However, the campaign has quickly turned from widespread support on social media sites to growing criticism about the group and its tactics.

According to Invisible Children, its campaign seeks to make Kony "famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice. In this case, notoriety translates to public support."

In 2005, the International Criminal Court, of which Canada is a signatory, issued an arrest warrant for Kony and three other suspected war criminals. The court charged Kony with 12 counts of crimes against humanity including sexual enslavement and rape, and 21 counts of war crimes including murder, attacking civilians and forcing children to fight. The LRA has been forced out of Uganda and now operates in southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

"If people know about the crimes that Kony has been committing for 26 years, they will unite to stop him," Invisible Children said on its website.

The campaign, which features a 30-minute documentary, also encourages supporters to contact celebrities and 12 world leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, about the campaign to spark action.

While Kony 2012 has supporters, it also has its detractors who say the campaign oversimplifies the issue and may incite people to take the law into their own hands.

Ugandan blogger Javie Ssozi tweeted Thursday that "the #KONY2012 approach is wrong approach because what does awareness of Kony specifically do? Leads to peace or accelerate war?"

John Thompson of the Mackenzie Institute, a non-profit organization concerned with issues related to terrorism, warfare and political instability, said the video campaign reflects an "ancient" form of counterinsurgency that has been effective in previous wars.

"It's normal. I know, somehow, in some aspects of our society, the imaginary ideal is that all problems can be solved by legal means and somehow (that's) an optimal solution to a local conflict," he said. "Somehow, like chivalry in medieval Europe, that's the ideal, but the reality is very different."

"It's a war . . . . This isn't going after some group in Idaho. This is guerrilla war; targeting one of the leaders who is propagating the whole thing," Thompson said.

"Over the years, especially with some of these wars that drag on forever, there's two approaches to counterinsurgency: work from the bottom up or top down and go after the leaders," he explained.

Thompson said it's believed that in some civil wars in the developing world, "if you can knock off a leader, especially a cult-like leader (like the LRA), it can cause a larger group to fragment and disintegrate."

"If you've tried other resources, so be it. Go for it," he added. "In World War II, would you have passed up a shot with Hitler?"

On whether the campaign may encourage unlawful actions to detain Kony, Thompson said given the atrocities Kony is accused of committing, "vigilanteeism, where you're encouraging local people to go after leaders during a time of war, how's it going to worsen the situation?"

Prof. Joanna Quinn, director of Western University's Africa Institute in London, Ont., says the campaign is correct in singling out Kony.

"This guy is an indicted war criminal by the International Criminal Court, so it's not like he has not been called out in the past. His crimes are documented and they've been investigated."

"If what they're talking about is finally carrying out the arrest warrant and capturing Joseph Kony, then I don't disagree," she said. "Going after Kony is not a bad thing."

Quinn said Invisible Children may "simplify" the war or "misrepresent things to take a certain stand" in the video. But she said the group is highlighting an important fact: the international community has "not bothered to arrest (Kony)" despite committing to do so.

"That this conflict has been allowed to fester since the 1980s speaks volumes to me, to the fact that nobody has paid attention," Quinn said.

Meanwhile, Sidneyeve Matrix, a media professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., said the video is encouraging her students to delve deeper than the single tweet.

"To have that kind of sustained engagement I'm seeing . . . I don't see the dangers, I just see the possibility and potential. The campaign is doing part of the work, but it's people and community that's doing the rest of it," she said.