Multicultural Meanderings

Scott Stinson: Spending scandal at Conestoga College is a reminder of Canada’s shameful international student boom

2026/05/14 Leave a comment

Yep:

…But the Liberals in Ottawa weren’t the only guilty party. The provinces did request an influx of potential workers during the pandemic, and then no one seemed to realize that the huge increases in foreign students in post-secondary institutions were not going to address those labour shortages, since they were largely in low-paying, unskilled jobs. The kind that didn’t require a college degree, in other words.

Indeed, the federal Auditor General issued a report this week that said immigration officials made little to no effort to investigate fraud within the student visa program, saying that they were overwhelmed by the large numbers.

More than 150,000 such cases were identified in 2023 and 2024 alone, with many of them flagged to the department because visa holders might not have been following the requirements of their study permits, as can happen when they do not attend classes, for example. A tiny fraction of those cases were even investigated, and in almost half of those that were, the student in question did not respond to inquiries from immigration officials.

It is, in sum, a hot mess.

Opposition politicians in Ontario sought to pin most of the blame this week on the Ford government, saying the Progressive Conservatives’ 2019 tuition freeze forced the post-secondary sector to look abroad for needed funds. “Now communities, workers, and students are dealing with the fallout while the government tries to act like this is all someone else’s fault,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife, who represents Waterloo, after the Conestoga news was announced. “What did they think was going to happen?”

It’s a fair question, but as was the case when the Ford government took over various public school boards after allegations of lavish expense mishaps, Conestoga College at this moment in time does not make a particularly sympathetic victim.

Mostly it stands as a symbol of a truly wild time in the post-secondary education sector in Ontario, when a lot of people who were supposed to be minding the store were doing the opposite.

And a time that a considerable number of politicians, at multiple levels, would rather we all forget.

Source: Scott Stinson: Spending scandal at Conestoga College is a reminder of Canada’s shameful international student boom

Filed under Immigration Tagged with Conestoga, international students, Scott Stinson

Migrant Integration Services in Canada: Adapting to the Changing Landscape

2026/05/14 Leave a comment

What is lacking is better performance reporting on outcomes along with an updated evaluation (last one dates from 2020:

…Key findings

Federal spending: The budget of the IRCC Settlement Program, which funds integration services almost exclusively for permanent residents, grew by 70 per cent between 2016-17 and 2023-24, approaching $1.2 billion in 2024-25. A government-wide expenditure review will reduce the Settlement and Resettlement Program budget to $935.7 million in 2026-27.

Admission reductions: The federal government reduced annual permanent resident targets to 395,000 for 2025, down from 500,000 in 2024. Following the introduction of Canada’s first-ever limits on temporary resident admissions, the number of temporary foreign workers fell 48 per cent, and new international students dropped 60 per cent in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.

Language training cut: IRCC will discontinue funding for language instruction above Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 4 as of September 2026. In Ontario, one-third of language learners study at the intermediate and higher levels (CLB 5+).

Settlement sector strain: A survey of 48 service provider organizations in the Toronto region conducted before the further cuts from the expenditure review were announced found that 69 per cent anticipated laying off staff due to federal funding reductions.

Refugee claimants left out: Despite 295,819 pending refugee claims as of September 2025 and an 80 per cent acceptance rate, refugee claimants remain ineligible for IRCC Settlement Program services.

Provincial variation: Ontario and British Columbia fund integration services beyond the scope of the federal program. Ontario’s well-established programs served 185,600 clients in 2023-24. Following a significant budget increase, B.C.’s redesigned Newcomer Services Program and new Safe Haven program served over 64,000 clients in 2024-25.

Cities diverge: Toronto has a proactive newcomer strategy and kiosks providing services regardless of immigration status. Vancouver has no formal policy by design, relying instead on an equity and accessibility lens applied across city services.

Recommendations

The author presents four recommendations:

Engage the settlement sector: To inform the program review that is part of the expenditure review, give a mandate to one of IRCC’s sectoral committees to hold targeted consultations and propose specific changes, making fuller use of sector expertise in policy development.
Reverse the language training cut: IRCC should restore funding for language instruction above CLB 4 and signal that, as of April 2029, service providers will be eligible to deliver instruction up to CLB 8 under the Settlement Program.
Expand eligibility to refugee claimants: IRCC should allow service providers to support refugee claimants under the Settlement Program, potentially requiring organizations to co-finance part of costs from non-federal sources.
Hold a national forum: Convene governments, practitioners and experts to assess the effectiveness of Canada’s migrant integration model, explore improvements and raise public awareness about the need for renewal.

Source: Migrant Integration Services in Canada: Adapting to the Changing Landscape

Filed under Integration Tagged with settlement

These Americans want to become Canadian citizens — but feel punished for applying early

2026/05/14 Leave a comment

IRCC clearly juggling demand:

…Buffalo resident William Siegner, whose maternal grandfather was born in Calgary, belongs to a group on Reddit created by people to share information about the process and documentations required. They also share their application information and timelines in an EXCEL file to track processing.

“There’s people who could be fifth-, sixth-generation Canadians, far further removed than I am, and have never lived in Canada,” said the 32-year-old urban planner, who accompanied his ex-partner to Canada for school in 2018 and worked in Vancouver for four years.

“They submitted after the law was passed and are having their things processed and having certificates issued.”

Based on the shared information of the Reddit group, Siegner has the impression that most of the people who applied under the interim measure have been referred to the Immigration Department’s program support unit. The unit is responsible for handling complex files.

He said he fell in love with Canada during his stay and would like to move back to Vancouver, where he has strong personal and professional connections. As soon as he heard about the interim measure, he and his mother started researching family records and gathering documents. They applied in March 2025.

Siegner has not received any update, and like Roetter, only found out through an access-to-information request that his case, too, has been referred to the program support unit….

Source: These Americans want to become Canadian citizens — but feel punished for applying early

Filed under C-3 Tagged with interim, Processing

C-3 and Baptism Records

2026/05/13 Leave a comment

Another little nugget on the interest that C-3 has created:

Why this Toronto man is being flooded with requests from Americans about their Canadian ancestors, May 8

As a United Church minister, I recently received a request for baptism information dating from 1858. The problem was that there were no churches and no travelling clergy in my community until the 1860s and no church records older that the 1880s. It may be fine to try to prove Canadian citizenship, but very often the records simply do not exist. They may have been lost, destroyed or even burned in a fire. We have shipped all our old records to the United Church Archives for storage. It is the best place for them.

David Shearman, Owen Sound, ON

Source: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/proving-citizenship-with-old-baptismal-records-not-always-possible/article_b1b558bf-4c87-4bd8-a8cb-3664d2a13e09.html

Filed under C-3, Citizenship

Studying racial and ethnic health inequality in Canada: What we need to get right

2026/05/13 Leave a comment

Good reminder that Canadian history, context and policies are different. Now if we could only stop using US terminology like BIPOC….:

…Canada is not the U.S.

Canada’s social policies are distinct from American policies. To begin with, the racial and ethnic makeup of the populations differ. Canada, for example, has a smaller Black population and a larger Asian population than the U.S.. These differences reflect broader historical and institutional contexts that shape how racial and ethnic inequalities are structured in each country.

At the same time, Indigenous Peoples are more central to health inequality in Canada. This is because Canada has a relatively high percentage of Indigenous Peoples compared to the U.S. and many other more economically developed nations. The health of Indigenous Peoples is shaped by a long history of colonialism and ongoing structural disadvantage.

Immigrant population also differs. About one-quarter of Canada’s population is foreign-born, compared to about one in seven in the U.S. Canada’s selective immigration system means many immigrants arrive with relatively high levels of education and good health. This contributes to patterns like “the healthy immigrant effect.”

Research has shown that Canada exhibits the healthy immigrant effect, in which newly arrived immigrants tend to have better health than the Canadian-born population, though this advantage often declines over time with longer residence. Inequality does not line up neatly with race.

Policy matters too. Canada promotes multiculturalism, while the U.S. emphasizes assimilation into a single national culture. Canada has universal health care, which reduces financial barriers to basic care.

But this coverage is partial. Services such as prescription drugs, dental care and mental-health support are not fully covered and often depend on employment benefits or where people live. Since health care is organized at the provincial level, access and quality also vary across regions. These gaps shape who gets timely care and who falls through the cracks….

A Canadian approach

Studying racial and ethnic health inequality in Canada requires a distinctly Canadian approach. The population, data and policy context differ from those in the U.S., and these differences shape both how inequalities emerge and how they should be studied.

This means moving beyond broad categories, improving race-based data, and using more meaningful and diverse measures of health. It also requires closer attention to context, including Indigenous and rural settings, as well as Canada’s social, immigration and health policy landscape.

To effectively address health disparities, research needs to be grounded in Canada’s realities, not simply adapted from models developed elsewhere.

Source: Studying racial and ethnic health inequality in Canada: What we need to get right

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with Chloe Sher

Canada gave citizenship to a terrorist. Revoking it has been ‘ridiculously’ slow

2026/05/12 Leave a comment

Sigh….:

…Acquiring Canadian citizenship is a relatively straightforward process familiar to millions. Revoking it from those who never should have received it takes considerably longer.

A Global News review of cases that have come before the court over the past two years reveals that it routinely takes more than a decade to rescind citizenship from those who obtained it through fraud.

Even when immigration officials appear to have substantial evidence that foreign nationals obtained citizenship by submitting false information, the process is plodding.

Canada’s immigration department declined to disclose its “processing timelines” or discuss individual cases, but a Global News review identified 11 handled by the Federal Court since Jan. 1, 2024.

In almost every instance, the time between the start of an investigation and revocation was at least 10 years — and some are still ongoing.

The only one that took less time involved a Filipino man who became a Canadian using a fake name. Revoking his citizenship was an eight-year exercise. A court challenge that was denied in 2024 lasted another year.

The most common reason cited by the government for rescinding citizenship was that it was obtained under a false identity, according to the Global News review.

For example, when a Sri Lankan became a citizen in 2000 using the persona of a dead relative, and then married his cousin, it took 11 years to fix, plus two more for a court appeal.

In another case, a Canadian admitted in 2011 that he was paid to marry a Chinese woman and sponsor her for citizenship. Her appeals were only exhausted in 2026.

The cases also involved citizenship that officials said was wrongly granted to those who had concealed their involvement in crimes and war crimes.

The slowest and perhaps most harrowing recent case involved a former Guatemalan army officer who became a citizen in 1992 after hiding his role in a massacre….

Source: Canada gave citizenship to a terrorist. Revoking it has been ‘ridiculously’ slow

Filed under Citizenship, Revocation

Thousands of temporary residents are being squeezed out by Canada’s shifting immigration reality. Here’s what the country could lose

2026/05/12 Leave a comment

The human impact of the needed policy reversals and shame on those policy makers, federal and provincial, along with institutions that did not think ahead:

They’ve spent months and years living, studying and working toward the Canadian dream, once touted as the “economic engine” for this country’s post-COVID-19 recovery and future growth.

But after all their toil to build a new life here, their journeys have stalled.

An IT specialist, a special-needs teacher, an engineer with two master’s degrees: They’re among hundreds of thousands of temporary residents who have been left in limbo by Canada’s immigration pivot.

After cranking out study and work permits to welcome the world to Canada after the pandemic, the government has reversed course, vowing to “take back control of the immigration system.”

Not only has Ottawa let in significantly fewer international students and foreign workers since 2024, it has also pulled the rug out from under hundreds of thousands of temporary residents already in Canada.

“Our plan is working,” Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab told a parliamentary committee recently. “It is to ensure that we have a sustainable immigration system for the future.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is trying to speed up transitioning 33,000 temporary workers to permanent residents while overhauling Canada’s signature “point system” for economic immigrants.

It’s a drop in the bucket: Nearly 1,940,000 study, work and visitor permits are slated to expire by the end of 2026 — with another 1,039,840 in 2027. And the annual number of permanent resident spots has been slashed from half a million to just 380,000.

So many temporary residents are living in uncertain and frustrating situations, even when they have Canadian work experience or education and have made huge investments to come here and boost their odds of staying. Processing delays, point systems that leave them at a disadvantage and bureaucratic obstacles are leading some to look elsewhere….

Source: Thousands of temporary residents are being squeezed out by Canada’s shifting immigration reality. Here’s what the country could lose

Filed under Immigration Tagged with temporary residents

Globe editorial: Looking beneath the myths of Alberta separatism [citizenship]

2026/05/12 Leave a comment

Yes, the citizenship and passport issue, and the assumption that dual citizenship would be automatic, becomes less likely in the case of separation:

…The Canadian passport is ranked as one of the most desirable in the world, allowing unfettered access to more than 180 countries. It’s understandable that Albertans voting for independence might want to keep such a valuable document. And under a recent Canadian law granting citizenship to descendants – even great-grandchildren – of Canadians, they would appear to be able to do so.

However, that presupposes the law is not changed. There’s no reason to believe it won’t be.

For starters, political entities rarely split up amicably. Alberta leaving Canada is more likely to be a rancourous process that produces unhappy people on both sides. The idea that the federal government would then allow millions of people from what is – let’s remember – another country retain their privileges as Canadians is nonsensical.

Several 20^th-century examples are worth noting here.

When East Bengal split from Pakistan in 1971, Islamabad passed a law to strip residents of the newly independent state of their Pakistani citizenship. And when Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, residents of the new country became dual citizens only if they had specific ties to the old country. Most became, simply, Panamanians.

Separatists claim that, under current law, it would be possible for seceding Albertans to remain Canadians as well. Perhaps.

But the law would inevitably be changed, as history demonstrates….

Source: Looking beneath the myths of Alberta separatism

Filed under Citizenship, Dual Citizenship Tagged with Alberta, globe editorial, separationns

Jamie Sarkonak: Progressive judge spares violent loan shark criminal record to avoid deportation

2026/05/12 Leave a comment

Part of her ongoing series:

…Mandhane treated a case of loan-shark violence by a foreigner against a petite, young woman in a dark street as if it were a toy-sharing dispute between children at a daycare. Every day, courts see a good number of low-stakes, wrong-place-at-wrong-time cases where a conditional discharge is appropriate; this was absolutely not one of them.

The suitable result would have been jail, or at least house arrest or probation. That’s what you see when crime is committed in the course of debt collection: for example, a man in Newfoundland was sentenced to one year in jail in 2022 for participating in a group break-in during which “PAY THE DEBT” was written on the victim’s walls (among other acts of vandalism) and during which he stole some cannabis from the house; the organized crime factor worsened his case, but he was a young, first-time offender like E.A., and he didn’t physically attack anyone. He was a citizen though, and he was evidently not before a soft judge, resulting in a much more appropriate sentence.

“But what stings most about E.A.’s case is the Crown prosecutor’s failure to pursue a proper punishment. No one at court that day stood up for the public interest — not even the guy whose job was specifically that.

This can change, but it’s going to take Ontario’s attorney general toughening up his prosecutions, Parliament prohibiting immigration status from being considered in sentencing, and people making sure that judges know when their decisions bring the administration of justice into disrepute. If we tolerate authorities who do everything they can to keep violent non-citizen rulebreakers in Canada, it’s going to keep happening.

Source: Jamie Sarkonak: Progressive judge spares violent loan shark criminal record to avoid deportation

Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with courts, Jamie Sarkonak, judges, Renu Mandhane