Laïcité dans les écoles: Un nombre « marginal » d’employés ont quitté, dit Sonia LeBel

2026/05/15 2 Comments

Downplaying the impact:

…Elle était questionnée par la députée libérale Madwa-Nika Cadet lors de l’étude des crédits budgétaires, un exercice de reddition de comptes qui se tient annuellement à l’Assemblée nationale.

Le projet de loi 94, adopté en octobre dernier, étend notamment l’interdiction du port de signes religieux à l’ensemble du personnel dans les écoles et dans les centres de services scolaires (CSS).

Une clause de droits acquis existe pour tous ceux ayant été embauchés avant le 19 mars 2025.

Mercredi, Mme Cadet a voulu savoir combien d’employés avaient été licenciés en raison de leur refus de se conformer à la nouvelle loi.

« C’est marginal, a répondu la ministre LeBel. À ma connaissance, on est dans les dizaines, même pas les centaines, même pas 100. C’est très minime. […] À ma connaissance, c’est très peu. »

Selon ses explications, la plupart des gens qui ont été contactés étaient sur des listes de rappel.

« La grande majorité de ces gens-là n’avaient pas enseigné dans le réseau de l’éducation depuis plusieurs années. […] Cent cinquante personnes ont été contactées et beaucoup là-dedans n’enseignent même plus.

« Les gens […] qui étaient dans des écoles, qui occupaient un poste dans des écoles (et qui ont quitté), je pense qu’on les compte sur les doigts de la main », a-t-elle insisté.

Le mois dernier, des syndicats avaient pourtant dénoncé la perte de 150 employés, dont des dizaines d’éducatrices en service de garde, des techniciennes en éducation spécialisée (TES) et des préposées aux élèves handicapés.

Ils avaient dit craindre, sur les ondes de Radio-Canada, que ces départs forcés n’accentuent la pénurie de personnel dans les écoles à Montréal.

Le Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) affirmait, lui aussi, que les congédiements allaient avoir un impact dans les écoles.

« La Coalition avenir Québec semble sous-estimer le défi de rétention de personnel touché par les dispositions du projet de loi 94 », a déclaré Mme Cadet, mercredi.

« Si plusieurs employées quittent, il y aura certainement des ruptures de services. Il faudrait tout de même se préparer à cette éventualité pour ne pas nuire aux élèves, alors que le milieu prépare déjà la prochaine rentrée scolaire », a-t-elle ajouté.

Selon les données du gouvernement, plus de 3100 postes (enseignants, personnel de soutien, professionnels) étaient toujours à pourvoir en date de février.

Source: Laïcité dans les écoles: Un nombre « marginal » d’employés ont quitté, dit Sonia LeBel

… She was questioned by Liberal MP Madwa-Nika Cadet during the study of budget appropriations, an accounting exercise held annually in the National Assembly.

Bill 94, adopted last October, extends in particular the ban on the wearing of religious signs to all staff in schools and school service centers (CSS).

An acquired rights clause exists for all those who were hired before March 19, 2025.

On Wednesday, Ms. Cadet wanted to know how many employees had been laid off because of their refusal to comply with the new law.

“It’s marginal,” replied Minister LeBel. To my knowledge, we are in the dozens, not even hundreds, not even 100. It’s very minimal. […] To my knowledge, this is very little. ”

According to his [her, translation program mistake] explanations, most of the people who were contacted were on recall lists.

“The vast majority of these people had not taught in the education network for several years. […] One hundred and fifty people have been contacted and many there do not even teach anymore.

“People […] who were in schools, who held a position in schools (and who left), I think we can count them on the fingers of the hand,” she insisted.

Last month, however, unions denounced the loss of 150 employees, including dozens of childcare educators, special education technicians (TES) and disabled student attendants.

They said they feared, on Radio-Canada, that these forced departures would accentuate the shortage of staff in schools in Montreal.

The Centre de services scolaires de Montréal (CSSDM) also said that layoffs would have an impact on schools.

“The Coalition avenir Québec seems to underestimate the challenge of staff retention affected by the provisions of Bill 94,” Cadet said on Wednesday.

“If several employees leave, there will certainly be service breaks. We should still prepare for this eventuality so as not to harm students, while the community is already preparing for the next school year, “she added.

According to government data, more than 3,100 positions (teachers, support staff, professionals) were still to be filled as of February.

Filed under Interculturalisme, Laïcité, Multiculturalism Tagged with

Jamie Sarkonak: The rake of diaspora politics hits Nate Erskine-Smith in the face

2026/05/15 Leave a comment

One view is that by allowing Permanent Residents to participate in candidate selection, political parties are facilitation overall integration. In discussions I have had on political representation benchmarks, some have maintained that the overall benchmark should be the number of both citizens and Permanent Residents, rather than citizens only. I favour citizens only and Sarkonak is correct to note the pandering nature and related electoral strategies:

…Well, we’ll see how the investigation goes. Already, some onlookers are gloating, seeing Erskine-Smith’s loss as a strike of karmic justice.

Erskine-Smith was absolutely one of them. He participated in Bangladeshi flag-raisings at city hall; he dressed up in the cultural garb. When he talks about immigration, he speaks in economic terms, not cultural terms. He speaks of the tide of asylum seekers as if they’re an inevitable force of nature, and of his desire to “regularize” the status of people who are in Canada illegally — a point so radical that even the CEO of the Century Initiative told him it’s not worth talking about.

But the conservatives out there should limit their gloating and use the moment to get their own house in order. They engage in diaspora politics all the same.

Without getting into any specific ridings, it’s not unusual for nomination races to be co-opted by diaspora interests. Conservative or Liberal.

Just as Liberals allow non-citizens to vote in their nominations, Conservatives do, too. When some members of the party sought to end the practice of allowing permanent residents to participate in nomination votes, they were shut down by the rest. This is a clear vector for foreign interference.

If individual parties can’t be trusted to ensure that the gears of democracy are turned by citizens only, then their hands should be forced by legislation. And at a higher level, they need to learn that diaspora pandering is like walking through a field of rakes. It might not whack you in the face today, but there’s always a risk it will — just ask Erskine-Smith.

Source: Jamie Sarkonak: The rake of diaspora politics hits Nate Erskine-Smith in the face

Filed under Multiculturalism, Politics Tagged with , , , ,

3rd-party fraud, security risks flagged in some Canadian visa hubs abroad: internal records

2026/05/15 Leave a comment

Of note. Officer comments are telling:

…CBC made an access to information request to IRCC in 2024 about government site visits to Bangladesh and Russia visa application centres, after hearing concerns from applicants.

The records took about two years to receive and contain emails and redacted reports between Canadian immigration and embassy staff and VFS employees. The documents note “deficiencies” and other issues, including overcharging applicants with “premium” fees, security screening concerns, technical outages, and a malware attack.

“We could write a novel about all the fraud we are seeing,” reads an email from a government official who was planning to visit Bangladesh in February 2024, alluding to third-party misconducts. They asked for more information on the “scale of fraud, most common types/trends of fraud, [and] the role [of] ‘consultants’ in the fraud we are seeing.” 

Those emails indicate Canadian officials were concerned about the type of appointment reselling in Dhaka that Uddin experienced — enough that they tried creating accounts and simulating booking as an applicant and ran into issues as well. 

Resellers were somehow block-booking appointments and selling them at high costs to desperate applicants trying to meet IRCC’s deadlines, according to the records.

“The fact that [redacted] of the clients need to go to third parties to be able to provide their passports to your office is also an issue. It means that [redacted] of the client do not have access to the service as they are supposed to,” a government official wrote to VFS in January 2024.

Canadian staff flagged that it was hard for clients to follow IRCC’s strict processing timelines “unless they use the premium services, which is more expensive,” calling that “a concern.”

“How can that be ethical?” asked Uddin, who pointed out that applicants already pay a standard processing fee to IRCC. “VFS should get the money they’re due from IRCC, not from the people.”

“They just made people hostages. You have to come through this back channel, pay some extra money,” Uddin added about the resellers….

Source: 3rd-party fraud, security risks flagged in some Canadian visa hubs abroad: internal records

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Des refus de permis de travail après 60 jours qui font mal

2026/05/15 Leave a comment

Seems like another administrative screwup:

Alors que le gouvernement fédéral resserre les règles d’embauche de travailleurs étrangers, une autre pratique inquiète grandement des avocats et des employeurs qui dépendent de l’immigration : des refus quasi systématiques — au 60e jour pile — des dossiers de permis de travail si l’Étude d’impact sur le marché du travail (EIMT) n’a pas été versée au dossier parce que celle-ci est encore en traitement.

L’avocate Joanie Landry l’a constaté et dit suspecter l’utilisation de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) dans ces décisions. « Ça semble être des réponses automatisées », dit celle qui termine actuellement un mémoire de maîtrise sur l’utilisation de l’IA en immigration. « Les employeurs en région sont dévastés par ces refus. »

Selon elle, cette automatisation des processus permettrait d’aviser systématiquement le personnel d’Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC) que le délai de 60 jours pour faire approuver l’EIMT par Service Canada est échu. Ce document sert à démontrer qu’il n’y a pas d’employés disponibles localement pour le poste à pourvoir. Si l’EIMT est toujours en traitement et n’a pas été versée au dossier, IRCC refuse le dossier, sans préavis ni délai supplémentaire. « Il y a un manque de transparence », dénonce Me Landry.

Le phénomène ne serait pas si récent, soutient l’avocate Laurence Trempe, membre du conseil d’administration de l’Association québécoise des avocats et avocates en immigration (AQAADI), qui a plusieurs clients qui ont vécu ce problème. Selon elle, il faut aussi regarder du côté de Service Canada — le point de service d’Emploi et Développement social Canada (EDSC) —, qui met désormais plus de temps à traiter les demandes d’EIMT, un temps qui n’excédait que rarement les 60 jours auparavant. « Avant, on déposait le dossier et on réussissait à avoir l’EIMT en 60 jours, donc tout était beau, mais maintenant, on a beaucoup plus d’échanges, souvent surréels, avec les agences de Service Canada, et ça allonge les délais », dit-elle.

Elle croit que les agents de Service Canada ont reçu la consigne de mettre en doute davantage l’offre d’emploi, par exemple le salaire offert, ce qui retarde l’affichage déjà allongé. « Pourquoi ils font ça ? Ce n’est pas leur bataille ! » Selon EDSC, le temps de traitement, qui est de 65 jours ouvrables, varie en fonction du type de demande et de la quantité reçue…

Source: Des refus de permis de travail après 60 jours qui font mal

While the federal government tightens the rules for hiring foreign workers, another practice greatly worries lawyers and employers who depend on immigration: almost systematic refusals — on the 60th day — of work permit files if the Labour Market Impact Study (LMIA) has not been paid into the file because it is still being processed.

Lawyer Joanie Landry noted this and said she suspected the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in these decisions. “It seems to be automated answers,” says the one who is currently completing a master’s thesis on the use of AI in immigration. “Exployers in the region are devastated by these refusals. ”

According to her, this process automation would make it possible to systematically notify Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) staff that the 60-day deadline for Service Canada to approve the LMIA has expired. This document is used to demonstrate that there are no employees available locally for the position to be filled. If the LMIA is still in process and has not been paid for the file, IRCC refuses the file, without notice or additional delay. “There is a lack of transparency,” denounces Me Landry.

The phenomenon would not be so recent, says lawyer Laurence Trempe, member of the board of directors of the Association québécoise des avocats et avocats en immigration (AQAADI), which has several clients who have experienced this problem. According to her, we also need to look at Service Canada — the Employment and Social Development Canada (EDSC) point of service — which now takes longer to process LMIA applications, a time that rarely exceeded 60 days before. “Before, we filed the file and we managed to get the LMIA in 60 days, so everything was fine, but now we have many more exchanges, often surreal, with Service Canada agencies, and it extends the deadlines,” she says.

She believes that Service Canada agents have been instructed to further question the job offer, for example the salary offered, which delays the already extended posting. “Why are they doing this? It’s not their battle! According to EDSC, the processing time, which is 65 working days, varies depending on the type of request and the quantity received…

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , ,

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 , ,

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

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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

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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

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

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