Rogers’ cuts to OMNI chip away at Canada’s cultural mosaic | Toronto Star

2014/03/28 Leave a comment

While penned from a union perspective, the questions it raises about local ethnic programming are valid. Better to have more local programming than communities relaying on satellite programming from abroad, with no Canadian context or content:

If Rogers continue to produce ethnic and multilingual programming, without any changes to its license, it would cost OMNI $2 million annually – a relatively small price to pay so that small-market and third-language communities are well-served. Ethnic broadcasting is about serving the public interest – not solely about padding a corporation’s profits.

Rogers’ cuts to OMNI chip away at Canada’s cultural mosaic | Toronto Star.

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How Kijiji’s data threw off Ottawa’s math on skills shortages – The Globe and Mail

2014/03/28 1 Comment

Interesting story on the difficulties of getting accurate information, and the weaknesses of some of the social media sites like Kijiji and double counting. Bad data can lead to faulty conclusions:

Kevin McQuillan, deputy provost and professor of sociology at the University of Calgary, has written a paper challenging claims of a Canadian labour shortage and says the move to online job postings continues to give statisticians headaches.

“We are struggling to deal not only with changes in the labour market, but changes in how people hire,” he said. “We haven’t really gotten on top of this new way of hiring that’s done in online postings, [where] the same notice of a job appearing on multiple sites, or social media. So counting that can be difficult.”

How Kijiji’s data threw off Ottawa’s math on skills shortages – The Globe and Mail.

And a follow-up piece with the Government’s reaction to the story:

Mr. Kenney said critics should recognize the challenge of producing reliable labour data in a world of online job boards.

“Here’s the bottom line, everyone who is dealing with this debate should have a little bit of humility and admit that none of us know exactly what is going on in the labour market of today.”

Economist Don Drummond said better information can be produced at a cost of about $39-million a year. He was part of an advisory panel in 2009 that made dozens of recommendations to improve labour-market data, yet few suggestions were implemented.

The former TD chief economist would like to see one entity, such as Mr. Kenney’s department Employment and Social Development Canada or Statscan, “pick up the baton” and take responsibility for more detailed and current labour market data at the national and provincial level.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-defend-use-of-kijiji-data-in-face-of-opposition-ridicule/article17690737/

Better for the government to spend some money for better data than, as it did in the change from the Census to the National Household Survey, spend more for poorer quality data (couldn’t resist!).

Filed under Government, Public Policy Tagged with ,

Citizenship Act: Canadian Council of Refugees Submission

2014/03/27 Leave a comment

Submission have started. This one, from the Canadian Council of Refugees, contains few surprises. My sense is that their concerns range from the relatively less significant (e.g., change in residency, fees) to more substantive (e.g., revocation):

Principles

Citizenship rules are fundamental to who we are as a country. We believe it is crucial that the rules:

a) Respect the principle that all citizens are equal.

b) Embrace newcomers and encourage them to quickly become full participating members of our society.

c) Recognize the barriers that some newcomers face to full participation, including the particular barriers faced by refugees who have suffered persecution and long years of deprivation.

d) Respect the principle that citizenship is a status from which rights derive, and is thus similar to our status as human beings. It is not something that can be lost through bad behaviour.

e) Be clear about who acquires or loses citizenship. Individuals should have access to a fair hearing before an independent decision-maker. Decisions should not be made on a discretionary basis by the Minister.

RT @ccrweb: Concerned about changes to #citizenship in Canada? So are we. Read our submission to Parliament: http://t.co/qGwUxcxTNT #cdnimm…

Filed under C-24, Citizenship, Citizenship Act Tagged with ,

Barbara Kay: Suffering caused by honour tell tales that smite the heart | National Post

2014/03/27 2 Comments

On the film, Honour Diaries, and Barbara Kay’s commentary. Some may be uncomfortable talking about “honour killings” but I think it is fewer than Kay asserts. Despite some previous musings within the government of the possible need for special legislation against honour killings, existing laws have proven adequate to punish those guilty of murder (e.g., Shafia and Parvez cases):

The lives of girls and women are held cheap in many regions dominated by the Hindu and Sikh religions, but nine out of 10 of the countries with the worst gender-rights disparities are Islam-dominated, according to the World Economic Forum. There is no evading that elephant in the room, and the women in this film gamely attempt to address it head-on. But the subject needs a film in itself.

Many people, and feminists in particular, feel it is racist to judge the gender practices of other cultures, preferring to dwell on the perceived deficits in our own. They must get over that, as all the women in the film agree. Canadian women viewers will walk out of this film feeling as I did: There but for the grace of cultural accident go I.

Barbara Kay: Suffering caused by honour tell tales that smite the heart | National Post.

Some background on the directors and producers of the movie, which doesn’t necessarily detract from the messages of the film (but makes it easier for people to discard them):

Clarion Project as “a nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing the dangers of Islamic extremism, while providing a platform for the voices of moderation. [Executive producer] Shore’s previous films include the award-winning documentary ‘Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,’ ‘The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America,’ and ‘Iranium.'”

Film wages ‘interfaith campaign’ against abuse of Muslim women

Filed under Honour Killings, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Toronto man told undercover officer it was ‘God’s Will’ for him join terror-group Al-Shabab, trial hears | National Post

2014/03/27 Leave a comment

Revealing words on how the extremist mind thinks:

“Here everything is anti-prayer, anti-Islam … even if it’s a tyrannical place, it’s better than Canada,” he said. “I want to live in a place that’s better than this.” Somalia was better than Canada, he said, “because you can live in a place where there’s Islamic law.”

In his rambling conversations, he decried what he considered Canada’s hostility to his faith, claiming that “all non-Muslims hate Islam.” But he appeared to display intolerance himself, saying that “talking to a non-Muslim about morality and shit, they don’t even know what morality is, Christians.”

He also complained that “brothers” at Toronto’s Salahedin mosque had been arrested on security certificates (used to deport foreign nationals deemed threats to Canada’s security), and said nobody cared because only Muslims were affected. Asked how he knew, he said, “My imam talks about it.”

“It’s pretty tyrannical,” he said.

Given that Hersi was born in Somalia, he would, if convicted, likely be someone the Government would consider for revocation under the proposed provisions of the Citizenship Act.

Toronto man told undercover officer it was ‘God’s Will’ for him join terror-group Al-Shabab, trial hears | National Post.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Radicalization Tagged with ,

Les cégeps doutent de l’utilité de la Charte | Gabrielle Duchaine | Charte de la laïcité

2014/03/27 Leave a comment

From the Charter to the reality in the CEJEP (Quebec’s rough equivalent to high school):

Rappelons qu’une disposition de la Charte vise à interdire la prestation de services le visage couvert. «Des filles qui portent un voile, on en voit souvent, et de façon très stylisée en plus. Mais des visages voilés, jamais. Même les longs vêtements amples sont rares», note Johanne Fraser, présidente du syndicat des enseignants du cégep de Saint-Laurent, qui accueille une clientèle particulièrement hétérogène. Même son de cloche au Collège de Maisonneuve, où 85% des élèves de la formation continue proviennent de l’immigration récente.

Les cégeps doutent de l’utilité de la Charte | Gabrielle Duchaine | Charte de la laïcité.

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

In Quebec, a dim future for sovereignty – Lysiane Gagnon

2014/03/27 Leave a comment

In light of the dramatic fall in PQ support following PKP’s fist pump, striking just how much public opinion in Quebec has gelled against sovereignty. Two weeks till the election, and a lot could change, but the trend line and generational divide is not encouraging for the PQ:

If there is another referendum, everybody seems to agree, including sovereigntist leaders, that the question will have to exclusively focus on sovereignty. This makes a Yes victory even harder to attain.

Prof. Durand’s data also show that support for sovereignty is lower than it was on the eve of the 1980 and 1995 referendums. The major difference, she says, is that sovereignty no longer mobilizes those under 50 and the most educated.

What’s the future of an option that doesn’t attract younger generations?

In Quebec, a dim future for sovereignty – The Globe and Mail.

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Jonathan Kay: Scotland shows Quebec what an intelligent and mature independence movement looks like

2014/03/26 Leave a comment

Good piece contrasting the approach by the Scottish nationalist and the PQ:

Quebec’s modern sovereigntist movement has been around, in its modern form, since the 1960s. Yet to this day, its leaders (including Parti Québécois Premier Pauline Marois) are fantastically vague about what sort of “independent” country they want. Extraordinary claims — Quebec will keep the dollar, and, oh, yes, have a seat on the Bank of Canada — are casually made and then forgotten. The question of how the most per-capita indebted province in Canada will pay its way (including its share of the Canadian federal debt) while forsaking the $16-billion that the rest of the country sends its way every year is entirely ignored.

In Scotland, by contrast, such meat-and-potatoes questions about what will happen in a newly independent nation are the meat and potatoes of this year’s campaign — and are explored in great detail in a lengthy text published by the Scottish government entitled Scotland’s Future — Your Guide to an Independent Scotland. As Jonathan Freedland writes in the March 20 edition of The New York Review of Books, the 649-page document “is short on the rhetoric of self-determination, long on the quotidian details of self-government. In a ‘Q & A’ section, the third question — after ‘Why should Scotland be independent?’ and ‘Can Scotland afford to be independent?’— is ‘What will happen to my pension?’ There are few rousing calls to Scottish pride or the spirit of Bannockburn, their place taken by information on postal services and the administration of drivers’ licenses.”

Jonathan Kay: Scotland shows Quebec what an intelligent and mature independence movement looks like | National Post.

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Immigrant spouses may have to meet language and education requirements | Canadian Immigrant

2014/03/26 Leave a comment

The Government sometimes can’t help itself making partisan shots rather than a serious discussion of the issues. There are integration challenges for spouses coming to Canada, best addressed through settlement and related services, as not allowing immediate family reunification, should the Government decide to go there, will hamper not foster integration:

Alexander’s office would not confirm if language and education requirements are in the cards. It said the government is proud of its record of condemning intolerance, hatred, and barbaric cultural practices.

“We can’t say the same for Justin Trudeau, who has refused to call honour killings barbaric,” said Alexis Pavlich, the minister’s press secretary. “Everyone is expected to respect Canadian values and abide by Canadian laws.”

Lawyer Avvy Go, executive director of the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, who attended one of the consultations, said such a move would be “a direct attack on Canada’s family reunification program.”

“We will go back to a bachelor society, like when Canada had its Chinese head tax in place and people were prevented from bringing their wives and children here,” she said.

Alexander has been meeting with invited representatives of communities across Canada for input into a strategic plan to “strengthen the integrity of the immigration spousal sponsorship program.” In those meetings, he raised the idea of imposing the new requirements, some of those invited told the Star.

However, Pavlich, the minister’s press secretary, said it’s “irresponsible and unproductive” to characterize such discussions at the meetings as an indication of future policies.

Immigrant spouses may have to meet language and education requirements | Canadian Immigrant.

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Stop using ultrasound to determine sex of fetuses, urge doctors, radiologists

2014/03/26 Leave a comment

Interesting article on sex selection ultrasounds (seems to be an issue in the Indo, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Philippine communities). Sad combination of cultural preferences for boys, enabling technology, and the usual self-serving justification by the entrepreneurs offering the service:

Alla Boulavkina, a registered diagnostic medical sonographer and owner of Tri-Cities 3D Sono Image in Vancouver, which offers non-medical fetal ultrasounds, said the scans improve bonding between parents and babies, and that she limits exposure times. “I know how to do it correctly.”

Boulavkina offers gender determination, starting at 20 weeks’ gestation only. Demand for the service, she said, is growing.

“Everybody wants to know, ‘boy or girl?’ Not just to start shopping … it takes time to be mentally ready for the baby,” she said.

“It’s very important to know. It helps people to prepare and be happy. Because sometimes daddy wanted a boy, and then he sees girl, and he’s not happy, and it’s no good for the family. In this case, it gives time to slowly be prepared.”

Stop using ultrasound to determine sex of fetuses, urge doctors, radiologists.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

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