Canadian Bar Association letter to CIC Minister Alexander

2014/06/09 1 Comment

Minister Alexander sharply criticized those opposing Bill C-24 Citizenship Act revisions (Alexander blasts critics of immigration bill as C-24 goes to second reading):

“It is shameful that activist immigration lawyers, who never miss an opportunity to criticize our governments citizenship and immigration reforms, are attempting to drum up business by promoting the interests of convicted terrorists and serious criminals over the safety and security of Canadians.”

In response, the CBA wrote a reasoned response:

Government is entitled to disagree, even forcefully, to criticism. However, we should all engage in public debate in a respectful manner with a view to providing Canadians with the best legal system we can. Attacking stakeholders simply because they bring dissenting perspectives and adverse evidence on government initiatives is corrosive of Canada’s democracy. Contrary ideas are the lifeblood of democratic societies. It is through dialogue that concepts are tested in the “marketplace of ideas,” common understandings or assumptions are challenged, and governments and citizens are encouraged to think differently.

Governments should welcome the exchange of ideas and perspectives, not seek to undermine it, even if its contents are not always embraced. Your recent comments could have the effect of undermining that exchange and the integrity of stakeholders. They move beyond the substance of the CBA Section submission and seek to undermine the credibility of individuals who put their ideas forward in a good faith effort to improve the Bill. That devalues the process and erroneously implies nefarious motives to the CBA’s submissions.

Bill C-24 was introduced without a robust consultation of key stakeholders, including the CBA Section. We would welcome more opportunities to provide early feedback on your government’s initiatives before they are published, to ensure they contribute to the continuous improvement to Canada’s system of citizenship and immigration. Early and meaningful consultations would have the added benefit of potentially averting costly and unnecessary legal challenges.

Download Bill-C-24-Letter

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

UK: Michael Gove (Education Sec’y) accused of using ‘Trojan Horse’ row to push anti-Islam agenda

2014/06/09 2 Comments

For those interested in UK debates, there has been a fair amount of coverage and concern about some schools and the increased influence of more traditional forms of Islam (e.g., ‘Wear hijabs in and out of class’: Pupils at state Islam school become the first to be forced to cover up with Muslim headscarf). In Canada, comparable concerns were expressed in the Thornhill School where Friday prayer segregated boys and girls, with girls menstruating being excused from prayer given they were “unclean” and expected to sit in the back row (Opposing prayer in Toronto public schools, with dignity):

One source said that part of the dispute between Ms May and Mr Gove was personal – in part fuelled by leadership ambitions. “They are trying to outwit each other and have had some real spats in the past within Cabinet, where Michael has just ripped into Theresa and has tried to set her up to look stupid.”

There was also a warning that the dispute was undoing some of the good that came out of the united response to the murder in Woolwich of Lee Rigby. An ally of Ms May said: “Woolwich was considered to be a high-water mark in terms of community involvement.

“A lot of people were very optimistic. The Prime Minister’s response was very positive until tragically the point where Michael got involved. Since then things have gone the pan. Twelve months ago was the high point but now we have a whole community that feels completely marginalised by what’s going on.

”The Home Office and Department of Education put out a statement saying: “There is no difference between the Education Secretary and the Home Secretary, who are both working energetically together to tackle the challenge posed by any form of extremism.”

Michael Gove accused of using ‘Trojan Horse’ row to push anti-Islam agenda – UK Politics – UK – The Independent.

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A rethinking of homogeneity as the baseline used to study diversity

2014/06/09 Leave a comment

Interesting take on diversity vs homogeneity, and the tendency to take homogeneity as the default, from a study by the MIT Sloan School of Management:

In the paper, Apfelbaum, Phillips, and Richeson survey past literature and raise the possibility that homogeneity may be one underlying cause of “groupthink,” in which people fall into an unwarranted consensus.

“It may be that part of what is driving these classic cases of groupthink is having people who are similar to one another,” Apfelbaum says.

Other scholars who have read the paper say it presents a useful reframing of diversity discussions. Samuel Sommers, an associate professor of psychology at Tufts University, calls the paper “very interesting work” that “makes the convincing argument that homogeneity has effects, too, and we should be studying and debating those as well.”

Apfelbaum is working on further experiments aimed at isolating the effects of both homogeneity and diversity. One study looks at peoples activities in financial markets, examining how accurately people price assets in markets that are ethnically diverse or homogenous.

“Being with similar people serves a very basic psychological need to belong and feel comfortable,” Apfelbaum observes. “Were not arguing theres no value in that. Were arguing there is a trade-off with that. The social settings that make us feel good are not necessarily the ones that produce accurate judgments.”

A rethinking of homogeneity as the baseline used to study diversity.

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Minister Alexander highlights success of Canadian citizenship program: 100,000 new citizens

2014/06/07 Leave a comment

On track, the additional funding is working:

Today, at a citizenship ceremony in Scarborough, Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Chris Alexander, announced that Canada welcomed the 100,000th new citizen of 2014 last week. The number of new citizens sworn in to date in 2014 is more than double the number of new citizens admitted by this time last year.

The 100,000 new citizens, who came to Canada from more than 200 countries, were welcomed at more than 1,080 citizenship ceremonies held across the country. The citizenship ceremony is the last step before becoming a Canadian citizen and embracing the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship. This success demonstrates that changes and improvements are already doing more to help people realize their dream of becoming Canadian.

The government’s proposed changes in Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, will further reduce wait times by streamlining the decision-making process for citizenship. It is expected that those changes will bring the average processing time for citizenship applications down to under one year and that the current backlog will be reduced by more than 80 percent by 2015-2016.

Still, in addition to legitimate ad hoc press releases, a commitment for regular and timely release of operational statistics as in Australia would help bind the current and future governments to better and sustainable management of the citizenship program (but I am a broken record on this!)

Minister Alexander highlights success of Canadian citizenship program – Canada News Centre.

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‘Lost Canadians’ advocate: Committees won’t hear us on citizenship bill

2014/06/07 Leave a comment

More on Lost Canadians, Don Chapman, and the decision by the Government at CIMM not to hear his and Melynda Jarrett’s testimony (C-24 Citizenship Act Hearing – 14 May):

Chapman applauds two provisions in the legislation: guaranteed citizenship for children of Canadian government or military workers living abroad, and the recognition of citizenship for people born out of wedlock before 1947 that were alive in 1947. However, he said there are still gaps in the bill that will affect many Lost Canadians.

“It doesn’t include the people who died before 1947,” said Chapman. “They’re refusing to answer the question, ‘Were our war dead Canadian citizens?’”

Second, Chapman said there will still be problems for some second-generation Canadians born abroad. And he said that there are some 40 to 50 Canadians who have not been granted citizenship through Section 5.4 of the Citizenship Act, a special provision that grants citizenship on a case-by-case basis.

Chapman said someone has to appear before parliamentarians to make the case for Lost Canadians in bill C-24. After the kerfuffle at the Commons committee last month, Chapman contacted the Senate committee to explain why he should testify.

At the Senate, only Melynda Jarrett will give testimony and Don Chapman will be submitting a brief.

‘Lost Canadians’ advocate: Committees won’t hear us on citizenship bill (pay wall)

 

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

Canada’s young men joining foreign jihad: Are we doing enough to stop it?

2014/06/07 Leave a comment

More on home-grown radicalization and extremism (see Suicide bomber killed in Iraq part of wider jihadi base in Calgary):

Mahdi Qasqas, a Calgary Muslim youth leader and psychologist, says early intervention is key to preventing young men from going overseas to kill themselves and others.

“If a mother calls and says, ‘My son needs help,’ how will I look at it? Criminal perspective? Call the police. Risk to self-harm? We have to admit to hospital,” Qasqas said. “If she says, ‘Look, I’m seeing some warning signs.’ If your child listen to other people more than you? Then it’s time to connect him to a mentor.”

A prominent Calgary imam, Sayed Soharwardy, told CBC News he strongly believes that increased radicalization of young local men is happening at a “faster pace now” than a decade ago. He wonders why more potential jihadis have not been stopped at airports before even stepping foot on a battlefield.

“I am convinced that the intelligence people know who is recruiting, who is going overseas, who is fighting there,” the cleric said. “If they do not know every one of them, they know some of them.” …

In Ottawa on Wednesday, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander offered a warning to potential violent extremists.

“If you’re a dual national and you commit an act of terrorism in Canada or abroad, you will lose your Canadian citizenship,” he said.

Whether that will be enough of a deterrent is hard to know.

Canada’s young men joining foreign jihad: Are we doing enough to stop it? – Canada – CBC News.

And in Europe, following the terrorist attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels by a young radicalized Muslim who had fought in Syria, a new initiative to identify  and prevent potential jihadists.

Looks a bit like the RCMP initiative here in Canada (RCMP set to tackle extremism at home with program to curb radicalization of Canadian youth) but as the above article indicates, some are arguing that this is not enough:

Une série de mesures pour la « détection, la prévention et la dissuasion » ont été retenues au cours d’une réunion entre les ministres de l’Intérieur de neuf pays — Belgique, France, Allemagne, Royaume-Uni, Espagne, Italie, Danemark, Suède et Autriche — spécialement consacrée à cette menace djihadiste, en marge d’une réunion avec leurs homologues des autres pays de l’UE à Luxembourg.

L’UE va s’attaquer aux réseaux de recrutement de djihadistes | Le Devoir.

 

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Suzanne Legault warns of growing federal government secrecy

2014/06/07 Leave a comment

Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault confirming what we all know: that ATIP is broken and many departments are not in compliance with the principles and requirements of ATIP.

Not surprised to see CIC on the list of one of the worst departments in this regard as my experience indicates (still have an outstanding request for over a year for information that should have been released a long-time ago).

But Legault omits to mention the Government’s complicity for a culture of secrecy and lack of openness, and how this affects the public service role:

Legault blamed a lack of leadership toward transparency at the political level and within the senior ranks of some departments and agencies for creating an environment where the tendency is to try to keep information under lock and key.

“The main reason why the system is fragile and volatile is because for some reason, leadership in the institutions varies,” she said.

“When there is not very strong leadership at all levels of an institution in favour of timely transparency, we see institutions falter on releasing information. When we have strong leadership within the institutions, usually institutions perform well.”

Among the worst performers last year were Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the RCMP, Transport Canada and the Department of National Defence.

The federal Access to Information Act was introduced in 1985 and has remained largely unchanged since then despite frequent criticisms that the system is broken.

Legault writes in her report that real improvement to the access system will only come by modernizing the law, which she described as “a long-overdue step that is crucial to advancing the cause of transparency and accountability in Canada.

”In the House of Commons, Treasury Board President Tony Clement defended the government’s record on access to information Thursday, saying it had responded to more requests than previous governments combined.

“The total number of access to information requests that have been replied to since 1983, 50 per cent of them have been replied to by this government. We have replied to more access to information requests than the Trudeau, Mulroney, Turner, Campbell, Chrétien and Martin governments combined. That is our record on access to information and we are darn proud of it.”

Suzanne Legault warns of growing federal government secrecy | Ottawa Citizen.

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Zero-tolerance on FGM doesn’t have to be an attack on multiculturalism

2014/06/07 Leave a comment

While this specific piece by Reema Patel focusses on FGM, it raises the broader issue of how to effect change from within on any number of issues:

Powerful advocates within communities that practice FGM, that support homophobia, or that mandate forced marriage will often say that governments have crossed the line of what is acceptable. They will cite consent or acquiescence from minorities within those communities as justification for allowing such practices to continue, and they will often argue those cultural practices are an essential part of the culture – that governments challenging those cultures are illiberal because they do not make space for free expression of those cultures.

The problem is that many on both sides of the debate feel they have to pick a side. That supporting multiculturalism is somehow inconsistent with supporting rights for minorities – including women. But we know that cultures are not as fixed and unchanging as powerful advocates within them may like to make out – they shape themselves to the conditions around them, to social and economic imperatives, and they often liberalise rapidly in new worlds and environments by combining a healthy recognition of traditions, backgrounds and cultural practices with new and modernised interpretations of what it means to belong to that culture in a globalising world.

We also know that change within cultures can only happen when advocates and allies within those cultures are empowered to change minds and hearts around them – and this is where governments must focus their efforts when tackling such problems. The most powerful voices are always those on the inside, not the outside – and governments would do well to work with those voices in order to amplify them.

New Statesman | Zero-tolerance on FGM doesn’t have to be an attack on multiculturalism.

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Conservatives defend suppression of debate over controversial citizenship bill

2014/06/06 Leave a comment

Never heard this explanation before regarding time allocation (limiting debate). Chutzpah, but not unique to this Minister and this Bill:

… Citizenship and Immigration Minister Christopher Alexander defended the motion, saying it should be seen as a benefit:”

It is not – as the Opposition suggests – used to limit debate, but to create certainty…it also helps the media, improving their ability to inform the public. Time allocation should be regarded as a scheduling device,” Alexander said, through his spokesperson, Codie Taylor.

Taylor criticized ongoing debate on the bill as “continued attempts by the Opposition to delay and obstruct important bills such as Bill C-24” and insisted that the NDP and Liberal Party “end their partisan attempts” to delay the passage of the bill, which was introduced in February and debated for a few hours since.

During the debate, Alexander insisted quick passage of the bill would end the suffering of “tens of thousands of permanent residents” who wish to become citizens.

Conservatives defend suppression of debate over controversial citizenship bill | Vancouver Observer.

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

Audit slams feds’ ‘Open Data’ performance

2014/06/06 Leave a comment

Unfortunate, as paper (and pdfs) make an unnecessary complication to analyze data.

CIC publishes many operational stats in electronic format, making it easy to analyse. More formal ATIP requests are either paper or pdfs, inserting a tedious step of conversion.

Have a few new ATIP requests with the provinces (for data) and will see what comes back (have requested electronic format):

Newspapers Canada directly tested federal, provincial and municipal transparency laws with almost 400 formal requests for information last October and November, the 10th annual audit carried out by the organization.

This years version added 172 requests for electronic data sets, requiring the information to be provided in a format that can be digested and manipulated by computer.

Most government bodies fell short, many insisting on providing the data requested on paper, or providing it in the electronic equivalent of a photo — impossible to process in a spreadsheet or database program.

Among the worst performers were some departments of the federal government, which has been promoting its Open Data agenda as evidence of transparency, including the proactive posting of some 200,000 data sets online.

The audit found that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s own department, the Privy Council Office, refused to release any information in electronic format, insisting on paper printouts.

Audit slams feds’ ‘Open Data’ performance | National Newswatch.

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