Ex-immigration minister Jason Kenney ‘dictated’ niqab ban at citizenship ceremony, court told

2014/10/18 1 Comment

I’m with the Government and Kenney on this one.

Not for the stated reason that this allows the citizenship judge and officials to ascertain that the oath is being said (one can mouth the words or move one’s lips with different meanings, and impossible, unless blatant, to closely monitor each and every individual in a ceremony with typically 50 people).

But rather, that becoming a citizen means becoming part of the Canadian society and community, and the niqab is essentially a symbol of rejection of broader participation in the community.

Accommodation requires flexibility on both parties and Ishaq was given the opportunity to be seated in a less visible location:

Government lawyer Negar Hashemi said the case is about finding the “right balance” between respecting differences and maintaining Canadian core democratic values.

The niqab ban, she said, is part of a larger scheme to ensure everyone vows loyalty to Canada. Other non-veil-wearing candidates caught not doing so, such as elderly people with language difficulties, can also have their citizenship certificates withheld.

“There is no hidden agenda in this case,” she said.

Hashemi said Ishaq did not seek accommodation prior to her scheduled citizenship ceremony and declined the offer to take her oath at the front or the back of the citizenship court after the legal action was initiated.

She noted that the applicant unveiled herself to have her driver’s licence photo taken, and the brief unveiling at a citizenship ceremony would be no different.

“She had a choice of becoming a citizen or adhering to her religion,” said Hashemi. “Becoming a citizen is a privilege, not a right.”

Lorne Waldman, a co-counsel for Ishaq, said the Citizenship Act does not stipulate that a candidate must be seen or heard taking the oath — something witnesses for the immigration department agreed is hard to enforce and ensure.

“This policy was dictated by the immigration minister Kenney that there had to be a change, and there’s no willingness to provide any accommodation,” said Waldman, adding that officials confirmed there are fewer than 100 cases a year across Canada where someone wears a niqab to the ceremony.

Ex-immigration minister Jason Kenney ‘dictated’ niqab ban at citizenship ceremony, court told | Toronto Star.

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Canada’s true role in the Mideast conflict – Former PM Chrétien

2014/10/18 Leave a comment

Amazing op-ed and criticism of a current PM by a former PM: Jean Chrétien’s biting commentary on PM Harper:

For example, all the war in Iraq did was to make the region and the world a much more dangerous place. The legacy of colonialism in the Middle East had not been forgotten and was only exacerbated by the Western military intervention in Iraq in 2003, with the consequences we face today. Unfortunately, Mr. Harper did not understand that history in 2003, and he does not understand it today.

He basically articulates Liberal leader Trudeau’s dismissal of the military option but in a more sophisticated way, not incorrectly, and advocates, in concrete terms, what a meaningful humanitarian response would be ($100 m for the World Food Program for refugees, and accepting 50,000 refugees from those fleeing the Islamic State).

His defence of his government’s decision to participate in Afghanistan and assume the responsibility for Kandahar doesn’t quite jive with the excellent account by Janice Stein and Gene Lang in The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar, which, if I recall correctly, was led by DND advocacy, not the political level.

Canada’s true role in the Mideast conflict – The Globe and Mail.

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Experts cautious about boost in powers for spy agency | Ottawa Citizen

2014/10/18 Leave a comment

Some initial reactions to the proposed changes to CSIS to allow it to counter extremism and terrorism. Seems like the informant issue may be more problematic than the “Five Eyes” sharing issue:

One measure would let CSIS work more closely with its allies in the “Five Eyes” spy network, which is made up of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. This would allow CSIS to obtain information from the others on Canadians fighting abroad with terror groups, and would allow it to help another Five Eyes country track its nationals working with terror groups in Canada.

A second measure would give CSIS informants the same anonymity that already exists for police sources, who are not subject to cross-examination and can have their identities hidden, even from trial judges.

“What we’re trying to do is give our sources a class privilege akin to that of law enforcement,” said Andy Ellis, CSIS’s assistant director of operations, citing a “chilling effect” on informants without such protections.

“They’re going to have to be fairly careful in how they draft this,” said Craig Forcese, associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa. “The devil’s in the details in terms of what’s in the bill.”

Both changes come as courts have slammed CSIS’s approach to investigations.

Last year, a federal court judge said Five Eyes warrants were being used as a back-door way to spy on Canadians, putting them at risk of being detained abroad.

“If you throw some info over the fence, the allies can do whatever they want,” said Forcese, expressing concern over cases like that of Maher Arar, a Syrian Canadian detained and deported to Syria while in the United States. Arar was tortured during his imprisonment in Syria but later completely exonerated in Canada from any links to terrorism.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in May that CSIS informants already have sufficient protection, with their anonymity decided on a case-by-case basis.

Intelligence expert Wesley Wark served as an expert witness in that case, in which CSIS revealed one of its sources had failed lie-detector tests. He said not allowing informants to be cross-examined in secret trials would be “very problematic.”

“The court said informants need more protection, but not blanket protection. Why are they going to ignore that ruling and introduce something into legislation?” said Wark, adding that he’s never heard of a CSIS informant’s identity being publicly revealed since the agency’s creation in 1984.

Forcese said police informant anonymity has developed in case law — not through legislation — so enshrining it in legislation will require close constitutional scrutiny to make sure the right of a fair trial isn’t infringed.

Experts cautious about boost in powers for spy agency | Ottawa Citizen.

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Revenue Canada targets birdwatchers for political activity

2014/10/18 1 Comment

This may be the over-reach that helps clarify the issues – targeting birdwatchers (see earlier Canadian charities in limbo as tax audits widen to new groups – Politics – CBC News):

But longtime member Roger Suffling is speaking up, saying the issue is about democratic freedom and not about arcane tax rules.

“Effectively, they’ve put a gag on us,” he said in an interview, noting that the letter arrived just after the club had written directly to two federal cabinet ministers to complain about government-approved chemicals that damage bee colonies.

“You can piece together the timing,” said Suffling, an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo. “The two things are very concurrent.”

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq responded to the group’s complaint in a March 14 letter — or just days after the Canada Revenue Agency letter arrived — and Suffling is convinced the two events are linked. Aglukkaqs office denies there’s any link, saying the agency operates independently.

Suffling said that if government is using the tax agency as a “pit bull to stifle dissent, then there’s something very wrong.”

Revenue Canada targets birdwatchers for political activity – Politics – CBC News.

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Surrey’s Radio India to cease broadcasting

2014/10/17 Leave a comment

Expect in the long-run, as the recent CRTC television hearings and Netflix and Google testimony indicated, fighting a losing battle as more and more radio and TV shifts to the Internet, beyond the control of regulators:

The CRTC made it clear during Wednesday’s hearing, and with the consent orders, that it will no longer put up with stations that defiantly produce all their broadcasts, and collect 100 per cent of their advertising dollars, on Canadian soil without operating under Canada’s broadcasting regime.

That scenario has existed under the nose of not only federal regulators but Canadian politicians who beat a path to the doors of the pirate radio stations.

“Radio India is regarded as a must-do communications vehicle for politicians,” Gill, who last week mailed photos of himself with Canadian politicians, boasted Wednesday in the same presentation in which he promised to shut down operations. “The B.C. premier, members of parliament, MLAs, city mayors and councillors have been visitors to Radio India studios.“

Radio India has interviewed past and present prime ministers of both Canada and India. During elections, Radio India is chosen as a vehicle to connect with the South Asian community.”

Two CRTC-licensed, B.C.-based Punjabi-language competitors to the pirate stations testified by a remote hook-up Tuesday, saying their unsanctioned rivals have had an unfair advantage in scooping up millions of advertising dollars, including the estimated $2 million to $3 million that Gill says goes annually into Radio India’s coffers.

CRTC-approved broadcasters pay costly licence fees, copyright tariffs and must meet Canadian content rules, said CKYE-FM Red FM lawyer Mark Lewis, who testified along with Spice Radio formerly RJ 1200 owner Shushma Datt.

Surrey’s Radio India to cease broadcasting.

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Veiled Women Need Not Apply « The Dish

2014/10/17 Leave a comment

Interesting US reasonable accommodation case with respect to the hijab and Abercrombie & Fitch (the company, while allowing a yarmulke, argued against the hijab):

The company has changed its dress code since then, but it’s fighting this case on the ground that it didn’t deny her a religious accommodation because she didn’t ask for a religious accommodation. That is, it had a dress code that applied to everyone, and she violated it, so she was treated like anyone else who fails to comply with the dress code, not subjected to discrimination based on religion.

If she’d asked for an accommodation based on religion, the company would have had to make some conscious decision about whether an exception to the usual rule could be made. Without having been given that chance, the company argues, there’s no discrimination, the company says. The EEOC, which brought the case on behalf of Elauf, doesn’t want the burden to bring up religion to rest entirely on the employee.

Veiled Women Need Not Apply « The Dish.

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Cultural competence: An essential skill in an increasingly diverse world – Slaw

2014/10/17 Leave a comment

Short article on cultural competence with respect to lawyers. Starts with awareness:

Instead of trying to be “culture-blind” a common strategy of minimization, a culturally competent lawyer should strive to build a working knowledge of behavioural predictors: cultural dimensions of behaviour that are shared by the majority of individuals within a cultural identity. Unlike stereotypes, behavioural predictors are grounded in science for example, anthropology or sociology and allow the user to assess a person’s behaviour against cultural generalizations.

Cultural competence: An essential skill in an increasingly diverse world – Slaw.

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With number of immigrant detainees growing, border agency explored holding them in prisons

2014/10/17 Leave a comment

Officials doing their job to find possible solutions to one of the consequences of a change in policy:

In a letter to Correctional Service commissioner Don Head, Portelance noted the border agency was assessing options for “increasing its capacity” and wanted to explore the prison service’s “expertise and facilities to hold immigration detainees.”

The border agency holds people who are considered a flight risk or a danger to the public, and those whose identities cannot be confirmed.

It has also become easier to detain newcomers. Federal changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act allow officials to hold people 16 or older who enter Canada as part of an “irregular arrival” — a group whose origins are unclear or a case where criminal human smuggling is suspected.

An internal border agency background memo notes the organization has three immigration holding centres across Canada, but relies on provincial jails in other locations to house higher-risk detainees.

“In some cases, the provinces have indicated their intention to cease holding detainees in the long-term or limit how many individuals can be held within their facilities,” the memo says.

It adds that the federal government’s “current legislative agenda concerning immigration matters and the potential for an increase in the daily detained population” make discussions with the prison service necessary.

The documents, prepared in early 2012, were recently released under the Access to Information Act.

Neither the border agency nor the prison service would make anyone available for an interview. However, in emailed answers to questions, the agencies confirmed that discussions about use of federal prisons took place.

The border agency did an internal review of options for the detention program that was presented to the organization’s executive for approval early this year, said agency spokeswoman Line Guibert-Wolff.

“As a result of this process, in February 2014, the CBSA decided that federal correctional facilities would not be used to hold immigration detainees.”

With number of immigrant detainees growing, border agency explored holding them in prisons

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David Baddiel interview: Comedian on mixing Islamophobia and Antisemitism in his new stage version of The Infidel

2014/10/17 Leave a comment

Using comedy to increase awareness:

Having spent two years turning his 2010 low-budget Brit-flick into a musical, David Baddiel sure knows how to pick his moment. In it, a middle-aged Muslim man, Mahmud Nasir Omid Djalili, discovers that he was actually born to Jewish parents and adopted shortly after birth, triggering an enormous identity crisis. Of course, this being an upbeat comedy, he comes to realise that the two aren’t so incompatible after all.

“Look, I’m not trying to fix the world with this,” Baddiel starts, shrugging off any sniff of worthiness before we’ve even got going. “I’m just trying to create an entertainment, albeit around a subject that has become very, very serious and dominant in the cultural discourse.”

…. For all its feel-good flippancy, though, Baddiel knows its message needs repeating. “It’s unbelievable how much polarisation on both sides has happened,” he continues. “More and more, it seems to me, people in the Jewish community have got an entrenched idea of what it is to be Muslim and vice versa. There’s lots of anti-Semitism in parts of the Muslim community. There’s no point denying this.”

David Baddiel interview: Comedian on mixing Islamophobia and Anti-semitism in his new stage version of The Infidel – People – News – The Independent.

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Citizenship Week Celebrated with New Canadian – First Fast-Track from Armed Forces

2014/10/16 Leave a comment

The first fast-tracked applicant for an applicant in the Canadian Armed Forces:

The new measures improve the Citizenship Act in four ways, according to [Kelowna Lake Country MP Ron] Cannan.

“Firstly to reinforce the value of citizenship, secondly to strengthen the integrity of the system and counter fraudulent attempts to gain citizenship,” explains Cannan. “Third is to improve the process by which new comers become Canadian citizens and help applicants get their citizenship sooner and lastly, we honour those who helped serve our country and the Canadian Armed Forces and fast track their citizenship.”

On September 12th, 2014 McGinty became the first person in Kelowna to become a Canadian citizen under the new measures. McGinty, originally from the United Kingdom, said the decision to bring his family to Canada was an easy one.

“Much of the reason I brought my family to Canada is because of Canada’s global reputation as a nation that not just recognizes but perpetuates those values of citizenship,” said McGinty. “Not only at home but overseas, I am extremely grateful to the government and people of Canada for having offered this fast track of citizenship for those of us who were not citizens but nevertheless served with the Canadian Armed Forces and have been recognized for having stood on guard for Canada.”

Citizenship Week Celebrated with New Canadian.

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